It's an exciting time to be a gamer because there is definitely a lot of pivotal stuff going on in our industry right now. Today I want to go on about a reasonably new development of an old concept. Expansion packs have been around since the mid 90's in the PC world. Back when the PC dinosaurs ruled the video game landscape (and just about any game could be played on any computer without a video card that costs more than a PS3), if there was a successful game, a half a year or so later we would see an expansion pack. People who enjoyed a game could purchase more content for around $20 to $30-ish. Don't quote me on this, but the first expansion in my memory was the level add on pack for Doom II released in 1995 called "Doom II Master Levels. Read More...

So Valve announced the first DLC package for L4D2 a while ago and it is finally here to bring us more zombie killin' goodness. The "carrot" that they have been enticing us with is a major "change" to the cast of the L4D universe, and true to word there is one less survivor running around taking all the pills and startling the witch. *Note* I will try to keep this write up spoiler free for those of you who have not had a chance to run through it. I fired up Steam where the content is free (560 points if you play on the New Jersey of online gaming XBL) and loaded up the single player campaign mode to blow through as fast as I could. Read More...

Last week we were lucky enough to sit in on the developer call for Iron Man 2: The Videogame. During the call, it was asked about further enemies and heroes to be shown in the game. Be it as full on characters or as background NPCs. If you listened to the audio, you would have heard that very little was given out. At least as far as new information and characters. Well looking below at the latest set of game screen shots and renders you will see that Ultimo has finally been shown. Read More...

Thanks to 1up.com for reporting on a Chicago Comic-Con panel that long time Batman voice Kevin Conroy was speaking at. Conroy has reportedly said that Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 will be "really really dark" and that legendary, iconic villain, Two Face, will be making an appearance. I say awesome. I, like everyone else, loved everything about the first Batman: Arkham Asylum and I feel it speaks really well that an unknown newcomer like Rocksteady Games can rock our worlds with the first good Batman game ever (and a rare piece of quality licensed work). Its nice to see them not only expand deeper into the Batman universe, but also do so with the finely polished third person gameplay the market had not seen in a long while. Lets just hope as much effort goes into adding depth to the gameplay formula that made the first one so great. Read More...

This is quite possibly the most miraculous announcement coming out of Captivate '10. Sure, there was that other little game that apparently was a big deal, but for me it's all about the return of Rad Spencer and some of the guys from GRIN, albeit under a different studio name. Fat Shark Games will be keeping Rearmed 2 true to the original, though some new things will be thrown into the mix, including jumping and more physics-based puzzles. Simon Viklund, who did the music for Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Final Fight: Double Impact will be returning to do the score as well, which is very exciting to hear. The one thing that is unclear at this point is whether or not the coop will be online or not, as the original was purely local coop play. Read More...

This is still just a rumor and based of sources from Destructoid. I'm not one to post a bunch of rumors. I hate when they are good ones and then they end up being false or a joke started to get views. I really hate it. But this is a rumor that I think most of the fans of 2K Games would go ballistic over if it was made to be a joke or for publicity. It's also one that I am sure that any fan of BioShock would love to be true. If you could not deduce by now, the rumor is BioShock: The MMO. Read More...

Here we go with another film based game due out here soon. A few weeks from now soon at that. Not to mention one of the larger titles coming out this year for true uber geeks. Suck it sparklers. In any instance, I was able to join up on a conference call with Dean Martinetti, the game’s producer, and Mike McHale, the game's Development Director. Where we got to throw out our questions about the game as well as try to gauge on why we or anyone should pick up another film based game. Especially since the last one in this franchise was such a piss-poor adaptation. Read More...

The Saw movie franchise has been known to truck out a new film every Halloween, and has so for the seventh year in a row. That is when Saw VII comes out this year that is. But now it looks like it is going to go down that path with the video game version of the psychological killer storyline. Yes, it has been announced that Saw 2 is in the works. In fact, you can look below to see some of the new screens for the Saw II being done by Konami and Zombie Studios again. Oh, and due out this Autumn as well as the new film. Read More...

When Blizzard does something, they do it on a grand scale. Blizzard Entertainment just announced that there soon to be released title, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, will come in two flavors. The normal run of the mill standard version, and the super awesome Collector's Edition. The Standard edition will retail for $59.99 and will be downloadable from the Blizzard store shortly after it's release. The Collector's Edition will retail at $99. Read More...

The iPad as you have heard is being released April 3rd, 2010. The lines at the Apple store will be ridiculous, Apple is already struggling against the demand, and Steve Jobs is in a chair somewhere sitting in the dark watching his Apple TV and laughing at all the money he is making this weekend. As I have stated in previous articles, the iPhone format has already paved the way for more powerful mobile gaming, but now with the iPad (a larger iPhone) gamers can utilize the larger screen size and have a truly unique gaming experience. I bring this up because with the information overload about the iPad, EA and 2K Games have stated that they will be updating there iPhone games to be optimized for the iPad. EA's Command&Conquer: Red Alert and 2K's Civilization: Revolution are two very popular titles but are limited by the screen size of the iPhone. Read More...

So if you were at PAX East last week, or at least following the official Dead Space Twitter account, you might have had the chance to catch a glimpse of what is to bee seen of the Dead Space 2. Either by being in the conference room or via the live uStream of the event. But just in case you didn't get to catch it either way, or just don't want to sit through all the other stuff they talked about, here is the video of in-game footage. Not the best shot of the action, but it is something. Also not 22 minutes long. Read More...

For those of you that have been watching the timer count down on BioWare's social site, we have reached zero hour. So what did we get? An expansion? An announcement (c'mon SWTOR)? Nope we got the BioWare Bazaar! Bioware is holding a week-long auction on BioWare's Social Network from April 6th to April 10th. So I am sure your asking yourself, how do I get such awesome swag as a new "Mass Effect 2 Collector's Edition Artwork Branded Computer", or any of the other 412 prizes there giving away? Well according to the website: "To bid on these auctions, fans will have to collect tokens through various challenges. Read More...

So Civilization fans will be happy to know that 2K Games was kind enough to show at PAX East that they will be coming out with a brand new Civilization game called... Civilization V. Nice title huh? You are probably wondering why they would want to make another Civilization game after the success of Civilization IV? Just like any games with a huge success rate, there were features that were taken out due to time, money, or wasn't able to be fit into the previous titles. Yes there are DLC and companies could always add them in later, but what if the engine was not equip to handle the features for the DLC, than what? Read More...

Mafia originally came out on PC in 2002, then later on the orginial XBox, and then PlayStation 2 in 2004. Several years later 2K is releasing the second installment of the Mafia series with Mafia 2. Here at PAX East, we got the opportunity to sit down and play a demo of the game. Here is what I have to say about it. New Engine: 2K Czech has created the brand new Illusion engine for Mafia 2. I spoke to Dan, one of the lead Developers for Mafia 2, he told me that because of how the original Mafia was and how much the dev team wanted to in the first one but couldn't. Read More...

In the deep dark back rooms of GDC 2010, Funcom brought forth a new look at their up and coming modern world MMO The Secret World. You needed to know the secret path, the secret hand shake, and secret credentials to get in to see it. Or just be there and made an appointment to go and check out what Funcom had to show. My version would have been much cooler, you have to admit. But for those of you who didn't get to go through my made up scenario? Read More...