This reminds me of Sundays in Denver, when Crecente and I (mostly Crecente) would routinely confront an often hysterical editor raving about some sensational report from another news outlet, and then we'd have to go sift bullshit from reality. So, in the wake of yesterday's shooting in Florida, which authorities linked to an argument over a PSP, we have some other craziness out there:

• Up in Ohio, a guy confesses to his roommate that he killed a guy and invokes the Xbox 360 defense. According to the defendant, the victim was trying to steal his Xbox 360. An Ohio TV station reports on a transcript of the 911 call. It doesn't sound like it was a burglar, either, more likely that they knew each other and got in an argument. Anyway, one is dead, the other faces murder charges and potentially the death penalty. Why can't people pick something prosaic, like a stamp collection, when trying to cop out of a homicide?

• In the UK, a 40-man homicide unit is looking for the person or persons responsible for the grisly knifing deaths of two French exchange students. The Mirror — so, consider the source — says "the two may have been butchered for a pair of games consoles," as two PSPs (and not just PSPs, but "black PSPs" because they're so uncommon) were taken from the scene. I think the fact the victims were stabbed more than 250 times speaks more to a motive for the crime than the theft of £260 worth of electronics.
Brutal Murdered Pair May Have Been Killed for Playstation [The Mirror]
911 Call Released in Fatal Springfield Shooting [WHIO-TV, via GamePolitics ]

Multimedia Roundup: Lego Batman, Tomb Raider, Blitz II

'Performative Play': Games and the 'Real World'

Some heads-up details that can just go into one post, rather than separate ones:

• There are two new OctoCamo patterns available for download on Metal Gear Solid 4. Laughing Camo raises your enemies' laugh emotion when they spot you; Raging Camo boosts enemies' rage emotion when they spot you. They're out as of now, reports Gaming Bits.

• The new Rainbow Six Vegas 2 patch is out and available for download. We tipped you to it last week. This download gives you a map-pack and a game patch with lots of tweaks to gameplay and achievements. It is entirely free also. Enjoy.

• Reader Max W. writes to say that the demo for Mobile Suit Gundam: Operation: Troy is out on the Japanese Xbox Live Marketplace. "And it's awesome." I'm not in touch with Bash right now to verify, but there's another freebie to play if you're on that network. Gundam did wonders for 360's June sales, as we wrote earlier.

New OctoCamo Patterns Now Available [Gaming Bits]

'A Game Isn't a Series of Interesting Decisions'

From the Margins to the Mainland: the Future of Virtual Worlds?

That's right, four score and seven years ago today at Valley Forge, John F. Kennedy and the Lone Ranger chopped down the cherry tree that Squanto ate at the first Thanksgiving, and Paul Revere hung a light in the Alamo to alert Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders: "N00B, red team has taken teh control point, FAIL." Then Batman crossed the Atlantic in an X-Wing Fighter to accept the Heisman Trophy from Winston Churchill, and Martin Luther King Jr. said "God bless us, every one of us."

Oh wait, today's July 5th. Shit.

Well, for those in the USophile-speaking world, this is a three day weekend and you should still be burning large amounts of animal flesh on a grill for the next two days, or else you hate freedom. And for that reason, Kotaku's U.S. staff is on an abbreviated schedule today and tomorrow. Our updates will come every two hours today and tomorrow, then it's back to full-strength when Luke Plunkett and the freedom-hating Australians take up the cause late Sunday evening. Until then, I regret that I have but these stories (more after the jump) to give to my country:

Battlefield: Bad Company Review: Going For The Gold
Once a Labor of Love, Sales of Football Rosters Now Inflame Passions
Former CEO Of Struggling Atari Got One Hell Of A Golden Parachute
Is Chrono Trigger DS Coming To America?
Xbox 360 Getting a 3D Dashboard Make-Over?
Too Human Hands-On: Six Hours In And Half-Way Home
The Man Behind Diablo III Talks Plot, Lore and Battle.Net

Yes, A Console Diablo III Is (Theoretically) Possible

Now that Blizzard has Activision, undisputed masters of *ahem* "getting the most out of a franchise", looking over their shoulders, would a console port of Diablo III really surprise you, were it to happen? OK, no, look. Calm down. I said were it to happen. Because while it's not confirmed, or even strongly hinted at, it may happen. May. Because Blizzard's Rob pardo has said that it's a "theoretical possibility", and that "of our major franchises, [it's] the one that's most console friendly, for sure". Pretty sure he's talking about the 360 and PS3, there. Can't see Mii support and friend codes really fitting with the whole gates to hell thing.

Console Diablo "theoretically possible" [Eurogamer]

Hey, You've Got Starbuck In My Resistance 2 Marketing

Above, a still from a promo vid for Resistance 2, currently screening at this location. Keen observers will note that's everybody's favourite female Viper jockey Katee Sackhoff trying to console a man who seems to be suffering from a nasty case of the Chimeran virus. I'll leave the speculation over what this all means (and the resulting morse code that spells "blackout") to you, I'm just digging the C&C cutscene vibe the whole thing's putting off.

[Project Abraham]

Stalker had a roughn start to life, but the game managed to scrape together enough charm and innovation to win itself its fair share of fans. But it's the game's prequel - Clear Sky - that's looking to really nail what GSC Game World have been trying to achieve, since it'll have the first game's hook but in what's hopefully a more refined, polished environment.

Oasis Guitarist Reckons Violent Games Cause Knife Crime

The recent increase of youth crime has Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher. Eighteen teenagers have been murdered this year so far in London, and the Metropolitan police have set up a dedicated task force of 75 officers to combat crime. And the cause of this crime? According to Gallagher:

I was up in Liverpool for a week a couple of weeks ago and even on the news there it's every single night... People say it's through violent video games and I guess that's got something to do with it. If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk [cannabis] and they come so desensitised to crime because they're playing these video games, it's really, really scary.

Wouldn't these kids not having jobs or getting an education have more to do with it?

Oasis star wants action on knives [BBC via Binge Gamer]

Operation Flashpoint 2 Is "Vast, Merciless"

There's a feeling you get when playing Operation Flashpoint that no game since has managed to capture. Not even Oblivion. The feeling of being a real person, alone, in a dangerous place, and each step you take across the game's huge landscape could well be your last. You agree? Then be heartened by this. The latest issue of PC Gamer runs a preview of Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon, which can be bust summed up by their calling it "the most mind-bogglingly vast and mercilessly realistic battlefield gaming has ever known". Vast, check, merciless, check, OK, that's enough to get me excited.

Operation Flashpoint 2 blown open [PC Gamer, via CVG]

PSP At The Center Of Florida Shooting

Two teens were apparently arguing over a Sony PSP in Jacksonville, Florida ended in a shooting. According to the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office, 17 year-old Zachary Robinson was arguing with another teenage male when he suddenly started shooting, hitting the other teen twice. The scene took place in Hemming Park, and no one else was hurt. Robinson has been charged with aggravated battery. No word on the victim's condition.

Downtown Shooting Result of Playstation Argument [First Coast News]

Dress Up (or Photoshop) For Topspin

Just a friendly reminder! We also have our Top Spin contest, which we will extend over the weekend 'cause of the three-day-weekend and wrap up early next week. Above is baconfrenzy's entry; Ben writes, "The attached file is muh entry, no laughs... well, maybe a chuckle." Here's what's going on: Wimbledon is wrapping up, and the US Open is still a few months away, but Top Spin 3 and Kotaku are bringing you the Kotaku Open. We're going to make this simple for you. Don't bother practicing your twist serve or calling up your doubles partner. All you need to do is get yourself in some tennis attire! We don't particularly care how you do it either: Steal your dad's tennis shorts from '72, Photoshop your head onto Federer's body, or maybe, just maybe you're a tennis superstar with a closet full of visors and wristbands. Send in your pictures to kotakucontestATgmailDOTcom, readers will vote for their favorite, and the winner gets a free copy of Top Spin 3 (platform of your choice!), courtesy of 2k Sports. Match point!

Top Spin [Official Site]

Greenberg: The Wii? Total Fad

Ah, it just wouldn't be an Aaron Greenberg interview without a little juice to it, would it? Xbox's director of product management has, while speaking with Gamasutra, re-iterated a common and well-worn theme amongst Microsoft (and Sony) executives that, after new gamers buy themselves a Wii, they'll eventually "graduate" to a 360 or PS3. And why will they graduate? Well, because of another wll-worn argument: that the Wii is a fad:

Everyone says that eventually the novelty will wear off, right? I think that a lot of the people that are buying that console today are not people that have generally bought consoles in the past, right?

You see they're not buying games on it, right? They're buying it, it's like something they break out when people come over, and it's maybe a fun thing, but it's almost like the same people that buy a karaoke machine, you know? They're not really buying it for games, they're just buying it as a novelty.

Ah, the ritual, pre-E3 poo-chucking. Always a hoot.

Microsoft's Greenberg: Wii Customers May 'Graduate' To Xbox 360 [Gamasutra]