If you asked me about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl even six months ago, I would have probably cried ‘vaporware’. However, after speaking to the team and having the game played here at Snackbar, the reality is that THQ’s GSC Game World developed PC survival horror FPS is not only real, it’s also poised to make quite a splash when it ships to retail in the very near future. To further drive this point home, THQ sent notice today that the game has gone gold, as we say in the ‘the biz’.

Look for our hands on impressions of the game in the near future – as soon as we are let out of the clean room.

Following the 2006 release of Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Q Entertainment’s rhythmic puzzler Lumines over Xbox Live Arcade, today the studio revealed that it plans to bring an HD version of Every Extend Extra to the Xbox 360’s popular online service.

Scheduled to debut before the end of the year, the near tongue-twisting Every Extend Extra Extreme will feature a trio of game modes, including a mode called “S4, Wiz ur Muzik”, which professes to allow users to import their own music into the psychedelic puzzle game. Other enhancements, including 5.1 surround sound, leaderboards, online play, and achievements round out what is sure to be one to watch for in the coming months. Let’s just hope they work out the pricing model before its released, so gamers aren’t left with having to purchase the game in high priced chunks.

Today in an announcement at GDC in San Francisco, Activision confirmed earlier reports that it has acquired Irish middleware technology firm DemonWare. According to the publisher, the acquisition “will enable Activision to gain efficiencies related to online game development and positions the company to take advantage of the growth in online gameplay that will be driven by the next-generation consoles.”

So, long story short, it looks like our friends at Activision are looking to expans upon their online footprint with future titles. While no games or projects were specifically called out in the announcement, it’s at least a safe bet that DemonWare’s tech will find a home in future iterations of Activision’s popular Call of Duty franchise. Activision has utilized DemonWare’s technologies in its games since 2005, most recently in Call of Duty 3.

Under the terms of the agreement, DemonWare will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision and the company’s management team and key employees will sign long-term employment contracts with Activision. DemonWare will continue to be headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with offices in Vancouver, B.C. The transaction is expected to be completed no later than the close of Activision’s first quarter of fiscal year 2008. The closing of the transaction is subject to the completion of certain customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

DemonWare has two main products – DemonWare’s Matchmaking+, which provides advanced community services for multiplayer gaming, including player matching, user profiling and gaming statistics across current-and next-gen consoles and PCs; and DemonWare’s State Engine, a cross-platform network engine that ensures that console-to-console communications are secure and as lag-free as possible.

While I have never set foot one into Linden Lab’s online virtual world of Second Life, I’ve wrote enough about it to know better to stay away. Truth be told, I care barely manage my first life, and the idea of taking on a second one just seems akin to inviting the kind of self destruction my mother warned me about all those years ago.

However, the folks at technology giant Philips are hearing none of this, as today at GDC the company announced that its environmental ‘ambient experiences’ technology amBX has been brought to Second Life. Phillips has licensed its amBX tech to Rivers Run Red to produce a dedicated amBX-enabled environment in the game, within which players will experience their virtual surroundings in the real world, so to speak. Through a scripting language and unique architecture, amBX utilizes real world appliances such as desktop fans and LED lights to simulate and reflect in-game events.

Philips’ interest in Second Life does not end there however. The company is also developing solutions for open source Second Life client software and the creation of a software development kit, featuring user tools and props, to allow amBX experiences to be easily authored by existing ‘Second Lifers’, creating all new real world effects.