After a 13 year stint at LucasArts, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed executive producer Haden Blackman has decided to part ways with the company. During his tenure, Blackman had a hand in the development of Star Wars: Galaxies and Star Wars: Force Commander, as well as the creation of numerous Star Wars books and comics.

"I've had a fantastic time working with the team at Lucasfilm and am really grateful for their ongoing support," Blackman told IGN in a statement.

"While the decision to leave LucasArts did not happen overnight or come easily, I really feel that now is the best time for me to move on and explore new creative challenges and I look forward to the next phase of my career."

Wherever Blackman lands next, we wish him the best. Up until now he held the responsibility of overseeing production on The Force Unleashed II, the follow-up to 2008's physics-centric Star Wars title. It's due out October 26  in the US.

Gameloft's Earthworm Jim HD makeover will hit the PlayStation Network next Tuesday, the developer announced today. A nostalgic trip, this remake features all the groovy mischief of the 16-bit classic, enhanced with HD visuals and 2-4 player co-op of the online and local variant across 15 multiplayer levels.

All original story mode levels are included, with the added bonus of three exclusive levels, each of which are backed by a "“never-before seen" setting.

Already available on Xbox Live Arcade, the PSN flavor of Earthworm Jim HD will set you back $9.99 when it drops on August 3.

According to a Bloomberg Japan article, Nintendo will be holding an event on September 29th to unveil the pricing and launch dates for their new handheld platform, the Nintendo 3DS. We can expect to see a price tag around $250 with a launch sometime before April next year. Japan is rumored to be getting the system a few months earlier, right before the new year.

3DS date, cost unveiled in September [Gamesindustry.biz]

In a bit of a surprise move from the people at Epic, the choice of whether Clayton Carmine lives or dies in Gears of War 3 will be decided by the fans. Starting today, you will be able to purchase two avatar t-shirts from the marketplace with your decision for 80 MS points. I know what you're thinking, but all money spent on this decision will be donated to Child's Play Charity, a worthy cause.

As you can see from the image above, Clayton Carmine appears to be able to take care of himself a little better than his brothers Anthony and Benjamin who didn't make it out of the previous titles. I think my vote will go to hoping he survives.  A picture of the avatar t-shirts can be seen below.

[View with PicLens]

Earlier today, Bungie and Microsoft release a brand new single-player campaign trailer for Bungie's swansong with the Halo franchise.  Set to a classic Halo score, you'll get a peak into some of the action that Noble Team will be involved with in the battle against the Covenant.  I won't go into any more details about the trailer, so enjoy.

Halo: Reach is slated for release in North America and Europe on the Xbox 360 in a few weeks on September 14th.

Bad news for those awaiting the next entry in Sony's hit tactical third-person shooter series. Originally slated for a fall release, SOCOM 4 is now a 2011 title, developer and franchise creator Zipper Interactive today confirmed. Zipper cited the obligatory need of extra polish as the reason behind needing more development time.

"While we're certainly aware that you've been looking forward to playing SOCOM 4 this year, we don't want to take any shortcuts," explained the developer in an official statement.

"Instead, we want to deliver the best and most immersive SOCOM game we possibly can and we're going to use our extra time to do just that."

It may be a downer for SOCOM faithful, but on the flip side, this shift makes the release schedule for the remainder of this year a little less crazy. Chances are SOCOM will benefit from not being overshadowed by genre titans like Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops as well.

SOCOM 4 in 2011 [SOCOM - Official Blog]

In a not-so irrational move, BioShock creator Irrational Games has launched a teaser site for the studio's next project, codename "Project Icarus." Unfortunately, there's not much in the way of artistic imagery to glean any clues from. The site merely depicts a grey speck surrounded by a barely-visible cloud of smoke. Minimalistic to the point of obscurity.

On the bright side, Irrational has already penciled in a date for the full reveal of its mystery title: August 11. That's only two weeks away, so hang tight.

Valve's PS3 plans may extend past Portal 2, as company PR head Doug Lombardi revealed in a recent interview with UK rag PSM3 that it is not ruling out the possibility of bringing its zombie slaughtering co-op franchise Left 4 Dead over.

"Who knows what the future will bring?," teased Lombardi.

A while back rumors floated around that the studio behind the Tales of... series was going through financial issues.  This rumors seem to have been quelled with the latest issue of JUMP magazine reporting that the studio has made not one, not two, but three new game announcements.

First up is that the former Wii-exclusive Tales of Graces, a game that hasn't even made it to the US yet and is going to be ported to the PS3.  The second game announcement is related to a exclusive PS3 title that hasn't been named yet and is slated to release some time in 2011.  Last but not least, it seems that a new Radiant Mythology title is going to hit PSP's in 2011 as well.

After re-releasing Tales of Vesperia (a former Xbox 360 exclusive) on the PS3 in Japan with added content, one might wonder if the same thing will happen to the Tales of  Graces port. Also, if the financial issues are true, might this be a last ditch effort from the studio to get some badly needed cash?

Several Tales games revealed in JUMP [NeoGaF]

Expect to see more PlayStation-branded apparel and lifestyle items hitting retail shelves as Sony has opened up its official license program to interested licensees.

The initiative aims to bolster brand image by granting third-parties the ability to use iconic PlayStation marks on a wide range of everyday products, including "apparel, accessories, house wares and more." That means we could soon see LittleBigPlanet coffee mugs and kids utensils. Sky's the limit, really.

Interested parties can apply for inclusion by filling out the request form on SCE's official site.