A press event earlier these week has resulted in a veritable flood of new information regarding the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Most of the news floating about is regarding the Death Knight hero class, fleshing out the details of the eagerly awaited addition, as well as some information on the raids players will encounter in the frozen lands of Northrend.

Every player with a character over level 55 will be able to create one Death Knight per realm. The new character will start at level 55 with a full compliment of abilities at their disposal, the reasoning here being that anyone who has leveled that far will be able to get the hang of the new abilities quickly. Anyone who has ever played with a recently eBayed character can tell you this is a complete falsehood, but it'll be amusing to watch at least.

Speaking of amusing, Death Knights will also gain the ability to raise fallen enemies and comrades as ghouls to continue the fight. If you raise an ally in this fashion they will get a choice of whether or not to take control of their violated corpse. Good times!

During the company's call to investors yesterday, Activision publishing CEO Mike Griffith revealed big plans for the next installment in the Call of Duty franchise, which helped drive the company to a record $2.90 billion in revenue on the year.

"We'll bring the intensity of the recent Call of Duty: Modern Warfare title to a new military theater," Griffith said, adding that CoD4's success "doubled" the franchise's user base.

Burnout Paradise Coming to PC

Burnout Paradise is coming to the PC, Electronic Arts announced today.

The game, the first ever in the franchise to come to the PC, is being "rebuilt specifically for the PC" and will include expanded multiplayer, enhanced online feature and new "community driven content."

Criterion will be holding a press conference on their website later today to talk more details about the upcoming game. Hit up the jump for the full release.

Criterion Games

Gore Verbinski Making BioShock Movie

Publisher Take Two has inked its first movie deal. According to Variety, underwater corridor FPS BioShock is getting a big Hollywood film adaptation. The biggest film-to-game deal since Peter Jackson's ill-fated Halo movie, the BioShock Universal produced flick will be helmed by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski. Universal is in talks with Oscar nominated scribe John Logan (The Aviator) to do the script. Verbinski has been talking with BioShock creator Ken Levine on a regular basis about the project, but no word what official capacity he'll take. Verbinski says he plans on making an R-rate film and work will begin once there's a quality script. About BioShock, Verbinski says:

Put these pieces together. Realtime Worlds made Crackdown. Realtime Worlds are now at work on an MMO called APB, which is not entirely dissimilar to Grand Theft Auto. Realtime Worlds were founded by David Jones, who created Lemmings. Oh, and Grand Theft Auto. Last month, Realtime Worlds bought back the rights to APB from Korean company Webzen, who were originally scheduled to publish the game. Why the buyback? Eurogamer are reporting that, according to "a credible industry source", it was so they could turn around and sell the game to Rockstar, who could then rebadge it as a GTA MMO. Realtime are keeping quiet on the rumours, saying only that they bought back the rights to their game to "give themselves some options".

Realtime downplays GTA Online talk [Eurogamer]

Rumor: Microsoft May Debut New Xbox 360 Motion Controller Next Week

Rumors about Microsoft entering the waggle market with a specialized, Wii Remote concept swiping controller have been popping up for the better part of a year. Talk of a partnership with Gyration, speculation that Bungie had quashed a proposal for a motion controller tied to Halo 3 and murmurs that Rare was now tasked with leading the waggle wand brigade have been bubbling up frequently. Microsoft and Gyration have both denied or brushed off the rumors, but we've just heard it pop up again.

According to sources that will go unnamed, Microsoft may be showing its Xbox 360 motion controller as early as next week to press, a controller geared specifically for Banjo Kazooie 3 gameplay. In fact, we've heard that select members of the press have already seen the controller—in use on the next Banjo Kazooie title—in action.

Did LucasArts Just Bolt From The ESA, Too?

The Entertainment Software Association confirmed late last week that two of its members—Activision and Vivendi Games—were no longer with organization, after they decided to "discontinue their membership." The pair were just two of the publishers who opted to bail on E3 this year, showing potential signs of discontent with the ESA and its annual show. They may not be the only ones.

Today, it would appear that another publisher may be joining Activision and Vivendi as a former ESA member, as GamePolitics points out that LucasArts is no longer listed as one of its members, a recent and unannounced change. The official E3 Summit web site still lists LucasArts as a participating company. We have a request in with the publisher to learn more about their ESA status and will update when we hear back.

ESA Members

Activision Announces Record Billion-Dollar Growth In "Breakthrough" Fiscal 08

Activision saw a record $2.90 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending March 2008, the publisher announced today - $602.5 million was in the fourth quarter alone, as compared to $312.5 million during the same period last year.

Strong worldwide sales for Call of Duty 4, Guitar Hero III and Spider-Man 3 drove the considerable growth, supported by Transformers: The Game and Shrek The Third. NPD data also shows that GHIII was the year's best-selling game in the U.S. and Europe in dollars during the year, while CoD4 was the number two worldwide best-seller in Europe, and the number one highest-earning PC title worldwide. Both franchises have surpassed a billion dollars in sales since launch.

It was the most profitable fourth quarter ever for Activision, even though the publisher did not release any new titles during that period. With its overall growth outpacing the rest of the market by more than four times, the company is now the number one console and handheld software publisher in dollars, according to NPD Group data.

The business of rhythm and music games is sort of like the real music industry. Classy little cult hits like PaRappa The Rapper, Vib Ribbon and Ouendan were once the sole territory of the especially hip. You could boast about your Taiko No Tatsujin skills to your rhythm-less pals, or quirk a brow at your uncool peers as you casually hit "play" on your obscure DDR songs during a house party.

Then Guitar Hero and Rock Band happened. Music games are officially big business now, and everyone and their mother (literally) wants in. Next thing you know, you're boycotting the Grammys and defiantly tattooing the word "sellout" on your forehead. Battle of the Bands for Wii is THQ's entry into the rock music arms race—but is it a worthy innovator on the scene, or just a trendwhore leaping onto the bandwagon?

Rockstar Explains GTA IV Multiplayer

Soon after Grand Theft Auto's launch, when I went to start playing online matches, I noticed that the instruction manual was almost totally devoid of multiplayer details. In fact, the Brady Guide for the game, a virtual encyclopedia of GTA facts, was also missing any real information about multiplayer.

Normally the lack of instructions wouldn't bother me because I never read them, but the nuances of matchmaking and party formation can be a little confusing in GTA IV. Fortunately, Rockstar must have realized that they left something out in their instruction manual because they've recently published a PDF dedicated just to multiplayer gaming.

The guide is filled with interesting tips and info. For instance, they explain how Party Mode work, something that has been driving me crazy since the launch. Turns out that when playing team modes, the game tries to find a similarly sized party to match you up with. In competitive modes it just fills up the slots with people and gets you going.

There are also plenty of usefull tips in the guide, like using blip settings to tweak your difficulty setting, and how auto-aim is an "awesome feature" that is often misunderstood and absolutely doesn't level the playing field.

Hit the jump for the full guide.

About 20 percent of underage teens were able to buy Mature-rated games during a recent nationwide undercover shopper survey conducted by the FTC, down more than half from last year, the FTC reported today.

The survey, which also looked at R-rated movies, DVDs and "Parental Advisory"-labeled music, found that video games had the best enforcement rate.

Wii Nintendo Channel Video Walkthrough

Analyst: Record GTA Sales Change Nothing For EA's "80/20" Take-Two Bid

Record-setting launch numbers for Grand Theft Auto IV had no significant impact on Take-Two's stock price this morning, lending credence to analyst views that the share price already included the expectation of extraordinary first-week sales of the title.

What does this mean for EA's ongoing bid for Take-Two? Cowen and Co. analyst Doug Creutz said this morning that even the GTA IV launch couldn't have elevated the share price from January's 17 dollars per share to its current 26-dollar range, and that right now the elevated price is due to investor eagerness for the sale.

"Take-Two's self-imposed moratorium [on negotiations] is over," said Creutz. "We haven't heard anything out of either company in the last week. They could be talking... I still think the odds that the deal happens that are very high... I don't think GTA changes that at all."