Can it be that we'll be looking at the new Resident Evil from a different perspective?

Pro-G reports from Leipzig that Capcom's Jun Takeuchi said the next Resident Evil will use the third-person perspective previously used in Resident Evil 4. However, it may also have something a bit new in regards to perspective, but Takeuchi refused to be more specific.

When asked about Resident Evil Wii, Takeuchi said he didn't know if it will occur, though if he is referring to Resident Evil 5 on Wii, and not a separate Wii entry in the series, is unknown. He was still being mysterious about the series' debut on the Wii.

On an amusing note, Takeuchi said Capcom's production staff groaned "Oh god, he's gone and invented another one" at many of the new ideas for the new installment. And that remark is indeed promising for us gamers.

Laptop owners may need to start worrying about leaving a laptop in a vehicle.

According to Malaysia's New Straits Times, thieves have been using some type of mysterious gadget to break into cars and steal laptops. In the district of Petaling Jaya, over 255 laptops have been stolen from parked cars so far this year. And police say the majority of these laptops were hidden from sight at the time.

The police haven't been able to find any of the supposed "mystery devices" yet, and are advising people to carry laptops with them rather than leave them in their cars.

Speculation is that the thieves' gadget may be using WiFi and/or Bluetooth to detect the presence of the laptops in the vehicles.

Sounds like a case for CSI, doesn't it?

We see a Harvest Moon rising! Marvelous Interactive has confirmed that its new Wii game, Harvest Moon, will make its debut at the upcoming Tokyo Games Show at the end of September.

Harvest Moon focuses on the Koropokuru, little helper creatures present in every game of the Harvest Moon series. The player will run an island farm to revive a great tree that has gone dry; building relationships with local citizens is important to achieve this.

The big question is whether or not the game will be shown as merely a trailer, or will it actually be in playable demo form. We here at QJ root for the demo. Harvest Moon's release date is yet to be announced.

Codemasters Online Gaming has come up with a new way to combine game subscription and in-game items in one payment. A press release from the said company today announces PlayPLUS, a multi-level subscription system for their upcoming MMORPG ArchLord. The PlayPLUS system will allow players to buy packages that have both game time and in-game bonus credits.

Besides paying for your gametime, these credits will be redeemable for items in the game to enhance your character. Things like experience bonuses, teleportation spells, health boosts and enhancements will also be available.

The all-new PlayPLUS system will be available in time for the anticipated 3rd quarter launch of ArchLord. Beta testers will be able to use this system earlier. Gamers can still sign up for the Beta at the official ArchLord website.

Another day means another delay for next-gen gamers. Midway has announced that Stranglehold is being pushed back until next year. The game was scheduled to launch with the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC this fall.

No reason for the delay was given. Stranglehold, directed by John Woo, is a 3rd person action/adventure game that stars Chow Yun-Fat as an inspector. The game was praised at E3 and was expected to be one of this year's top next-gen titles.

The game is now slated for a first quarter 2007 release.

This week's big announcement - that Gears of War launch day will be November 12th - left many gamers disappointed. Not about the fact that GoW is coming out in November, but that they were hoping the big surprise would be so much more. Like maybe, a demo.

However, Epic Games' Mark Rein has dashed fans hopes. He says don't expect a demo anytime before the game's release. In an Epic forum post, Rein comments, "I don't see any way we could do a demo before the game comes out, we've said that before. Demos take a long time to create and polish, and we can't afford to get derailed like that if we want to have the game in stores by Thanksgiving."

Rein added, "I know we have some very cool plans - not 100 percent solid so too early to give any specifics - for additional downloadable, so that might take a higher priority than creating a demo."

Of course, this doesn't rule out a demo after Gears of War is released. Gears of War will be out on Xbox 360 on November 17th in Europe and November 12th in America.

Could Gears of War be coming a little sooner than we think?

We recently reported that October 2nd could be the much-hyped Gears of War Emergence Day, the day the game is finally released. But IGN is reporting that Gears could be showing up early at retailers' as part of the Microsoft sponsored "Gigantour." Gigantour, a heavy metal music tour that will span 25 major market venues from early September to mid-October 2006, has headliner Megadeth as a star of the show.

Craig Davison, Director of Global Games Marketing for Xbox, said, "We're totally jazzed about the partnership between Gigantour 2006 and our forthcoming Xbox 360 blockbuster, 'Gears of War! Partnering a music extravaganza like GIGANTOUR with the launch of a mega-hit game like 'Gears of War' captures the excitement around two awesome happenings for fans of music and video games!"

So, to get the rumor mill churning... Does Davison mean Gears of War is launching at the start of, during, or at the end of Gigantour?

Fanboys of the Xbox 360 know that the sooner Gears is released, the better. If Gears of War is released this early before the holiday season, it would compete with other next-gen console launches. Supposedly, a “BIG announcement” will be made next week at the Epic Forums. Could this release date be it?

What once cost moolah is now free?

Xboxic is reporting that the Collateral Damage Map Pack for The Outfit is now available for free. Originally, it cost 500 Microsoft Points for this 52.80 MB download from the Xbox Live Marketplace. So why is it free now? Well, could it be related to the latest update of The Outfit?

The three maps included in this Map Pack - The Bleak Mile, Eagle's Nest and The Luftwaffe Finale - have been available for download since May.

The important thing to think about here is that Xbox Live content that once cost money is now free. Will this be a trend in the near future? It took awhile, but we've seen this happen before with Halo 2 map packs; however, it was announced from the get go that the Halo 2 map packs would become free at a later date.

Will more content become cheaper or free in the future? Could less popular or overly expensive downloads go this route? We can all hope so.

A patch has arrived for several pesky problems that plague Mac users who play Sid Meier's Civilization IV.

Aspyr Media's 15MB beta version update for Civ IV 1.61 Rev A is currently available for download.

This patch is to correct problems some users had with the shipping version. It offers better performance on certain Macs, mostly the G5 systems, that had excessive CPU use. “The game should no longer run dual CPU’s to 100 percent capacity,” Aspyr stated.

Also, Aspyr has fixed an issue that kept certain sounds from playing correctly. “Other sounds may still be inaudible. A future official release of the Rev A patch will address those,” the company reported.

The publisher added that this update is a beta release, and “may have problems not in the original game.” However, it has been released to help those users who have reported difficulty getting Civilization IV to run well on their Macs.

Any other issues the beta update may stir up? Well, in addition to possible sound problems, Aspyr said that kernel panics on Intel Macs may occur, but can be fixed by installing the latest version of the Mac OS X v10.4.7 Combo update. Also, turning off Full Scene Anti Aliasing (FSAA) options or running the game in a window may correct the issue.

Download: [Civ IV 1.61 Rev A Beta Version Update]

Can you imagine a cell phone charger powered by water? It's coming.

NTT DoCoMo and Aqua Fairy have partnered together to make the world's smallest fuel cell. It has an output of only 2 watts, and uses thin film power unit technology to create hydrogen from water.

This polymer electrolyte fuel cell (or PEFC, for short) charger doesn't have the problems that earlier Methanol based chargers had, which was their large size and less power output. The PEFC charger is one-fourth the size and twice as powerful as the Methane type - which is good if you're looking for something more portable and more powerful to charge your devices' batteries.

The prototype PEFC produces 800mAh at 3.6V, which is enough power to recharge the average cell phone in the same amount of time it takes to plug it into a wall outlet. Amazing, right?

The NTT DoCoMo PEFC charger will go into production next year, but prototypes can be seen at Wireless Japan 2006.