Can't remember the meals you had last week, not even to mention the news? Well, we have the ideal remedy: The brand new Weekly Gaming News Roundup, intended as a mean to bring you important gaming news items in a nutshell.

This week's news collection includes the Microsoft's spring update, the finalization of Nintendo's internet channel, Sony's decision to drop the 20 GB PS3 model in North America and a Capcom IP making its first appearance on PC.

PC

Capcom's snowy ego shooter, Lost Planet, will make its way from the Xbox 360 to the PC, in a DX10 compliant manner come June this year. It's worth of note that NVIDIA helped the Japanese publisher with this port, and that this PC version is said to support better lighting and shadowing techniques, as well as advanced special effects. Shacknews has a detailled comparison. According to Capcom the port is handled entirely in-house. Apart from the standard Mouse and Keyboard setup the game also supports the X360 controller in the PC version.
Also newsworthy, Bethesda finally acquired the rights to the complete Fallout IP from Interplay for 5.75 million USD. Interplay, however, was granted an exclusive license for a MMO game based on the Fallout universe.

MS

After a little period of radio silence, a quiet Microsoft finally released details of its eargerly awaited Spring update - our own Joshua Luna summarized its most interesting features here. Among others, it features improved messaging capabilities - X360 and PC owners can now communicate across the cultural divide - and a little tweaking of the achievements system. Moreover, Microsoft unveilled a clip-on keyboard for its X360 controller aimed to ease text input on the console.
In other related news, the time frame of the Halo 3 multiplayer beta testing has been finalized, enabling gamers to get a first try at their competition from May 16th to June 7th. Bungie, the company behind the series, also released a video documenting their efforts to improve the multiplayer aspects of their upcoming title. The video shows gameplay from the Alpha version according to Bungie.

Nintendo

This week saw the release of the final version of the Opera Wii Internet channel, which is now available as a free download until June 30th – afterwards it will cost 500 Wii Points (5 USD). Moreover, Wii sales remain strong in all major territories: According to Enterbrain, Nintendo's Wii crossed the 2 million mark on April 8th. Combined with the equally strong DS sales Nintendo has exceeded its own financial forecasts in FY2006 and is predicting a 62 percent profit rise.

Sony

Earlier this week Sony phased out the 20GB version of its PlayStation 3 in North America. The 60 GB version, which was the only model released in Europe, could eventually see a HDD capacity upgrade according to a Sony spokesman. Whether or not the 20GB version will still be sold in Japan has yet to be determined. Sony is also considering to make its gaming platform available for commercial distributed computing ventures following the success of the non-profit Folding At Home client on PS3.

That concludes the first edition of the roundup. As you can see it has not been the busiest week for gaming news. However, a few things were relatively worth of note: First, Capcom is further expanding its multiplatform strategy in order to increase their sales numbers. Now, will other Japanese developers take note of Capcom's performances and then follow its lead?
Second, Microsoft continues to try to integrate the PC and console market with their spring update. The reaction from gamers of both sides to this development could prove to be interesting.