If a rumor stemming from an Australian Gamer piece is to be believed, Pandemic’s Batman game movie tie-in with The Dark Knight has been given the proverbial axe. Apparently, development on the title was lagging behind schedule, leaving “higher-ups” at the studio’s Australia-based Brisbane location no choice but to can it in fear of losses.

If true, this wouldn’t exactly be a surprise. Previous reports, one citing an anonymous EA manager, speculated that the quality of the project was not up to snuff and deadlines were being missed.

Why so serious Pandemic? [Australian Gamer

According to the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu, an enhanced port of Q Entertainment’s Nintendo DS fast-paced block-busting puzzle title Meteos is scheduled to hit the Xbox Live Arcade service in Japan this October. The XBLA edition will of course include achievements, along with one-on-one multiplayer battles over Live.

No word on a release date for territories other than Japan — yet. Considering the majority of Live Arcade titles are released on a worldwide basis, it would be realistic to expect Meteos Wars to hit North America in October as well.

This week Famitsu-Dengeki combo news (all in 1 edition) [NeoGAF]

French-based publisher Ubisoft today sent word that that a pre-launch VIP demo for the Xbox 360 version of Tom Clancy’s EndWar will begin in October, a month before the game’s scheduled mid-November release.

“We believe EndWar will revolutionize the strategy genre on consoles and are thrilled gamers will be able to get a little taste of why we are so excited about EndWar’s release this holiday season,” said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Ubisoft. “With its innovative voice command and intuitive game design, fans will be able to learn first hand how a console game was able to win the judges over and win Best Strategy Game of E3 for the first time in a category previously dominated by PC titles.”

Access into the pre-launch VIP demo will be limited, with Xbox Live tokens being given out to pre-orderers of the game on a first-come first-served basis at various participating retailers, such as GameStop.

The demo itself will give players a taste of EndWar’s multiplayer aspect, serving as a final stress test for the game’s online servers.

Electronic Arts let its buyout offer valued at $2 billion for Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two expire earlier this month, but that doesn’t mean the two companies have stopped conferring behind closed doors.

According to an SEC filing dated August 25, Take-Two has entered into a confidentiality agreement with EA, prohibiting the parties from “publicly disclosing the status or terms of any discussions or negotiations.” The filing further states that until a definitive transaction has been made, or discussions between both EA and Take-Two have been terminated, an announcement regarding the status of any discussions or negotiations will not be made.

In other words, the EA and Take-Two saga is far from over. more »

Update: Seems Newell made an incorrect slip of the tongue. Valve marketing vice president Doug Lombardi has since clarified to ShackNews that Left 4 Dead will arrive on North America shores November 18, with a European release following on the 21st. Lombardi cited “fine tuning” as the reason for the delay.

Speaking in an interview with German site GameKings, Valve president Gabe Newell revealed that the company’s highly-anticipated cooperative shooter Left 4 Dead will hit Steam and retail channels on November 20.

Previously scheduled for a November 4 release, the revised date will coincide with the tenth anniversary of Valve’s first game, the original award-winning Half Life. No reasoning behind the abrupt delay was given, though it was likely nothing more than a calculated marketing decision, given that Epic’s Gears of War 2 is slated to arrive on November 7.

Gabe Newell speelt Left 4 Dead [GameKings]

We knew it was coming, but Microsoft made things a bit more official today, formally announcing that this week’s Xbox Live Arcade offering is Behemoth’s Castle Crashers.

A unique hack n’ slash adventure sporting cartoon style visuals, the game boasts four player co-op support, coupled with more than 20 unlockable characters and 40 customizable weapons. Pricing is set at 1200 Microsoft Points.

Infinite Undiscovery doesn’t hit North American store shelves until August 29 of next week, but publisher Square Enix has already released the first batch of downloadable content in an attempt to promote tri-Ace’s Xbox 360 exclusive action-RPG.

Available on the Live Marketplace now is a dashboard theme featuring illustrations of the game’s three main characters - Capell, Aya and Sigmund. The second piece of content is an icon pack that includes facial portraits of six major characters from the game. Both offerings will set you back 150 and 100 Microsoft Points, respectively.

Square Enix plans to release additional DLC over the coming weeks.

Speaking to Kotaku at this year’s Leipzig Games Convention, Valve marketing head Doug Lombardi revealed that the company is prepping a sizable content update pack for the Xbox 360 edition of Team Fortress 2. Included in the downloadable update will be all of the goodies PC owners of the game have been enjoying, such as new gameplay modes, maps, as well as new unlockable weapons and abilities for the Pyro, Medic and Heavy set of character classes.

The only caveat? Unlike on the PC, it won’t be free, due to Microsoft’s mandatory policy of requiring to charge for additional DLC. Good thing is, Valve wants to keep the price as low as possible, somewhere in the range of $10 dollars.

Valve has no plans at this time to release the same update for PlayStation 3 owners. That ball is likely in EA’s court, as they handled development duties on the PS3 version.

Team Fortress 2 Updates Coming To Xbox 360 Later This Year [Kotaku]

We knew it was coming soon, but this soon? Never would have guessed. Xbox PR spokesperson Jason Ing dropped word in a recent interview that the Live Arcade revival of 3DRealms’ 1996 first-person shooter classic Duke Nukem 3D will arrive next month in September, following confirmation earlier this week that the title had passed Microsoft’s certification process.

Duke Nukem 3D XBLA will feature slightly beefed up visuals, similar to that of the Doom port on the service. Co-op multiplayer over Live has also been strongly hinted at, but has yet to be officially acknowledged by 3DRealms themselves.

X08: Duke Nukem 3D coming to XBLA ’sometime in September’ [Joystiq]

Looks like the rumors regarding an Xbox 360 price cut were spot on. A Radio Shack ad circular for the week of September 7 lists the Xbox 360 Elite for $399 and 360 Arcade model for just $199. While the price of the standard 60GB Pro model went unmentioned, expect it to cost $299, considering that the rest of the rumor panned out.

It sure will be interesting to see how the sales of the 360 are affected by this price cut. Might put pressure on Sony at the very least. Nintendo on the other hand, well, unless North American Wii sales drop under 500K for a month, it would be hard to see them budging.

Radio Shack Ad Shows Xbox 360 Consoles Price Drop [CAG]