The Tokyo Game Show 2008 is in full swing with the news already pouring out, luckily your friends here at GameOnYou UK, are here to report it to you as it happens.

First off, the “New Xbox Experience”, after lots of speculation about it’s release date, Microsoft decided that they could not contain themselves any longer and revealed that it will hit consoles worldwide on November 19th.

So it may not be in time for the release of Gears of War 2, it arrives in plenty of time for Christmas. If that wasn’t enough, Bungie decided end speculation of their latest project, well, sort of.

Halo 3: Recon, announced for late 2009, will be a Halo 3 adjacent campaign where you will take control of an “ODST”, better known as a “Helljumper”. That is all told us and the video shown didn’t help us find out anything else.

The video for Halo 3: Recon can be found on the Xbox Live marketplace, but we urge you to see it through to the end, it uses the “Keep It Clean” teaser as an intro, causing people to turn off before the good stuff happens.

Keep coming back for the latest from TGS 2008.

Epic are still working hard to make sure their fans have absolutely no complaints by placing a code in every copy of the game that will give you the Throwback map pack for free.

The map pack is a collection of the top 5 favourite maps from Gear of War, which have been enhanced to adapt to the new features and game modes. Epic have also said that they have no plans to release these maps in any other way, so if you’re planning on renting or buying a pre-owned copy, you’re out of luck.

In addition to these maps, Epic are releasing a gold plated Hammerburst for in-game use, but it is only available to gamers that participate in the “Midnight Madness” events. Unfortunately, up to now these events are only being held in Gamestop stores in the US, bad news for us Brits.

We still get our golden lancers with the limited edition though, and the golden variations have no combat bonuses other than making you look like a pimp.

During a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, ex-Guns n’ Roses guitarist, Slash, may have revealed some news that Activision may have wanted to keep quiet a little longer.

When asked "as the original guy do you feel more invested in the game?", he responded with

"Well, having the Aerosmith guys do it was very cool ’cause Aerosmith’s one of the bands I was heavily influenced by. And Metallica’s doing it, that’s great. Those are two ones that I think gives it some credibility. And they’re doing a Hendrix one, which is great."

Whether this is definite or just an idea being kicked around the Activision offices is still a mystery, but we hope it is true.

Multi-platinum artist and rock icon, Ted Nugent will lend his voice and likeness to Activision’s forthcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour. Also featured in the game are rock legends Jimi Hendrix and Ozzy Ozbourne and Sting, though why Sting is being considered a "Guitar Hero" confuses us a little.

As in Guitar Hero 3, players will be able to take on the rock legends in fearsome one on one duels or play with them on one of their greatest hits.

Guitar Hero: World Tour will ship world wide this autumn featuring a co-operative band experience, band career and an 8 player "Battle of the Bands" mode. Also included is the innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock ‘n’ roll anthems.  Music creators will also be able to share their recordings with their friends online through GHTunesSM where other gamers can download and play an endless supply of unique creations.

Will all this be enough to take Rock Band’s championship away? We wait with baited breath.

Being big fans of the Red Faction series since it’s beginning eight years ago, it’s latest installment for the next gen, Red Faction: Guerrilla, was some welcome news, albeit long overdue.

The beta consists of two maps and two game play modes, being the usual Team Death match and Territories.

Team Death match self explanatory, two teams, kill as many of the other team as possible etc. Territories however, has a new Red Faction spin on it, as you would expect there are various points on the map that can be controlled by either team, the more you control the more points you get, but, because it is Red Faction, these points must be constructed to be controlled, this is done by using a construction beam weapon carried by every member of the team, much like repairing vehicles in Unreal Tournament 3. Also if  the opposing team controls a point you want you must  smash it to little pieces using your trusty sledgehammer and then re-construct it.

Unfortunately, the weapons featured in the beta leave a lot of room for improvement, as they are unbalanced and feel very un-nessesary as everyone goes for the basic assault rifle or rocket launcher because they are the best for speed and damage while being effective at long range.

This is even more of an issue with the addition of power packs in the game, these are dotted around the map and are worn on the back of the players to enhance abilities and gain an advantage. These are great fun to use, especially the ”Rhino” which when activated will propel you forward and through any walls that are in your way, there are also packs to increase your speed and damage. The pack you see used the most though is the jet pack, with players often using it to reach high cliffs and ridges, which when carrying the assault rifle makes you near untouchable.

The biggest difference to the game is it’s look, being next gen it looks great as expected, but instead of being a FPS like the previous titles, it is now third person which looks like Mass Effect but plays like Lost Planet.

All in all, Red Faction: Guerrilla looks set to be another chart topper, bringing new and innovative ideas which the series was always known for, of course there are a few problems which need attention, but name a game that hasn’t got problems.

Check back for more news on this title as it happens in the coming months.

That’s right, on Thursday 21st of August, the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo will hit both the Xbox Live marketplace and the Playstation Network.

The demo will feature one of the earlier levels where, as “The Apprentice”, you must take on a Jedi General who is trying to destroy a TIE construction factory.

Along with this great news, we are also happy to announce that “The Force Unleashed” graphic novel will also be on sale this week.

Published by Dark Horse Comics, the graphic novel has been scripted by the game’s author, Hayden Blackman, in which he  reveals more about the origins of “The Apprentice”, the graphic novel will also act as a companion to the game rather than a direct adaptation.

Check back soon for our impressions of the demo.

That is correct, it is not a typo. Even though Call of Duty: World at War hasn’t been released or even given a release date, it didn’t stop Activision from announcing the next installment will arrive in 2009.

During an earnings conference call last week, Activision Blizzard’s CEO, Bobby Kotick confirmed that the sixth title in the Call of Duty series is planned to drop in 2009 with Infinity Ward back at the helm, whether this is due to a lack of confidence in Treyarch’s ability to deliver the kind of numbers Infinity Ward had with COD4 remains to be seen, but given that World at War hasn’t even generated half the amount of hype as COD4, I’d say it’s a safe bet.

More on this when we get it.

NFL Hall of Fame running back,  Jim Brown has filed a suit against Electronic Arts and Sony in Manhattan Supreme Court, claiming that his likeness is being used without his permission in the Madden games.

Although Brown isn’t actually named in the game, a muscular African American  player wearing Jim Brown’s famed 32 jersey, appears on the All Browns’ team in the games.

Jim Brown claims that because video games didn’t exist during his playing career, and because agents were banned during his career, that he never had the chance to decide if he wanted to sign away his rights or not.

If Brown’s lawsuit is successful, it is almost certain that the historical and all-time teams in sports games will come to an end, since it is impractical for EA to sign contracts with thousands of players, unless EA decide to be smart and sign a deal with retired player’s unions.  

More on this, as soon as we get it.

In celebration of the height of summer, Microsoft have announced their “Summer of Arcade” promotion where gamers can play some great Xbox Live Arcade titles and have the chance to win prizes at the same time.

The “Summer of Arcade” will commence Wednesday July 30, with the release of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, and run through until the end of August closing after the release of Castle Crashers.

All you have to do is log in, play the trial or full version of the featured game of the week and you will be entered in to the sweepstakes with the chance to win some huge prizes.

The featured games in the promotion are as follows:

• July 30:Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 -  The latest version of the popular retro shooter that includes six gameplay modes, new enemies and scoring strategies. Available for 800 MS points.
• August 6:Braid - An artistic puzzle-platformer where the player must manipulate the flow of time in different ways to reach their goal.
• August 13:Bionic Commando: Rearmed - A remake of the classic 8-bit side-scroller, complete with stunning HD graphics.
• August 20:Galaga Legions - This classic arcade shooter returns with updated graphics and table turning game dynamics.
• August 27: Castle Crashers - Defend your Kingdom and save the princess in this arcade adventure.

Playing the trial or full versions of these will get you entered into both the Weekly Prize drawing and the Grand Prize drawing with the following prizes:

• Grand Prize (x1)- 100,000 Microsoft Points, 12 month Xbox Live Gold subscription and an Xbox 360 Elite console.
• Runner-up Prizes (x2)- 10,000 Microsoft Points and a 12 month Xbox Live Gold Subscription.
• Weekly Prizes (x5) - 4000 Microsoft Points.

The “Summer of Arcade” ends September 2nd.

Unreal Tournament 3 is of course the latest installment of the Unreal series for Epic Games. Leading up to it’s release, the game generated a lot of hype, mostly down to so many other titles utilising the Unreal engine with mostly impressive results and, we are happy to announce that UT3 lives up to the hype in spectacular fashion.

Unlike most shooters, UT3 hasn’t changed much at all over the years, it is still the extremely fast paced, no holds barred, fragfest that we’ve all came to know and love. Of course the graphics look amazing and the old weapons have been re-designed, slightly but are still instantly recognisable to Unreal veterans.

The single player campaign is a series of matches as you would find during online play varying from deathmatch to capture the flag, The story takes a back seat, only being told through short cut-scenes at the beginning of each chapter and text briefings before each mission. During the campaign you will take control of Reaper, (a Dom and Baird hybrid from Gears of War), along with his team of “Ronin”, Jester the sarcastic sister of Reaper, Othello the Cole Train of UT3 and Bishop an self proclaimed crusader of god, all of which can be commanded to great effect during missions.

Along with single player, you can play the campaign in co-op, play Instant Action, basically a custom bot match or Multi-player, either way your guaranteed to have a good time, especially with the addition of vehicles, hoverboards, some crazy power-ups, mutators and a hell of a lot of maps.

The only real problems we had, at least with the console version, was the “push to speak” system. which was not really thought out. In order to speak to your team you must push right on the d-pad and hold it throughout your sentence. This posed problems as, for example in CTF, if you capture the flag, the enemy will converge on you, in order to shout at your team for help with covering fire you must either come to a complete stop as movement is controlled by the stick above the d-pad, or fumble about with the controller until you can speak and move forward and back but not turn. This is also complicated by the ability to “feign death” by pressing down on the d-pad, meaning any movement of your thumb while speaking can cause you to collapse to the ground, dropping the flag in the process.

Despite that minor flaw, UT3 is still fantastic game to play both online and off. Easily rated at 9 out of 10, it is a must buy for all shooter fans.