We hope you can smell what's cooking, Mama. 'Cause it ain't the sizzlin' aroma of seasoned ground beef. Nasdaq today gave notice to Majesco Entertainment, warning the publisher that its single share value had dipped below the minimum required for continued inclusion on the market. In other words, you're better off carrying a pocketfull of a hundred pennies than owning a share of Majesco stock.

The company is being given 180 days to gets its recipe in order or else kithcen's closed.

Let this be a good reminder to always err on the side of caution when giving out your Xbox Live information ... that is, don't do it. MTV Multiplayer found out that Halo 3 multiplayer producer Joe Tung can list himself among the gamers who have had their XBL accounts compromised. "Representatives from Microsoft aided Joe in swiftly resolving the issue," said Luke Smith, who didn't provide other details.

One rather sneaky method of account stealing has been "social engineering," whereby the hacker in question calls up Microsoft service support and pretend to be the owner of the account and gain the sympathy of the customer service rep. Of course, the biggest tactic so far has involved promising one billion MS points with a simple click of the mouse. Protip: Don't give out your password, no matter how enticing.

It's time for yet another X3F Week in Review, girls and boys. It's been a Silicon Knights week here at X3F, with our own Xav de Matos spending some quality time at the company's headquarters in Ontario. We've got tons of coverage from a Silicon Knights studio tour to an interview discussing the fate of Eternal Darkness. These have been floating around Joystiq for a few days, but if you haven't already, you should definitely check them out.

Finally, there's still a chance to win Castle Crashers if you hurry!

Community

• Xbox 360 Fancast 081 -- Pacifism is a Strange Word
  Interview with Matthew McCarthy, writer of the Geometry Wars song
• X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Castle Crashers
  The beat 'em up lives again
• Ask X3F: That Virtua Feeling edition
  Soul Calibur or Virtua Fighter?
• X3F Presents: Silicon Knights studio tour
  No one ever knights us
• X3F TV: Denis Dyack, "Origin of the Knights" interview
  Remember Legacy of Kain?
• X3F TV: Denis Dyack, "Too Human" interview
  Denis discusses Too Human's reception
• Denis Dyack, "Future Knights" Interview
  On the future of Silicon Knights
• Fanswag: Win a copy of Castle Crashers
  You will probably win, I bet.

Oh, how you yearned for their unrestrained chuckles -- their sparkling smiles -- to be transformed into naught but a cacophony of wailing and ceaseless misery. What gave them the right? Was it their fancy PCs, Macs and Xbox 360s? Did they so enjoy coasting down The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness on their technological toboggans that they couldn't even cast a single glance towards you, sitting atop a lonely and immobile PlayStation 3? Well, when the snow falls again this Winter, revenge will be yours.

Also, Trophies! Posting on the official PlayStation Blog (they let anybody on there these days), Hothead producer Joel DeYoung confirmed that the first episode of Penny Arcade Adventures would arrive on PSN before the end of the year, complete with Trophy support and 1080p resolution. "Looking back, I think it's a shame that we weren't able to release the PS3 version closer to the initial launch of the game," he said.

With the game's engine now up and running on the hardware, DeYoung expects that future episodes will arrive on Sony's platform in a more timely fashion. No more being left out in the cold, our monolithic friend.

What's more upsetting: that rumored God of War director Brett Ratner thinks the Guitar Hero brand is good movie material or that someone actually pays this guy to consult on their brands? In an interview with the movie mangler, MTV managed to get Ratner to say (ostensibly with a straight face), "I would love to do a Guitar Hero movie, if Activision would ever let me. I'm trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie." Oh no, what could be bad about a movie based on a video game that tasks players with hitting colored dots in time with rock music? Wait, don't answer that. Joystiq spies report that Ratner is also considering adaptations of video game classics Pong and Tetris.

So there's that. Then there's this: Brett Ratner was paid real money to "come up with a name" for the latest Guitar Hero. Ratner says, "I did, and it became Guitar Hero: World Tour." In other words, the geniuses at Activision couldn't figure out a name on their own, so who better than the guy who directed Rush Hour? In other news, we're apparently in the wrong line of work.

Our plane has just landed in sunny beautiful Seattle and we are now sitting on the floor of the lovely Seattle-Tacoma airport (note: compared to other airport floors, it's not exactly the bee's knees). We're getting ourselves in gear for tomorrow's grand opening of the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo, so stay tuned for all of our coverage over the weekend!

This week's PSN update continues the trend of quality downloadable content going with the addition of The Last Guy and Warhawk's Fallen Star expansion. The Last Guy mashes up the eventual Zombie Apocalypse (it's coming) and Snake into a hectic old-school arcade-style action game. The other big piece of content this week is the latest expansion for online fragfest Warhawk at $8. All three Warhawk expansion packs are also available for $16.

PS3 Fanboy has the European PSN update over on their site. The list of the full North American update can be found after the break.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer has rightfully conceded that Nintendo has executed a winning business plan. "Nintendo makes money with the hardware alone," Stringer observed in a recent interview with WELT Online, adding that the competitor's strategy "may be a superior business model, but the Wii is not succeeding at our expense -- it is not hurting [PlayStation 3]." No, PlayStation 3 is hurting PlayStation 3. When questioned about the possibility of recouping the $3.32 billion loss attributed to the console's launch, Stringer joked, "Not for as long as I live." Wait a sec, was that a joke?

[Via Edge Online]

Those looking to help iron out the kinks in Sony's silicon-powered social gathering space, PlayStation Home, can now add Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan as valid entry locations for the program's closed beta. Sony's Hong Kong site (via Edge) is already asking readers to check back on August 29th for information on the test, which is expected to begin in mid-September.

Edge also notes that an open beta will commence this Fall, coinciding with similar events in Europe and the US. The more the merrier we say ... even if everybody in the virtual room is just whining about how a plain ol' menu would suffice.

Taking the stage and stepping in this week for the delayed Rush album, Moving Pictures, is American rock 'n' roll band, Locksley. They're certainly not as well known (at the moment) as Rush, but check out the videos after the break before automatically passing judgment on the DLC replacement band.

Locksley Pack 1 (240 / $3)

• "She Does" - Locksley (80 / $1)
• "Dont Make Me Wait" - Locksley (80 / $1)
• "All Over Again" - Locksley (80 / $1)

The songs should be available soon for download on Xbox 360 and PS3.

[Thanks to those who sent this in.]

Although Microsoft has hinted at an autumn arrival for the 360's long-awaited, exclusive GTA IV downloadable content, a "source close to Rockstar" has told VG247 "nuh-uh." The quote the site actually got was, "It'll be in January or February."

For those keeping record, the GTA DLC was originally supposed to hit in Q4 2008 (so, before this November), but was delayed due to some corporate numbers mumbo jumbo that we couldn't care less about ... except that it resulted in having to wait longer for more frolicking fun in Liberty City.

It's harder to single out Nintendo for overlooking its "core audience" when you find out things like this. Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Shuhei Yoshida, Sony's head of worldwide studios, revealed that the company chose to fund development of a desktop toy virtual pet – EyePet – over a promising core audience action title, Eight Days.

When asked about the effect that canceling London Studio projects The Getaway 3 and Eight Days had on other titles, Yoshida responded, "There are so many things that we want to do, more than we can do with the resources. So when London Studio was looking at the early work on EyePet and the prototype of Eight Days, they knew they couldn't do all of them." So ... EyePet it was.

Granted, we don't know with any certainty that Eight Days was going to be any good, but an original action IP on a still very core audience console would seem like something worth investing more time in over a ... virtual pet.

Yohshida also said regarding the London Studio, "There are even more things they're working on at early concept stage." Tip for the staff there: If you don't want your big games canned, don't mention your "pet" projects to Shuhei the next time he pops in for a visit.

It's so easy to assume that Quantum of Solace is going to be just another rushed license game (even Daniel Craig did!). But after having sat down with a couple of the game's levels (full hands-on coming later), it's easy to see that this is one of Activision's strongest games of the 2008 lineup. We had a chat with the co-design director, Adam Gascoine, about the game and its development.

Quantum of Solace is the first Bond game to be released alongside its movie counterpart. Has this impacted development? Were you rushed?

We were worried about being rushed when we started the project, but thankfully we have a very solid relationship with the movie team. We were one of the first to see the script for the movie, plus we've been able to visit the sets and watch some filming several times now. All this made it a lot easier. We've been developing really since Casino Royale, about two and a half years in total, so we've had plenty of time to develop the game.

Parts of the game are reminiscent of Uncharted. Was this a particular inspiration during the development of Quantum of Solace?

Any good game is definitely an inspiration. I loved Uncharted. I played it twice. Parts of that game may well have influenced design decisions we made during development, just like any of the great 2007 titles. In particular, though, the quality of animation in Uncharted was definitely an inspiration.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the industry's lobbying group, sent out a press release a little while ago applauding the prison sentences given to two convicted game pirates. Kevin Fuchs of New York and Kifah Maswadi of Florida were sentenced to eight months and fifteen months in prison, respectively. The men also face multiple years of supervised release after that, with Maswadi having been ordered to pay $415,900.

Before freaking out and thinking the FBI and Justice Department are "in your internetz, ready to send you to prisons," it's worth noting the two men sentenced were pretty hardcore software pirates. Maswadi sold consoles with illegal copies of titles on the internet and made $390,000 on his business. So, if you made hundreds of thousands of dollars last year off illegal game sales ... might we suggest a new vocation?

It's been a long time coming, but VG247 quotes Sony Worldwide Studio head Shuhei Yoshida as saying Team ICO's next project may be revealed "soon." The anticipated next project by the team behind Shadow of the Colossus and Ico has merely been teased with some nondescript screenshots.

Yoshida tells the site that plans for the Tokyo Game Show have not been finalized -- presumably, the show would be the last major opportunity this year to reveal the project. It's about time this game made its public appearance, don't you think?