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The studio also announced 2 new villians: Mr Freeze(voiced by Maurice LaMarche) and Talia al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s al Ghul(Voiced by Stana Katic.) Mark Hamill will be reprising his role as the voice of the Joker, however he added that this will be his final portrayal of the iconic character saying “This will be my last, there’s no question about that.”

Along with the announcement 2 covers for GameInformer were released that portray Batman and Catwoman.

The game is developed by RockSteady Games and is currently scheduled for a 2011 release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Click here and read all about it!

The rumour has been started by a group of anonymous hackers that claim the feature will be added to both the US and European PSN, although only members who have the Playstation Plus package will be enabled to use the feature.

The idea of changing your ID name is nothing new however, this exact feature is already present in the Japanese Playstation Network that is shown in the video below.  If this rumour does indeed turn out to be true then expect the feature to run just as it does on the Japan PSN.

Racing

At the start of the game the AI is doable(no pun intended), and not too hard to beat, but once you reach the 6th episode(mid-season) it takes an aggresive uprusing making the learning curve quite steep. You racers of course immediatly go for 1st place but let me tell you people, 1st place isn’t where you want to be at the start of a race in Split/Second.

In the beginning of the race lay low, let other drivers pass and drift and draft behind them. Do not use powerplay when the first part of your meter is filled, wait for the whole meter to be full. This is where the big guns come in, when your whole meter is filled you get to use a much bigger powerplay, such as collapsing buildings, bridges etc. Make sure your in last place, not too far behind and activate the big power play, this is displayed by a red notification, smaller powerplays are blue. Time the activation right and the powerplay could very well take care of all your opponents, however be alert as your own powerplays can also backfire on you. The remaining time of the race it’s just a matter of evading enemies and their powerplays. You can also repeat the technique again, sometimes making it more effective since there is less time left to the finish. For this mode i’d choose a car with speed, though with some reasonable strength too, depends on your playing style. The technique also works for elimination, but staying in last place too long for it too work is quite risky.

Time Attack

Just the same old time attack, but with all powerplays on the circuit activated once you approach them. The key in this mode is to know the game’s every move. The powerplays are identical each time, and have no alternatives. So if you know where they will be and how they will act, you know where to go. You don’t have to get it right the first time, play a few times crashing where you haven’t been yet and in your final retry you will be ready for anything that is thrown at you. I recommend choosing a fast car for this event, for if you know the track strength won’t really be an issue.

Air Strike & Air Revenge

In air strike the main focus is to evade rockets fired from a enemy helicopter, and doing this long enough to break the target time. In the revenge variation the game lets you fight back by letting you fire back, after each evaded wave your powerplay meter is filled and you shoot back, i recommend waiting till the meter is entirely giving you a bigger attack and causing more damage per blow. For this mode i’d recommend a strong car, fast cars are good for evading rockets, but the winds caused by the explosion can quickly make you lose control causing you to crash.

Survival

Survival puts you in a similar situation as air strike. Trucks in front of you drop barrels with explosives to slow you down, blue barrels only cause small explosions, red ones are instant-kills. You get points for each truck you overtake. To avoid the barrels you need to react very fast, and of course keep your mind on both the trucks and the explosives. You can also temporarily hide behind enemy cars making them take the hits. As long as the timer is running you respawn after every crash, but once the timer hits zero the game goes into sudden-death, basicly making your next crash your last. A speed-based car is advised for this mode.

This was my guide to Split/Second, i hope current and future players have  a good use for this guide and see you online on the virtual road!

Microsoft also announced a 4GB hard drive version of the new Xbox 360 model, serving as an arcade version costing approximately $150, making the 250gig version the standard model. The new arcade version will also be bundled with Kinect(TM) retailing at the price of $300, it has not yet been announced if the camera will also be bundled with the regular 250gig console. Along with this all they also announced that Kinect(TM) videogame will be cheaper than regular games for the console,  putting the prices at about $50.

The Kinect(TM) camera will be released this fall for the Xbox 360, it is unknown if the new Arcade model will be released simultaneously, but will most likely be released later this summer, then bundling it again with the camera this fall.

Play for real

Guitar Hero’s and Rock Band’s guitar and bass peripherals always had the same concept: five colored fret buttons and a strum bar to play notes to the tone of the track, but buttons no more(well for the guitar at least). The guitar has been modeled after an actual Stratocaster, with strings and all. It even doubles as an actual electric guitar, making it possible to plug it in to the game console and an amp at the same time to actually play along to the song your playing. The bass has 6 strings for strumming, and 150 buttons for notes. Beware not you will not have to be playing actual guitar notes just yet as the games original 5 color frets concept is still in place, and adding an advanced “pro-mode” allowing players to play the actual notes of the song and learn to actually play the specific instrument. The drums still have the same concept, with the exception of 3 added cymbals. The vocals haven’t changed specificly, the only thing to change here is the ability to have 3 vocal players at the same time as in The Beatles: Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band, making Rock Band 3 the first main installment in the franchise to support the feature.

Bohemian Rhapsody, the complete experience!

At the end of the Green Day: Rock Band demo players were shown a teaser for Rock Band 3, with the instrument icons next to it. But a mysterious 5th icon was features, secretly announcing Rock Band 3 to be the first ever band game to have keyboard gameplay. The keyboard can be used regulary or as a keytar making the player have the same stance as the guitar/bass players. The keyboard can also be used as an actual keyboard, making the peripheral multi-functional like the new guitar controller. Pro-mode is also supported.

The songs of the game

As always Rock Band 3 will have a strong setlist with songs for everyone to enjoy, here is a small part of the setlist that has been announced:

2000s:

• Metric – “Combat Baby”
• Rilo Kiley – “Portions for Foxes”
• Them Crooked Vultures – “Dead End Friends”
• The Vines – “Get Free”
• The White Stripes – “The Hardest Button to Button”
• Phoenix – “Lasso”
• Ida Maria – “Oh My God”
• Juanes – “Me Enamora”

1990s:

• Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”
• Stone Temple Pilots – “Plush”
• Smash Mouth – “Walkin’ on the Sun”
• Spacehog – “In the Meantime”

1980s:

• Dio – “Rainbow in the Dark”
• Huey Lewis and the News – “The Power of Love”
• Joan Jett – “I Love Rock and Roll”
• Night Ranger – “Sister Christian”
• Whitesnake – “Here I Go Again”
• The Cure – “Just Like Heaven”
• Ozzy Osbourne – “Crazy Train”

1970s:

• Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”

1960s:

• Jimi Hendrix – “Crosstown Traffic”
• The Doors – “Break On Through”

And this isn’t all, Rock Band 3 has been confirmed to have over 80 songs on disc, and supports all previous dlc(current count is at 1350, new songs every week) and all the songs from the previous Rock Band games(with the exception of The Beatles: Rock Band), meaning there will be a gigantic amount of songs to enjoy. A new system in the library also has been announced letting you pick which songs you’d like to play the most and which you’d like to avoid, creating your own personal touch in your library.

The Rock Band Network will also be supported as it was in Rock Band 2, and this time the PlayStation 3 version will have full support of the tech, meaning that PS3 players might just get to make their own songs too this December.

Conclusion

By the looks of it Rock Band 3 will be the best music game ever made(well to me anyway) and will prepare players for the real deal, who knows you might just go from video game rocker to actual stage-rocker and the game will actually teach us how to play, instead of giving us the illusion were playing the real deal.

Rock Band 3 is due out this December for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS.

Resurgence Pack is the second of two DLC map packs for the hugely popular Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  The pack was released on 3rd June 2010 for Xbox Live but Playstation gamers had to wait a month to get their hands on it on 6th July in North America and 7th July in Europe.  The map park features 3 brand new maps to the Modern Warfare series in the form of Carnival, Fuel and Trailer Park and 2 existing maps from Call of Duty 4, Strike and Vacant.

Carnival

If the name hasn’t given it away for you yet, Carnival is an abandon fun fair complete with a fun house, roller coaster, bumper cars and more.  Where nearly all maps in the Modern Warfare series seem to be based or linked to the offline story this one doesn’t seem to as near all signs in the area are in English thus ruling out a possible location of Prypiat from the COD4 mission One Shot, One Kill.  Infinity Ward have officially described the maps as being ‘quite large’ but for me this is an understatement, Carnival is a lot bigger than quite large and that is its main drawback.  With so many different areas to explore and places to hide you can easily play game modes and only encounter a handful of players from the opposing team and spend long periods searching for the other team.  This map could really have been cut down to half its size particularly the roller coaster and castle part which, if removed, would make games seem more busy like they are in most online maps in the game.

Fuel

The second map in the Resurgence Park is Fuel, an oil refinery what seems to be based around Afghanistan, similar to where Rust is.  However, the similarities to Rust end there as Fuel is easily one of the largest maps in Modern Warfare 2 giving Derail and Overgrown a run for their money.  Where many large maps can find it difficult to  lure all the players to the one stop to prevent quiet matches, the biggest hurdle Fuel has is actually finding a game with this map.  Since it’s release last week on the Playstation 3 s it has been rare to find a game on this map on the online servers.  So far I have only been able to play three game types on Fuel, Demolition, Team Deathmatch and Search and Destroy and, overall, it was poor.  Although Demolition proved to be very enjoyable the latter two weren’t so great.  Just like Carnival, the map feels just too big and desert part of the map could (and probably should) have been removed in the final render.  Furthermore the map can be very confusing with a large amount of buildings and areas to enter, which can prove easy to get lost in.  Infinity Ward stated they wanted to make two different type of maps in one with Fuel, make a wide-open area for snipers on one side and a tight corridors style map the other side.  This idea really hasn’t work for them and they should have just picked one style of map instead of trying to create a hybrid.

Trailer Park

With two large maps in the Resurgence Pack you would expect Trailer Park to be more of the same, right?  Wrong.  Trailer Park is easily the smallest in the DLC with tight areas and plenty of corners making it ideal for shotguns and close quarters combat.  Trailer Park is based just outside the Scrapyard map from Modern Warfare 2 and for me is the most enjoyable brand new map in the pack.  With the size of the map along with spawn locations and objective areas, you will rarely have a dull moment and be face to face with your enemy plenty of times.  Many people believe this maps is ideal for people who like running around with a shotgun and, although that is true, I feel you can succeed well in the map with a small machine gun such as the MP5K.  The most enjoyable game type I find is the basic Team Deathmatch and the weakest being Search and Destroy, as many games can finish quickly due to it’s size and bomb spots unless you are playing with players who spend most of their time camping.

Strike

Strike is the first existing COD4 map from the Resurgence Pack and is almost identical to the original from the first Modern Warfare title.  The layout of the map is the exact same which includes the spots of the Search and Destroy bombs and the flags from Domination, however the appearance of the map has changed substantially.  The entire map looks a lot dirty and grittier and feels like a long war has just been taken place.  Furthermore, a few nice touches have been added such as the presence of an American flag and “USA Go Home” wrote in graffiti on various walls, suggesting that the Marines have secured the area and are in control.  If you have already played Call of Duty 4 multiplayer then you’ll know exactly what you’re getting with Strike.  Although it wasn’t my favourite of the COD4 maps it is a nice addition and has still proved its enjoyability with game modes such as Search and Destroy, Domination and the new Demolition.

Vacant

Just like Strike, Vacant is another map that started out life in Modern Warfare 1.  Vacant – just like Strike – has received a face lift in terms of appearance.  The map have been made a lot brighter than the originally was and now has more colour to it, this makes the map a lot more appealing and makes it easier to spot your enemies in the now not-so-dark corridors.  Layout-wise Vacant is almost identical to it was in MW2′s predecessor, the only difference I have managed to spot is that during Demolition (but not in any other game mode, strangely) the metal railing door is absent, this is an advantage however as it shortens the journey to one of the bombs from the spawn zone, which could prove vital for last second defusing.  Vacant was a big favourite with the COD4 fans and it can still hold that title as it is probably the strongest of the maps from the Resurgence Pack keeping the fun factor in virtually every game type.

Closing Comments

Where Carnival and Fuel really should have been brought back to the drawing board and corrected the inclusion of the Call of Duty 4 maps stop the Resurgence Pack from being a disaster and makes it a DLC pack that should be considered.  However, I believe that the Stimulus Package, Modern Warfare 2′s first DLC, is a better pack for your money with stronger new maps and two of my favourite maps from the original Modern Warfare.

Final Score: 6.5/10

The last announced model was a 160gb ceramic white model of the console, costing the same as the piano black version and will only be released with a 160gb hard drive. The three new models have so far only been announced for Japan and have not yet been announced for other territories, though there is a big chance these models will make it to the other territories.

(Note – Force Unleashed 1 spoilers ahead!) Anyone who has played the first game will remember you play as Starkiller, Darth Vader’s secret apprentice used by the Sith Lord to destroy the last of the Jedi and eventually help overthrow the Emperor to become the true ruler of the galaxy.  However, things don’t go all to plan when you are – like all Sith – betrayed by your master and are ultimately killed by Palpatine, perfectly managing to tidy everything up before A New Hope begins.  The Force Unleashed II’s plot takes place a few months after the events of the first game and revolves around Vader cloning Starkiller in order to finish off his original wishes from the first game.  However, the Starkiller clone isn’t squeaky clean and begins remembering about his unknown past.  TFU II will be a much darker story when compared to its predessecor, which hints towards a possible third force filled game, as the original Star Wars trilogy had a ‘dark’ part (The Empire Strikes Back) which also happens to be the second in the series.

Furthermore about the story, we’ve been promised a big and surprising finale to the game.  Executive producer and franchise director for The Force Unleashed Haden Blackman has said “We don’t talk about this much, but I think the ending for this game is going to surprise a lot of people. I think fans are going to be like ‘oh my god I can’t believe they did that, that’s awesome!’ I hope they say that’s awesome.”  Could we be treated with another ‘I am your father’ moment in the Star Wars universe?

Moving on to the gameplay of the game it appears the game’s combat system has been improved well for the better.  Lightsabers have received a well needed upgrade and will now feel more like what they really would, players will be able to slice off limbs and other body parts, making your futuristic light sword more realistic and a lot more deadly.  This is all good and well but what about the force, has it been improved?  Well, I am safe to say it has, with old favourites receiving little tweaks and whole new powers introduced.  One of these new powers is the Jedi mind trick, which will enable you to allow one of your enemies to become your allies for a brief period of time, helping you fight off the rest of those pesky stormtroopers before throwing themselves into sudden death.  Of course, we can expect this will only be able to be done on weaker, simpler minded opponents but I’m sure saying “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for” whenever you input this power will never get boring.

Enemy tactics and their variety has also been improved meaning that these new force powers aren’t going to go unused and unloved.  In the last Force Unleashed we mostly encountered the same enemies time and time again and your saber and some force lightning was all you really needed to beat the game, this time around though both issues have been resolved.  The Force Unleashed II will have around 25 different type of enemies, varying from the simply stormtrooper to the raging rancors.  These enemies will also have certain defences which could deem some of your abilities useless, for example, Imperial Riot Troops have staffs which will deflect lightsaber attacks, so it’s best using the force on those guys.

With a darker story, more powers and a greater challenge The Force Unleashed II has a lot of potential to it and sounds like it may well be a contender for the Game of the Year.  Whether these promises will be fulfilled or not is unsure for now but I think this can be more powerful than we can possibly imagine.