Well, those of you waiting for TF2 need to go out and come up with another $10. Why? Valve has cancelled Half-Life 2: The Black Box.

Originally planned to contain Episode 2 of Half-Life, Portal, and TF2, the Black Box would have been $10 cheaper than the Orange Box. Doug Lombardi, Valve’s director of marketing, said, “The Black Box has been cancelled. We’re going to have one package, The Orange Box, available on the PC (US$49.99) as well as the 360 and PS3 (US$ 59.99). In addition to the three new products — Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life: Episode Two — The Orange Box will also contain the full version of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One.”

What does this mean to gamers?
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Earlier today we told you that there’s a new Riddick game heading to consoles. Now, there’s a rumor floating around that the trailer for it will appear on Spike TV’s Game Head tonight. If the console title lives up to the PC version, this will be a must-play for gamers everywhere. So, if this is a title you can’t live without, tune in to Spike at 1 AM.

Kotaku is reporting that a source has informed them that the announcement of the new Blizzard title (whatever it turns out to be) will be coming at around 1 AM Pacific tomorrow. Coincidentally, it’s about the same time that the announcement will hit at WWI over in Korea.

Speculation still runs rampant over what it may be. Personally, I think we’re going to see a new Starcraft RTS. Why? Several things point to this…
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As usual, Bungie’s weekly update covers a lot of topics, almost all of them related to the Halo 3 beta. There’s a fix for the missing UI text, and for the “Game Over” issue. There’s also a nice nod to the tech folks that corrected the download issues that occurred on Wednesday.

The big topic is the breaking out of the Beta Banhammer. Due to some issues with player conduct, Bungie has made the banhammer available. But what will get you whacked with it?

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To celebrate the new Guild Wars expansion, Eyes of the North, ArenaNet is hosting a “Return to Tyria” sweepstakes. It will run from May 17th to July 17th in North America, though a European version is planned as well. All you have to do is answer a short survey and then you’re entered to win some cool prizes. You could win developer-signed copies of Eye of the North, new hardware for your computer, or even a full Alienware computer system. You can enter the sweepstakes here.

Oh…. my… GAWD! I am laughing my ass off so hard that my chest hurts and my cheeks are getting charlie-horses. I have never seen this before, and it was added to YouTube in April – so if any of you have already seen this, then just skip to the next news article. Only Oblivion and Chuck Norris fans (and I say that term loosely when applied to Chucky) can probably see the humor in it anyway. Too bad the video is so dark, he should have played with this controls a bit more. Oh well, enjoy!

Voodoo Extreme has a post up poking fun at Blizzard for their tendency to over-hype lame announcements. Personally, I’m getting a little annoyed with it myself. Blizzard seems like they couldn’t release a bad game if they tried, but it just takes them forever to make each one. So they’re stuck trying to build hype for stuff that isn’t all that exciting just so they can keep a presence in the press. Like this website…dang.

Lame video from YouTube depicting a dog beating a guy at Wii boxing. Supposedly he beat him at tennis too. Why do stoners always find it necessary to include their pets in their haze induced couch adventures? Funny how they never show the lap of the person the dog is sitting on, and whose arms are moving the canine’s legs around. Whatever. I just hope they didn’t force the poor little fella to”partake”.

Yes, that is a guy pictured above. Promise. No need to vomit, unless you really want to.

The video above shows how some English training software for the DS works. It’s designed for adults and seems to present them with a number of exercises to practice their English comprehension and writing. I can’t read Japanese though, so I’m not entirely sure what all is available. However I do know that you can always use it to watch short clips of old movies whenever you want. Hopefully some more educational software like this can make its way stateside.

On May15th, Halo 3 held itself a little party to celebrate the beta-ready version. Sponsored by Quixote Studios, many hot and not-so-hot celebs make the guest list. They were wined, dined and privy to the limited edition Mountain Dew Game Fuel, and many alcoholic concoctions made from the syrupy substance were on hand for all to consume. Oh, you know Paris and Nicky Hilton were there – I mean a party just isn’t a party without a couple of skanky ho’s to entertain and enrage the guests.

The most notable (and talented) actor in attendance was Geoffrey Rush (Quills, Pirates I,II,III) who I am just awe-struck by the fact that he plays video games. He is just too cool. Of course he may have just been there for the free booze and skanks. Dane Cook (he is NOT funny!), Jon Heder (Nap-Dynamite) and his twin Dan were there, mixing it up with Victoria Pratt from the award-winning series Mutant X (lol), Brain Cook from the Lakers, and John Hensley from Nip Tuck. The fun-filled extravaganza ended around 11:30 not long after Paris and Nicky left – oh I bet it ended all right, ended up at their place is more like it!