Excited for Rise of the Tomb Kings? The final Warhammer Online live expansion event won’t go live until next Tuesday, but you can still get the patch pre-downloaded and ready.

Massively is reporting that the patch required to access the new content is available for download, and contains the “bulk of the update.” On the appropriate day, the update will automatically kick into gear, and you’ll be able to see the Tomb Kings dungeon for yourself.

At the moment, this only applies to North American and Oceanic fans, but Europe should be getting their patch “early next week.”

Be careful what you wish for. At E3 last week, reports began circulating that a group of Christians were outside the convention center protesting against EA’s Dante’s Inferno. Days later, new reports circulated that the protesters weren’t protesters at all — it was actually a staged publicity stunt by EA themselves. But the rancor that’s now appearing across Christian websites? Oh, that’s very much real.

As GamePolitics reports (via GameSpot), some Christians are not at all pleased with how they were portrayed in EA’s staged protest, where the fake protesters held signs reading “Hell is not a game,” “My high score is in Heaven,” and “Trade in your PlayStation for a PrayStation.” As Margaret Cabaniss of InsideCatholic wrote, “It’s been clear for a while now that the entertainment industry views Christians on the whole as priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers… Has anybody at EA actually read the Inferno?”

Even harsher were the words that appeared on Catholic Video Gamers, where blogger Andy Kirchoff wrote the following:

As the new NPD numbers just showed, the Wii sold about 289,500 units in May. It’s not exactly gangbusters compared to the ridiculous numbers the Wii has sold in past months, but it was enough to push Nintendo’s console over a big milestone: The Wii has officially sold 20 million units in the United States (via GamesIndustry.biz).

The Wii hit 20 million in the U.S. with just 31 months on sale, making it, according to Nintendo, the fastest selling console in U.S. history. “The continued enthusiastic consumer response to our products shows that Nintendo has something for everyone,” gloated Nintendo of America executive vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway. “For Nintendo, precision motion controls and social gaming are realities today.”

That last line is an interesting choice of words, as it is clearly in response to the new motion controls revealed by both Sony and Microsoft at E3 last week. It’s a slightly more combative tone than simply being flattered by imitation, no?

North American Wii owners will finally be getting Tatsunoko vs. Capcom soon, but they were still left out of all the Street Fighter 4 fun earlier this year… but could that change down the line? In a post on the Capcom Unity forums (via Cubed3), senior community manager Seth Killian unequivocally left open the possibility of porting SF4 to the Wii in the future.

“While not every aspect of SF4′s presentation would likely be possible on the Wii, the core elements are obviously possible,” said Killian, in a thread pondering the possibilities. “As for ‘never happen!’ — I’d hope that if Tatsunoko vs Capcom has taught us anything, it’s that we should never say never when it comes to Capcom.”

It’s hopeful news for Wii owners, but it’s best to temper expectations — this is far from a confirmation that it will happen. But then again, at least it’s something, isn’t it?

The latest issue of Game Informer features a cover story on Max Payne 3, and as is so often the case in this age of new media, a few details about the new game have trickled to the web. As Shacknews reports, Max Payne 3 will be set 12 years after Max Payne 2, and it takes place in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

As the cover image for Game Informer reveals, Max has let himself go a little bit since last we saw him, now sporting a bald head and a scruffy beard. Evidently Max moved to Sao Paulo to escape “the demons from New York,” where he now works in private security for a wealthy family. He’s also addicted to painkillers, which ties into the gameplay in some unspecified way.

Like any respectable shooter today, Max Payne 3 will also feature a cover system, although it’s “not the focus of the game.” Rockstar’s Rob Nelson explains it’ll still play very similarly to the past Max Payne titles, as they took “the elements of traditional Max and expanded it out so the game becomes gun ballet, or gun-fu, or whatever you want to call it.”

Does anyone think that the the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 have reached their limits? If so, then the people at Burnout Paradise dev Criterion are disappointed in them.

“That’s proof that you’re not the best,” technical director Richard Parr told Eurogamer. “It means you’re out of ideas.”

Meanwhile, senior engineer Alex Fry said, “You always find new ways to do things, the constraints lift. Not just with a new console generation but with every game you do.”

Excited for Rise of the Tomb Kings? The final Warhammer Online live expansion event won’t go live until next Tuesday, but you can still get the patch pre-downloaded and ready.

Massively is reporting that the patch required to access the new content is available for download, and contains the “bulk of the update.” On the appropriate day, the update will automatically kick into gear, and you’ll be able to see the Tomb Kings dungeon for yourself.

At the moment, this only applies to North American and Oceanic fans, but Europe should be getting their patch “early next week.”

Be careful what you wish for. At E3 last week, reports began circulating that a group of Christians were outside the convention center protesting against EA’s Dante’s Inferno. Days later, new reports circulated that the protesters weren’t protesters at all — it was actually a staged publicity stunt by EA themselves. But the rancor that’s now appearing across Christian websites? Oh, that’s very much real.

As GamePolitics reports (via GameSpot), some Christians are not at all pleased with how they were portrayed in EA’s staged protest, where the fake protesters held signs reading “Hell is not a game,” “My high score is in Heaven,” and “Trade in your PlayStation for a PrayStation.” As Margaret Cabaniss of InsideCatholic wrote, “It’s been clear for a while now that the entertainment industry views Christians on the whole as priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers… Has anybody at EA actually read the Inferno?”

Even harsher were the words that appeared on Catholic Video Gamers, where blogger Andy Kirchoff wrote the following:

As the new NPD numbers just showed, the Wii sold about 289,500 units in May. It’s not exactly gangbusters compared to the ridiculous numbers the Wii has sold in past months, but it was enough to push Nintendo’s console over a big milestone: The Wii has officially sold 20 million units in the United States (via GamesIndustry.biz).

The Wii hit 20 million in the U.S. with just 31 months on sale, making it, according to Nintendo, the fastest selling console in U.S. history. “The continued enthusiastic consumer response to our products shows that Nintendo has something for everyone,” gloated Nintendo of America executive vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway. “For Nintendo, precision motion controls and social gaming are realities today.”

That last line is an interesting choice of words, as it is clearly in response to the new motion controls revealed by both Sony and Microsoft at E3 last week. It’s a slightly more combative tone than simply being flattered by imitation, no?

North American Wii owners will finally be getting Tatsunoko vs. Capcom soon, but they were still left out of all the Street Fighter 4 fun earlier this year… but could that change down the line? In a post on the Capcom Unity forums (via Cubed3), senior community manager Seth Killian unequivocally left open the possibility of porting SF4 to the Wii in the future.

“While not every aspect of SF4′s presentation would likely be possible on the Wii, the core elements are obviously possible,” said Killian, in a thread pondering the possibilities. “As for ‘never happen!’ — I’d hope that if Tatsunoko vs Capcom has taught us anything, it’s that we should never say never when it comes to Capcom.”

It’s hopeful news for Wii owners, but it’s best to temper expectations — this is far from a confirmation that it will happen. But then again, at least it’s something, isn’t it?