Last month SNK announced that they would be delaying The King of Fighters XII from July 16th to a more vague July release. Well today we have learned via the game’s official twitter account that it will in fact be hitting store shelves for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on July 28th.

For those who don’t know, in the latest King of Fighters, gamers will be able to choose from a full 22 characters to play through the game with. Furthermore, the game will feature beautifully hand-drawn visuals to make for an all-new experience while staying true to the franchise.

If you want to check out The King of Fighters XII a bit more, head over to its official website at www.kingoffighters12.com.

EA Sports has revealed that the release date for the upcoming soccer game FIFA 10 will be October 2nd. This release date, however, is only confirmed for the United Kingdom. Release dates for everywhere else are still to be announced.

Improved in this installment of FIFA are ball physics, an updated manager mode, and other gameplay improvements.

FIFA 10 will be released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, PC, Nintendo DS, PSP, N-Gage, iPhone, iPod Touch, and mobile phones. This will be the last FIFA game for the PlayStation 2.

Read (EA Sports)

Battlefield Heroes was only recently unleashed onto the public and already EA and DICE are announcing that the game officially has over 1 million players. The game’s success could probably in part be attributed to the fact that it’s free to play. Of course, if you want to customize your characters in any way you’ll have to fork over some cash as the game’s business model is completely based around micro-transactions.

General Manager of the Battlefield Heroes team, Ben Cousins, commented on the  game’s early success:

“The team is really proud to have hit 1 million registrations at this early stage. Creating a character and gameplay experience that is totally yours is what sets this game apart – your hero can be anything from a bazooka-toting pirate, a grenade-throwing ninja or even a mime assassin!”

If you haven’t already checked out the game yourself be sure to take a glance at our Battlefield Heroes review to see what we thought of it.

via Kotaku

Earlier today we gave you a glimpse at what the Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition will look like when it’s made available on November 10th. However, we were left without a price point for the NVG touting bundle.

Well we now know that the lesser special edition, the Modern Warfare 2 Hardened Edition, will sell for $80. Considering all that you’ll get with the Hardened Edition is a steel case, art book and Call of Duty 1 XBL/PSN download token, you can get an idea of comparison.

Is anyone out there still going to purchase the Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition even if it costs $150? What about $200? Knowing Activision, it’s likely to be up there.

via Joystiq

Have you ever wondered what it would look like Balrog utilized his legs instead of just his fits in Capcom‘s Street Fighter IV? Well look no further as it seems that a PC modder has discovered a way to completely swap characters move-sets with one another allowing Balrog to utilize Chun-li’s moves, Rufus to utilize El Fuertes and more.

Sure, there’s probably no practical use for this mod but it’s still fun to watch Balrog dance around like a fairy, don’t you think?

Hit the read link for the rest of the videos.

Read (StreetFighterBlog)

You didn’t think Activision would let Guitar Hero 5 hit the market without including a new guitar controller, did you? Good because what you see above is just that, the Guitar Hero 5 bundle you’ll see hit store shelves on September 1st.

Other than the red  , this controller reportedly uses an updated touch pad that will use digital input as opposed to analog found on the previous gen controllers.

There’s no word if this guitar will be made available as a stand alone product or exclusive to the Guitar Hero 5 bundles. Either or, do we really need another guitar controller? I mean, was there anything wrong with the other 50 on the market?

via Joystiq

Last weekend, Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling let us know that he would be doing an unboxing of the Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition at some point in the near future. Well, the time has come and from the looks of it, Infinity Ward and Activision have really gone above and beyond to make this collector’s edition unique.

As you can see above, the most prominent inclusion are the fully functioning, Modern Warfare 2 branded night vision goggles and included sculpted head to display said goggles. Other than that you’re going to see your run-of-the mill art book, special boxes, the works. The developers even went so far as to provide a token for an Xbox Live/PSN download of the original Call of Duty.

You’re probably wonder, how expensive is the Prestige Edition going to be? Unfortunately, it hasn’t been announced so we’ll just have to wait until Modern Warfare 2′s November 10th launch to find out.

Unboxing video included after the break.
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The third edition of America’s Army has brought several new features, including a new graphics engine. America’s Army 3 (AA3), like its predecessors, is the true “murder simulator” (as Jack Thompson puts it), because, well, it’s made by the US Army to recruit new soldiers. We won’t go into the debate about the game and the Army and the politics of using games to brainwash recruit new soldiers, we’ll focus on the game here. In AA3, you play either as the US Army (the good guys) or the Opposing Force (generic terrorists/baddies). As in previous AA games, you create a soldier, and through battles, you earn XP and level up, unlock new items and so on. None of this is new, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s there and it works as it should, or rather, as advertised.

Before we get deeper into the gameplay, let’s get one thing straight right away and call the game for what it is — a completely free game — America’s Army 3 is worth it. Mind you, it’s no Counter-Strike, nor Battlefield nor ArmA (read our ArmA 2 review here). As a First Person Shooter, America’s Army 3 is in a whole other ballpark, the realism ballpark where only the tough kids play. While it’s still an FPS and a multiplayer shooter, it’s one of the pure kinds of shooters, the ones where there is no mommy, there is no mercy. However, even with those “realism” features, the game doesn’t feel any more realistic than Battlefield 2, it might be on paper, but it doesn’t feel like it.

You’d expect the developers, being the US Army, to know a bit more than the usual FPS developers, and dig deeper into the realism of the FPS genre. Bu they haven’t. AA3 feels like a generic multiplayer shooter, and that’s a shame, because it has some nice aspects. The medic and health systems are great and realistic, the weapons are very detailed and feel realistic, and even the five maps offer a lot of gameplay value. But it’s not a game that will stick with you like Counter-Strike and Battlefield, it doesn’t give you that rush when you play it, it doesn’t make you sit up all night playing it, like you may do with CS and BF2.

To make matters worse, it’s not the best looking game out there. Far from it. Despite the fact that it uses the advanced Unreal Engine 3, it’s no prettier than Counter-Strike Source — an almost five year old game! To say that AA3 is powered by UE3, is an insult to the engine, and an insult to all the games that utilize the engine to its potential, like Gears of War, Bioshock, and dozens of other titles. How the US Army took an engine so powerful, with all its tools and customizations, and make it look so bad, is quite astonishing. The audio is pretty decent, the gun sounds and explosions are realistic, and helps create an, at times, great atmosphere of war.

While America’s Army 3 is free to download and play, it’s not an indication that it’s for everyone. In fact, it’s only for the really hard core FPS fans, those who find Counter Strike too easy, those who are kicked off BF2 servers for being to good (or simply for being Tankwhores…). The game is ruthless and realistic, one shot usually means instant death. If you don’t have the nerves for that, and if you easily get upset because you die too often, it’s probably not or you. However, being a few game, it never hurts trying. You might end up liking it, after all.

The Good:
Very realistic
Completely free
Great audio

The Bad:
Very realistic (again)
Bad graphics
Laggy at times

Overall score: 6/10

Dawn of War 2 “There is Only War” live until Sunday
America’s Army 3 update released
BioShock 2 delayed to fiscal year of 2010
Shatter launch trailer
Rage teaser site debuts
Fallout 3 DLC delayed for PSN, GOTY information soon
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games dated
Battlefield 1943 logs 5 million kills, 29 years of gameplay on first day
Midway acquired by Warner Bros., new name still undecided
EA opens 8 lb Gorilla iPhone game studio
Dragon Quest IX sells 2.3 million copies
Ikaruga for $5 this week on XBL
Ghostbusters coming to LittleBigPlanet this Thursday
Capcom: Seth and Sagat “stronger than we expected”

The beta for the Dawn of War 2 update patch “There is Only War” will be coming to an end tomorrow. After this date, Relic will no longer be able to “react to and implement feedback” about the game.

However, it turns out that the beta will still be available to download and play until next Sunday. Maybe Relic decided this would be the best route to compensate for the beta’s initial delay.

“There is Only War” includes eight unreleased multiplayer maps, balance changes, bug fixes, and a map editor. The beta patch is available on Steam if you haven’t already tried it out. It requires the standalone Dawn of War 2 to play.

Read (Dawn of War 2 Community Site)