PC Video Games News

The original Mass Effect didn't enjoy the best of relationships with post-release DLC, however that's all being rectified for the sequel if a Microsoft Expert Zone quiz for retailers is anything to go by.

Destructoid reports that the survey offers "planned episodic combat via DLC, weapon an armour packs, new downloadable characters for the campaign experience, new downloadable worlds, as well as full campaign expansions for download."

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So we're the type of gamers that don't spend two seconds on game manuals.  By the time we've ripped open the packaging, the disc is already spinning in the drive and there's no time for inconsequential activities such as reading.

But sometimes such an overlook can be costly.

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We thought adopting a third-person mode was controversial enough, but it seems Infinity Ward is going for the jugular judging by the latest leaked footage that has emerged.

But firstly be warned, this is an extremely graphic spoiler of dramatic in-game action, so hit the back button if you don't want to spoil any surprises.

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Following the furore over Infinity Ward's retraction of dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield developer DICE has now committed itself to providing dedicated servers for PC users in games such as its upcoming sequel, Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

"A lot of buzz has been floating around the internet lately about dedicated servers and we wanted to make sure our all our players have the best understanding of how Battlefield will be played on the PC," said DICE Producer, Gordon Van Dyke. "Since Battlefield 1942 DICE has used dedicated servers for all platforms.  This formula has worked well, and still works well, for us and for the gaming community.   We have stayed true to this practice and will continue this tradition into the upcoming title Battlefield Bad Company 2."

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Following a leaked video that emerged over the weekend, Infinity Ward's community man, Robert Bowling has now confirmed that gamers will be able to play Modern Warfare 2 from a third-person perspective, although this feature will be limited to specific multiplayer modes.

"3rd Person is a new playlist mode in Multiplayer," Bowling told Kotaku. "So you can play your favourite playlists [or] game types, like Team Deathmatch just standard, or in Hardcore mode [with] limited HUD and increased bullet damage) or in the new 3rd Person mode, which means you and everyone in the game is in 3rd person."

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Speaking to TVG at an Aliens vs. Predator event in London last week, Rebellion revealed that its incoming AvP reboot will look better on the PC platform with DX11 support than the game's other consoles versions.

When we asked whether DX11 support was allowing Rebellion to do things on PC that it can't on consoles, AvP's Senior Producer, David Brickley told us, "Performance wise, there's no question - yes. It's incredible and we've had a lot of support from the hardware manufacturers as well in order to get the cards early enough to see what they can do. What's been announced so far, obviously in terms of tessellation for one thing, is way beyond what you're able to implement on the current crop of consoles."

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Aliens vs. Predator isn't due out until early next year, but it appears developer Rebellion will be ready to hit the ground running with DLC as the studio has revealed that it already has downloadable content "in production".

Speaking in a TVG interview, AvP's Senior Producer, David Brickley said, "The intention is that this is a proper reboot that is well supported and does new and interesting things with the title.

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Leaked footage from Modern Warfare 2 has allegedly revealed a big secret, so if you'd like to keep it all hush-hush until the game releases then make sure to hit the back button now.

The video demonstrates the game being played in third-person, with an accompanying screenshot reportedly confirming the existence of a 3rd Person Cage Match multiplayer game type.

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The Lead Producer on Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed II, Sébastien Puel has revealed to TVG that the studio is interested in bringing a multiplayer component to the Assassin's Creed universe at some point.

When we asked Puel whether he could see a future Assassin's Creed game featuring co-op or multiplayer modes, he told us that, "This is something that does interest us."

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THQ has announced that its publishing a new FPS being developed by the Ukrainian based studio, 4A Games. The shooter, which is titled Metro 2033 and is based on a 2002 novel of the same name by Dmitry Glukhovsky, is due to surface in early 2010 on Xbox 360 and PC.

The game's sci-fi storyline is based in Moscow and set in the wake of a nuclear holocaust in 2013, where the holocaust's survivors now live beneath a decimated cityscape in the city's subway systems thirty years later.

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EA has announced that its Need For Speed series has passed through the milestone of 100 million lifetime sales, collating an impressive $2.7 billion (£1.63 billion) in total sales revenues along the way.

The arcade racing game series has been iterated through 15 separate titles across 14 different platforms since its inception in 1994, with gamers logging over 279 billion miles on the various race tracks and roads featured throughout the series' history (how EA figured out that stat is anybody's guess).

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Roughly four days have passed since IWNet's zero hour - when the matchmaking service for Modern Warfare 2 on PC was revealed by Infinity Ward's sounding board, Robert Bowling - and now he's spoken out on his blog in defence of the service.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is actually the biggest investment Infinity Ward has ever made into the PC version of our games," insisted Bowling in the post. "It's also the most feature-rich PC version we've ever made. IWNET takes the benefits of dedicated servers and allows them to be utilised and accessed by every player, out of the box, while removing the barrier to entry for players unaware of how to maintain a server on their own."

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The British Board of Film Classification has passed Activision and Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 for release in the UK with an 18 certificate.

Not cuts were made to the original code, although this will be the first 18 rated game in Activision's Call of Duty stable (all the previous games have weighed in with 15 ratings).

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In a move that's led 53,000 PC gamers (and counting) to sign an online petition, Infinity Ward has revealed that it will replace the dedicated servers from the original Modern Warfare with a matchmaking service called IWNet for Modern Warfare 2 on PC.

Infinity Ward's community man, Robert Bowling revealed the info in a BASHandSlash webcast (via Kotaku), where he commented that, "It's definitely going to be a change. It's going to be a very different setup than what we're previously used to in the Call of Duty franchise for the PC."

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2010 will get off to a quick start with confirmation that Mass Effect 2 will be arriving on January 29th across Europe, although the press release fails to disclose whether this is for both the Xbox 360 and PC versions.

"Our fans are in for a genuine thrill in the New Year with Mass Effect 2 - the second installment in the trilogy will be of amazingly high quality," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder, BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA. "BioWare's fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting this epic sequel, and we couldn't be more excited to reward them for pre-ordering by delivering some awesome bonus content!"

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It'll be no big surprise to most of you, but SEGA and Obsidian has confirmed a delay for Alpha Protocol that will push the title from its previous autumn 2009 release window into spring 2010.

This follows reports from last month (citing an alleged SEGA document) that a Sony product evaluator said the game, "felt barely RPG," with an initial level that was, "too challenging for players," and that "Mass Effect felt more RPG".

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The European PlayStation blog has recently posted a belated interview from Gamescom with Hideo Kojima.  Responding to questions from the community regarding a possible update to the popular mech space-opera series, Zone of Enders, Kojima-san suggested that a sequel is certainly on the cards.

"A lot of the users gives us lots of love calls about Zone of the Enders especially," Kojima-san told the PS blog.  "We actually do love the tile as well at Kojima Productions and we always want to create on the next-gen as well."

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German developer Crytek has today announced the release of what it's calling the first "truly Next-Gen-Ready" game engine, the CryEngine 3, which is now available to all developers for licensed use.

Unlike the CryEngine 2, which was largely sidelined to the PC platform, the CryEngine 3 offers an "all-in-one development solution" according to Crytek. This allows the engine to not only cater for existing Xbox 360, PS3, and DX9/10 based hardware, but also "all major upcoming platforms" as well.

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Codemasters' Executive Producer on Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Sion Lenton has revealed that the first DLC for the game will be "coming up in a matter of weeks" after the game was released last Friday.

We've got some very ambitious plans with DLC - our first pack is coming up in a matter of weeks," Lenton told the Telegraph. "We'll also have title updates coming up because once the game's out there, we'll need to get feedback from the people who are playing it, and if need be make a few adjustments and tweaks.

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RPG specialist BioWare has stated that it will be supporting its latest opus, Dragon Age: Origins through DLC for two years after the game launches at the start of next month.

"We have [DLC] plans that stretch out for basically two years," said the game's Executive Producer, Mark Darrah. "And it's going to be everything from really small stuff like item packs up to larger quests that might last an hour or two up to even fully fledged expansion packs. Really it's a broad long term support plan for the game."

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Steam's Left 4 Dead 2 boycotters, Walking_Target and Agent of Chaos, have announced that they are going to shut down their boycott group on Steam as of 5:00pm UK time on October 21st.

"We have accomplished everything we can on our manifesto," said Agent of Chaos. "We've been dealing with Valve ever since our group started, then we met them in-person and now we're at the point of concluding our discussions. Our goal wasn't to steer people away from L4D2, it was to get Valve's attention and have them support original L4D. We succeeded and that's where our mission ends; nothing more or less."

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Following critical comments of Valve's Steam portal by Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford, Tripwire Interactive's President and Co-founder, John Gibson has now spoken out in defence of the digital download service.

As an Indie developer that's released two titles via Steam (Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, and Killing Floor), Tripwire Interactive has had a lot of experience of doing business with Valve via Steam, and it's all positive by the sounds of things:

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Valve has revealed the fourth game mode for its incoming sequel Left 4 Dead 2, which will set teams of up to 4 players against each other as Survivors attempt to refuel a power generator and Infected do everything in their powers to stop them.

This new Scavenge Mode is both time and points based, as Survivors have to pick up gas cans from each level and pour them into a generator to add time to a clock and score points for their team. The Infected then play as Boss characters and must stop the Survivors by attacking them, destroying the gas cans, or running down the clock.

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British actor, Billy Murray has apparently been reprising his voice-acting role as Captain Price over in LA recently according to his website, suggesting that the handlebar moustached hero of the original Modern Warfare may be set to make a return in Infinity Ward's upcoming sequel.

[N.B. if you still haven't finished the original Modern Warfare, then avert your eyes from this paragraph]. It was of course Captain Price who tragically died at the end of the last game (or, at least, he appeared to), although this latest piece of info suggests that Price is alive and kicking in the sequel.

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Call of Duty may never have entered modern times if Activision executives had had their way.  In an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine (reported by CVG), Infinity Ward's Vince Zampella remarks that the developer wanted to move away from WWII with Call of Duty 2.

"With Call of Duty 2, we were dead set against it being World War 2," Zampella claimed, "but Activision really wanted it, the compromise sort of being that we'd get some dev kits for consoles in exchange for doing a World War 2 game.

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EA Sports' FIFA 10 has become the fastest selling FIFA game in UK history and the second biggest game launch ever, with only Rockstar's GTA IV selling more copies during its launch week.

This is according to official Chart Track figures, which place FIFA atop the UK charts following its release on Friday. FIFA 10's sales at launch were 48% higher than its predecessor, while the format spread was 2% higher on the Xbox 360 than they were on PS3 (Xbox 360 - 48%, PS3 - 46%, other formats - 6%).

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EA discovered the perils of releasing unfinished features in a finished game across the launch weekend of FIFA 10.  Attempts to use the Game Face technology or Live Season 2.0 failed abjectly, with servers allegedly struggling to keep up with the sheer demand.

Players struggled to log-in to the website www.easportsfootball.co.uk, and on the rare occasion when the editor was actually available, problems such as editing or saving meant that a lot of disgruntled customers were intensifying the heat in EA's official forums across the weekend.

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Despite news from earlier this week that pointed to a spring 2010 release for Modern Warfare 2 DLC, Infinity Ward's community guy, Robert Bowling has now stated that development of the game's two promised map packs won't start until after Modern Warfare 2 is finished.

"We haven't even begun thinking about what our DLC will be, let alone finish any," said Bowling on the official Infinity Ward forums. "No DLC will begin development until the entire game is finished and certified."

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On October 23rd, Gearbox Interactive's latest opus Borderlands will arrive on the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. To celebrate the event, TVG is holding an exclusive competition giving away copies of the game and 150 portions of DLC for the title as well.

Five copies of the game are on offer for the competition's winners - all of which will receive the DLC weapons pack as well - while an additional 145 runners-up will receive the DLC prepped for download upon the game's release.

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UK Supermarket Tesco is currently offering EA's FIFA 10 at £24.97, which is a markdown of 50% from the game's RRP of £49.99, while other retailers have attempted to follow suit with similar price reductions.

We purchased our copies at the store this morning from a promotional display that was setup front and centre at our local Tesco Direct but, if you can't be bothered to make the journey, then there's always the online option via the TVG Store.

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The General Manager of Eidos' Championship Manager series, Roy Meredith has spoken to TVG about the sort of improvements he's looking to make with next year's instalment, including a deeper set-piece creator and a more immersive training system.

When we asked Meredith whether Champ Man 2011 will opt for a gradual evolution of the series or more revolutionary features, he commented that, "There's a balance. We need to put in big ticket new features, but we need to balance it against certain other work that still needs to be done."

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As the world awaits the result of Chelsea's appeal against its transfer ban ruling from FIFA, the General Manager of Eidos' Championship Manager series, Roy Meredith has revealed in a TVG interview that the potential ban may be implemented in Champ Man 2010 via its CM Season Live update feature.

Unless Chelsea's appeal is successful, the club will face a ban on signing any new players over the next two transfer windows (i.e. until September 1st 2010). In turn, this could be reflected in Champ Man 2010 via the CM Season Live feature, which updates the game's database according to events, results, and transfers (or lack thereof) from the real world of football.

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The first batch of Modern Warfare 2 DLC, or more specifically the first multiplayer map pack, will be arriving in Spring 2010, if an advertisement from the energy drink manufacturer Monster Energy is to be believed.

Shacknews received a pack of the energy drink which is running promotional competitions.  In giving away map pack codes, the accompanying material claims, "5000 MW2 Map Pack codes - planned release Spring 2010"

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Dead Rising 2's Producer, Keiji Inafune has stated that it's his "desire" to put multiple endings in the game (as was the case with the original), although the development team is not currently at a point where they've decided one way or the other.

"Definitely one of the things people seemed to like with the first Dead Rising game was that there were multiple endings, and so I personally would love to be able to put in multiple endings in this game," said Inafune.

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It seems that Infinity Ward won't be releasing a demo for Modern Warfare 2 before it releases on November 10th, as the developer has announced exactly that on its Twitter over the weekend.

"No plan for a Demo before launch. The entire team is focused on polish all the way up to ship of the full game," Infinity Ward Tweeted.

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Further to last week's murmurings of a Street Fighter IV sequel, Capcom has now launched a teaser site adorned with Street Fighter IV style video clips, which is counting down to an announcement scheduled for 5pm Japanese time on 29th September (that's tomorrow at 8am in the UK).

The site's URL includes the words "new warrior", which could mean anything really, although we're hoping that it's not just an announcement for a new character as DLC for Street Fighter IV. That would really crush our hopes of Super Street Fighter IV or something of that ilk.

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Valve has announced that 'Crash Course', the second major portion of DLC for last year's Left 4 Dead, will be arriving on September 29th for Xbox 360 and PC, while a demo of the incoming sequel, Left 4 Dead 2 will surface on October 27th.

'Crash Course' will be free for PC, although Xbox 360 owners will have to part with 560 Microsoft Points (£4.76) to download the DLC. According to Valve's Chet Faliszek, this is because Microsoft wants to retain "an economy of value" on Xbox Live. For more details on the content in 'Crash Course', click through here.

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SEGA and The Creative Assembly today announced the first expansion pack for Empire: Total War.  Available exclusively via Steam in October for £5.99, Empire: Total War - The Warpath Campaign adds a new North American campaign map along with the ability to play as five American Indian factions.

Battling the invaders from the old world, the Iroquois, Huron, Plains, Pueblo, and Cherokee tribes can take advantage of a new technology tree which features 18 tribal technologies exclusive to the new factions.  In addition, each of the new factions will also feature two new agents, the mystical shaman and the cunning Scout, and their own unique Elite units.

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After a string of delays into 2010 we'd assumed that the barren Christmas release schedule wouldn't suffer anymore casualties; how wrong we were.

VideoGamer brings word that Bizarre Creations' latest racer (and first Activision-Blizzard title) has been pushed into the New Year.  Initially scheduled for a November 2009 release, the delay allegedly gives the team more time to "enhance the game's innovative and distinctive online multiplayer gameplay".

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Publishers of MMOs, and possibly any game featuring an online multiplayer component, could soon have to fork out for a patent owned by an instant messaging provider.

A report on The Boston Globe centres upon a lawsuit issued by Paltalk Holdings Inc., which alleges that Turbine Inc., Sony Corp., Activision-Blizzard Inc., NCSoft Corp., and Jagex Ltd. have infringed upon a patent owned by the New York based IM software and technology provider.

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The fact that Street Fighter IV exceeded sales expectations, coupled with Capcom teasing that new titles will be unveiled at Tokyo Game Show and the producer's blog murmurings regarding a 'sequel' suggests we might see something substantial on the Steet Fighter front at this year's Tokyo Game Show.

IGN brings word of Natsuki Shiozawa's mentioning information surrounding a sequel in a blog, then updating this with a later entry that promises a more solid announcement will take place in the near future.

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We've received word from 2K Games that BioShock 2 is now set for worldwide release on February 9th of next year. This follows the game's delay earlier this year from its original October 30th 2009 launch date.

The wording on the press release is a touch ambiguous though and doesn't specify platforms for the February 9th date, although it does confirm that the game is "in development" for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. This will no doubt fuel earlier rumours that BioShock 2 could be planned as a timed exclusive.

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Major Nelson has just confirmed the arrival of a PES 2010 demo onto Xbox Live. Demos for PS3 and PC are also scheduled for release today as the game prepares for its full retail launch on October 23rd.

According to Nelson's blog, the demo supports multiplayer and allows players to sample PES 2010's new tactical slider settings, which you can have a good look at in the trailer below.

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Modern Warfare 2's ego surely doesn't require any further massaging.  With a range of versions, night-vision goggles and an inflated RRP, surely that's enough?

Perhaps not, as Activision and Microsoft confirmed that the rumoured Xbox 360 Elite, featuring the 250GB hard drive, will make its first appearance under the guise of a Limited Edition console to celebrate the monumental launch of Modern Warfare 2.

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Batman: Arkham Asylum has sold nearly 2 million copies already according to the LA Times, less than a month after the game's launch.

More solid figures are provided by August's NPDs, which reveal that Arkham Asylum shifted 593,000 copies in the US on both Xbox 360 and PS3 (a PC version will arrive next week), although this accounts for only a week's worth of sales at the end of the month. Additionally, Arkham Asylum has been topping the charts here in the UK, so we'd expect a sizeable portion of additional European sales.

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Global Gaming Factory, the Swedish based most notable for launching plans to acquire and legitimise The Pirate Bay, has been kicked off the Aktietorget stock exchange according to a report from The Independent.

The stock exchange alleges that the Global Gaming Factory misled the market by saying the financing of the acquisition was secured, that it had received two informal takeover offers and was in final negotiations with copyright owners surrounding content on the site.

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While Valve managed to offer its first portion of Left 4 Dead DLC for free on both Xbox 360 and PC, this will not be the case with its incoming 'Crash Course' content, which will be free of charge on the PC but is set to cost 560 Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360.

This, according to Valve's Chet Faliszek, was a decision that was not left down to Valve but was made by Microsoft instead. "We own our platform, Steam. Microsoft owns their platform. They wanted to make sure there's an economy of value there," he explained.

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The impact of the release of GTA IV in 2008, saw Take-Two Interactive post a 68% drop in net revenues of $138.6 million for the third quarter ended July 31st 2009, compared to the $433.8 million posted in the same quarter last year.  

As a result, the US publisher recorded a net loss of $55.5 million compared to a net income of $51.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2008.  Although this loss was slightly smaller than analysts were previously expecting.

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Responding to continued fan feedback, The Collective Assembly today announced details from Update 1.4 for Empire: Total War.

Promising an overhaul of the AI in both the campaign map and the real time battles, the improvements focus on how the AI wages war, makes alliances and peace as well as the use of naval invasions. Battle side improvements have been made to most areas of the AI with the focus on the siege AI which has had major changes made to it.

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Activision and Infinity Ward have done a pretty good job on putting the clampers on Modern Warfare 2, only releasing a trickle of information to wet the appetitive for much more when the game finally launches on November 10th.

However it appears the security weren't keeping a close eye at a recent retailers' event in the States, where the following footage has emerged from.

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According to this listing on The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency's website, Hans Zimmer has written the musical score for Infinity Ward's upcoming mega-sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The listing is almost certainly genuine as it's easily accessible from the Hans Zimmer link on Gorfaine/Schwartz's site, while the agency itself appears to have corralled the talents of Hollywood's most emminent composers and musicians (including the legendary John Williams).

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GamesCom is out of the way, which means that there's only the Tokyo Game Show to go for the remainder of 2009.

It's still nearly a month away, yet Capcom has been busily twittering about new game announcements that will take place during the show.

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Kalypso Media has just announced an October 16th worldwide release date for Tropico 3, when El Presidente will return to the gaming scene on the Xbox 360 and PC platforms.

It's been a long hiatus for the dictator, who's probably been hiding out in a post-Soviet state somewhere since Tropico was released in 2001, although he'll be around for a brief visit on the week commencing September 7th when a PC demo is due to launch prior to his full return.

Despite a worldwide release of October 16th, the PC version will be available in Germany from September 24th onwards, which is probably the result of a corrupt trade agreement or something.

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Even though Splash Damage and Bethesda haven't even released the first Brink game yet, the game's developer has nevertheless revealed that it has "big plans" for two sequels after the first game launches next spring.

"If [players] are willing to take the chance, they will find that this becomes another landmark franchise that they'll keep wanting to come back to," said the game's Creative Director, Richard Ham. "I'm looking forward to Brink 2 and 3 as well. We already have big plans for that."

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This is a bit of a no brainer really, as Infinity Ward hasn't used vehicles in the multiplayer modes of its various Call of Duty titles in the past, but community man Robert Bowling has now confirmed that they definitely won't feature in Modern Warfare 2.

"We never put vehicles in multiplayer," Bowling told GamerZines. "Our focus is on fast-paced infantry combat, where you're never reliant on transportation."  

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SEGA Europe's President, Mike Hayes has stated that the release of Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines could follow on as long as 12 months after Aliens vs. Predator's scheduled launch in February, suggesting that the title may not emerge until 2011.

In even more worrying news for Gearbox's shooter, Hayes has even indicated that Colonial Marines' release could depend on the success of Rebellion's Aliens vs. Predator at retail.

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During a demonstration at a GameCrazy event, Infinity Ward's community manager has revealed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will feature dual-weapon action.

In a post on the official Modern Warfare 2 forums, IW's community manager claimed:

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Konami has announced from GamesCom that PES 2010 will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on October 22nd, which is a mere three weeks after the currently slated release date for FIFA 10.

October 22nd is a Thursday though, so we'd expect that date to be for continental Europe with the UK receiving it one day later on the Friday. PSP and PS2 versions will then arrive shortly after this on November 5th and, true to Konami's promise, the Wii version will launch this side of Christmas on November 19th (both dates are also Thursdays).

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SEGA and Creative Assembly have announced Napoleon: Total War, the next instalment in the Total War RTS series, which will feature three "story-driven campaigns" and is due for release during February of next year.

Players can either take on the role of Napoleon or one of his many adversaries in three separate campaigns, which explore his military action as a young leader in Italy and Egypt before moving onto his inadvisable foray into Russia, culminating in his war of minds against the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo.

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EA today confirmed a March 5th 2010 release date for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 across Europe.  Promising the best multiplayer action, Bad Company 2 features an increased level of destruction, stronger vehicular warfare and a greater emphasis on team tactics.

Bad Company 2 features 15 authentic land, sea and air vehicles, such as the all-new UH-60 transport helicopter that can ship an entire four-player squad across the map, while two players wreak havoc with the mounted railguns.

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FIFA 10's Producer, David Rutter has just revealed a new mode for FIFA 10 at EA's GamesCom keynote address in Germany. The new Virtual Pro feature will incorporate EA's Photo Game Face technology into FIFA for the first time.

The technology, which allows a user to upload a photo of their face into the game and paste their likeness onto an in-game avatar, has been previously used in EA Sports' Tiger Woods series.

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Following a similar move to Radiohead and testing the waters of digital downloads, Eidos today announced a 'pay what you want' strategy for Champisonhip Manager 2010.

From tomorrow, PC gamers can put in a pre-order for the full title and pay as much as necessary, whether that's full whack or a single penny.  As Eidos points out, it's quite a charitable move considering the transfer fees currently circulating in the real world.  

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Finished in a good way, as opposed to dead in the water that is.  Joystiq brings word from Remedy Games' Matias Myllyrinne that the Finish studio is currently polishing the title and counting down the days until Alan Wake is finally unleashed.

"It's all done, we're just polishing at this point," Myllyrinne claimed during GDC Europe.

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Eidos has announced that a demo for IO Interactive's next opus, Mini Ninjas, will be released for Xbox and PC on Wednesday of this week (via Live and the official Mini Ninjas website respectively), while a PS3 demo will surface on PSN a day later on August 20th.

The cartoon styled action adventure follows the story of Mini Ninjas Hiro, Futo, and Suzume as they travel through feudal Japan and try to restore a harmonius equilibrium back into the world by eliminating the chaotic dark forces that have overpowered it.

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The last time we heard from Valve about Half-Life 2: Episode 3, Doug Lombardi suggested that it would arrive around about 2010. News has been suspiciously dry on the Half-Life 2 front since then but Gabe Newell has now assured fans of the series that Valve is still working on the next instalment.

"Yes, of course we're doing Episode 3," Newell told Geoff Keighley in the latest episode of GTTV (there's a reveal of a new Left 4 Dead 2 campaign through there too). When pressed on the matter by Keighley as to whether Valve is still actively working on the project, Newell responded: "Oh, absolutely."

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Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising's PC system requirements have been revealed on the game's official forums, with recommended requirements for the shooter that stipulate a quad-core processor and minimum requirements of a dual-core CPU (ouch!):

Minimum Requirement:

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Even though BioShock 2 has been delayed until next year, it seems the game's developers have still got the time to work on multiple projects, as 2K Games' President Christoph Hartmann has revealed that the studio is "far beyond the conceptual stage for a follow-up project after BioShock 2".

"What that is, I can't announce; I can't tell you obviously. But so far, they've completely exceeded my expectations," Hartmann told 1up in answer to a question about whether or not 2K Marin will become 'the BioShock studio' in future.

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Developer Obsidian has discovered that it's possible to complete its upcoming espionage RPG, Alpha Protocol without killing a single enemy.

"Learned yesterday that it's possible to get through Alpha Protocol without killing anyone. That's kind of awesome," Obsidian Tweeted on its official Twitter account.

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This year's Football Manager has just got the announcement treatment from SEGA and Sports Interactive, which includes a range of new features as well as a release date of October 30th for both PC/Mac and PSP versions of the title.

Highlighting the new features is a Match Analysis tool, which will allows users to "see where shots, passes, crosses, headers, tackles, fouls and interceptions have been made on the field for all players on the pitch." This information is available both during and after a match, allowing users to analyse the data and either pick apart the opposition or improve their own team's performance.

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Fresh off his confirmation that 50 Cent will be in Modern Warfare 2, Infinity Ward's sounding board, Robert Bowling has stated that community feedback will determine exactly how many map packs are made for MW2.

"As far as DLC goes, we love it and plan to support Modern Warfare 2 heavily with post-launch support," Bowling told MTV Multiplayer. "We've confirmed we'll be doing AT LEAST two map packs which were announced at E3 as a timed exclusive for Xbox 360. The fact that we confirmed at least two map packs doesn't mean there won't be more; honestly we plan on shaping our DLC based on community feedback from the full game, and first two DLC map packs. Therefore, the community will really determine what comes after that."

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BioWare's long delayed Dragon Age: Origins will suffer one final minor setback on its way to market this autumn, as the developer has just announced that all three versions of the game have slipped into November from their previously announced October 23rd release date.

"Dragon Age: Origins will be released on November 3rd in North America and November 6th in Europe for Xbox 360 and PC. The PlayStation 3 version will follow later in November," a BioWare rep told IGN.

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Robert 'IAMfourzerotwo' Bowling, Infinity Ward's Director of Communications has revealed that 50 Cent will have a cameo voice part in Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer and Spec Ops modes.

"He is one of quite a few casual cameos in the game, none of which I can name at this point," Bowling told Kotaku, although he could confirm that Good Charlotte's Benji and Joel Madden - who accompanied 'Fiddy' to a recent viewing of the game at Infinity Ward - aren't on the cast list:

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The usual heavyweights of World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, and Call of Duty fuelled Activision-Blizzard's results beyond expectations for the fiscal second quarter ended June 30th 2009.

For the period, the world's largest third-party publisher posted GAAP net revenues of $1.04 billion and a GAAP operating income of $218 million.  On a non-GAAP basis, the publisher recorded net revenues of $801 million and an operating income of $156 million for the period.

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Activision Blizzard has announced via its Q2 2009 financial report that Starcraft II won't be released in 2009 and has been pushed into a 2010 launch window instead, as Blizzard prepares to re-launch its Battle.net service.

"Blizzard Entertainment has moved the anticipated release date of StarCraft II to the first half of 2010 to coincide with the re-launch of its upgraded Battle.net online gaming service," the company stated in its financials.

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Although we’re still some time away from day one releases on Games on Demand, Microsoft today released the list of titles that we can expect when the service launches with the Xbox 360 dash update on August 11th.

The full list includes:

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Strong sales of The Sims 3, EA Sports Active and Fight Night Round 4 helped EA to narrow its losses for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30th 2009.

EA's non-GAAP revenue for the period rose by 34% to $816 million compared with $609 million in the previous year.  Gross profit for the period stood at $499 million with operating expenses of $510 million, leading to an operating loss of $11 million compared with a loss of $245 million for the same period in the prior year.  As a result, EA narrowed its net loss for the period significantly from last year's $234 million loss to a net loss of $6 million.

The report highlighted the fact that video game sales dropped by an estimated 10% in Europe and by 12% in North America compared to last year, decreases that EA admitted were "softer than expected" and attributed to fewer hardware sales.  EA also highlighted the sudden drop-off in the music genre, which decreased by 52% compared to last year. 

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Eidos has announced a September 11th release date for Championship Manager 2010, the next instalment in Eidos' injury hampered Champ Man series, which is returning to the fold after a year out with quality issues.

Champ Man 2010 was originally scheduled for release back in April (when it would've been called Championship Manager 2009) but subsequent delays have since pushed it into the next football season.

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True to its word, Valve hasn't forgotten about fans of the original Left 4 Dead by announcing a further portion of DLC for the co-op shooter called 'Crash Course', which will launch for Xbox 360 and PC in September.

'Crash Course' will come free of charge to PC users and cost Xbox 360 owners 560 Microsoft Points (£4.76). While it does include both Survival maps and a new co-op Campaign, the main aim of 'Crash Course' is to deliver a "complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes" according to Valve.

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Frankfurt based developer Crytek will be forced to relocate from Germany if the country's violent games ban is passed, the company's President and Co-Founder, Cevat Yerli has revealed.

"A ban on action games in Germany is concerning us because it is essentially like banning the German artists that create them. If the German creative community can't effectively participate in one of the most important cultural mediums of our future, we will be forced to relocate to other countries," Yerli told PCGames.de.

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SEGA's official website for its incoming Aliens vs. Predator game has revealed that the title will be Chestbusting its way onto the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 this February.

Rebellion is developing the game, which will take players back to the classic AvP formula of choosing to play as a Marine, an Alien, or one of the nefarious Predator species.

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According to reports that have surfaced overnight, a Wii version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward's 2007 original) will be released alongside the series' highly anticipated sequel this November 10th.

This news comes from a Kotaku report, which states that Activision will officially announce the game today and, with Activision's Q1 financials incoming tonight, it wouldn't surprise us one little bit if the report is accurate.

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Following its appearance on the German USK game ratings site yesterday, a PS3 version of Braid has now been confirmed for release on PSN by Canadian developer-come-publisher, Hothead Games.

"I can confirm that Hothead is developing a PSN version of Braid for North America and Europe, with no launch timeframe currently available," a Hotheaded spokesperson (see what we did there?) told Eurogamer.

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Eidos has announced that a Batman: Arkham Asylum demo will be released for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on August 7th, when it will offer players the chance to take a look at the first level from the game where Batman brings The Joker into Arkham.

For hands on previews of what we've played of the game so far, click here for parts 1 and 2 of the game, and here for parts 3 and 4. Or, if you don't fancy doing the suggested reading, then just be aware that the game is looking nifty.

The full game is due for release on August 28th.

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It was only a matter of time.  From the series that became synonymous with expansion packs through the countless versions that hit its predecessor, The Sims World Adventures is the first of presumably many expansion packs planned for The Sims 3.

The Sims 3 World Adventures allows Sims fans to take their creations on new journeys and adventures across the globe to destinations inspired by real-world locations.  Of course it's not just about taking a few holiday snaps; from mastering martial arts in Shang Simla, China, Sims can discover rich cultures and famous landmarks on a romantic getaway to Champs Les Sims, France or explore the depths of ancient tombs in Al Simhara, Egypt.

With the chance to search for hidden treasures, learn new skills and indulge in new opportunities, players can share everything they encounter on their adventures with the world through personal photographs, movies, and stories.

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A listing on Germany's USK game ratings website has indicated that Jonathan Blow's inspired platform game Braid could be winging its way to the PlayStation 3.

The USK site is usually a reliable source for picking up game releases before their formal announcements, with listings for Guitar Hero: Van Halen and The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition surfacing on the site before publishers could sort out the publicity.

Let's just hope that this latest listing is accurate as Braid is one title that no gamer should be forced to miss out on. Having originally been released on Xbox Live Arcade last August, Braid then made the jump to PC earlier this year.

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In case you need reminding, the growing list already includes: Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3, Bioshock 2, Singularity, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Red Steel 2, Heavy Rain, Bayonetta and Mafia 2 (think that's all of them).

Capcom blamed a "crowded fall game season" for the delay, but this seems a little odd considering the release schedule is getting sparser by the day.  Could it be yet another game that is simply petrified at trying to gain any awareness against the juggernaut that is Modern Warfare 2?  If it carries on this way Q1 2010 will be more jam-packed than the end of 2009.

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We already know that Modern Warfare 2's Prestige Edition is only being released on the Xbox 360 and PS3, but now apparent confirmation has surfaced that the game's Hardened Edition is also limited to home console versions and won't be released for PC.

This news comes from Big Download, which claims to have confirmation on the issue from an Activision rep. None of the major UK retailers are currently listing the Hardened Edition for the PC platform, which suggests that the news is accurate.

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Strong sales of Red Faction: Guerrilla and UFC 2009 Undisputed fuelled record financial results for THQ during the fiscal first quarter ended June 30th 2009.

THQ's net sales for the period rose by 77% to $243.5 million compared with $137.6 million in the previous year.  As a result, net income for the period stood at $6.4 million compared with a net loss of $27.2 million for the same period in the prior year.

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Reporting a decline in sales for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30th 2009, Ubisoft today announced that a number of titles have been delayed.

Both 'Splinter Cell: Conviction' and 'Red Steel 2' were originally due in the third quarter have now been pushed into the fourth quarter, meaning a delay into 2010 that will see both titles missing out on the lucrative Christmas market.  In addition, both 'Ghost Recon' and the troubled 'I Am Alive' have been pushed into the next fiscal year, beginning April 1st 2010.

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Sony's exclusivity period in Europe for Terminal Reality's Ghostbusters will end on October 23rd of this year when the game will release on the Xbox 360, Wii, DS, and PC according to Namco Bandai Partners' latest release schedule.

Up until May of this year, Namco Bandai Partners (then Atari) was poised to release the game across all of its originally slated formats until Sony swooped in and purchased an exclusivity deal for the title, which then released for PS3 and PS2 in June (a PSP version is still planned for a later date).

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Dead Space is set to join Dante's Inferno, Army of Two, The Sims, and Mass Effect as EA Games that are being developed into movies, with news that D.J. Caruso (Eagle Eye, Disturbia) has been attached to direct the film adaptation.

This is according to a Variety report, which specifies that EA will produce the title alongside Temple Hill. The two companies are currently vetting scriptwriters and, once EA are pleased with the project's creative direction, it will be auctioned to studios.

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A press release detailing various media projects that have been selected to receive financial support through a Canadian initiative has inadvertently hinted towards the next title from Silicon Knights.

The studio behind 'Too Human' and 'Eternal Darkness' is listed as developing 'Siren in the Maelstrom' for console or handheld consoles.

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According to figures released by DICE, Battlefield 1943 is the fastest selling download-only game for both Xbox Live and PSN in its first week of sales, having ratcheted up an impressive total of over 600,000 unit sales since its release on July 8th (July 9th on PSN).

"We are honoured by the reception that the game has received so far," says Gordon Van Dyke, Producer on Battlefield 1943. "Watching and participating in this non-stop multiplayer action has been a real treat for us and we can't believe how fast our fans reached 43 million kills. We can now truly say that we have set a new standard for what can be done in the downloadable games category and gamers recognize the endless value that Battlefield 1943 provides for just $15."

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Codemasters has announced that a demo for Ashes Cricket 2009 is now available for Xbox Live Gold members, while Silver members can download the demo from July 30th onwards (to coincide with the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston).

The demo includes a six oval sample of Ashes Cricket between England and Australia at Lords, which will no doubt be music to the ears of some of our more avid Ashes Cricket 2009 followers on TVG (check the comments).

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Disney Interactive has announced the development of an Alice In Wonderland game that will release in conjunction with Tim Burton's upcoming film starring Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway. The game is being released in the same week as the film's release (March 5th 2010) for the DS, Wii, and PC.

As with the film, the game's story is set after the events of Lewis Carroll's original stories when Alice returns to Wonderland in her late teens. Alice must find her way through Underland by solving puzzles and unravelling mysteries, before ultimately defeating the Red Queen and Jabberwocky to restore Underland back into Wondelrand.

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Rockstar Games today announced that The Ballad of Gay Tony will be arriving on the Xbox Live Marketplace on October 29th.

The second - and possibly last Xbox 360 exclusive - chapter will cost 1600 Microsoft Points and follows the antics of Luis Lopez, a member of The Northwood Dominican Drug Dealer and personal assistant to Tony Prince aka Gay Tony.

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Ahead of the San Diego Comic Con this weekend, Valve has revealed some of the new features for Left 4 Dead 2 that it'll be showing off at the event, including the new 'Swamp Fever' campaign, a further boss type, more weapons, and different infected types.

New screens for the campaign can be found here, which certainly look pretty swampy. A new boss type has also been unveiled called The Spitter (pictured right), which joins the previously revealed Charger. This beastie apparently has an attack that can "split up Survivors or flush them out of their hiding spots".

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True to our word (check the comments board), we've been feverishly trying to track down some info on Ashes Cricket 2009's release dates in regions outside of the UK and have finally had some luck.

As well as the previously announced UK release date of August 7th, a source at Codemasters has now confirmed an August 13th release date for Australia. PAL versions of the game will also come to India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh a few weeks later, with Codies suggesting a late August launch in the three countries.

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Major retail outlets in the UK including Amazon, Play, Zavvi, and HMV are currently listing a £69.99 RRP for the Hardened Edition of Modern Warfare 2, which is £10 higher than the typical RRP for a collector's edition game.

This doubles the price hike of Modern Warfare 2's Standard Edition, which Activision has confirmed as £54.99 for the UK market. Despite claims that this rise in prices is down to a weak pound, industry analyst Michael Pachter has today dismissed these suggestions by pointing out that the pound is stronger today than it was when CoD5 launched.

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Despite suggestions that Modern Warfare 2's price hike could be related to a weak pound, industry analyst Michael Pachter has indicated that the game's £54.99 UK pricing is merely a "business decision" by Activision.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Pachter noted that the pound is stronger today than it was when CoD5 launched last year and suggested that Activision is simply increasing the price because it can, rather than because it has to as a result of market forces.

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This year's PES certainly looks the biz judging by the screens and footage we've seen so far, but Konami isn't limiting itself to aesthetics this year as the publisher has today detailed a range of new features for the game's Master League mode.

It looks like the biggest addition will be a new youth team feature, which allows gamers to develop youngsters by investing in them at a young age and fast-tracking their skills before introducing them into the first team.

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King of the cult horrors (along with a trilogy based around the antics of an arachnid loving superhero), Blizzard Entertainment today announced that Sam Raimi has signed on to direct the movie based on the Warcraft franchise.

"At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story," said Raimi. "I am thrilled to work with such a dynamite production team to bring this project to the big screen."

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With such a large proportion of this year's games being delayed from late 2009 to early 2010, at least one title is going against the grain with news today that The Saboteur will release in Europe on December 4th (four days earlier than the US).

When we last caught up with the game in the spring, EA was reluctant to assign a specific release window to the title. Nonetheless, we also learned in April that the title was two months away from an alpha build, which suggested that a 2010 release was likely.

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The third portion of DLC for Call of Duty: World at War, imaginatively titled Map Pack 3, will be coming to PSN and Xbox Live this August according to an Activision announcement this afternoon.

Four new maps will be included in the DLC, three of which will be for the adversarial multiplayer ('Battery', 'Breach', and 'Revolution') as well as one entitled 'Der Riese' for the Nazi zombie co-op mode.

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Let's recap a bit before we get into this particular console war: Alongside the release of Battlefield 1943 earlier this month, DICE launched a competition to unlock the fourth map for the game with the following conditions: when a total of 43 million kills are reached in games over Xbox Live and PSN, the Coral Sea Air Superiority map will be released for each respective console.

While Xbox 360 gamers reached the milestone last Tuesday, DICE has now announced via Twitter that PS3 gamers passed the 43 million kill mark on Saturday and have now successfully unlocked the dogfight only, Coral Sea map.

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Ever fancied funding a game project? Valve's Managing Director of Game Development, Gabe Newell thinks you should and he doesn't even expect you to pay millions of pounds to do so.

The concept is simple: invest a small amount of money in an independent game (say a few pounds) and receive a copy of that game when it's finished and possibly even a return on your original investment.

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Jonathan Blow, the Creator of the much-loved XBLA and Steam game Braid, is recruiting for developers to work on a new "puzzle-exploration" game that is "philosophical, and quiet".

The job ads are posted over on the Braid blog and detail a two-year development cycle for the project. Two positions are currently available, both of which are for 3D artists, so we can safely assume that Blow is making a dimensional transition with his latest opus.

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Bizarre Creations cost Activision a pretty penny according to an article on Develop today; however, the figure could increase depending upon the financial performance of the Liverpool-based studio's output over the next three to four years.

Develop suggests that Activision forked out $67.4 million in cash to acquire the studio in late 2007.  The figure could increase to over $107 million if the studio's titles meet certain commercial targets, although no indication of what these are has been revealed.

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In an interview with Edge, Alan Wake's lead writer Sam Lake has stated that the heavily-delayed psychological-thriller won't be the open-world sandbocx title that was originally claimed.

"We did try a more free-roaming approach at one point but decided that's not really the way we wanted to go."

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Ashes Cricket 2009 will arrive in the UK on August 7th and, to celebrate this announcement, Codemasters has revealed the first trailer for the game featuring a full toss of in-game footage.

The game, which features all the official stadia and players from The Ashes series, will deliver frenetic action in full tests, one day internationals, and 20-20 match-ups. However, Codemasters still hasn't revealed how many additional teams will be in the game or whether these teams will be fully licensed.

While the HD versions of Ashes Cricket will feature online multiplayer, the Wii version is confined to local bouts, although the Wii Remote has been taken advantage of for bowling and batting gestures.

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In the run-up to E3, the gaming community couldn't get enough of Kojima Productions' 'Next' teaser site. Here at TVG, we spent shamefully long periods of time taking screengrabs of the site's periodic lightning strikes in an attempt to unveil new symbols and characters, not to mention being transfixed by that 'Mask' teaser.

Now, in an interview with Konami, Hideo Kojima has revealed the meanings behind the various symbols in the teaser. Here's what he had to say on the matter:

It turns out that our various hypotheses were close to the mark in some cases and miles off in others. How did you do? Let us know in the comments...

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We've just received word from Codemasters that Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising will be released in the UK on October 9th, while the US will receive it three days earlier on October 6th.

To tide you over until then, here's a new trailer showing off some of the weapons and vehicles at your disposal in the game, including the Javelin anti-tank launcher, the Super Cobra attack helicopter, and Abrams tank...

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Modern Warfare 2's Prestige Edition will set UK gamers back a hefty £119.99 when it's released this November, with retailer HMV winning the exclusive rights to sell the package in the UK.

HMV is already taking online pre-orders for this Prestige Edition, which will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game only and will include a set of fully functioning, night vision goggles that will allow users to see up to 50 feet in the dark.

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Following the announcement that Colin McRae DiRT 2 would see a slight delay on PC in order to gain fancy DirectX 11 powered visuals, Codemasters today confirmed that the sequel will be appearing on the Xbox 360, PlayStation3, Wii, DS and PSP on September 11th.

Based around the third-generation of the EGO engine, DiRT 2 promises to "take racing games to a new level".  Featuring over 100 different events set across diverse and demanding real-world locations, from the muddy tracks of the Malaysian rainforest to spectator-packed stadiums of London and Los Angeles, players compete in "contemporary off-road race disciplines" such as Rallycross, Trailblazer, Raid, Landrush, and Rally.

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Even though Obsidian announced last month that it had ceased development on SEGA's Aliens RPG, there was still a slither of hope for the title. Without official word from SEGA, there was no way of knowing whether the publisher had moved the project on to another developer.

However, SEGA has now released official word on the game and, regrettably, it's not going to please Aliens fans:

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FIFA 10's Producer, David Rutter isn't one to mix his words and he's also quite the perfectionist. This is one of the major reasons why FIFA 09 (the first FIFA game that Rutter produced) was such a huge improvement over its predecessors.

Like all perfectionists though, Rutter is never happy with his previous achievements and wants to keep making things better. Perhaps this is why he admitted to hating FIFA 09 now that his EA Canada team is improving the formula so much with FIFA 10:

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We suspected that this was the case but never expected an EA Producer to admit that he already knows the major new features for the next three iterations of an EA Sports series. Nonetheless, that's exactly what FIFA 10's Producer, David Rutter has revealed to TVG in a recent interview:

"I know already what the major new features will be for FIFA 11 and 12," explained Rutter at a recent FIFA 10 preview event. However, before you get all hot under the collar and start petitioning EA for all the new features to appear in this year's game, Rutter went on to explain why it's not that simple:

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Comments: (88)

EA has just announced that this year's FIFA will be reaching European shop shelves on October 2nd when it will release across all formats.

Be sure to check out our freshly posted Q&A with FIFA 10's Producer, David Rutter and a hands on preview that reveals a number of new features including the Create-a-Set-Piece mode.

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Comments: (88)

As a result of the delay to the release of Bioshock 2, Take Two Interactive today updated its financial forecast for the remainder of the current fiscal year ending October 31st 2009.

Revenue forecasts for the third quarter ending July 31st are down by $25 million to $120-130 million compared to earlier predictions of $145-165 million, while revenues for the fourth quarter have been reduced by $70-100 million to between $350 and $400 million.  As a result, revenue for the fiscal year is expected to reach $960 million - $1 billion compared with earlier forecasts of $1.05 - 1.15 billion.

Subtracting the reduced revenue from Q3 from the downward prediction for the current fiscal year reveals a reduction of between $65 and $125 million, which has given an indication of how much Take Two stands to loose on sales of Bioshock 2 during the period.

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The embedded video below showcases Activision and Infinity Ward's plans to release several versions of Modern Warfare 2, culminating in perhaps the biggest video game package we've ever seen.

Alongside the Standard and Hardened editions, it's the Prestige Edition that Modern Warfare fans will want to save for.  Featuring a Limited Edition steel art-book, a token to download the original Call of Duty across Xbox Live Arcade and PSN, further goodies include the unbelievably outlandish MW2 branded night-vision goggles and a Soap MacTavish sculpted head to rest them on.

Just take a look at the video it beggars belief - and to think we thought the £54.99 being charged for the standard edition was daylight robbery.  A quick scan of several online retailers suggests none of these have added the extra versions yet - which leaves one question, exactly how much will the Prestige Edition cost over here?

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Responding to questions surrounding the next GTA and the decision to concentrate on episodic downloadable content, Take-Two has suggested that there are further stories to tell in the GTA4 timeline and maintained that creating a profit without a multi-platform GTA is a key goal for the publisher.

"I think the key takeaway is that we fully anticipate that there we'll be able to achieve our goals of operating the company profitably in a year when we don't have a new multi-platform release of GTA.  That's an important goal." 

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Comments: (507)

How you develop a sequel to a shooter, widely considered as a modern classic, in a relatively quick turnaround and without its original lead designer?  Always going to be a toughie.

Development on Bioshock 2 presumably began quite quickly after the original achieved quick success towards the end of 2007, but even so developing a sequel that meets expectations in a two year cycle was always going to be hard, even with four different development studios collaborating to the cause.

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Following the inundation of Battlefield 1943's servers last week, EA DICE has now revealed that it has remedied a majority of the problems that players were suffering with the game last week.

DICE also revealed some interesting facts on the game's first 24 hours of play on Xbox Live. Apparently, 5 million kills were recorded in the first day alone, which also clocked an impressive 29.45 years of gameplay across all servers.

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Following the delay of Raven Software's Xbox 360, PlayStaiton3 and PC shooter Singularity into 2010, it seems that Activision is continuing to trim its 2009 line-up with suggestions that Blizzard's Starcraft II has also been pushed back.

Arvind Bhatia an analyst for Sterne Agee suggests that a delay to "an early version of the game" - presumably the beta - will in turn result in the final game being pushed from its originally slated Q4 2009 release date into 2010, according to a report on The Wall Street Journal. 

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The weight of expectation surrounding Bioshock 2 has seen development on the title becoming something of a mass collaboration, with primary development under 2K Marin alongside 2K Australia and the multiplayer components being handled by Digital Extremes. 

An update to the French developer, Arkane Studios, has revealed that they've also joined the group, claiming in a website update that they're contributing in the areas of design, animation, and art.

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EA has announced that FIFA Manager 10 will include an online mode for up to 8 players who will be able to play through a full two seasons of the game. This mode will also be accessible through LAN connections.

"We're incredibly pleased to be able to give fans what they've been asking for with the new online mode in EA Sports FIFA Manager 10," said Gerald Köhler, Lead Designer of the FIFA Manager series. "This is the first time that they will be able to compete against each other and really find out who's the best manager. The online mode is free and you can play at least two seasons with up to eight players in one session."

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Concluding the Tiberium Wars saga, Command & Conquer 4 promises a host of innovations that will compliment the series fast and fluid gameplay.  Features first uncovered in an online survey include class-based gameplay, mobile bases and persistent player progression through all of the game's modes.

Set in the year 2062, the story takes place after the events of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and finds humanity on the brink of extinction.  With only six years left until Tiberium renders the entire world inhabitable, the two timeless opposing factions - The Brotherhood of Nod and the Global Defence Initiative - find themselves united to fight for the same cause.  Nod's enigmatic leader Kane sets off to the GDI headquarters, but his plans are as-of-yet unknown.  Signalling the end of the saga, Command & Conquer 4 promises to answer the questions that the 15-year old series has posed: the fate of Earth, Nod, the GDI and most significantly Kane's motivations behind his decade-long plan.

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BioWare landed in hot water (although thankfully not hot coffee) in 2007/08 with its Mass Effect sex scenes, but that hasn't stopped the developer including sex scenes in its next opus, Dragon Age: Origins.

With this in mind, the big question on everyone's lips has got to be, 'Just how far are they going to go this time?' BioWare's Vice-President, Greg Zeschuk still appears to be undecided on this issue. When asked by VideoGamer if Dragon Age would contain full frontal nudity in its sex scenes, he wouldn't rule out the possibility.

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Following the release of Battlefield 1943 on Xbox Live yesterday and PSN today, EA DICE has now revealed that demand for the game has far exceeded initial expectations and, as a result, the game's servers have become saturated with users.

This has resulted in lag and queues to get onto the servers for players, although EA DICE has been quick to respond to the problem by doubling the size of its dedicated, Battlefield 1943 servers to remedy the online issues.

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With Singularity, Wolfenstein, and Modern Warfare 2 in the pipeline, Activision has almost as many shooters as it does plasticy peripherals due for release this year.

Although it seems Activision has seen a little sense and decided that the other shooters might suffer from the magnitude of Infinity Ward's return with Modern Warfare 2, confirming that Raven Software's Singularity has been pushed back into 2010.

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Following the appearance of an online survey seeking opinions and suggesting game features for Command & Conquer 4, EA's UK PR team has inadvertently confirmed the existence of the game via Twitter.

Although the update has since been removed, an update grabbed by Joystiq claims:

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While we were certainly glad when Alan Wake finally emerged from its very long media blackout at E3 this year, we're less than glad to hear news that the game may not make it to the PC despite originally being announced for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms.

That was way back at E3 2005 though. Fast forward to July 2009 and, when gamers asked Remedy for a straight answer about the fate of the PC version, this is what studio head, Markus Maki had to say on the official Alan Wake forums:

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PES fans with a Wii won't have the traditional months to wait after PES 2010 turns up on the other consoles, with confirmation that the Wii version will follow shortly after during the Autumn.

Boasting the same improvements to the Master League mode as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 versions with closer integration of the UEFA Champions League, PES 2010 also boasts a number of notable gameplay improvements currently being implemented by Akiyoshi 'Greyhound' Chosogabe and his dedicated Wii PES team.

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With the deluge of news articles that spawned from Doug Lombardi's brief jaunt over to London to showcase Left 4 Dead 2, we almost lost track of another little nugget that Valve's VP of Marketing dropped upon us.

Joining the Campaign, Versus, and Survival modes, Left 4 Dead 2 will also see a fourth, currently as-of-yet unannounced gameplay mode.

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Further to its Twitter based teasing over the weekend, LucasArts has now revealed that it's bringing a number of its classic titles including Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, LOOM, and Star Wars: Battlefront II to Steam.
 
The games will arrive on Valve's digital download service this Wednesday, July 8th. Here's the full list of titles:

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Colin McRae DiRT 2 will look a little bit better on the PC thanks to the game gaining DirectX 11 support.

The latest version of the API isn't scheduled to arrive until October 2009 alongside Windows 7, making this one of the first games to confirm support.  Key improvements include the addition of Shader Model 5.0, providing enhanced depth of field, ambient occlusion and shadows, while hardware tessellation results in improved water appearance and crown animations.

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Seemingly not content with the Monkey Island bonanza that it has in store this summer, LucasArts is now teasing gamers with Tweets about a new game that's based on an existing LucasArts IP, which old-school fans will apparently find "a treat".

The Twitter based teasing has been going on over the weekend, with LucasArts' most recent post stating that, "You'll know more in 12 or so hours." That was six hours ago, so expect more this evening.

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Valve's VP of Marketing, Doug Lombardi has revealed to TVG that the developer is looking at providing cross-game play between the original Left 4 Dead and its incoming sequel.

Such a feature, which would allow players of the original Left 4 Dead to play alongside other users running Left 4 Dead 2, is one of the demands made by the now 37,000 member strong Left 4 Dead 2 boycott group on Steam.

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We already know that there will be at least two new zombie bosses in Left 4 Dead 2 (The Charger and Wandering Witch), but Valve has now revealed to TVG that there may be as many as four new bosses in the final game.

"There's only been a small bit of Left 4 Dead 2 that's been unveiled," Valve's VP of Marketing, Doug Lombardi told TVG at an event in London yesterday. "We've only shown one of the new boss monsters, there's going to be at least three, we're working on a fourth that may or may not make it in time for launch."

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Speaking to TVG at an event in London yesterday, Valve's VP of Marketing, Doug Lombardi revealed that Left 4 Dead 2 is currently receiving pre-orders at twice the pace of its predecessor.

"When you look at all those things," Lombardi said of the new features that Valve is cramming into Left 4 Dead 2, "to us anyway it looked like a sequel and that seems to be resonating with a lot of people, whether it's the E3 judges, the retailers, or the people who are pre-ordering the game right now to the point where it's double the pace of the original Left 4 Dead with the same pre-order promotions in place for early access to the demo and 10% off."

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GTA IV is set to gain more episodes according to an analyst working for Kaufman Bros. Equity Research.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Todd Mitchell suggests that Raockstar Games will release two new GTA IV episodes in fiscal 2010, following the release of The Lost & Damned and the forthcoming The Ballad of Gay Tony.  Although both of these are exclusive to the Xbox 360, the report makes no mention as to whether Rockstar Games will follow a similar strategy.

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Blizzard Entertainment has recently registered trademarks for Cataclysm.  There's a suggestion that this could be anything from a forthcoming World of Warcraft expansion, the next-gen MMO, or Blizzard's other as-of-yet announced title.

BlizzPlanet which noticed the patent has plenty of speculation on the trademark, suggesting that it could be linked to the Sundering, an event that shaped the world of Azeroth 10,000 years ago - or perhaps the new title for Blizzard's online multiplayer service.

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There's been a considerable amount of coverage since the death of Michael Jackson was confirmed late last week.  Beyond securing the top slots in charts across the world, it seems some are quick to cash in on the death of the superstar - some a little more tastelessly then others.

A promotion for the forthcoming free-to-play shooter Battlefield: Heroes allows players to purchase the 'Smooth Suit' and 'Thuggin Outfit' as costumes in the game.  It doesn't take a Jackson fanatic to realise where the influences for these come from.

Tasteless promotion or homage to the musical genius?  All we want to know is how quickly after Jackson's death was confirmed did EA's artists set to work on the skins, and whether or not Thriller-themed zombie skins will follow.

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EA's decision to introduce critically acclaimed yet commercially weak titles based around new IPs last year is well documented; the simple fact is neither Mirror's Edge or Dead Space sold as well as EA originally expected.

In an interview with Gamasutra, EA's Game Label president Frank Gibeau has revealed the lessons that the world's second largest publisher has learnt from the exercise and pledged support to continue the faith behind quality.

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BioWare's heavily rumoured Mass Effect DLC announcement has been put on the backburner, following the studio's decision to tease about it last week.

In a Twitter post, the studio claimed:

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Speaking on its official forums, developer Obsidian has announced that it is no longer working on SEGA's Aliens RPG project. The game's future had previously been put into doubt following a long delay at the start of the year.

"Rumors have circled around a bit regarding the fate of the Aliens role playing game that Obsidian and SEGA had been working on," explained The Guildmaster (Administrator on the Obsidian forums). "Unfortunately, it is true that we are no longer working on the game, and we wanted to finally announce that officially to everyone who has been following its development."

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The next Hitman game is set for release in 2010 according to reports revealing that a sequel to the 2007 Hitman film is in the works at 20th Century Fox.

This news comes from Variety, which reports that Eidos is planning to release Hitman 5 in "late 2010". Meanwhile, a script for a Hitman 2 film is currently being penned by Kyle Ward (who's also writing the Kane & Lynch film).

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In earth-shattering news, Zenimax Media - the parent group of Bethesda - today confirmed that it has acquired id Software.  Forming a development super house that is virtually unrivalled, the Zenimax group now controls legendary franchises such as Doom, Quake, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein and RAGE.  id Software will continue business as normal, with John Carmack assuming control of the studio.

Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software, commented on the transaction: "This was a unique opportunity to team with a smart, sophisticated publisher like Bethesda Softworks where the interests of the studio and the publisher will be fully aligned in the development and marketing of our titles. In addition, we will now have financial and business resources to support the future growth of id Software, a huge advantage which will result in more and even better games for our fans."

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Ordinarily we wouldn't bother with an article about screenshots, but we'll make an exception because they're from Max Payne 3 and we all love a bit of Max Payne.

As you can see for yourselves, Payne is definitely looking older, balder, and definitely more slob-like then ever before. 

We're slightly concerned by the lack of a film noire feel to the game; certainly it seems Rockstar Vancouver are heading in a completely different direction with the third title, sun-drenched skies replacing the dark skylines of New York City.

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A survey has appeared indicating that Command & Conquer 4 is currently in development.  Although the questions begin fairly generic, later issues specialise on Command & Conquer, leading to suggestions that EA is carrying out research towards future games in the series.

More specifically, Command & Conquer 4, is mentioned with further questions suggesting the title could be a concluding chapter in the 15-year Tiberium conflict. 

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Move over Lionel Messi, Liverpool's golden boy, Fernando Torres, is set for equal billing on the PES 2010 box art.  But more important then that is the release of new details, as Konami attempts to wrestle back its crown from last year's resurgent FIFA.

Promising enhanced realism that focuses on the "triangulation" of passes and off-the-ball movement, Konami promises an end to "soft goals" with players needing to work the flanks and use the precision play of great players to make the difference.

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Following a lengthy delay that would rival the protracted transfer shenanigans of Cristiano Ronaldo, Eidos today announced a specific date for the next Championship Manager title along with a name change to represent its new release date.

Previously dubbed Championship Manager 2009, the newly christened Championship Manager 2010 will launch in September 2009 - narrowly missing out on the big August 15th kick-off when normality will finally resume after a summer without the beautiful game Americans like to call soccer.

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The latest update to The Creative Assembly's Empire: Total War is set to provide a significant boost for those with multi-core processors.  Update 1.3 will integrate multi-threading support, providing a significant performance boost for multi-core processors.

Those with lowly single-core processors however shouldn't feel too left out, as the update will allegedly "greatly" improve performance on such specifications.

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Following yesterday's news that Activision was gauging interest in MMO styled subscriptions for future Call of Duty titles, Infinity Ward today moved to distance itself from the speculation.

In a post on the official forums, Infinity Ward's community manager claimed:

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The hardware specifications for BioWare's upcoming RPG, Dragon Age: Origins have been revealed and you'll be glad to hear that they're nothing too strenuous (on the minimal end of the scale at least):

Windows XP Minimum Specifications

• OS: Windows XP with SP3
• CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.4Ghz or greater
• AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8Ghz or greater
• RAM: 1GB or more
• Video: ATI Radeon X850 128MB or greater
• NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater
• DVD ROM (Physical copy)
• 20 GB HD space

Windows Vista Minimum Specifications

• OS: Windows Vista with SP1
• CPU: Intel Core 2 (or equivalent) running at 1.6Ghz or greater
• AMD X2 (or equivalent) running at 2.2GHZ or greater
• RAM: 1.5 GB or more
• Video: ATI Radeon X1550 256MB or greater
• NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB or greater
• DVD ROM (Physical copy)
• 20 GB HD space

Recommended Specifications

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent
• RAM: 4 GB (Vista) or 2 GB (XP)
• Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
• NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
• DVD ROM (Physical copy)
• 20 GB HD space

While you're waiting for the game's release, you might want to clean away some space on your hard drive for that 20GB install.

Via Kotaku.

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An online survey, currently being circulated across the web, seems to suggest that Activision is considering an MMO style subscription service for upcoming Call of Duty titles.

The survey (spotted by Destructoid), lists a number of additional services for the game that players could purchase via subscription based models (monthly, quarterly, and annually) or as bundled content with a copy of the game at an added cost.

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Harold Ramis, who co-wrote and starred in the Ghostbusters movies, has been talking about some of the challenges that game writers face when they're trying to pen a funny script.

Ramis explained that because game scripts are so long, the challenge of writing enough comic alternatives to make the dialogue funny is like producing three hit movie scripts.

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Activision and Treyarch have announced that last year's Call of Duty: World at War has now passed through the 11 million unit sales mark, making it one of the most commercially successful games released in 2008.

World at War has reached this milestone in approximately half a year, while its predecessor (Infinity Ward's original Modern Warfare title) has totalled 13 million unit sales according to Activision figures announced earlier in the year.

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Wii owners desperate for some Ryu vs Ken action may have a glimmer of hope, with Capcom recently admitting that a port of Street Fighter IV could be possible in the future.

Responding to a post titled "So we're never gonna see Street Fighter IV for the Wii?" Capcom's Community Manager Seth Killian claimed:

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We've just received word through from Ubisoft that Assassin's Creed II will release on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on November 20th in Europe.

News of a collector's edition has also been doing the rounds. This so-called "Black Edition" is exclusive to Play.com and will come complete with "Collectable black packaging" apparently branded with a holographic signature thingy.

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Speaking at E3 last week, the Producer of Assassin's Creed and its incoming sequel, Patrice Désilets has stated that the original game has now totalled sales of a whopping 8 million copies, putting it right in amongst 2007's commercial heavy hitters.

Désilets made the comments in an interview with Joystiq where he said, "We sold some eight million copies of it, you know," while fielding a question about the original game's mixed reviews and criticisms of repetitive gameplay. "Some people really enjoyed and loved the game," he continued.

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Now over 25,000 members strong, the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott group on Steam has caused quite a stir over the past week. Now Valve's President, Gabe Newell, has responded to the group's concerns and pledged to support the original Left 4 Dead after its sequel's release.

"Doing a sequel in one year is new for Valve," Newell told Kotaku. "But providing ongoing support for our titles after the initial launch isn't - it has been part of our philosophy since Half-Life was released ten and half years ago. We see no reason to change that and will continue to support the over three million customers in the L4D community."

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Speaking at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference, EA has revealed that its Need For Speed franchise will be put into the thoroughly capable hands of Burnout developer Criterion, while DICE is hard at work on Battlefield 3.

Rumours arose last month linking Criterion to the Need For Speed franchise, although this is the first we've heard straight from the horse's mouth after EA's Chief Operating Officer, John Pleasants told investors:

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Following its US release on June 2nd and June 5th in Europe, The Sims 3 has sold a total of 1.4 million units in its first week on the market, making it the most successful PC launch in EA's long and illustrious history.

Clearly, then, EA's decision to drop the DRM system for The Sims 3 has not affected the game's sales too badly, even if Bloomberg is estimating that EA may lose $9 million through illegal downloads of the game after it was leaked onto torrent sites last month.

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At Atari's behest, Cryptic Studios may be developing an MMO based on the Neverwinter Nights universe if the web's rumour mill is to be believed, with early indications pointing to a 2011 release window for the alleged title.

A report by Variety, which cites "Sources", is suggesting that Atari's plans for a Neverwinter Nights MMO were the main reason behind its acquisition of Cryptic Studios last year (the MMO specialist is currently developing Champions Online and Star Trek Online).

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The latest issue of Game Informer has brought the scoop on Max Payne 3, which is scheduled for release in Q4 2009 on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation3.

Set 10 years after the events of Max Payne 2, Max Payne 3 allegedly finds the tortured former DEA agent and NYPD detective relocated to Sao Paulo, Brazil. 

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If you're a European Xbox 360 owner and a little peeved that there's going to be no Ghostbusters action (for a little while at least), there could be a solution to ensure you're busting ghosts and getting slimed with Venkman, Ray, Egon and Winston.

Destructoid reports that the North American version of Ghostbusters on the Xbox 360 is region-free, meaning that if you're desperate to play the game then you simply need to check out your local game importer or scour the web for a copy.

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More than just Sam's haircut has changed with the overhauled Splinter Cell: Conviction, but it seems one staple element of the series (since Pandora Tomorrow at least) will remain - multiplayer will feature in the game.

When asked about multiplayer in a Joystiq interview, Ubisoft producer Alexandre Parizeau claims:

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Take-Two Interactive's Director and CEO, Ben Feder, has drawn a line under sales figures for Rockstar's GTA IV: The Lost and Damned game add-on by stating that "We haven't released numbers, and we won't."

Feder made the comments in an interview with Gamespot, although he did note that Take-Two has been "very pleased" with the DLC's performance on Xbox Live. What we don't know is whether that means they're "very pleased" in a money-throwing-party kind of way, or in an at-least-it's-not-riddled-with-glitches way.

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Fans of Valve's original Left 4 Dead game have started a Steam group that's boycotting the release of Left 4 Dead 2, which was announced at E3 last week. Over 16,000 members have now joined the group and we've recorded well in excess of 100 new members over the last hour alone.

Here are the group's reasons for the boycott:

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EA today outlined the big new features that are set to ensure FIFA 10 continues the improvements laid down by its predecessor.

More sophisticated ball control and enhanced physical interactions between players are top of the list, along with the "first ever-true" 360 degree dribbling system allowing skilled dribblers to face the defender and use highly responsive dribbling to skip past him. 

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LucasArts has announced the Tales of Monkey Island, a set of new adventures in the Monkey Island universe that will be released for Nintendo's Wii (via WiiWare) and PC "in just a few short weeks".

Development of the series has been handed over to episodic game specialists and creators of Sam & Max, Telltale Games, which will release a total of five, monthly Monkey Island episodes this year with the first adventure to debut in the coming weeks.

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Keeping up the strategy of purchasing exclusive rights to the biggest games, Microsoft today used its E3 conference to confirm that two multiplayer maps will be timed exclusives on the Xbox 360.

A new Modern Warfare 2 trailer was shown at the event, which we're currently in the process of busily encoding.

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Hideo Kojima's teasing has come to an end with the landmark confirmation that Metal Gear Solid will be coming to the Xbox 360.  Metal Gear Solid: Rising.

Little was shown on the title beyond a few preliminary images, but the fact that yet another PlayStation franchise has jumped the format divide should be big enough.

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Comments: (40)

Backing up the rumours, Microsoft has just shown the first footage of both Crackdown 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 – both of which are somewhat obviously Xbox 360 exclusives.

Left 4 Dead 2 casts players as one of four new survivors attempting to escape from Savannah through New Orleans' French Quarter, with all-new melee weapons and enemies confirmed for the sequel.

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Alan Wake finally made a playable appearance during Microsoft's press conference.  Showcasing a new over-the-shoulder camera, we'll have to see whether the Spring 2010 release date stays true.

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Crysis 2 is coming to the consoles, along with the inevitable PC version.  Today's announcement reveals very few details on the title, beyond the fact it's based on CryEngine 3.

"The development of Crysis 2 marks a major stepping stone for our studio," said Cevat Yerli, CEO and President of Crytek. "This is not only the next game in the Crysis franchise, it's the first title we are developing for consoles and the first title being built on CryENGINE 3. We are excited to have the support of EA Partners again as we work together to make the launch of Crysis 2 a huge event."

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EA and Slightly Mad Studios have today announced the car and tracks lists for Need For Speed Shift, revealing an impressively large line-up of vehicles to please even the most petrol-headed enthusiast, as well as some of the most famous circuits from across the globe.

The BMW M3 GT2 has also been announced as the cover vehicle for NFS: Shift (meaning that it will appear on the box), with EA noting that the one-of-a-kind car is the most powerful ever to feature in a Need For Speed game.

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Yes we all know that Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 will be the biggest game of the year, possibly the biggest game of all time (ok perhaps not, nothing will stop Wii Sports).

It's a fact that Activision appears to be only too well aware of, with several online retailers indicating that the RRP has been set at £54.99 - five quid more than the normal rate.  This is for the standard edition, with no mention of the inevitable Collector's Edition, which will likely cost more than your everyday Collector's Edition.

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Comments: (268)

Further developments on Kojima Productions' 'Next' teaser site have revealed the letters/numbers "0", "C", and "6", giving rise to suggestions that the next Metal Gear Solid may be heading to Microsoft's Xbox 360.

It's now possible to spell out "5 E3 360" with the characters that have been revealed on the site, suggesting that Konami and Kojima Productions might have a bit of a PlayStation coup d'état in store for E3.

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We now know the name of Bethesda and Splash Damage's project thanks to a new teaser trailer that reveals BRINK as the title, spring 2010 as a slated launch window, and Xbox 360, PS3, and PC as formats.

That's about all you're getting at the moment though, apart from some mysterious talk about an Arc (it provides ample renewable energy apparently) and the unfortunate occurrence that it initially appears to be the saviour of a planet only to end up tearing it apart.

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Embattled publisher Atari signalled a statement of intent last year with the appointment of Phil Harrison, formerly President of SCE Worldwide Studios.

However it appears that the recent announcement that Atari Europe will fall under the Namco-Bandai family has ruffled a few feathers, with confirmation that Harrison will no longer serve as President of the publisher.  Instead Harrison's new role is the slightly less significant position of non-executive director of the group.  Atari adds that he will continue to assist, support and guide the company's strategy.

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EA was hit hard in the wallet when Spore found its way to torrents, in the process becoming the most pirated game of last year with over 400,000 illegal downloads across a three week period and an estimated 1.7 million downloads in total.

But it seems that record is set to be broken, with Bloomberg suggesting that the recent leak of The Sims 3 is on track to break past that figure with 180,000 downloads recorded between May 18th and May 21st.  Bloomberg suggests the overall cost of such numbers is likely to be around $9 million to-date.

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Comments: (757)

It's been over two years since we last heard anything from Smoking Gun Interactive, when the former Relic guys burst onto the scene with a myriad of teases alluding to the Mesoamerican calendar and the Leonid meteor shower.

Although they're still refusing to confirm what they're working on, the Vancouver based studio today announced they've enlisted the services of Douglas Rushkoff to develop story narratives across a range of media formats that can feed off one another and exist concurrently.

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Ubisoft has published its financial results for the 2008-09 fiscal year and, at a time when the EAs, Sonys, and SEGAs of this world are posting huge losses, the French publisher is reporting that it's in profit for the year with a net income of 69 million euros (£60 million).

The company also enjoyed a 14% increase in revenues over last year's figures, with total sales coming in at just over 1 billion euros (£921 million). Despite this increase, net income took a slide over last year's results, dropping from 110 million euros (£96 million) to 69 million euros (£60 million).

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The fate of Big Huge Games was today sealed with confirmation that 38 Studios has acquired the development studio from THQ.

Established by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Shilling, 38 Studios specialises in entertainment and original IP creation.  Today’s acquisition marks a significant step for the company, making note that its strategy revolves around the ongoing development of an original MMO IP codenamed Copernicus.

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In a post-earnings conference call following its Q2 financial results, Take-Two Interactive has revealed that it plans to release BioShock 2 in Europe on October 30th before it comes to the US on November 3rd.

Exactly which platforms it will be coming to on that date is unclear though, as the company's Q2 financial results list BioShock 2 as "TBA" for platforms (under its fourth quarter line-up of games).

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As part of its Q2 financial report, Take-Two Interactive has announced that Mafia II and Red Dead Redemption will now release in the first half of its 2010 fiscal year (i.e. between November 1st 2009 and May 31st 2010).

"Mafia II and Red Dead Redemption are now scheduled for release in the first half of fiscal 2010 to allow additional development time for the titles and to maximize their full potential in terms of the quality of the player experience and market performance," Take-Two stated in its financial report.

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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was pretty poor even by movie tie-in standards, however it seems Disney Interactive Studios is willing to give the franchise another stab with confirmation of Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned for "next-generation" consoles and PC.

Currently in development at Propaganda Games, Armada of the Damned promises something a little more substantial in the shape of an action-RPG.  Set before the events of the Hollywood trilogy, players take on the role of a pirate as he embarks on adventures across the land and sea.  Suggesting that the game will employ a Fable-esque moral dynamic, players will need to make choices that affect their character and the outcome of the story in a sandbox gameworld.

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THQ and KAOS Studios today announced an original IP making its way to the Xbox 360, PlayStation3, and PC.

Following on from Frontlines: of War, Homefront is a shooter set ten years after the economic collapse of the United States and follows the American Civilian Resistance as they attempt to reclaim their homeland from North Korean forces - how very topical.

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The Ballad of Gay Tony will be the title of Rockstar's second portion of Xbox 360 exclusive downloadable content for GTA IV, which is due for release on Xbox Live this coming autumn for 1600 Microsoft Points (£13.60).

Set to follow the story of Luis Lopez, an assistant to nightclub owner Tony Prince (a.k.a. Gay Tony), this second add-on apparently "injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and grime." Can you see The Lost and Damned crossovers yet? One hint: diamonds.

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It was Metal Gear Solid 5 after all. Kojima Productions and Konami have revealed an image of Solid Snake's clone, Big Boss on the 'Next' teaser site, all but confirming that Metal Gear Solid 5 is in the works.

Some new letters have also appeared on the splash page's thunderstorm landscape, with "P", "R", and "F" making new additions to the existing list of letters/numbers on the site, although this only makes matters more confusing.

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At the same time as more letters (or numbers?) have appeared on the Kojima Productions 'Next' teaser site, the latest issue of Japanese magazine Famitsu has published an ad that's part of an Assassin's Creed 2 style webcam tease which hints at the existence of a Metal Gear Solid 'Orange Box' collection.

The webcam trickery (as shown below), reveals two icons of the MGS series (a box and exclamation mark) when a Kojima Productions ad on the back of the magazine and an accompanying image are placed in front of the webcam.

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Just when we thought Kojima Productions was lacking its usual teasing flare, it now seems that there's definitely more to the number "5" on the studio's 'Next' project teaser site than first meets the eye, with the splash page now showing the letter "E" in both lower and upper cases, as well as reversed.

The appearance of these three different images of the letter "E" are now spliced up with the existing number "5", with all four appearing at periodic lightning strikes that illuminate their image before they quickly fade away.

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Amongst the ongoing teases for Hideo Kojima's next project, for which we can expect further developments early tomorrow morning, the self-styled auteur has now revealed that there's "pressure" from Konami for him to continue the Metal Gear Solid series.

Speaking to Develop, Kojima said, "Yeah, there's absolutely pressure there," when asked whether the screws were being tightened on him to continue the MGS series following the conclusion of MGS4.

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If it ain't broke, don't fix it seems to be the mantra for Rebellion and SEGA's Aliens vs. Predator project, which will be the first of three Aliens titles that SEGA is releasing in the coming years (ahead of Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines and Obsidian's Aliens RPG).

The latest of Rebellion's AvP outings will retain the same three-pronged gameplay format of its predecessors, allowing gamers to play as marines, Aliens, or the mighty Predator.

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LucasArts' original Monkey Island game, The Secret of Monkey Island, could be coming to Xbox Live Arcade as a Special Edition if a recent ratings board posting is anything to go by.

The German USK Ratings Board has listed The Secret of Monkey Island - Special Edition for release on the Xbox 360 (reports GamerBytes), so we can only assume that the supposed title is destined for the Xbox Live Arcade.

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The decision to opt for exclusive DLC is rapidly becoming this generation's battleaxe for fanboys to grind.  Bethesda's decision to cosy up with Microsoft and release Fallout 3 DLC exclusively on Xbox 360 and PC drew such a line for format fanboys to bicker over, but it seems such ranting was ultimately pointless with today's confirmation that the content will finally be making its way to the PlayStation3.

Bethesda assures us they've been working on the implementation for a while, with an impending title update providing the ability to download Operation: Anchorage in June via the PlayStation Store.  The Pitt and Broken Steel will follow afterwards with a gap of 4-6 weeks between each.  No word yet on pricing details.

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