The British Board of Film Classification has finished reviewing Modern Warfare 2, and they’ve stamped the game with an 18 rating, making it the first game in the series to achieve such a rating. However, don’t expect the rating to slow down the monumental sales expected by Activision.

Noted game analyst Michael Pachter has a decent track record when it comes to predicting game news, this time, he’s got rather bleak forecast for us: he think Microsoft will raise the price of Xbox Live subscription service from $50 to $100 bucks a year, saying “…pay 50 bucks a year so that in a couple years, it’s 100 bucks a year. And that’s going up — we all know that”.

Pachter made the comment while noting that Microsoft has given up on the PC platform and wants everyone to play on the Xbox 360 — because that’s where the money is.

Ah, there’s always place for a little joke here and there. Following the disappointing announcement that Modern Warfare 2 PC version won’t have dedicated servers, DICE executive producer K.M. Troedsson was quick to point out on his Twitter:

Dedicated servers FTW. What ever secures a better online experience is a given for us

Yep, we agree: dedicated servers are always FTW. You can follow K.M. Troedsson twitter page here.

The game based on the seemingly never-ending horror franchise Saw was released earlier this month on the Xbox 360 and PS3 to mixed reviews, and publisher Konami has revealed that it plans to only offer the PC port of the game on Steam — no retail sales here. It’s not the first time Konami has avoided the retail space; last year, Silent Hill: Homecoming was released on consoles, while the PC version was a Steam exclusive.

Ouch! Infinity ward dropped the bomb on PC gamers when it announced that the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 will inherit the same gameserver/matchmaking system of the consoles, essentially meaning that dedicated servers are a no-go. The game will rely on Infinity Ward’s own, proprietary system called IWNet, instead of, like virtually every other PC multiplayer shooter shooter, offering players to set up their own servers. This is bad news for PC gamers indeed, let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a trend.

Developer PopCap is on a roll, continuously chugging out bite-sized casual games that’ll addict even hardcore gamers. That’s especially true for Zuma, one of PopCap’s most popular games ever. Originally released in 2003, the game has since sold more than 17 million copies on platforms ranging from PC and OS X, to DS and PSP, to mobile phones of every kind. We’re finally getting the sequel, Zuma’s Revenge.

While the gameplay in Zuma’s Revenge remains unchanged — for a good reason — the game does add a few new features, revamped and prettier graphics (including a widescreen mode), as well as a ton of new levels. In case you’re not familiar with the gameplay in Zuma, it’s relatively simple: you control a frog that fires colored marbles though its mouth, at several balls rolling along a path, headed towards a pit. If they reach the pit, you lose. In order to win you must knock out the balls as they roll towards the pit, but can only knock them out if you pair colors in three or more balls. And so it goes. In Zuma’s Revenge, once you complete the campaign, you unlock several challenged modes, where you have to score a certain amount of points before time runs out. READ ON »

It seems that a poll recently went down over at GameSpot that asked gamers who the All-Time Greatest Game Hero was. Well, it seems that Half-Life‘s star Gordon Freeman won the poll with 55.8% of the votes.

To celebrate such a feat Valve is cutting 55.8% off the price of all Half-Life games this weekend as they continue with their weekly deals.

Haven’t played Half-Life 2 yet? Now’s your chance.

via steam

Buzz had been circulating for some time now that had us wondering if Modern Warfare 2 would be hitting store shelves for the PC on the same day as the Xbox 360 and PS3. The fact that major retailers such as GameStop briefly had the PC title listed with a November 24th release date didn’t exactly sooth our wounds.

Luckily Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling has let us know via Twitter that there will in fact be no delay and the PC version will be hitting store shelves on the same day as the console versions.

Furthermore, he also let us know that Modern Warfare 2 will be coming to Valve‘s digital distribution service Steam, if that’s your kind of thing.

The effect of the PS3 slim isn’t looking to decrease any time sooner; last week, the PS3 slim was once again the best selling console in Japan, selling just over 30,000 units. However, the Wii came in a (very)close second, only selling 150 console less than the PS3. However, both home consoles were still outsold by the portables, DSi and PSP.

The full sales chart for the week of October 11:

1. DSi: 50,144
2. PSP: 40,100
3. PS3: 30,896
4. Wii: 30,741
5. DS: Lite 5,454
6. Xbox 360: 3,326
7. PS2: 2,133

As with the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum, Canadians are getting a discount during the release of Borderlands, where lucky Canadians will only have to fork over $40 for the game, compared to $50 in the US ($60 if you’re getting the console version). However, this is only for a limited time, and only at Futureshop, Walmart and Best Buy.