While action adventure games are a dime a dozen these days, a few of them managed to separate themselves from the rest.

Among these special ones, Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption was one of the best experiences released.We've already awarded the western game with the prize for the best narrative, but now, it's time to recognize the game as a whole, not just through its extremely impressive story, featuring John Marston.

The game did a lot of things right, and became one of the biggest surprises of the year for a lot of players out there, which, honestly, weren't expecting a lot, even if the game was arriving from Rockstar.

They were met with a huge, open world, however, which not only amazed through its quality, but also through its intensity.

You saw that the world of Red Dead Redemption was alive not only in its towns, but also on its roads, in its forestsor even in its outback, filled with different animals, more or less dangerous for John Marston.

It's hard to be loyal when it comes to video games. Much loved series disappear without a trace sometimes, taking entire genres with them. The industry shifts towards a certain pattern and pins its future on mostly first person shooters and MMOs, leaving fans of other concepts looking to smaller developer. Franchises drop quality in favor of yearly releases.

But there are still developers, like Paradox Interactive, that understand there is a clear market for strong willed gamers with a lot of patience, some free time and an interest in things the electors of the Holy Roman Empire, the mechanics which gave England its huge colonial empire or the how Poland – Lithuania could have dominated Eastern Europe to get lost in something like Europa Universalis III.

And, in an effort to deliver a number of general improvements to the entire game while also adding some more content to the Eastern half of the world, the company has released the Divine Wind expansion, the fourth for a game that has reallybenefited from the content it has received after the official 2007 launch date.

After learning about the existence of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception last week and seeing the first trailer for it during last weekend's Spike TV Video Game Awards, the first actual gameplay video has aired during the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon talk show in the USA.Uncharted fans have been really pampered in the last week, as development studio Naughty Dog finally admitted the existence of Uncharted 3, the next installment in its massively popular action adventure.

Now, after seeing an enigmatic trailer that sets up the main premise of the title, the first gameplay footage was shown during the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon talk show.

In the video linked below, you will see Fallon with Naughty Dog developers Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra play a brief portion of Uncharted 3.

The footage shows Drake and his longtime partner Victor "Sully" Sullivan try to escape a burning building in the French Alps.

The building, as you can imagine, is being ravaged by both the fire and a few mercenaries out to kill Drake and Sully.

The video showcases all of thetrademark elements of previous Uncharted games: a cover-based third person shooter mechanic, melee combat and a bit of environmental interaction.

Wow, it’s been some time since our last game update so I am very excited to announce that echochrome ii will be available for your holiday gaming pleasure on December 21st! And if you’re already enjoying PlayStation Move and our vast library of Move titles, then echochrome ii will be a great addition to your collection. If you didn’t see my last post and are curious as to what echochrome ii is all about, it’s a unique puzzle game using the PlayStation Move motion controller to shine a light on a series of blocks and objects to create realistic shadows on the wall. The blocks and objects you see in each level will cast different shadows depending on your movement so as you alter the perspectiveand angles by adjusting this light source, you will manipulate the shadows they cast to ultimately reveal a solution to the puzzle and guide your character to the exit. You can check out some actual gameplay in the video above. Once you check out the game for yourself I think you’ll enjoy how it uses PlayStation Move in this rather unique and original way. The best way to think of it is to treat the controller like a flashlight that you shine on these objects to manipulate the shadow within the scenery—this is actually one of the ideas that helped the dev team come up with the concept.

echochrome ii has 100 built in levels and there are three different ways to enjoy each one. Navigating the character to the goal by creating a shadow path is called “escort” mode. Additionally, there is “echo” mode and “paint” mode. In “echo” mode, the objective is to collect the ghost-looking characters called “echo.” You will see a few of them in each level, so collect them all to clear the stage. In “paint” mode, the characters are colored in red, green, or blue. When the characters walk, they will color any blocks that are creating the shadows they’re walking on. A red character makes a red block and a blue character makes a blue one. Each time you color a block, your clear percentage will increase. Your goal is to reach the target percentage to clear the level.

It’s a trend you’ve seen in a ton of movies till date, and now a full-fledged reboot of the Tomb Raider series is incoming in the form of an "origins" story. Forget about the Lara Croft you’ve seen and thought about on those lonely nights; this one is “younger and inexperienced” but that doesn’t mean she isn’t smoking hot. According to US video game magazine, Game Informer (who by the way are the guys getting the exclusive reveal this month), this reboot is one born out of necessity and not choice. In it Lara Croft finds herself ship-wrecked on a desolate island where she must use everytrick in the book to survive. Rumors circulating the net a while back suggested that the game may play out in the vein of an Assassin’s Creed with a huge emphasis on free-roaming, which we’re sure will tie into the platforming segments. Furthermore, there were whispers around the water-cooler that the game would in fact have certain shades of "survival horror" as well.

Of course, these are all speculations that should be put to rest once the latest issue of Game Informer hits stands by the 11th of December 2010.

Apple computers are not exactly know the ultimate platform for games. For this reason, it is even more remarkable that publisher Ubisoft's announcement makes it seem more and in publications in the segment would like to set.

With Prince of Persia and Shawn White Snowboarding "the company now has two relatively high-Ports announced. Once more with the implementation of the operation of the port experts TransGaming, which with its Cider technology already frequently referred to with such tasks - including for Ubisoft, but also for EA - were finally. The two titles are already in the next month, including on-line Ubisoft Download Store is made available."Ubisoft has an exceptional portfolio of titles that spans an assortment of genres. The availability of their titles on the Mac is a great catalyst for Mac gaming," commented Vikas Gupta, CEO and president of TransGaming.

Current Mac titles from Ubisoft available via download include CSI: Hard Evidence(TM), Petz(R) Catz(R) 2, Petz(R) Dogz(R) 2, Petz(R) Sports, Prince of Persia The Two Thrones(R), and Rayman Raving Rabbids(R).

Street Fighter IV is probably one of the most anticipated fighting games of the beginning of 2009. It will bring back some of the most popular videogame characters out there, like Ryu, Chun Li or Blanka, and will mark the entrance of the franchise into the realm of 3D gaming.

The characters look pretty good, although a bit different from what most gamers fondly remember of the franchise, but that's why Capcom, the company behind this series, has recently launched Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, a next generation iteration of the most popular SF title, which is already selling quite well on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade and on the PlayStation Network.

Street Fighter IV is slated for a mid-February release, across every territory, on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. Although there is still a long time until then, Capcom has already began teasing fans through various campaigns, with the latestannouncement being the one about the Limited Edition versions which would appear only in Europe and Australia when the game got launched, with no news about a North American release yet.

Although Limited Editions are quite common, this one does feature quite a lot of things, and will surely be worth the extra money spent on it. This version will be packaged in a special box which will feature a classic Street Fighter scene on the outside. Besides the game, players will get the chance to view a selection of trailers for the title, alongside a special animated movie which will act as a prequel to the action in the game, all packed in a bonus disc. A strategy guide for the new players introduced by this game will be available, as well as two figurines, which will represent Ryu and the new character Crimson Viper.

All in all, some very interesting things which are sure to make a lot of Street Fighter fans out there very happy and anxious to buy this Limited Edition. Let's just hope that Capcom will be releasing in the United States and that everyone will enjoy this highly anticipated fighting game.

Is the video game industry recession proof?

At a time when retailers are struggling to sell merchandise leading up to Christmas less than one month away, video game makers have seen great success selling game consoles and video games.

Recently, October video game sales were up 18 percent -- up to $1.31 billion from $1.12 billion -- from the same time last year. Fable II led the way in October with 790,000 units sold throughout the month.

The Nintendo Wii continued its domination of the console market, with the Japanese company selling more than 13 million consoles since its launch in 2006. Microsoft has sold 12.1 million Xbox 360 units and Sony has sold just 5.1 million PlayStation 3 game consoles since launch.

Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 have had price cuts to help lure in new gamers, while the Wii is still being sold for $249. Even with its Blu-ray capabilities, the Wii and Xbox 360 are expected to be the top selling consoles -- the Xbox 360 will get a strong boost due to the recent release of the New Xbox Experience (NXE), which includes streaming Netflix.

In addition to October video game sales, the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, sold 2.8 million units in one day, which became the all-time one-day PC game sales leader.

Why all of the success for the video game industry?

"There are a couple of reasons," Hollywood Interactive Group director Ron Meiners told CNET. "One is the traditional value of entertainment during tough economic times. Like the great fantastic musicals in the 30s. Movies did great, because they took people's mind off of the troubles they were facing. (And) video games have great value as entertainment. The number of hours of solid entertainment that comes from a video game purchase is much greater than a movie, for example, for very comparable cost."Video games today offer gamers a level of interactivity and engagement that simply wasn't possible 10 years ago, which is important for game sales. If the economy continues to slide down hill, and Americans continue to be more careful with their money, it's likely video games and movies will be a good alternative to keep them distracted.

Although Blu-ray, HDTVs, and other consumer products have the necessary products and price cuts in place, the video game industry has the products but doesn't necessarily need to slash prices.

Nintendo introduced two limited edition Nintendo DS bundles for the holiday shopping season: Mario Red Nintendo DS and Ice Blue Nintendo DS. Japanese consumers now can get their hands on the Nintendo DSi, a next generation DS.

Sony also released its PSP 3000, a next-generation PSP aimed at competing with the newer DS game consoles.

Although other industries are expected to struggle, it's certainly a great time to be a gamer.

Sega is a very popular company, having gained a lot of fans in the 1990s when it was one of the biggest developers and publishers of games for the consoles of the time, like the SNES or PlayStation 1. Although not a lot has been heard about the company these days, it still manages to release quite a few titles that are sure to have some very decent sales, like Football Manager.

Recently the Japanese company announced that it would be releasing a collection of 40 games that originally appeared on the Sega Genesis console. The pack, entitled Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection, is slated for an early 2009 release and will contain very popular titles like Sonic 1, 2, and 3, the Streets of Rage series, Ecco the Dolphin or Space Harrier.

It will be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles, with a native resolution of 720p by using animations that are a bit more blurry, to mask the pixels that might ruin the whole gaming experience. The pack will also contain some of the popular titles from the 8-bit collection of 1980s Sega games."SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection is a must-have for any SEGA enthusiast," commented Gary Knight, European marketing director for SEGA Europe. "Fans will get a chance to relive fond memories from these classic games in HD format."

This is definitely great news for retro fans who have some very fond memories with a lot of these classic titles. These games had a massive fan base when they were launched back in the day, and now, a lot of people are sure to grab this collection, for the chance to relive those past experiences.

The decision to revamp some older titles isn't a new strategy in the game world, as Capcom will employ it with the classic Street Fighter franchise, with Street Fighter IV and the HD version of Super Street Fighter II Remix. It definitely looks like retro gaming is the new direction the big companies are heading in.

The Nintendo DSi is the answer to the PSP-3000, the new hardware variant from Sony, and Nintendo is aiming to get the fresh handheld as quickly as possible to the West. The new hardware
specifications include not one but two cameras, both with 0.3 megapixel capacities and a larger screen; the whole device is smaller and lighter. Another change is that the old Game Boy Advance port was dropped to be replaced by an SD card slot. The DSi will also be able to get online and download music and videogames.

Satoru Iwata, the president and the Chief Executive Officer of Nintendo, said that the Nintendo DSi is supposed to arrive in the West before the autumn of next year, which means that the console will be a Japan exclusive for about one year, as the official release is scheduled for this November.

For the Japan release, Nintendo has prepared 200,000 units of the DSi and 100,000 more will be made available if stores run out. But the handheld is still selling very well in the West, mostly in North America, and Nintendo does not want to cannibalize its own sales by offering a new hardware variant in a period when it manages to attract customers with the hardware already available.Iwata was quoted as saying during a press conference that “Specific plans will be unveiled by our local subsidiaries, but an autumn or year-end launch would probably be too late”. At the moment, Nintendo is the most successful of the three major console creators, with both the DSi and the Wii selling very well on all markets. The company has recently revealed record financial results while also saying that overall expectations for the year would be reduced to reflect current market conditions.

As part of its publicity campaign for the November 19 release, Microsoft has confirmed that the XNA Games service would launch integrating the Xbox Live Experience. There will be more information available and options related to getting games, plus an improved visual experience for the Xbox 360 user.

XNA Games will be getting its very own channel on the new Xbox Live Experience interface, separate from that of Xbox Live Arcade. Kathleen Sanders, XNA community manager at Microsoft, told Larry Hryb (also known as Major Nelson), that the approval process for XNA produced games would be far quicker than that for XBLA games.

Kathleen Sanders stated that “We're a little bit nervous, because we don't know what people are going to create -- we're leaving it all in their hands. What we've provided them is just a tool, a way to get out there to all the millions of Xbox Live subscribers”.

Microsoft is not establishing any benchmark at this point in time for the new service and says that it all depends on how interested Xbox Live fans are in creating games and how much creativity they can showcase.In order to create and then distribute a game via Xbox Live, you will need to become a premium member of the XNA Creators Club. This means that you have to give Microsoft either 49 dollars for a four month membership or 99 $ for a yearly membership. The idea is that you can make those sums up by choosing to bill those interested in the game you have created 200, 400 or 800 Microsoft Points and you will receive 70% of the price paid by them. The bad news is that you cannot choose to release an XNA game as free, so the program might not attract a lot of attention from players.

Call of Duty is one of the most popular shooter franchises out there. Activision, the owner of this series tends to make an even bigger profit by having the IP (Intellectual Property) developed by two game studios at once, Infinity Ward, the creators of the first games, and Treyarch. While the latest title from Infinity Ward, CoD 4: Modern Warfare, enjoyed a lot of success due to the fact that it tackled modern day conflicts, the decision to take the series back to World War II by Treyarch was met with disapproval from fans.

Although the game promises to follow the battles in the Pacific Ocean between the American and Japanese forces, it still looks pretty bad in the eyes of the public. This is why Treyarch have just announced that the multiplayer beta stage of the game is now available for the Xbox 360. Players who want to participate have two choices, either pre-order the game, and get their own beta key, or enter the CoD website where you might have the chance to receive a beta key.

Set to last “a few weeks”, it will also be available for the PC in a short time. Unfortunately for the PlayStation 3 owners, Activision said that there are no plans to bring this beta stage to their system, so you'll have to wait for the official release of the game on November 11.This beta stage will offer four multiplayer modes to the participants, Team Death Match, Free-For-All, Capture the Flag, and War. It will allow the gamers to play as soldiers in the United States Marines, the Japanese Imperial Army, the German Wehrmarcht and the Russian Red Army. Only three maps will be available, each with these specific plots:

-Castle: The Imperial Japanese Army faces off against the Marine Raiders in a daytime battle, located on the grounds of an ancient Japanese castle.
-Makin: The U.S. Marine Raiders square off against the Imperial Japanese Army in a nighttime fight, set in an outpost on the Makin Atoll in the Pacific.
-Roundhouse: The Wehrmact will fight the Red Army to the bitter end in a daytime struggle that features tank and infantry combat, set in a desolate, war-torn European train depot.

All in all, it is a very interesting offer which will certainly attract a lot of people into pre-ordering the game and testing its nice looking multiplayer.

With Fallout 3 going gold and preparing for launch, Bethesda has decided to release the system requirements, both minimum and recommended, for the PC version of the post apocalyptic role playing game. After a quick glance, it doesn't seem like the game will require a lot of computing power to run.

At a minimum, you will need a 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4 processor with 1 GB of RAM to play the game. On the video side, players will require a card with 256 MB of RAM with a processor that is at least an NVIDIA 6800 or an ATI X850. This kind of hardware will only make the game run at minimal graphics setting and will likely result in an experience which does not completely live to what the developers aimed to offer.

So, it's better to look at the recommended system requirements and try to upgrade to meet them. The developers say that you should have the equivalent of an Intel Core 2 Duo processor with at least 2 GB of RAM available. You also need a video card which has 512 MB of video RAM and is powered by at least an NVIDIA 8800 series or an ATI 3800 processor.From the initial stages of development, Bethesda said that it planned on creating a game that maintained the look and feel of the first two Fallout games while significantly upgrading the way the world looks. After having seen the trailers and screenshots made available, Fallout 3 is really stunning, both in the open space of Washington and inside, while fighting the people affected by radiation.

Fallout 3 will be available for the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 in North America on October 28, while Europe will get the game on October 31. Japan will have to wait until December 4 to play Fallout 3.

With the release of FIFA 09 just around the corner, we’ve joined forces with Milestone Interactive and Electronic Arts to kick off another epic contest! This time we're giving you guys another chance to win a PS3, and a copy of FIFA 09. Click here to check the contest page.Besides the main prize, we’ll be giving away multiple copies of the game for different platforms, as consolation prizes. The contest will end in roughly two weeks. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and try your luck; who knows, you might walk away with a spanking new PS3!