Merry Christmas - See You Next Year

That's us done for the year. I'd like to thank all you dedicated readers who come back each day for your fix of daily games news. We do it for you, and thank you for your support. It's been a great year, we've managed to hold our own against the big dogs and we'll be bigger and better next year.

We'll be back in the New Year with all the news and the latest news, delivered right here, every day.

Just Cause 2 Will Provide Over 100 Hours Of Entertainment

Just Cause 2 developers have promised there'll be around 100 hours of entertaining gameplay to keep you amused in the sequel, and while the game's main story campaign can be completed in around 15 hours, the game's destructive sandbox gameplay will keep you entertained for a good while. Good to know.

Source: PlayTM

27 Year Old Man Jailed For Hooking Up With 15 Year Old Girl On Xbox Live

Oh dear, a 27 year old man has been sent to the big house for 10 years after hooking up with a 15 year old girl he met on Xbox Live. Apparently the desperate bloke drove over 30 hours from Missouri to Central California to meet the under age girl, which is the key point of interest, under age.

Edward Stout of Richmond Heights faces 10 years in prison and will have to register on the sex offenders register after engaging in sex with the under age girl.

Source: SFGate

Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 Gets A New Patch On PC

A new patch is available for the PC version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 which updates the game to version 1.03. The patch improves user save features for gameplay tactics. You can download it here.

EA Launches Mask Creator For Army Of Two: The 40th Day

EA has launched a new official Army of Two: The 40th Day website that features an online mask creator for you to create your own custom mask ahead of the game's release. When the game releases on January 15th on Xbox 360 and PS3, you'll be able to download your custom designed mask into the game. Awesome.

Source: Official

Microsoft Files Trademark For Appearance Generated Avatars

Microsoft has filed a trademark for a patent covering appearance generated avatars that would be created based on your health and appearance... here's the official description of the patent...

An avatar generator for a virtual environment reflects a physiological characteristic of the user, injecting a degree of reality into the capabilities or appearance. Thereby, many of the incentives of the real world are replicated in a virtual environment. Physiological data that reflect a degree of health of the real person can be linked to rewards of capabilities of a gaming avatar, an amount of time budgeted to play, or a visible indication. Thereby, people are encouraged to exercise. Physiological data that reflect the health and perhaps also mood also improve social interaction in virtual environments. People seeking to meet and become acquainted with particular types of people are not thwarted by the artificiality of avatars. The physiological data can be gleaned from a third party health data collection repository, a healthcare smart card, a real-time physiological sensor (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, blood glucose, peak flow, pedometer, etc.)

Source: USPO

EA Opening New Studio In Atlanta USA

EA is reportedly looking to set up a new office in the Atlanta area of the US creating up to 300 jobs in a new development studio. Why they're setting up new offices after closing existing, established studios is a little odd but that's business for you.

Source: AtlantaBusinessChronicle

Valve Now Allow Bots In Private Servers For Team Fortress 2

Bots, some people love them, some people hate them. Sometimes they're done well, sometimes they're useless. Valve are now letting you try out bots in Team Fortress 2 on your own servers, and here's how:

- To add bots to your game, use the console command tf_bot_add. This will drop a random bot onto a random team (assuming there is a free player slot). The tf_bot_add command can also take up to three optional arguments: , , and , in any order. For example, tf_bot_add 10 will add 10 random bots to the game with auto-assigned teams. Typing tf_bot_add pyro blue will add a Pyro to the blue team. Entering tf_bot_add red 5 will add 5 random bots to the red team. The command tf_bot_add red 3 heavyweapons will add three heavies to the red team.

- In order to put specific bots on specific teams (for a bots-vs-humans game, for example), you may want to disable automatic team balancing. To do this, enter mp_autoteambalance 0 followed by mp_teams_unbalance_limit 0.

- To remove a bot, use the console command kick . To remove all of the bots in the game, use the command tf_bot_kick all.

Source: Official

Turbine Dedicated To Online Franchises In 2010

Turbine's Adam Mersky has commented on the developer's future in 2010 and promised gamers that continued support will be there for existing titles, Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online, but couldn't reveal specifics. From the source:

"In a brief discussion with Adam Mersky from Turbine Entertainment we got a look at what the studio has planned for 2010. Turbine continues to carry to very consistent MMOs on the market with Dungeons & Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. Obviously Adam could not reveal too many specifics but fans of the games will be happy to know that there is a lot in store for the next twelve months in both franchises. Also, Adam mentioned that Turbine is hoping to reveal possible third title in 2010, but made no promised on the time of the announcement."

Source: MMORPG

EGM Magazine To Relaunch In March 2010

Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine is to make its rise from the realms of the dead in March next Time/Warner has confirmed.

The new print version of Electronic Gaming Monthly includes a special code included in each news stand copy that upgrades each reader’s access to the new weekly interactive version of the magazine. This enhanced version of the digital publication, called EGM[i]: The Digital Magazine contains exclusive article extensions and original content throughout each issue.

Will it manage to compete with online outlets? We'll see.

Source: Official

Greenberg Confirms Crackdown 2 And Alan Wake For First Half Of 2010

Speaking in the latest Major Nelson Podcast, Microsoft games boss Aaron Greenberg confirmed that Crackdown 2 and Alan Wake would both release on Xbox 360 in the first half of next year:

“Starting in January we have like a triple A exclusive title pretty much every month for the first half of the year. You’ve got Mass Effect 2, you’ve got Splinter Cell, you’ve got Alan Wake, you’ve got Crackdown 2,"

“You’ve got things like Fable 3 and Halo: Reach and coming later that year. Those are just the exclusives. 2010 will be a bigger year that 2009: no doubt.”

Does sound like a pretty good line up, and they're all console exclusives.

Source: MajorNelsonPodcast

Sony Unveil Mr Freeze For DC Universe Online

Sony has unveiled Mr Freeze who will feature in DC Universe Online for PS3. There's artwork of him at the source. Still no release date for this one unfortunately.

Source: MMORPG

Final Fantasy XIII Sells Over 1.5 Million Copies On Day One

Yup, Final Fantasy XIII went down quite a storm in Japan with official day one sales figures finishing at around 1,516,532 units sold, to be exact. The launch of the game is also said to have shifted over 250,000 PS3 consoles.

Source: Famitsu

ModNation Racers BETA Shows Off Creativity

Those lucky chaps who managed to get themselves into the ModNation Racers BETA have shown off their creativity and what you can do with the game's character creation features. We can't wait for it.

Source: ConsoleMonster

Online Researchh Survey Shows Premium PSN Possibilities

Images have popped up of an IPSOS Online Research Survey conducted on behalf of Sony, to look into Premium PlayStation Network services, the opening of survey states:

“Sony is considering offering a premium PlayStation Network subscription in the future. The subscription offering would provide new premium features you could choose to pay for and are in addition to the features currently available for free such as access to online multiplayer gaming (current features would remain free).”

Go see for yourself at the source.

Source: Kotaku

Good Old Games Starts Christmas Sale

Good Old Games, the PC digital distribution service has launched its Christmas sale which most titles released before December available with a whopping 35% off. If you fancy a classic for a few bucks, now's the time to check it out.

Source: GOG

Heavy Rain Special Edition Announced - Includes DLC Voucher

Sony has announced a special edition version of Heavy Rain will be available and will include a voucher to download additional content for the game including:

• Heavy Rain: Chronicle 1 – The Taxidermist – Experience Madison’s dangerous investigation in full, before it’s available on the PlayStation Store
• The Heavy Rain Official Soundtrack – Recorded at the legendary Abbey Road studios, and filled with the powerful orchestral themes that form a key part of the experience of playing Heavy Rain
• Dynamic XMB theme – Lend a little Heavy Rain ambience to your XMB

Get the full low-down at the source.

Source: EUPB