From October 26th to November 1st, the news week wasn’t quite as big or fascinating as it could have been, when it came to gaming. But it doesn’t mean there wasn’t enough news in the industry to give gamers something to talk about. I mean, Barack Obama and Sarah Palin making debuts in video games (almost officially) is pretty big news, as well as MTV getting in good on the music-game genre. Keep reading to find out what the other highlights of the week's news headlines were.

Sunday
Rich Knight kicked things off with a review of Guitar Hero: World Tour. This game has been in the news almost as much as Paris Hilton...except without the sex scandals, “oops” moments, or jail time. Check out what got this game a five-star rating, and why Rich thinks this game is better than Rock Band 2.

Blend Games’ Editor, Pete Haas, takes a crack at Far Cry 2. His review is fair, yet stern. Find out why this game-that-could-have-been doesn’t quite add up to being as big as some hardcore gamers may have thought. But all isn’t lost in the camp of Ubisoft, Pete Haas gives some high-praise for some of the game’s innovative features.

Monday
Rating theft alert! Fatality changed for the sake of ESRB? Who would have thunk it? Well, everyone. The Midway team announced early on that Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was going for a teen rating. So guess who’s finisher had to get axed to compensate for the kiddie-boppers? Click the link to find out.

LittleBigPlanet is getting a LittleBigSequel. Seriously, the name needs to stay just like that: LittleBigSequel. I don’t even have to say how big, and how cool the sequel will be. Maybe...maybe it will actually be in a 3D environment?! Oh, a gamer can wish...a gamer can wish.

More sequel news on the way, this time it’s Saints Row 3 that gets the spotlight. I told you we didn’t have a whole lot of news happening throughout the week, but what news we had was good news. And Saints Row 3 is definitely good news. The game is apparently going in a new direction, one that is so top secret, so mind-boggling, so capricious, that the developers just couldn’t say a word about it. Or did they? Click the link to find out more.

Tuesday
Jimi Hendrix and The Raconteurs are joining Guitar Hero: World Tour. The two superstar rockers will have tracks available via DLC. The point prices vary for the consoles, but all in all you’re getting some good stuff. Check out the link to get the full low-down on the content details.

USA Today (of all places) has beta keys for Resistance 2. The new and media publication already offered up the last of their LBP beta keys, and being that they must be in need of gamer recognition, they are offering up some Resistance 2 beta keys. Hmph, and they accuse Blend Games of being hard-up for hits. Yeah right.

LionHead announcement for a new project in 2009. This ought to be very, very, very interesting. That’s all I’m going to say. Really. Click the link to find out why.

Wednesday
New Elder Scrolls game is due out in 2010. I’m definitely not complaining, considering that the team is coming off of the destined success of Fallout 3. It should be a fascinating turn of events to see how this Elder Scrolls game comes out. I just keep thinking about miles, and miles, and miles of 3D terrain that gamers will have to traverse. Alternatively, there’s always the comfort of teleportation.

Thursday
Brutal Legend, the game inspired by rockster/actor, Jack Black, is still without a publishing parent. Yes, mergers can be a good thing and they can also be a bad thing. In the case of Brutal legend, the merger happened to be a bad thing. Check out the article to find out why.

A Beatles Game is in the works. Seriously, why? Well, I already know the answer to that: MTV wants to be EA. Well, keep dreaming MTV, you have a long way to go in the art of corporate deception, consumer manipulation and product misrepresentation. Oh wait..never mind I forgot for a minute that it was MTV we were talking about. Check out what their latest scheme is to conquer the gaming world.

Want to know the real reason behind Obama’s in-game advertising on Xbox Live? Well, this is the sort of story that requires clickage. So my suggestion to you is to get-to-clicking.

There’s equally tantalizing news on the front of Electronic Arts. If you get banned in their forum, for trolling, then you get banned from playing their games online. Both forum and game accounts are attached. Check out the full story to get the full low-down.

Blend Games’ correspondent, Kurt Bieg, continues his weekly venture into game design. An interesting topic is discussed regarding building a game that people will want to play. Check out the full editorial to get the entire scoop.

Friday
More Obama in the gaming news. He and Sarah Palin are both playable in Mercenaries 2. I was totally loving the McKain, Obama tag-team battling on Saints Row 2 (battling evil Independents?). Well now you can tag-team Obama and Palin as they single-handedly take down evil in Venezuela: using tax-breaks to cut down the resources of over-spenders, and banning foreign drugs to kill off the bad guys’ parents – leaving them in emotional shambles. That’s how you take out the garbage.

Nintendo’s Apple i-killer, the DSi, is scheduled to release no time soon outside of Japan. You know you’ll have to click the link to really find out when Nintendo’s third-generation DS is going to be coming to a country near you.

And if you really wanted to get into some mischief and mayhem in GTA IV, on PC, you’ll have to wait a little longer. It appears the game has been delayed. “Why of why?” You ask. Well, the answer is in the link. Do click the link to be enlightened.

Saturday
Xbox 360 copies the Wii with a new Mii and it can mimic the PS3 with direct-to-drive installations. So what’s the problem? I guess if plagiarism was hardware the New Xbox Experience (or NXE) would be a shining example of it. Get all the details on this new update by clicking on the link.

We round off the week’s news with a Review of Legend of Spyro for the Wii. Be sure to check out what Andy Keener has to say about the game, and if the final game in this series is worth your interest.

For more news and information be sure to stay tuned in with Blend Games, or drop by the Blend Games Forum for discussions on the hottest gaming topics.