Electronic Arts may not be the largest third party game publisher anymore (that honor now goes to the newly merged Activision Blizzard) but EA is still a huge force in the industry and on Wednesday they are scheduled to give their latest financial results for the quarter that ended on June 30.However, that isn't stopping some financial analysts from predicting EA's numbers. Expectations are that while revenues will be up 60 percent compared to a year ago, EA will have a loss of $111 million for the quarter. That's still an improvement over a loss of $132 million for the same period last year. However EA has decided to no longer give quarterly guidence for the future which has some analysts concerned that EA's upcoming game line up (including new titles like Spore, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space) might not sell as well as EA expects....

So Dead Space, the upcoming sci-fi themed survival horror game from Electronic Arts, is looking very much like an "M" rated game at this point. But apparently the trailer for the game that was shown at EA's E3 press conference earlier this month was too much for the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. As least that's the word from Ars Technica who states they received an email from EA after the conference stating that the "Lullaby" trailer is " . . banned here in the US (well not banned, but wasn't approved) by the ESRB because well, it's pretty gory."And indeed it is very violent and bloody, but no more so than other Dead Space trailers in the past. However the ESRB decision hasn't stopped Gametrailers from posting up a link to the movie (with an age gate) so you can check out all the action for yourself after the jump. The game itself is due for release on the PC and other platforms on Oct. 21Download the Dead Space "Lullaby" HD Trailer...

Our parent site Joystiq is in the middle of the San Diego Comic-Con (today is the final day of the massive pop culture show) and our team has been busy taking pictures of tons of people who show up in full costume and then proceed to wander around the halls of the convention center.As usual there are a lot of comic-book based costumes at the show but there are a few game related get-ups as well, such as the Dead Space outfit you can see to your right. While some of the costumes look great you do have to wonder about how comfortable they can get after a few days of walking around a packed event like Comic-Con. Regardless, check out the Joystiq gallery to see even more wild get-ups....

We've reported in the past that the upcoming Electronic Arts survival horror game Dead Space will get a prequel animated DVD before the game's release on Oct. 21. Now the first trailer for that DVD has been released showing off a mixture of both traditional 2D cel animation and CGI space footage but all of it is definately not for the kids. To be released by Film Roman and Starz Media, the Dead Space prequel movie will also be released on Blu-Ray and tell the story of what happened to the space ship before your player character appears at the beginning of the game. A six part comic book mini-series from Image Comics has also been around for the last few months. Download the Dead Space Downfall HD Trailer...

Electronic Arts has been putting more and more efforts into making new original games like Army of Two and the upcoming Mirror's Edge, Spore and Dead Space. So it makes sense that EA would like to see some of these properties on movie and TV screens. Today the publisher announced that they have signed a deal with the Hollywood talent agency UTV to help them do just that.EA hopes to ramp up film and TV shows based on their game titles with the help of UTV. Even thought EA has a ton of games that could be turned into other media properties they only have a few of these kind of deals in development. These include a movie based on The Sims at Fox and a MySims animated TV series at Film Roman. There's also a Dead Space animated movie from Starz/Film Roman that will be released alongside the game this October....

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming over the weekend including the lastest of our E3 hands-on impressions. BigCast 004 -- English Is Hard!Listen as Xav stumbles about trying to pronounce simple words! This week we cover some of the biggest PC news from the world of E3, talk classic gaming habits and throw around the idea that maybe games are meant to be played instead of examined. Crazy thoughts and more in the epic episode with guest hosts Kyle Horner, Samuel Axon and first-timer James Murff. It's time to go big, right here at the BigCast! E3 08: Hands-on with Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3If the original Command and Conquer timeline is a fairly standard sci-fi affair and C&C Generals is a more realistic near future storyline, then Electronic Arts' Red Alert franchise is all about comic book goofiness and fun. The alternate history where the Communist Soviet Union is still large and in charge and wild weapons are plentiful will get a revamp this fall with the release of C&C: Red Alert 3 E3 08: Dragon Age Origins impressionsOur very last E3 2008 appointment was, ironically, not at the Los Angeles Convention Center but at a nearby hotel. Deep underneath the hotel's meeting room was host to BioWare's long awaited next fantasy RPG Dragon Age Origins. The game was first announced and shown in a very early form over four years ago at E3 2004 (when it was called simply Dragon Age) so we were expecting to be wowed by this new version. E3 08: Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II impressionsSo you think you know what Relic Entertainment is going to do with the full sequel to their acclaimed sci-fi RTS title Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War (based as always on the Games Workshop war game). Better graphics; more units, more visble units in massive battles, right? Isn't that the way sequels usually do things? ...

(Editor's note: this article is based on seeing a live demo of the Xbox 360 port of the game)Electronic Arts is aiming to do something different for their upcoming titles Dead Space. While it has released a few "M" rated games in the recent past like Army of Two, The Godfather and others, this is the first real horror game EA has released since, well, the terrific and underrated first person shooter Clive Barker's Undying. Dead Space is also EA's first excursion into the survival horror genre which means it's going up against two of Konami's big franchises, Resident Evil and Silent Hill.At EA 2008,we got to see a demo of the game being played which showed off some of Dead Space's more unique elements. The game's setting is certainly different than Konami's titles. It takes place in the far future where humanity has broken the light speed barrier and traveled to the stars. Your player character is an engineer who is sent to find out why one starship hasn't reported back in a while. He reaches his destination only to find that in space, people can indeed hear you scream if you happen to be in a space suit with a radio....

Dead Space, the upcoming survival horror game set in a space station, was one of the focuses of Electronic Arts during their E3 Press Conference. After a lengthy and entertaining developer walkthrough of one of the areas the trailer you see above was played. It's early morning now, so it can't scare you that much. Now imagine you're in a dark room with a 100 foot monitor in front of you surrounded by a hundred speakers. Yeah. Kinda freaky. Dead Space hits stores on October 21.[via X3F]...

Electronic Arts' EA press conference is long over with but we do have a ton of new screenshots for a number of games that the publisher released today. Naturally all of the shots are for titles that will be released for the PC. Unfortunately there's no Dragon Age Origins shots today but we hope to get the first ones later this week...

Earlier this week we reported on the first gaming panel programming that was announced for the first day (Thursday) for the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con on July 25-28. Now the convention's web site has revealed the panel programming for the rest of the show and Friday and Saturday seem to be packed with game and game related events (Sunday seems to be free of gaming related panels).On Friday convention attendees can go to panels about Midway's fighting game Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe, the upcoming MMOs Stargate Worlds and DC Universe Online, and the upcoming Ghostbusters game (with actors Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson scheduled to attend). There will also be a World of Warcraft panel and the big Star Wars panel will have segments on the upcoming LucasArts Clone Wars and The Force Unleashed game titles. Capcom will hold a panel on how to break into the game industry and there will also be a Penny Arcade panel. There will also be a panel on the upcoming movie adaptation of Prince of Persia (with the game's original creator Jordan Mechner scheduled to attend) and a panel on the upcoming CGI movie Resident Evil: Degeneration.On Saturday, Comic-Con will hosts a Telltale Games panel where the creators will announce plans for a third episodic game series to join their Sam and Max and Strong Bad series. A Warhammer Online panel will also be held and THQ will host a panel on Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II and Deadly Creatures. Cliff Bleszinski and Peter Molyneux will attend a panel to talk about Gears of War 2 and Fable 2, respectively. EA will host a Dead Space panel and Capcom will also host a Bionic Commando panel at the show.If you haven't bought your tickets for Comic-Con yet, you are out of luck if you want the four-day pass or one-day passes for Friday and Saturday. Some tickets for Thursday and Sunday are still available for purchase....

It's become something of a trend to dismiss the revamped and invite only Electronic Entertainment Expo as no longer relevant. The truth, however, is that there is still no one event in the United States that brings together more game developers and publishers than E3 even in its smaller version (as the E3 Media and Business Summit). We are now just one week away from the start of E3 2008 which after last year's detour in several Santa Monica, CA hotels will once again take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center). Despite what other articles might tell you the PC game industry will be represented very well at the expo this year with a number of highly anticipated game titles due to be shown to the invited press (and there may very well be a few surprise announcements in store for E3 that we don't know about yet). So what PC games are we most looking forward to seeing at E3 2008 next week? We've compiled a list of our top 25 picks and we will reveal our list over the next week (with an article on honorable mentions and wild card picks on Saturday). We wanted to make this list heavy on PC game exclusives or games that will have the PC as the lead or major platform if it also appears on game consoles....

Our friends at Joystiq recently acquired on the box art for EA's Sci-Fi Survival Horror game, Dead Space. It's fittingly gruesome, and it proves that the player is not the only one who can strategically dismember targets! Yes, the art features a human hand floating in space. Apparently those nasty Necromorphs got to some poor space miner. Maybe this is one of the many gruesome deaths developer Glen Schefield hinted at recently.We noticed, of course, that the hand is floating outside the ship. That's just a reminder that we'll be able to use our grav boots in the game to walk outside on the hull of the ship. In fact, we'll be able to jump between and walk on lots of different surfaces in the game's zero gravity environments. Cool....

GameTrailers is hosting some exclusive Dead Space videos from EA3, an Electronic Arts media event. There are several showroom floor gameplay videos, and one video interview with Executive Producer Glen Schofield. In the interview (embedded above), Schofield talks about the dismemberment system, realistic zero gravity gameplay, what sorts of characters you'll meet in the game, and the many, many kinds of deaths your character can experience.The gameplay stuff is the real meat of it all, though. We've embedded one of those videos behind the break. You'll see some extremely intense encounters, but we think the most interesting bit is the zero gravity stuff. It reminds us of the mind-screwing final sequence of Danny Boyle's Sunshine. Give it a look. If you're a Survival Horror aficionado, it's worth it. ...

IGN is running an exclusive Dead Space trailer. This one focuses on "strategic dismemberment." Apparently, the monsters in Dead Space (called Necromorphs) won't die if you just shoot them in the head or body. They're like the Regenerators in Resident Evil 4; you'll have to take use your weapons to carefully pick them apart until they can no longer function.The trailer shows off a couple of those weapons -- a stasis field, which freezes enemies in place and makes them vulnerable to melee attacks; and a telekinesis gun, which functions like Half-Life 2's gravity gun. You can pick things up with it -- even your enemies' severed limbs. Gruesome. ...

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours. Big Download Interview: Stardock CEO Brad WardellIs PC gaming dead? Not if Stardock and its CEO Brad Wardell have anything to say about it. The company has developed and published its own games like the Galactic Civilizations and Political Machine series but has also been an online and retail publisher on a large number of third party games. Last February, Stardock and developer Ironclad Games shocked the industry with the sales success of Sins of a Solar Empire. The space strategy title got great reviews as expected but no one expected the game to be a huge sales success as well, staying on the NPD Group's top 10 sales list for PC game software for over three months straight. New Velvet Assassin screenshots get to the pointThere's nothing quite like like a lady with a gun. That's our opinion anyway. So we are all set to give Velvet Assassin a try when it is released this fall from developer Replay Studios and publisher Gamecock. The new screenshots for this WWII stealth action game show off your main character doing what she does best; taking out Nazi scum. New Dead Space screenshots get scarierYou get no sound in space which means no one can hear you . . you know. Electronic Arts hopes to hear the sound of good reviews and solid sales for Dead Space, their upcoming first entry in the survival horror genre. The publisher just sent out some new screenshots showing off more of the horror and gore that can be expected in the title. New Legendary screenshots attack with forceThe upcoming first person shooter Legendary was originally titled Pandora and then called Legendary: The Box before developer Spark Unlimited finally settled on its current name. We bring this up as an excuse to show off the latest screenshots from the title that will be published this fall from Gamecock. ...