EA’s trash talk hyping Battlefield 3 over Modern Warfare 3 has turned heads through the industry. Activision CEO of publishing Eric Hirshberg took time in his Gamescom 2011 keynote address to say the mudslinging isn’t helping anyone make better games. Hirshberg didn’t mention any names, but didn’t really need to. When Hirshberg noted a competitor said he wanted to see the Call of Duty franchise “rot from the core,” it was obvious he referred to comments made by EA CEO John Riccitiello.

The upcoming software update for Windows Phone 7 dubbed Mango is going to include hundreds of additional features. Some of these features will be implemented into the Xbox Live portion of WP7. Microsoft revealed during Gamescom what some of the Xbox Live enhancements will be in WP7 Mango.

The Pandora’s Tower and The Last Story news weren’t the only game announcements to come from Nintendo at Gamescom 2011. There was a nice little The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword tidbit revealed as well. Well, nice and important, since I’m sure a lot of Wii owners wanted to know when they’ll be able to buy and play Skyward Sword…

So, Gamescom is not just a way for lots of European people to get sneak peeks at awesome video games. It’s also a good place for companies to make some pretty major announcements about their games. Case in point is the Tekken 3D 3DS game Namco Bandai was hinting about at E3 2011. The company used Gamescom 2011 to let everyone know it’s for real and will be called Tekken 3D Prime Edition. Yes, it’s copycatting Capcom and Super Street Fight IV 3D Edition by sticking the terms “3D” and “edition” into Tekken‘s title…

There’s some good news coming out of Gamescom 2011 today. Well, it’s good news for Europeans. For North Americans, especially those involved in that Operation Rainfall thing, this announcement is like a dagger in the back. Nintendo’s European branch has just announced that The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower, the other two Wii games Operation Rainfall has been campaigning for, will be released in Europe sometime in 2012.

So, optimistically speaking, by mid-2012 Europeans could be playing the three Wii RPGs a large number of North American Wii owners have been begging, pleading and praying for. Ouch…

Activision is attending Gamescom 2011 this year too, and it not only has games with it, bit also a Call of Duty qualifier tournament for the Call of Duty $1 Million Tournamnet that’s going to be held at Call of Duty XP 2011. So yes, if you’re in Cologne, Germany from August 17-21, 2011 this week, you’re going to want to stop by Booth B20/30 in Hall 6 to see what Activision is up to.

The general booth is where the Call of Duty qualifier tournament will be held August 18-20, 2011 for teams of four. It’s in the B20 part of the Activision booth, and players will have to register and then fight itout against other teams while playing Call of Duty: Black Ops…

Like many other major video game companies, Konami also finds itself at Gamescom 2011 this week in Cologne, Germany. Also, like many others, it is going to use the August 17-21, 2011 convention to get everyone hyped up about its latest video games. Actually, about 17 games, if you want to be exact. It’s surprising, considering the event is open to everyone from August 18-21 and provides a great opportunity to get the public seeing and playing some of the freshest prospects.

Konami’s going to holding a press conference and maintaining a booth at Gamescom 2011…

Sony closed out its Gamescom 2011 press conference with a money-saving announcement. Don’t go running out to buy a PS3 yet because the price is about to come down. Effective immediately, the PS3 will now be $249.99 in the United States, €249.99 in Europe and ¥24,980 in Japan. Tell you friends and family to check with retailers if they plan on purchasing a PS3 soon. That extra $50 can be used to scoop up a great game.

We haven’t seen the last of Cole McGrath this year. He will be coming back in a new downloadable adventure this October in inFamous 2: Festival of Blood. This game is truly unlike anything we’ve seen from inFamous before. Why you ask? Because Cole is fighting vampires.

Sony is not done with the (old) PSP. Before the Vita launches, Sony will be introducing a new PSP that is almost exactly like the models that are currently available. There’s one big difference though. This PSP won’t come with Wi-Fi capabilities.