Dementium: The Ward (NDS) developer Renegade Kid is currently at work on Moon, a new sci-fi action adventure title for the Nintendo DS, publisher Mastiff announced today.

Previously known under the code name "Project M", Moon situates players on the empty, cold surface of the moon in the year 2058, where scientists discover a sealed alien hatch during the construction of a lunar base.

"Moon is dark, twisted, heart pounding, frequently violent and always disturbing," said Mastiff CEO Bill Swartz. "Pretty much what you'd expect when you take madmen like Renegade Kid, jack their technology up to the next level, and turn them loose."

A teaser trailer was also released, but due to technical issues, Shacknews is unable to post it at this time. In its place, please accept a number of captures from said trailer.

Moon utilizes the developer's Renegade Engine for its 3D graphics, previously seen in Dementium: The Ward. A release date was not announced.

San Francisco-based publisher Mastiff has announced a partnership with Major League Eating to create competitive eating games.

The first product to come out of the partnership is Major League Eating: The Game, a competitive eating title built like a fighting game. Players must master offensive and defensive skills and weapons like burps and belches to conquer their competitors, all while keeping mountains of grub securely in their stomachs.

"Major League Eaters aren't just elite athletes, they are the people who built America. Or at least the competitive eating part of America," said Mastiff CEO Bill Swartz. "I am deeply honored that the International Federation of Competitive Eating and Major League Eating choose Mastiff as their exclusive videogame partner."

Competitive eating—much like eating in general—has become quite popular in America, with MLE producing six hours of programming for networks ESPN and Spike TV in 2007. Though no platforms or release dates for MLE: The Game were specified in Mastiff's pun-laden press release, it's likely that further details will be announced soon.

Though indie developer Renegade Kid's creepout first-person horror title Dementium: The Ward (DS) just retailed today, the small studio already has another project in the works, with a new publisher to boot. Game publisher Mastiff announced today it has signed on with Renegade Kid to publish the studio's next DS title, codenamed Project M.

The studio's next project will use the same impressive 3D engine the developer created for Dementium. Renegade Kid didn't reveal an estimated retail window for the title.

Renegade Kid worked with Austin-based game publisher Gamecock to bring its first title to market. Dementium is the second title published by Gamecock after the debut of Auran's PVP-centric online title Fury (PC).

The other day, I stumbled upon this article that breaks down the ergonomics of game controllers, going all the way back to the Atari 2600 and even looking at the gamepads of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. I remember as a youngin' the very first thing I'd like to do when I got a new console was just hold the controller and see how it felt. When the N64 was fast approaching and demo kiosks were being placed in stores, I grabbed that controller and just fiddled with it for a few minutes before even playing Mario 64. Surprisingly, this article slightly bashes the N64's controller; I feel it's the best one designed for the games it was played with. Although if I recall correctly, many of you think the Saturn pad as the best by far, which may be why SEGA has re-released it for multiple platforms, including the PC and PS2.

According to rumors on the Internets, the Xbox 2/Xenon/Xbox Next/Xbox 360 will definitely be released "late October, early November." This has spun everyone into a tizzy, but I'm not sure why this is garnering so much attention. The rumored release has been, for over a half a year now, late 2005. I certainly didn't expect anything sooner than late October, early November. As was witnessed this past holiday season, publishers want their product on store shelves no later than the Tuesday before Black Friday. Looking back at system releases, such as the Nintendo DS, Xbox, and GameCube, they each were mid-November. I wouldn't call this surprising news. In the end, it's all still just speculation.

The moment you've all been waiting for; here are the winners of this year's game giveaway. Once again we thank the contributing publishers.

- One of four copies of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, courtesy of Activision.
filtersweep, shredder133, lohke, masterli.
- One of three copies of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (PC), courtesy of Activision.
Wilhuf, horncrusher, phatl.
- One of three copies of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (PS2), courtesy of Activision.
jedivader, josecuervo, tealc316.
- One of four copies of Rome: Total War, courtesy of Activision. Two people will also receive a Rome: TW flag.
yros, swagger, Gwarsbane, Waverider.
- One of three copies of True Crime: Streets of L.A. (PC), courtesy of Activision.
LANman247, flashodad, matrix.
- One of three copies of Call of Duty: United Offensive, courtesy of Activision.
lonepie, Bunkminster, Silhouette1034.
- One of seven Spider-Man 2: The Game t-shirts (XL size), courtesy of Activision.
zippynipple, one baby to another, afrosteve, Wardragon175, sycho316, netkcid, DarkHands.
- One of two copies of Codename: Panzers, courtesy of CDV.
Guava D, crazywigga.
- One of three copies of King of Fighters: Maximum Impact (PS2), courtesy of SNK.
rayban, magus, Lrd_Cujo.
- One of three copies of SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom (Xbox), courtesy of SNK.
lvlmaster, ZeRo4, pukerat.
- One of five Gungrave packs. Includes Beyond the Grave DVD, Gungrave: Overdose for the PS2 and two guides. Courtesy of Mastiff.
CaM3Lt0Sis, blackhorizon, salamanga, damndirtyape, proclone1.
- One of three copies of Painkiller: Battle out of Hell, courtesy of DreamCatcher Interactive.
smoke52, radus, AspectVoid.
- One of two copies of Return to Mysterious Island, courtesy of DreamCatcher Interactive.
Ajax, RSVDoomsday.
- One copy of Warhammmer 40,000: Dawn of War, courtesy of THQ.
MastarP.
- One copy of Full Spectrum Warrior (PC), courtesy of THQ.
WorkParticle.
- One copy of EverQuest 2: Special Edition, courtesy of Sony Online Entertainment.
SexualAvenger.
- One copy of DOOM 3, courtesy of Activision.
phagostien.
- One copy of Zoo Tycoon 2, courtesy of Microsoft Games.
odious.
- One copy of Kohan II: Kings of War, courtesy of Global Star Software.
Toddland.
- One copy of Fritz 8 Deluxe, courtesy of Viva Media.
epit.
- One copy of Far Cry
shaffe.
- One copy of Blowout (Xbox)
j0nchan.
- One copy of Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth (PC-DVD)
Prototype.
- One copy of Alien Hominid (GameCube)
sonik887.
- One copy of Armies of Exigo
indosauros.
- One copy of Grand Theft Auto: Advance
thejayjay.
- One copy of Viewtiful Joe 2 (GameCube)
El Tigre.
- One copy of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC)
banana.
- One of two copies of ESPN NFL 2K5 (one Xbox, one PS2)
Thud (Xbox), Priest77 (PS2).

If you've won a game you already own, perhaps you can swap with someone else with the same "problem". E-Mail me if there is such a change. Games will be mailed during January.

So heading into the weekend we had a couple of things going on that you girls may have missed. Our GOTY poll and our holiday giveaway where you guys get free games from the publishers who love gamers.

- Game of the Year 2004 vote!
- Holiday 2004 giveaway!

We will not be keeping or selling any information collected with the holiday giveaway. A huge thanks to the generous publishers out there who contributed. Activision , CDV , SNK , Mastiff , DreamCatcher Interactive , THQ , Sony Online Entertainment , Microsoft Games , Viva Media , and uh.. the guy at EB who made our purchase of a few more games to giveaway as extremely painful as possible. SHUT UP DUDE SELL ME THE GAME. SHUT UP ALREADY.

Happy Holidays!

It's the season of giving, that means it's time for our third Holiday Giveaway. Our North American readers can win the following games, many thanks to the various game publishers who provided them.

- One of four copies of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, courtesy of Activision.
- One of three copies of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (PC), courtesy of Activision.
- One of three copies of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (PS2), courtesy of Activision.
- One of four copies of Rome: Total War, courtesy of Activision. Two people will also receive a Rome: TW flag.
- One of three copies of True Crime: Streets of L.A. (PC), courtesy of Activision.
- One of three copies of Call of Duty: United Offensive, courtesy of Activision.
- One of seven Spider-Man 2: The Game t-shirts (XL size), courtesy of Activision.
- One of two copies of Codename: Panzers, courtesy of CDV.
- One of three copies of King of Fighters: Maximum Impact (PS2), courtesy of SNK.
- One of three copies of SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom (Xbox), courtesy of SNK.
- One of five Gungrave packs. Includes Beyond the Grave DVD, Gungrave: Overdose for the PS2 and two guides. Courtesy of Mastiff.
- One of three copies of Painkiller: Battle out of Hell, courtesy of DreamCatcher Interactive.
- One of two copies of Return to Mysterious Island, courtesy of DreamCatcher Interactive.
- One copy of Warhammmer 40,000: Dawn of War, courtesy of THQ.
- One copy of Full Spectrum Warrior (PC), courtesy of THQ.
- One copy of EverQuest 2: Special Edition, courtesy of Sony Online Entertainment.
- One copy of DOOM 3, courtesy of Activision.
- One copy of Zoo Tycoon 2, courtesy of Microsoft Games.
- One copy of Kohan II: Kings of War, courtesy of Global Star Software.
- One copy of Fritz 8 Deluxe, courtesy of Viva Media.
- One copy of Far Cry
- One copy of Blowout (Xbox)
- One copy of Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth (PC-DVD)
- One copy of Alien Hominid (GameCube)
- One copy of Armies of Exigo
- One copy of Grand Theft Auto: Advance
- One copy of Viewtiful Joe 2 (GameCube)
- One copy of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC)
- One of two copies of ESPN NFL 2K5 (one Xbox, one PS2)

Go here to sign up. All you need is a Shack account and a North American address. Winners will be announced Christmas Day.

The Master Chief isn't the only guy, er... person making waves as the lead of a hot console FPS. Samus is set to rock everybody's world with Tuesday's release of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and the first review was available last night at GameSpot and IGN has posted their own this evening. The verdict? Highlight the blank space here "IGN: 9.5, GameSpot: 9.1" to see! I wonder what Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater will pull? Guess we'll have to wait a few more days to find out.
Console Game of the Evening: EA Sports NHL Series for the Sega Genesis. "This was where this amazing franchise started. The game was so fast and addictive. My roommates and I used to spend many hours playing this game back when I was in college. This game is the reason I am a hockey fan today." (submitted by FormerHPB).

While some of you out there see Acclaim's impending closure as good riddance to bad rubbish, it is always a bit disheartening to see one of the industry's cornerstones crumbling into pieces. They brought so many memorable moments like BMX XXX which reminded us of the SNL quote, "who are the ad-wizards that came up with this one?" How about the name your child Turok contest? But in all seriousness, they may of done as much good as they did bad, bringing arcade hits to the consoles such as NBA Jam and the Mortal Kombat series. In the end, however, I think they will go down as one of the worst offenders of releasing licensed games that were just terrible. True Lies wasn't that bad, though..
Console Game of the Evening: Legendary Wings for the NES. "Classic shooter for solo or 2 player co-op action. Intense action and great power-ups keep my brother and I glued to the TV for hours on end. Now on PC & PDA!" (submitted by BulletPro).

This is definitely what you would call a slow news night, but the sites didn't disappoint in the media category. If you haven't got around to learning about the new portables from Sony and Nintendo, now's a good chance with Game Informer's twin rundowns of the handhelds (NDS, PSP). It's interesting how a couple of each device's main draws can also be their downfall. For the PSP, its "can do everything" attitude, playing music and movies on top of games, is costing it points in the price/battery life arena. As for the DS, while the twin screens are great, the stylus and touch screen seemed to have left some folk at E3 upset, as using the stylus makes holding the system difficult and easy to scratch up the screen pretty quickly. No matter what though, I'll be one of those geeks camping out at a 24/7 Wal-Mart to be the first to own one. I'm weak. =(
Console Game of the Evening: AeroBiz for the Super Nintendo. "Who knew an airline simulation game would be fun? Well, I thought it was fun..." (submitted by FrayLo).

Tonight's story about Take-Two publishing SEGA's sports series at value pricing is one that really catches my interest. Forever now, gamers have been promised that the prices of games will drop. Some head-way has been made in this department, with a few titles debuting at $39.99 and the $19.99 Greatest Hits/Player's Choice/Platinum titles being successful enough that more titles are added to those line-ups. However, we have yet to see a big-name, high-quality title released at a budget price. If Take-Two's interpretation of value is $30 or less, it'll be incredibly interesting to see how gamers react to the situation where they only have two NFL titles to choose from and both of them are of roughly the same caliber. If successful, will it spark a trend or will publishers simply ignore it?
Console Game of the Evening: Crazy Taxi 2 for the Dreamcast. "The "forgotten" sequel. CT1 has been ported to all the major consoles, and CT3 is an Xbox exclusive, but they're not porting CT2 to anything and since it came out so close to the end of the Dreamcast, it was basically ignored." (submitted by Schnapple).