As if you didn’t have enough games backtracked to carry you into the New Year, today, at an event hosted by Massive Inc., Activision announced a shitload of new games, though they’re mostly sequels to old titles. Hit the jump for the full details.

As expected, Activision announced yet another game for the Guitar Hero franchise. Whoo. If you haven’t been keeping track, that’s the 9th announced Guitar Hero game from Activision. I mean, jeez, Harmonix only made three in the two years they had the series, and as of Q1 2010 (that’s two and a half years in Activision’s hands) the game will have twelve sequels & spin-offs. The franchise is going to die faster than [some 80's rap star]’s career. Thank you, I’ll be here all night.

Surprisngly, Activision also announced a new Tony Hawk game — one that won’t use the controller and will probably use the rumored skateboard peripheral, along with a new Call of Duty game planned as a sequel to Modern Warfare. The last of Activision’s announcements included a new Bond game, probably based off of the 23rd Bond film in 2010, and an original racing game from Bizarre Creations, which they’ve described as ‘Mario Kart meets Forza.” If it allows me to shoot a blue shell from a Maserati, I’m all for it.

Source: MTV Multiplayer

The latest in the long line of James Bond actors, Daniel Craig, is secretly a huge gaming fanatic.  He’s actually passionate enough about videogames (secretly) that he wouldn’t sign on with Treyarch to make the upcoming Quantum of Solace game until he got a chance to evaluate it himself.

In an interview with Daily Star, Treyarch’s Adam Gascoine had the following to say about Daniel Craig and his secret gaming lifestyle:

“Daniel Craig is a gamer. The impression I got is that he spends a lot of time playing games even though his other half is constantly telling him not to.

He was quite reserved about doing our game at first because he didn’t want to be involved in a shoddy product. We had to show it to him three times before he would sign up. When we went to Pinewood Studios, we were held up for half an hour because he was playing Guitar Hero.

They were about half way through making Quantum Of Solace and he got to play some levels of the game that related to scenes he was actually filming at the time. The fact that he was evaluating our game made it very high stakes for us. It was quite tense, but the end result made it a much better game.

Craig is very serious about his roles. You can’t just go in there joking and laughing. You have to establish you are there to do business. If he says he doesn’t like it, you have to listen. He’s also built like a brick shithouse so you don’t argue with him.”

I have nothing else to say except that this news is both awesome and strangely humorous.

Xbox Evolved claims that in talks with very reliable sources evidence has presented itself in the form of, well, we don’t know what form of evidence they saw. They just won’t show us, but what they did is tell us all about is what may be headed to our XBLA. Banjo, Ms. Dark, or dare we say, Bond?

According to Xbox Evolved, Microsoft, Rare, MGM Studios (studio that currently holds rights to 007 films) and Activision (publisher that currently holds rights 007 games) have come to an agreement to bring the Rare developed N64 classic Goldeneye 007 out to the Xbox Live Arcade.

Xbox Evolved goes on to detail that the title will feature updated graphics and online multiplayer. They even go on to say that in addition to Goldeneye, Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark will appear on XBLA.

If all of this is true, this is a big success for the Xbox Live Arcade over the Virtual Console. I’m just hoping that along with updated graphics, they bring on some revamped controls, Why, you ask? Go break out your N64 and that dusted up copy of Goldeneye.

Source: Xbox Evolved