In a press release sent out by EA today, the company revealed that they will publicly announce a new project from Army of Two developer EA Montreal next Thursday, March 12.

They also invited media to attend an advance presentation on March 9 at EA Montreal. While they will officially announce the game on March 12, impressions and interviews will be embargoed until March 16 at 9 am EST to “ensure fair coverage for media across the globe.”

No clues were given as to what the game will be, but given the magnitude of the event, it’s going to be a big title. And judging by EA’s pedigree, it’s going to be a wholly multiplatform game.

Mythic Entertainment has begun its three-month long “live expansion” for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning with the v1.2 patch, which adds new scenarios, new treasures, tweaks, but most importantly offers two new careers.

The two melee-focused careers can be chosen after completing the new “Bitter Rivals” event, which includes the new RvR “Twisted Tower” scenario. They are Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer.

Other additions include two new secret lairs, an improved crafting system and easy public quests. You can check out the exhaustive list of tweaks and changes on the official site.

 
Ubisoft sent out word that the console port of real-time strategy title World in Conflict has now been cancelled; it was originally set for release in fall 2008.

"A console version of World in Conflict is not planned for release at this time," said an Ubisoft rep.

The PC version was developed by Massive Entertainment who was co-developing the console port with Swordfish Studios (50 Cent: Blood in the Sand). Following Activision’s merger with Blizzard Entertainment, the two branches of Swordfish were sold to Monumental Games and Codemasters.

The World in Conflict: Soviet Assault project was saved when developer Massive was sold to Ubisoft last November. The PC expansion is now planned for release later this month.

A playable demo for The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena has been released on Xbox Live. Gold account holders can download it now, though Silver account users will have to wait for a couple of days to be able to download it.

Dropping in at 639MB, the demo offers a sample from the “Athena Main Decks” level, implying that it is probably taken from the new campaign rather than the remade Escape from Butcher Bay campaign that is also featured in the game.

A PS3 demos is expected to drop on PlayStation Network sometime this month. PC users will also see a demo, though no release date estimate was givne.

Developed by Starbreeze, the full game will hit PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 7.

Though Bungie has struck out on their own again Microsoft isn’t going to abandon their scifi cash cow Halo. They’ve posted a job opening looking for a lead designer for a new Xbox 360 game. While there are new games in development all the time, the company has confirmed to IGN that whoever was hired would work on the internal Halo team that was formed last year to oversee new projects and support existing games.

Unfortunately as you might expect Microsoft is being relatively tight-lipped about any project particulars, but there’s all kinds of speculation including the oft-discussed Peter Jackson Halo project and the wealth of possibilities that exist. I myself would love to see a squad-based tactical RPG set in the Halo universe. There could be plans to resurrect the cancelled Halo MMO given Blizzard’s success with World of Warcraft.

Robin Williams fans will remember the 1992 film Toys where a gung-ho military man realized that the video game appetites of children could be used for the purposes of making war. As with any bizarre, scifi-film, it turns out that this wasn’t far off. Armed forces around the world have for some time now been keen on the idea of remote controlled systems, whether for reconaissance, disarming bombs or even combat situations. Soldiers take a lot of resources to train, especially when it comes to fighter pilots. The idea of unmanned fighters is that the pilot lives to fight another day even if their craft is shot down.

The RAF is discovering an even better way to cut down on the cost of resources: use gamers instead of experienced fighter pilots. In conventional warfare every soldier must have a variety of skills in addition to whatever specialization they’re assigned. As the saying goes, ‘every Marine is a rifleman first’, meaning that even if you’re a computer technician or the pilot of a supply plane you’re expected to know how to fight. In our highly technologically advanced society though, the RAF is pointing out that this isn’t necessary.

RAF chiefs suggest that pilots with only thirty hours of flight training on these unmanned combat drones are sufficiently skilled to fly sensitive missions. They point to studies that have shown that the best drone pilots are often young gamers rather than experienced fighter pilots.

While puzzle games aren’t quite as popular anymore they were a perfect fit for the lower processing power and graphical output of early consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System. One of its most classic titles was A Boy and His Blob. The puzzle title followed the adventure of a young boy who meets a blobby alien that has the ability to shapeshift when fed different jelly beans. Each variety of candy corresponds to a different shape including trampolines, umbrellas and jacks. You as the player have the task of choosing the best item for each situation.

Majesco Entertainment has just announced that they will be bringing this classic title to the Wii. The storyline remains much the same with the boy helping the blob defeat the evil Emperor who has seized the throne of Blobonia. Though the game will be getting a graphical update the gameplay itself will remain much the same: the levels (of which there will be over forty) are still side scrolling and will require careful thought and judicious use of jelly beans to conquer. There will also be hidden treasures and bonus content to unlock along the way. New jelly beans will allow the blob to turn into handy devices like a cannon, shield and others. The game will be released this fall, twenty years after the original.

Many games on the original Nintendo were far more difficult and frustrating than the games we have today, but without a doubt the Ninja Gaiden series were some of the most difficult games on the system. With a storyline far more epic than most games of its time it’s surprising that it took so long to see another title. Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox was the most challenging yet completable games that many ever played. Even though boss battles and puzzles could be epically frustrating the game kept you coming back for another try.

One of Ryu’s newest adventures in his quest to protect the world from the forces of evil took him to Nintendo’s handheld. With such an impressive pedigree how does the DS title stand up? Pretty well actually, though the challenge is significantly diminished. The choice to use the DS in the book format works quite well, with status information and the map being on the left hand screen and the actual gameplay taking place on the touch screen. Everything is done as you might expect with the stylus: slashing, jumping, etc. and it’s all very simple but fun.

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You ever have one of those days?  Your toast is burnt, your milk’s gone sour, you get cut off in traffic, your boss is a complete…fill in the blank…you know, one of THOSE days!

For those times when you wish that the world only had one throat (thank you, Al Bundy!), belly up to the Newgrounds bar and get yourself a sweet hot dose of Deadpile Rampage.

It’s a plot unto itself, as you use a variety of weapons to blast open a series of rampaging faceless minions and stack the bodies like cordwood.  It’s not about how many you kill, or how many shots you fire…it’s all about how high you can stack the bodies.

Seriously, that’s the big objective.  You don’t score points for kills, you score points for DEPTH OF BODY COUNT.  I took a ten-minute test drive on this beastie and wound up with a whole four foot deep pile.  And I had only begun to scratch the surface.  It was hard to believe the sheer bloodthirstiness of this game.  I was vaguely repulsed by it, but man, if I were torqued while playing, it would be an incredible tension release.

And that’s probably the best way to describe this–it’s a fantastic tension release. You shoot drifts of people. You stack them up.  You keep blasting them WHILE standing on the top of your corpse heap.  if that’s all you want in a game then you’ll get everything you want.  Otherwise, Deadpile Rampage will not be your cup of tea.

And for those of you talking about that  Land of the Dead shooter, know this. We do not TALK about that Land of the Dead shooter.  Thankfully, not many people have actually had a chance to try it, so its existence is still pretty hush-hush.

Anyway, what I’m talking about today is easily one of the best zombie games I’ve played yet–Dead Rising.  You play as Frank West, photojournalist extraordinaire (he’s covered WARS, you know) and he’s on his way to investigate vague reports of happenings in the small city of Willamette, Colorado.  Willamette isn’t known for a whole lot–in fact, about the only thing Willamette’s got going for it is the super-huge Willamette Mall.  How big is this mall?  Sufficiently big to command a small amusement park inside it, along with a panoply of stores, a bi-level food court, and a park in its center.  Sounds like a nice way to spend the day, but these vague happenings make things a little dicey for the citizens of Willamette–seems that, in the immortal words of Romero himself, the dead are returning to life and attacking the living.  Thus, you go into Willamette armed with your camera and whatever you can find along the way to discover what’s behind the legion of walking dead weekend warriors and see if you can prevent it from getting any farther out than it already is.

I love this game.  There’s no two ways about it–this may well be the first EVER functional Zombie Apocalypse simulator ever released.  The story is unsettlingly deep, with lots of horrendous personality disorders roaming the zombie-infested mall.  There’s a variety of weapons for you to play with, each with its own particular effectiveness level.  Weapons break with use, so you’ll have to continually search for and find new weapons.  Just because you’ve got a sweet baseball bat doesn’t mean it won’t break after you break open a few dozen zombie skulls.
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