Team Fortress 2 is one of the most popular games online, and one with certainly the best identity. Now Valve has received a nice present from the guys at Weta Workshop, who do props for films and pretty much everything else. As you can see, it’s a real life sentry, and not some paper mache stuff — a real one in metal, with sounds and even a motion sensor.

Ever since Nintendo released the Wii, exercise games became the new “in”, something which Nintendo solidified itself with the release of Wii Fit — which went on to sell 20 million units worldwide.

It wasn’t all Nintendo, though. EA Sports’ Active was one of the bigger third party hits for the Wii, and of course there’s a sequel, aptly titled EA Sports Active 2. However this time, the exercise game is available both on the Wii and the PS3, provided you have PlayStation Move on your PS3.

Just like its predecessor, EA Sports Active isn’t focused too much on the “fun” like Wii Sports — it’s an actual work out set for those looking to get into shape. And it works. You can set up your workouts to last several weeks and track your progress, and looking at the stats certainly helps on he motivational side. In fact, Active 2 isn’t as much a “game” as Wii Fit is — Wii Fit is fun, has some mini games and what not. Active 2 however, is like a virtual private trainer. There are a lot of training features, lots of workouts to suit almost anyone, and you can customize almost any aspect. Best of all, you can actually feel it work after just a few days, you can feel your muscles being sore. EA also offers an online feature where you can upload and track your progress online, and compare yourself with friends.

There are a few downsides: the game doesn’t always recolonize the motion controller inputs, and is slow at times. For instance, if you do the exercise faster than suggested, the game won’t recognize it, so you have to pace yourself according to the game, and follow the instructions maliciously. And since it’s a game, it never really beats going to the gym or going for a run. But Active 2 never intended that — it gives you slow, patient and tried and tested workouts. It’s a great upgrade from the first game, and if you liked it, you should definitely get the sequel.

The Good:
Lots of workout varieties
Can be customized to suit anyone
Workouts really work

The Bad:
A few issues with motion sensing
Requires lots of patience

Overall score: 8/10

Id Software announced Quake Area, the iconic, fast paced PC shooter from 10 years back, would find its way onto the Xbox 360… in 2007. Then it was pushed to 2009. Then to 2010 and now, in the final month of 2010, two weeks from 2011, Quake Arena Arcade will finally be released on the Xbox 360 Arcade. It’ll arrive on December 15, while a price hasn’t been set yet. We expect the regular $10, or 1,200 MS points.

The variety of Xbox 360 Kinect hacks seems to be endless, as the motion sensor has been used for almost everything, including now, a self-driving car. Made by a hacked Kinect sensor, some open source software, researchers at at the University of Bundeswehr in Munich made an R/C car into a self-driven car. Impressive.

Apple has revealed their top selling iPhone, iPod touch and iPad games, a.k.a. those that run the iOS operating system. Here’s the list, and as you can see, it’s dominated by Angry Birds:

Top-Selling Paid iPhone/iPod Touch Games For 2010

• Angry Birds $0.99
• Bejeweled 2+ Blitz $0.99
• Cut the Rope $0.99
• Doodle Jump $0.99
• Fruit Ninja $0.99
• Gamebox 1 $0.99
• Plants vs. Zombies $2.99
• Skee-Ball $0.99
• Tetris $2.99
• Words With Friends $2.99

Top-Selling Paid iPad Games For 2010

• Angry Birds HD $4.99
• Cake Doodle $0.99
• Monkey Preschool Lunchbox $0.99
• Pinball HD $0.99
• Plants vs. Zombies HD $0.99
• Predators $0.99
• Real Racing HD $9.99
• Scrabble for iPad $9.99
• Shanghai Mahjong $0.99
• Slice It! $0.99

Gamers who have amassed a huge library of games know that they are essentially sitting on a gold mine. Of course, if you wait too long, games will lose their value and when you go to trade them in, they will be close to worthless. Luckily, places available to actually trade games in are in no short supply with the latest of such to be Amazon.co.uk. While Amazon.com has long been accepting trade ins, this is the first we’ve heard of their European branch doing the same.

Unfortunately, instead of cold hard cash you’ll be given Amazon credit for your trade-ins but then again, who cares? Amazon has pretty much everything you can ever think of, right?

via amazon.co.uk

It seems that today is a good day to announce lawsuits as another has just surfaced, this time focusing on Rock Star. This game studio is no stranger to law suits as their Grand Theft Auto franchise has pulled more scrutiny than pretty much any other series on the market. This time however, it isn’t mothers getting upset about their children beating down hookers but instead something much different.

Apparently a dude by the name of Michael Washington is suing Rock Star for $250 million for using his likeliness within the game. According to Mr. Washington, he sat down with Rock Star to answer some questions regarding his street life. He then says he was told that he would be notified if Rock Star decided to use his likeliness within the game which he never was.

While we aren’t legal experts, we’re going to go ahead and say this sounds like an outlandish law suit. Then again, Michael Washington is credited under the Talents section so it will be interesting to see how this one pans out.

via slashgear

Microsoft is looking to get into the motion control gaming market hard with their Kinect for Xbox 360. While we’ve seen some Kinect hacks that make the hardware highly sought after, the library of launch games for the motion controlling system is quite slim. Before the hardware was actually released one of the games we were looking forward to the most was Fighter Uncaged from Ubisoft. From the looks of the trailers, this game allowed players to utilize their entire body to fend of baddies and participate in all sorts of illegal street fighting.

Unfortunately, bad reviews surfaced not long after the game’s release that has sent Ubisoft back to the drawing board. However, while they might not be making a fortune off Fighters Uncaged, it seems that they may be losing a fortune. Recent reports have surfaced that say the UFC will be suing Ubisoft for using the word’s “ULTIMATE FIGHTING” on the back of the box, as you can see above.

Apparently, UFC says the use of their trademark in association with this game is hurting their brand by . While it seems a bit outlandish, it does make sense considering it’s hard not to associate the words “Ultimate Fighting” with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

We’ll keep you posted as this one pans out.

via kotaku

Apple’s line up of iOS powered devices including the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are quickly becoming some of the most used portable gaming devices in the world. However, just because they are already quite popular doesn’t mean mobile application developers are looking to slow their efforts any time soon. The latest of such developments to catch our use is a TurboGrafx-16 emulator from Hudon.

Apparently this application will be completely free of charge with a library of games but that’s where the free-ness ends. In order to actually play any of the 16 games you’re going to have to shell out $3.99 each. This presumably means you won’t be able to download any ROMs on your computer and sync them to your iOS powered device.. bummer.

Luckily, Hudson will be picking a game at random each day and offering users a 3-minute trial which isn’t a bad idea. It would be interesting if Nintendo were to do this and offer a Gameboy emulator alongside paid for games but the likelihood of that happening seems slim to none.

via joystiq

Criticism of Gran Turismo 5 hasn’t been slowing down since the game came out, it’s mostly centered around its horrible AI, which we showed a few days ago. Now take a look at how bad the physics are.

Apparently everything under the hood in GT5 came from the PS2 version GT4. Or so it seems. Via CarBuyersNotebook.