If online gaming wasn't hard enough a game-hacking site called Artificial Aiming has some members that are now targeting innocent players for Punkbuster bans in Battlefield 3. They were able to do this by corrupting a streaming Punkbuster ban list shared by certain server admins. A junior member from the Artificial Aiming forums that took the lead on this attack is focusing on servers that use GGC-Stream. He is are quoted as saying,

"We have selected ggc-stream as the target since they have the most streaming bf3 servers and makes it very easy to add fake bans. In 2011 we hit them with a mass ban wave and now were are banning real players from battlelog while ggc-stream is totally unaware. We have framed 150+ bf3 players alone"

Origin is the fledgling online download account-based DRM service from Electronic Arts launched last June, that is home to Battlefield 3. To compete effectively against other similar services, the industry-leading Steam in particular, it must offer more content. To this end, Origin has added 11 publishers to its portfolio, reports CVG. These are Trion Worlds, Robot Entertainment, Freebird Games, Recoil Games, Autumn Games, 1C Company, inXile entertainment, Paradox Interactive, Core Learning Ltd, N3V Games and CD Projekt RED. That last one is interesting, because CD Projekt RED owns and runs www.gog.com, the website dedicated to selling DRM-free games.

Microsoft has revealed the top 20 most popular games played on the Xbox 360 in 2011 based on numbers of unique users logged into Xbox LIVE (Silver and Gold members). Note that this gives a different result to the total playtime for a particular game, which has not been disclosed here. Unsurprisingly, the Call of Duty series dominates the chart, but what is sure to irk CoD detractors, but make fans very happy, is that a massive five of those positions are taken up by CoD - that's 25% of the rankings. Even CoD4: Modern Warfare which was released way back in 2007 sits at a very respectable number 14. However, top games Battlefield 3 and Skyrim did very well nonetheless, sitting at five and six respectively, with only Halo beating them at number 4. Can you guess which CoD game hit the top spot before looking at the chart?

Today Kotaku is reporting the top 5 games pirated for major platforms this year according to TorrentFreak. As usual the PC platform is the most guilty almost doubling in pirated copies then its competitors.

Some of the titles listed are not surprising but the lack of a certain title filled with dragon slaying is. Why Skyrim didn't make the top five is anyone's guess. Either Steam is in fact the most user friendly DRM or people just love Skyrim. Either way this is just a small glimpse into the world of pirated software.

Top Five Pirated PC Games

1. Crysis 2 (3,920,000) (March 2011)
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (3,650,000) (November 2011)
3. Battlefield 3 (3,510,000) (October 2011)
4. FIFA 12 (3,390,000) (September 2011)
5. Portal 2 (3,240,000) (April 2011)

NVIDIA today announced that system builders worldwide are now shipping the fastest PC gaming platforms ever built, thanks in part to NVIDIA SLI technology and the just-released Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processors and X79 chipset-based motherboards.

The combination of NVIDIA SLI technology -- which allows for multiple GPUs to run on a single PC -- and new X79-based motherboards allow gamers to customize their PC experience with up to four NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPUs, including the GeForce GTX 580 and GTX 570, the world's fastest DX11 GPUs. Licensed by the world's leading motherboard manufacturers -- including Intel, ASUS, ASRock, EVGA, Foxconn, Gigabyte and MSI, SLI technology is crucial for playing this year's hottest graphics-intensive games, such as the recently released Battlefield 3 and upcoming Batman: Arkham City with detail, resolution and immersion settings cranked up.

While PC gamers are getting understandably excited about one of the year's biggest releases, which is guaranteed to have standards-setting graphics at least, there's a kick in the teeth waiting just around the corner. EA and Virgin Gaming have teamed up to launch a massive BF3 contest with $1.6m in cash and prizes - for consoles only. Yes, you read that right. And the reason? Consoles are the "gold standard". That's the aging console platforms reported on TechPowerUp a few days ago. GameStop's president Tony Bartel said in an interview with IndustryGamers:

We continue to believe that the console is a strong platform and will continue to be the gold standard.

Here's the latest Radeon Catalyst driver suite for all you Radeon graphics card fans! It has one major new feature:

Enables AMD HD 3D technology support on DisplayPort panels, such as the Samsung 750 and 950 series 3D displays

which sounds very cool and is begging to be reviewed and benchmarked, plus quite a few fixes:

Just hours after NVIDIA released its Battlefield 3 optimised GeForce driver suite, AMD is ready with a similar piece of software of its own, the AMD Catalyst 11.10 Preview. Preview drivers are essentially BETA hotfix drivers. The new Catalyst software suite makes your ATI/AMD Radeon graphics card (that meets minimum/recommended requirements) optimized for Battlefield3. Its changelog follows:

• Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series for single GPU configurations
• Enables support for Eyefinity 5x1 display (portrait and landscape) configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
• Vision Engine Control Center: User Interface enhancements have been implemented for the CrossfireX, GPU Overdrive, and Information Center pages.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 11.10 Preview Driver Suite

NVIDIA today released a new BETA version of its GeForce driver suite. What makes the new GeForce 285.38 BETA important is its timing, and what it brings to the table. Recently, EA/DICE released an open-beta of the highly anticipated AAA title, Battlefield 3, and gamers are already sharpening their skills ahead of its market release.

The new GeForce BETA drivers are said to increase performance of Battlefield 3 beta by up to 38%, add SLI profiles for the game, and add several stability fixes and image-quality improvements for the game. In essence, Battlefield 3 beta is at the center of GeForce 285.38 BETA. Apart from Battlefield 3, the drivers add SLI profiles for Dead Island, Diablo III, Dragon Age 2, Need for Speed: The Run, and Saints Row: The Third; and fix a stability issue with Crysis 2 (DirectX 9).

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 285.38 BETA

Some claim that PC gaming is dying. However, recent trends as explained by NVIDIA, disagree and it is in fact console gaming that will soon decline, as PCs have some compelling advantages such as ever improving graphics and moddability, to keep the gaming scene thriving. Techgage held a conference call with NVIDIA, where the company explained why PC gaming is on the up and up. PC gaming software sales are growing fast, according to this comparative graph and the predicted crossover point is 2014:

Razer, the world's leading high-end precision gaming brand and EA, a leading global interactive entertainment software company, is kicking your explosive war gaming experience up several notches with the exclusive Battlefield 3 co-branded peripherals and gear line. Get total immersion and the technological advantage to win in one of the biggest first person shooter titles from EA to be launched this year.

The Razer Battlefield 3 Collector's Edition Peripherals line includes a Razer BlackWidow Ultimate mechanical keyboard, a Razer Imperator gaming mouse, Razer Scarab hard mouse mat and a Razer Onza Tournament Edition Xbox 360 controller. This suite of Razer gaming weaponry fully equips fans of Battlefield 3 to take on the most intense firefights and emerge victorious. They'll be empowered with competitive gaming features like faster key actuation on the Razer BlackWidow, increased swiping precision with the Razer Imperator, enhanced tracking accuracy with the Razer Scarab and fully customizable controls on the Razer Onza.

NVIDIA today released GeForce 260.89 driver suite. The software provides WHQL-signed drivers for all GeForce 6-series onwards, and ION platform GPUs. It also provides 3D Vision software, GPU-integrated audio device driver (version 1.1.9.0), and PhysX system software (version 9.10.0514). As with almost every new release, GeForce 260.89 WHQL packs a host of performance enhancements, official support for new GPUs (it's GeForce GT 430, this time), and a host of bug-fixes. What's different this time around is that the performance enhancements are specific to two GPUs, GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 460. SLI profiles are added for new game titles.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 260.89 WHQL for Windows 7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

A detailed list of changes follows.

Sticking to its announcement, AMD released the ATI Catalyst 10.4a Preview driver suite. In the run up to Catalyst 10.4, the company wanted to quickly resolve an important issue pertaining to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 game load times, which made it release a series of preview drivers, starting with Catalyst 10.4 Preview which resolved the issue for ATI Radeon HD 5000 series GPUs, and now the Catalyst 10.4a Preview, which resolves it for ATI Radeon HD 4000, HD 3000, HD 2000 series GPUs. With this hotfix applied, users will experience reduced map game load times on Bad Company 2. Catalyst 10.4 WHQL will be released later this month.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 10.4a Preview

AMD today announced the flagship installment in the award-winning line of graphics cards, the ATI Radeon HD 5970, the fastest card ever created. The new ultra high-end model joins a growing list of the world's first and only graphics cards to fully support Microsoft DirectX 11 technology and ATI Eyefinity multi-display technology.

Designed to support the most demanding PC games at ultra-high resolutions and image quality settings, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 has unlocked overclocking potential, granting access to every bit of power the card has to offer through ATI Overdrive technology. Now shipping from retailers and available in the channel, the ATI Radeon HD 5970 also launches today in new Alienware Area-51, Area-51 ALX and Aurora desktop PCs.

The CEO of Electronic Arts (EA), John Pleasants confirmed that the company will publish Battlefield 3, the newest addition to the Battlefield franchise, which is one of the most popular online team-based tactical-shooter games. Pleasants spoke with TechFragments, during a presentation at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference in Chicago. "I've had the luxury of looking at Battlefield 3 over at DICE in Sweden and was highly impressed by the way the team is working on that product. Of course, that's not in [this] fiscal year, but that is a product that is looking very good.", he said.

The source also shed some light on the game, which inherits its gameplay from Battlefield 2, and will be similar to it. The game will support up to 40 players per team, will feature 24 different vehicles, and 17 different weapons. Some kinds equipment need to be unlocked in order to use them, which serve as achievements in online play. From what EA says, the game will not make it this year, though it is likely that it will hit stores in the winter holiday season of 2010. A beta could serve as prelude to the launch, which may arrive by summer of 2010, according to the source.