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The [psy] Hardware & Videogames Online Mag.


Battlestar Galactica is over, but that doesn't mean NBC is done cashing in. They're teaming up with Bigpoint to launching Battlestar Galactica Online, a browser-based massively multiplayer game set in the popular universe.

"Battlestar Galactica is a supremely gameable intellectual property, with compelling character classes, a fantastic array of ships and weaponry, multiple worlds, and a dramatic storyline," said vice president and general manager of digital platforms for Universal Partnerships & Licensing Bill Kispert.

"We are excited to work with Bigpoint - and our partners at Universal Cable Productions and Syfy - to bring an epic, accessible, and 'always on' BSG experience to fans of the franchise and online gamers alike."


If you couldn't get enough of White Knight Chronicles, more quests will soon be coming your way. The new missions will start arriving this week, and will continue all the way into the summer.

Most of the new quests will be available via the White Knight Chronicles quest map, and will be permanently accessible. There will also be limited quests, which will be available for two weeks at a time.

The PlayStation Blog also has information on how to win a 12-inch tall White Knight figure. To add it to your shelf, you'll need to complete specific quests during the weekend of March 19.

There's a pretty bizarre moment in the original True Crime: Streets of LA where it transforms from an expected hip-hop laden urban crime game into a poor knockoff of Big Trouble In Little China. Instead of remaining consistent, the game decided to stop having you take on thugs, and started having you fight zombies, dragons, and flying skulls. Well, I can safely say that even though I've only seen a small snippet of the upcoming (and subtitle-less) True Crime, from the way executive producer Stephen van der Mescht describes it, there won't be a crazy "why did I go from shooting guys to punching dragons?" moment in this next installment.

In fact, True Crime is a complete reboot. Not only is it an entirely new game and locale (not an unfamiliar thing, since the previous two games changed main characters and switched from Los Angeles to New York), but an entirely different developer, United Front Games (the studio behind the upcoming ModNation Racers) is behind it. Besides the tone, the one thing that van der Mescht emphasizes when showing off the new True Crime is that it's not just an open-world driving game with some combat or a crime game divided up into specific driving/shooting/punching elements; the studio is aiming to have True Crime be a seamless blend of those types of elements.

Final Fantasy XIII Launch Party Photo Gallery

A celebration in San Francisco bringing the cast and creators of Final Fantasy XIII out for the game's launch.


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The red carpet entrance to Regency Hall, and the start of the festivities.


With Ferrari having finally returned to the Need for Speed stable of automobiles, Electronic Arts is releasing even more DLC for last year's Shift.

The new Exotic Racing Series Pack will be launching next week on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, and will run you 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00). It includes the Honda NSX and the BMW M1 Procar, among others.

You can find the full list below. The pack will be available March 18.

Mapathy

We wouldn't fault you for getting a little sick of the default maps in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and neither would Infinity Ward, apparently. The developer began teasing new multiplayer levels today by posting Twitter links to Mapathy.com -- a clever little site dedicated to spreading awareness of the intense ennui that accompanies months and months of playing on the same maps.

According to the site, a person suffering from Mapathy "no longer derives pleasure from blowing up people hiding in the cockpit or on top of the crane," and it continues, "More than 20 million people may be at risk for Mapathy." Assuming you haven't already jumped ship to Bad Company 2, those symptoms probably sound all too familiar.

Like pretty much every other imaginary ailment with a marketing budget, however, there is a cure for Mapathy: new maps. And according to the teaser site, that cure is headed for Xbox Live on March 30. Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling assures us that PlayStation 3 and PC users will eventually get their hands on the DLC as well, but that announcement is coming at a later date.


Jagged Alliance is about to pick up its first true sequel in more than a decade. German publisher bitComposer games has acquired the license from Strategy First, and hopes to release a new game sometime next year (via Gamasutra).

"Although Jagged Alliance 2 was published over ten years ago now, the game still represents a milestone in the genre and boasts a huge following of loyal fans," said bitComposer Games CEO Wolfgang Duhr.

"We are delighted to acquire this classic game for bitComposer, and want to continue the success of the previous titles in the series, while giving the new version a contemporary look, bearing in mind the strong features of its predecessors."

It launched today - but what did the critics think?.
As you might have heard, there's been some rumblings about Final Fantasy XIII reviews of late.

Click here to read the full article


Movies-on-demand service may be coming to the handheld.
A recent survey question by US movie rental company, Netflix, has suggested the company plans to release a movies-on-demand service for the Nintendo DS, similar to the one it already provides for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Click here to read the full article



The newly-announced Bodycount could be considered a spiritual successor to Black, but not too long ago the real thing was under development. Speaking with GameSpot, designer Stuart Black said that Black 2 was being worked on at Criterion, but was ultimately shelved.

"I certainly did some preliminary pre-production work on Black 2 once we finished Black, the first three or four months," Black said. "I moved on quite quickly after that."

He continued, "A lot of the guys on the team I'm working with here now carried on with that and did a lot of pre-production for about a year or so on Black [2], before that kind of bit the dust."