via IGN


The award-winning multiplayer experience evolves with three new maps and expanded Forge options now available on Xbox Live Marketplace

After launching in Sept. 2007, millions of fans the world over still log onto Xbox Live every day to experience the award-winning action of Halo 3 multiplayer. That experience expanded first in December with the release of the Heroic Map Pack, and today Microsoft and Bungie release the next evolution with the Legendary Map Pack.

Available for 800 Microsoft Points exclusively on Xbox Live Marketplace, this second major downloadable content offering includes three new multiplayer maps, as well as a bevy of new Forge options.

Avalanche and Blackout revive two fan-favorite maps from previous Halo games, while Ghost Town welcomes desolate jungle combat to the experience. And now, using new options in the Forge, players can create more detailed challenges and map variants than ever, while also utilizing a variety of visual effects to create new, unique screenshots and saved films.

Avalanche is a throwback all the way to Halo: Combat Evolved. This snowy battlefield was inspired by the original Sidewinder, but the massive, vehicle-oriented objective map adds a twist to its classic predecessor with all new interiors, dramatically reshaped exteriors and brand new vehicle variants. Admire the view from above, as Avalanche also marks the arrival of the Hornet to Halo 3 multiplayer.

In keeping with the theme of "fan-favorites," Blackout will fill the void left by fans of Halo 2's Lockout. Although fully re-visualized, this map adheres very faithfully to the tightly wound perfection of the original, but eschews Forerunner architecture in favor of industrial human design. Blackout is perfect for fans of small battleground Slayer matches.

The Legendary Map Pack also packs a brand new punch, in addition to the two classics, with Ghost Town -- a battle-scarred maze of narrow passages and dangerous ruins. Collapsed ceilings and shell-battered buildings provide both valuable cover and deadly traps, as catwalks and stairways take the fight from claustrophobic ground combat to dizzying rooftop battles. Ghost Town is a mid-sized map ideal for Team Slayer games and smaller, objective types.

As an added bonus, for a limited time only, gamers who purchase the Legendary Map Pack will receive a four month subscription to "Bungie PRO" via Xbox Live. Bungie PRO greatly expands the Halo 3 experience by increasing the maximum number of file share storage slots from six to twenty-four while also increasing the total file storage size to 250MB. This will allow players to upload and share more films, maps, screenshots and game-types than ever before.

After downloading the new maps, gamers can register on Xbox Live for the "Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack Play & Win Sweepstakes" for their chance to win great prizes including a Halo 3 Edition console, Halo ActionClix: Scarab Vehicle Pack, a complete set of Halo 3 Series 1 Action Figures from McFarlane Toys, nearly one million MS Points and much more. Visit www.xbox.com/legendaryplaywin for more details.

The maps of the Legendary Map Pack are available in matchmaking today to those who have purchased the download. Additionally, fans that have yet to purchase the Heroic Map Pack, which released in December, can now download it for free on Xbox Live Marketplace. ...

via Eurogamer


Rising Star has announced plans to release Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon this September in Europe.

Rune Factory, you may recall from, er, all that copy we didn't write about it when it came out in Japan and the US last August, is a Harvest Moon game with an action-RPG twist.

That twist is that, in addition to being a standard-issue Harvest Moon farming type, toiling in the fields and so on, you're also an amnesiac swordsman with a murky past you're trying to uncover.

This you do by taking Mayor Godwin's instruction to go out and duff up local beasties, hoping, according to the delicately appointed press release description, that the deepest of the caves' secrets "holds the key to unlocking your past".

For some reason, there's also Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection support for swapping emails, screenshots and messages with other players.

And with Rune Factory due out here in September, presumably we can expect the recently released Rune Factory 2 in about 2028. ...

via Lifehacker


The iPhone and iPod touch are almost indistinguishable devices except for one major difference—you can make calls from your iPhone, and you can't from your iPod touch. For the privilege of making phone calls with your iPhone, you have to pay $100 more upfront to Apple for the device itself, plus a minimum of $60/month to AT&T for the next two years. Let's say you didn't need that kind of firepower from your iPod touch, but that you would like to use it make a phone call every now and then. You can, and today I'm going to show you how to make VoIP phone calls from your iPod touch or iPhone using a freeware application called SIP-VoIP.


Lengthy instructions here ...

Ok this has to be one of the biggest releases yet for the Homebrew scene, Nuke has released a Region Free Loader for your Commercial Wii Games, so now you dont need a freeloader or anything just this, in a nutshell this is the Holy Grail of Wii Homebrew releases

Heres the readme:


Download and Give Feedback and Compatability Reports Via Comments

via brakken ...

via Eurogamer


Atari has told Eurogamer Germany that the PS3 version of Alone in the Dark is down for an autumn release.

Developer Eden Studios won't just be porting the Xbox 360 and PC versions. You can expect a specially adapted game, and possibly extra content in episodic form.

Eden also said an Xbox 360 demo will be ready for release before the game, with a bit of luck.

Alone in the Dark is due out for Xbox 360, PC, PS2 and Wii on 24th June.

Pop over to Eurogamer Germany for the entire preview, or head to our Alone in the Dark gamepage for some English-language coverage.

Atari UK has been contacted for comment. ...

via Joystiq


No big surprises here – Gamestop already let the pricing details slip out from under Nintendo's iron grip – but just as impressions of the game slash exercise peripheral are being published all over the web, the Big N has made it all official. Wii Fit (and the Wii Balance Board of course) will be released on May 19th for a suggested retail price of $89.99.

But if you're not content with just a game and balance board peripheral and you happen to reside in or around the island of Manhattan, Nintendo has a special treat for you.The first 1000 people to drop a $5 pre-order for the gear at New York City's Nintendo Word Store from April 18 - 20 will be rewarded with a Wii Fit t-shirt featuring the likeness of game designer (and weight watcher) Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto. We're really hoping he's rocking the Richard Simmons short shorts, tank top combo. ...

News/release from Sakya


Download and give feedback via comments ...

via Eurogamer


Konami has released a few more details about the Metal Gear Online beta, which is due to kick off on Monday 21st April.

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Konami Online's Brandon Laurino reveals that each beta participant will have a single character slot to play with, allowing them to personalise an in-game avatar and customise/upgrade skills.

Each player can pick four skills to specialise in out of a list that includes CQC, knife fighting, quickness, alertness, heavy weaponry mastery, demolition and sniper mastery. "Talking for hours about Gozilla" isn't listed.

From there you're taken to a lobby screen for joining a game, and then it's into battle.

Once you're in the fray, you're able to keep up with what your team-mates are up to thanks to the game's nanomachine-based SOP (Sons of the Patriots) System, which identifies your comrades, pinpoints them and even tells you how they are and who they're fighting.

It's also possible to scan the opposing team's SOP link, which is bound to be useful to you and your team-mates.

As previously discussed, the beta features two of the full game's five maps - Blood Bath, a "kill house consisting of both surface and underground areas", and Groznyi Grad, a "now abandoned weapons factory that housed the Shagohod in Metal Gear Solid 3" featuring "open areas offering unobstructed views as well as indoor and rooftop locations".

Gameplay modes are deathmatch, team deathmatch, Base Mission (capture and hold) and Capture Mission (CTF) for up to 16 players, and the PlayStation Blog post also has a list of available items, including all your old favourites - claymores, stun grenades, magazines and cardboard boxes.

As we already know, the beta client file will be available to download from Thursday, 17th April, and the actual test will last from 21st April to 6th May (and not June as we originally said - sorry about that).

And if you'd like to be told some of the above again in far more detail, then check out our Metal Gear Online first impressions from a while back. The full thing - sorry, the Starter Pack - ships as part of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots worldwide on 12th June. ...

via Computer and Video Games


The recently released trailer was far too short and snappy to satisfy any kind of craving for Resistance 2, we're promised more info this Thursday.

Apparently, there's more to the trailer than a simple graphical cock tease. It contains hints at the game's intriguing new plot, which IG's James Stevenson says will be discussed in more detail later this week.

"The trailer discloses some new hints about R2 story direction that I won't spoil for you," said Stevenson, teasing that a pod cast on the official site will be published on April 17, with more info on both the trailer and the game.

He also talks about the current state of the game's development. "We've been working hard getting Resistance 2 ready for its fall release. Right now we're play-testing 60-player multiplayer and eight-player co-op daily, while tweaking sections of our single-player levels," he reveals.

"Needless to say, the game is rapidly progressing and every time we play there are new assets and tech going in," teases Stevenson, who refuses to reveal any specifics. "We're not quite ready to take the lid off the new stuff we're developing", he adds. "There's quite a lot!" ...