Splinter Cell: Conviction (Xbox 360, PC) creative director Maxime Beland wants people who play his games to finish them, so the game will be shipping with two difficulty levels for players to choose from. More from Beland after the jump.

Another gaming week has gone, but one thing always remains: there's always something to learn in the gaming industry, and we'd all like to be there every step of the way. This week on the Microsoft blog, we've got rules, giveaway themes, huge opportunities, and giant gameplays worthy of a show at the Giants Stadium's LCD wall. Dig in.

Subscribers of the Official Xbox Magazine should be getting a Left 4 Dead treat right about now as they receive the latest issue, #49, of the mag. The treat is said to be an exclusive L4D Premium Theme, to be given away by OXM UK.

Cliff Bleszinski has come out to clarify the rumors that he's making a horror game. Talking to OXM, the poster boy for Epic Games said, "I have absolutely no idea how that hit."

Speaking with gaming website Joystiq at this years E3, BioWare's co-founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka has confirmed that the second DLC for Mass Effect will be detailed and announced real soon.

A whole load of info about Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360, PC) has apparently been leaked from an OXM interview with developer Bioware. Since we haven't seen a hard copy yet, let's treat this as a rumor for the time being. Among the details revealed in the OXM feature is confirmation that Commander Shepard is alive and well -- for a goodly chunk of the game anyway. Whether or not Shepard survives until the end is still up in the air. More in the full article.

Square Enix sure loves teasers. Earlier this month, they revealed a screenshot for a new game in the pages of Official PlayStation Magazine. Now they have another teaser, this time in the form of a website.

Information's starting to trickle out for Electronic Arts and DICE's sequel to the blockbuster FPS hit in the Battlefield: Bad Company franchise. According to an EA Forums post, it's been revealed in the OXM UK issue #56 that 40 players have been confirmed for online play in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC). Take out those beer kegs, this is sure to be a party.

It's become a classic he said-he said. Pitted against each other are the movie prod's claim that the Street Fighter movie will be coming out on March 2009 in a simultaneous launch with the SFIV (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC) games. Ono-san, however, says he does not know of any simultaneous release. Confused much? Yeah, we are too. Good thing he also talks about parrying and a lot of other things.

The Official Xbox Magazine recently revealed that Lionhead Studios' Fable 2 has a henchman system in place to let people do cooperative play without much fuss. Learn how this henchman system works after the jump!