News from the Front - July 30: Slender Man in Minecraft, 3DS Price Drop, and the Death of Red Faction

To start off today's column, I'd like to direct you to an article I wrote about a Norwegian retail chain's knee-jerk response to the shootings in Utøya yesterday.

Minecraft's new Endermen are Slendermen. There's simply no mistaking the resemblance. Notch announced the new monsters, who are set to harass the player by blinking into distance with their ability to teleport. The Endermen will be a part of the upcoming Adventure Update, which doesn't yet have a release date.

Nintendo posted huge losses, prompting them to drastically slash the price of the 3DS to $169.99 in North America to encourage sales. Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata announced that he would be taking 50% pay cut, along with other directors at the company.

Diablo III may be entering beta at the end of September. According a post by Sixen, a Blizzard MVP, the company is planning to launch the beta on September 30 pending any delays. I have my fingers crossed.

THQ axed the Red Faction franchise, putting all of its developers on the new inSane title headed up by film director Guillermo del Toro.

From Dust is now available as a pre-order on Steam. You'll even get a neat hat to use with your Demoman in Team Fortress 2. There's no such thing as having too many hats. Ubisoft, having clearly listened to player feedback about its decision to implement DRM in Driver San Francisco, has decided not to require players to stay online while playing From Dust.

Speaking of Team Fortress 2, the game is as fun as ever with the inclusion of several new Steampunk-themed items from the Dr. Grordbort franchise by Weta. The once-overpowered laser rocket launcher has since been toned down to be more in line with its explosive counterparts. It's still a good weapon for those with good aim, but it's no longer a game changer.

Our friends at GameFront put out a couple of pieces a few days back that are well worth checking out. First up is a list of the ten most impressive Call of Duty multiplayer kills, in video format.

They've also written quite a bit on the shootings in Norway, which is a rebuttal at claims that the Norwegian shooter was an avid player of the Dragon Age series of games by Bioware.