The new Gears of War for Xbox360

Gear heads rejoice! Game Informer magazine has lifted the curtain off next month’s cover story and it confirms that a new Gears of War  title for the Xbox 360 will be announced at Microsoft’s E3 press conference next week.

No details about the game have surfaced yet, but from the cover we can surmise that a shadowy figure is in chains, being escorted by soldiers as if about to be tried in court. Or, he’s being led into an arena for gladiator style combat against a Brumak!

We’ll just have to wait until next week to know for sure.

Transformers: Fall of the Cybertron "Dinobots"

The battle between the Autobots and Decepticons is at its peak, and Cybertron is in ruin. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron  paints a bleak image of the Transformers universe, with Optimus Prime leading the fight against Megatron for control of their home world. In this latest trailer, we get an in-depth look at the Dinobots and their role in the upcoming action-vehicular combat-shooter.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier takes place in the near future. A dirty bomb has taken out a Ghost team, and another Ghost team (consisting of Kozak, Ghost Lead, Pepper, and 30k) is tasked with tracking down the source of the dirty bomb.

During the campaign, the Ghosts will visit places such as Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia and Norway.

The Game begins in Central America with an unnamed Ghost team who eliminates a convoy of weapons traffickers, upon inspection of the convoy vehicles the Ghosts discover a dirty bomb that is triggered and kills the team. Back at Fort Bragg, NC Hunter Team consisting of an unnamed Ghost Leader, Kozac, Pepper, and 30K prepare to ship out when Major Mitchell (having been promoted from Captain following the events of GRAW2) informs them of their new mission to rescue a arms dealer named Paez in Bolivia who has information about where the bomb came from. Hunter team rescues Paez and then proceeds to follow the trail of guns from Zambia where they eliminate a local warlord, to Nigeria, Pakistan, Norway, and finally into Russia where the Ghosts destroy an arms shipment at an airport causing an international incident. Sometime later in Britain a nuclear missile fired from Russia impacts London but the nuclear warhead is eliminated last minute by the US Missile Shield (described by 30K as it was thought to be "a joke").

The launch is traced to a group known as Raven's Rock in Dagestan and the Ghosts go to link up with the surviving members of a Georgian special forces unit who was supposed recon the launch site. Upon rescuing the sole survivor Hunter team is ambushed by Russians using active camouflage just like the Ghosts, these Russians are revealed to be Russia's Ghost counterpart, the Bodark. It then becomes known that a coup has been staged and Raven's Rock is now in charge of the majority of Russia with a few loyalist Russia forces opposing the new government scattered around the country. The Ghosts then head to northern Russia to securing some drilling ships so that the loyalist Russia forces can have a steady flow of oil. After doing this Hunter Team is assigned to rescue a loyalist General who is seen as the leader of the resistance. After destroying the artillery that was attacking the General's forces Hunter team is pinned down by overwhelming Russian forces until members of the HAWX squadron provide close air support and eliminate all opposition. Next Kozac is tasked with a solo operation rescuing the Russian President from a prison in Siberia, the President is rescued and the Ghosts move to Moscow to protect the President in his return and eliminate Raven's Rock's primary General. The Raven's Rock forces are overthrown and the crises ends, while everyone else is celebrating Hunter team receives intel on the location of the 7 leaders of Raven's Rock or orchestrated the whole thing. Hunter team is sent in on a deniable operation to eliminate the 7. After eliminating 6 of the 7, Hunter team chases the last member, code-named "Ace" to a train station where they wound him. The wounded Ace taunts the team that they will not kill him because the American government will stop them. Right before they execute him Major Mitchell contacts them calling them off stating that Ace is to be kept alive and brought back to America, and that the orders came "from the top" and for Hunter team to not touch him. At that point a train comes and Ace, who is wounded on the tracks, calls for Hunter team to save him claiming that their orders were "to keep him alive", Ghost Leader replies that their orders were not to touch him as Hunter team leaves Ace to be run over by the train.

Skullgirls

A renaissance has taken place recently in the fighting game genre. Recently Soul Calibur V and Street Fighter X Tekken came out, and Capcom has been continuously releasing updates for Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend and King of Fighters XIII have kept 2D fighters alive. Soon we’ll see new releases in the Tekken Tag Tournament and Dead or Alive series.

On the downloadable front, we haven’t really seen much in the fighting genre. We’ve seen old games re-released like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and the Mortal Kombat Kollection. We’ve also seen remakes like Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Autumn Games with Reverge Labs has taken the path less traveled by releasing Skullgirls digitally on PSN and XBLA.

The story to Skullgirls is pretty thin, but you don’t usually expect much from a fighting game. An item called the Skull Heart has the ability to grant a girl one wish, as long as the girl’s heart is pure. Should there be any impurities, the wish will consume her and turn her into a Skullgirl. While it’s an odd way to get the characters together into something of a story, it’s different from the typical, “wealthiest person in the world holds tournament for top fighters.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 DLC Collection #2 Trailer

 The second Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 DLC Collection launches on May 22 with all-new Multiplayer/Survival Mode Maps, Special Ops Missions and the debut of Face Off maps. Totally new to the franchise, Face Off distills all the fun and intensity of multiplayer into a new breed of 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 close combat. In addition to 2 Face Off maps (Getaway and Lookout), Collection 2 deploys with 3 additional multiplayer maps (Sanctuary, Foundation and Oasis) and 2 Special Ops Missions (Iron Clad and Switch Back), offering fans new venues to test their Multiplayer and Special Ops skills.

In addition to the DLC pack, Activision also released two free Face Off maps to 360 gamers yesterday. If you’re a PC or PS3 player, all of this content will be coming your way at an undisclosed date in the future. In the meantime, click the link to check out the trailer below.

Face Off Collection 2

Skyrim V Review

The Good
Immense world stuffed with varied tasks to perform   Dragon battles are a blast  Lovely art design capped by some beautiful, atmospheric touches   Enjoyable battles that you can approach in a variety of ways   Lots of compelling, self-contained stories to experience in addition to the main one.
The Bad
Glitches and bugs frequently disrupt the immersion   Friendly AI is often more of a hindrance than a help.

          The province of Skyrim might be frigid, but the role-playing game that takes place within it burns with a fire few games possess. In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you take up arms against dragons, and your encounters with them are invariably exciting--yet depending on where your adventure takes you, such battles may not even represent the pinnacle of your experience. A side quest that starts as a momentary distraction may turn into a full-fledged tale that could form the entirety of a less ambitious game. Yes, Skyrim is another enormous fantasy RPG from a developer that specializes in them, and it could suck up hundreds of hours of your time as you inspect each nook and crevasse for the secrets to be found within. If you know Bethesda Softworks' previous games, you might be unsurprised that Skyrim is not a land without blemish, but rather harbors any number of technical glitches and frustrating idiosyncrasies that tear open the icy veil that blankets the land. Many of them are ones Elder Scrolls fans will probably see coming, but they're ultimately a low price to pay for the wonders of a game this sprawling and enthralling. Prepare for many sleepless nights to come.
 
               Those nights traversing these lands are ones well spent. The game returns you to the continent of Tamriel, where you explore the northern realm called Skyrim, home to the Nord race. In these northern regions, snow flurries cloud your view, and platforms of ice float on the chilled waters. Nighttime often brings Tamriel's version of the aurora borealis, with its gorgeous blue and green ribbons stretching across the heavens. Skyrim's predecessor, Oblivion, featured prototypical fantasy environments--pretty but not quite evocative of the lore's darker undercurrents. Skyrim embraces its darker elements. You might feel an eerie chill as you glimpse a half-sunken ship through the mist, or watch as a dragon comes to life before your very eyes under the swirling firmament. Skyrim's atmospheric tone harks back to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, only the hazy dust storms of the earlier game have been replaced by glimmering snowfall and opaque fog.


           

   

Mass Effect 3 'Review'

The most anticipated final chapter in a trilogy of any kind since “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” is here as Commander Shepard’s incredible saga comes to a close with the kind of dramatic resonance that’s usually reserved for film or fiction. Following the incredible action of its predecessor – which claimed the title of 2010’s Xbox Game of the Year - “Mass Effect 3” is clearly looking to claim that trophy for 2012 (check out the About.com Xbox review), riding a wave of promotion, hype, and heightened expectations into your PS3. Is it the game changer that fans anticipated after the emotional end of the last installment or is it a disappointment in comparison to one of the most beloved games of all time? Fortunately, “Mass Effect 3” is everything that fans of the last game hoped it would be and more. It’s one of the most entertaining, engaging, and important games in the history of the medium.
Game Details

Publisher: EA
Developer: BioWare
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Genre: RPG
Pros: Stunning depth, complex storytelling, emotional stakes, refined combat, amazing authorship
Cons: Some repetitive A.I., uninspired level design

Diablo III 'Review'

Despite extensive stress-testing, Diablo 3's global launch was bound hit a few snags. And sure enough, as the 23.01 deadline passed and BattleNet servers opened worldwide, literally thousands of gamers started a mad dash to install the game, promptly crashing servers … as it did again the following day.

Diablo 3
Activision
It may have been a delay rather than a disaster – and it certainly didn't stop me racing through the first act before breakfast – but it did reflect many people's top pre-launch concern: Diablo 3's need to maintain a constant internet connection. Blizzard insists this is to ensure that characters can only be levelled up in one way to prevent fraud as well as retain security and control.

Nevertheless, having already lost some progress and booty between checkpoints myself, it's clear this latest multiplayer intrusion will rankle some single players deeply – at least until Battlenet returns to its usual, stable self. Of course, there are some advantages to having your character ID, stats and items stored online, but more about that in a moment.

In terms of gameplay, first glance reveals everything you would expect from a Diablo sequel: five playable character classes, roughly divided between close-range brawlers like the Barbarian and Monk and rangier characters like The Wizard and Demon Hunter. And, for sheer strangeness, there's the Witch Doctor – whose Demon Dogs skill fast became my defence of choice. For the first time, I was also able to make him a her, even though gender has no bearing on anything but appearance and voice-over.

Once in the game, it's clear that the new 3D engine has been put to work on rendering a level of detail we haven't seen in the series before. Superb lighting effects make even Act 1's formulaic dungeons seem more atmospheric, but once you reach Act 2's Caldeum and beyond, more spectacular locations and draw distances emerge. Enemies may have a tendency to swarm mindlessly towards you, but they come in large numbers and reasonable variety.

Not every improvement pays off, however; there's far too little destructible scenery and context-sensitive traps – such as falling chandeliers or rolling logs – sound like a great idea on paper but require such careful lining up of enemies you won't be troubling with them after the first few attempts.

There's improvement as well as innovation, particularly with the UI. With a permanent Portal spell to take you back to nearby towns and a much smarter way of choosing and comparing items, you can now focus on the important task of killing things.

However, in the 12 years since Diablo 2, RPG combat has moved on in leaps and bounds and D3 seems determined to stick to its tried and tested brawling system. Certainly there's a plethora of pyrotechnic skills for each character, most of which can be customised with up to five Runes each, opening up some fascinating alternative strategies for each class. But the way this is organised onscreen is confusing, with skills taking precedence over weapons by default and no clear overview of the powers you already have, let alone aspire to.

There's also a tedious "cooling down" period once a rune is activated and even longer after taking a Health potion. At least slain enemies now drop orbs that can be collected by running over them but this tends to give you abundant health at precisely the moment you don't need it (ie, once the danger has been eliminated).