Today is the day you’ve all been waiting for. Once the Saints were an upstart street gang, struggling for every inch of turf. Today, the Saints are a criminal empire that has seen it all. The only action that gets their blood pumping these days typically involves a combination of tigers, fighter jets, and/or furry costumes. Today, you can experience Saints Row: The Third for yourself. Today, you can experience an over-the-top guilty pleasure unlike anything you’ve played before. Today, you Strap It On.

A new HITMAN ABSOLUTION™ trailer created entirely with IO Interactive’s new proprietary Glacier 2™ technology. Having just killed his ICA handler Diana Burnwood, the Original Assassin accepts her dying wish and takes on a very personal contract. This leads Agent 47 to the Rosewood Orphanage in Chicago, where he finds himself in the midst of a brutal raid by a gang of vicious criminals all after the same person.

The new, slimmer Xbox 360 has a lovely black gloss finish with built-in Wi-Fi, making it easy access to the wealth of entertainment on Xbox LIVE, where HD movies and TV stream in an instant.

A 250 GB hard drive means you’ll have plenty of space to store your favorite games and movies. All in all, more games, more entertainment and more fun.

The Xbox 360 comes bundled with Kinect. Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways – no controller required. Easy to use and instantly fun, Kinect gets everyone off the couch moving, laughing and cheering. See a ball? Kick it. Want to join a friend in the fun? Simply jump in. Even control an HD movie with a wave of the hand. Featuring a dedicated, specialized port, the Xbox 360 250GB is built to connect seamlessly with the Kinect Sensor.

Check out all the mouth watering details at Amazon.co.uk -Xbox360 plus Kinnect

Two Assassins united by a single destiny – to defy those who want to control the will of man.

Watch as the fifth installment in the Elder Scrolls series comes to life in this live action commercial for Skyrim.

This year on November 11th the new masterpiece from Bethesda ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’ will finally be available to buy.

Skyrim is set two hundred years after the events of Oblivion, the last Elder Scrolls offering, in the land of Skyrim.

The province of Skyrim has erupted into civil war after the assassination of its king. Concurrently, the god Alduin, who takes the form of a massive dragon, has arisen to destroy the world. The player character is one of the last living Dovahkiin (Dragonborn), and must fend off Alduin and save Skyrim from destruction.

Skyrim retains the traditional open-world game-play found in the Elder Scrolls series. The player is free to roam the land of Skyrim at will, either on-foot or on horseback.

Within Skyrim lie five major cities and numerous smaller towns, and expanses of wilderness and mountain ranges. Each city or town has its own economy, which the player can either stimulate by completing jobs such as farming and mining, or harm by sabotaging industrial buildings.

The player can train in eighteen different skills, and the player character is leveled up by raising skills. The class system traditional in role-playing games, which was present in Oblivion, is removed to allow the player’s play-style to develop naturally.

Check out the amazing video on this Amazon UK sales page.

Introducing the Nintendo 3DS system. Experience incredible gameplay featuring real 3D graphics that do not require any special glasses or additional accessories. Nintendo 3DS is a breakthrough in portable entertainment, a truly cutting-edge piece of hardware that has to be seen to be believed!

Explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy.

Choose your class from a variety of classic Star Wars roles including Jedi Knight, Bounty Hunter, and Smuggler.

Make decisions which define your personal story and determine your path down the light or dark side of the Force.

Along the way you will befriend courageous companions who will fight at your side. Together, you will battle enemies in dynamic Star Wars combat, team up with other players to overcome incredible challenges and discover the wonders of the Star Wars galaxy in a fully-featured Massively Multiplayer Online game.

Check out the latest scoop on Mass Effect 3, learn how FIFA Street is going back to its roots, and take a look at the co-op mode of Battlefield 3 on PS3 – and a whole lot more!

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of the competition with the power of Frostbite 2, the next installment of DICE’s cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering superior visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations.

As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before.

In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding single player missions and competitive multiplayer actions ranging across diverse locations from around the globe including Paris, Tehran and New York.

Alice returns to Wonderland and faces its consuming corruption in the all new Gameplay Trailer for Alice: Madness Returns.

Engineer Isaac Clarke returns in Dead Space 2 for another blood-curdling adventure in the sequel to the critically acclaimed Dead Space. New tools, new environments and new characters lead this relentless necromorph onslaught. After waking from a coma on a massive space city known as “The Sprawl”, the lone survivor of a horrific alien infestation finds himself confronting a catastrophic new nightmare. Battling dementia, hunted by the government, and haunted by visions of his dead girlfriend, Isaac will do whatever it takes to save himself and dominate the gruesome onslaught.

Survival isn’t the only thing on Isaac’s mind in Dead Space 2 – this time, he calls the shots.

When Governments no longer govern, and corporate giants hold the power, who can the people trust?

It’s 2031 AD, and the world’s governments have slowly started to fall into decline, and corrupt agencies are trying to grip and seize power for themselves. You play a mind hacker, who has the ability to hack the minds of passing civilians, towering mechs or even parts of the world itself. Use these to your advantage to sow confusion and strike from afar.

The new TOMB RAIDER, version 9, made its worldwide debut in the January issue of Game Informer magazine. The cover story featured ten pages of exclusive content and was on news stands on 11th December.

According to a new post at Tomb Raider Chronicles the bullet points from Game Informer’s unveiling of the upcoming TOMB RAIDER 9 were as follows:

“Here begins the first adventure for a young and inexperienced Lara Croft in a story which charts the journey of an ordinary woman who finds out just how far she must go in order to stay alive”.

• Lara Croft is now 21 and fresh from academy
• Tomb Raider will be rated M for Mature
• Live action models won’t be making a return
• Tomb Raider is a reboot of the brand, not only the series
• Tomb Raider is still an action adventure title at heart, but Crystal Dynamics refers to it fondly as an “action survival” experience
• Weapons to include a shotgun, bow and pistols
• The lock on targeting system has been replaced with a free aim system
• Base camps will provide a means to fast travel and also offer Lara Croft a location to combine items salvaged during exploration
• Lara Croft will need to gather food and water in order to survive
• Changing weather conditions
• Lara’s physical evolution and influence on the island itself are intended to keep locations fresh when revisited

“As the game unfolds, Lara will scavenge new tools and gear that augment her abilities. Lara’s athletic prowess will also evolve. Some areas begin inaccessible due to physical limitations or scarce supplies. With the right skills and gear, however, the island is Lara’s for the taking.”

Sounds as though this could be a lot of fun!

Tiga, the trade association representing the UK video games industry, has published information showing that between July 2008 and September 2010, there was a 9 per cent drop in the number of people employed in the UK games development sector. At the same time, the industry’s software sales grew by 16 per cent between 2008 and 2010.

Tiga CEO Dr Richard Wilson called on David Cameron to introduce the proposed R&D tax credits which were scrapped in the Chancellor’s emergency budget in June of this year, and deemed “poorly targeted”.

“At a time when the global video game industry is growing, the UK development workforce is declining,” said Wilson. “A key reason for this decline is that video game developers in the UK are at a competitive disadvantage. Many of our key competitors provide tax breaks for video games production. No such tax breaks for games production exist in the UK. Investment and jobs are drifting away to other countries.

“David Cameron, the Prime Minister will today set out a vision of London’s East End becoming a hi-tech rival to Silicon Valley in the USA. This is potentially interesting, but the PM is missing a trick, ” he added. “The UK video games industry is a high technology, high skilled, export oriented and environmentally friendly sector that can be world beating with the right Government support.”

“Tiga’s proposed Games Tax Relief would create a more level playing field and boost investment, job creation, innovation and power growth in the video games sector. Tiga urges the Coalition Government to look again at Games Tax Relief and improve R&D tax credits to help high technology firms including development businesses.”

Wilson’s comments are in line with the opinions of industry analysts who have long warned that a lack of government support for UK video games would resulted in an industry-wide ‘brain drain’, with many of Britain’s most talented developers leaving for countries which offer tax breaks. The industry currently contributes around £1bn a year to the UK economy.

Source: Telegraph Tech News

Mass Effect 2 has won the ultimate game of the year at this year’s Golden Joystick awards.

Other winners at the gaming industry’s biggest event include popular titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Final Fantasy XIII.

Mass Effect 2 also won role-playing game (RGP) of the year with tower defence game Plants vs. Zombies also taking home two prizes.

The winners are voted for by UK fans and the event is now in its 28th year.

Spread across 16 categories, other winners at this year’s Golden Joysticks included Assassin’s Creed II (action game), FIFA 10 (sports game) with Call of Duty: Black Ops bagging the ‘one to watch’ prize.

Racing game of the year went to Forza Motorsport 3, Super Street Fighter 4 won the fighting game award and Guitar Hero 5 was voted music game of the year.

Source BBC Newsbeat

Two months after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launched to a huge media fanfare, its publisher Activision announced that it had taken more than $1bn in sales.

The sales put the video game in an elite club alongside other entertainment franchises such as James Cameron’s Avatar and Michael Jackson’s Thriller. In fact it beat both to become the most successful entertainment launch of all time, in terms of its first 24 hours on sale.

Its success should have allowed its creators, Infinity Ward (owned by Activision) to reap the rewards and become the leading lights of the world’s video games industry. Until recently Infinity Ward was lead by Jason West and Vince Zampella. Then in March they were suddenly dismissed by Activision for unspecified “breaches of contract and insubordination”. Almost immediately after being sacked the pair launched a $36 million lawsuit against their former employer.

There had been rumours of a rift between Infinity Ward and Activision but the sacking still astonished the games industry.

The chancellor’s decision to offer tax breaks to the UK gaming industry has been welcomed as “fantastic news” by those who work in it.

Tiga, the trade association that represents UK games developers said tax relief would create 3,500 more jobs over the next five years. It would allow the UK to “compete on a global stage,” said Tiga chief executive Richard Wilson.

The surprise announcement was made in the UK budget. “This is an inspired decision. Games tax relief is good for the UK video games industry, good for UK consumers and good for the UK economy,” said Mr Wilson.

He predicted it would allow £457m to be invested in new games over the next five years.

Source: BBC Tech News

Sci-fi shooter Mass Effect 2 has topped the UK all-format games chart for the second week running.

The highly-acclaimed EA Games title has once again kept Just Dance for the Nintendo Wii off the top spot.

The epic Mass Effect 2 merges the character-driven plotlines of an RPG with the action and intensity of a first-person-shooter and is available on Xbox 360 and PC.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 retains the number three position in its thirteenth week in the charts.

This week’s highest new-entry was Dante’s Inferno for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, an action-adventure loosely based around Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy.

The best-selling PC-only game was Star Trek Online, a new-entry from Atari in at number 11.

Video game Modern Warfare 2 has become one of only a handful of entertainment franchises to take more than $1bn (£625m)in revenue, its publishers say.

It went on sale in November and made an estimated $550m in its first five days.

The sales put it alongside other $1bn titles such as Guitar Hero III and World of Warcraft also owned by publisher Activision.

It also puts it alongside other entertainment franchises such as the recent 3D science fiction smash Avatar. The film’s takings as of 4th January make it the fourth-biggest film ever made.

Ahead of it are Titanic ($1.8bn; £1.1bn), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.12bn; £695m) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($1.07bn; £664m).

However, direct comparisons between films and video games are difficult as games typically retail for between three and five times the cost of a cinema ticket.

The first-person-shooter game is the sixth instalment in the Call of Duty series.

See our top ten list of PC Games.

Source: BBC Tech News