Have no fear, unlike other Shack staffers, DOOM3 will not distract me from my editorial duties! Sadly, tonight's LNC features a couple downers. No original Mortal Kombat for Midway's second treasure chest? Resident Evil 4 in 2005? Bummer. Although, I love how the "Winter" wording has been causing much confusion amongst gamers this year. Between KOTOR2 and Resident Evil 4, I can't remember this much speculation of whether a title will arrive before or after New Year's Day. It's a pretty nifty marketing tool, though.

	Sony to Use Blu-Ray for PS3 In a report, Forbes discovers new details regarding Sony and its involvement with the Blu-Ray technology. According to the report, Sony is planning to utilize the tecnology for use with its PlayStation 3 console. Blu-Ray is a kind of storage medium that can store 23GB of data, enough to hold a high-definition movie.
	MK: Deception Gets Limited Midway has announced plans to offer a Limited Edition of the latest entry in the long-running fighting series, Mortal Kombat: Deception. There will be five unique box art covers (one of which will be exclusive to the PS2 featuring Sub-Zero) and plenty of other interesting pack-ins: an arcade-perfect version of the original Mortal Kombat, 40 minutes of footage showing the history of Mortal Kombat and its characters, and a serialized Kollector's Card sporting one of five MK fighters. The sets will retail for $59.95.
	Galleon Sets Sail; Dynasty Warriors 4 Gleams Gold Atlus revealed that the swan song of Confounding Factor, Galleon: Islands of Mystery, has shipped to retailers and will sell for $39.99. At the same time, Koei announces that Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires has reached golden status and will ship August 31 for $19.99.
	ESPN NHL 2K5 Officially $19.99 EBgames confirmed it two weeks ago, but official word has finally come down from SEGA. ESPN NHL 2K5, much like its NFL cousin, will sell for the value price of $19.99. On top of that, the release has been bumped up a week to August 31.
	Resident Evil 4 Delay Finalized Capcom announced today what many of us have been speculating for weeks; the GameCube-exclusive Resident Evil 4 won't be released this year. Always planned as a Winter title, it was thought to hit store shelves in time for the holidays, but Capcom has announced January 11, 2005 as a "finalization" to the release date.
	Midway's Arcade Compilation Gets A Change-Up The upcoming Midway Arcade Treasures 2, a collection of Midway arcade classics, has undergone a bit of a change-up. Gone are Steel Talons, STUN Runner, and most importantly, the original Mortal Kombat. To take their place are Kozmik Kroozr' and Wacko. The decision was made to remove Mortal Kombat so that it can be found as a bonus in the collector's edition of Mortal Kombat: Deception. MKII and MK3 are still part of the line-up.
	Misc. Q&As/Features Good 'ol Tomonobu Itagaki pops up on our radar again, this time landing at TeamXbox. Rob Fahey of gamesindustry.biz asks, "Do we really need games like Manhunt?"
	Misc. Media/Previews
	GameSpot begins with a hands-on of the import demo of Mega Man X8, shots of Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires, images of Formula Challenge, and a trailer for Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Game Informer does it all in this media blowout of Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders. 1up does a quick and dirty run-down of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. New screens of GTA: SA are at GameSpy. The Magic Box pulls through with screens of Sega Ages 2500: Virtua Fighter 2 and Blood Will Tell. IGN has an updated hands-on of Gran Turismo 4.
	New videos of Conker: Live and Reloaded are at IGN tonight. GameSpy offers their own preview of Blinx 2.
	IGN tells us the "Full Story" of WWE Day of Reckoning.
	A hands-on of Mega Man: Command Mission (PS2, GCN) is at GameSpot. They also look at Juiced (PS2, Xbox, GCN) and provide shots of Terminator 3: The Redemption (PS2, Xbox, GCN), Mortal Kombat: Deception (PS2, Xbox), Fight Club (PS2, Xbox), and ESPN NHL 2K5 (PS2, Xbox). TeamXbox gives FIFA Soccer 2005 (PS2, Xbox, GCN) a first look. 1up has a trailer of NFL Street 2 (PS2, Xbox, GCN). IGN has footage of FlatOut (PS2, Xbox), a hands-on of Robotech: Invasion (PS2, Xbox), and images of Street Syndicate Racing (PS2, Xbox, GCN). GameSpy has some of the first images of the console version of Vietcong: Purple Haze (PS2, Xbox).