Gears Of War 2 - Dark Corners & All Fronts Map Packs Now Available

The latest installment in "Downloadable Content" for Gears Of War 2 has arrived and its name is Dark Corners. Dark Corners brings 7 New maps to online multiplayer, 2 of which have been in previous game Gears Of War games, 1 from the original and another from the PC Version.

Dark Corners costs 1200 MS Points, which is around £10 - however for 1600 MS Points (around £15) you can download the "All Fronts Map Pack" which consists of all 19 Maps (including Flashback, Conbustible and Snowblind map packs) which to be honest is a great deal, as the maps individually costs 400 to 800 MS Points, for one great price in one great package, essitential for new Gears Of War 2 players.

Both Packs also come with the "Deleted Campagin Chapter" known as "Road To Ruin" where Dom and Marcus have to either sneak or storm their way into the locust nexus, rather interesting style aswell - but guns blazing is always fun.

To Celebreat the release of this new chapter and map pack, Epic games are having a double EXP weekend (to boost online rankings), this starts today and ends on 3rd august - so its a great chance to get people to go online and earn some EXP for that every important "rank 100" achievement. Happy Gaming!

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Limited Hardened Edition Announced for PS3 and Xbox 360

A few online gaming retailers, mainly gamplay, have listed a "Limited Edition" version of Infinity Wards latest Call of Duty game.

This "Hardened" edition of Modern Warfare 2 will not only just contain a "steelbook" case and alternate cover to the standard edition - but it will also contain an artbook - featuring amazing artistic pictures of Modern Warfare 2 in action and a code to download "Call Of Duty: Classic" - which is the original Call Of Duty re-made for consoles in stunning High Definition.

Im assuming that "Call Of Duty: Classic" will also be released onto Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network around the same time Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 hits store shelves, however im guessing it will cost around £10 (if not more) to buy.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Standard edition has an estimated retail price of around £44.99, while the "Limited Edition" version is set to retail around £69.99 - seems like a big jump just for a metal case, a book and a game (which will most likely be able to download online anyway).

Xbox 360 Version can be found here.
Playstation 3 Version can be found here.

So which version will you buy? - im going to wait to see if anything more will come inside the "Hardened" edition - but the fact is Modern Warfare 2 will be epic.

Wii Sports Resort - Now Available In UK!

The Nintendo game that "nintendo" said would never get a sequal is finally here and not only that it comes bundled with "Wii-Motion Plus", so the question remains - are you buying Wii Sports Resort for the game? or buying it for the Motion Plus?.

Wii Sports Resort is a sequal to "Wii Sports" however this time it includes three times as more games such as Beach Volleyball, Jet Sking, Fencing, Disc Dog (throw a disc to the dog that appears in Wii Fit Jog game) - however the popular tennis returns in a beach format.

Wii Motion Plus (that comes bundled with Wii Sports) can be bought seperately for around £24.99, however the Wii Sports Resort package can be picked up for around £34.99 - £44.99, so another £10 or so and you can get a game with it. Some stores, such as Currys and PC World are selling "Wii Sports Resort (Motion Plus Bundle) + Wii Motion Plus" for £54.99, so thats 1 game and 2 motion plus adaptors, a bargin espically if two people need to play.

As most people probably have noticed im not a huge "Wii" fan - though i do like SEGA'S arcade ports, but "Wii Sports" and "Wii Sports Resort" is a definate must buy for any nintendo wii owner.

The Sims 3 Bursts Onto N-Gage

This Weeks (or should i say last weeks) latest N-Gage title is no other than EA's "The Sims 3" and its surprising, and nice to see that the game was able to be launched reasonably close to the PC Version, which got released a few weeks back on the PC.

Im not sure how big the game is (or even how much it costs) - but im guessing it would cost around £8, however what i can tell you is that, unlike "The Sims: Bustin Out" on the original N-Gage, this version is a more "2D approach" and quite frankly looks like an upscaled "java" port - which in some cases it could be.

The gameplay is similar to the pc version, find a house, or build one, and take care of a person / family - repeat until either you get bored,or your sims die. In simple terms a human tamagotchi - but can be alot of fun and rather entertaining espically when something amusing goes off (getting slapped in face or cooker goin on fire = priceless).

The Sims 3 is now available on the N-Gage platform, and the trial can be downloaded from the N-Gage game page, so give it a shot! You can download the free trail from here, enjoy!

Street Fighter IV Finally Released Worldwide On PC

After several months of waiting (from the intial console release of the game) Street Fighter IV is now available for avid Street Fighter PC Gamers and so far it seems to be sturring up alot of sales.

The game was officially released in europe last friday, however a variety of online retailers, play.com, amazon.co.uk, shopto.net for example all seem to be having trouble keeping the game in stock - this isnt exactly hard to explain espically with the fairly decent "minimum requirements" of the game, and that the game is available for under £19 (online), however the true store RRP is around £24.99 to £29.99.

I have given Street Fighter IV (PC Version) ago on my laptop and to be honest the game runs pritty smoothly on LOW-MID (custom) graphics settings, on HIGH the game looks visually stunning, on par, if not better, than the PS3 and Xbox 360 version - however the game starts to run slow and lag - not to mention out of sync during cut-scenes inbetween fights.

The PC Version of SF4 is labelled as a "Games For Windows Live" game, so 360 users (or PC Achievement Whores) can expect to earn achievements (you can see the full achievement list here) and purchase extra costumes (and game modes) from the PC Marketplace, however this is not available as of yet, but will arrive as the option is available on the main menu.

The minimum Specifications for Street Fighter IV are, 1.8Ghz, 2GB Ram, Nvidia/ATI Graphics, 6GB HDD - however to give you a rough idea on what it would look like on your system here is a "few" examples of Street Fighter IV running at different settings on my laptop (which is 2Ghz Processor, Nvidia Geforce 8500GTM (256mb), 2GB Ram, 250GB HDD, Vista):

Low Settings:






























Low - Medium Settings:






























Medium - High Settings:






























High Settings:

As you can see the graphics are "visually" stunning and enjoyable to watch, so if you want to play on HIGH or MED-HIGH id recomend getting a 512mb Graphics card and slightly faster processor, either way the game is still enjoyable on the LOW-MED settings (which is what i currently have it on - as i prefer the game to be fast rather than abit slow).

So to some up, Street Fighter IV on the PC is exactly same as the Xbox 360 version (including online play and the random "new challenger has appeared" over online arcade matches) - except the game has a few differences that are supposed to make the PC version superior.

Street Fighter IV is now available throughout the world and retails (in the UK) for around £17.99 to £29.99, depending on where you buy it from. Happy Fighting!

1 Vs 100 (Season 1) Heading To Xbox Live UK!

Microsoft announced on Xbox Live today (UK Servers) that the 1 VS 100 Trivia Competition will start on Xbox Live this friday.

The game (1 vs 100) is based of the "National Lottery" 1 vS 100 TV Game (which im guessing is based of a US 1 VS 100 TV Show), where 1 contestant takes on 100 players (at the same time) which a chance to win some fantastic prizes (and for once these prizes are real!!).

The only win for the "ONE" to win is by answering every question correctly and beating all the over players (the 100) - sounds alot harder than it is - but to give you some help you are awarded 2 dodges, so you can dodge questions - however (on the TV Show) this reduces the prize you will recieve. Throughout the game you will be given a chance to get extra dodges or "bonus" cards which usually (on the TV Show) double the prize amount you currently have. So its a "very" exciting game and should be ALOT of fun.

1 VS 100 (Season 1) has been going ahead rather popular on the USA Severs, but its finally the UK's time to shine, so study hard because you could be the one to win some fantastic prizes.

If you havent already check out the trailer (click here) or sign into Xbox live and check it out, however the 1 VS 100 Competition is only available to Xbox Live GOLD Members and starts this friday (friday 10th july), Good luck!

Gears Of War 2 - Title Update 4 Has Arrived & Double Experience Weekend

The new Downloadable Content (DLC) for Gears Of War 2 is due to be released soon, which contains several new maps and a "lost" chapter from the game where you (marcus) and dom have to sneek inside the loucust home base (or just shoot everything in your path).

Well this new DLC brings new achievements, and with new achievements brings a new title update - which has happened today on gears of war 2. Minor things have been altered, such as bugs and glitches fixed (hopefully) but the big improvement is that "horde" will now offer experience points online - so now all thoose horde matches arent wasting your time on getting to level 100.

Which comes onto the 4th july "double EXP weekend" on Gears Of War 2, from 3rd July (today) to late monday 6th july, all EXP Gains will be doubled, and there will be a bonus EXP for people / team who win the match - which makes it easier to getting to that oh so wounderful level 100 rank.

For more information on the title update you can read about it on the official gears of war forums here. Its all good news for me as i was starting to get a little bit bored, have fun online!

Ghostbusters On Xbox 360 "Confirmed" Region Free

Over on the "Xbox 360 Achievements" Website, Dan Webb, a blog writer for the website has announced that the american version of "Ghostbusters: The Video Game" is infact Region FREE - so the american game will work on any console around the world.

This comes as "extremely" good news for people in europe who were "annoyed" that the game got delayed as Sony recieved the publishing rights to it in the UK - and another good thing is that the game can be picked up for around £30 from some online retailers, which is £10, maybe £15 cheaper that what it would cost when released in the UK later in the year.

You can read Dan Webbs post here.

Even though Ghostbusters was only released on two platforms in the UK, which were the PS3 and PS2, both formats were charged at full retail price and , to my amazement, instantly sold out - espically in places like Game and Gamestation - im still holding out for the 360 version or a demo to see what the game is really like.

Worms 2: Armageddon Arrives On Xbox Live Marketplace

They're back and they mean some "destructive" business, yes Worms 2: Armageddon finally arrives onto the Xbox Live Marketplace and just as promised the worms title costs 800 MS points.

When "Worms" originally got released onto XBL over a year ago it brought a sense of fun back into modern High Def gaming - not mention using levels and weapons from the recent PSP Version of "Worms Open Warfare", now the 2nd installment for the Worms XBLA Franchise is here featuring more maps, more challenges and over 40 different weapons spawning from various different worms games, not to mention a few "new" weapons and some old favourites such as the donkey!

At the moment Worms 2: Armageddon is only available on Xbox Live Marketplace, however there is rumours flying around that it will come to the PSN (Playstation Network) in the next few months, but at the moment XBL has first dibs.

The game itself, as mentioned earlier, costs 800 MS points (bowt £6) and is 175MB in size, the game features up to 4 players offline and online - not to mention a few "challenge modes" and of course the standard offline random deathmatch play - either way its all good fun, espically if you like worms.