A little birdie told us.

Actually, it was PS3 Fanboy, but working those guys into a golf pun proved to be more challenging and awkward than hitting a hole-in-one with a pool noodle. As the strikingly informative headline would suggest, the fifth main iteration of Sony's Hot Shots Golf is expected to cross the gulf between the US and Japan sometime in March 2008. The game was greeted with polite applause upon its initial release in July, prompting PlayStation 3 sales to double and avid clubbers to praise its sparkling graphics and adorably deformed characters.

Expect to hear an exact release date early next year. Until then, caddy on.

What is TNA? Trilateral Nuclear Abominations? Trigonometric Narcissists Association? Tits 'n' a ... ah, nevermind, it's Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. And that's just about the best explanation for the TNA Impact trailer, which debuted last night on Spike's VGAs.

We're told wrestling is a very manly sport; however, we don't remember seeing it in Maddox's The Alphabet of Manliness, which is our reference guide for such things. (It should be noted that female wrestling is listed under section 'F.') Video embedded after the break; if in the event there is not enough manliness in the TNA Impact trailer, we've also embedded a video dose of menergy as supplement.

So, how does Don King spend his time when he's not killing dudes, crafting boxing superstars or randomly appearing on the VGAs? Well, he's down in his basement crafting video games, of course! Next spring, the fruits of his labor, Don King Presents: Prizefighter will finally be loosed upon the world thanks to 2K Games. Helping Don out will be 2K developer Venom Games (the guys that did Rocky and Rocky Legends).

Though the game will include the boxing you'd expect, players will apparently also be challenged with "overcoming adversity and avoiding temptation." Though we're intrigued by the "real-life fight scenarios, story-driven gameplay and photo-realistic graphics" the press release promises, there's a bigger question on our minds: This thing's only coming to Xbox 360, Wii and DS. Why is the PS3 not getting any love?

Activision's biggest pre-merger franchises are all (GASP!) getting sequel treatment. In a fact sheet concerning the Activision Blizzard deal (PDF file), the publisher lists Guitar Hero 4, Call of Duty 5, a new Tony Hawk title (which would be its 11th iteration), a James Bond game and a racing title with the recently-acquired Bizarre Creations, as well as licensed titles with Dreamworks and Marvel.

None of these sequels come as a surprise, as they are all critical and commercial successes, but this is the first official confirmation of their existence. According to Activision Blizzard's earlier conference call, 50% of Activision's revenues are derived from franchises it owns outright, including Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. It should be noted that as well that all three franchises also have competition from rival Electronic Arts in the form of Rock Band, Medal of Honor and Skate. No word on project release dates for any of the sequels.

Read - Fact sheet [Warning: PDF file]

Hooray! Sensible World of Soccer is coming to Xbox Live next month and -- wait a second, is that what it really looks like? Yes, we're afraid. It is. Despite that, the game's cult following can look forward to playing the game in the very near future: Dec. 19, to be exact.

Speaking as Americans who barely even understand soccer, let alone a whole video game devoted to soccer, we can't really tell you why some people are so excited about the game, or why it's one of the most important of all time, according to Chris Grant and his band of old guys. We'll leave that job to the onslaught of European commenters we assume have already started drafting their exceptionally terse response.

Despite expectations to the contrary, the original NBA Ballers was actually a fairly decent arcade-style basketball game, provided you could get beyond all the ridiculous 'bling' and 'street cred' nonsense and just play ball. The sequel, on the other hand, plastered on an extra layer of stupid with a paper-thin story mode and more attitude than gameplay. So when Midway announced this morning plans to bring the series to the Xbox 360 and PS3 with NBA Ballers: Chosen One, we were understandably conflicted. However, the company's promise of a return to the series' one-on-one and two-on-two roots with no mention of story or street cred gives us reason enough to be less apathetic than we might be otherwise.

According to the publisher, nestled among the game's new shinier graphics, which Midway boasts as offering "the most true-to-life athlete likenesses seen in a sports video game," will also be new competitive combo and super-move systems that we expect to check realism at the door. In addition, this third game in the series will also include more than 65 selectable NBA players, as they compete to become "The Chosen One," which we're pretty certain is street lingo for some kind of religious awakening. NBA Ballers: Chosen One is expected to shoot for the net from mid-court next spring.

We were wondering if Wii Fit's Balance Board peripheral would be good for anything other than yoga, and it looks like we have our answer. Famitsu reveals that Namco Bandai's Family Ski -- which originally utilized only the Wii remote and nunchuk combo for its downhill action -- will now be compatible with the Wii Balance Board, adding an extra level of realism to the adorable, super-deformed family-friendly skiing title. Obviously, the game will still be 100% playable without the peripheral.

We haven't reported much of anything on Family Ski, instead letting our buddies over at Wii Fanboy do all the legwork. Still, the game is definitely on our radars now. Family Ski is due for a Winter 2007/2008 release in Japan. Here's hoping localization is a breeze; it would be a tad odd to rock the slopes in the summertime, no?

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

If you intentionally ignored overlooked last week's Wii release of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Sega hopes to entice you with the DS version instead. The handheld mascot showdown has been assigned a release date of January 22nd, placing it in the sea of calm following this holiday's storm of intergalactic mega-epics. By next year, you might actually care whether or not a portly plumber can best a hedgehog in a test of physical endurance.

The press release notes that the DS version of Mario & Sonic boasts single- and multi-card multiplayer, as well as exclusive Olympic events not seen in the console variant. These include platform diving, cycling and "Dream Shooting (Skeet)," no doubt an event tasking players with murdering the star of TV's "Jericho" before time runs out.

[Image: Fanboys Online]

Having opened a new studio in Montreal earlier this year and released the Diablo-clone Loki, French developer Cyanide has what we call 'a lot of irons in the fire.' The studio also announced today that it has waded waist-deep into the murky waters of middleware development, creating its own "dynamic 3D animation engine," which Cyanide interestingly describes as a tool that "integrates physical and biomechanical laws under the control of a powerful artificial intelligence system." Skynet, can you hear us?

While the company hopes to license the engine to other "small and medium sized" game developers, Cyanide is not above eating its own dog food, and will utilize the technology in its own projects, the first of which will be a title based on Games Workshop's fantasy tabletop game Blood Bowl. First announced briefly last year, the real news here is that the game, which is an unofficial follow up to the unlicensed PC title Chaos League, has been confirmed as in development for the Xbox 360, PSP, and Nintendo DS, as well as the PC. Few details are known at present beyond that the studio calls the project a "faithful representation" of the tabletop game, and adds that Blood Bowl should be released sometime in late 2008. In the absence of a new Mutant League Football, we will take what we can get.

Unlike in previous years, Madden is not nominated for "Game of the Year," so already you know it's more credible. BioShock, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, and Halo 3 appear on the list, making up the usual suspects that'll be appearing on many an outlet's GOTY ballots, but some more unexpected titles might be crashing the party -- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, Puzzle Quest: Challenge the Warlords, and Portal. One question though: why remove the Best Song category the one year there's a video game song worth celebrating?

For a full list of the nominees, would you kindly peer past the break?

MTV's Stephen Totilo "somehow wound up with an exclusive" about new casual games based on The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy. While most of us are scratching our heads about the properties, maybe this signals a new trend for old IP; there's that Dirty Dancing game after all. Clearly, these titles aren't for us. (And by "us," we mean people who get jokes about the potential for cake and also think that those jokes are played out.)

Beanbag Studios anticipates launching at least one Lucy trivia game and one Honeymooners bowling game this year. Yes, these PC and cell phone games are being built into long-term franchises. Witness videos of each game after the break.

2K Sports has revealed that the forthcoming College Hoops 2K8, shipping later this month for both the Xbox 360 and PS3, will include 90 "classic" teams from college basketball history just waiting for another shot at roundball glory, albeit virtually.

Of these squads, 69 are described as "historically famed college teams," such as the 1982 North Carolina Tarheels and the 1990 Loyola Marymount Lions. In addition, players will also be able to lace up as one of six included all-time conference teams or 15 all-time school teams such as All-Time Duke and All-Time Michigan State. Comprehensive? Sure sounds like it, though now we wait for EA to fire the next PR volley with March Madness 08, coming in early December.

Tired of getting college football and basketball games live, as they happen, for free as part of your cable package? Well, now you can pay extra for days-old copies of those games thanks to ESPN and the Xbox Live Marketplace.

We know, some people don't have cable or a VCR or access to a sports bar or anything better to do with $3 (for standard definition) or $4.50 (for high definition), but really, unless a game is a true instant classic, we can't see paying to download a copy of a game two days after it happened. Original programs like The Contender and Madden Nation might get our $2, but if we want to see the World Series of Poker we'll just tune in to ESPN and hope that they're showing one of their ten daily reruns of the tournaments.

Fans of, well, Soccer, will be pleased as punch to learn that the remake of 1994's Sensible World of Soccer will finally be making its way to Xbox Live Arcade sometime this month. At least, it will if everything goes well, according to developer Codemasters.

Codemasters producer Jim Brown tells Eurogamer that the classic Soccer/Football title still has another round of submissions internally, as well as Microsoft's own certification process, but that the team anticipates the game's availability on XBLA within the month. According to Brown, delays on the game's release have been due to the multiplayer network code, which has been reworked significantly for stability. Sensible World of Soccer was deemed one of the ten most important games of all time back in March, by a panel including our very own Chris Grant.

One of the major trends of this console generation is the prominence of downloadable content, released sometimes simultaneously with the title itself. That's why it's so surprising to us that Electronic Arts, one of the pureyors of the DLC for consoles, will not be offering any downloadable content for SKATE.

In an interview with EGM, executive producer Scott Blackwood said that they are "not planning any new content for Skate 1 ... We didn't want to go back and ask [people] for more money to get more shoes and shirts." Blackwood added,"that's not how we wanted to enter this market."

Blackwood also lamented on the dearth of female characters in the game, noting that "we are going to make it up to [the players]. When we do it -- and we will -- it's going to be done very well." Given that DLC is reportedly not an option for the first title, look for female skaters -- and the possibility of paying a premium for more in-game shoes and shirts -- in the inevitable sequel, SKATE 2.