Snikt! Unleash those adamantium claws, bub. We’re watching the first ever trailer for the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine game. It’s in pure CG animation and looks almost exactly like what you see in the trailers for the movie. Man, the only thing lacking here in this trailer is Deadpool. (Well, yeah, him and a whole bunch of gameplay footage too.)

Raven Software and Activision’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine is set to come out for the PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, DS, and PC, coinciding with the launch of the movie on May 1.

• X-Men Origins: Wolverine influenced by God of War

Look back for a sec and try to remember which brand has been the most talked about, most advertised, and most hyped last year. Well, social media services provider Vitrue did more than just that, measuring the amount of mentions of around 2000 brands, naming the 100 most social brands of 2008.

But how exactly did they measure this? Vitrue conducted a daily analysis of over 2000 brands, checking online conversations, forums, blogs, photo and video sharing sites, etc. They measured how much a brand is mentioned, whether in a good way or bad, since even a bad mention would still bring attention towards the brand.

Well enough of that, here is the Top 20 from that list of 100. You can just go to Vitrue’s blog (see Via link) if you want to see the whole list. This list shows which companies have been making their presence felt and are doing so quite well.

1. iPhone
2. CNN
3. Apple
4. Disney
5. Xbox
6. Starbucks
7. iPod
8. MTV
9. Sony
10. Dell
11. Microsoft
12. Ford
13. Nintendo
14. Target
15. PlayStation
16. Mac
17. Turner
18. Hewlett-Packard
19. Fox News
20. BlackBerry

So the #1 is the iPhone, no surprise there. For gaming we have Xbox at #5, while the PlayStation is at #15. Sony is at #9, Microsoft stands as 11th. Nintendo makes it to #13, but what’s interesting is that the top-selling Wii isn’t even on the Top 100.

And fanboys, please, no flame wars okay?

Cashman’s got another update for his fun homebrew game, Wii Quizz. With this release comes new languages, new question, new music, and a lot of other changes. Refer to the list below for the changelog.

Changelog for v1.8

• Add Spanish support
• Add Catalan support
• The music starts at the menu of choice of language
• Add new music
• Add save system (WiiQuizz.cnf at the root of the SD/SDHC)
• Add settings in the save (Merci Ac_K !)
• Add settings menu to modify the save (version BETA)
• Changing the URL in the pause menu to save the new
• Add questions in Italian
• Add questions in Danish
• Add questions in English
• Improved graphics during the game
• Improved screen explanations of game modes
• Use libogc 1.7.1
• Better management of vibration on the wiimote
• Others fixes and improvements…

Download: Wii Quizz v1.8

• Wii homebrew - Wii Quizz v1.7

For so long now, it’s been rumored about. Everyone keeps talking about it “yeah, so there’s this new DJ Hero spinoff supposedly in the works, yada yada yada,” but ever since, nothing has been officially confirmed by Activision Blizzard.

That changes now, care of ActiBliz boss Robert Kotick. It looks like he slipped his tongue too, because it was one of the last things he mentioned (nonchalantly, at that) in a long interview with CNBC.

As a parting question, one of the reports asks how ActiBliz is handling the changing demands of the consumers and how they cope with trying to deliver more creative games. Kotick’s answer:

We have this product called DJ Hero coming out later this year which is a turntable that you can actually play competitively, spin discs, and mix songs on. This physical interface is definitely starting to have a real impact on the consumer. Online is creating a much more social experience than videogames have had before. You’re continuing to see lots of innovation that’s adding lots of new audiences.

You can check out the full interview through the Via link below. In it, Robert Kotick talks much about the current situation in the game industry, what with the recession closing in and sales are going down.

• No DJ Tiesto for DJ Hero
• Guitar Hero project director confirms new DJ Hero game

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So is Midway really going under or what? Despite announcing a new Mortal Kombat game and managing to buy time to avoid bankruptcy, the company may be back in hot water.

Midway Games chairman - uh, now ex-chairman, I mean - Peter C. Brown has resigned from his post in the company. Not going into details, he only cited personal reasons for his leaving.

The new chairman to take Brown’s place is Midway’s CEO, Matt Booty. It’s been a long journey for him, which started in 1991 when he was first hired as a programmer. Throughout his career in Midway, he managed to go up the ladder - now he’s on top.

Having the chairman resign at such crucial times may or may not be a good thing for Midway. For what it’s worth, change is also good. Maybe Booty can shape things up, yeah?

• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe ships 1.8 million, new MK game in development
• Midway manages to buy some time to avoid bankruptcy

For a limited time, get free shipping on Nintendo Wii & Wii Fit bundles.

Disney Interactive Studios has clarified some reports about the alleged layoffs happening at its Propaganda Games studio in Vancouver.

According to Kotaku, Disney has confirmed that some Propaganda staffers have indeed been laid off, but the number is approximately half that of the rumored 70 employees. Two development teams from the studio are still working on unnamed projects.

Speaking of projects, Kotaku also reports that while Disney is still mum about the existence (or cancellation) of a Turok (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC) sequel, they did note that they still hold the rights to the Turok IP from Classic Media. The cancellation of the Turok sequel was one of the reasons given to the rumored Propaganda shutdown.

Finally, Disney reps confirmed that its studios in the Salt Lake City area would be consolidated. The resulting conglomeration of Avalanche and Fall Line will be focusing on the Nintendo Wii as a development platform.

• The first of many? Microsoft shuts down Flight Simulator studio

Wii homebrew developer chris has released a Yahtzee game for the Nintendo Wii home video game consoles called Yahtzwii. Clever, eh?

Yahtzee games have been released for a wide variety of consoles, so even if you’ve never played the original chances are you already have an idea of what it’s about. If not, well, it’s a dice game where you have to score the most points by rolling five dice and making combinations.

Yahtzwii is now at version 1.1. This is just the second release, but it has a pretty hefty changelog:

• Added Scandinavian rules
• Added French language support
• If you accidentally pick up the dice before you are finished selecting the ones you want to keep, you can now press MINUS to go back and select again.
• Highlighting a box on the scorecard will now show you the score you could get by selecting that box.
• Game will now not let you roll again if all dice are selected.
• Bug fix: using Bonus Yahtzees as jokers in the lower section will now work properly.
• Bug fix: game will no longer crash on trying to save if someone has renamed game folder or no SD card is inserted.

Download: Yahtzwii v1.1

• Yahtzee DS 1.0 - the popular dice game rolls its way on to the DS
• Yahtzee v2.0 with Major Updates