If you noticed in the details to Fable 2's Collector's Edition, there was an "Otherworldly Bonus" for in-game content. Packaged with the announcement were screenshots, including one conspicuously labeled "Fable2_MasterChief.jpg." Yep, that's not just a coincidence, you're looking at a faux-medieval variant of the Halo superstar. (Halo 3 ending spoiler alert) I guess we know what universe he crash-landed in.

And here we thought Minstrel Chief was the only Halo reference we'd find. Fable 2 is coming October 21 for US and October 24 for Europe.

Although we already knew Fable 2 was arriving in October, Lionhead Studios has revealed the awaited title will hit US store shelves, then proceed to raise a family while it waits to be purchased, on October 21. European gamers can expect the game days later on October 24. For those who want to start padding their virtual wallets early, the Xbox Live Arcade Pub Games will land August 13.

Lionhead also unveiled an image of all that you can expect to get if you pick up the Limited Edition copy of the game. Details of the LE after the break.

[Via X3F]

The 2008 Penny Arcade Expo Omegathon V lineup has been revealed and it feels surprisingly casual. There's no Doom or Quake title like we've seen in every previous Omegathon. Also new: starting the first round with a non-board game (Jenga has been pushed to round 5). Here's the list:

• Round 1: Peggle
  
• Round 2: Boom Blox
• Round 3: Pictionary
• Round 4: Rock Band (Our guess is Rock Band 2)
  
• Round 5: Jenga
  
• Final Round: *** TOP SECRET ***
  

The 20 Omeganauts have already been chosen (congratulations to any Joystiq readers who made the cut!); first prize this year is a trip for two to the Tokyo Game Show with all expenses paid and $5,000 in "walking around money."

While last year's Omegathon skipped the previous tradition of using a classic retro title (Pong, Combat, Tengen Tetris), every year has featured an id Software shooter. With Rage, Doom 4 and the new Wolfenstein looking unlikely, we're trying to think of another potential, unreleased FPS that could top last year's surprise Halo 3 inclusion. If Tycho and Gabe are looking to make our heads explode, maybe they can get Duke Nukem Forever. We won't find out until minutes before the final round on Sunday, August 31 at 4:30 PM PT.

In the meantime, check out the list of past Omegathon lineups, and feel free to make your own and play along at home.

As with most of Square Enix's release dates, it's best to put a clarifying asterisk next to it. For Infinite Undiscovery, that simultaneous worldwide release was actually a 9-day span. For Final Fantasy XIII, it's PS3 Only ... in Japan (at least for now). Let's revisit the end of that Chrono Trigger DS teaser: "2008. Winter.* (Except for Europe)." Those across the pond will have to wait until Early 2009, according to Square Enix (via CVG). All we can offer is condolences and some screenshots that -- surprise -- look exactly like the 1995 rendition.

[Via DS Fanboy]

If Braid is causing you some trouble this week, let us direct to you designer Jonathan Blow's official walkthrough for the newly-minted Xbox Live Arcade title. Sort of. Let us explain... No, there is too much. Let us sum up. In a nutshell, Blow's advice is to "deal with it."

According to the guide, "Some of the puzzles will be hard. But when you manage to solve those hard puzzles, you will feel very good about it. [emphasis theirs] The game will feel very rewarding. Don't rob yourself of that feeling by reading a walkthrough!" While we agree with the sentiment, for irony's sake, our fingers are crossed that Braid will hit Top 10 Wanted FAQs on GameFAQs.

In response to E for All's "pimping" of Fatal1ty's presence at their expo, the dynamic duo of Penny Arcade sent out an immediate press release assuring its community that the professional gamer will not be attending PAX 2008. Phew! Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
PS3 Fanboy's Trophy Portal now open
Readers pick best webcomic: Impressions of Nintendo's E3 conference

News
Tales of Vesperia special edition has many tales to tell
British model Gemma Atkinson to suit up for Red Alert 3
PS3 BioShock's 'survivor mode' finally explained
360 system update goes live, new features don't
Five LittleBigPre-order bonuses, including Kratos Sackboy
See Metal Slug 7 explode on DS
WAR to be waged on Sept. 18
Manson, AFI and Flyleaf coming to Guitar Hero III
Namco Bandai profits take a dip in Q109
Grand Theft Auto IV hitting PC on Nov. 18
Turner to sell GameTap, Time Warner reveals
Blizzard offering XP, mounts for recruiting friends
Xbox 360 DLC has brought in $240 million
SOCOM: Confrontation priced: digital, retail, and headset bundle
More Midway departures including Chicago studio head
Strong Bad finally arriving August 11
Jonathan Blow talks Braid pricing
Lars won't confirm Guitar Hero: Metallica (spoiler: it's happening)
GoldenEye XBLA stuck in 'no man's land'
Phantasy Star Portable sells like a Monster in Japan
Rock Band 2 for Wii won't skimp on features
Bungie: Halo can learn from Call of Duty 4
Spacetime lets half its staff go, Blackstar still needs publisher
Sega Sammy's stock rises on news of $100m net loss for Q109
How to get Geometry Wars 2's 'Smile' achievement
Traveller's Tales assembling more Warner Bros. LEGO titles
New Heavy Rain screenshots seek path out of Uncanny Valley
Massive Entertainment seeks new corporate overlords
Wii system menu hack released, region coding on the run
MGS inks 'perpetual' license for Havok tech
John Madden impersonator in Blitz: The League II

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: Next Medal of Honor in Afghanistan, based on 2002 Operation Anaconda

Culture & Community
DMC's Ebony and Ivory replicas on sale
Mario and more re-created in Soul Calibur IV
Windows Vista + PS3 = Proof of Patience, and not much else
Dell.com: $299 Xbox 360 Elite, 2 games, 2 faceplates
Spock to pimp new Trek MMO in Vegas
Eye of Judgment tourney starts Aug. 14

Remember that Wii system menu hack we told you about yesterday? Among other things, HackInstaller removes the health warning at startup, the background music and -- most importantly -- all region encoding for GameCube and Wii games and Wii channels (you can view a walkthrough of the patch, above). Homebrew coder "Crediar" has released HackInstaller into the wild.

Installation requires the homebrew channel. If you haven't taken the leap to homebrew, check out the Wii Pack Generator for a no-fuss entry into the scene. We suspect Nintendo isn't going to take this loss of region coding concern lightly.

A lot has changed since Heavy Rain's initial E3 2006 showing. A handful of new screenshots have emerged (via Spilzonen, Ripten) that show the game has moved from the center of the Uncanny Valley to somewhere on the outskirts. If this is the same woman from before, she definitely looks less bony, her eyes not popping out of their respective sockets like before.

To maintain our rain pun quota, we offer you this: There has been a drought of Heavy Rain information for quite some time; we hope this drizzle of screenshots is followed by a downpour of details soon.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Japanese publisher (and House of Sonic) Sega Sammy posted a ¥10.5 billion (approx. US $96 million) net loss for the first quarter of Fiscal 2009 – that's double the losses from a year earlier -- and sales of ¥74.6b, a 22% decline. Despite all this, the publisher managed to beat expectations and subsequently shares were up 13% to ¥1,201 per share, the sharpest increase since its listing as a holding company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 2004, according to Bloomberg.

The pachinko and arcade divisions, as well as the global and Japanese economy, were cited as reasons for the losses. Particularly, the pachinko business saw around US$40 million in losses. The games division increased sales to ¥30.5 billion, reducing the operating loss to ¥4.12b. Overall unit sales were around 6.89 million (3.16m in US, 2.89m in Europe and 830k in Japan), with Mario and Sonic at the Olympics noted as having so far shipped 7 million units worldwide.

The God of War himself will soon find himself under new employment as Super Awesome Sackboy Superstar. The official US PlayStation blog has revealed that there are plans for five separate LittleBigPlanet pre-order bonuses in North America, depending upon where you reserve the game (a key detail that has yet to be revealed). Here are the bonuses:

• The Official "LittleBigPlanet Creator" MiniGuide by Brady Games
  
• A LittleBigStickerBook, which is -- shocker -- a sticker book
  
• LittleBigPouch, a burlap sack reportedly big enough to at least fit a copy of LBP
  
• An exclusive Nariko (of Heavenly Sword fame) SackGirl
• Exclusive Kratos (God of War) SackBoy

Sure, the exclusive SackPeople are nice, but we're willing to bet those will eventually arrive as premium downloadable content or recreated/shared via the LBP community. We'll take two pre-orders for the decidedly more tangible LittleBigPouch, wherever that reserve bonus may end up.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Let's be honest: Shigeru Miyamoto would never post on Joystiq, and if he would, we'd like to think our response would be something wittier than ":(". So while we object to The Slackerz' totally false characterization of us, we are required by Blogger Law to award it webcomic of the week.

A very close second (as of this writing) goes to Dueling Analogs, with Digital Unrest in third. Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!

We're not even willing to label this a "proof of concept," as this mash-up of Windows Vista (via emulation) and the PlayStation 3 is only for those with near-infinite patience or those with a penchant for pain. Some numbers to keep in mind: a day to install, 25 minutes to boot up, 5 minutes to access the start menu and 12 minutes to open notepad. (That's a lot of sandwiches.)

Video embedded after the break, or click here to view instructions on how to do it yourself. Only the truly masochistic need apply.

[Via Engadget]

Sure, they think they'll get her, but truth is, she's got a power pellet hidden under that coat. (Via WebUrbanist; thanks, Sam) Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Podcast Rodeo for August 5: Ear Factor

News
Mega Man 9 getting intentional bugs, flicker
'Bikini Samurai Squad' slashes Stateside on 360
Times: iPhone could be in 'same league' as DS, PSP
Atlus to inject PS2 with Eternal Poison this November
Warhawk Trophy patch goes online Aug 27
Avary is working on Wolfenstein flick 'right now'
Left 4 Dead on PS3? 4geddaboudit ... 4 now
Xbox 360 Avatars only in 'E' titles
Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox 360 in Taiwan
Ken Levine dances around new project
Stuff Magazine reveals new Guitar Hero World Tour tracks
Got some cash? Valve 'happy' to talk acquisition
ESA receives $282,794 reimbursement from California
Media Molecule teases new LittleBigPlanet reveal
Hell hath no Fury, neither does anyone else now
THQ boss declares console cycles dead
Metal Gear brings in solid profits for Konami Q1
BioWare envisions console-specific Dragon Age
Gears of War 2 to feature optional gore filter
Wahlberg: Max Payne 'is my favourite role so far'
Capcom: Spyborgs undergoing 'significant overhaul'
Deca Sports reaches 700,000 units shipped
NCSoft summons its chi for martial arts MMO
Some humans destroy Destroy All Humans! PSP
Half of Rare working on secret projects
LucasArts hiring testers for extra-super-secret MMO
Burnout Paradise 'Bikes Pack' throttles back to September
Carmack turned down Quake MMO offers

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: Concept art from Halo: Fall of Reach movie
Rumor: GTA Chinatown Wars detailed in survey
Rumor: Rock Band 2 an Xbox 360 exclusive for just one month

Culture & Community
Diablo designer judging fan art for MTV
E3 awards: Fallout 3 = Best of Show; LittleBigPlanet = Best Console game
Wii hack zaps annoying health warning, region coding

Ready to "beat it" with fire-lit butterfly wings? (Note to self: That came out wrong.) The latest issue of Stuff Magazine (via Guitar Hero Community) has a Guitar Hero World Tour preview, which lists nine confirmed tracks and five more confirmed artists. Although we already knew a few of those songs, five of them are new, including The Doors' "Light My Fire," Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and -- yes, really -- Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

Additionally, two of the listed artists with "unknown" track contributions already have confirmed songs (Foo Fighters' "Everlong" and Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher"). Newcomers include Muse, Beastie Boys and Nirvana. We've compiled a list of confirmed GHWT tracks after the break.

News Flash: BioShock helm Ken "KennyL" Levine is working on a new game that will totally blow your mind. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Levine sidestepped talking about his new project, only to say it is, "something very, very different, so it's a little scary - because we don't know what it is, exactly."

He said the focus would be on "people's relationship with the game over the long term. That's what we're thinking about, but it's about as clear as I can be." Our hope is that he's reused some ideas from the original BioShock plan and is now poised to make a game of Nazis on a tropical island, more affectionately dubbed Wolfenstein Xtreme Beach Volleyball.