Obligatory Halo: Reach fanboy noise at the news of new map pack available in March: "Woooooooooooooo-oooo-oooo-ooooooooooo"

Yes I'm pretty damn excited about a new map pack all ready, especially as I've barely scratched at the Noble pack. My only problem with these map packs is I wish Microsoft would make them cheaper than 800 MS points so more people would download and play them. This map pack also adds 150 Gamerscore achievements to the existing set, screwing up my perfect achievement score for Halo games even worse than the Noble Pack did. Curses!

The most notable feature of this new pack is that it wasn't actually a pure Bungie production, a lot of the heavy lifting duties provided by something called a 'Certain Affinity'. Bungie no doubt far too busy on their super secret project for Activision.

Enjoy trailer below and press release and screenies after the break.

As a follow-up to Aaron's sentiments, but one more salvo aimed directly at Activision/Blizzard finally pulling the literal plug on the flailing Guitar Hero franchise. Since Aaron's piece, the Company announced 50 layoffs tied to the series, individuals (Vicarious Visions) now left to deduce ways of conjuring up even more useless peripherals.

All sarcasm aside, I'm a bit peeved. Truth be told, I'm an enormous advocate of both rhthym gaming and anything involving haptic interfaces (as previous features on PS Move, Flightstick titles will attest to). Thus, this news is a power chord to the heart.

To elaborate on Aaron's insights: My anger, however, doesn't lie with the aforementioned peripheral monkeys, rather a company hellbent on too much of a good thing. Seriously, folks: no one needed that accursed Van Halen title, one laden with PS2 graphics and 2.0 (versus 5.1) sorround. Ditto for Warriors of Rock, easily a track pack purchase versus full blown title. Non-import? Really?!

Finally, it would've been nice if said company would've grown a pair, acknowledging Guitar Hero Drum Kits as an abomination of loose wires and improper motion controls. Irony that Activision's lame duck, Guitar Hero franchise - Band Hero - finally unleashed a proper drum kit (which coincidentally was snuck in to the Warriors of Rock bundle...'Band Hero' labeled sensor included).

I lament Guitar Hero's demise because it remains an incredibly untapped franchise, one where with the right minds (and no more damn peripherals, please) behind it could soar to even greater places. Imagine full Move and/or Kinect support. Additional integration with DJ Hero (perhaps the best of all rhythm title series to date). Genres previously ignored.

Now Rock Band fans will tell me to get over myself, switch to the Dark Side of that franchise. Sorry folks, but there's simply so much more gaming (albeit watered down song lists) to be had in Guitar Hero. Challenge factor is higher, Drum Kits (even if flawed) have more realistic playability. Chicks dig Guitar Hero. Ditto for kids, per Aaron, picking up their first semblance of a guitar. Listen, mate: I'm not going for HD DVD because my BluRay Player is hiccuping.

This gamer believes Activision/Blizzard is making a serious miscalculation, one rightly guided by profits...but not franchise value nor longer term strategic planning. The franchise clearly needs a reboot, one perhaps better suited for a different publisher left to rescue Vicarious Visions refugees toward greater good.

What say you?

Everyone's favourite simulator is back and has reinvented itself by going back in time. The Sims Medieval has a new trailer showing some WOW rivalling gameplay possibilities in the medieval world of Kings, Queens, Knights and Jesters.

The Sims Medieval isn't just your regular DLC installment, this is a fully fledged new game from The Sims Studio.

As you probably have guessed this new Sims is set in medieval times giving players the opportunity to build up a medieval kingdom, go on quests, level-up their characters and fulfill storyline elements. In addition players will find their Sims in a variety of situations previously unknown to them, such as duels to the death, choosing whether to poison a witch or marry her, and punishing Sims by having them thrown into the Pit of Judgment. Every quest plays out differently depending on which Hero Sim the player is controlling.

Look for The Sims Medieval in March on PC.

Dragon Age II, also known as the fantasy game in which you level up by showering in your enemies arterial blood, has a demo coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3 on the 23 February, just a few weeks ahead of the games March 10 release in Australia and New Zealand. The demo consists of the games prologue section introducing players to the three possible player classes. it's a good way to get a taste of each class before you settle on one for the games proper release. As a bonus players who complete the demo will get access to a special weapon when the full game releases.

In case you needed anymore psyching up here's a trailer giving you a pretty good visual cue for each of the classes game character Hawke can be molded into.

The Darkness, based on the uber dark and nasty comic book and studio Starbreeze's followup to their sleeper hit Riddick game, is one of those titles regularly trotted out as an above average alternative FPS game. The type of title, like Mirror's Edge or Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, that twists the genre in new directions. In the original Darkness mafia Hitman Jackie Estacado discovered that his 21st birthday was the day he inherited a supernatural power called the Darkness. A crazy sentient power that allowed Jackie to summon monsters, create black holes and generally be really scary. Unfortunately as the game went on and the story unfolded Jackie discovered the power had greater control over him than he had over it leading to a shocking game conclusion.

I've been sacrificing many animals to my dark gods in the hope a Darkness II would be greenlit and I guess that labrador last night did the ticket because The Darkness II is coming! We don't know too much so far, 2K are publishing it, and the title is promising 'Quad wielding action' and 'hand painted noir art style'. I don't know what either of those things are, but I'm guessing you have to hold one controller with your feet and the whole game looks like Okami. But I do have a history of being wrong about everything.

Look for Darkness II in Spring on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

So in other news, Guitar Hero is dead. According to Activision the game series has become unprofitable after they sold no less than 25 iterations of the game in just five years. No kidding there Chad. It seems mad that a video game franchise that was so popular across every demographic in its peak should come to a grinding halt after just five years of life. When you consider we've got a Mortal Kombat game due this year it's down right baffling.

But if you wanted a more poignant example of how certain game developers have a habit of treating their game IP's like race horses, there you go. They run them and run them till they can't run them no more, and as soon as they start losing seconds round the track, they take them out the back of the barn and shoot them. I can't say I'm going to miss Guitar Hero a whole lot, I was never sweet on the game in a big way and Rock Band has all the Beatles songs. But I can credit it for encouraging my oldest boy to learn guitar and take up a general interest in music. So that at least is a grain of goodness brought to our house. To me Guitar Hero will always be that game that started a million, billion pointless arguements about not actually using musical instruments or doing anything even close to teaching people to play them, and that questionably sexist but still enjoyable ad of Heidi Klum leaping around in her underwear. I know a lot of people were big fans of Guitar Hero and my thoughts and prayers (mostly to Thor) are with them in these shadowed days.

Also True Crime has been axed permanently. But does anyone really care about that one? That pony was born lame.

The overally talented animator Harry Partridge has created the below trailer summing up the collective gamer enthusiasm for another Elder Scrolls game. You can see more of his stuff here and I'd highly suggest subscribing to his YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/HarryPartridge (and a slight warning that most of the videos aren't for juniors, althought the American Akira one is hilarious).

When I saw the Skyrim teaser trailer my reaction was pretty much identical to the one below, and many of the YouTube comments echo the sentiment. It's equally heart warming and terrifying to know there are people whose reaction was the same as mine.