A few games links for a Tuesday evening:

• Your Xbox.com is changing tomorrow – The Xbox website will get a new lick of paint
• Fallout: New Vegas mega-primer – Re-familiarise yourself with the series
• Fallout: New Vegas’ First DLC Will Be Xbox-Exclusive
• Blizzard sues Starcraft II hackers
• Namco Gets Into Facebook Gaming – Hamster Pirates!
• World of Warcraft: Hallow’s End Achievement Guide – The event started a few days ago
• Win Vanquish for your PS3 or Xbox 360 – SEGA’s sci-fi third-person shooter was released today. Reviews
• New Command & Conquer coming – Report – If they simply remade Red Alert they’d clean up
• Microsoft spending big on Kinect marketing – $500 million set aside for global ad machine
• Ad Blitz for Microsoft’s Kinect May Boost Windows Phone 7
• Kinect for Xbox 360 to do ‘Oprah,’ ‘Ellen’ Shows
• PlayStation Move’s debut ‘modest’ in US, big in Europe – Estimates: 300,000 in US, 1.5 million in EU
• FarmVille Allegedly Leaking Private Information to Ad Firms – “Transmitting personal information about a user’s friends to outside companies”
• Kinect launching with 17 titles in Nov. – Harry Potter game features in the lineup
• Final Fantasy 7′s Tifa to appear in PSP game – This link brought to you in association with the original One Winged Angel

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Links for Friday evening:

• Valve Denies Steam Trade-in Plans
• 250GB Xbox Includes Forza, Alan Wake – Spotted in Europe, Canada and Korea so far
• Xbox friends cap rising to 1,000 – MS Germany – Xbox Germany team let the cat out of the bag on Facebook, now deleted
• Kinect’s sitting down woe finally over – Sitting or lying on a sofa caused problems for the device’s software
• StarCraft 2 patch 1.1.2 arrives – Lots of changes for Zerg
• Signed NES on eBay for Charity – Signed by gaming industry stars
• (WoW) Preparing to Level to 85: How should you do it? – Pros and cons of dungeons, quests or PvP for leveling
• Q&A: Looking back on launching Battle.net
• Gran Turismo 5 trailer impresses – Slick
• Halo: Reach Sold 3.3M Stateside – 3M in one month only achieved by Halo 3 and Modern Warfare 2 for this generation of consoles
• Sony expects “very, very strong” holiday sales in Europe, Move shifts 1.5M units – Selling like hot cakes
• Make a StarCraft II diorama, win Alienware
• It’s a crying shame that the new Pirates of the Caribbean game has been cancelled – A look at the Disney title
• Angry Birds out now for Android phones – iPhone hit is free for all Android phones
• Final Fantasy XIV Free Trial Period Extended, Big Changes On The Way – The game got hammered by critics upon release

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Amazon are offering the Gold Edition of NWN 2 for $15 today, a saving of 50% on the regular retail price.

The Gold Edition includes the original NWN 2  and the expansion Mask of the Betrayer pack, which allows you to advance to Epic levels (above level 20).

Also on offer is the Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Expansion. Amazon are offering 40% off the regular price, so that expansion costs $11.99 today only.

Links:
Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold
Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Expansion

Thursday evening’s links for your perusal:

• Netflix goes disc-free on PS3 next week – Free app coming Oct 18 plus new UI, 1080p res and 5.1 surround sound
• First DLC for Halo Reach on November 30 – 3 maps, 800 points
• Gran Turismo 5 delay explained – ‘Advanced systems needed to be finalized’
• First step to the next Hideo Kojima game – The Metal Gear Solid man is having a meeting every morning with core staffers
• Minecraft creator earns $350K in one day
• Rumour: Valve To Offer Steam Trade-Ins – Great idea
• Linkin Park as DLC for Guitar Hero and DJ Hero – New album free with Amazon orders of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock or DJ Hero 2 between Oct 17 and 23 also
• Final Fantasy XIV Launches To Scathing Reviews – Ouch, 54% on Metacritic
• Awesome archive of art from Sony PlayStation ads
• Pirates of the Caribbean Game Canned as Layoffs Hit Propaganda – The action RPG was scheduled for 2011
• The First Five Things to Do in World of Warcraft’s Patch 4.0.1 – A lot of UI changes greeted me when I loaded up the game last night

Previous link round ups can be found here.

A few games links for this Wednesday evening:

• Metacritic: Medal of Honor – See the aggregate review score at the end of the day
• EA Responds to Sudden Stock Price Plunge – Damage control after the early reception of Medal of Honor
• Medal of Honor targets PSJailbreak – Latest PS3 firmware piggybacks on Medal of Honor
• Old Republic will be ‘biggest MMO failure ever’ – Anonymous, disgruntled BioWare/Mythic employee has set up a blog
• Why Warhammer Failed – More from ‘EA Louse’
• Gran Turismo 5 Release Update – Coming this holiday season
• Duke Nukem Forever ’3 times the size of MW2′ – The campaign is huge, we’re told
• Facebook’s Most Addictive Social Games – They’re like crack, don’t go near them
• The Top 7… Sequels that changed everything
• Halo: Reach to push September sales up 2.4% – After 3 months of declining game sales, analyst predicts a boost from Bungie’s Halo swansong
• Don’t like the 3DS price? Well it’s your damn fault! – The shockingly high price of the 3DS was based on the reception at E3, via
• University Gets $2 Million to Make Politically Correct Video Game – If the end product is a fun game I’ll eat my hat
• Spielberg’s second EA project stillborn – ‘Ambitious’ project petered out after two years in development
• Watch £14,000 worth of EVE Online spaceships get destroyed – Massive ingame battle saw one group lose big style

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Monday evening’s gaming links:

• CoD: Black Ops single player teaser trailer released – The game’s out Nov 9th
• Game prices have come down with time – DLC isn’t factored into the equation, but in general the price of games hasn’t outpaced inflation
• Salman Rushdie’s New Book Takes A Cue From Video Games
• WoW: Cataclysm gets over 1hr 30 mins of video – Let’s hope they don’t call it a movie and charge $30 for it
• Sonic Anniversary revealed, remaking classic Sonic levels – The very best of Sonic updated for modern consoles
• Tron: Evolution soundtrack features Daft Punk, original music – A-round the world, around the wo-orld
• UK PC CHART: StarCraft 2 makes a comeback – Civ V still on top
• The difference between Total Annihilation and Starcraft – RTS geeks go head to head
• Buy Dead Space 2 early, get Dead Space Ignition free – Ignition is a prequel to be released tomorrow
• British PS3 Owners Get Movie Streaming – Next month
• Duke Nukem Devs Were More Worried About Borderlands – Gearbox had concerns about Borderland standing out in the FPS crowd
• New Features of Xbox 360 Dashboard Update Explained – Pre-Kinect update coming on Nov 4th
• Ubisoft gets fit with £1.2m ad blitz – Massive ad spend for Kinect fitness game
• Report: Microsoft Preparing to Shut Down In-Game Ad Company – Massive Inc. was bought by MS in 2006
• BioShock 2 PC DLC Dropped – Xbox 360 and PS3 players have had the content for some time
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Sequel’s Development Confirmed
• How to run a massively multiplayer game – Developers from BioWare, EA, Turbine, CCP had a discussion at GDC

Previous link round ups can be found here.

A few games links for Friday evening:

• Old Duke Nukem Forever pre-orders to be honoured – Decade-old preorders will be honoured with proof of purchase
• Duke Nukem Forever: Everything you need to know – Interview with Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford and Mike Gibson
• You thought Kinect didn’t need peripherals? – An actual boat accessory has been spotted for the device, compatible with the sea!
• Rare: Kinect can do ‘so much more’ than Wii – Snippet pulled from this in-depth feature article about the Kinect
• Microsoft Sees Many Uses for Gesture-controlled Interfaces – Microsoft’s research boss talks up the possibilities of the Kinect technology
• Japanese Kinect commercial is short but stupid
• How Star Wars: The Old Republic tackles the grind – BioWare initially packed the game with ‘gold standard’ content which itself turned into a grind
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Beta Opens to PlayStation Plus Subscribers – Hit the PS Plus category of the Playstation Store to play
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow’s Portal Reference Isn’t A Lie – The cake is a lie reference spotted
• New animated series for Halo Waypoint, tries to alienate Halo fans – It looks truly awful
• Will Wright’s first TV project unveiled – Bar Karma will be interactive, with the audience having input into the story and production
• Diablo III interview – With lead designer Jay Wilson
• People who preordered LEGO MMO get to play two weeks early – Game has gone live today for preorder-ers, the rest of the world can play on Oct 26th
• Next Starcraft II due early 2012? – Heart of the Swarm is a long way off
• StarCraft II patch rebalances Zerg – Zerg only played 23.5% of the time, no date on the patch yet
• Don’t Expect That World Of Warcraft Movie Any Time Soon – Director Sam Raimi has put the project on the long finger
• Lord of the Rings Online doubles revenue since going free-to-play – “When you tell people you no longer have to pay for it, they come in droves”
• Call of Duty Surprize Attack sweepstake – If you preorder Black Ops with Gamestop you can enter your receipt once a day for a chance to win
• Black Ops Pre-order Sales Outperforming Modern Warfare 2 – Compared to this time last year according to Gamestop
• 33% OFF on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Weekend deal on Steam, almost €20 off
• Capcom Brings Ghosts ‘n Goblins, 1942 and More to Virtual Console – New batch of retro titles will cost 800 Wii points each
• Miyamoto: Evolving tech kept Mario fresh – Full interview as part of the ongoing 25th anniversary of Mario here
• GOG adds Icewind Dale – Only a tenner for the old Dungeons & Dragons title bundled with the expansions

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Games links for this Thursday evening:

• Duke Nukem Forever ‘dances on the line of decency’ - Rating boards not likely to approve
• Duke Nukem Forever Designer Apparently Lost Millions – 20-30 mil of his own money
• PlayStation 3 & Facebook are in a relationship – The last PS3 firmware update integrated the Facebook API with the PS3
• How PS3 Facebook integration may work – Imagine cruising down a videogame street and seeing a friend’s face on a billboard
• Let The Call of Duty: Black Ops Ad Blitz Begin – Billboards hit Times Square
• German censors dislike Call of Duty: Black Ops and the Rolling Stones – Gore, torture and oddly, Rolling Stone song censored from the game in Germany
• Wii puts elderly patients on road to recovery – Project in Tallaght Hospital in Dublin saw the Wii replace physiotherapy to help with mobility problems
• Gaming mouse changes size and shape to fit your hand – The Cyborg R.A.T. 7 gaming mouse wouldn’t look out of place in a Transformers figures collection
• Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta due next year – No specific date revealed yet
• Metareview: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – ‘A stunning achievement’ say CVG
• Kindle gets text-based adventure games – Who needs graphics?
• The inside story of Microsoft’s secret ‘Project Natal’ – In depth feature article on the Xbox 360 Kinect
• Medal of Honor Open MP Beta: DirectX 9 versus DirectX 11
• Win GIGABYTE graphics cards on Facebook fanpage – Via Bluesnews
• WoW hits 12 million subscribers – Almost two full years after the 11 million watermark was reached
• Sony Ends PSP Dev Kit Supply – Making way for the widely reported PSP2 kits
• SEGA nukes crappy Sonic games – Games with a low Metacritic score taken off shelves to increase the value of the brand
• Best Buy charges $30 for PS3 firmware update, laughs all the way to the bank – They’re not apologising either

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Gaming links round up for this Wednesday evening:

• Panasonic’s Jungle Online Gaming Handheld Doesn’t Stand a Chance – PC World demolition job
• First in-game footage of a Gran Turismo 5 car rolling over – Also check out this stunning visual effects video
• Leaked Kinect Manual Reveals Mandatory 6 to 8 Foot Distance – You need a lot of space to play Microsoft’s new device
• Downloadable content with Kinect preorders – Bestbuy are offering two unlockable levels for Kinect Adventures and a helicopter prop for your avatar. Via
• Dragon Age 2 will import ‘the world’ from DA:O save – Things like who’s running Orzammar, who’s in charge of Ferelden to be brought over from your DA:O save
• BioWare is “King of the Side Boob”
• Blizzcon 2010 Schedule Has Diablo III, No New StarCraft – Full Blizzcon schedule revealed
• Reborn Castlevania ‘could run for another 25 years’
• *Spoiler Alert* Achievement/Trophy list for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Here’s part two
• Castlevania Lords of Shadow gameplay videos
• Castlevania’s Greatest Hits – The best games from the 24 year old franchise
• Bungie looking for PS3 engineers – The Xbox specialist is only 5 minutes free of Microsoft
• Bungie hints at MMO project – Studio is entering a 10 year partnership with Activision for their next IP
• Rumour: Spielberg chasing Halo movie rights – Movie to be based on Halo novels according to unconfirmed report
• Japan: Third Week at Top For Pokemon Black & White – Pikachu and co flattened Halo: Reach and all other opposition with almost 4 million sales
• Captain America game due in 2011 – Superhero will return to his Nazi-busting WWII beginnings
• The man behind the Liverpool FC bid is a founder of iRacing.com – Boston Red Sox boss John Henry
• Bethesda, id parent scores $150 million investment
• American military refuses to stock Medal of Honor – Army won’t carry the game despite last minute Taliban name change
• GameStop won’t stock Medal of Honor on U.S. bases either

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Gaming links for Tuesday evening:

• welcometo.thejungle.com – Panasonic has a new handheld coming out, but where’s the Guns N Roses song?
• COD: Black Ops goes 3D – Users must own a 3D-ready TV or a PC supporting 3D active shutter glasses. Black Ops is out on Nov 9
• Castlevania Lords of Shadow cheat codes – No playable Solid Snake despite rumours
• Konami brings Castlevania to Facebook. And it sucks.
• Halo: Reach Essential tips and tricks – For the campaign
• Halo: Reach – 19 amazing Forge creations – Creations uploaded to Bungie including a ginormous AT-AT, Xbox 360 and a massive ad for Call of Duty: Black Ops
• The complete history of Metal Gear
• Vincent Van Gordon – Half-Life art
• Rumor: PSP2 to release Holiday 2011 – According to anonymous source
• Unlock Beastie Boys, Obama, Sarah Palin and George W Bush in NBA Jam – Get the Beastie Boys code here
• Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete – Listed on Amazon for 26 October release. Via
• Only 696 game-related injuries in 5 years – American Academy of Pediatrics research; only 92 injuries from interactive games like the Wii in all that time
• A PC case that’s also an aquarium
• Download Medal of Honor Multiplayer Open Beta
• Jack Thompson: Gamers can ‘go to Hell’ – ‘I win again’ says everyone’s favourite games-obsessed lawyer about Taliban/Medal of Honor controversy
• Ballmer: Kinect is ‘next-gen’ Xbox 360 – MS boss talks up the ‘natural user interface’. Obligatory Ballmer dancing link
• Get early Duke Nukem Forever demo – Redeemable voucher for the demo and other goodies included in Borderlands Game of the Year Edition

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Games links I found on the internets this Monday evening:

• WoW Cataclysm release on 7th December – The announcement is somewhat of a surprise ahead of Blizzcon on 22 Oct
• Kojima wanted game to emit blood smell – Metal Gear genius/crazy bastard wanted to coat floppy disks with paint that smells like blood
• Castlevania Lords of Shadow Xbox Live demo – The demo comes in at a hefty 1.6GB. Playstation Move demo available on PS Store. Via
• Castlevania Facebook app re-launches – Konami posted the app live on Friday, but pulled it for unknown reasons
• Minecraft update coming October 31
• Katamari Damacy director and wife reveal new company – Creator had become disillusioned with the gaming industry
• Bungie whacks 15,000 Halo: Reach cheaters – Cheaters used a disconnect exploit to gain credits
• Left 4 Dead Meets Minecraft
• Toshiba unveils glasses-free 3D TV – Out in Japan before Christmas, though the screens aren’t large
• The top ten retro gaming secrets – Motion controllers, 3D games, environmentally friendly games and dual screen handhelds are all nothing new
• Duke Nukem Forever gameplay video shows urination, a deformed penis, group sex, eyeball removal – Charming
• Assassin’s Creed tie-in app launches on Facebook – As you progress through the RPG you will unlock content in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
• Another spectacular fan game that looks better than Sonic 4
• 12 Forgotten Online Games – From the 70s, 80s and 90s
• The $360 Pac-Man Necklace
• Rockstar wins GTA Rothbury damages – Newspaper made up a story that Rockstar planned a game based on the Raoul Moat manhunt

Previous link round ups can be found here.

A few games links for this Friday evening:

• 3DS Hopes To Automatically Block Pirates – Device will automatically download firmware updates
• Why Nintendo Made The 3DS So Powerful
• All Your History Are Belong To Us: BioWare Part 1 – First in a series of short machinimas covering BioWare’s history
• Designing the Advanced Classes System in Star Wars Old Republic – More info on the recently announced Advanced Classes
• Gears of War 3 delayed – Until Fall 2011. Not a quality issue, we’re assured
• ‘Let me make Dreamcast 2′ – Sonic creator wants to make hardware again for SEGA
• $30 Off the ASUS EAH4870/2DI/1GD5 Graphics Card – They’re running a special on student gear, $30 off P7P55D-D Xtreme design motherboard also
• Tali-banned – Taliban removed from upcoming Medal of Honor title
• MYST Movie Could See The Light of Day – Bring back Myst
• Blizzard ban 5,000 StarCraft II cheaters
• Motion gaming could disappoint this holiday – ‘By no means will it help the console business turn the corner’ says analyst. Via Techreport
• Civilization V Benchmarks –  GPU & CPU performance in-depth
• How Halo: Reach FAILS – Just in case you were bored of all the glowing reviews
• Ten Things You Need To Know About FFXIV – Tips for surviving your first steps into Square Enix’s new MMO
• Blu-ray in 17% of US households – The number has doubled since 2008
• Xbox Marketplace points giveaway – Spend $30 in Microsoft points during October and receive an extra $10 worth
• Soundgarden releases new album through video game – What a handy excuse to link to Black Hole Sun
• Molyneux explains son’s plea to Valve – Half-Life 3 video went viral in Sept
• Pianist Transcribes Complete Super Mario Bros. Score – Every pitch and rhythm of the orginal 8-bit NES game in a readable booklet

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Games links for Thursday evening:

• A World of Warcraft player’s guide to Final Fantasy XIV – Square Enix’s new MMO is out now
• Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II hit the iPhone
• Diablo III item set previews – Every Tuesday and Thursday leading up to Blizzcon, a new image preview will be released
• Nintendo predict 4m 3DS sales in first month – The 3DS will hit in Japan in February and March in the US and Europe
• First trailer for Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater on Nintendo 3DS
• Adidas/Foot Locker/Xbox team up for sweepstakes – A free Superstar avatar code and a chance to win a Kinect
• Blizzard update privacy options for Real ID – Opt-in preferences for Friends of friends and Add Facebook Friends options
• Head Crab Zombie statue coming Oct 4th – After a year in production,  1/4 scale Half-Life 2 poly stone statue from Valve
• Team Fortress 2 now selling items for real money, massive update just launched – Big changes for TF2 fans
• Who knew Gollum made games? – Enslaved: Odyssey to the West – directed by Lord of the Rings’ Andy Serkis – is out Tuesday. Ingame bonuses on preorders
• First location-based iPhone MMO announced – Creates a gameworld based on the city you’re in
• Permadeath in World of Darkness Online? – No, but an interesting read about the concept
• ASUS need a StarCraft II map maker – Official hardware provider for Blizzcon need your SC II mapmaking skills
• Controversy surrounds Berlin Wall game – Shooter where you play as either an East German border guard or a fleeing refugee
• Minecraft man plans new studio – Had previously turned down job offers from Valve and Bungie
• Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, Beastie Boys Announced For Def Jam Rapstar – Releases on Oct 5th fo’ shizzle
• Pundits thought original PlayStation would fail – Sony’s Europe team offer their recollections 15 years later
• Microsoft to buy Second Life? – Anonymous employee spills the beans on Microsoft offer
• Priston Tale 2 Gives You WoW-Style Gameplay For Free – Currently in beta testing, looks impressive for free
• Xbox Live gets MSN content – Exclusive video content from the MSN network for anyone with an Xbox Live Gold membership

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Games links for Wednesday evening 29 Sept:

• While BioWare didn’t make it, this is the RPG that most of us are playing… – BioWare rave for DeathSpank on their DragonAge Facebook page
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow plaudits continue – The ending is “among the coolest video game finales this millennium.”
• Starcraft 2 1.1.1 patch – Fixes issues that cropped up with their first major patch for the game
• Nintendo 3DS dated, priced – Slated for Japan release in February at ~$299
• Issue #5 of Dragon Age comic released – The first part of the saga is also available on iTunes
• Destroy entire websites with this Asteroids bookmarklet – Press space and it will start firing bullets which destroy page content
• EverQuest II Extended Goes Live – The free to play version has a limited edition staff for early players
• Wii Remote Plus confirmed – FlingSmash boxart had let the cat out of the bag previously
• Dog attack blamed on Nintendogs – Girl attacked by dog who went berserk when it heard barking on DS game
• Halo: Reach DLC Confirmed, Adds 10 More Achievements – Bungie have robust lineup of Add-on content in the pipeline
• ‘Civilization V’ revolutionizes its game – What’s loved and what’s hated in Sid’s latest instalment
• What the Hell is Minecraft and Why The Hell Should You Care? – It’s only a matter of time before I cave and check this game out
• Minecraft is Making a Lot of Money
• Sony Lawsuits Target PS3 Jailbreak Authors – Crack platoon of lawyers target PSGroove, PSJailbreak and PSFreedom related hacks
• Beta/Demo on the way for Call of Duty: Black Ops? – Mysterious Xbox Live game sparks speculation
• ‘Don’t play too much Final Fantasy XIV,’ warns Square Enix – Warning message tells us ‘do not forget your family, your friends, your school or your work’

Previous link round ups can be found here.

A few gaming links for this Tuesday evening:

• MS: Kinect launch will be bigger than PS3, 360, Wii – Microsoft aim for ‘biggest platform launch in the history of the industry’
• Fighting words between Double Fine founder and Activision boss – Game dissing and namecalling
• World of Darkness MMO Revealed – Horror MMO on the way from the creators of EVE Online
• F1 to become annual franchise – Codemasters want to do ‘a FIFA’ with the racing franchise
• PC Gamer – The World’s Number One Minecraft Magazine
• Portal mod for Minecraft
• Minecraft art
• Building Megaobjects in Minecraft – Includes a massive 1:1 scale model of the Starship Enterprise
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine game incoming – Free to play browser game coming to an M class planet near you
• Dragon Age 2 console gameplay video
• Metal Gear Creator Gushes Over Super Mario Bros.- Mario is ‘one of mankind’s greatest inventions’ and ‘the big bang of our gaming universe’ according to Kojima
• Mafia 2 New Add-On Packs Released and Trailer – 4 new add-on packs available for PC,PS3 and Xbox 360
• Report: PSP2 Hardware Now In The Hands Of ‘Numerous’ Developers – Multiple sources reveal a “significant launch window line-up” is planned for PSP2
• The 10 Best PSP Games – 10 titles worth considering from the PSP’s vast selection of games
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light & Demo Released – Latest instalment in the Tomb Raider series + playable demo on Steam now
• Zynga’s scope, size and power – 10% of the world’s internet population have played one of their Flash games
• Activision secures the NASCAR publishing rights
• EA is ‘definitely going to beat Activision and COD’ – Medal of Honor and Battlefield franchises are EA’s weapons in the battle
• WoW: Cataclysm to include a Plants V Zombies minigame/questline – New recordings and ‘something special’ also planned

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Games links for Monday evening:

• LEGO Universe Gets Very Testy – Thousands of hours worth of testing have been put into the upcoming LEGO MMO
• Free EA Game for APB Purchasers – Refunds have reportedly been denied
• Castlevania Lords of Shadow review: YET ANOTHER 90+ – Described as a ‘massive sleeper hit’ and a ‘must buy’
• World of Tanks Beta Key giveway – The free to play tank MMO won Best New Concept award at E3 this year
• Gran Turismo 5 Visual Effects video – An example comment: “i couldnt tell if half of that was the game or real life!!! nuts!”
• Halo: Reach knocked off its UK perch – Toppled from the number 1 spot after only one week by F1 2010
• Halo: Reach – The Epitome Of An Uninspired Cash Cow – “In essence this is the same game I played nine years ago”
• Halo: Reach – Get 20,000 Credits In 10 Minutes (Video) – Involves reverting back to previous saves
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit preorder bonus – Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and the Ford Shelby GT500 plus access to 4 locked cars out of the box
• StarCraft II Patch Plans – 1.2 is lined up to be the game’s ‘e-sport patch’
• Press the Replay Button – Spotlight on the replay feature of StarCraft II
• Kinect price ‘has to come down’ – Activision – Plain words for Microsoft from Kotick
• Miyamoto’s Lifelong Dream: Invent the New Rubik’s Cube – Mario creator views Professor Rubik as a sort of rival
• We Sing Robbie Williams screenshots – What is it with pop stars releasing games..
• PS3 Hacked Using Official Controller – PS3 firmware blocks USB devices, so hackers turn Sony’s own hardware against them
• Future Surgeon Prerequisite: Video Gaming – Caution: don’t read that headline and quit your day job just yet

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Some gaming links for this Friday evening:

• Worldwide Call of Duty: Black Ops Day – Nov 9th on Facebook. 13565 listed as attending already
• Halo Reach: First week stats – 70 million games played, 5,901 man-years spent in online Reach games, 165 Billion Credits earned
• Protip: Don’t release your game the same week as Pokemon in Japan – Halo Reach sales utterly dwarfed by Pokemon in Japan
• Halo: Reach Secrets and Easter Eggs – Avatar unlocks, Master Chief cameo and more
• 75% off Serious Sam HD games this weekend – Steam offer, newly released Gold Edition can be picked up for $10
• Report: There Is A New Wii-Remote – Upcoming Wii title FlingSmash’s boxart seems to be bundled with a new Wii Remote
• Molyneux: Kinect is a bigger ‘step forward’ than the Wii – He’s a no-buttons fanboy
• Sony Blocks Fake Controllers, Warns Of Explosions – New firmware release
• StarCraft II editor Q&A – Useful tips though not a guide for beginner users
• Kotick: Bungie Had No Alternative to Activision – Gives a sense of the scale of Bungie’s next project
• APB concept artist forms a new studio
• Microsoft: Who needs Blu-Ray? – It’s going to be ‘passed by as a format’, says entertainment and marketing chief
• Modern day Prince of Persia was scrapped by Ubisoft – “Think a bit Day After Tomorrow, but replace the snow with sand and everything. It was really wicked. But it got cancelled, and then we did all the Far Crys.”

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Some select gaming links for this Thursday evening

• Michael Jackson MMOG due in late 2011 – Ow!
• Xbox 720 is ‘years away’ – Current gen is here for a long, long time say Microsoft
• GOG.com closure a gag – Site selling old DRM games pulls lame PR stunt
• Halo: Reach is the best-selling Xbox exclusive in history – Sales are ‘staggering’ in first week
• Mario Anniversary Site Updated with History and Wallpapers – The 25th anniversary celebration continues
• Games squeezing out DVDs and CDs on Best Buy shelves
• Japanese game makers five years behind – Capcom developer’s verdict on Tokyo Games Show is ‘everyone’s making awful games’
• DA: Origins Witch Hunt: An Unsatisfying Epilogue – Kotaku mini review calls the final piece of DLC an ‘insult to players’
• Afterwords: StarCraft II – In depth interview with SC2 lead designer Dustin Browder
• EVE Online raising money for Pakistan flood victims – Gamers can donate their game time towards a good cause
• MS slam PS Move games as just ports of controller based games – Compared to Kinect games of course
• Activision: Bungie is the only ‘high-quality independent developer’ left – The two have signed a 10 year creative partnership
• First homebrew game and emulator released for the PS3 – Use your PS3 to play… Pong and emulate the super NES

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Some games links for Sunday evening:

• Awesome, Minecraft is free, go play it – Crack-on-a-stick apparently
• PayPal Withholding Indie Game Dev’s €600,000 Account – Minecraft creator can’t get paid
• Preload Civ 5 now! on Steam so you can play as soon as it comes out
• Microsoft: Halo will go on – “We won’t fumble that particular ball”
• Kojima “might work with Konami and make Metal Gear Solid 5″ – Overheard at Tokyo Games Show
• USA: Playstation Network to Get PSOne Import Section – Hard to obtain Japanese PS1 titles will be available to download. US only for the time being
• Gran Turismo 5 Uses PS3s as Browser Games Server – Remote racing feature lets you race online via a web browser
• Mafia II Sets The Video Game F-Bomb Record
• Xbox 360 Powers Ahead, but Sun Setting on Wii? – August sales figures paint a grim picture for the Wii, its worst monthly unit sales since launch
• Reach Breaks Halo 3 Xbox LIVE Record
• Bungie attracted to Blizzard’s online expertise – Bungie have a grand online vision in mind for their next project
• Sony working on a PS2 adapter for PS3? – Trademark filing hints at backwards compatibility
• Blizzard puts the squeeze on Starcraft 2 cheaters – Banstick is primed and ready for use
• Videogame Wisdom You Can Apply to Real Life – “If you talk to people for more than 30 seconds, they start repeating themselves”

Previous link round ups can be found here.

A few gaming links for the evening of Saturday 18th of September:

• Sony says Xbox 360 is ‘reliant’ on shooters – “We’ve never been reliant on one product genre like one of our competitors,”
• Sony optimistic about 15 million-unit PS3 sales target – PS3 projections for the year to date have been exceeded
• Halo: Reach disc read errors reported – The game is being rejected by older Xbox 360s as unreadable
• Activision Wants to Sell Cutscenes for $30 – CEO proposes stitching together cutscenes and charging gamers for them as ‘movies’
• 5 Reasons Not to Buy Sony’s PlayStation Move
• ‘We have a PSP 2 in the house’ – Mortal Kombat developer apparently already has the device and say ‘it’s a pretty powerful machine’
• Kinect sales ‘will blow away’ iPad – Pre-orders have been really strong, Kinect spokesman boasts
• APB in retail refund row – Those who still had gametime when the servers switched off are out of pocket
• StarCraft II – Improving Your Game with Team Hotkeys
• id files brief in Schwarzenegger v. EMA & ESA – DOOM developer weighs in on games-as-free-speech case
• Bob Marley Officially Coming To Rock Band
• White House launches educational video game competition – $100,000 in money and prizes up for grabs for designing science, tech, engineering, math software
• More Mysterious Fallout MMO Propaganda Has Appeared in Your Inbox
• How to hit 46k with 3D Mark 06 – Even with a super juiced PC, Windows Vista still takes ages to load up

Previous link round ups can be found here.

Some gaming links that caught my eye this evening:

• PSOne games going cheap on PSN – The original Playstation is 15 years old today
• DOOM, Oblivion & Fallout make GamesTM’s 100 Greatest – All 100 games will get a magazine cover for the special
• BioWare Fixing Continuity Bug in Dragon Age “Witch Hunt” DLC – Some players’ completion of the “Dark Ritual” near the end of Origins is causing problems
• Valve: Xbox Live ‘such a train wreck’ – Valve mistakenly assumed that Microsoft would improve Xbox Live so it could update its games regularly for free
• Square Enix CEO Gets Death Threats – All the poor man did was announce an Xbox 360 release for Final Fantasy XIII in Japan
• Play Retro Games on Your Modern PC – How-to’s and emulators for everything from the Atari 2600 to arcade games
• Katamari Damacy creator leaves Namco – The moody genius thinks his time as a game creator may be coming to an end
• MS spends more on Reach than Halo 3 – 60% more spent on marketing than was spent on Halo 3
• Halo: Reach ‘is Halo 4 in all but name’ – Say Microsoft
• Oblivion: The Movie on the cards? – Movie trademark filed
• FarmVille boss ‘doesn’t f***ing want innovation’ – Told employees to copy others’ ideas, claims ex-employee

Links round up for Wednesday evening:

• Dragon Age: Origins Witch Hunt released – Final piece of DLC for the game
• Dragon Age II’s Hero Cleans Up, Becomes Female Real Nice
• Why PlayStation Move Could Give ‘3-D Games’ a Whole New Meaning – The controller is tracked by a camera, which could open lots of immersive possibilities
• Gary Oldman, Ed Harris Headline Black Ops Voice Talent – Big name voice acting for new Call of Duty
• The Big Hideo Kojima Twitter Controversy – Metal Gear guru posts image of half naked woman instead of his lunch
• Microsoft Details Halo: Reach Launch Activities
• Bungie: Split from MS reinvigorated us – Bonus Bungie link: Watch the entire Halo: Reach Panel from PAX 2010
• Amazing ninja man completes Ryu’s Super Street Fighter IV Trial mode with one hand
• Duke Nukem Forever demo incoming? – “I think that is an important thing to do” says Gearbox CEO
• Why the 12-year delay has actually been good for Duke Nukem Forever – Millions-worth of free advertising is mentioned
• Origin PC Unveils Gaming PC with Built-In Xbox 360 – The base model costs $7,699. Via
• Stardock Hit by Layoffs Following Rocky Elemental: War of Magic Launch – Disastrous launch led to criticism that the game was unfinished