May 7, 2008 - Upon yesterday's news that publisher THQ had missed its revenue goals by a good margin, President and CEO Brian Farrel announced at a post-earnings conference that the company would lay off roughly 200 staff members. Even though it has been many years since THQ missed its revenue goals, Farrel remains optomistic about the situation. According to MCV, The CEO told investors not to worry about the lay offs because the company plans to grow from 2,400 employees to 2,700 by the end of the next fiscal year through changes in the company's infrastructure.

Read more from IGN.

Starting today you can be part of the Beta phase of Battlefield 2142 Update 1.50. Update 1.50 is a big step for Battlefield as it is the first time we have included community created maps and included them into an update. Wake Island makes a come back thanks to The Sir. Community and appears alongside a brand new map new to Battlefield created by Jason Brice, Operation Shingle. Also, for those who prefer to fight on foot, we have added a No Vehicle option to a number of maps to allow you to fight without worrying if you’ll come face to face with a Battle Walker. Also, as requested by match broadcasting groups we have separated the Commanders voice volume from the Sound Effects so you can keep the explosions and gun fire without the Commander interrupting the broadcast.


FEATURES

- Added community maps, Wake Island 2142 and Operation Shingle
- Added the ability to use widescreen resolutions.
- Added No Vehicles mode.
- Added Conquest Assault mode.
- Changed the volume control for the Commander Voice Over on request of the esports community.
- Changes made to pod steering mechanism to improve control while limiting pod surfing.


FIXES

- Fixed the loading issue caused by corrupt Radial.cdb file
- Various changes made to prevent cheating.


The Beta update is an incremental file, to take part in the Beta you must have Battlefield 2142 version 1.40 or Battlefield 2142 Deluxe installed. You can download Update 1.40 from HERE

To see a preview of what to expect from the two new maps check out the teaser created by Jason Brice and the Sir. Community.

After months of rumors and denials, the XBOX 360 with a Blu-ray disc drive is due to be manufactured soon and shipped in Q3 of 2008. Pegatron Technology, an OEM subsidiary of Asustek Computer, is reported to have received the winning order from Microsoft for a Blu-ray equipped XBOX 360.
Earlier reports cited Lite-On as the company with the privilege of building the new console for Microsoft. Lite-On is also currently one of the suppliers of the internal DVD drive fro the XBOX 360.
One of the strong points for Sony’s Playstation 3 has been the integrated Blu-ray player. The PS3 had the ability to draw both gamers and audio/video enthusiast, and this was proving to be a major advantage over its XBOX rival. It is estimated that 85% of Blu-ray players in use are PS3s. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer had admitted that Microsoft had been working on support for Blu-ray under Windows during this year’s Mix08 conference. Rumors began to swirl and many began to expect Microsoft to announce a Blu-ray peripheral for the XBOX 360.
However, Microsoft came out and denied all rumors, stating that they.......Read More from Tom's Hardware

May 2, 2008 - Gentlemen, I don't know about you, but I've realized that the rest of the office seems to be suffering from GTA Fever. The Xbox and PlayStation guys are coming in late and leaving early. There are dark circles beneath their eyes, like they're not getting any sleep. And when they are at their desks, there's this nonstop chatter about popping fools and jacking cars. I must admit that we, the PC team, are not immune. Charles and I did buy Xbox 360 copies on Tuesday, though I have not jumped in quite yet.

So there are a few questions I'd like to pose to you. Some of these are questions that our readers have asked, as well. Firstly, do you think the PC will get Grand Theft Auto IV, and if so, when? Also, what would you like to see in a PC version that is unique to the platform?

Here's some background information. Grand Theft Auto began on the PC, but the series didn't really explode until Grand Theft Auto III, which introduced a new 3D engine that brought you into the game rather than give you a top-down, bird's-eye view like the previous two games. GTA III shipped on PS2 on October 22, 2001. The PC version was announced on March 25, 2002, and shipped two months later on May 21 and according to NPD, sold more than 400,000 copies.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City launched on PS2 on October 22, 2002. The PC version was revealed on February 14, 2003, and shipped on May 12, 2003 (The Xbox version shipped November 4, 2003 as part of a Double Pack with GTA III). NPD says Vice City sold more than 300,000 copies on PC, a slight decline.

Finally, there's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which shipped for PS2 shipped on October 26, 2004. The PC game was confirmed on September 9, 2004 (before the PS2 game shipped). It came out on June 7,

A video game in which players can buy cocaine, visit strip clubs, shoot police and set people on fire has been censored for New Zealand - but thousands are still expected to queue up when the game goes on sale at midnight tomorrow.
The censorship of Grand Theft Auto IV has forced the country's largest online retailer of games to cancel $50,000 worth of advance orders.
Gameplanet Store's website was inundated with orders from Australia this month for the violent gangster epic after it was revealed a censored version would be sold there to conform to the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification's M15+ game rating.
But game publisher Take 2 Interactive soon confirmed New Zealand would receive the same toned-down version of the game even though Grand Theft Auto IV will debut here with a R18 rating.

According to this GI story, Yahoo! and Microsoft both rejected Steam after Valve pitched the pre-launch concept.
“You know, we went around to Yahoo, Microsoft… and anybody who seemed like a likely candidate to build something like Steam,” said Valve marketing boss Doug Lombardi.
“We basically had our feature list that we wanted. We wanted auto-updating, we wanted better anti-piracy, better anti-cheat, and selling the games over the wire was something we came up with later.
“We went around to everybody and asked ‘Are you guys doing anything like this?’ And everyone was like ‘That’s a million miles in the future…We can’t help you.’”
Steam’s 14 million accounts say otherwise.

Q: What kind of computer do I need to run Battlefield Heroes?

We’re currently aiming for a minimum requirement of…

• Operating System: Windows XP or Windows Vista
• CPU: 1.0 GHz
• RAM: 512 Mb (1Gb on Windows Vista)
• Video Card: 64Mb DirectX compliant video card with at least pixel shader 2.0 support
• Hard Drive space: 1Gb of space is required to install the game
• Internet connection: 256kbit Cable/DSL connection

Q. What new content will we see in Battlefield 2142 Update 1.50?

A. As well as a number of bug fixes and tweaks based on community feedback we are going to be releasing two new maps created by community members. Wake Island makes its return to Battlefield PC thanks to the guys at Sir. Community and a map which you may have heard of called Anzio will be appearing with a name change as Operation Shingle created by Jason Brice. We are also bringing a No Vehicles option to a number of 2142 maps for those players who want to fight it out on foot as well as allowing you to access 16:9 and 16:10 resolutions for those widescreen monitors. We also heard your cries for movement in pods to be re-introduced on transport ship escape pods so we have been working on giving that back to you while still limiting pod surfing use.


Q. How did you select the community maps to include in Update 1.50?

A. Both maps we decided to include in Update 1.50 were selected from a wide choice of maps that are out there in the community, it was felt they brought something new to Battlefield 2142 and although some of you will have seen them before in previous forms, they have now been updated and are new maps to Battlefield 2142. Both groups have worked closely with DICE Live and have gone through extensive testing to get the best balance and Battlefield experience from the maps. Wake Island 2142 also holds a little twist to the way Conquest game mode is usually played so watch out for that.


Q. When will Battlefield 2142 Update 1.50 be released?

A. Update 1.50 will be released for public beta towards the end of April and is there to get

Due to the fact that the upcoming patch contains a substantial number of features and fixes, we have changed the number from 1.0.3 to 1.1.0. The patch is currently in testing and we should have more news soon.

KAOS|Mitch

"Germany's war with Greece started when its ally Italy invaded the country in October of 1940. The Italian morale was low, and the invasion rushed and poorly planned. As a result the Italian armies failed to make much progress and in November the Greek armies pushed the Italians over the pre-war borders. Italy's failure forced Germany to intervene, as Commonwealth troops would be reinforcing the Greek armies. With the preparations of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, well underway it was imperative that the southern flank should be secure."

• Improved Graphics with Higher Resolution Maps and Units.
• Improved Sound and Music, including Region-specific background music.
• Next Generation AI .
• Streamlined Interface for easier play options.
• Advanced "Single Map" Design.
• Play in a small Region or Play the Entire World!
• High Resolution Satellite Imagery courtesy of NASA.
• Real-time or turn-based gameplay options.
• Multiplayer support for up to 16 players via LAN or Internet.
• Extensive economic and political model.
• Exciting new Sandbox mode that lets Players customize their playing experience!