Dragon Age: Origins was a massive game, and it's about to get even bigger. Though there have been bits and pieces of downloadable content released so far, the upcoming Awakening is the largest yet. It's billed by BioWare as a full-on expansion and continues on after the events of the base game. It seems the darkspawn from Origins are still a threat, though BioWare isn't commenting on the reasons behind their presence for obvious reasons. Nobody wants to spoil the story before the content is event out, right?

Pro Evolution Soccer has seen quite the fall from grace in recent years. With EA Sports' FIFA series pushing the envelope each and every time it takes the pitch, PES has had a tough time keeping up. It's quite clear that the PS2 takes a backseat in development to the main SKUs on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, so those who spend thirty bucks on the last-gen version shouldn't expect much in the way of innovation or new content. Still, PES 2010 is a solid game of soccer that many will be able to enjoy if none of the other versions are an option.

February 1, 2010 - Meet Harry Mason. He's crashed his car in the middle of a blizzard on the outskirts of a small town called Silent Hill. He's confused -- his memory is iffy, but he's painfully aware that his little girl is no longer in the vehicle. So with flashlight in hand, he braves the cold, the snow and inevitably the terror as he searches blindly for her. This is the setup for Shattered Memories, which is not a remake but a full-blown re-imagining of Konami's classic horror adventure game.

September 16, 2005 - Genji is a short, generic action game with excellent visuals, wonderful music and one cool gameplay mechanic, however gimmicky it may be.
A lithe young lad by the name of Yoshitsune and a strapping man of legend called Benkei are on a quest to rid feudal-mythical Japan of the oppressive Heishi clan. To defeat the Heishi warlords, Yoshitsune and Benkei will have to acquire and use Amahagane and the Essence of Amahagane. Only by upgrading themselves with these magical gemstones will they be able to challenge the most powerful generals of the Heishi, who themselves are imbued with similar rock-magic.

April 9, 2009 - Torrance, CA (April 6th, 2009) - Aksys Games, a publisher of interactive entertainment products, is pleased to announce the arrival of Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus today! Hardcore players will finally be able to take their fight on the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and PSP (PlayStation Portable) system.

April 24, 2009 - The Dynasty Warriors: Gundam franchise is arguably the most polished of the KOEI properties. That might sound like high praise, but unfortunately it's not. A good number of the KOEI games I've played have been riddled with technical problems such as intolerable framerate stutters and embarrassing draw distances. Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 manages to avoid a good number of those issues on the current-gen consoles, but not on the PS2.

2010 may have just started, but the online party will be ending soon for a number of last gen and current generation EA Sports titles. According to an Online Service Update on EA.Com, twenty-five sports titles will find their online service shut down by EA on or before February 2. The update stated, "You may continue to play the games online up until these dates, but certain community programs may begin to close down prior to the shutdown dates."

The update extended a thank you to fans of the older games, stating, "All of us at EA would like to thank you for your valued participation in our online gaming community and hope that your enthusiasm for these games extends to our current lineup and beyond." A number of the affected titles are older PS2 games, such as FIFA 07 and NASCAR 08.

However, some newer titles, such as Madden NFL 09, Facebreaker and NBA Street Homecourt for the Xbox 360 and PS3 were also included. No word was given as to how the shutdown would affect Xbox Live's or PSN's listing of downloadable roster updates for 360 or PS3 games. We have contacted Microsoft and Sony for word on the impending shutdown of EA servers, but did not receive any comment at the time of publish.

Update: EA revised their Online Service Update statement today, stating that Madden NFL 09 was mistakenly added to this list of titles. According to the posting, "Madden NFL 09 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii and Xbox 360 was incorrectly listed, and servers for this title WILL NOT be shut down on April 6, 2010 as previously outlined. We sincerely apologize for the confusion." Facebreaker and NBA Street Homecourt are still affected with the current server shutdown, however.

Below is the newly amended list of games:

February 9, 2010 Online Service Shutdown

FIFA 07 for PC
Madden 07 for Xbox 360
Madden 08 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii and Xbox 360
NHL 08 for PC
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 07 for PC
UEFA Champions League 07 for PC

February 2, 2010 Online Service Shutdown

Facebreaker for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
Fantasy Football 09 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
FIFA 07 for PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2
Fight Night Round 3 for PlayStation 2
March Madness 07 for Xbox 360
NBA LIVE 07 for PlayStation Portable and Xbox 360
NBA LIVE 08 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii
NBA LIVE 09 for Wii (Europe only)
NBA Street (2007) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NCAA Football for 08 PlayStation 2
NCAA Football for 09 PlayStation 2
NASCAR 08 for PlayStation 2
NASCAR 09 for PlayStation 2
NASCAR 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (Europe Only)
NFL Tour for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NHL 07 for PlayStation Portable and Xbox 360
UEFA Champions League 07 for Xbox 360

Author by:  Jeff Haynes

As virtual football rivalries go, PES and FIFA might have the limelight but one of the more enduring ones is in the slightly more staid world of football management. In one corner there's Championship Manager, bearing the most iconic name in the genre but still weathering the storm of the split between Eidos and the series' original creators Sports Interactive. In the other corner there's Football Manager, what Sports Interactive did next and what's widely acknowledged as the best in class since the studio partnered with SEGA in 2004.

What do you personally believe is the greatest gaming system of the last ten years and why?

What have been the most important changes in videogames, videogame technology and in the wider videogame industry, over the last ten years?

I have to admit, I used to be a bona fide Battlefield junkie. In fact, IGN played so much Battlefield 1942 that some of the editors took to living in the office. I honestly wasn't as big a fan of most of the sequels until Bad Company came around. So when DICE announced the PC beta for Bad Company 2 yesterday, I was first in line to download it and, consequently, the first to endure the pre-release connectivity issues. Things have smoothed out since then and I've been able to play through a few rounds of the PC demo. If this is a sign of things to come, we might have to think about breaking out the IGN sleeping bags again.
The new beta map is Port Valdez, the harbor at the southernmost end of the Trans Alaskan Pipeline. The Russians are dropping in to take the port from the Americans and neither side is willing to give up. From the initial plane drops, the Russians will advance through snow-covered hills and industrial urban areas as they seek out US M-COM stations. Port Valdez supports the Rush game mode, so the US will have to defend their stations until the Russians run out of respawn tickets.
The map has a great flow to it and plays out in three waves. In the first, the Russians drop in by air, which is pretty thrilling to see no matter which side of the battle you're on. Pathfinders have already set a few vehicles in place for the Russians to use, and it's no trouble to jump on the armored vehicle or one of the new quads and get right into the action. The first line of M-COM stations is at a construction site on the outskirts of the US defenses, so a coordinated attack can usually get things progressing nicely.

The quads are a great new addition to the game for a number of reasons. First, they give the attacking players a lot of added mobility without necessarily making those players particularly threatening to the defenders. After all, it's not much trouble to take one of these out with a quick grenade shot. On the other hand, it does give fast and sneaky players a chance to get around behind the defenders and attack them from the rear while their attention is being held by the frontal assaults. Of course, thanks to the rough terrain, it can be hard for the quads to get anywhere without being out in the open, so they'll have to rely on speed rather than stealth to avoid danger. The second wave progresses into the port itself where there are more opportunities for close cover and more changes to appreciate the game's destructible environments. It seems like things can quickly get out of hand here and the collapsing cover opens up some dangerous lines of sight for the recon players. From there, you'll pass on to the final set of M-COM stations, which the US will defend with some pretty serious hardware. I've played a couple of games that just sort of hung at this point with the defenders waiting as the attackers' tickets just withered away.
All this action takes place in a narrow corridor between the ocean and the mountains. It focuses the action nicely and offers a nice bit of variation with lots of building cover for close-in fighting and a few open streets and tall hills for the sniping crowd. Fortunately, the attackers are given a bit of a safe zone where they can gather without being spawn camped.

Overall, the beta has a good feel, despite the sometimes laggy servers and as-yet unoptimized visuals and performance. Some of the lag issues seem less of a problem today, even in the larger PC matches with a full complement of 32 players. The physics for the vehicles and the destructible environments feel right, with the sort of dramatized realism that the series has been known for. Hit detection seems fairly solid and I rarely felt the annoying separation you seomtimes get between the weapons and targets. It's a bit of an indefinable characteristic but there's a credible sense of weight and connection to the firefights here, so you really get a sense that you're hitting your targets, especially at short ranges. Add in the fact that it only takes a couple of hits to kill someone, and it makes it even more intense.
Of course, there are the usual Battlefield concessions, like rockets not really feeling lethal enough in enclosed spaces, and vehicles getting strangely hung up on the environments, and soldiers who haven't been trained to lie down, but all those issues don't seem to matter once the action begins to heat up.
If you're curious about the game, which is due out in March, you can grab the demo now on Xbox Live or get a code for IGN's Fileplanet beta by pre-ordering the game.

Author by: Steve Butts

Before I even get into the real review of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, I need to say something: PlayStation 2 owners deserve better. I can't tell you how many times I cover a cross-platform title and find this once great system getting watered down versions of games and stories the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 people are eating up.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Konami Digital Entertainment Inc., today announces that it has shipped the highly anticipated Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, the latest release in the renowned horror game franchise, which has spawned a long list of video games, books and movies. Winner of several "Best of E3" awards, the game is the first Silent Hill title to be released on Wii.

Scooby-Doo has seen more than his fair share of video games, and let's face it, they haven't been memorable. The canon has had a bit of a revamp with a recent live action direct-to-video film, but the newest video game, Scooby-Doo! First Frights, decided to do a different, separate revamp of the franchise. A revamp that seems to ignore everything about the series and turns Mystery Inc. into a team that solves mysteries with their fists, not their brains.

Sony Computer Entertainment America, through its exclusive distribution partnership with Sony Brasil Ltda., is expanding its business in Latin America with the launch of PlayStation in Brazil. Starting this November, Brazil's gaming and entertainment enthusiasts can snap up the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, the best selling system in the world, and dozens of PlayStation 2 software titles for purchase at over a thousand retail stores across the country.

The launch highlights SCEA's commitment to expand the PlayStation business in Latin America and marks the beginning of a two-phase operation to roll out PlayStation products and services to consumers across Brazil. Brazil is home to a large community of gaming enthusiasts, making the country an ideal opportunity for SCEA to introduce the PlayStation experience to a new legion of fans.

Over 14 hit software titles are available for purchase in Brazil, covering genres from sports to first-person shooters to action adventure. This includes PlayStation 2 titles such as Gran Turismo 4, one of the most successful game franchises for PlayStation 2, and the acclaimed God of War II. Brazilian users will have the opportunity to test out these and other software titles at special PlayStation displays at select retailers, offering them full view of the unique entertainment experience that only PlayStation offers.

PlayStation 2 will be sold in retail stores across Brazil for R$ 799 (USD$445). New release and catalogue games for the PlayStation 2 will be sold for R$ 119 (USD$66) and R$ 99 (USD$55), respectively. Select accessories for PlayStation 2, such as DUALSHOCK 2 Analog Controller and Memory Card, will also be available for purchase.

For more information on PlayStation, go to http://www.us.playstation.com/. For more information on PlayStation in Latin America, go to www.sony-latin.com/playstation.

Author by: IGN Staff

What could be better than spending the holidays scared out of your mind? If you answered 'nothing,' then you're in luck -- well, if you own Nintendo's system, anyway. Konami confirmed on Thursday morning that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories will ship for Wii in America on December 8, despite rumors that the game might see a delay to next year.

Over the years, I've developed a serious soft spot for Japanese developer Gust. Though its games' themes are usually a little outside my interests, the consistently creative battle mechanics and ability to tack even the lightest bits of item creation into an impressive number of JRPGs every year often lifts the games out of mediocrity and can actually make for seriously addictive play sessions.

Konami's Silent Hill: Shattered Memories has long been one of our most anticipated games. Thankfully, we've already got an early copy and have been playing it every night -- and yes, just in case, we've donned diapers. You can never be too careful, we always say. For the record, it's just as scary as we could've hoped. Complementing the frights and mood is a unique cast of characters, at least some of which Konami was kind enough to profile alongside a press release announcing the release date. We've provided descriptions verbatim as well as screenshots and artwork for some of the characters.

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Harry Mason


While driving through the spooky streets of Silent Hill, Harry's car skids on a patch of ice and veers off the road into a ditch. Upon waking from the crash, he realizes his daughter Cheryl is missing and sets out into the dark, freezing night to find her.

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Cheryl Mason


Harry's daughter who has mysteriously disappeared, causing him to brave the streets of Silent Hill. She's a cheerful girl who loves her father very much.

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Cybil Bennett


After years on the police force, Cybil has seen a lot of crazy things, but she's not quite sure what to make of Harry Mason. She decides early on to keep an eye on him, and their paths cross repeatedly.

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Dr. K


A friendly, relatable therapist who shows up periodically to evaluate the player. His therapy sessions consist of interactive psychological test which players will actually take part in.

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Michelle


Michelle meets Harry at her High School reunion, however he doesn't remember it. Tired of waiting to meet up with her boyfriend, she decides to aid Harry in finding his daughter.

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Dahlia


A tough, street-wise young girl, Dahlia seems to know quite a bit about Harry. The fact that he can't remember anything about her confuses Dahlia as much as it does Harry.

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Lisa


Lisa is a nurse at Alchemilla Hospital. Although she's young, lines of experience are already evident on her face. Despite her cynicism, Harry finds himself protective of Lisa and offers to lend her a hand.

Author by: Matt Casamassina