No rest for the wicked over at Blizzard, the first post-release patch has hit Battle.Net which offers a couple of fixes taking the game to v1.0.1

Bug Fixes

Campaign saves have been optimized.
Fixed an issue with sound not playing on some 7.1 systems.

While we are on the subject of StarCraft 2, also note that ATI has just released new Catalyst beta drivers that will enable anti-aliasing with ATI cards which they said they were woring on earlier today. The new drivers can be picked up from ATI now.

Read more StarCraft 2 goodness over on StarCraft IncGamers where they also discovered a new game Easter egg today.

Yesterday Tamer snuck out the office to get down and dirty with Halo: Reach. Today we have a preview of what is  probably be one of the most anticipated games of this year and a few new screens have been thrown in for good measure.

Next week we'll have a special video interivew with the Bungie crew who were at the event so watch out for that.

Frogster is keeping the Mythos news flowing since they signed the game a couple of weeks ago for Europe. Today a new trailer, which is the intro trailer, for the free to play MMO has been released but you'll have to excuse them for the shocking voice acting. Watch it after the break.

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by Gath [2] [Add comment]

"Yeh that's what I thought. Starting to wonder if they have totally b0rked Mythos now." - More...

The end of the working week brings a new Star Wars: The Old republic update from the Bioware team. This week the moon of Nar Shaddaa, which circles the planet Hutta, goes under the spotlight. A short video for the planet Nar Shaddaa has also been released along with a few new shots which you can find after the break.

Bioware has also announced that the issue eighth of Blood of the Empire has been released.

LucasArts has released a patch for the PC version of Monkey Island 2: Special Edition, solving many of the issues I heartily moaned about in my (Xbox 360 version) review.

Various music cues and issues have apparently been tidied up, and "timing delays" for certain puzzles have received a much-needed tweak. The iconic introduction sequence has also been reinstated (though only in Classic mode.)

There's no word from LucasArts of any update for the PS3, Xbox 360 or various iPhone/iPad versions of the game, but hopefully they too will be getting the necessary improvements before too long.

EA has announced that people who purchase the limited edition release of Medal of Honor for Xbox 360 or PS3 will be granted beta access to Battlefield 3, officially confirming that the latest in the Battlefield series is in development.

"People who own the Medal of Honor Limited Edition will receive an invitation to the beta** for another highly-anticipated EA shooter, Battlefield 3," the press release states.

Nervous about those asterisks? They point towards EA's beta stipulations which are summarised as follows: "Beta offer is contingent on Beta availability within 12 months of Medal of Honor release. Beta will be available for a limited time only and offer expires upon close of beta events. Participation in beta requires acceptance of Beta Agreement. Must be 18+. Xbox GOLD membership required for Xbox users."

Creative Assembly has released a video for Shogun 2: Total War, which follows the brief narrative of a naval landing and attack on a Samurai fortress.

Like the recent Starcraft II trailer the video is cinematic in nature, but text at the beginning states "all footage captured in-game."

If that's genuine and not some kind of semantic sales-fudge, it makes the video all the more impressive.

Battlefield 1943 has been available for more than a year now on Xbox 360 and PS3, but there's still no sign of a promised PC version.

9 July this year was the latest estimation, but with that date now in the past, it seems EA is offering refunds to anyone who pre-ordered a PC copy of the game. In a statement made to VG247, EA has said "All pre-orders can be canceled with refund at anytime and we do not have any further information at this time about a release date for the PC version of Battlefield 1943."

While this doesn't officially confirm anything about the status of the title (other than it isn't about to be released in the near future,) it's not a great sign for those hoping to get their hands on a PC version.

We have mixed feeling on Blacklight (see 360 and PC reviews) but if you;re getting stuck into the game either on PC or 360 then pay attention.

Today stats have been released for 100 of the in-game Weapon Tags which add perks giving gamers an extra edge in movement, health, speed and HRV duration when added to weapons. In addition, UTV Ignition will be releasing 25 all new weapons tags to the public via the @playtangodown twitter feed so make sure you hit that up on Twitter as well.

The people over at Arena.net have got hold of designer Isaiah Cartwright and mercilessly forced her to write about the Guild Wars 2 level cap.

"It's 80, it's 80 ... just put the feather and the fluffy cushions away!" she may or may not have said.

Made-up quotes aside, Cartwright did confirm that the cap would be 80. However, Guild Wars 2 is different in that its level gaining has no exponential curve. In an actual real quote this time, Cartwright's article says "Instead of taking longer and longer to reach each level, it takes about the same time to go through each level."

"Overall, we expect our content to be the driving force behind how long it takes to do things in-game. Anyone can increase the length of an experience bar and call it content, but our world is filled with an almost endless stream of things to do."

It's an admirable approach, placing fun above watching an experience bar tick ever-upwards. But is that the dark little secret of MMO gaming? Do players, in fact, WANT to spend hour upon endless hour grinding for experience? With Guild Wars 2, we may find out.

Harmonix has announced a fresh set of tunes for the Rock Band music store, which will be available to download from 3 August.

The line-up is as follows:

Blondie – “Rapture”
dc Talk – “Jesus Freak”
The Decemberists – “The Perfect Crime # 2”
Eagles of Death Metal – “I Only Want You”
Eels – “Saturday Morning”
Family Force 5 – “Love Addict”
KMFDM – “Sturm & Drang”
La Roux – “Bulletproof”

As usual, these tracks will set you back $1.99 USD / £0.99 GBP or 160 MS Points on the PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively. On the Wii, they're 200 Wii Points apiece. The Eagles of Death Metal, Eels and La Roux tracks will also be available for LEGO Rock Band at the same prices.

A day later than usual due to the fact tamer was out and about yesterday, it's the IncGamers weekly podcast. In today's show the team discuss the StarCraft 2 release,  R4 card bannings, the MMO news and Richard Garriot's $28 million payout. We also discuss the game's we've been playing, the Bullshit story of the week and our weekly Blinkity Blonk quiz.

This week's special guests are the guys from UTV Ignition. We caught up with them in London this week to discuss their plans and the recent release of Blacklight Tango down.

Tune in now and join the team...

Starcraft II: Wings Of Liberty has dominated both the UK and North America PC Charts for online retailer Amazon this week.

The news was revealed by Gamasutra in the site’s Sailing The World weekly column and shows Blizzard’s dominance especially in North America.

Blizzard holds all five spots in the US with both the standard and collector’s edition of Starcraft II entering and number one and two respectively for both the UK and US.

Further details and full charts can be found after the break:

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by Asteria [3] [Add comment]

"Mildly surprised that the rather expensive Collector's Edition takes the #2 spot, but it's not like there's any competition." - More...

Codemasters has released the first screenshot for DiRT 3 and confirmed the world premier trailer would launch during the X Games this weekend.

Rich Eddy, comms manager at Codemasters revealed both bits of news in a tweet and by the sounds of it the trailer is going to be quite a lengthy affair. 

"ESPN deal done – clip from upcoming DiRT 3 trailer going to air w/wide during X Games this weekend. Here’s frame 114 of a few of thousand."

Codies recently confirmed it was working on a new DiRT title as well as developing Race Driver: GRID 2 and the next title in the Operation Flashpoint series.

Check out the pic below:

The Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days media continues to flow this week with a new behind the scenes video as well as new shots. Find out more on the game director's vision for the upcoming action title after the break.

Ubisoft has confirmed it is looking into the possibility of incorporating 3D into most of the company’s future AAA titles.

Ubi’s UK managing director Rob Cooper revealed the news while speaking with MCV in the website’s newsletter.

Cooper stated that the technology in Avatar: The Video Game has given Ubi an advantage due to having that previous experience.

Further details after the break:

Runic Games has gone into teaser mode on their official Torchlight website. A mysterious image is slowly being unveiled by Runic but what it's actually a picture of is unknown. We can only assume this is a teaser for the upcoming MMORPG version of Torchlight.

Keep an eye on the official site over the coming days, more of the picture will likely be revealed.

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by nasarius [2] [Add comment]

"Yeh looks like it. I'll be keeping an eye on that as well :)" - More...

Richard Garriot, or Lord British if you prefer, has won a whopping $28 million in his lawsuit against NCsoft. Garriot left NCSoft in 2008 and Garriot was claiming losses against NCSoft for the way in which they handled his 'departure'. 

Garriot had always maintained he was fired while NCSoft claimed he had left voluntarily. Garriot's departure occurred shortly after his much publicised trip into space. According to Garriot, NCSoft had contacted him while he was in quarantine in Russia to tell him his days were numbered at NCSoft.

The Ranger Pack DLC for Metro 2033 will be available on 3 August.

The official Metro 2033 Twitter accounted revealed the news stating it would be free on PC through Steam but would cost Xbox 360 owners 240 MSP.

Ranger Pack was announced back in May and adds brand new weapons, achievements and the hardcore Ranger difficulty mode which removes the HUD and ups the difficulty.

A sequel for Metro 2033 was announced at the end of last month and will be utilising 3D gaming for the sequel.

Activision has released new screenshots for the Quest Mode featured in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.

In Quest Mode, using any combination of instruments, players will embark on a larger-than-life, epic rock journey from the stage of CBGBs, the infamous punk-rock club in New York City, to the molten lava fields of rock treachery as eight Guitar Hero characters transform into rock warriors that must join together to use their unique, game-changing powers to help the Demi-God of Rock take down “The Beast” and save rock n’ roll.

Click through for the screens: