Our five (non-consecutive) day long Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath Xbox 360 giveaway is at an end. Here's how you could win the one, final copy:

• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling us Where in the World Bobblehead Kane is (is that Serra?)
  
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec ... and Serrans)
• Limit 1 entry per person per calendar day (comment more than once and you'll be disqualified)
  
• This entry period ends at 10:00pm ET on Sunday, July 6th. We'll randomly select a winner at that time (please check your email!)
• For a list of complete rules, click here

Oh, and in case you were curious, the last four cities were: Lyon, France (Lyon-Satolas Airport Railway Station); Milan, Italy (Duomo Square); Moscow (Red Square); and Cologne, Germany (Cologne Cathedral).

Slant Six recently released a gameplay trailer for SOCOM: Confrontation, the series' maiden voyage onto Sony's current-gen home console. It looks faithful to the series' frantic, tactical roots on the PlayStation 2, though this trailer doesn't do a great job of showing off the game's new features and gameplay improvements. The graphics, though significantly gussied-up since its public unveiling last year, still could use a bit of polish -- though we'd be willing to sacrifice a bit of gussy for a steady framerate during the many 32-man multiplayer matches we'll be participating in. You can find out if it really does pay to be a winner when Confrontation drops on October 14.

Fans of Criterion's vehicular vehicleslaughter sim Burnout Paradise were supposed to receive the title's third major update this coming Thursday, codenamed "Cagney". The vaudevillian actor-turned-downloadable content will give Paradisians the opportunity to play through more than 70 events online in FreeBurn mode -- unfortunately, Paradisians of the Xbox 360 variety will have to wait a bit longer than their PS3 counterparts to enjoy the free update.

Unsurprisingly, the source of the hold-up is the rigorous Xbox Live certification process, which took longer than Criterion had expected. Their new release date for "Cagney" is the following Monday, July 14 -- though this delay won't affect PS3 owners. Nor will it affect DS owners, restaurant entrepreneurs, professional poker players, the current Dalai Lama, or the actual James Cagney, who is, in fact, deceased.

Let's face it -- one of the main things that has set Mortal Kombat apart from its contemporaries throughout the years has been its inclusion of flagrant acts of grisly violence. When Ed Boon explained that the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe would explore the softer side of the series with Teen-rated acts of pugilistic carnage, many fans were upset, as it seemed their thirst for evisceration would go unslaked. The latest salvo of screenshots for the brawler from Midway might confirm or ease your fears of a censored MK title -- no, there's no evidence of any impromptu spine-removal procedures, but there's pummeling and arm-breaking aplenty. Does the latest entry in the toasty franchise look gruesome enough for your sinister bloodlust?

In our interview with Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson, it was explained that there were no plans to bring the long-awaited title to any platform other than PC and Mac. However, in the six days that have passed since said interview, a couple of Blizzard higher-ups weren't quite as dismissive of the possibility of the dungeon crawler making an appearance on our primitive gameboxes -- though the language used to describe this possibility hasn't exactly given us high-apple-pie-in-the-sky hopes.

When asked about a console rendition of the third entry in the Lord of Terror-slaying franchise, Blizzard COO Paul Sams gave an inconclusive "I don't know yet," though Vice President of Game Design Rob Pardo suggested a console port was "theoretically possible," as out of all of Blizzard's franchises, Diablo would be the most console-friendly. We guess a theoretical "yes" is better than an actual "no", or a metaphorical "maybe", but we're still not holding our bated breath for a non-compy version of Diablo the Third.

Given the subject matter of this week's Zero Punctuation, we thought we'd throw Yahtzee into the webcomic poll to see how he fares. Also, we're looking for the best gaming webcomic (strip, not series), so let us know your all-time favorite in the comments below.

Here are our picks for the week's best game-related webcomic. Polling after the break; be sure to vote for your favorite!

Dark or Not ... (MNC)
Third Time is a Charm (Extra Life)
010 (Super Effective)
Welcome Back (PVP Online)
How to Make a Gaming Webcomic (Zero Punctuation)
Weather or Not (8-bit Theater)
Restoring Past Glory (Castle Vidcons)
Baddest Company (2P Start)

Those who enjoyed the economics-meets-explosions gameplay of Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction will no doubt get a kick out of the latest trailer for the title's upcoming sequel. The three ExOps personalities we came to know and love in the first Mercs are making a comeback, and in the above video, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames lead designer Scott Warner gives us a sneak peek at how these well-trained operatives, you know, operate.

The gameplay looks solid, but for those of us too busy to watch a five-minute video on a Saturday afternoon, we'll briefly break it down using A-Team archetypes: Jennifer Mui is Templeton "Faceman" Peck, Mattias Nilsson is "Howling Mad" Murdock, and Christopher Jacobs is an amalgam of John "Hannibal" Smith and B.A. Baracus -- only he doesn't pity fools. He hastily shuffles them off this mortal coil using their own grenades.

This may have been a holiday week but we were extremely busy anyway with tons of original content and features along with some great new downloads. Here's a look at the highlights.

Exclusive Features

• Hands-On Space Siege: We get to play with a late build of the sci-fi action-RPG from Gas Powered Games and Sega
• Hands-On Bionic Commando: We swing to new heights with this preview of the third person action game revival from GRIN and Capcom
• Hands-On Civilization IV Colonization: We check out this (sort of) remake of Sid Meier's classic strategy game from Firaxis and 2K Games
• Hands-On American McGee's Grimm: We play through the first portions of this episodic action game that's coming from Gametap.
• Preview: Call of Duty World at War: We check out a live demo of the upcoming WWII shooter from Treyarch and Activision.
• Interview: Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People: We chat with members of Telltale Games to find out more about their upcoming episodic adventure game.
• Alone in the Dark: We compare the PC version of the Atari survival horror game to its Xbox 360 counterpart in our latest Big Versus article and go more in-depth with the game as well.
• Guide to TF2 Pyro Achievements Part 6: We have the final part of our series of articles looking at the new achievements for the Pyro class in Team Fortress 2.
• Big Ideas: Our new weekly column on gaming's major themes takes a look at story in games.
• Freeware Friday: Our weekly look at free games talks about the scrolling shooter rRootage
• Big Iron: Our hardware column takes a look at the new 4800 series of Radeon graphics chips from AMD/ATI
• Mac Monday: Our regular look at Mac gaming takes a look at the Mac exclusive arcade game Neon Tango
• BigCast: Members of Big Download chat about the week of PC games in our latest podcast.

Many of us could write entire volumes of songs and bands we'd like to see in one or both of the reigning emperors of the rhythm genre, Rock Band and Guitar Hero -- we'd wager that included in everyone's wishlist is a track or twelve from the legendary early 70s rock outfit Led Zeppelin. Unfortunately, Zeppelin front man Jimmy Page recently hung a definitive "No Stairway" sign on the genre, citing his hesitance to lend game developers the band's valuable master tracks.

The reasons behind Page's apprehension are unknown -- perhaps it has to do with the recent news of the easily misplaceable nature of master recordings. We hope the group's co-founder can be persuaded to part with the recordings before the siren call of "Immigrant Song" swoons the games' developers, forcing them to include earnest but unsatisfying covers of Zeppelin's bigger tracks. Discerning ears know -- there really is no rock-scream like a Robert Plant rock-scream.

We were starting to think that the new camo patterns available for download via Metal Gear Solid 4's "Extras" screen were going to be fairly mundane. Silly us! This is Hideo Kojima we're talking about here, and behind his stoic stare the guy has quite the sense of humor.

Case in point: the two new OctoCamo patterns available today. Called "Laughing Camo" and "Raging Camo," they cover Snake in text when equipped (which doesn't exactly sound like the best thing for, you know, stealth gameplay). These patterns aren't about hiding from enemies, though ... their effects are actually seen when you get near them. They cause PMC soldiers and other foes to break out into laughter and howling on sight, rendering them temporaily stunned. (Making the new camo settings something you'll want to use only on your second, third, fourth, or fith play-through, lest you ruin a "pure" first-time experience.)

Taking on The Patriots and getting kooky with Kojima? That's what we call a fun way to spend the Fourth.

Our five (non-consecutive) day long Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath Xbox 360 giveaway continues. Here's how you could win:

• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling us Where in the World Bobblehead Kane is (is that Serra?)
  
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec ... and Serrans)
• Limit 1 entry per person per calendar day (comment more than once and you'll be disqualified)
  
• This entry period ends at 10:00pm ET on Saturday, July 5th. We'll randomly select a winner at that time (please check your email!)
• For a list of complete rules, click here

Reviews? Original content? Weird and wacky spins on DS news? We've got it all, and this week, we've even got extras. Don't fight, fanboys -- there's plenty to go around, and these are happy times. It's a holiday, we're looking at Chrono Trigger ... things are good.

Community

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• DS Fanswag: Space Invaders Extreme, Arkanoid, and a paddle to play 'em with
  Because we had to start a Space Invaders giveaway today. How could we not?
• Homebrew paint application adds Guitar Hero controller support
  Finally, we can move beyond Accordion Hero.
• DS Daily: The next great remake
  Let your voice be heard.

Features

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• DS Fanboy Review: Civilization Revolution
  A whole lotta game squeezed into a tiny package.
• DS Fanboy Review: Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2
  Blood, drama, and a little science fiction -- now with difficulty levels.
• DS Fanboy Review: Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard
  Heroes of kicking your ass is more like it.
• Collecting & Obsessing: Game & Watch
  Collectors, a retrospective, and a lovely bit of gaming history.
• Limited Edition lust: A visual journey
  A journey through things we want to spend money on.
• Promotional Consideration: Nester's return
  If this doesn't make you feel old, really, nothing ever will.
• Bury the Shovelware: Homie Rollerz
  Just as bad as when we reviewed it -- hell, maybe worse.
• Gaming to Go: Meteos
  On a scale of one to quickplay, Meteos is right up there.

News of note

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• Wind of Nostalgia keeps sounding better and better
  It's beginning to look a lot like Skies of Arcadia. Even the names are rhythmically similar!
• Future R4 firmware to sabotage clones, brick DSes?
  Suddenly, M3 Real, CycloDS Evolution, and others just got better.
• Chrono Trigger: new DS features unveiled, in U.S. this year
  YES, YES, FOR REALLY REALS, YAY!
• Bonus content planned for Judgment, Ecclesia connectivity
  Finally, a use for Castlevania Judgment.
• Gamefly: Japanese and Chinese Coaches, Princess Debut this fall
  At last, your language trainer has come along.

Here at Joystiq, we've been pretty consistent in our hatred of useless plastic attachments for the Wii Remote. We might have to break our streak, though, as we're uncharacteristically excited about the maraca attachments that were recently shown as part of the leaked box art for the Wii version of Samba de Amigo. There's just something about the weight and sound of those vibrating plastic beads that helped make the maraca shaking on the Dreamcast a transcendent experience, and one we're glad we'll now be able to relive on the Wii. We're not changing our minds on the Wii Wheel, though. We have to keep our hater-rating up somehow ...

Oh yes, we got to play Spore. The entire thing. With Will Wright providing backseat commentary. We also got some time with the Wrath of the Lich King's Death Knight, and DS Fanboy decided to play Homie Rollerz (so you don't have to). Check out all of our impressions and reviews from the Joystiq Network this week:

PC

• American McGee's Grimm (hands-on)
• Spore (the whole thing) (hands-on)
• Wrath of the Lich King (Death Knight hands-on)