GameStop has started rolling out a TV ad this week informing us of their latest ploy to get you to spend cash at their stores. And I like what the ad has to say (for once). From now until March 14th you’ll get an extra 50% on every trade-in you bring to their store. Use your Edge card and you can sweeten the deal with an extra 10%.

Of course as usual newer games will net you bigger paybacks so keep that in mind. With a lot of great games having been released already and even more on the way this will help keep you from selling drugs to support your gaming habit, and that’s a good thing.

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In a time when BioShock 2, FIFA 10, New Super Mario Bros and even Modern Warfare 2 are all vying for your hard earned cash the number one game in all of the United kingdom is…Aliens vs. Predator?! Really UK, really?!

The sci-fi shooter definitely had some stiff competition but it still managed to take the top spot. It’s worth noting that it came in number one ahead of Just Dance, so this may give you some insight into what kind of games are popular across the pond.

I found the game to be disappointing and never really got into it, you can try it out for yourself if you haven’t already. The multiplayer demo is available for download on Xbox Live.

Hit the break to see the top 20 games.

1. Aliens vs. Predator
2. Just Dance
3. BioShock 2
4. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
5. FIFA 10
6. Modern Warfare 2
7. Wii Sports Resort
8. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
9. Wii Fit Plus
10. Army of Two: The 40th Day
11. Vancouver 2010
12. Forza Motorsport 3
13. James Cameron Presents James Cameron’s Avatar The Game By James Camerons
14. Lego Batman
15. Mass Effect 2
16. Bayonetta
17. Mario Kart Wii
18. Peppa Pig: The Game
19. Darksiders
20. New Super Mario Bros.

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EA’s real-time strategy series Command & Conquer will get it’s next sequel next month with Command & Conquer 4. And to get you back in the swing of things the publisher is releasing three classic C&C games as freeware. Freeware means it’s free, you don’t have to pay anything for it. Free is good.

For $0.00 you can get your strategic paws on Tiberian Dawn, Tiberian Sun (including the Firestorm expansion), and Red Alert. Now you may run into issues running the older games on your newer PC but I’m including some links below to give you a hand.

Fans of the RTS genre will appreciate what these old titles have to offer, and it’ll get you in the mood for the release of Command & Conquer 4 on March 16. It’s the last chapter in the C&C saga so soak it up kids.

Here are the links to help you out via Big Download:

Download Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn for Win95 (843 MB)
Click Here for Tiberian Dawn Installation Instructions

Download Command & Conquer: Red Alert Allied Disc (499 MB)
Download Command & Conquer: Red Alert Soviet Disc (502 MB)
Click Here for Red Alert Installation Instructions

Download Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1.24 GB)
Click Here for Tiberian Sun Installation Instructions

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It looks like EA is finally going to pull the plug on it’s struggling NCAA Basketball franchise. The series has had dismal sales in the last five or so years (not that it was ever hugely popular) and hasn’t kept critics or fans impressed either. The game was glaringly vacant from the publisher’s financial filing on Monday which lead to talk of the game being discontinued.

EA Sports’ David Tinson confirmed that the franchise was indeed no more in a statement give to Game Informer:

“We do not have an NCAA Basketball game in development at this time, and we’re currently reviewing the future of our NCAA Basketball business. This was a difficult decision, but we remain a committed partner to the NCAA and its member institutions.”

EA Sports was the only publisher still pumping out NCAA licensed basketball games since 2K Sports ended it’s NCAA run last year, pulling out of the market. Next year will be the first year since 1998 that there will be no college basketball game on the market. Developers working on the series will be dispersed onto other projects. One’s that make EA money.

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It’s happened to all of us. You are running around knifing people and popping off the occasional head-shot when you hear that voice pipe up on the TV “enemy care package incoming”. You don’t think too much of it, hopefully they get something lame like extra ammo or a UAV jammer. It doesn’t phase you. You just keep doing everything you can to kill and not be killed. And then you hear those words again “enemy care package incoming”. Something isn’t right. It’s pretty early in the match for someone to rack up enough kills for one, never-mind two care packages. You check the scoreboard and notice only one person on the other team has enough kills for a care package, but no one has enough for two.

Congratulations you are the latest victim of someone on the opposing team taking advantage of the care package glitch. The latest major glitch in Modern Warfare 2 to be exploited by douche bags with no skills.

But it’s OK help is on the way. Hit the break to find out when.

If you are tired of being stuck in a match where people are glitching you aren’t alone. Andrew Reiner over at Game Informer was tired of it too. So much so that he Tweeted Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling to see if they were on top of it. It didn’t take him long to get the reply he was looking for:

“The Care Package Fix patch went to Microsoft for cert on Friday. Not too much longer before it’s a thing of the past.”

Let’s hope Microsoft makes certifying this a priority and they roll this out sometime next week. I’m running out of controllers to throw at my TV in fits of rage.

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THQ will be releasing sequels to key franchises and top selling titles during fiscal year 2012 according to the company’s CEO Brian Farrell.

In a conference call with investors Farrell explained that THQ is gearing up for a strong 2012 with “accelerated growth with three major core game titles scheduled: Warhammer 40k Space Marine, a sequel to Darksiders and the third generation of our popular Saint’s Row franchise.” The fiscal year for 2012 runs from April of 2011 until March of 2012.

Anyone with a clue would have expected Darksiders to get a sequel. It had solid sales numbers in a very competitive release window after the holiday season and was well received by critics. The same can be said about the Saints Row franchise, it’s been a great source of income for the publisher. It turns out that being able to booze it up and ho-smack hookers makes for a fun game.

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Retailers Walmart and Best Buy launched pilot programs last year to test game kiosks in some of their stores. Walmart tested the kiosks in almost eighty of their stores while Best Buy tip toed into the market with only two. Both retailers were trying to find a cost effective way to take a bite out of GameStop’s lucrative used game buy-back program. As of today both of those pilot programs will have to come to an end.

According to Industry Gamers e-Play, the company who supplied those kiosks to both Walmart and Best Buy has suspended operations. The company’s website only features the following ominous message:

e-Play, LLC has suspended operations. Thank you to all our customers. For more information call 1-866-602-6014

I called the toll-free number listed in the massage, it’s just an automated message explaining how to return games and asks if you would like to leave a message.

It looks like GameStop’s hold on the used game business will remain intact. Both Walmart and Best Buy will have to go back to the drawing board if they wish to get back into the used game marketplace.

Kiosks still left at the selected “test stores” will be removed in the coming weeks.

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THQ had a lot riding on UFC 2009 Undisputed. The publisher was a financial mess and really needed their marquis MMA game to do well. Luckily for them it did.

According to an announcement by THQ earlier today UFC 2009 Undisputed has sold 3.5 million copies to date. That includes both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sales. Even with early issues with online play, the game was well received by critics (including myself) and fans of MMA bought the game in droves. And it has paid off huge for THQ.

To celebrate the game’s success it will get a price cut on both consoles, dropping the price to $29.99. A great deal for one of the best fighting sims on the market. A not-so-great deal if you were one of the 3.5 million people who forked over the full $59.99.

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EA is spending some serious cash to get the word out on their upcoming release Dante’s Inferno. And that trend will continue when they showcase a spot in this weekend’s Super Bowl match up between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. Estimates have a regular 30 second spot during Sunday’s game costing around $3 million bucks. Not cheap.

The advertisement, titled “Hell Awaits”, will be shown sometime during the fourth quarter.

Hit the jump for more info!

EA president Frank Gibeau had this to say:

“Even within the spectrum of live sports events, the Super Bowl stands apart, almost as a national holiday. The Super Bowl is a bull’s-eye in terms of cross-over to our core demographic and the reach is outstanding. Not only does it draw 100 million viewers, but most people watch the Super Bowl live, a rarity in the world of DVRs. While digital outreach to Facebook, Twitter, and online bloggers is a core part of our marketing strategy, we felt that advertising during the Super Bowl is an excellent way to introduce this new IP to a massive cross-section of people who are likely already familiar with the dark and twisted “Divine Comedy.”

The expensive ad may work to EA’s benefit. Having a good showing during one of the most watched sporting events of the year (the estimated audience is around 100 million viewers) may get the attention of people who might now otherwise already know about the game. Besides, the Super Bowl is a huge draw for the much coveted 18-34 year old male demographic, exactly the kind of audience that will be interested in a game like this.

Dante’s Inferno will be in stores February 9th on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ($59.99) and February 23rd for the Sony PSP ($39.99). I played the demo available on Xbox Live and loved it. Give it a run through if you haven’t already. It’s got lots of boobs and blood…’nuff said.

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2009 was a huge year for the gaming industry. Games like Modern Warfare 2 shattered sales records and raked in profits never before seen. We are talking swimming in gold Uncle Scrooge like money. And if Steam’s user base growth is any indication then Valve is riding the success wave as well.

In 2009 the digital software distributor saw a 25 per cent growth from it’s user base in 2008. The service now has over 25 million registered users logging an average of 13 billion minutes of playing time a month.

Valve’s president Gabe Newell had this to say about their success:

“Steam turned five years old in March 2009. With the introduction of each new platform feature released over the years – such as the Steam Community, Steam Cloud, and Steamworks – we’ve seen corresponding growth in account numbers, concurrent player numbers and developer support for the platform. As such, we plan to continue to expand and grow the platform to better serve the developers supporting the open platform and millions of gamers logging in each day.”

With so many people ready to put the last nail in PC gaming’s coffin it’s good to see that Valve is doing everything they can to keep it relevant.

SOURCE: GamesIndustry

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According to Rentrak, a company who tracks video game rentals, Microsoft and the Xbox 360 “dominated” it’s top 20 list of most rented games in 2009 taking 17 out of the top 20 spots. Fallout 3 received top honors for the year.

Rentrak compiles their data by measuring “title-level performance via rental transactions from more than 65,000 DVD, Blu-ray Disc and Video Game properties in the brick-and-mortar, online, and kiosk channels across North America.” So all three major distribution methods are covered.

Interestingly enough the PlayStation 3 is nowhere to be seen on the list. The other three spots on the list not occupied by xbox 360 titles were occupied by Wii games Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Party 8.

Hit the break to see the entire list.

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2K Sports is throwing out a challenge to all of you Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 owners. If you buy MLB 2K10 on March 2 for either of those consoles and are the first person to pitch a perfect game within the first 60 days from the game’s release, they’ll cut you a check for $1,000,000. That’s six zeros folks…serious cheddar.

How do you qualify for the reward? First, you have to record yourself playing the full game and burn it onto a DVD. Second, you have to play against the CPU in MLB Today mode. Twin Galaxies will be taking part as the officiating body and go over each submission to make sure there is no funny business. Take note Billy Mitchell, you’ve been warned.

The contest starts March 2, 2010 at 12:01 AM PST and will run through May 1, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST. For the rest of the lagal mumbo jumbo head over to 2K Sports’ contest page.

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It’s official, EA has released a multiplayer demo for their upcoming release Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the Xbox Live Marketplace. From today until February 25th (almost a full month!) you’ll be able to enjoy playing “Rush Mode” on the Port Valdez map. The download will hog about 1.4 GB of your memory but I’m sure every kilobyte will be worth it.

Playstation owners will have to wait it out until the demo is released on the Playstation Network on February 11th in North America and February 4th for our European counterparts.

How will Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s multiplayer stack up against Modern Warfare 2? Looks like we’ll get a glimpse today.

Add Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – Demo to your Xbox 360 download queue

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Halo fans rejoice! Bungie recently released an ungodly amount of concept art for their highly anticipated Halo: Reach project. The art showcases some ideas not yet seen in the Halo series. A skull covered Spartan helmet, I’ll take two please. And you’ll notice what looks like the first handicapped Halo character, a Spartan with a robotic arm, which should prove useful in the yearly UNSC arm wrestling tournament.

Hit the jump to get your Halo fix…

Check out the thumbs below. Click to see the larger images. I’m sure a few will make it to your desktop as a wallpaper.

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GameStop started the preorder bonus voting today for Rockstar Games’ upcoming title Red Dead Redemption. The voting will reveal which bonus outfit will be unlocked for those who preorder the game. Each outfit comes with a character skill boost in their area of expertise to help you along the way.

Hit the jump to find out more.

Here’s a breakdown on what each outfit has to offer:

The Savvy Merchant – Buy guns and ammunition from any gunsmith for half the cost.

The Deadly Assassin (Almost looks exactly like Ray McCall from Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. Ubisoft get your lawyers ready.) – Regenerates “Dead Eye” targeting twice as fast.

The Expert Hunter – Receives double the amount of skins and hides from hunting.

Those interested should head over to GameStop’s Red Dead Referendum site and cast their vote. We live in a democracy damn it so do your part…or the terrorists win. Voters will also automatically be entered into a sweepstakes with prizes ranging from a trip to the Grand Canyon to $100 GameStop gift cards.

Is anyone else getting sick of all these preorder tie-ins? It seems like developers have to add something extra to get people interested in reserving their game, whether it’s exclusive content, extra DLC or new outfits. Whatever happened with just making a good game and sticking by it? It seems like they really put it to gamers who don’t rush into GameStop right away to order their games months before they come out. What’s your take?

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