We don't remember Naughty Dog's wise-cracking ottsel brandishing a knife, but hey, we're always open to crazy new ideas. Oh, this is Dexter, the hit Showtime series about a forensics expert who also happens to be a serial killer (of other killers). Whoops.

Anyway, IGN has a story out of San Diego Comic-Con 08 that is sure to put a sour puss on anyone who was waiting for a console game based on the show. Ecko, who acquired the rights to Dexter for game-making purposes back in March, revealed during a panel that the game is only coming to iPhone and iPod Touch. It was also revealed that the game will be episodic in nature – hey, like the show! Coincidence, surely. Mr. Ecko is certainly no stranger to spray paint, but blood spray? Start practicing those stabbing motions with your fancy phones, folks ... but just do it in the privacy of your own home for the sake of not looking like a total loon, 'kay?

It's a case of "he said, he said" in the latest chapter of Bungiegate. This time around, the news centers on a comment made by Xbox senior VP Don Mattrick regarding Bungie president Harold Ryan's reaction to being told his company's new Halo game announcement was being struck from Microsoft's pre-E3 media briefing.

According to Eurogamer, the site was told by Mattrick during the show that Ryan had "just laughed" and said "We agree" upon receiving the news. Ryan recalls the conversation quite differently. ""Keeping things clean, I certainly didn't agree with the decision to delay our news until sometime after E3," he told Eurogamer today, adding, "Bungie is always concerned first and foremost with our fans. Whenever we are prevented from exceeding their positive expectations it is not a laughing matter." Oh snap. Begun, these Halo Wars have.

Imagine if Marvel's super heroes were to form a sort of ... alliance. An ultimate one, at that. Then, they somehow gained the ability to fuse their powers together. You'd have yourself a Marvel Ultimate Alliance of Fusion, or "MUAF," but we don't think we like how that acronym crawls off the tongue. Tweak it a bit and you have Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion, Activision's next action-RPG team up set in the Marvel Comics universe, where players will, in fact, be able to combine the powers of various heroes to make more powerful powers.

The game was announced at Activision's E3 non-E3 event, where only a brief teaser was shown. This slightly longer snippet was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con 2008, which got underway today in Southern California. It indeed shows off various Marvel characters fusing their powers, but looks far from actual gameplay. It's still pretty slick to see Wolverine and The Hulk team up for a variation of the Fastball Special, though.

Like a Batarang, this story didn't come back – it stuck. We're talking about our original report on G4's interview with actor Gary Oldman, in which he specifically speaks about an upcoming game based on the smash hit movie The Dark Knight. G4 had pulled the video, but, like a boomerang, it's back.

Oldman, who plays the role of Gotham City police lieutenant Jim Gordon in the film, reveals during the interview that he's "seen a tiny little piece of [the game]" and that its developer (rumored to be the now EA-owned Pandemic) is focusing a lot of effort on realistic, seamless gliding sequences. Meanwhile, his interviewer looks more uncomfortable and confused than enthused about the fact that she's sitting across from a film legend. Why so serious?

Former head of Tecmo's Team Ninja and leather aficionado, Tomonobu Itagaki, is proving himself to be quite the legal eagle hawk whatever bird a ninja might keep as a pet in his ongoing lawsuit against his old employer. In addition to upping his claim for damages from 148 million yen ($1.3 million) to 164m yen ($1.6m) for bonuses and salary not paid, the Dead or Alive creator delivered a blow to accusations by Tecmo president Yoshimi Yasuda that he was never promised bonuses in the first place.

The evidence: an audio recording of Yasuda specifically stating that a legal document known as a ringi, which outlined the contested bonus plan, had in fact been approved by Tecmo's board of directors. Take that! If that didn't sting, Itagaki said (in what we're guessing was a stern voice): "I am prepared to reveal this evidence as the need arises for the sake of greater justice." Hear that? Greater justice. Everything the guy does is intense.

We know what you're thinking, and we're right there with you. The absolute best way to capture the intense horror and gore of EA's upcoming Dead Space for a direct-to-DVD (and Blu-ray) movie is with a cartoon. Oh, that wasn't what you were thinking? C'mon – as if the age gate on this trailer for the flick wasn't enough indication, it's not exactly a kid-friendly affair. No sir. It's nice and gory (as gory as cel animation can get, at least).

Set for release on October 28 (hey, that's right around when the game's hitting ... coincidence?) the film follows the events that occurred on the mining ship Ishimura (the game's setting, in case you're just joining us) and the planet it's lifelessly orbiting (and why it's orbiting said planet lifelessly) before the outset of the game. Think of it kind of like Enter the Matrix in reverse. On second thought, don't think about Enter the Matrix.

Despite the fact that Unreal Engine 3 has been licensed by, oh, everyone for building their current-gen games, results have been hit or miss. While developers continue to get to grips with the current iteration of the technology, its creator, Epic Games, is already at work building the next version to stump them make their lives easier ... in the future.

In news sure to make Dennis Dyack happy, Epic's president, Mike Capps, revealed at Microsoft's Gamefest technology conference that the successors to the current crop of consoles (even Wii?) are its target platforms for Unreal Engine 4. "We've got Unreal [Engine] 4 in production right now," Capps told the gathering of developers, adding, "it's going to be in the next console generation ... our rough guess is 2012 to 2018." So, there you have it. Xbox 720 in 2012. We kid. We aren't kidding when we say that we hope developers other than Epic and a handful of others get a sound grasp on UE3 before then.

A new system update for Japanese Wii consoles has introduced an intriguing new function to the Wii Shop Channel: bonus content. The feature, which prompts users to enter a 16-digit code when accessed, has so far been used to distribute the Wii Speaker Channel using a key included with Daigasso! Band Brothers DX for the Nintendo DS.

Nintendo Everything and Wii Fanboy speculate that the Shop Channel's new feature could potentially be used to redeem codes included with games for everything from free Wii Points to downloadable content and Virtual Console titles. Might we suggest a code that, when entered, simply rewards users with smiles? Nintendo certainly has a lot of them to go around.

[Via NWF]

Do you heart Kingdom Hearts – especially the idea of a new game in the series for Nintendo DS? Then you'll be happy to hear that the Japanese manual for Square Enix's recently released Dragon Quest V remake contains an ad promising a 2008 release for Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days ... in Japan, of course.

Revealed at last year's Tokyo Game Show, the next handheld Kingdom Hearts features a four-player co-op mode and follows the adventures of series protagonist Sora's "Nobody" twin, Roxas (above). Even though the game looks like it's hitting Japan this year, we'll still have to wait out the necessary localization before seeing it Stateside. At least the ad isn't merely a "coming soon" tease like the one for God of War III.

[Via DS Fanboy]

We were just a ... Wii bit shocked when a new Grand Theft Auto was announced for Nintendo DS and not the Big N's wildly popular home console. Still, it's no doubt a coup, but what about a proper Wii installment in the series?

MTV Multiplayer asked Nintendo of America prez Reggie Fils-Amie just that. When prodded on the likelihood that a DS version of GTA might lead to a greater possibility of GTA for Wii, Reggie stated that "GTA on the Wii is all based on what Rockstar and Take-Two want to do," adding, "From our standpoint, if they build a bottoms-up game that takes advantage of what we do well, I'd love to see it on the platform."

We're pretty sure Reggie meant a GTA that's built from the ground up for Wii. Or perhaps he was just getting into the GTA swing of things? If so, naughty Reggie!

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Famous for groundbreaking science fiction novels such as Schizmatrix and Heavy Weather, author Bruce Sterling is also regarded as one of the world's leading futurists. That is, he's really good at predicting where everything from media to industry to consumer technology will be at in the near future. Now he's going to do the same with video games ... and what they will be like in the year 2043.

Sterling will deliver his keynote address, "Computer Entertainment 35 Years from Today," at the upcoming Austin Game Developers Conference being held September 15-17. It will certainly be intriguing to hear what one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement has to say about the future of our shared hobby, especially given the recent introduction of technology such as Wii MotionPlus. We also have to wonder if he's seen Sony's famous "PS9" commercial.

In keeping with the retro-y spirit of Mega Man 9, Capcom decided to commission I Am 8-bit artist Gerald de Jesus to create the most awful faux box art possible for the game. Capcom then put it on T-shirts for its staff to wear at E3. The idea was to mimic the atrocious cover of the original Mega Man for NES (widely considered to be the worst box art of all time) and it worked. Really well.

Capcom's head PR honcho, Chris Kramer, has updated the company's blog with word that the exceedingly kitsch shirts will actually be re-printed for sale to the masses, although exactly when and where we can expect to snap one up is still being ironed on out.