Electronic Arts has announced the list of songs and artists to be included in The Sims 2's seventh expansion, The Sims 2: FreeTime. Included in the roster are international pop star Natasha Bedingfield and American bands They Might Be Giants and Great Northern. Head on to the full article for the complete list of artists and songs in the soundtrack.

Version 1.02 patch update for 4X RTS game, Sins of a Solar Empire has just been released. This game from developer Ironclad Games and publisher Stardock Entertainment also added some changes that weren't included in our previous post on SoSE's new list of changes for this patch. Check the full article for more details.

Avid fans of horror-themed video games should scream in delight this time: demos of Clive Barker's Jericho for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the PC will be arriving this week. The PC version will come in Wednesday, while the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 versions will go live on Thursday on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, respectively.

The demos of Clive Barker's Jericho will have gamers attempting to survive the Crusades period after their strike force has been weakened by forces controlling the Al-Khali. Players will be able to use the bodies and abilities of telekinetic sniper Lt. Abigail Black, heavy-weapons expert Sgt. Frank Delgado, and enchantress and martial weapons specialist Sgt. Billie Church. Gamers will also get a chance to look at the other creatures Clive Barker has created for Jericho.

Mercury Steam and Codemasters' Clive Barker's Jericho games are scheduled for a late October 2007 release.



Buy: [Clive Barker's Jericho (PS3)]
Buy: [Clive Barker's Jericho (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Clive Barker's Jericho (PC)]

For those saving up for the big games coming this holiday season, here's a bit of a good news. It'll only take a few bucks from your stash to get Valve Corporation and Electronic Arts' The Orange Box plus an invite to the on-going Team Fortress 2 beta. Some US$ 44.99 to be exact.

GameStop has listed The Orange Box with a US$ 44.99 price tag for a limited period - that's 10 percent off the original price. If you pre-order the compilation, you'll also have a chance to get an exclusive Team Fortress 2 invite to the beta program running from September 17 until October 10, 2007.

The Orange Box is a compilation of Valve video games which contains Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 for the PC.

Check out the Read link for instructions on how to pre-order the discounted pack and secure yourself a beta invite.

 

Yes, buddies, not "baddies", although some of the characters here look the part. CVG managed to get a hold of some images of the first person shooter (FPS) Far Cry 2 which was recently announced to be gracing PCs sometime in the spring of 2008. Ubisoft confirmed the existence of Far Cry's sequel after some "leaked" assets from Ubisoft Montreal made their way to this year's E3 Media and Business Summit.

Details about the video game from Ubisoft are still scarce, but at least we get an idea of how the different environments in the game will look like. The places shown in the images also give players an idea about the game's setting. We also get a peek at the other characters in the game who are labeled "Buddies" in the concept art you'll see below. They might be joining players during their adventures, but even that can't be confirmed at the moment. What we do know though, is that most players will most definitely welcome Nasreen Davar as their Buddy.

We'll be giving you more details on Ubisoft's Far Cry 2 for PCs as soon as we get them.

   

Images of the different locations and the rest of the "Buddies" in the Full Article.

With Day 1 of the E3 Business and Media Summit over, there sure are lots of major announcements, demos, and preview videos and screens to get excited over. The Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots trailers were finally shown, along with some other teaser and demo videos like the Gears of War PC and Rock Band live demos, among many others. Initial screenshots of highly anticipated games were also released during Day 1.

Among those who've revealed much to the E3 audience in their July 11 press conferences are Nintendo Company Ltd., Sony Computer Entertainment, Microsoft Corp., Electronic Arts (EA), Konami Corporation, Activision, and Midway Games.

One of the biggest news during Sony's press conference was delivered by Kaz Hirai himself. He announced the new and re-designed PlayStation Portable (also being coined PSPSlim) which is said to be 19% slimmer and 33% lighter than the current version being sold. Microsoft also gave the audience a treat with a Gears of War PC live demo. Nintendo on the other hand, confirmed the release dates of some of its upcoming games, and also announced its Wii Fit video game and Wii Balancing Board.

We're certain you know most of what happened in Day 1 of the E3 Media and Business Summit 2007, but if you don't, we might as well have a recap of the day. Click on the links below and read up! The Full Article link contains the complete list of our E3 coverage, so make sure to also check it out.


Breaking News:

Blasting onto PCs: Gears of War, among other things
E3 Update: Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots to be the grand finale of the series, says Kojima
E3 Updates from Sony: News on PS3 exclusives
Confirmed: Unreal Tournament 3 to be timed PS3 exclusive


Previews and first glances:

E3 update: Soul Calibur Legends E3 2007 video
Killzone 2 E3 2007 trailer
Rock Band E3 videos: trailer and live demo from Peter Moore
E3 2007 Update: Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer
E3: Gears of War PC live demo during Microsoft
E3 2007: LittleBigPlanet screenshots
E3: Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 to be "even nuttier"
Konami releases first screenshots of Silent Hill 5 for E3


That's it from us for now, but rest assured we'll be giving you the latest on the E3 Media and Business Summit's Day 2. Stay tuned.

The eve of the E3 Media and Business Summit was very busy, to say the least. Game teasers, trailers, developer line-ups for different consoles, and what-nots came pouring down on us, mere audiences to this invitation-only event. But because we have to keep all of you updated with what's happening without confusing you with too much info, we'll be providing a summary of sorts at the end of each conference day.

With the E3 Media and Business Summit to be attended by Entertainment Software Association (ESA) members and non-members, various retailers, developer partners, industry contacts, and the media, there will surely be tons of gaming info you'll have to digest.

We'll keep things simple for you all by clumping seemingly similar bits of news together. Day 1 of the summit will be starting in a few hours, and there'll definitely be more news to take in, so here's a quick recap of what has been revealed by various companies and developers pre-E3.

Breaking news:

Square Enix's E3 2007 game line-up
StarCraft 2 to make appearance at E3
Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron surprise at E3
Bring the Fires of Liberation home
Konami reveals blockbuster line-up for E3
MGS 4 trailer coming to E3, PSN downloadable soon
D3Publisher of America unwraps E3 2007 line-up
Sega announces its E3 2007 game line-up

Previews and first glances:

Porsche lends a hand in NFS: ProStreet development
Video: Auran set to let loose its Fury on E3
Video: NHL '08 ready for E3
New Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 trailer video
New Conan trailer video
Smashing: Burnout Paradise's E3 2007 gameplay trailer


That's just part of the list that we have, so click on Full Article to see the rest. Be sure to check back with us as we'll be posting some more E3 Media and Business Summit news as they come. Oh, heck, it's already Day 1.

 

Notice the question mark at the end of the headline? Yup, that means we haven't confirmed if this is fact or fiction, but if this is true, then PS3 owners rejoice! PSXExtreme reports that PS3 owners will get first dibs on Epic Games' Unreal Tournament 3, an FPS also scheduled to be released for the PC and Xbox 360. The news is supposedly based on a Geoff Keighley interview on GameTrailers.

According to PSXExtreme, it was mentioned in the interview that UT3 will first be released on the PlayStation 3, to be followed later by its release on the 360 and PC. UT3 becoming a timed exclusive for the PS3 may have a serious impact on the 360-PS3 race, but Microsoft supposedly said that user-created mods (which Sony allows) could be used to "undermine" its Xbox Live service, and that Microsoft is still waiting for Epic Games to "resolve some issues" with the game.

Until now we haven't found that Keighley GameTrailers interview, and we haven't found out either who gave this confirmation about Unreal Tournament 3 being a timed exclusive for the PS3. But as soon as we find it, we'll update the article and post the video. Until then, let's file this one under rumors.

 

Julian Eggebrecht, Factor 5 president and lead director, has been announced as the opening keynote speaker for the GC Developers Conference (GCDC) 2007 in Leipzig (also known as the Leipzig Games Convention). Details of his speech have yet to be revealed, but we can expect it to be interesting at the very least. Factor 5 is currently working on the PS3-exclusive game Lair.

Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios' president, will also be giving a keynote focusing on the company's classic games. The GCDC 2007 will be held from August 20 to 22 in Leipzig, Germany. Other GCDC 2007 international speakers will include:

• Jason Manley (Massive Black)
• Christopher Schmitz, (10Tacle Studios)
• Jennifer MacLean (Comcast Interactive Media)
• Dr. Michael Wimmer (The University of Vienna)
• Alexander Fernández (Streamline Studios)
• Cindy Armstrong (Webzen)
• Amir Taaki (Crystalspace)
• Jeff Strain (ArenaNet)
• Vlad Ihora (Telia Sonora)
• Barbara Lippe (Avaloop IT Solutions)
• Pamela Kato (The GamerX)
• Uwe Nikl (Level 3)
• Matt Firor (Ultra Mega Games)
• Konstantin Ewald (Osborne Clarke)

No coming out parties for the game yet, folks, but the confirmation's reason enough to party. Kotaku received official word from 2K Games that Bioshock for the PC and the Xbox 360 will be launched on August 24 in Europe. The 360 version of Bioshock will sell for a whopping £ 44.99, while the PC version will be selling for £ 34.99 There was no mention of the reported Bioshock limited edition.

So what do we expect to see in Irrational Games' first-person shooter running on the Unreal Engine 3.0 aside from the mutated inhabitants of the City of Rapture who are trying to kill you? Oh, not much, just a whole slew of weapons the player (meaning you) can use to protect yourself as you rummage the city (wrench!); the crazed Dr. Steinman and his Medical Facility; the Big Daddies; and, of course, water, water, and more water.

Now if you want Bioshock bad enough, start saving up for the video game. August 24 is only two short months away.