Splinter Cell: Conviction (Xbox 360, PC) creative director Maxime Beland wants people who play his games to finish them, so the game will be shipping with two difficulty levels for players to choose from. More from Beland after the jump.

A whole load of info about Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360, PC) has apparently been leaked from an OXM interview with developer Bioware. Since we haven't seen a hard copy yet, let's treat this as a rumor for the time being. Among the details revealed in the OXM feature is confirmation that Commander Shepard is alive and well -- for a goodly chunk of the game anyway. Whether or not Shepard survives until the end is still up in the air. More in the full article.

Information's starting to trickle out for Electronic Arts and DICE's sequel to the blockbuster FPS hit in the Battlefield: Bad Company franchise. According to an EA Forums post, it's been revealed in the OXM UK issue #56 that 40 players have been confirmed for online play in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC). Take out those beer kegs, this is sure to be a party.

It's become a classic he said-he said. Pitted against each other are the movie prod's claim that the Street Fighter movie will be coming out on March 2009 in a simultaneous launch with the SFIV (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC) games. Ono-san, however, says he does not know of any simultaneous release. Confused much? Yeah, we are too. Good thing he also talks about parrying and a lot of other things.

Though the original source of this news tidbit has disappeared at press time, an article posted up at the Czech portal of Tiscali's gaming news had a scan of the latest issue of the nation's Official Xbox Magazine. And it sported a cover story revolving around Sierra's expansion pack to Massive Entertainment's World in Conflict (PC, Xbox 360) - World in Conflict: Soviet Assault. Plenty of new features were revealed, but they're currently focused on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the alternate-history RTS.

You remember how Bethesda said that Fallout 3 will have 12 different endings? Massive eh? Yeah, well, that's not gonna happen. Instead, it's going to have 200 different endings! Whoa. Anyway, that and more details on Fallout 3 from a recent podcast with Bethesda's Todd Howard after the "read more" link below.

Here's some good news to eager fans of Aliens: Colonial Marines. According to the UK's official Xbox Magazine, the game is definitely shaping up to be "bloody brilliant". This is because of how the game looks like - a faithful rendition of previous Aliens movies. Find out more in the full article.

With all the survival horror games out in the market, Alone in the Dark producer Nour Polloni was able to state that the game will be able to reclaim its title as the best horror game through its unique gameplay, ability to build tension, and its graphics. Find out more on the interview after the article.

The Official Xbox Magazine has given Call of Duty 4 a perfect score of 10/10. For those who might remember, the last time OXM gave a perfect score was when they got their hands on BioShock.

Infinity Ward and Activision must be happy with the stellar feedback. Maybe some of you guys aren't even surprised. CoD4 doesn't fail to impress. Now, unfortunately, the details and reasons why OXM gave the perfect score to COD4 haven't been revealed yet. Was it for the graphics? Control handling? Maybe the AI?

Though this comes from the Official Xbox Magazine and they probably were rating the 360 version of the game, we couldn't help but post this on the PS3 and PC blogs as well, just so everyone knows what to expect from the game.

In a discussion thread over at the VG Chartz website, user ckmlb just posted that the recent Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) issue rated BioShock (PC, Xbox 360) with a perfect score of 10/10. Well, that isn't altogether that surprising since PC Gamer crowned the same game with a 95% score.

Now with OXM's 10/10 gracing 2K Games' FPS-RPG title, the UK magazine backs up their rating with the following reasons:

• Inconceivably great plot
• Tough, scary combat
• Perfect location design
• Stunning soundtrack and audio effects
• Endless variety of weaponry

To compare that 10/10 score, cmlkb points out that Halo and Halo 2 got 9.5/10 and 9.7/10 respectively. Kind of puts things in perspective doesn't it? Well, regardless, August 21 is just around the corner - if you can't wait, the demo just might show itself soon -  and at that time, everyone else can get their grubby hand on Big Daddy himself. Will OXM's 10/10 hold out?