Prolific World of Warcraft add-on maker cknight has released the latest version of his Cartographer mod, transforming WoW’s static in-game world map into a Google Maps-inspired dynamic map.

Even though the add-on is only in beta, it’s already an extremely impressive achievement, and I look forward to experimenting with it when I reactivate my WoW account in the coming weeks (Really! …Probably).

Of course, as any Lord of the Rings Online player knows, Azeroth isn’t the first virtual fantasy world to get the Google Maps treatment. Arda Online’s map of Middle-Earth has been helping LotRO players find there way from the Shire to the Trollshaws for months now.

Cartographer 3, Interview, Daily Blue, Contest [World of Raids]

The long rumored sequel to Michel Ancel’s last generation opus Beyond Good & Evil is real, and we’ve got the uninformative, supposedly real-time trailer to prove it. This announcement from Ubidays 08 is particularly surprising given the poor sales of the original, which was marked down to below 50% of its original MSRP just two months after it was released.

Ubisoft doesn’t have a release date to go along with the new teaser, and fans eager to experience the continuing adventures of Jade and Pey’j may yet have a long wait ahead of them. Ancel was reportedly crushed when Nintendo’s Pokémon Snap beat him to the photography-based video game punch in 1999, four years before Beyond Good & Evil would finally be completed.

The criminally overlooked original plays like a combination of The Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, and the aforementioned Pokémon Snap. It is, naturally, all kinds of awesome, thanks in part to its excellent and varied musical score that matches the schizophrenic assortment of gameplay elements perfectly. Thankfully, Christophe Heral will be returning to score Beyond Good & Evil 2 as well.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 Screens! More Importantly: TRAILER! [NeoGAF]

Ukrainian developer GSC Game World has released a stunning new trailer showing off the DirectX 10 effects in their upcoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. expansion. The newly-implemented lighting and shadow effects are jaw-dropping, and promise to make an already visually-impressive title all the more gorgeous. One thing’s for certain: No FPS/RPG hybrid has ever looked so good.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky will be available to bring graphics cards to their knees on August 29th.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky running in DX10 - Wow! [CVG]

Valve has released the latest in their series of videos introducing gamers to Team Fortress 2’s colorful cast of classes. Today we finally get some face time with the speedy scout who, it turns out, is a smug, cocky bastard. And with good reason: Anyone who’s been out-gunned by a tiny man with a metal bat knows that just because the scout may not have much life, he’s still a force to be reckoned with at the hands of a skilled player.

Like their Final Fantasy and Metroid retrospectives before it, GameTrailers’ absurdly comprehensive Star Wars retrospective plans to cover every single Star Wars video game ever released, and all before The Force Unleashed ships this fall.

This newest installment in the series covers games based on the new trilogy of movies, including personal favorites Episode I Racer and Republic Commando. As always, the video acts as a fantastic dose of nostalgia for anyone with enough brainspace wasted on such useless topics and an informative bit of edutainment for everyone else.

The Star Wars Retrospective [GameTrailers via PSMonger]

Like many people, Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw is a fan of the Xbox 360 launch title Condemned: Criminal Origins. It turns out, he’s a fan of Condemned 2: Bloodsport too. At least, he enjoys it up until the game’s plot eats itself in a series of nonsensical revelations.

Yahtzee has a term for games that start out great (and reasonably grounded in reality) and get piss-stupid half-way through: They’re suffering from Indigo Prophecy Syndrome. Like the initially clever last-generation adventure game, Condemned 2 begins as a wholly interesting experience before devolving into a putrid sludge of stupidity.

It’s just human nature to explain away whatever initially makes something so compelling. See: The 2001 series (RIP Arthur C. Clarke) and Lost in two years.

Zero Punctuation: Condemned 2: Bloodshot [The Escapist]

An enterprising modder has imported assets from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (specifically the Imperial City and a few random houses) to the Crysis engine, making for one stunning blurry YouTube video. Because of legal reasons, the modder obviously can’t release the mod to the public, but that hasn’t stopped him from showing off his work. One thing’s for certain: Oblivion never looked that good on my PC, and maybe in five years the leyman PC gamer will be able to afford a machine capable of producing such gorgeous visuals.

WIP - Oblivion to Crysis [Crymod Forums via bits bytes pixels & sprites]

Star Vault AB has announced their upcoming first-person MMORPG Mortal Online. The game is powered by Unreal Engine 3 and has a summer 2009 release date.

This first trailer was “produced using in-game content and technology,” meaning this is what Star Vault AB hopes the game will look like a year from now. In any case, it certainly looks pretty, even for a low-quality streaming FLV.

The trailer also promises “a different kind of MMORPG world,” “sophisticated skill trees where practice makes perfect,” and “a realtime combat system where your skills as a player really matter.” In short, Mortal Online will be no different than every other fantasy MMO currently on the market. At least it will look nice.

Mortal Online [Official Site via Bluesnews]

The trailer for Telltale Games’ recently-announced episodic gaming series Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People has hit the intertubes. Regardless of how the final game might play, Telltale has definitely nailed Homestar Runner’s look.

The only real question, then, is whether all five episodes of the adventure series will fit on the Wii’s limited storage space

Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Media [Shacknews]

In case the “CLOSED BETA FOOTAGE” text at the bottom of the video doesn’t give it away, this is the latest footage from the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning closed beta.

With each tiny morsel of information EA Mythic leaks, the game looks more and more promising. Though the game’s strange ability to visually fluctuate between being stunningly beautiful and dull and interesting is somewhat worrying. Still, they’ve got until Fall to spit shine the game into their promised WoW-killer.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Closed Beta Footage [Gaming Today]