Further proof that Bethesda are positioning themselves as a strong publisher as well as developer of games, news hit the trades yesterday that id Software’s upcoming shooter RAGE will now be published by the ZeniMax company, ousting original publisher EA in the process.

We don’t know what to think of The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest.

Sure, it’s been a while since our last Middle Earth gaming fix, but somehow we think this game isn’t marketed toward your average orc-slaying Númenórean.

There is now footage of the game. It kinda needs to be seen to be believed.

For some of us, that delectable jingle of when a new trophy is earned is all we live for.

Popping up on the top right of your screen telling you what you’ve just unlocked, the little scamps also have a tendency to cause you to screw up whatever you were doing in the game at the time.

Considering Heavy Rain attempts to totally immerse you in an emotionally invested, heart-wrenching story, Quantic Dream have decided to stay such achievement celebrations until a more opportune time. Like, when your eyes aren’t full of tears and you can actually read the Trophy alert.

You’ve no doubt seen some of the introductory footage of Rockstar’s Rio Grande Theft Auto styled Red Dead Redemption.

Superlative dialogue, lush visuals, and guys sporting hats and Western twangs instead of the usual buzz-cuts and new-age lingo, we’re in for a treat next year when this cowboy comes to town.

In fact, we thought we were pretty stoked for the open-world Western before. And then we saw the gameplay footage.

Speaking to our good friends over at Joystiq, Quantic Dream’s Guillaume de Fondaumiere touched upon the inherent difficulties of marketing Heavy Rain – a game that is such a departure from the usual gaming fare, people literally need to be shown it in order to get it. Hence, a playable demo before its release is highly likely.

Remarking how game testers have found the control system incredibly intuitive, it’s interesting to note how early players have not only warmed to the game’s method of interaction but state that, after a while, they also understand why the controls are they way they are.

Though the Batman sequel announcement and Uncharted 2 picking up the main gong were big news at the recent VGAs, there were also some other surprises.

Previously teased but now 100% official, Activision’s upcoming Hong Kong action title will be True Crime, a gritty tale of betrayal and vengeance played out in the dangerous world of the Triads.

TRON Evolution also made an appearance as did the trailer for yet another Prince of Persia game.

Providing its ongoing crystal ball services once again, the ESRB have seemingly announced Gaijin Entertainment’s’ Anarchy: Rush Hour for the PlayStation 3.

In typical succinct ESRB fashion, we’re informed that: “This is a racing game.”

The description goes on to outline where players will be racing (Moscow) and how “massive traffic accidents are common in this game as players can damage and destroy opponents’ cars at will.”

It’s trailer-a-rama lately with the VGAs revealing a bunch of new stuff over the weekend.

Of course, this new one for Transformers: War for Cybertron appears to have skipped the award event altogether, deciding instead to debut over on GameTrailers.

Although NA gamers finally got their hands on Jonathan Blow’s seminal classic on November 12th, Braidphiles in Europe have waited patiently for any positive news regarding their region.

Well, that news is in. Braid will hit the EU PSN this week and is priced at €9.99 (likely £7.99 for the UK).

Responding to calls for a Trophy update to Q-Games’ first PixelJunk game, Racers, on the official PixelJunk forums, producer and friend-of-the-show, Dylan Cuthbert has responded that it’s definitely something they “should think about.”

EA weren’t kidding when they said they wanted the FPS crown back from Activision.

Case in point: check out the debut footage of upcoming MW2-killer Medal of Honor exclusively shown at this year’s VGAs.

LucasArts will follow up the popular Star Wars: The Force Unleashed with a sequel next year.

Announced at the VGAs – and by Samuel L. Jackson no less – The Force Unleashed 2 will continue the Dark Apprentice’s saga.

SquareEnix have sent out a newsletter detailing just what early-bird fans of parachuting and explosions can expect when pre-ordering the limited edition of Just Cause 2.

Entitled “The Black Market Chaos Pack”, the DLC comprises of a bunch of weapons and a handy intel map. Behold!

GameInformer magazine have revealed some interesting snippets about the sequel to the last year’s pant-wetting Dead Space.

Taking place in larger environments, Issac, who this time out is more assertive and a veteran of the whole people-eating alien problem, will take the fight to the Necromorphs on Sprawl, a space station built by one of Saturn’s moon shards.

On his second outing, Isaac Clarke will also speak, making him more a character in the universe rather than a laconic persona who just likes cutting up extraterrestrials.

Broken, beaten and in some cases battered to an inch of their lives, RPG fans of tough-as-nails Demon’s Souls will undoubtedly be regaling fellow mortals with more than a few horror stories over the upcoming holiday festivities.

Yes, we know, Demon’s Souls is hard.

It seems the powers-that-be know it, too, and they may be coming to your rescue this winter solstice.

Add up the review scores for all the games released this year (and divide by the number of titles released per console respectively, naturally), and the PS3 comes out the winner.

This is the (actually quite easily proved) claim made by review aggregation site Metacritic.

You’ve personally updated to firmware 3.15. You’ve scrolled through the list of byte-sized casual games Minis have to offer. It’s now time to buy!

Or is it?

It may have crippled your download cap (if you have a download cap that is) but if you managed to snag a MAG beta code then we’re hoping you enjoyed your brief time with the 256 player super-shooter.

By the look of the statistics revealed on the Official US PlayStation blog, it would appear so.

Hot on the heels of the recently announced zombie DLC, Gearbox have now revealed details of what the second DLC outing for the excellent Role Playing Shooter Borderlands entails.

Entitled Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot (we’re really liking these titles), the new DLC will launch on January 7th, 2010 on the PS3.