So its been about a week and a half since my last update, so you'd think I would've had plenty of chance to power through those levels on the beta right? Spending most of my time in bed with the flu foiled those plans, but now I've finally managed to get a bit more play time over the last few days to write some more about the beta.

As per usual, *spoilers* alert, don't read on if you don't want to know about the game in beta. :)

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Fantastic Contraption seems to be the hot topic of conversation around here at the moment. If you haven’t heard yet, it’s a Flash puzzle game, where the aim is to get a little red ball (or block) into the red goal area, using the wheels and rods provided to get it there.

It’s a super simple concept at the core of a challenging, frustrating and downright hilarious battle against gravity, friction, uneven terrain and random bits of **** that just don’t want to get out of the way. If you’re feeling triumphant, you can save your winning designs and share them with the rest of the community – there are some really clever and really stupid ones out there, and it feels pretty good to add to either pile.

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So I've had a bit of a chance the last couple of days to finally take my mage into Northrend now that it has been copied over to the beta realms. I've had a quick look at Howling Fjord, but I've mainly been questing in the Borean Tundra zone.

As some people may have read about previously, with Wrath Blizzard are offering the option of 2 starting zones - these being the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord. The choice of 2 starting areas is in an effort to prevent the sort of quest mob camping and random world pvp that occurred in Hellfire Peninsula at the launch of the previous expansion The Burning Crusade where everyone was jam packed into a single starting zone.

As before, this article will contain *spoilers*, you have been warned. :)

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Valve in their teaser campaign in the lead-up to the next update for Team Fortress 2 for the Heavy class have released details today on a new map - Badwater Basin.

Unlike Gold Rush, where the track is split into three separate stages, Badwater Basin uses a single large stage with several checkpoints. As a result, the Blu team is highly encouraged to push the cart hard after beating their way through the Red defensive line.

The Heavy update will be out next week and will be followed up with another free weekend of TF2! So stay tuned for further updates as the patch nears release.

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So I got a key early this week for the beta for the next expansion for the ever addictive World of Warcraft - Wrath of the Lich King. So I’ve decided that I will start writing some articles on my experiences whilst playing through the beta.

So to start things off, I thought I’d lay down a quick background about my time playing WoW up until this point and my first impressions of playing a Deathknight and completing the starting area zone. Note, this article will contain some *spoilers*, so if you don’t want to know, don’t click the “Read more” link below. :)

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A post on the official Team Fortress 2 blog has revealed that the upcoming TF2 content update will see the Heavy class updated along with a new game mode and 7 fresh maps to play on.

The Heavy class will receive 3 new weapons to unlock with 35 achievements, to err - achieve. A brand spanking new mystery game mode will be introduced with 5 new arenas to bash around in, the "Payload" game mode will also get a new spacious map to join the tightly played Goldrush. Lastly, the community-made map "cp_steel" will be included in the Heavy update.

Shacknews is reporting Tuesday, August 19 as the (US) release date, so we can probably expect it around first thing Wednesday morning if all goes to plan.

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Athletes and coaches alike are in shock that the coveted yet widely traditional training regime of flawless performances (read: button mashing) in Summer Games on the Commodore64 - has proven futile in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This comes as news with Japan's Gold medalist in the mens 100m breaststroke, Kosuke Kitajima who has attributed his win in the pool due to the Nintendo Wii - or more particularly Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Kosuke Kitajima was quoted as saying:

See, Mario does the breaststroke. And thus, it's perfect mental training for envisioning the actual Olympic hall.

The adoption of the Nintendo Wii for non-traditional (i.e. gaming) purposes is becoming more common with recent public praise for the money printing console by the Medical community, where some trainee surgeons utilising the motion triggered controls have improved their skills up to 50%.

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A revised version of Fallout 3 has been submitted to the OFLC, and the result is a squeaky clean MA15+ product. The OFLC has decided that the Australian public is now allowed to view the "Strong Violence, Drug References and Coarse Language" of the successor of one the most influential games in years, but at what cost? No doubt the drug references will have been toned down. Originally the game labelled one of its health renewal mechanic as morphine, this posed too strong a reference to drug addiction, and showed morphine as beneficial in an every day environment. Most likely the mechanic has taken on a "Med Pack" status now, similar to that of most FPS titles available today, however the exact changes have not yet been released, these should be made public in the coming days if not hours.
 
This gamer however will still be importing the Collector's Edition from Play-Asia (USA classified version) and I'll proudly display my Fallout 3 bobblehead on my desk. We live in a democratic society where free speak and such is the norm, so therefore we should not be censored from what we wish to view in entertainment. The game portrays a post apocalyptic environment that is far from reality, and should not in any persons mind be considered realistic everyday activities. Enough discussion has been made about the subject on many different sources, and enough pure facts have been stated to create an R18 classification for games. If recent events continue, we should expect to have the new classification instated in the near future.
 
An interesting article on Gameplayer outlines some of the 'classification hypocrisy' applied to Fallout 3, with an engaging list of previously released and uncensored games of the past.

According to EB Games, Fallout 3 will be available in stores from October 17 on PC, Xbox 360 and Ps3 .

[Article by Daniel C.]

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The game that needs no introduction - GTA IV, will be making its way to PCs in November.

"We are very excited to be releasing the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "The whole team is dedicated to bringing an amazing gaming experience to the PC. The game looks and plays beautifully on PC and we can't wait for people to play it." 

Personally, I'm going to grab a copy of this on PC in addition to my current 360 version. As much as I've enjoyed the multiplayer on Xbox Live, the game is in desperate need of the ability to run dedicated servers with the added choice to play locally and even browse servers. The lack of dedicated servers for the console release was probably my only gripe with GTA IV, so I'm very keen to see how this plays out on PC. 

The release dates for PC are November 18 for North America and November 21 in Europe, I'm sure Australia as per usual is stuck with the latter. However stay tuned to http://www.rockstargames.com/IV for further updates.

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The Register has news that Electronic Arts are looking at selling pre-configured PCs for their games. The PCs would be guaranteed to have the proper specifications to run a particular EA game (or set of games) properly at a specific resolution and level of detail, which would help to eliminate some of the confusion with system specifications and games with PC gaming as it currently stands.

This is probably a grab by EA at attracting more of the non-technical gamers who have been heading towards the console platforms (360, PS3 and Wii), where its guaranteed that if you buy a game it will work as intended on that platform (well, unless your 360 decides to RROD anyway).

Initial indications are that the PCs would be priced between $US600-$US800 depending on how pretty your want your game(s) to look, so you can guess this will be something only available in the US to begin with, but depending on its success it could makes its way to our shores as well.

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