The game industry is a weird place sometimes. We've got Gaga on a virtual farm, a modern shooter showdown on the horizon, and a possible Minecraft-themed convention. You can't put together three more different stories than that.

E-I-E-I-O-Na-La-La-La

Lady Gaga has chosen to debut her new album, Born this Way, on FarmVille. Apparently, "The Gaga" will have her own virtual farm featuring such wonders as crystals, unicorns, and biker sheep. FarmVille-playing Gaga fans will be able to complete quests in order to access three new songs from the album. There is no word yet on whether completing these quests will require the signing over of one's savings account or immortal soul to Zynga. There is, however, a $25 Zynga Game Card deal that nets players a copy of Born This Way with exclusive bonus tracks. Plus, there will be Lady Gaga-inspired virtual items available for a bunch of Zynga games. All this cross-promotion is giving me a headache.

Bang, Bang... Who's Dead?

It looks like two of the biggest modern shooter games are headed for a release date battle. According to video game retailers, EA's Battlefield 3 is gunning for Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by attempting to launch as close as possible to MW3's release date. It takes guts to go directly after the gaming behemoth that is Modern Warfare. We'll see how the release date gamble works out for Battlefield 3.

Speaking of release dates, an apparent massive leak of information about Modern Warfare 3 lists its release date as November 8. There are a ton of spoilers involved in this leaked information, which I will refrain from posting here for those of you who are looking forward to experiencing the story for yourselves. If the leaks are accurate, however, gamers can expect to play through fifteen missions that take place over twelve cities around the world. Plus, those who prefer online play will have twenty multiplayer maps at their disposal.

April Sales Showers for the US Video Game Sector

April's NPD numbers are out, and overall video game sales numbers were up 26% over last April. Big new titles like Mortal Kombat and Portal 2 helped this month's sales, along with solid sales for games like Lego Star Wars III, Just Dance, Michael Jackson: The Experience, Crysis 2, Pokémon Black/White, and Call of Duty: Black Ops. It doesn't look like the PlayStation Network downtime affected April sales much, but May could be a different story.

Minecraft in Vegas?

The indie runaway hit, Minecraft, is more than just Legos for grown-ups. It's become a genuine phenomenon with a strong worldwide community. As such, game creator Notch has floated the idea of hosting a Minecraft convention in order to celebrate the game's official release on November 11, 2011. Interested parties can vote on whether they'd attend on his blog. Notch states that, "there'd be contests (costume, speed building, whatever else), Q&A sessions, parties, and awesome food and such." Plus, it'd be in Vegas. And honestly, who hasn't wanted to run around Las Vegas with a cube head and a pickaxe?

That's what I've got for this week. The diversity in today's gaming world is pretty impressive, isn't it? I think if I were choosing between hanging with Lady Gaga on Facebook, shooting people online, or Minecrafting in Vegas, I'd go with MinecraftCon. I don't even play Minecraft, but it sounds like a good time.

By Becky Cunningham
CCC Contributing Writer

*The views expressed within this article are solely the opinion of the author and do not express the views held by Cheat Code Central.*