In our interview with Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson, it was explained that there were no plans to bring the long-awaited title to any platform other than PC and Mac. However, in the six days that have passed since said interview, a couple of Blizzard higher-ups weren't quite as dismissive of the possibility of the dungeon crawler making an appearance on our primitive gameboxes -- though the language used to describe this possibility hasn't exactly given us high-apple-pie-in-the-sky hopes.

When asked about a console rendition of the third entry in the Lord of Terror-slaying franchise, Blizzard COO Paul Sams gave an inconclusive "I don't know yet," though Vice President of Game Design Rob Pardo suggested a console port was "theoretically possible," as out of all of Blizzard's franchises, Diablo would be the most console-friendly. We guess a theoretical "yes" is better than an actual "no", or a metaphorical "maybe", but we're still not holding our bated breath for a non-compy version of Diablo the Third.

Those who enjoyed the economics-meets-explosions gameplay of Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction will no doubt get a kick out of the latest trailer for the title's upcoming sequel. The three ExOps personalities we came to know and love in the first Mercs are making a comeback, and in the above video, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames lead designer Scott Warner gives us a sneak peek at how these well-trained operatives, you know, operate.

The gameplay looks solid, but for those of us too busy to watch a five-minute video on a Saturday afternoon, we'll briefly break it down using A-Team archetypes: Jennifer Mui is Templeton "Faceman" Peck, Mattias Nilsson is "Howling Mad" Murdock, and Christopher Jacobs is an amalgam of John "Hannibal" Smith and B.A. Baracus -- only he doesn't pity fools. He hastily shuffles them off this mortal coil using their own grenades.

This may have been a holiday week but we were extremely busy anyway with tons of original content and features along with some great new downloads. Here's a look at the highlights.

Exclusive Features

• Hands-On Space Siege: We get to play with a late build of the sci-fi action-RPG from Gas Powered Games and Sega
• Hands-On Bionic Commando: We swing to new heights with this preview of the third person action game revival from GRIN and Capcom
• Hands-On Civilization IV Colonization: We check out this (sort of) remake of Sid Meier's classic strategy game from Firaxis and 2K Games
• Hands-On American McGee's Grimm: We play through the first portions of this episodic action game that's coming from Gametap.
• Preview: Call of Duty World at War: We check out a live demo of the upcoming WWII shooter from Treyarch and Activision.
• Interview: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People: We chat with members of Telltale Games to find out more about their upcoming episodic adventure game.
• Alone in the Dark: We compare the PC version of the Atari survival horror game to its Xbox 360 counterpart in our latest Big Versus article and go more in-depth with the game as well.
• Guide to TF2 Pyro Achievements Part 6: We have the final part of our series of articles looking at the new achievements for the Pyro class in Team Fortress 2.
• Big Ideas: Our new weekly column on gaming's major themes takes a look at story in games.
• Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games talks about the scrolling shooter rRootage
• Big Iron: Our hardware column takes a look at the new 4800 series of Radeon graphics chips from AMD/ATI
• Mac Monday: Our regular look at Mac gaming takes a look at the Mac exclusive arcade game Neon Tango
• BigCast: Members of Big Download chat about the week of PC games in our latest podcast.

Oh yes, we got to play Spore. The entire thing. With Will Wright providing backseat commentary. We also got some time with the Wrath of the Lich King's Death Knight, and DS Fanboy decided to play Homie Rollerz (so you don't have to). Check out all of our impressions and reviews from the Joystiq Network this week:

PC

• American McGee's Grimm (hands-on)
• Spore (the whole thing) (hands-on)
• Wrath of the Lich King (Death Knight hands-on)

Whether calling it out for being too colorful or even too conservative, Diablo 3 naysayers have certainly not lacked for ammunition to sling at the action RPG since it was made all official like late last month. Now pessimists can add another rock to the pile, with Blizzard poster Bashiok writing on the official World of Warcraft forums that the Diablo 3 devs are working to discourage online skullduggery, and that multiplayer will focus primarily on cooperative play.

Explained Bashiok, "We have a large focus on cooperative play for Diablo III, and the mechanics and design decisions related to multiplayer are likely going to be based on supporting and encouraging it as much as possible, and not breaking it down." However, PvP will apparently have its place in the game, as Bashiok baited forumers by adding, "That doesn't mean that PvP won't have its own focus, but those are details and features we aren't yet discussing." So for now it looks like PKers will need to find another outlet for their griefing ways, perhaps by venturing outside into the sunlight for a rousing game of Freeze Tag.

Blizzard has opened US registration for the Wrath of the Lich King beta. American World of Warcraft players should probably head over to this page now and register for a chance to opt in. Two helpful reminders:

1. Registering for the beta does not guarantee you a chance to play. It just adds your name to a pool of potential players that Blizzard will choose from.
   
2. Beware of e-mail scams. This is the official URL: https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/beta-opt-in.html

Whether or not you get into the beta, be sure to check out WoW Insider for up-to-date coverage.
[Via WoW Insider]

EA Sports has apologized for putting "The Soldier's Song," traditionally sung at United Ireland games, in place of Northern Ireland's national anthem, "God Save the Queen," in UEFA Euro 2008. Northern Ireland's Londonderry Sentinel reports fans were surprised to hear the anthem representing their country's victory in the game.

What we're surprised to hear is that it took until now for this faux pas to come out. UEFA Euro 2008 released back in April. Was nobody playing as the Northern Irish team?

[Via MCV]

Hey, you got real-time strategy in our first-person shooter! That's the mantra we could be chanting this fall when SouthPeak and Evolved Games partner to release Raven Squad: Operation Hidden Dagger, a new RTS/FPS hybrid, for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Developed by Budapest, Hungary outfit, Atomic Motion, the game will allow players to swap between both real-time strategy and first-person shooter gameplay as they take control of two mercenary squads fighting their way out of the Amazon, the first shots of which can be seen below. However, as interesting as the mash-up sounds, there is an old saying about doing one thing, and doing it well, and we can't help but feel that Raven Squad will be a jack of all trades (well, at least two), and a master of none.

PC sports gamers are somewhat justifiably unhappy with Peter Moore right now. Earlier this year, the EA Sports executive announced that Madden and many other EA Sports games won't be coming to the PC market this year. But wait, you didn't give him a chance to explain! Well, actually, you did, and he did, but today Moore went into more detail about his division's scaled back PC support. A summary of the reasoning behind the decision:

• PC sports gamers are gravitating to consoles.
• The PC sports gaming market is gravitating to a downloadable model rather than a "packaged" model.
• The PC versions of EA Sports games aren't getting a good enough return on investment.
• You PC gamers just pirate everything anyway and we're not going to make a PC version just so millions of you can just steal it! (We may have exaggerated the tone a little bit on this one, but you get the idea).
  

PC Sports fans can still hold out hope that EA Sports will change its mind, though. Moore hinted that the company might be coming back into the PC space next year with "new, innovative, maybe even less-expensive ways to play all of our franchises on the PC." If there's one thing sports fans should be familiar with, it's squeezing that one, slim ray of hope for all it's worth.

In an interview with GameDaily, GameTap's VP of Content, Rick Sanchez, explains that rumors of the gaming-buffet's death are "greatly exaggerated." Although he avoids divulging whether GameTap is profitable, he does say that it is hitting parent company Turner Broadcasting's P&L (profits and losses) figures, so apparently it's still keeping daddy happy.

Although rumors of GameTap's demise have pretty much been present since the service launched -- something even Sanchez jokes about -- things went into overdrive after the company laid off its all-star editorial team. GameDaily reports it heard rumors in the wake of the firings that the service would remain online only as a shell until December and then be buried. Sanchez "categorically denies" any of that, pointing to Grimm and more announcements expected in the future as proof of the service's growth.

As we slowly prepare for the long weekend here in the States, hunkering down for some game playing with a grill right next to us, it's probably worth mentioning that GameTap's selection of free games (which we've listed after the break) won't cost you a dime or, more importantly, gas money getting to the mall. All that cash can be spent on some extra meat for the barbecue. But first, let's look at the new subscription games this week.

• Descent: Freespace (Windows) - If you liked Wing Commander: Prophecy and miss that whole space pilot genre, definitely check out Freespace.
  
• Off-road Redneck Racing (Windows) - Oh boy, do we have to write something here? Umm, Rednecks go racing ... it's slightly less offensive than Redneck Rampage.
  

GameTap's free games list doesn't get any new additions this week, but if you haven't played Tomb Raider: Legend or Deus Ex, what are you waiting for?

Earlier this week, Blizzard released a patch for Warcraft 3, known to some of you as "the game before World of Warcraft" and the rest as "the client for playing Defense of the Ancients." Patch 1.22a provides balance changes for the units, fixes some technical issues and includes four new maps. You can update the game by either logging onto Battle.net or by downloading the patches manually (available from BigDownload).

PC (1.22a requires patch 1.21b for installation)

• 1.21b for W3
  
• 1.21b for W3: The Frozen Throne
• 1.22a for W3
• 1.22a for W3:TFT
  

Mac (1.21b not required)

• 1.22a for W3
• 1.22a for W3:TFT
  

Last month, Blizzard also patched Diablo 2. We've placed full patch notes after the break.

[Via BigDownload]