According to rumors, the US Army ordered a bunch of Xbox 360 consoles from Microsoft to train their soldiers in combat.

However, Microsoft declined the order because of two reasons: one, the army wouldn’t buy more than 1 or 2 games per console, which wouldn’t give MS a change to recoup the money they lose on each console sold, and secondly, there are obvious PR issues with having your console being used to “train soldiers in killing” etc.

Activision-Blizzard recently announced their earnings, where they reported profits of $113 million in 2009, which is quite good, considering they lost $100 million in 2008. However, when considering that the company has World of Warcraft, which makes $100 million a month, Guitar Hero, which makes at least $200 million a year, and then Modern Warfare 2, which makes God-knows-how-much, you kinda wonder what kind of expenses this company is dealing with.

Here’s a question for all you pervs out there — Which video game vixen would you most like to see nude? If you answered Lara Croft, you’re out of luck. Or at least, out of official luck.

Tomb Raider‘s creator Toby Gard was recently asked to draw Lara Croft in the nude but refused to do so. In fact, instead of drawing her in the nude he drew her from behind with what looks to be a ripped shirt draped over her shoulder. Gard has this to say about the matter:

“I was asked to do Lara nude. This was as close as I would allow myself to go”.

Yes, yes, I know, a good percentage of you prepubescent readers are shaking your fists at the screen right now but who’s to say a quick Google search won’t turn up some unofficial Lara Croft nudies? You didn’t hear it from me.

Killzone 3 has yet to be officially confirmed but considering the hype surrounding Killzone 2, it’s pretty much a no brainer that Guerilla Games would go on to release a sequel. Well, those looking to soak up every bit of information about the continuation of the Killzone franchise will be happy to hear that the Official PlayStation Magazine has went on record as saying that details of the game will be coming soon.

But that’s not all as OPM has also said that the game could potentially see a reveal at this year’s E3 if development goes as planned.

via cvg

Sure, Square Enix may be considering transforming Final Fantasy XIII into a 3D game but Bungie isn’t doing the same. In fact, they recently told CVG that a 3D Halo is not something that interests the studio.

Bungie community manager Brian Jarrad was questioned if the studio will ever return to Halo after Reach and make something like a 3D title to which he responded:

“Not from us. I don’t think that would be something our team would find interesting – to go back and sort of [revisit Halo]. There’s a lot of feeling that Reach is sort of a final conclusion to our Halo saga and I think people will be excited to move forward and try our next big thing afer that.”

I don’t know about you guys but all of this talk about 3D gaming just makes me think about how much I would hate gaming with those ridiculous glasses on. Oh well, a 3D Chief and Cortana would still be damn cool, eh?

We just got word that the PS3 would be getting a series of updates that would give if 3D functionality which must have developers paying attention. The first of such developers to speak up is Square Enix regarding Final Fantasy XIII. As of now, the game is not 3D, but the idea is intriguing to Square Enix.

FFXIII producer Yoshinori Kitase comments:

“We don’t know how possible it is to build the game in 3D but we are interested in it. In fact, we have already created a 3D Final Fantasy XIII trailer, which is currently showing in Japanese cinemas alongside the film Avatar. Currently, that’s only available in Japan, but there might be an opportunity for a wider release in the future.”

3D is awesome and all, but will it catch on? I mean honestly, who the hell has a 3D TV anyways?

via destructoid

If you’re a fan of Magic: the Gathering (you know, the trading card game) perhaps you have checked out the Xbox Live Arcade title Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers. Regardless if you have or not, the game was developed by Stainless Games and, according to Wizards of the Coast, has been one of the top 10 XBLA games ever since its June 2009 release

ANYWAYS, Wizards of the Coast has just announced that they have signed a new deal with Stainless Games to develop future titles with them. Details were scare but I think it’s safe to assume that future Magic: The Gathering games (Xbox Live Arcade exclusive or not) are in the pipeline.

via joystiq

Bizzare Creation’s Blur was announced way back in May of last year and we haven’t heard much of it since. Now, Activision’s CEO Mike Griffith has let us know that a multiplayer beta for the game will be made available at some point next month.

No details on the contents of the beta or what consoles it will be released for but we do know that Blur will be made available on the Xbox 360 and PS3 later this year.

via thatvideogameblog

The community agrees, BioShock 2 is a great game, but there are some gripes users have been having with the PC version that 2K Games has recently confirmed. First and foremost, the game apparently does not support a true widescreen format.  Why? Well, we haven’t a clue.

Additionally, users who have been trying to play the game with their Xbox 360 controller have found the hardware to be incompatible with the game. This issue, we do have a reason for. 2K Games says that early on in the game’s development they decided to leave out gamepad support so they could get the “mouse and keyboard control absolutely right”.

Bummer, but then again, why not just play the game on your 360?

via kotaku

Anyone who has followed Blizzard games throughout the years knows what Battle.net is. If you don’t know what it is, it’s Blizzard’s online network for pretty much all of their games. Well, with the impending release of Starcraft II and Diablo III, Blizzard has decided to give the service a complete overhaul, incorporating things like social networking, matchmaking and a full competitive ladder system.

Want to get an indepth look at the new Battle.net? Head here.