Just a few ticks away from the launch of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, are you holding up well to the wait? If you need more distractions to help the remaining time pass, we're offering up this collection of features that we're been running for the game. Check out the full article and let it be your portal to past posts.

Even with landmark titles under its belt, Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, and BioShock aren't enough to cash in much dough for Take-Two Interactive. "The company doesn't appear to be able to make much money from its everyday business," said Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter.

Pachter pointed at other franchises, particularly "money-losing sports games," as reasons why he believes Take-Two is not a great investment right now. "Until we see evidence of better controls over work in process and greater diligence in project selection, we are not confident that the company will gain market share in future years," he said.

Among Pachter's prophecies were numbers for BioShock's sales, which he recently raised to two million from 1.3 million. Manhunt 2, after much delay and controversy, is about to hit the shelves and Pachter expects 500,000 copies sold the day it ships. The analyst also stepped his Take-Two revenue estimate for the fourth fiscal quarter up a bit, from US$ 292 million to US$ 300 million.

That said, Pachter doesn't think Electronic Arts will be interested in acquiring Take-Two. "EA’s culture is not conducive to open-ended delivery dates, artistic freedom, and incredibly violent games," he explained. He also claimed that sexual content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and violence Manhunt 2 will not be tolerated by EA.

According to Pachter, Take-Two's franchises will also be replicas of EA's games, shooting down the idea of acquisition. Midnight Club is to Need for Speed, while both companies have their own share of sports games. Furthermore, he added, "Take-Two has a very low cash position."

Game dev Ilucide was more than happy to talk about one of the more prominent places over at EverQuest II, and we figured you'd wanna hear about the new residence that's gonna be popping up too. Enter Castle Mistmoore.

Located across the Loping Hills, Mistmoore Castle's the residence of Lord Mayong - your not-so-friendly neighborhood elven vampire. The local villagers have long looked upon this castle with a twinge of fear, deathly afraid of the power that Mayong holds, and the aforementioned eerie atmosphere of the castle. If it's any good news, Mayong's often hidden away in his inner sanctum, studying the Zebuxoruk's prophecies.

For a reception, would-be visitors (Raiders, treasure hunters, demon hunters, Belmonts, Blade...) will first have to fight their way through the other vampires inhabiting this castle, which should prove to be meaner than your everyday brand of enemies.

Old-time EverQuest players will also be happy to know that the devs have taken special care to make this castle a tribute to its previous incarnation in EQI - evident in the the piano, stained glass, and gray stone walls that were faithfully copied from the EQI version. As for the rest of the castle's majestically malicious feel, you can thank Michael Bacon for his efforts, and numerous items such as the high ceilings which were inspired by European gothic cathedrals, specifically those in Barcelona.

Mistmoore Castle:  Your recommended party's tour destination for EQ2's EoF expansion.

We don't know about you, but we are all for action. And by action, we mean getting it on right away. Those down with that idea might be pleased with the new PvP edition for Guild Wars. This special edition, compatible to both Guild Wars Prophecies and Guild Wars Factions, allows creation of PvP characters from specific campaigns and provide access to the full skill list for each profession.

If you already own both campaigns, simply add the PvP edition to unlock each campaign's skills onto your account for PvP gameplay. On the other hand, if you have been living under God knows where and doesn't know anything about this NCSoft MMO, purchasing this latest release brings you right in the middle of action at once. Fans of role-playing need to purchase the first two to access the other characters.

The Guild Wars PvP edition pack is available on the game's official online store. A preview of what you'll be getting upon purchase is as follows:

Guild Wars Prophecies PvP Edition:

    Create a PvP Character with any of the six professions (Elementalist, Mesmer, Monk, Necromancer, Ranger, Warrior)

    Acquire instant access to all skills (454 Total Skills - 394 Prophecies Skills and 60 Elite Prophecies Skills)

Guild Wars Factions PvP Edition:

    Create a PvP character with any of the two Factions-specific professions (Assassin, Ritualist)

    Create a PvP character with any of the six core professions ((Elementalist, Mesmer, Monk, Necromancer, Ranger, Warrior)

    Acquire instant access to all skills (570 Total Skills - 240 Factions skills, 90 Elite Factions Skills and 240 Core Profession Skills)

Guild Wars players (yup, you) are more or less familiar with the henchmen. These NPCs have been around since the Prophecies campaign to aid players in missions and quests.

In Nightfall, players have the option to use Heroes, aside from the good, old henchies. Heroes are also NPCs just like the henchies that have default skills to aid you in battle. However, unlike the henchmen, they can gain experience and levels up whenever you complete missions and quests with them. Also, you can change their skills whenever you're in a town or outpost. Yep, we're talking about making really neat combos with these NPCs.

The cool thing about Heroes is that your character's actions affect their actions. You can also order them to head to a certain direction, as well as choose their second profession. However, one of the things you can't do is change their names or primary professions. But that's not so bad, isn't it?

Heroes are either part of the quest, or given as rewards for completing one. You can ally with multiple Heroes, although there are exclusive ones (meaning you can't team up with particular heroes when you've already allied with certain ones). Most of the time, you can get three Heroes for your party, provided that you've already recruited them through your quests. Your party panel has the "Add a Hero" option, so just click on that whenever you're in need of one.

Also, the Hero has three combat modes: Aggressive (for attacks), Defensive (for well, defense) and Passive (for dodging enemies instead of attacking them). You can adjust your Heroes' skills and attributes by pressing "K"- just like what you do when you want to access your own skills. To get more info on your Hero, just access its control panel. However, you don't need to open the hero control panel whenever you play the game, so you can dish out being too obsessive-compulsive about that.

The Hero also has an inventory just like yours which can be accessed by pressing "I." Although you can't change your Hero's armor in the Inventory panel, you can add runes for a leaner and meaner armor, which automatically improves when the Hero gains levels.

So that's a quick rundown of the new NPCs. Seems that it's one more reason to get Nightfall, isn't it? For more Guild Wars info, just stay tuned here at QJ.

Buy: [Guild Wars Nightfall Bonus Pack]

We earlier reported about the imminent release of Guild Wars Nightfall on October 27. If you can't wait that long, well there is an option for you. The pre-release bonus pack will be available starting September 15 which is a few winks from now. We all know that the full version of the game isn't in it, so just what is inside that bonus pack and would it make up for the absence of the real thing set to hit in October?

The Guild Wars Nightfall Prerelease Bonus Pack has been blessed with a new retail package which includes the following:

• Guild Wars "Play Now" key for a 10-hour/14-day trial* of Guild Wars Prophecies and Guild Wars Factions.
• Guild Wars Nightfall Bonus Key, providing one additional character slot for a Guild Wars Nightfall account.
• Two exclusive items for the new professions—a Fiery Sunspear of Shelter for the Paragon and an Icy Soulbreaker of Enchanting for the Dervish.
• Mini strategy guide, concept art, screenshots, in-game renders of characters and items, preview trailer, wallpapers, lore, quick reference card, music, and more!

The Fiery Sunspear of Shelter is the weapon of the Order of the Sunspears and consists of a tempered steel head and a long Mebahya-wood shaft, gripped at the midpoint. It packs a 14- 27 fire damage (9 Spear Mastery required), +5 Energy, and +7 Armors vs. Physical Damage. The Icy Soulbreaker of Enchanting, on the other hand, is lightweight but powerful. It is capable of 9-41 cold damage (9 Scythe Mastery required)m +15% damage while enchanted, and 20% longer enchantments.

Would it make up for the still month-long absence of the real thing? That's your call.

Great news for all you Guild Wars fanatics, it seems that ArenaNet has given in to your requests coz you can now unlock all Prophecies skills for your PvP characters! Nope, this is not done through cheats, sorry. Sad to say, this one's legit people. Haha. For $9.99, you can buy PVP Unlock Packs and use all 70+ skills (for a single profession) for your gaming kicks.

If the 70+ skills for a single profession is not enough for you (we're guessing it's not, for most of you at least), you can also unlock 450+ Prophecies skills for the 6 professions via the unlock packs. However, this one's gonna cost you 30 bucks more, as it sells for $39.99. The PvP Unlock Packs are now available at the Guild Wars Official Store.

One of the problems with prophecies and forecasts is that if you look too far ahead, you miss what's right in front of you.

Game industry analysts have had different sorts of opinions on who will come out on top at the end of the next-gen console race. While some have predicted Sony's downfall as a result of their current pricing strategy, the Yankee Group predicts Sony's dominance with the arrival of the PS3.

There's just one hitch, of course: the PS3 still isn't being manufactured, let alone sold.

A recent Gamespot interview with Sony Computer Entertainment's American President Kaz Hirai outlined the overall projection Sony has for the future, while at the same time keeping mum about certain topics. In addition to discussing the result of Yankee's prediction, Hirai also mentioned that point about the PS3 still not being in the manufacturing stage. Hirai says,

We haven't started manufacturing yet. Some of our ops guys were actually just in China, and also in Japan just reviewing the [production] lines and everything else. But they are, again, preparing as we speak to get the manufacturing going. We've not announced and we haven't set really a specific date to say, "As of this day we're going to start manufacturing."

Hirai was also somewhat evasive with launch titles, but also mentioned that the real fireworks display for new consoles happens a lot later. He said that everyone was still hedging their bets on one console or another and on what launch titles there will actually be. The same problem happens with the bold, yet reserved, predictions by market analysts on the future of the console wars. While it might seem like troubling news, as it's hard to imagine building out 2 million units or so two to three months before launch time, but there's still time, so it's not as bad as it looks.

In the end, despite the current worries of gamers and analysts alike about the future of the PS3 and the overall health of Sony's gaming market, all of this is still relative. As Hirai mentions, "it won't get locked down until about a month before launch," so we still have time to keep the optimism for Sony's prized handheld and new console out and about.

Admit it. You actually hate multiplayer games because other players can get so serious they become obnoxious. I know that when I'm playing a game, I'm there to laugh and have fun, and when the people I'm playing with are too tense and get pissed off over the smallest things, I get affected and also get pissed off. No more laughter. So isn't it great to find a group of gamers who call themselves "LOL"?

Regardless of what game you play, I think it's worth looking at the Legion of Losers (LOL), a Guild Wars players guild. It was created on the first day of Guild Wars Prophecies by friends in real life who enjoyed gaming. They liked Guild Wars for the same reason that some of us here at QJ like to play it: the game has no fees.

What makes this guild worth writing about is their approach to gaming. If you compare this guild to your philosophy, you might think twice about why you choose the games you play. LOL is a GvG guild that wants to create a friendly and relaxed environment (regardless of whether you "win" or "lose"). "It's just a game" seems to be a motto, and having fun and keeping each other happy are what matters.

Despite their name, this guild is not composed of losers; they have built a reputation within the Guild Wars community. This is surprising because they don't recruit players based on skill but on attitude (skill can be taught, but attitude cannot). Also, LOL is composed of mostly older and more mature players. Most of the members are college students or those who are already working. This probably explains why they are such a helpful guild (and also because they remember when they used to be ranked 10,000th in the lists and only worked their way up thanks to the advice and lessons from more experienced guilds).

It seems that Guild Wars can't help but give oodles of fun to its players. This weekend, the Double Factions event was launched, and in August, the much-awaited Guild Wars Factions Championship will be held at Leipzig, Germany. Now, gamers will be treated to a fun ladder reset event.

The tournament ladder will be reset at 08:00 GMT July 21 and the fun ladder event will run until 08:00 GMT August 21. As always, cool prizes await the winners. The guild who comes in first place will get a permanent gold trim emblazoned on their capes, plus eight signed copies of either Guild Wars Prophecies or Guild Wars Factions and eight complete sets of skill pins; all of which will be sent through mail to eight players hand-picked by their respective guilds. Guilds that rank in second to 16th place will receive silver trimming on their capes, which will last until the end of the next announced season. The second placer will also receive eight complete sets of skill pins via mail.

So, what are you waiting for? Brush up on your Assassin/Ranger skills and buy more nifty armor for your Necromancer/Ritualist. Go capture more skills for your Monk/Mesmer and get your guild together for some good old bonding time, Guild Wars-style. Who knows? Maybe you'll end up nailing that cool gold trimming on your cape.