If you read our E3 hands-on of Tom Clancy's EndWar, you'd know that we were rather surprised by how well the real-time strategy game's voice commands worked. Rather than function as a vector for our usual hate speech and bigotry, the Xbox 360 headset could now allow us to command our armies from afar and pick fights by proxy. It's just how we envisioned the future of warfare, minus the odd laser or two.

You don't have to take our word for it, though, as Ubisoft has announced that a public demo is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The sampler includes a single-player tutorial, as well as a one-on-one multiplayer map with matchmaking support. Let us know if it manages to command your attention.

EndWar is out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 4th.

Three would-be drug smugglers have been busted in Australia after a failed coup to take the "Emotion Engine" to new highs. Two Canadians, both 18, and a New Zealander, 20, have been charged with one count of importing and one count of attempted possession after a customs official at Sydney's international airport detected 3,400 ecstasy pills stuffed inside a PlayStation 3 "PlayStation game" and headed to the trio's home address. And here we thought the Cell processor was powered by seven "Synergistic Processing Elements" -- shows you how much we know!

Update: One commenter notes that the container in question looks to be a PS2, a far cheaper mode of transportation! (The source only identifies the system as a "PlayStation game.")

[Thanks, Schoolimangooli]

What do you get when you cross a board game with an RPG and toss in a heavy dosage of Japanese anime influence? A huge mess, LOLZ! Okay, seriously, if you mix things together right and stir liberally with the Wiimote, you'd get Dokapon Kingdom. It also doesn't hurt if you're a video game developer, like the folks at Atlus who put this together.

We spent a good deal of time in a hands-on with this game recently, and it's the perfect party game you've been looking for when you have real actual friends come over, not those online knockoffs. Check out the details after the jump.

We hope at least a few of you are old enough to remember Defense of the Ancients, the very best mod for Warcraft 3, which allowed you to pit two forces of champions from the series against each other. Now some of the team from the mod have revealed their next project: League of Legends: Clash of Fates, a session-based action-strategy game that will have some of the persistent elements of an MMO. You can see the first trailer released by newly-formed Riot Games above.

There's not a whole lot of info on the game available at the moment, but you can be one of the first to get a closer look by signing up for next year's beta right here.

The Age of Booty begins this Wednesday as the plundering pirates RTS game joins XBLA for 800 ($10). The release date is in line with what Capcom had previously announced, which means the title should be available on PSN this Thursday and "shortly after" for PC.

Taking a lesson from last week, this doesn't mean Age of Booty is the only release for XBLA this Wednesday. After Tenchu snuck in like a ninja at the eleventh hour, we're keeping an eye out whether any other games jump out of the shadows. En garde!

Blizzard's Vice President of Game Design Rob Pardo wants us to think about Starcraft 2's two followups, containing the Zerg and Protoss single player campaigns, as expansion packs, so does that mean they won't contain as much gameplay as the Terran-based initial game? Plus, you'll have to wait at least whole year between "expansions." Said Pardo, "With any luck, it would be like a year for each successive one, but that's going to be a target date, that's not a promise."

Since SC2 won't be out until 2009, you won't be able to play the Protoss single player until at least 2011. That's a long time to wait. Check out what Rob said after the break, and start yer speculatin'.

Been itching for some Zerg action? Now you have it, in video form. Check out the new Starcraft 2 video above, and the new screenshots down below, straight from BlizzCon. We'll have a full hands-on with Starcraft 2 and the Zerg experience later.

Shortly after learning that the Flood would be making an appearance in Halo Wars, we were whisked away to a meeting with Ensemble's Graeme Divine where we immediately asked: "Is the Flood a playable race?" As quickly as we asked it, we were answered: no. With an emphasis on the story-driven single-player campaign, Divine told us that the multiplayer component would only include the UNSC and Covenant forces, as already revealed, and the campaign would only be playable as the UNSC, not the Covenant.

But that brings up another issue: how is the Flood present in a prequel taking place 20 years before the events in Halo: Combat Evolved? The more Halo-aware amongst you (read: total nerds) will recall that the introduction of the mysterious Flood in that seminal title was a surprise to the player and, indeed, to the entire UNSC command. When asked if they're retconning the Flood earlier into the Halo timeline, Divine said that the events observed in Halo 1 "was the first time UNSC knew about the Flood." So how does the existence of the parasitic aliens twenty years earlier go entirely unrecorded? Unsurprisingly, they're not saying (our guess: everyone dies).

We've always known that zombies are tools. Well, mostly in the sense that they want to bite us on our vulnerable, fleshy bits, but one should certainly consider the possibilities afforded by having a snarling, undead force at one's disposal. That's what Tecmo has in mind for Undead Knights, a newly announced action game -- with just a sprinkle of strategy -- for the PSP.

Stuck in the midst of a royal power struggle, you're encouraged to see every enemy as a potential ally. Casting you in the role of the anti-hero, Undead Knights sees the dead join your ranks, an increasing and varied assortment of undoubtedly foul-smelling monsters which will act out your every destructive whim. If we had to draw a comparison, we'd say it sounded a bit like Overlord -- or perhaps a more sinister Tokobot. Either way, Tecmo intends to keep things relatively smooth and simple, with action forming 80% of gameplay, and strategy relegated to those times when the unique services of certain felled enemies are required to progress.

If you feel conquering is best done in the company of friends, you'll be pleased to note that Undead Knights will support 4-player ad hoc multiplayer and co-op. It will rise to retail in 2009.

Stop your speculating, the Tokyo Game Show gives us all sorts of goodies, like the fact the the Flood is going to be in Halo Wars, which is coming "sometime" in 2009. Our own Chris Grant, esquire is jaunting off to a meeting about Halo Wars as we type this very post, and he's going to do some investigating to find out if the Flood is a playable race, or just something thrown in to make life a living hell for everyone. Now, if you got to play as Gravemind, that would be pretty cool.

Age of Empires: Mythologies follows the style of the DS Age of Kings, turning the PC real-time strategy into a portable, turn-based title. We checked out the game a the Nintendo Media Summit and found a lot of depth in the transition. While you'll only choose from Greek, Norse, or Egyptian armies, there's still ample Age of Empires inside.

Released in Japan on August 7, the DS remake of the original Famicom strategy title, Fire Emblem, is coming stateside in 2009. A largely localized version was on-hand at Nintendo's Fall Media Summit – and turned out to be one of the most-played games of the event.

What we found was expected: pure and simple strategy-RPG combat. We were most intrigued by things that we couldn't try out, namely the Wi-Fi play – a first for the series – and the online shop. Nevertheless, we ventured through the game's prologue and found an appreciation for the characterization and development of individual units.

We were awakened last night by a terrible din -- a wailing which echoed through our streets like a funeral dirge. The sound poured from nearby houses; voices making slightly varied proclamations with a singular theme. In near-unison, they pierced the night: "WHERE IS MASTER CHIEF?", "WHY NO LASER SWORDS?", and, perplexingly, "GEOFF KEIGHLEY, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH CORTANA?"

These confused souls were reacting to the cinematic trailer for Ensemble Studios' swan song, Halo Wars, which debuted on GameTrailers TV last night. For those who were laying eyes upon the title for the first time, we can understand any resulting bewilderment. The trailer (which we've posted after the break) is excellent, though it boldly lacks the things players love about the series to date -- including any sign of returning characters, or any heinous acts of postmortem facial desecration.

At last, some good news for those gentlemen and noble women who believe battles are best waged in a polite, turn-based fashion. Nintendo has revealed that its cherished Fire Emblem series will see a new installment arrive on the DS, sometime during the first half of 2009. Well, a new-ish installment.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a remake of the original NES / Famicom game, albeit one packed with extra DS content. Nintendo has promised two new scenarios, six difficulty levels, and one-on-one Wi-Fi play, along with full voice chat when playing online (and yes, online play is a series first) or via local wireless. You'll also be able loan out your units to other players via Wi-Fi -- when you get them back, they'll retain all of the EXP, etc. gained while your friends have been using them.

Would you try not to get our dudes killed, okay, hypothetical friend?