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Drag racing makes its triumphant return in this year’sNeed for Speed Pro Street, and it looks smokier than ever, thanks to hot tires and next-generation hardware. InPro Street, the drag racing mechanic is all about timing. Once in the drag staging area, you participate in a “tire heat up” mini-game of sorts; here you attempt to intimidate your opponent by firing up your tires, and out smoke your opponent. This not only looks fancy, but also allows you to get more traction — timing your gear shift off of the line will give you the edge, and smart use of nitrous and appropriate shifts throughout the race will separate the winners from the losers....

Tomorrow, Epic Games will toss its Unreal Development kit into the hands of iPhone developers, like an opulent duke throwing bones to the peasants at their big banquet table. That made very little sense, but whatdoesmake sense is that iOS devs will get their claws on the popular game engine for free. What this means is that games likeInfinity Blademay not become quite so uncommon in future, with iOS developers having the means to create similarly gorgeous games for themselves....

Aliens: Infestationhas been properly outed by the ESRB. We first heard about it when it was revealed as acanceled project, before the OFLCrevealed its name. Since then, SEGA has refused to officially announce the WayForward-developed DS shooter, but the ESRB seems quite sure it’s happening. “This is a sci-fi action platformer in which players control a marine squad on a mission to eradicate alien creatures,” describes the ESRB. “As players run and jump through side-scrolling levels, they use rifles, pistols, flamethrowers, and explosives to kill enemy soldiers and aliens (i....

Some of us keep up with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu around here, and if you do too, you may find their review scores to be of some interest. This list caught my eye over atKotaku, which shows a list of their highest rated PS3 titles of 2008 (you’re able to see the full list after the jump).Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriotswas sitting pretty on the top of the list with a perfect score of 40, just beating outGrand Theft Auto IVwith a 39 andLittleBigPlanetwith a 38....

Halo Warsdownloadable expansion “Strategic Options” hit Xbox LIVE Marketplace earlier today. The content, which only adds three new game modes to theHalo Warsexperience, is causing a bit ofnegative message board noise. Why? The DLC weighs in at … a stunning 2 MB. Before you ask: no, you didn’t pass through a wormhole. People still take issue to small downloadable content, even if it’s too big to be a simple unlock. (ThinkReturn to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of Warfile size if you need an estimate for an unlock....

Surprise, surprise. The backlash overDmC‘s“new” Dantehas reached its inevitable conclusion, with fans taking it upon themselves to play designer and give the protagonist’s controversial appearance a brand new makeover. The only trouble is … I can’t seewhatthis “new new” Dante has done to look any better. The best part of this professional design document is the bit that says, “Black/skunk hair OK to keep,” as if the fanbase sat down to have hard think about things, and decided it wouldallowNinja Theory to use one of its ideas....

We’re just over a month away from one of the biggest PlayStation 3 releases of the year,God of War III. Soon we’ll be able to gain control of Kratos once again as he wages his war against the gods of Olympus, and the latest trailer for the game makes the month-long wait painful. Kratos’ enemies are bigger and badder then ever before, and out of everything that we’re shown in the trailer, I’m really looking forward to fighting the Leviathan in Gaia’s arm....

If it’s broken, EA Sports will fix it — just don’t expect it to be quick. Xbox 360 user reports ofFight Night Round 4freezing after downloading the latest DLC for the game — “Champions Pack 2” — were confirmed on December 4th after the publisher elected to pull the content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. EA plans to release the DLC again sometime within the next few weeks. “We regret to inform Xbox 360 users that due to freezing issues that users have been experiencing when downloading ‘Champions Pack 2,’” wrote EA Sports community manager “sk88z” inan official message board thread about the DLC, “we have come to the tough decision to take the DLC down from XBL Marketplace, fix the issue, and look to prop up a correct ‘Champions Pack’ 2 in the near future....

We already knew aboutFinal Fantasy VIIIon theJapanese PSN, but today webring you wordthat the adventures of Squall and his improbably associated friends will be heading to the United States in the near future. The game has been confirmed for the US PSN store, and it will be coming “soon.” The news comes from Sony itself in an email to customers, where it was listed in the “coming soon” section. I think that pretty much seals the deal, right?...

Youmayhavenoticedbynowthat we spent the weekend at the Penny Arcade Expo gaming, paneling, partying and having a generally kickass time. We had heard word that this year’s PAX would be larger than last year’s, and I definitely noticed that the show floor was quite a bit larger than it was in 2007, but it was hard to get a feel for just how many more people flocked out to the expo....

Our first look atAssassin’s Creed: Bloodlinesfor the PSP has finally arrived.Bloodlinespicks up right after the events from the firstAssassin’s Creed. You will be playing as Altair again as he hunts down the remaining Templars who fled from the Holy Land to the island of Cyprus after the death of Robert De Sable. Bloodlineswill contain eight new missions and the same feeling of exploration will be in the game as well, including being able to climb like a monkey on every surface....

GamesIndustry.biz hasa storyup detailing a move by developer Foundation 9 in which Shiny Entertainment and The Collective have been merged into one studio. The two groups have moved into a new building in Irvine, CA and aside from the typical toilet-seat-up issues new couples often have, things seem to be going swimmingly. What exactly this means for consumers is up in the air. Shiny hasn’t had a quality title sinceMDK—Sacrificedoesn’t count since none of you played, or remember it — and The Collective’s greatest claim to fame so far has beenMarc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, the thrilling story of one man’s ego and his poor, overwrought skull....

Frictional Games’Amnesia: The Dark Descentwas one of the 13 games which comprised the “Potato Sack” in Valve’s massive alternate-reality game in the run-up to the release ofPortal 2.With the event now over, the content created forAmnesiaduring the ARG has been repackaged and released as part of a free update. In addition, the update comes with five short stories from the writer and concept artists on the game. I bought the Potato Sack because I wanted to check out all of thePortal-related content....