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Playstation 3 has definetly been in the news today, and this time it’s another PS3 Slim rumor. We’ve attempted to not cover the PS3 Slim rumors because they were just that…rumors. But considering that this story has multiple sources, it might be more than just rumor.

In a report that was published today by Economic Daily News, Sony has signed a contract with Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd to manufacture a new hardware model of the Playstation 3, which has led people to believe it’s the PS3 Slim. The reason it’s led people to believe it’s the Slim is because the report also mentions that the new hardware will be a smaller, lighter version of the PlayStation 3. Hon Hai is just one of the three manufacturers to have gotten the contract. Engadget has also posted an article reporting that Foxconn and Pegatron have also signed on to manufacture the new hardware.

What makes these reports so interesting is that both are stating that the new hardware will begin shipping in July. So that points to a July or August release. If that’s the case, we’ll be getting an official announcement from Sony within the next week or so.

We should know more soon.

Back when Sony announced that they were completely cutting backward compatibility in all the Playstation 3 models, Playstation fans that had a large PS2 library wept…like myself. But you know, Sony had a fairly good reason. The console’s Emotion Engine, which enables the system to play PlayStation 2 software, theoretically cut production costs by a lot. But a recent patent filed by Sony suggests that they have found a way to bring it back to all past and future PS3s.

Mentioned in a report by SilconEra, Sony recently filed a patent that would allow the PS3’s Cell processor to emulate the Emotion Engine. The of the details of the patent have led us to believe that Sony is developing a way to translate and store the Emotion Engine data within the PS3. That means that Sony may have figured out a way for all Playstation 3s, including the one that is sitting in your room right now, to be backwards compatible with a simple firmware update.

So even if you already own one of the older (or even newer) Playstation 3 models that doesn’t have PS2 backward compatibility, fear not. As long as you have internet access, you may soon be able to play your PS2 games on your PS3.

We are going to follow this story closely (mostly because I want my PS3 to be backwards compatible too).

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen! The movie adaptation of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is now officially in production. 

The film is being brought to you by Columbia, and will be written by Kyle Ward. Ward is also working on the movie adaptations of Kane & Lynch and Hitman 2. Avi Arad will be the head of production, along with Charles Roven, Ari Arad and Alex Gartner. No details on the release date, casting, or director have been announced.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was a stand-out title for the Playstation 3 back in 2007, with extremely positive reviews. It’s sequel, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, is due for release sometime later this year.

Bungie’s president Harold Ryan and its creative director Joseph Staten mentioned in a recent interview with Seattle Times that Halo: Reach might be Project Natal compatible.

“I absolutely think [Halo:] Reach could be enabled with it,” Howard told the Times.

This is in no way a confirmation that Reach will in fact be using Natal, but it’s obviously on the minds of the guys at Bungie. At most, you might expect Natal to be an optional feature that is not required to play the game. Natal could be used simply to enhance the experience rather than make it essential to play the game. It does kind of make you wonder how exactly they would work Natal into the game. 

As Reach and Natal get closer, I’m sure we’ll hear more about this.

Watching any video on Hulu using your Playstation 3 is now virtually impossible. In an unexpected turn of events, it would appear that Hulu is now purposfully blocking the Playstation 3 platform. If you go and try and watch a Hulu video, all you’ll get is this message:

“Unfortunately, this video is not available on your platform. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

I don’t think their apology is really sincere. The reason being, is that Spong.com is reporting a possible deal between Microsoft and Hulu for Microsoft to “provide consumers with personalised content and advertising across all media platforms within three years.” So perhaps this is the reason that Playstation 3 users randomly stopped getting Hulu service.

We’ll try and have more information on this soon.

Early last week, we posted news that details on the upcoming DLC for the original Mass Effect game would be posted by last Friday. It turns out someone that has access to Bioware’s Twitter page dropped the ball. Now they have this to say:

“Due to circumstances beyond my control (me being stupid on timing), any news of more ME1 DLC will have to wait.”

So it looks like we’ll be waiting a tad bit longer for any news on the DLC. We’ll post it whenever it comes.

Tripwire Interactive takes the road less-traveled with their recently-announced Red Orchestra sequel, Heroes of Stalingrad, which boasts a campaign mode putting you in the jackboots of a German soldier. It will still support the multi-player Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 was all about, but with a lot of new tweaks, namely graphics, physics, and stat-tracking. It will also have a new co-op mode, Skirmish, which requires you and up to 10 other players, without respawns, to assault a group of enemy AI.

The first Red Orchestra game was renowned for its realism, something hard to achieve in a multi-player game, and fans are hoping this won’t change. Ostfront was also known for its steep learning curve as well, something I assume fans won’t mind, but something that might deter first-time players from playing on. The Tripwire team says they are working on this, however, while trying to retain the realism. As for the release date, we are left with this:

“Tripwire Interactive are taking the time to get the game right, so the release date will remain “when it is ready” for the time being.”

Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop”, has died at the age of 50. Michael started his music career in his childhood as part of the successful pop group The Jackson 5, formed with his siblings in 1967. He went on to start his own solo career. Five of his solo albums are among the world’s best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995). Michael passed away on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 of a possible cardiac arrest.

You may be wondering why a video game news site is covering the death of a music artist. It’s not well known, but it turns out that Michael was also a big fan of video games. He liked them so much, that he has appeared in several. He even teamed up with SEGA in 1990 to create his very own game, “Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker”. You can view the commercial for it below:

Jackson has also made a couple of cameos in video games. He appeared in “Space Channel 5″, which was another SEGA game that was released in the U.S. on June 6th, 2000, as Space Michael. He showed so much interest in the upcoming game that SEGA was more than willing to include his small cameo. In the sequel, “Space Channel 5: Part 2″, Michael made more than a cameo and became the boss of Space Channel 5. Michael also appeared as a playable character in Midway’s  “Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2″, which was released on current-gen consoles in 2000 and 2001.

Michael’s music has also appeared in games. In “Guitar Hero: World Tour”, Michael’s single “Beat It” is a playable track.

And just within the past week, news started coming in that a new Michael Jackson video game is in the works. Apparently planned for this holiday season, the as-yet-untitled game will be available on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii and is being developed by Jackson’s own MJJ Productions. The game will star Michael Jackson, but no genre or other information has been announced. We’ll try our best to find out more information about this game.

Michael Jackson will always be remembered as one of the most talented artists of all time, and possibly the most popular person in the world. R.I.P. Michael.

I had a feeling it was not a smart idea to remove the “Call of Duty” name from Modern Warfare 2. Apparently dropping the name has hurt the consumer awareness levels for the game.

A Gamasutra article reports that am OTX survey given to US gamers asking the gamers if they had heard of the “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″ game shows that the consumer awareness level dropped to 20 percent when the Call of Duty name was dropped, down from the 40 percent level when the Call of Duty name was still a part of the title.

Nick Williams, from OTX, said that “The Call of Duty brand association essentially doubles the awareness for the game. That is quite a remarkable statistic.” But that hasn’t stopped Modern Warfare 2 from being one of the most anticipated games of this year:

“Despite this dramatic drop in awareness, the purchase intent for Modern Warfare 2 remains very strong,” said Williams. Purchase intent still ranks about four times above average. “In our latest charts based on the last four weeks of data, Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox 360 ranks as the sixth most anticipated title.”

Now that we’ve seen the statistics, the name change probably wasn’t the smartest idea; but it doesn’t seem to have hurt the anticipated sales of the title. And to ensure that, Activision announced plans for later this year to launch a massive marketing campaign for the game.

We don’t usually cover news on iPhone/iPod Touch apps, but this one was too good to pass up. An update that added adult content to an app appeared on the App store for use with the iPhone and Touch, but apparently it wasn’t meant to get approved by Apple, and it was promptly removed.

An update for the app “Hottest Girls” added photos of topless women to the app that already included an extensive library of suggestive photos. On the product page for the app, the description stated that app as having “frequent/intense sexual content or nudity,” and it was only meant for users 17 and older.

It didn’t take long for Apple to realize it made a mistake, and removed the update from the store. But apparently, if you were able to get the update before it was taken down, your Hottest Girls app will still include the topless photos.