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Forza 3 free DLC released

Turn10 has released the first Fora 3 DLC, and completely free. While it’s not the biggest release ever — only includes three cars — it’s still great to know that they’ll offer stuff for free.

The DLC includes 3 “custom and fully-tuned” variants of the 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe, and is available now for download to all Xbox Live Gold members.

Audiosurf, Project Gotham Racing added to Zune HD

Microsoft’s Zune HD has certainly given the iPod touch a run for its money, and is capable of some serious 3D rendering with a powerful Nvidia Tegra chip running it. However, there haven’t been many games to really test the hardware — or to sell a lot of units — but that should be changed now.

With the latest update, Zune HD adds Audiosurf: Tilt, PGR: Ferrari Edition, Lucky Lane Bowling, Vans Sk8: Pool Service, Piano and Checkers. These are all free game that will be available on the Zune Marketplace. While the games are free, players are forced to watch a short ad before the game starts, which is okay, considering they’re free games.

Need For Speed 2010 confirmed

EA has confirmed that developer Criterion has a Need For Speed game ready for 2010, after working on the Burnout series for a long time, indicating that the series will now have yearly installments, much like their EA Sports series. EA also revealed that Need For Speed Shift has shipped over 2.5 million units, while actual sales numbers were not disclosed.

Gran Turismo 5 delayed for “marketing reasons”

Gran Turismo 5 has been delayed many times, indicating that the developer wants to make a perfect game, which is good (unless your game is called Duke Nukem Forever). GT5 has a firm release date for March 2010, but it appears that the game could’ve been released earlier, and it’s held back until March for marketing purposes. Now developer Polyphony Digital revealed that while the March 2010 date is set for Japan, Sony us still thinking about when to release it to the rest of the world, and it may very well be later in 2010, possibly in Fall 2010 (although this is pure speculation at this point).

Developer puts own game on BitTorrent

PC piracy is at an all time high, some estimate that over 90% of games played on the PCs aren’t actually bought, but downloaded and cracked. Developer RedLynx, of course, isn’t really happy to hear that kind of news, and they have now resorted to a rather new strategy: they uploaded their own game before the pirates did.

With the release of RedLynx’ Trials motor cross game, the developer hurried and uploaded its own game to popular BitTorrent sites, with one feature missing from the game: leaderboards. RedLynx then hoped that the pirates would love the game and miss leaderboards so much that they went out and bought the game.

Did it work? Well, they don’t really know, but there’s definitely a lot of folks playing Trials without leaderboards, that’s for sure.

Polyphony Digital spent $60 million on Gran Turismo 5

Have you been wondering why it’s been 5 years since a Gran Turismo hit the scene? Well, according to Polyphony Digital that’s exactly how long it’s taking to develop Gran Turismo 5, not to mention the fact that it cost about $60 million.

News comes to us from Gran Turismo 5 developer Kazunori Yamauhci who was questioned how much money it cost to develop the highly anticipated title. After answering the question he let us know that the title required that much money and this much time to “get it right”.

So, it looks like we will be seeing a very very polished game when GT5 makes its way onto store shelves sometime next year.

via joystiq

DIRT 2 PC dated for December 4

Codemasters have announced that December 4 will be the date when PC gamers will be able to play one of the best rally games currently available (read our Dirt 2 review). The game will be the first one to support DirectX 11, and will have support for Shader Model 5 and hardware tessellation, among other things, making it one of the prettier games out there.

Need for Speed Nitro pushed ahead, coming early next month

Back in July we let you know that Need for Speed Nitro would be hitting store shelves for the Wii and Nintendo DS on November 16th. Today, EA has announced that the game’s development has gone smoother than expected and the game now has a release date of November 3rd.

If you’re a fan of the Need for Speed series and are looking for a hardcore racer, this most likely isn’t the game for you. However, if you’re a casual player looking for a fun racing game to play then you should definitely check out Need for Speed Nitro. I mean, it is for the Nintendo DS and Wii, after all.

via joystiq

20 games to look forward to in 2010

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While 2009 is drawing to an end, and with all the great AAA titles only weeks away, keep in mind that 2010 is going to see more top-notch titles released than the last few years. Here are 20 games that should/will make an impact next year, and while a lot more games are coming out, we obviously couldn’t include them all — our list grew from ten games to twenty games simply because even we were surprised how many title are lined up for 2010. Here’s our 20 games for 2010, in no particular order.

Postal 3 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Running With Scissors, Q2, 2010)

The original Postal was both hailed and damned for its controversial content, and the sequel, Postal 2 only made it better (or worse, if you’re a politician looking for some media attention). Postal 3 will expand on the sandbox style gameplay, and will even feature director Uwe Boll (who made the 2008 Postal movie) in a cameo role.

APB (PC, Xbox 360, March 2010)

After developing Crackdown for the Xbox 360, which has since become a cult classic on the console, Realtime Worlds shifted all their manpower to APB (All Points Bulletin), a revolutionary MMO set in a huge city where players battle each other as either law enforcement agents, or criminals. A kind of GTA online, as creator David Jones (the man behind GTA) is noted saying APB is “the bastard child of everything we’ve been striving towards over the 15-20 years”.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, March 2, 2010)

Battlefield: Bad Company almost managed to perfect something no other FPS had done before: creating a fully destructible battlefield, where walls would no longer provide infinite cover — one tank shell and you better be looking to hide somewhere else. Coupled with a single player campaign and a solid multiplayer, Bad Company has been one of the most played FPS on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Bad Company 2 will bring “destruction 2.0″, taking destruction to a whole new level, this time, entire buildings and towns can be leveled to the ground.

Heavy Rain (PS3, February 2010)

Heavy Rain has been highly anticipated ever since it was first showcased at E3 2006 for the PlayStation 3, the film-noir, thriller-styled game will feature an intertwined storyline, with four playable characters, all looking for a serial killed going under the name “The Origami Killer”.

Halo Reach (Xbox 360, Q4 2010)

The next chapter in the Halo series and Master Chief’s battle against the Covenant was unveiled at E3 2009, without any further details other than the game would be the last Halo game to be developed by Bungie. Owners of Halo 3: ODST will have a chance to check out the game’s multiplayer beta in the middle of 2010, by then we should have more details on Reach.

Red Steel 2 (Wii, February 16, 2010)

The original Red Steel was the very first Wii game that was revealed, and rode a wave of anticipation until its release — as a Wii launch title — where it showed a flawed control scheme, dated visuals and uninspiring gameplay. Red Steel 2 is said to correct all those issues, and will require (and be bundled with) the Wii Motion Plus accessory, giving it a true 1:1 control input, paving the way for some great sword fights. We sure hope so.

Crysis 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Q4 2010)

The original Crysis is still bringing even the most powerful PCs to their knees, and is still hailed as the best looking game available, at least if a tropical island is what you crave. Crysis 2 continues the story where the original left off, and will use the new CryEngine 3, creating an even more immersive world. There aren’t many details of the game yet, but one thing is for sure: start saving for a new PC rig.
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Forza Motorsport 3 review

Forza 2 has been the go-to racing game for the Xbox 360, and a serious contender to Gran Turismo for the title as best racing sim. With Forza 3, developer Turn 10 does everything Forza 2 did, and makes it even better. It’s not only the best racing game on the Xbox 360, it’s the best racing game currently available, and possibly the best ever made.

Forza 3 offers 400 cars and 100 tracks, all built from scratch with a brand new game engine. Remember Forza 2, how the cars all had “jagged edges” because of no anti aliasing? Well that’s gone, as the cars are beautifully rendered (Turn 10 claims 10 times more polygons than Forza 2 per car, with full damage modeling as well) and the game runs at a constant 60 frames per second. technically, things are certainly looking good. The gameplay however, is where Forza 3 really shines. More »

Need for Speed: Shift demo coming to XBL and PSN Oct. 1st

EA has just announced that the demo for the recently released Need for Speed: Shift is set to drop for the Xbox 360 and Playstation this Thursday, October 1st.

Included in the demo is the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps racetrack along with one set in the middle of London for you to try out the below 6 cars:

• 2006 Lotus Elise 111R
• 2006 Pagani Zonda
• 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10
• 2008 Nissan GT-R
• BMW M3 (E46)

The game is already out so once you play the demo and fall in love, head over to your local retailer to snag a copy.

via gamesareevil

Gran Turismo 5 confirmed for March 2010

Finally. After years of speculation, Sony has announced that Gran Turismo will find its way to the PlayStation 3 in March 2010, a good six months from now. However, while this is great news that a date has finally been set, it is the Japanese date nevertheless. The release dates for Europe and North America have yet to be announced, but we don’t expect any major differences from the Japanese launch date (fingers crossed).

Forza Motorsport 3 demo hits Xbox Live

Just a quick update here — It was recently made known that the single player demo for Forza Motorsport 3 has been released for Xbox Live and clocks in at a modest 1.25GB. There haven’t been very many details regarding the content featured in said demo but if you want to find out just head over to the Xbox Live Marketplace, click on New Arrivals and snag the download beucase it is free, after all.

The actual game, however, will be out exclusively for the Xbox 360 on October 27th.

Need For Speed Shift Review

The past few games in the Need For Speed franchise haven’t impressed fans and critics alike, and EA is looking to make up for it with NFS Shift. This time, it’s a rather competent racing developer that’s “behind the wheel”, so to say; they were the ones behind the very competent racers GTR 2 and GT Legends, so it’s no surprise they were given the task of rebooting one of the longest running racing franchises in gaming.

Need For Speed Shift is the 13th Need For Speed game, and it appears that this time, the developers were looking to just get it right, not re-invent the wheel (pardon the pun). The career mode begins by throwing you on a track alone in a BMW, in order to test your skills (the game adapts the difficulty when you complete the track). While that’s a great idea, it’s frightful when you’re driving the first time, the controls are all over the place and you feel like quitting before even completing the first lap. Suffice to say, the first impression is rather bad. After fiddling with the setting and learning to proper handle the cars, it gets better, but we would have expected a better learning curve from such experienced racing developers. More »

NFS Shift takes top spot in UK sales charts

In its first week on the charts in UK, EA’s Need For Speed Shift topped the sales charts, knocking Batman: Arkham Asylum of the top spot, and beating fellow racer DIRT 2 as well. Interestingly, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is #8 on the list, despite being almost two years old and the fact that the sequel will be arriving in less than two moths.

The top 10 chart:

1. 1: Need for Speed Shift
2. 2: Guitar Hero 5
3. 3: Dirt 2
4. 4: Batman: Arkham Asylum
5. 5: Wii Sports Resort
6. 6: Wet
7. 7: The Beatles: Rock Band
8. 8: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
9. 9: Wii Fit
10. 10: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010