SUNNYVALE, CA - May 23, 2007 - After warming their amps in the basement garage to rocking sold out shows at Stonehenge, fans of Activision, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: ATVI) wildly popular Guitar Hero franchise will now be able to shred like never before with the next iteration of the game that will be available this fall. The new game will be released on the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Wii video game system from Nintendo.

Sierra's new 'Chronicles of Riddick' game, titled 'Dark Athena', will be released later this year for both the PS3 and the XBOX360. The game is both a remake of the original award winning 'Escape from Butcher Bay' that was released in 2004, and an expansion which introduces the Merc-ship Dark Athena. The ability to play online has also been added.

The Black Box has been cancelled...We're going to have one package, The Orange Box

said Doug Lombardi, Valve's director of marketing. The package, which was to offer only Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, has been officially cancelled by Valve. The Orange Box will be the only collection offered when Episode 2 releases this fall. In addition to the three new products - Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life: Episode Two - The Orange Box will also contain the full version of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One and cost additional $10. The Orange Box, will be available on the PC (US$49.99) as well as the 360 and PS3 (US$ 59.99) game consoles.

Age of Empires is heading east with the introduction of Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, the second expansion pack for the top-selling strategy that arrives on Microsoft Windows XP- and Windows Vista-based PCs this fall. The expansion pack will introduce gamers to Asian civilizations, a host of new gameplay features, and a new developer that will provide a unique spin to a classic favorite. Developed for the first time by Big Huge Games, the development studio responsible for the incredibly popular real-time strategy Rise of Nations, the Asian Dynasties will provide new content and several new gameplay elements that include new ways of winning and trading, random map styles that feature remixes of classic Age of Empires game styles, and 15 new Asian Wonders. Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties will also ship as a Games for Windows title with easier installation, improved reliability and support for key Windows Vista features, including the Games Explorer and Parental Controls.

Almost ten years after the original, Blizzard officially confirmed today at the third Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, that a StarCraft sequel is in the works. Click here to watch the Starcraft 2 CGI announcement trailer, or here for the first ever posted in-game screenshots!

Visit the official Starcraft 2 website for more information.

Sony previewed an extensive software line up for its PlayStation platforms for the second half of 2007 and early 2008 at a media event in San Diego yesterday. More than 30 games for PS3 game console, including a strong first-party lineup of over ten announced titles, were shown during the event, along with a full library of games and services for PlayStation Portable handheld entertainment system, PS2 computer entertainment system and PLAYSTATION Network. Some of the key new titles for PS3 include: Warhawk, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Spider-Man 3, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End, NBA'08 and MLB 07 The Show. Additionally sixteen exclusive titles for PSP from first and third parties were also unveiled at the event, ranging from Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow to God of War: Chains of Olympus and SOCOM:U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike. The full list of games and services can be found at PlayStation.com.

Ubisoft has released a new trailer and five new screenshots from Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, this time showcasing the PC version of this action sequel developed by Ubisoft's Paris studio and Red Storm Studios. The game again puts you in control of the Ghosts who have to change their holiday plans to go to El Paso and put a stop to a growing rebel threat. The game is scheduled to be released this summer. Download the 2:01 min of gameplay footage from here.

Epic Games has finally launched a new official website for the highly anticipated Unreal Tournament 3. The website has a few in-game screen shots, as well as a trailer in HD and you can subscribe to get your hands on the latest news about the game.

Unreal Tournament 3 for XBOX360 is due to be released in September and the Playstation 3 version is scheduled for the end of year. There is no any fixed timeline for a PC version but it probably won't see the light of the day in 2007.

Visit the site here.

Crysis, one upcoming DirectX 10 title developed by Crytek as the first game to use their CryENGINE 2 is highly anticipated. But many gamers bemoan the fact that DirectX 10 requires spending at least $100US for a new graphics card and another $100+US for Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows Vista. And possibly more RAM since 2 gigabytes is recommended for gaming within Vista - the desirable upgrades practically form a new computer.

A streaming low-quality video of Crysis utilizing DirectX 9. High quality version is available too.

It's evident frugal gamers don't have to worry about relinquishing a couple hundred dollars to have a satisfying experience running around with a gun in a visually stunning environment for upcoming CryENGINE 2 powered games.

Crysis is vaguely slated for a "Quarter 3, 2007" release.

Sony's Technical Director Scott Hartsman took the opportunity and revealed some very interesting information about EverQuest 2's expansion called Rise of Kunark. As the name indicates, the continent Kunark, which was razed to the ground between the setting of EverQuest Live and EverQuest 2, will be the playground again. Together with the new, old continent the expansion will raise the level cap to 80, include a new race, the neutral Sarnak, a new mount (the Kunarkian Rhinoceros), epic weapons and much more.
There will be two options on how to obtain the expansion. You can either buy the retail box for 39.99$US, which includes the base game as well, or you can download the sole expansion for the same price.

You might know of Richard Garriott from his superb Ultima game series in the 1980s and 1990s and from the good old days of Origin Systems, his own publishing company. In 1992 he sold Origin Systems to Electronic Arts and coproduced some more Ultima's with them, but towards the end of the century it didn't went well with Lord British, he turned his back towards the game industry and left the company he once created. In the year 2000 he came back when founding Destination Games and later teamed up with the game publisher NCsoft to develop MMORPGs.
NCsoft today announced the start of the closed beta testing of Tabula Rasa, Garriot's actual PC game project. In Tabula Rasa you will take part in an epic, intergalactic science-fiction story on alien worlds with fast-paced action and role-playing aspects combined. The player enters the game as a rebel soldier faced with a huge war between his comrades and a xenophobic alien race.

In BioShock you will walk and dive through the remains of a hidden under water city called Rapture. BioShock will be released in late August of this year for the PC and Xbox 360 and the developers now revealed spectacular footage of the water effects in the game. You will find a mid-quality video online as well as a 65MB 1280x720 HD video which does BioShock's great visual effects much more justice.
If you want to dive into the technical and gameplay aspects of the water features you will find a Question and Answer article over at 2K Games which goes into all the details.

Will there be a difference in the water effects if you are using DX9 or DX10?

JJ: Depending on the performance gain on DX10 hardware, there will potentially be some additional details and effects enabled on these cards.

For over three years, dedicated Halo fans have been waiting for the next installment of the Halo series to finally hit the PC. Whether or not it is an ugly port like the last one was, here are the official system requirements for Halo 2 on the PC.

• Windows Vista
• 2 Ghz Pentium 4 class processor
• 1GB RAM
• 7GB hard disk space
• DX9 graphics card: WDDM driver, PS 2.0/32BPP, At least nVidia 6000 or ATI x700 or above
• DVD-ROM drive
• Internet connection for online play

Community team coordinator on the European MotorStorm forums, "Lestrade" writes that an update for the game will be coming "in the next couple of weeks." The update will be free and is required to play the game online.

The patch, which bumps up the game to version 1.2, will address several issues, including a bug that allowed racers to exploit the boost, an increase in the size of the buddy list, better online performance, audio issues, and more.

Burnout Paradise is the title of the next installment in EA's destructive racing series, which will mark its PlayStation 3 debut. Burnout Paradise will come to the Xbox 360 and PS3 "this winter," which typically means a December or January release.

"We have been working towards Burnout Paradise for quite some time," said game's executive producer, Pete Hawley. He continued: "Next generation consoles have opened up a raft of new gameplay opportunities and the Criterion team has leapt at the chance to innovate."

The success of Nintendo's two newest consoles, the Wii and the Nintendo DS, has led to Nintendo reporting record profits for the year ending 31st March. The Japanese based company managed revenue of 966.6 billion Yen (about $8 billion US) and operating profits of 266 billion Yen (about $1.9 billion). These figures show a 90% rise in revenue and 150% rise in profits compared to the same period a year ago. Nintendo sold 23 million Nintendo DS units with 123 million DS games during the year (that makes 40 million units since they started selling the handheld), whilst the Wii managed to sell 5.84 million consoles and 29 million games in the five months after its launch. Read on for Nintendo's press release.

The sequel to the very popular racing game Forza was up and running at a local cart tournament. The current build runs on a debug XBox 360, which means the game itself runs from the hard drive instead of a DVD. The game needs to be started by hand every time the console is turned on. Below you will find a few images of the launcher and of the game itself. Please remember, the product is not yet finished by a long shot. The current build has reproducable freezes when choosing certain cars and the graphics are not finished yet.

The trailer for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has been released - you can download the 720p version via FilePlanet. It looks quite impressive and is definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the series. The download is a 35.3MB Quick Time Movie, with FilePlanet requiring free registration before you can download it (there may be queues). Apparently the footage is taken straight from the single player campaign so shows what gamers will actually be able to play - the game is also rumored to be PC only.

Infinity Ward, the driving force behind the development of the Call of Duty series (with Activision), did not do any work on the third Call of Duty installment. This is because they were too busy working on the fourth installment. Anyone who wants to see an in-depth look at Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare had better be watching ESPN 10 A.M. PDT / 1 P.M. EDT on Saturday, the 28th.

StarCraft was by far the most popular game in Korea and the korean website thisisgame.com has some juicy information about the sequel. Apparently Blizzard will be announcing StarCraft 2 at the Blizzards World Wide Invitational which is held from May 19th to May 25th in Seoul. There will be developers of the game at the event and pictures of the 3D sequel will be shown. A new race has been added to the mix and the original units have gotten new upgrades. Teamliquid.net has a translation of the korean text here If you are able to read the language, follow the source link below for the original.

Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced that it is creating Tom Clancy's EndWar, a new brand in the Tom Clancy series of video games. Led by strategy veteran and Ubisoft creative director Michael de Plater, Tom Clancy's EndWar is being developed by a world-class team at Ubisoft's Shanghai studio whose members have experience developing Ubisoft's hit franchises including Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. Tom Clancy's EndWar is scheduled for release on next-generation consoles in fiscal year 2007/2008.

Fans of the Fallout series, which was recently purchased by Bethesda, will be pleased to know that Fallout 3 development has been coming along quite nicely. There is now an official Fallout 3 'teaser website', as well as official Fallout 3 forums. While things haven't really taken off with this site or the forums just yet, with Bethesda working hard on making Fallout 3 amazing, we can be sure that the final product will be well worth the wait.

It's been eleven years since the original Tomb Raider was released. And so, the original makes of Tomb Raider have felt it necessary to make an anniversary edition. Of course, the actual production wasn't done by the original producers. A lot of franchise ownership transfer has been going on, and now Eidos Interactive is responsible for Tomb Raider: Anniversary. On June 5th, you will be able to get this game for the PS2, PC, and "shortly thereafter", the PSP.

The latest instalment in EA's highly successful World War 2 shooter - Medal of Honor: Airborne will be available on August 28, 2007. Developed by EA Los Angeles the game will feature the major allied airborne operations of the war, including Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943; Operation Avalanche, the invasion of mainland Italy in September 1943; Operation Neptune, the airborne element of Operation Overlord in June 1944; Operation Market Garden, the famously ill-fated attempt to cross the Rhine into Germany through Holland in September 1944; and Operation Varsity, the largest airborne operation ever undertaken, to cross the Rhine in March 1945. The game will be released on the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Are you a fan of superhero video games? If so, I've got some good news for you! The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor are all coming to various consoles. This is because Sega and Marvel have agreed to partner up to help milk the franchises to their limit make the best video games possible. With the comic genius of Marvel, and the programming prowess of Sega, we should see some seriously impressive games coming from Sega studios soon. Unfortunately, we're not going to see these games for a while. We're only at the "agree to hand over licenses of characters" stage. Actual programming of the games will happen over the course of the year, and we should start seeing new games by June 2008.