The second developer diary video for 2K Games' Mafia II has been released, exploring such interesting topics as gun fights, car chases, and melee combat.

Mafia II will be released on August 24 in the US and on the 27th elsewhere for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

"Approximately thirty-five others" have left Call of Duty series creator and Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward since owner Activision fired the studio's two lead executives, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said today, with more expected to follow.

Kotaku brings word of four more resignations at Modern Warfare 2 studio Infinity Ward, which has already lost most of its lead developers. The new departures are:

Monolith's ultra-gory Build Engine shooter Blood has been digitally re-released on PC by virtual vendor Good Old Games, continuing its run of Atari additions as promised.

If you fancy yourself a die-hard gamer but don't own Ion Storm's classic Deus Ex or its less-beloved sequel Deus Ex: Invisible War, don't fret. Steam has you covered.

Developer DICE has updated its free-to-play web-based multiplayer shooter Battlefield Heroes with a new gameplay mode, an accompanying new map, and yes, jetpacks.

Dubbed "V2 Vengeance," the mode instructs players to "capture and hold the rocket and keep it from enemy hands in the new "Midnight Mayhem" arena. As for how the jetpacks factor in, check out the trailer:

According to a report earlier today by industry magazine Develop, Epic Games and the middleware group Scaleform are going to begin offering Scaleform Gfx user-interface tools to Unreal Engine 3 licensees later this year, free of charge.

In a pleasantly surprising follow-up announcement, the companies also revealed a deal that will bundle the tools into Epic's free-to-use Unreal Development Kit.

Last November, band No Doubt sued Activision over the use of the band's likeness in the form of in-game avatars being used in non-No Doubt songs.

The LA Times reports that Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kenji Machida ruled in favor of the band and denied Activision's claim that it could use First Amendment freedom-of-speech rights to cover the use of the band's images for general use.

ATI has released a new driver set, the Catalyst 10.4 Preview, aimed at fixing long level load times in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for players with Radeon series 5 video cards, available in Windows 7 and Vista and Windows XP flavours from FileShack.

Expanding the selection of World of Warcraft's Pet Store, Blizzard today added a $25.00 "Celestial Steed" to the online marketplace.

"The Celestial Steed is the first-ever mount to be available through the service," explained Blizzard, specifying that "this supernatural warhorse will fly as fast as your riding skill will take you, and it will travel at 310% speed if you have at least one other 310% mount."