While there are many different video game genres on the market the first person shooter genre is one of the most popular. As yuo’re sure to know, games like Call of Duty and Halo have largely dominated this sector for some time. Luckily, there are many other fully capable competitors on the market such as Epic Games’ recently released Bulletstorm.

The game has created some controversy for including suggestive material which may turn off parents, but to us gamers the name of the game is the more controversy the better. controversy If you’ve  seen virtually any marketing material for Bulletstorm you’ll probably know that the makers are touting the fact that it’s not a Call of Duty game pretty highly even going so far as to release a parody title dubbed Duty Calls.

Anyways, if you haven’t yet gotten down on Bulletstorm and want to do so make note that Amazon has just dropped the price tag of the game down to $40 for today only. Get on it!

If you’ve picked up a used copy of pretty much any recent EA title you may have noticed the unfortunate realization that you actually need to pay $10 to play online, buying something they are calling an ‘Online Pass’. While this is a good way to curb used game sales and make sure that EA is getting a cut of the profit, it’s quite the annoyance for gamers who didn’t know of the extra fee before hand.

One of the biggest titles coming from EA is Crysis 2 which recently had a multiplayer demo drop for the PC and Xbox 360. To make a long story short, both EA and Crytek have confirmed that the game will not be using the $10 Online Pass. This is great news for those looking to pick the game up used and save a few bucks in the long hand in addition to saving first time buyers the struggle of inputting a code.

Crysis 2 will be out for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on March 22nd of this year.

One of the Xbox 360′s most popular exclusives is none other than Bungie’s Halo franchise. While the franchise is set tpo live on, Bungie has jumped ship following the release of Halo: Reach. Luckily, for diehard Bungie loyalists, the company has gotten around to releasing a few map packs for the game but it seems that the Defiant map pack (set to drop on March 15th) will be the last Halo: Reach DLC released by the company.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that there will be no DLC left at all as in their announcement, Bungie mentioned the hand off of the Halo franchise to Microsoft and 343 Industries – the studio set to work on future Halo titles. Then again, there is no way to confirm that 343 Industries will still be releasing map packs for Halo: Reach once they’re in full control but it’s nice to dream, isn’t it?

According to SlyVisions, indie casual game developer PopCap, one of our favorites, is considering an IPO, putting the independent developer on the stock market. According to reports, PopCap did an impressive $100 million in revenue last year, a number that is surely to grow this year. PopCap is based in Seattle and currently employs over 400 people.

However, we got a bit bad news as well: according to PopCap president David Roberts, the company isn’t planing on announcing any new IPO this year, which is kind of disappointing, as PopCap is known for new, innovative games. I guess Plants vs Zombies and Bejeweled will have to do fill our needs for now. Oh, and Pizza Frenzy.

Activision and developer Infinity Ward have announced that Modern Warfare 2, one of the most played game online, is scheduled to receive an update on march 8 (tomorrow), an update which will address the recent hacking controversy on the PS3, as we reported earlier. A few new details have been released regarding the patch: while it’s still centered around the hacking, it will also address an issue on the map Fuel, where an exploit was found and fixed.

Sony recently updated the PS3 firmware in order to combat the hacks, but it has done little help, rendering top played games like Modern Warfare 2 virtually unplayable. The patch will fix the hacking issue. The update will be released on the PC and Xbox 360 after the PS3 release. You can read more about the update on Infinity ward’s official forums here. We’ll have to wait and see if the patch fixes the hacks, which have been pretty severe.

Nintendo’s 3DS has officially sold 375,000 units during its launch week, propelling it to the top of the Japanese hardware sales charts. The 3DS launches in the rest of the world later this month. Here’s the full list of hardware sales and their numbers:

- 3DS: 374,764
- PSP: 47,955
- PS3: 23,654
- Wii: 12,159
- DSi LL: 9,093
- DSi: 7,802
- Xbox 360: 3,366
- PS2: 1,773
- PSP Go: 1,076
- DS Lite: 663

As you can see, the top ten list is dominated by Nintendo, with 5 consoles on the list, 4 of which are DS consoles: DS Lite, DSi, DSi LL and of course, 3DS. Another thing to note is that the Wii has been outsold by the PS3 2:1 over the recent few weeks.

For the past half a decade, if you wanted to play a Warhammer based RTS game, Dawn of War has been the best and only choice. The franchise started in 2004 with Dawn of War, got a few expansions, and then a sequel, Dawn of War 2 came. Now it’s getting its own sequels, with Dawn of War 2 Retribution being the second one. And we can safely say that it’ll more than please Dawn of War fans.

Dawn of War 2 Retribution is a standalone expansion, so you don’t need the original game to play it, which is always a plus. Retribution follows the same gameplay style as its predecessors, and is more of a Real Time Tactical game than a strategy game, as the focus is more on commanding your forces and less on buildings an infrastructure. And that’s actually a good thing, because the battles in Retribution (and its predecessors) is intense and will demand your attention 100% of the time. Multiplayer wise, there’s regular multiplayer where you can play as six factions, and there’s even a co-op mode as well. If you’ve played Dawn of War multiplayer before, you’ll know that Retribution follows the tried and tested formula. Sadly however, there isn’t much new in the offerings, both singleplayer and multiplayer gameplay wise.

The story in retribution is wider than in the previous titles, where you only got the story of the Space Marines, the de facto good guys in 40K. In retribution, you can command other factions as well throughout the campaign and get their point of view. This of course means the campaign is somewhat diluted, since it has to fit the other races as well — all six of them. The story in the previous games was tighter and more focused, but then again, in Retribution, you get the story from six point of views, which gives the campaign a lot of replayability.

Visually, Retribution is built on the same engine, which means its one of the best looking RTS games out there. The player models have lots of detail, the effects are great and the camera and motions are fluent. Overall, Retribution, as an expansion and standalone game, is a great addition to Dawn of War fans and those looking to get into the series.

The Good:
Tried and tested Dawn of War gameplay
Tense action
Great visuals

The Bad:
Story is weak
No much new

Overall score: 8/10

There are many different games on the market that cater to the hardcore gamer such as the Call of Duty series but every so often a game for everyone (even your grandmother) hits the market. A recent game of this nature is none other than You Don’t Know Jack from Jellivision and THQ which is currently out for the PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and Nintendo DS.

This game is your traditional trivia game show that is sure to be a hit at your next party but at $29.99 gamers may be reluctant to try it. Luckily, Game Stop has just shaved $10 off that price tag dropping the game down to just $19.99. Considering it’s one of those games that you can essentially play forever,you may be better off spending your $19.99 here than anywhere else.

If anyone either has this game or plans to grab it, let us know how you like it.

There’s nothing worse than logging onto your favorite game looking to grab some frags only to find out that it’s online multiplayer has been overrun by hackers. It seems that no matter what game studios do to ban these hackers they just keep coming back. The latest of such incidences focuses on the PS3 version of Modern Warfare 2 where hackers have saturated the game’s multiplayer component effectively ruining it for everyone else in the process.

Luckily, it was just announced today that there will be a forthcoming patch that addresses the issues and, hopefully, will curb online hacking considerably. Word comes to us straight from Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling who’s tweet you can see above.

So folks come March 8th lets hope that the online hacking will be no more.

When Crytek first released Crysis back in 2007 the world was wowed by the beautiful graphics, amazing physics and overall kick ass gameplay. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the game only came out for the PC and was only able to run on a very, very high end PC the number of people the game could have reached was severely limited. Luckily, Crysis 2‘s March 22nd release date is just around the corner when it will hit store shelves for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

If you’re just itching for every piece of information you can get about Crysis 2 you’ll be happy to know that Crytek has just released a brand new video today dubbed Multiplayer Progression: Weapons. I’m not going to go ahead and ruin the surprise for you but I’m sure you can guess by the title of the video what it’s about.

Check it out and let us know what you think.