The game available through Valve’s Steam are Spore, Mass Effect, Crysis and FIFA Manager 09. EA will launch Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space soon.

via arstechnica

via Boing Boing

Gears of War 2, similar to its predecessor, is exclusive to Xbox 360 and will be released this November.

Recently announced by Sony, Killzone 2 is no longer slated for release this year as initially planned. Now coming Feburary 2009, the game remains one of PS3’s killer apps, along with Resistance 2, if it ever hits the PS3 that is.

While it’s a bummer that the game is getting delayed, it’s definitely a good thing that we now know when we can actually expect to be playing the game, rather than just going by speculation.

Again, Killzone 2 is now set for a Feburary 2009 release and will be a Playstation 3 exclusive.

Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies revealed in an interview to Times Online that the game had a cool $100 million budget, putting it ahead of Shenmue for the Dreamcast, which had an unprecedented budget of $70 million.

“It’s like making a theatre production, a few movies and an album all to fit into one package,” he remarked.

Benzies also noted that about 1000 people worked on the game. Rockstar also set up time-lapse cameras around New York City to capture the correct intensity of rain; they also took over 100,000 photos on location to put together the in-game city.

“We’re constantly competing against ourselves,” said Benzies. “If something isn’t exactly right, it comes out of the game or gets fixed.”

Whatever happens, Rockstar and Take-Two are sure to make the money back, seeing as how gamers have been gobbling it up throughout the world.

Hardcore Halo fans already know this, but for the rest of you out there, Bungie’s Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack has officially gone live today. 800 Microsoft Points will get you Blackout, Avalanche, and Ghost Town.

I’ve been testing the three maps pretty extensively since about 8:00 this morning (it is now 11:00) and have some initial thoughts on all of the three maps.

The first map I played of course was Blackout, being a remake of everyones favorite Halo 2 map Lockout. My initial thoughts on the map is that it definitely does Lockout justice, weapons are placed perfectly, most of the jumps are there (the only ones removed are the ones that toyed with Halo 2’s physics), and the new UNSC weather station theme gives the map a fresh new feel while still staying true to Lockout. So far I’ve only played 2v2 Team Slayer on this map and I must say, it really feels similar to Lockout. The thing I am really waiting for though, is to see how the map holds up under the new MLG rules.

Next was Ghost Town. I went into this map without really knowing what to expect. I thought it was going to be a huge and complicated map that I wasn’t going to like at all, however I was wrong on most of these points. First off, the map really isn’t all that big, complicated yes, big not so much. I found that while running 2v2 Team Slayer it really felt like a map that wasn’t going to get veto’d when it appears in Matchmaking and that people are bound to like it much more than maps that came bundled with the game (Snowbound and Epitah to be exact ). Ghost Town is sure to be a hit with Zombie game type fans as it looks like a gloomy run down facility with a sort of creepy feel. There is a Mongoose on the map with a pretty much circular path around the whole map for easy transportation. Weapon placement is fine, Sniper, Laser and Rockets were three power weapons I found with relative ease. There is also an Over Shield and Active Camouflage placed nicely on the map and with the set up of the map these two power-ups will prove to be extremely useful.

Last but not least, Avalanche. Not being a fan of large maps, out of the pack I was least excited about one. After running through it I see how it could be fun in Big Team or a similar play list, but it is just too huge to do anything else with. The enormous man cannons they have placed around the map, that shoot you about 2 times as far as the main one on Valhalla, were extremely entertaining, to say the least, for the 5 minutes I played with them. Another thing I really like are the arctic themed skins for the weapons and vehicles on the map, making the map feel much more unique and immersive.

Overall, the Map Pack is definitely something that any hardcore Halo fan will be sure to download, on the other hand if you are just a casual player and don’t want to spend the money, wait a while until the maps are offered for free. Of all the three maps you can without a doubt expect to see Blackout being played the most, now all we need is a Midship remake.

If you haven’t gotten Call of Duty 4 yet now is your chance. Amazon has begun selling the FPS with $25 off the list price, bringing the final price to just $35 dollars. You better hurry though as the deal only lasts today, and don’t worry it covers both 360 and PS3 versions of the game (sorry PC gamers).

You can catch the deal here.

While there is no solid evidence to support Famitsu publisher Hirokazu Hamamura’s speculation that this year’s E3 may mark the unveiling of the latest-and-greatest version of Nintendo’s most popular hand held console to date. At this point, Hamaura’s speculation is based purely on industry chatter and his own gut feeling that a new DS is right around the corner.

Joystiq outlines Nintendo’s handheld release schedule since the Gameboy Pocket, making it clear that this really isn’t that hard to believe considering Nintendo has released a new version of hand held roughly every 2 years:

- 1998: Game Boy Color
- 2001: Game Boy Advance
- 2003: GBASP
- 2004: Nintendo DS
- 2005: Game Boy Micro
- 2006: DS Lite.

I guess all we can do in the meantime is cross our fingers and wait until E3 rolls around to see what’s in store for us.

It seems that Gtagaming.com has gotten their hands on pictures of the official GTA IV map included in the PS3 game box. Showcasing things like every landmark, store, restaurant, and street on one side while the other shows the full PS3 controller scheme along with a complete map of the underground subway featured in the game.

Click through the links below to see the various snapshots of the map:
- Snapshot 1
- Snapshot 2
- Snapshot 3
- Snap Shot 4
- Snap Shot 5
- Snap Shot 6

Those of you who tried to visit us in the past few days were met with a disheartening error page, for which all of us here at DigitalBatttle apologize. Luckily, we’re in the process of squashing the last of the dreaded database bugs to get the site back up and running at tip-top shape. Remember to check back daily for the latest news from the gaming world.

Oh, and Happy Easter to those who celebrate!

He talked about building the foundation of the game, stating that it will be much easier to integrate content and “make things richer” for the sequel. As expected, he does not offer any release date (it’s too early anyway) but he does look forward to the game being “smarter”.

Here’s something we didn’t expect: Bungie is working on a Halo Lego game — imagine Lego Star Wars with the Halo universe. That’s what EGM’s April issue had to say, but before we could get our hopes up (or down), the news has been dismissed as an April’s Fool joke. Some sites jumped on the wagon rather quickly, which we can understand, Lego Halo, hell yeah. But no, really, it’s a an April’s Fool joke. The first one of 2008.

“Unfortunately because of disc space, we don’t have the space to include other languages, other voice over files for the respective versions,” he siad. “So the Japanese version’s not gonna have English VO, and the North American and European versions won’t have Japanese VO.”

No worries, though, since the PS3 does not have any regional protection, letting you import a Japanese copy if you were so inclined on listening to the characters speak gibberish.

Nvidia has started its next generation graphics chips with the launch of the 9600 GT, a mid-range graphics card in the next generation of chips, but it’s considered rather high-end at the moment. The card, which is available now for under $200, is equipped with 65 stream processors and has a clock speed of 650MHz. Initial reviews and benchmarks of the card show that performance is just under the 8800 GT, despite having almost half as many stream processors. As the 9600GT is considered “mid-range” in the 9000-series, the upcoming 9800 GT and 9800 GTX — expected in retail late March — can be expected to be considerable faster than any current generation graphics cards out there, while still keeping the same price-point.

Ambient Occlusion

Ambient Occlusion is a form of producing soft shadows. It’s also a way of making objects seem soft and smooth.

Notice how the ball looks soft and more defined. it also doesn’t have an annoying glare. This feature also works well with characters. Can you tell Which Marcus Fenix has Ambient occlusion?

High Density Crowds

I’ve always wondered in games or movies like Halo for example, if the enemies were so desperate to get rid of one particular person, why they don’t just send a whole army of soldiers to defeat them? Well now they can! The Unreal Engine 3 can now process hundreds of characters in a scene. That said, they won’t all have AI, but still at least developers can recreate the running of the bulls in real time.

Dynamic Fluid Surfaces

This is one of the more graphically impressive additions to the Unreal Engine 3, and ironically, the simplest to describe: water acts like water. Whatever you do in, to, or at, any type of liquid, be it water or blood, will result in a dynamic and realistic reaction.

Matinee Improvements

This feature is more important for developers than players. Basically, Epic has refined the tool used to create real-time cut-scenes, called Matinee, so that is is easier for game developers to create more cinematic cut scenes. The end result: the Gears of War 2 intro will look really cool.

Soft Body Physics

Object with soft body physics can react realistically to touch or other interactions from outside forces. For example if Marcus Fenix was, very, very, carefully holding a water balloon and pressed it, gently, with his thumb, the water balloon would squish and squeeze realistically. This is great for creating realistic objects that are naturally not solid, like a body.

Destructible Environments

Destructible environments are pretty self explanatory, players can destroy their surroundings at a whim. This can either be a big feature, or a neat gimmick. If players can break the environment in ways that influence the situation, for example being able to break down a tree, like in Crysis, it could lead to very innovative uses of the engine.

However, if what Epic calls “destructible environments” simply consists of breaking bits of cement, at best this is fun eye-candy.

This is all that Epic has revealed so far. Watch the Microsoft GDC keynote for a video demonstration of these features.

As expected, and rumored, Microsoft and Epic have announced Gears of War 2 at the Game Developer’s Convention. Lead designer CliffyB told the press that the first game “introduced the characters and the game mechanics”, the sequel will be bigger and better. He also promised a November 2008 launch date. Looks like it’s going to be a big battle between Gears 2 on the Xbox 360 and Killzone 2 on the PS3 this November. We can’t wait.

Rumors are flying all over the web on a daily basis, most are too pointless to even receive a comment from those supposedly involved. Yesterday, a rumor from GamePro suggested that Microsoft was interested in acquiring Epic for $1 billion. Epic’s ever present VP Mark Rein jokingly commented on the rumor, saying,

“I have not seen the actual GamePro article but if they’re going to make predictions about us selling Epic we would prefer if they started at $2 billion,” he said. “Because we don’t want anyone thinking that we’re cheap. ”

Obviously, Epic would like to stay independent, as any other studio. And with blockbusters like Gears of War and UT3, plus their lucrative software business (Unreal Engines), there’s no need to sell off. However, everything has its price, as we’ve been reminded so many times.

Thats it, the format war is finally over. Coming as a hard hit to Toshiba and all of the HD DVD early adopters out there, Toshiba has announced that they are beginning processes to cease support for both HD DVD software and hardware. While this doesn’t really come as a surprise considering all of the support HD DVD was losing (Netflix, Blockbuster etc.) it is sad to see this short lived format go. Now what does this mean for us gamers, in particular, Xbox 360 owners? Well, the PS3 is going to be left untouched, obviously, but this announcement of HD DVD’s death could force Microsoft into releases a Blu-ray add-on (a la HD DVD add-on) or even releasing a console with a built in Blu-ray drive.