Today Ubisoft announced that the long running city management PC game series The Settlers, will be getting a new sequel spring 2010. Dubbed The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom, gamers can expect more of the same ‘explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate’ gameplay they’ve come to love.

Developed by Blue Byte, makers of Anno 1404: Dawn of Discovery, Settlers 7 features a new graphics engine and improved AI with “more than a dozen AI profiles, each with unique behaviors.” Settlers 7 also includes several multiplayer modes and the potential for “user-generated and downloadable content.” Read more… »

We’ve all seen pictures or heard stories of Korean professional gamers raking in cash by playing Starcraft for crowds of adoring fans. We’ve also seen similar success here in the States, albeit on a smaller scale, with gamers like Fatal1ty marketing his own brand of gaming hardware. I’m sure many of you have asked yourselves, “How does one get involved in competitive gaming?”

Hopefully, I can help put you on the right path. A few years ago I was heavily involved in competitive Counter-Strike: Source. My team, GameBangers, and I had a pretty successful run winning several tournaments, and although I may not have been rolling in money like Fatal1ty, I did manage to get through high-school without a job. In hopes of opening up the rewarding world of competitive gaming, I decided to write up a very basic guide.

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Capcom teased us with allusions to a sequel for Street Fighter IV, but shockingly, it doesn’t take the form of another videogame.  It officially takes the form of a controller?  I guess they ran out of syntax combinations of using “Hyper” and “Turbo.” Read more… »

Xbox 360 Elite, previously dropped down in price from $399.99 to $299.99, is now seeing a limited time $50 mail-in rebate offer.

It undoubtedly will give  the Xbox 360 one more leg up on the PS3 Slim.  Read more… »

Last week, Spike TV debuted a new trailer for the upcoming Halo Legends anime. I finally got around to checking it out, and I must admit it’s looking pretty good.

Check out the full five minute preview after the jump.

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There is no denying that the past year has been overrun with the music genre, which is starting to suffocate our poor helpless consoles. There have been no less than 10 Guitar Hero titles alone, 4 of which are from this year, and things get continually more claustrophobic when you factor in some considerable competition. As much as I love Guitar Hero, it has become arguably too much of a good thing.

However, Activision has attempted to set the record straight with Guitar Hero 5, an effort that reaches that defining point in a band’s career where things start to mature. But is it enough to secure a podium position in the charts?

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Since we were children, many of us have had our play time eaten into by simple “guide the shiny ball to its home” games. You all know what I’m talking about: tilt the little wooden platform in your hand as you try to get all the balls in the right holes. Simple and cheap, yet highly addictive and in some cases, quite challenging.

As technology evolved, so did the complexity of these games, adding more shiny balls and more complex mazes to guide them through. So now we are here with Switchball, taking this simple concept that has been used in games like Super Monkey Ball even further.

Developed by Atomic Elbow for the PC and Xbox360 in 2007, Switchball was received warmly by critics, even winning TeamXbox.com’s Xbox Live Arcade Game of the Year award. Now roughly two years later it has come to the Playstation 3, and while a lot has changed in those two years, this game still remains fresh.

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Sadly, Activision’s upcoming arcade racer Blur will not be making it out onto the track this November and is now scheduled to be released next year.

Activision’s Mike Griffith cited that the game will be locked in its garage for a slightly longer service in order to “fully optimise the vision [Bizarre] set out to create for Blur including a distinctive and groundbreaking multiplayer mode that will appeal to a broad audience.”

To be honest, I can’t say I am particularly surprised at this news when you consider the sudden influx of racing games which have been released this year. This month, the almighty Dirt 2 and chart topping Need For Speed: Shift went head to head and let’s not forget the impending major releases of Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5 which should be with us by the end of the year.

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To be honest – and Brock Johnson is always honest – I’m not surprised you dweebs couldn’t form a single coherent suggestion to manify the craiglist ad I posted last week. Fortunately for you, and the add’s author, I didn’t need your help to begin with. I’m just disappointed you didn’t offer me the opportunity to tear your ideas, along with your hopes and dreams, to shreds.

In fact, I was so confident that none of you would gather the courage to respond, I went ahead and wrote up my own version just moments after my previous post. I then made a point to contact Benjamin personally and make him a once in a life-time offer. Read more… »

Originally slated by Modern Warfare 2, BioShock 2 was suppose to come out in November, but Take Two deemed it way too extravagant for gamers to think about buying two major titles on nearly identical days.  Now if I had a nickel for every time that happened, I’d probably have about 80 cents now.

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For brevity, the Japanese produce some fairly notorious videogames.  Deemed only for an adult Japanese audience, the shock-value of some of these titles are so far removed from the rest of the world that it makes even the hardest of gamers stop and think, “Hmmm… this may be very psychologically damaging to an individual.”

So move over Rape Lay, Love Death 4 has shape recognition. Read more… »

Charlie Brooker, the ever-cynical writer behind such shows as Dead Set and Nathan Barley is offering his satirical views on the world of gaming.

Gameswipe’s format will follow suit from his previous shows, Newswipe and Screenwipe in which he let loose his merciless wit on the world of News and TV respectively.

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