We were so angry with the Writer's Guild of America strike back when it was messing up Lost, 24 and Ugly Betty ... The Daily Show. Now though, we in the video game industry (and appreciators of it) are reaping the rewards with a lot of upcoming games' scripts having come from the pens of some very talented folk. The latest example is Aliens: Colonial Marines, which Gearbox's Randy Pitchford recently told ShackNews was being written by Battlestar Galactica's Bradley Thompson and David Weddle.

Does that mean we can expect the aliens to [insert BSG fan service gag here] or a head marine voiced by [some BSG actor guy goes here]? Also, does it mean that Justin should watch Battlestar if he's going to be posting about it? Yes. Yes it does.

It occurred to us that despite all our passion for first-person parkour-inspired game Mirror's Edge, you probably still don't get the appeal unless you've seen it in action. "A girl running around on rooftops fighting crime?" you ask with a sneer. "I liked it better the first time, when it was a guy, and it was called Batman."

We understand distrust of the unknown (it's the reason we're still alive) so we'd like to present, for your edification, the Mirror's Edge demo. Now, if you can watch this and still not get excited we really have nothing more to talk about.

Adding to the news from last week that BioShock on PS3 will be getting "exclusive" content, the PlayStation Blog reveals that the game will also receive Trophies. Alyssa Finley, executive producer at 2K Marin, explains how the Trophies are being designed and reveals a few of them in the process.

• Bronze: These trophies will be handed out for exploring the general facets of the game, like "researching, modifying weapons, hacking, and crafting."
• Silver: These trophies will require more thorough exploration of Rapture. The "Historian" Trophy will require finding every audio diary in the game. Finley says the other trophies are going to be kept secret, but we're guessing if you look at the Xbox achievements, the tougher exploration ones should be found here.
• Gold: The Trophy "Brass Balls" can be found here, requiring a player make it through the game on hard with the Vita-Chambers turned off.
• Platinum: ???

BioShock should be available to those who forsake all but the PS3 later this year. We might just have to take a return trip to Rapture for the Trophies alone.

First it was Quake Zero, then it became Quake Live, and now we have a fresh new look at Quake Arena, id's free-to-play, browser-based iteration of Quake III Arena. As you'd expect, the visuals are decidedly simple, but still stylish nonetheless. We noticed a few instances of gameshow-like billboards peppered throughout levels; while they simply read "Quake Live" in the video, it's likely these are placeholders for in-game advertising.

The trailer beckons viewers to QuakeLive.com for more info, but the site is still serving the sole purpose of a gateway for beta signups. From what's shown in the footage, it will eventually become a very robust matching and ranking component of the game. With QuakeCon kicking off in just a couple of weeks we expect to find out more details soon.

You can't envy companies releasing a first-person shooter these days. We've have a glut of quality in that department recently, with several-months-old FPSs still clogging the top slots of Xbox Live activity.

So we were curious to see if Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway could cut through the clutter and prove itself worthy of a spot among the powerhouses. The answer? A resounding "I don't know."

Hopefully we're not in danger of providing Fallout 3 overload, and if you haven't gotten the idea yet, we're really looking forward to this game. It's literally a cool science fiction series skin slapped on top of Oblivion, but we're not complaining about that. Blowing away mutants in the wasteland? Yes, please.

Here's the meat and bones from our time with Bethesda's Todd Howard, and you can listen to the full audio interview below. After the break, find out some tidbits like the size of the world, how many radio stations are in the game, and why you won't be dual-wielding or buying horse armor. Oh, and be sure to pay attention to the exploding pants achievement.

Adding on to our hands-on with Far Cry 2 a couple months ago, our most recent experience at E3 gave us the same feeling that we'd only begun to scratch the surface of this title. For a general overview of what to expect in Far Cry 2, check out our previous hands-on with the game. Here we're going to get into a little bit more detail about our experience within the game.

For starters, the African Serengeti, the open-world venue for the game looks the same on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. The location has some great level design put into it with our 20-minute experience presenting us with several locales. After a battle in one particular village, we got on a boat and drove through a well-detailed ravine; while in another instance we drove to a location in a car along dirt roads. The driving in the game is surprisingly good, making sense depending on what terrain is being driven over, and we didn't find ourselves unnecessarily fighting with the controls at all. Now, let's discuss the surprising AI in the game.

There's been an understandable amount of excitement regarding the pseudo-sequel to 2007's "Game of the Year", Portal, following the E3 '08 unveiling of Portal: Still Alive. However, little was announced about the title by its digital anti-heroine at the Microsoft Press Conference -- luckily, Valve's Doug Lombardi spilled the beans about the game's new features, and its relationship to the first groundbreaking title, in a few interviews during last week's shenanigans.

In one such interview with GameSetWatch, Lombardi explained that Still Alive is a standalone version of the original Portal. The additional maps and challenges that were revealed on Gamerscore Blog will be pulled from the Portal: The Flash Game map pack, a 3D rendition of the award-winning web game based on the original pastry-rich puzzler. This map pack, lovingly crafted by We Create Stuff (the minds behind the Flash game), is available (and free) to download for PC portal-hoppers now.

Unfortunately, neither GlaDOS, nor any other "story elements", will be included in the extra content. As excited as we are for this expansion, the prospect of zipping around an abandoned research facility without the accompaniment of an unsettling, sing-song voice just doesn't seem right.

Let's face it -- most of the gamers who read this (or any) gaming blog aren't the audience Nintendo was targeting during their E3 2008 press conference. Many long-time members of the Wii camp felt betrayed by Ninty's "major" announcements -- that's why we thought we'd try to buck-up your spirits with a GameTrailers developer interview for a title that's been gathering quite a bit of attention from fans of the pint-sized home console: High Voltage Games' The Conduit.

Voltage's Chief Creative Officer, Eric Nofsinger, doesn't exactly dish any new dirt about the title in the above video, though the gameplay shown looks solid, and fairly attractive by the standards of its designated console. Whether or not it's worthy of the hype surrounding it, we'll have to wait until the first quarter of next year to find out. In the mean time, you'll just have to feign excitement over the Wii's thoroughly unexciting Noise Creation Engine.

Pete Hines from Bethesda shattered our crystalline dreams yesterday when he told us that the Vault-Tec 800 number for Fallout 3 means... absolutely nothing. He and Todd Howard had argued about it, and Pete wanted it to actually have something hidden inside for fans, but he got vetoed.

Although Bethesda would love for rabid Fallout fans to kick down the door of a 68 year old woman's house in Texas in search of hidden editions of the game, it just ain't happenin'. Listen to the actual audio dialogue below which busted up our hopes for a Rain Man level math secret hidden in the phone message.

Writing about video games can often expose you to those heartbreaking stories of things in development that almost made it, but never appeared. Things like the Phantom game console, Shenmue Online, and the years-in-the-making Duke Nukem Forever.

We spent time with Bethesda's Todd Howard beyond locked doors and found out about some of the dark secrets behind Fallout 3, including the massive real-life Pip-boy that would have had a screen built into it to allow you to interact with the game. Or possibly hold your PSP on your wrist to become a PiPSP-boy. Find out more after the breakage.

Hot on the (wolf?) tail of the ever-so-brief debut trailer for the game, Activision has unleashed a pack of first-ever Wolfenstein screens. Well, technically, they're of the new Wolfenstein ... not the original, although they share the same title (minus a "3D"). But we figured you'd guessed that after taking a gander at it above.

Oh, and to clear up any confusion, Activision has confirmed that the game will hit PCs as well as PS3 and Xbox 360. The only thing we need now is a date. (Our eagerness to crack some nazi skulls remains more than sufficient, thankyouverymuch.)

The zombie apocalypse is not funny. Modern civilization crumbles, your friends are eaten alive and those with a pulse are forced to adopt a rather rigorous and unrelenting exercise program, one largely motivated by the desire to stay alive. Shakily counting out your precious remaining bullets and praying that the snarling, undead legion won't find you huddling beneath a desk is hardly a situation worthy of a chuckle. It certainly isn't the basis for a fun party game.

"It is a fun party game, in a way," remarks Valve's Chet Faliszek. The fun party game in question, of course, is Left 4 Dead, a team-based shooter that actually makes Armageddon amusing. Don't get us wrong -- horrible, horrible things are happening to you and three friends. You're all fighting for your lives, living from room-to-room as you aggressively expend ammo, rummage for medical supplies and desperately try not to shoot each other in the back. Good times!