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I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand the arcane geometry of public relations. I will never truly grasp the Orwellian mechanics of crafting the elegant, eloquent bullsh*t that comes out of some developers’ mouths. Speaking with Eurogamer,Force Unleashedproducer Cameron Suey explained that sinceStar Warsis “such a great license,” it was easier for LucasArts dev teams “to get excited about that and not set the bar high enough.” Thisvery clearlyexplains why the past handful ofStar Warsgames have been wholly mediocre in every way....

And we’re back! Friday Night Fights was a no-show last week, but everything should be on track for tonight. The Xbox 360 crowd is going for someTeam Fortress 2andHalo 3achievements tonight, should you be up for improving your gamerscore. There’s also going to beRock Band— whatever you do, don’t bang on the drums so hard that it gets you evicted from your apartment. As for the PC gamers,Team Fortress 2is the name of the game....

This edition of Friday Night Fights was inspired bypower-gloveand a special Destructoid community performance of “Hungry Like the Wolf” that gives Bruce Campbell arun for his money. Now that everyone is back from PAX both physically and (hopefully) mentally, what better opportunity to reminisce about the good times that were had than during FNF? Whether your memories involvefire,dancing half-naked, orshouting, now is the perfect time to revisit them. [Thanks, AgentMOO, CaffeinePowered, CountingConflict, coonskin05, dronkmunk, Gibbo, Kryptinite, power-glove, SantanaClaus89, and Y0j1mb0]...

In what can only be described as a brilliant move, G4 announced today that they will be partnering with Microsoft to release several of their series via Xbox Live. The shows up for grabs are “Code Monkeys”, a show about coding that may or may not feature monkeys, “The Block”, which features people strapping themselves to wooden planks right before they fling themselves down a hill, and, of course, “Attack of the Show”....

Ourlast debatewas a month ago, and I asked everyone to list their three most anticipated games of 2008. It took me forever to sort through the 500+ votes that were cast, but it was quite an interesting wall of text to read. Out of the 85 different games voted for, lots of the less popular games were mentioned more than once, but here are the games that managed to gather at least double digit point scores:...

When it comes to a developer like 5th Cell, I’ve learned that you have to expect the unexpected. After all, these are the people who came out of nowhere with inventive titles likeDrawn to LifeandScribblenauts. Even knowing their propensity for surprise, I was still caught off guard by their latest effort,Hybrid. Sure, it looks like your standard, science fiction shooter with a third-person perspective. You control soldiers in powered armor shooting other soldiers in powered armor....

Calling all Texans: Gearbox Software is looking for a few good gamers to test and give feedback on a couple of its unreleased games, likeBorderlandsandAliens: Colonial Marines. If either of those two games pique your interest, and you are A) 18 years or older B) able to haul yourself over to Plano, TX and C) can playtest during normal business hours (Mon – Fri, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm), thenclick this link to apply....

Today, an article onGamePoliticspoints out that the story ofTom Clancy’s Ghost Reconpredicted the events of the new conflict between Georgia and Russia. Any avid reader of Tom Clancy realizes that the things he writes are all plausible scenarios, but even this seems a bit more nail on the head than usual. The people over atThe Bulletinrecently put up a beefy article detailing the coincidence. The game’s opening sequence features a Russian leadership intent on bringing the former Soviet republics back under its control....

Here’s a sexy new trailer forRAGE. It features much of what we’ve come to expect from the game — intense violence, hideously ugly mutants, and … well … that’s plenty enough for me! It seems that much ofRAGE‘s promotion has been kept under the hood, so it’s nice to actually see a bit more gameplay. Definitely looking promising though, right? I can’t wait to check it out.

I’m a dirty liberal, I admit it. Enjoy the above jingoism, and remember, if you don’t read Destructoid, the terrorists have already won.

Did you guess Nintendo? WRONG. It’s Microsoft! That’s right, Microsoft is being sued yet again for allegedly knowingly selling, and profiting off of, defective products. Up to bat is a fine gentleman from Oak Forest, Illinois, who had to pay $99 to get his Xbox fixed — this time, though, it seems the red ring is not to blame. Unfortunately, the plaintiff doesn’t know exactly what’s wrong with his system, because Microsoft refused to tell him....

By looking at Soundscan’s sales figures for various songs included inGuitar Hero III: Legends of Rockbefore and after the rhythm game was released,Ars Technicahas discovered that “increased sales for labels and bands” is just one of the benefits of having your music featured in the immensely popular franchise. “It doesn’t appear to matter if you’re in the main game or are a bonus song; huge gains are seen everywhere. As long as your song ships with the game and you offer the track to be downloaded digitally, you see an increase,” the source explained....

Take Suda51’s creative mind, Shinji Mikami’s long history with the survival horror genre, and Akira Yamaoka’s brilliant musical skills and you getShadows of the Damned. From what I’ve seen at least, Grasshopper Manufacture’s upcoming “road movie set in hell” isn’t going to do anything that changes the action-adventure genre a whole lot. In fact, the game feels like a faster-pacedResident Evil 4. The charm withShadows of the Damnedcomes from a really outrageous and unique presentation unlike anything I’m used to when it comes to videogames....