gta4Good things come to those who wait, but we’re getting more than a little impatient for any news on the first bits of downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV. Long talked about and promised in “autumn” of this year at one point, we’ve been eager to see anything about it this year, let alone play it. Now, at long last, after we’ve finished our sojourn in Liberty City months ago, comes something concrete on the 360 only DLC, with a worldwide release on February 17 next year.

Featuring a whole new set of characters, the new story, subtitled “The Lost and Damned,” seems completely unrelated to Niko and company. The story is based around Johnny Klebitz and his biker gang, the Lost, which existed in the periphery of the main game. Read more

runes_of_magic Frogster America, Inc. today announced the start of the open beta for Runes of Magic, its highly anticipated free-to-play Massively-Multiplayer Online (MMO) game being created by Runewaker Entertainment. With more than 190,000 players already registered, Runes of Magic is ready to put the final tests in place to ensure the game is ready for release to the public later this year.

In the coming weeks, Frogster will activate all of the content currently implemented, including the item-shop, where players can buy items to support their questing, adventuring and battles within the game. Since all player accounts were reset at the end of the closed beta, everyone will be able to create new characters and begin their adventures at level one. Read more

Burda:ic, a publisher of online games worldwide, today released a major update for the free-to-play, maritime MMORPG Florensia. The update includes a number of smaller changes, from land quest balancing to slight modifications to the user interface, but the biggest addition comes in the form of elemental resistances and attributes. These additions permeate the structure of the entire game so players both new and old will find the fantasy world of Florensia an exciting and dangerous place to adventure.

Each skill in the game has been assigned an elemental aspect like Fire, Ice, or Holy. In addition, monsters and characters now carry resistances to the various elements. Thus, players in Florensia should be wary in choosing their foes, as they might find they just aren’t doing as much damage as expected. Parties no longer simply mean strength in numbers; they mean a wider range of damage across the elemental spectrum. Read more

big_surf_dlc Well it’s good news for PC fans who are looking forward to the Burnout Paradise “The Ultimate Box” pack, because Criterion has announced that they will be allowing the box to be tested on a trial basis to all users including PC users in February of 2009. On top of that, trial users are getting the chance to check out the entire game, not just a limited sector. That’s right, we can now check out every aspect of the city and try out a good chunk of game features. Criterion basically is doing this to ensure PC users don’t run into any unnecessary technical glitches before selling the product to them (once again CG thinks about us).

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atari_logo Telltale Games’ frighteningly amoral tag team of freelance police are ready to protect and serve (for a reasonable fee) once again. As part of a bevy of announcements, Atari announced this week that it would be bringing the second season of the downloadable, episodic adventure series Sam & Max to stores around the world next year.

Season 2 sees the cuddly yet violent detectives investigate a giant robot attack on their beloved city, perform an exorcism on Santa Claus, and even visit Hell, a heavily bureaucratic limited-liability company. As part of the international release, Sam & Max Season 2 will introduce full French and German translations to the episodes, as well as Spanish and Italian subtitles.

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heroes_europe The venerable Atari brand has fallen on hard times recently, although signs are starting to suggest the possibility of a comeback. Sony alumn Phil Harrison recently took the reins of the beleaguered publisher, hoping to help turn business around. The recently-released Alone in the Dark Inferno on PS3 is the first step in a company makeover aimed at restoring the high level of quality we expect from this 30-year-old brand.

The company today announced its lineup of games due this coming spring 2009. There are a variety of console and handheld titles on the menu, suggesting that Atari will retain a broad publishing focus going forward. We are particularly interested to see how The Chronicles of Riddick and Ghostbusters turn out, after Atari snapped these franchises up in the fallout of the Vivendi-Activision merger.

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call_of_duty Even though the new “Call of Duty: World At War” is succeeding with consumers and critics by sticking to the successful adrenaline-fueled formula of its franchise predecessor, new downloadable content coming to the game in 2009 will represent a break from 2007’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.”

How much of a break from the “Modern Warfare” DLC will it be?

In a phone interview with MTV Multiplayer just before Thanksgiving, “World at War” executive producer Daniel Suarez confirmed that the game’s development team is working on downloadable content that will exceed the single multi-player map-pack offered for “Modern Warfare” earlier this year. “We want to do at least — the hope is — potentially two, maybe three packs out before we’re all said and done.”

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the_witcher Rumors have been swirling around for some time, but at an event in London today Atari and developer CD Projekt RED confirmed they are working on a version of The Witcher for PS3 and Xbox 360. The new game, titled The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, will be more than just a quick and dirty port from the PC. While the story by Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski remains, the announcement promises a brand new combat engine and a new game engine “rebuilt pixel by pixel for the new generation of consoles.”

Of their plans for the new game CD Projekt RED CEO Adam Kicinski said, “We?re developing this remake based upon the compelling narrative that helped The Witcher on PC sell more than a million copies and win more than 100 awards, building everything else from the ground up to be the definitive console RPG.” The release says that a core team from CD Projekt RED will be building the new game on the DaVinci engine provided by French developer Widescreen Games.

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street_fighter4 The Two Brand new Characters are Cammy and GEN. And New info.

-GEN has some new upgrades Like an Anti-air grab and an Ultra Move that dashes him from side to side. Also has two fighting styles.

-There is online mode for some that were dying to Know.

-The Xbox360, Ps3, and Pc will bring a slew of additional character.

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petroglyph_logo Last August, Las Vegas-based developer Petroglyph unintentionally made headlines. The shop, which traditionally specialized in such real-time strategy games as Star Wars: Empire at War and Universe at War: Earth Assault, posted a job listing for a massively multiplayer online role-playing game designer.

The position’s duties were described in detail, with the hire being “responsible for understanding, refining, maintaining, and disseminating the game design vision, game design, mission building, gameplay balancing, and game proposal development of a massive multiplayer online game.”

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