It has been announced for a while that Bungie and Marvel were teaming to do a graphic novel. A teaser comic priced for $.99 hit shelves May 31st letting fans know what to expect. Early impressions are that this is gonna be one hell of a comic, Halo fan or not. Buzz is currently so good that Marvel intends on making Halo a recurring monthly series. You can also expect Marvel to do the official comic adaptation of the Halo movie, due out in 07.

Despite people like myself who are excited about this series, there are some naysayers. There really hasn't been a successful comic adaptation of a game so far, and while Halo does have it's fan base, a lot of people really dont like the series. Love it or hate it, the series is a force to be reckoned with. The word Halo invokes something in gamers...let's hope that same feeling carries over to the page.

Sony's claims to have a fairly supplied launch for PS3 may be refuted by the very retailers carrying their products. Many retailers have been informed by Sony that their launch day numbers would be between 5-10 systems per store nationwide, thus forcing a decision to not do any pre-sale of the system until mid-October. GameStop, EB Games, GameCrazy and a few other retailers are following these guidelines. Retailers like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target have opted not to do a pre-sale at all. FYE is the only retail chain I have come across that is actually taking pre-orders, however you can bet there will be a back-log of reservations and a hefty waiting period.

What does this mean for the average gamer? Well quite simply your chances of getting a PS3 this winter (if you can afford it that is) are very slim. I recommend staying in touch with retailers so you can jump on the pre-orders when they first start...or you can do like I am and wait until tax season. My winter system will be the Wii, and I will probably be joined by many many gamers who wanted a PS3 but couldn't find a store with one. If you actually manage to get a PS3 at launch, make sure to buy the warranty. Sony has released buggy systems twice over already culminating in redesign and/or class-action lawsuit. Who's to say they won't do it again?

Peter Moore recently announced that backwards compatibility was not a major concern of the 360 team at this time and that "not every XBOX game will be backwards compatible". This of course goes back on their original promise.

The state of backwards compatibility is such that Barbie: Horse Adventure is supported but games like Morrowind, Midtown Madness 3, Panzer Dragoon, Shenmue 2, and a slew of other more popular titles are not supported. When asked why this had happened, they claimed that games like Barbie showed up because they shared a game engine with another game they ported.

Sounds to me like they are just making excuses. Bottom line...backwards compatibility was an advertised feature, and if they were to discontinue that aspect of the system, it would show a bit about how well they keep their promises. If you think this is bullshit, please point your browsers to the http://www.xbox.com website and tell them how you feel.

DC Comics recently announced that they would be bringing back their retired superheroine Batgirl. However, there is a twist. DC decided to brink her back as a LESBIAN. Yeah, you heard it right. Now normally I wouldn't care, but this is a blatent attempt to appeal to the horny 13 year old male demographic, the same demographic that once made comics king.

DC Comics would have you believe that they are in fact trying to appeal to the gay crowd, but if that were true why not put in a gay male on male couple? Simple, no one wants to see a couple of dudes making out. It's fucking gross. But what guy wouldn't want to see a couple of chicks go at it?

Case in point. At any rate, I wouldn't read the comic either way. Far better books out there to get into.

Rumors have been long-standing that Microsoft was trying to buy Rockstar. We here at Rated-M think that has finally happened. Anyone who was watching G4TV's coverage of E3 2006 saw Peter Moore show off his nice GTA tattoo at the press conference. He had mentioned that GTA would launch on the 360 first with exclusive episodic content.

The very next day, Peter Moore sat down for an interview to announce that just minutes prior to the interview, he had signed a deal of exclusivity with Rockstar so that GTA would be and I quote "ONLY ON 360". When asked how he managed to steal such a big title away from Sony, he replied that Rockstar knew what they were doing, they were "good businessmen".

So after that, there has been no further mention of it, and all 3 companies involved have declined comment. Recently, Take-Two, current known owners of Rockstar, spoke of their next-gen line-up, but Rockstar was strangely not mentioned once. Take-Two has had some money problems, despite having strong titles for PS2 and the XBOX systems. The loss of the NFL license to EA, the Hot Coffee fiasco with GTA, and the fire at their New York offices contributed to this.

Speculation is that Take-Two sold Rockstar to MS to save themselves from their money issues. MS gets GTA, Take-Two is free of the negative publicity and controversy. I wouldn't be surprised if we see an official announcment real soon.