According to TMZ:

Chicago cops have arrested William Balfour for the murders of Jennifer Hudson’s mom, brother, and nephew.

Balfour was transferred to CPD custody today after they served an arrest warrant. Charges from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office are pending.

Story developing …
www.thisis50.com

By Kris Erickson
Posted on Dec 1, 2008

Rockstar Games announced this week that the episodic content for Grand Theft Auto IV will cost $20. It will also be available in shops, as a special token that players can buy to later download the game via Xbox Live. The company has set an ambitious price for their downloadable content, asking a higher price than many other companies dare for additional gameplay. For example, Lionhead has recently announced an upcoming add-on pack for Fable 2 that will retail for around $10 (800 Microsoft points). Like Lost and Damned, the Fable 2 DLC adds new weapons, characters, and story details to the core adventure. So, is the Lost and Damned DLC worth $20? The short answer is, it depends.

It depends of course, on whether Rockstar can really deliver the goods with this heavily hyped downloadable content. At $20 per episode, Rockstar is essentially asking fans to plunk down the entire retail cost of the game one more time, in order to enjoy some zany new adventures in what amounts to the same game world. Here is what would make Lost and Damned worth $20 of our hard earned GameFlavor bucks:

# If Rockstar includes some new map areas to explore, with new things to do in those areas, this would be a step in the right direction. ($6)

# If Lost and Damned has an entertaining plot and cast of characters that carry the story for at least 6 hours, we would be even happier. ($6)

# Each episode of DLC should come with new challenges to complete that make creative use of the environment of Liberty City. ($4)

# Finally, we want a whole bunch of interesting little extras like weapons, outfits, vehicles and music to round out the experience. ($4)

If Rockstar can pull off all of these things with the first episode of downloadable content, then we will be happy customers. There will also be a much higher chance that we will be excited to do it all again when the second episode finally arrives. The Lost and Damned is expected to go on sale this February 17.

Capcom Japan’s online store has put up a pre-sale page for the limited edition of Biohazard 5, a.k.a. Resident Evil 5 to us gaijin. It’s a handsome LE treatment for the game, and is interesting in that PS3 and 360 will each receive their own variation with unique bonuses.

Set to go on sale March 3, 2009 at ¥12,800 ($137), both LE sets include a 2GB Tricell USB drive, 32-page art book, and BSAA “Waist Pocket” like the characters in the game wear. On the PS3 side, the game’s Blu-ray Disc will include a making-of documentary; the 360 edition will actually come in two flavors: a Deluxe Edition, which includes a Biohazard 5 Selection Track soundtrack CD, and the Limited Edition which … doesn’t. The 360 “DE” will apparently be even more limited than the LE.

Capcom hasn’t revealed plans for a US limited edition for either version of RE5, but, given the increase in volume of premium bundles in the last two years alone, we’d be surprised if its marketing folk don’t come up with something special for Western gamers.

I wasn’t expecting to write anything today, but I guess i will drop a quick note. The firmware 2.53 for PlayStation 3 is now online and ready to be downloaded. I am downloading it right now and this update will grant fellow PS3′ers the following abilities to the web browser:

1. Full-screen mode playability
2. Live movie (using RTMP format) playability

Videos

Wii Music Tips 2: The Overdubbing Concept
Wii Music Tips 3: The Overdubbing and Be-Bops
Animal Crossing: Moving from DS to Wii
Lisa Kudrow cooks Kung Pao Chicken
Personal Trainer: Cooking – Girls cook Crab Cakes
Personal Trainer: Cooking – Demo is Available NOW
Call of Duty: World at War Wii Gameplay
Castlevania Judgment Info Video
Boingz Info Video
Sudoku Challenge! Info Video
Digest Video

Demos (Expire 11/30)

Personal Trainer: Cooking Mac & Cheese Demo
Soul Bubbles Demo
Walt Disney Pictures Bolt Demo
Prince of Persia: The Fallen King Demo

In a profile on 60 Minutes of Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps last night, it was revealed that a Michael Phelps video game is in the works. No other details about the game were revealed.

Phelps, who’s eight gold medals at the Beijing games are more than than any athlete has ever won at the games, is no stranger to video games.

In August he received a promotional copy of Call of Duty: World at War on The Early Show and more recently, he appeared in a commercial for Guitar Hero: World Tour. Video of both appearances can be found at the bottom of the article.

Call of Duty: World at War and Guitar Hero: World Tour are both published by Activision, so it might not be a stretch to deduce that Activision is hard at work on a Michael Phelps game.

Gaming Target is on the case and we’ll have more soon.

From N-Europe.com: “Fan project The Legend of Zelda: The Hero of Time, a movie based on Nintendo masterpiece Ocarina of Time, has been in production for a few years now, but things have been a bit quiet recently given that the last trailer was released to the public in 2006.

The good news is, Nintendo’s fearsome army of lawyers haven’t shut down the project (although “The Legend of Zelda” has now been dropped from the title) and a new trailer has popped up.”