"Gordon Freeman is a menace to society. When he's not bludgeoning our men with cars and annihilating our demolition teams with their own ordinances, he's white-washing their corpses with paint and treating wild, endangered headcrabs like lowly mammalian bulls. Sure, we enslaved his species and all, but does he have to be such a jerk about it? He toys with us as though this were some sort of game, and we won't stand for it."

--An excerpt from The Combine Times, the final Combine paper to include anything other than obituaries.

"..."

--Gordon Freeman's reply

Yeah, Gordon Freeman isn't the most loquacious guy around. He speaks through his actions -- or rather, your actions. But that's what makes him great. He's a videogame character under your direct control. He fights like you, so why shouldn't he think like you?

As you've probably noticed, my particular Gordon Freeman is, well, have you ever imagined what it'd be like if one of the loud-mouthed, rap-prone kids on Xbox Live was tasked with saving all of humanity (and managing a classy goatee)? Am I like that in real life? No, but slipping into the hazard suit of a silent protagonist like Gordon Freeman allows me to project a side of myself into the game that hardly even exists in reality. I'm not constrained by any pre-set personality the man might have, so my imagination washes over the game, and it becomes a whole new experience.

Sure, I enjoy having the tightly braided engagement-lasso of a compelling, whip-smart lead wrapped around my neck as much as anyone, but I also think that such a lead doesn't lend him/herself well to gaming's main strength: interactivity.

So, how do you like your protagonist: strong and silent with a side of whatever you want, or glib -- fried up and delivered just as the developers ordered?

Today's Roundup features heroes of both varieties, along with a smattering of other stories about your favorite industry. From details about WoW's colossal (and free!) pre-WotLK update, to exclusive titles' death knells, there's no way you'll leave this Roundup without something to talk about. Jump past the break for more.     

Sony: Publisher exclusivity probably "a thing of the past"

Sony's grip on exclusives this console generation has been about as secure as oiled-up hands on a brand new, promise-I'll-never-scratch-it cell phone. However, according to SCEE President David Reeves, the lack of third-party exclusives has little to do with the PS3's silver-flecked bronze medal. Instead, the onus rests on high development costs and the industry's puberty-eclipsing growth.  

"We have to accept more and more that platform holders themselves cannot have exclusives unless they're given millions and millions of dollars not to develop a particular game for one particular platform," he told GI.biz.

Developers, though, are a different story.

"But for developers, and you could take someone like Quantic Dream for example - a great game, it takes a lot of time to develop, they need a little bit of funding, external development. In exchange, it's exclusive - that works. So exclusivity possibly with developers is more likely that exclusivity with publishers."

A few hundred thousand dollars, when compared to a few million, leaves your wallet with a far less anorexic figure, and builds developer goodwill to boot. Win-win, unless, of course, the dev in question pulls an FFXIII.

Analyst Proclaims European Game Market Equal in Size to North America

Europe is one determined collection of landmasses. Even in the face of repeated, comically pointless game delays and a multitude of other third wheel-isms, the tea-sipping, accented bizarro version of the gaming industry has managed to escape from the shadow of its North American counterpart.

According to Colin Sebastian, analyst for Lazard Capital Markets, Europe's sector of the industry is now worth roughly $10 million -- $15 million if you include hardware sales.

Could we be looking at a passing of the torch within a few years?         

EA, Activision Games Account for 75% of Q3 Console Releases

"Between them Activision Blizzard and EA will generate around forty per cent of all Q4 and around seventy five per cent of all Q3 packaged releases for Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3," reads a report from market research group Screen Digest.

I imagine all of the other publishers feel like the badly lip-synced citizens in a Godzilla flick -- eyes wide as the big G and Mothra slap each other through skyscrapers.

Report: Payton Leaves Kojima Productions, Hints At MGS5

Payton was, in large part, responsible for MGS4's leap into the modern era of control schemes -- making sure that only MGS4's story would boggle players' minds. It's a shame to see him go.

WoW primed for major pre-WotLK content patch    

“We will be issuing a new content patch in the coming weeks,” noted a Blizzard rep on the WoW forums. “Much like the patch made available shortly before The Burning Crusade’s release, this content patch is designed to bridge current game content with that of the expansion and will contain some exciting changes.”

Check out the link for an overview of all the new features.

Gearbox has been approached about a new Halo game

Well, at least the development cycle will feel like an authentic Bungie experience.