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If you thought Valve’s Pyro update was big then you’re in for a real treat. Not only is the Heavy receiving 3 new unlocks and 35 personalised achievements but valve has gone one better and will also be including cp_steel - a new map created by community member, Jamie ‘Fishbus’ Manson - and another new map based on the “Payload” game mode.

Oh, but don’t think Valve is stopping there - quite the contrary. In fact, above all of this new content, they will also be releasing a brand new game mode accompanied by 5 new maps designed specifically for the mode.

I don’t think anyone can say Valve isn’t good to us after this update. Head on over to the Team Fortress Developer blog and the Heavy update site for your daily updates on this upcoming patch!

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.

Asus, the company that brought the Eee PC to the masses has unveiled their newest innovation in gaming technology - The Eee Stick; A Wiimote-like plug-and-play wireless controller which converts the physical hand movement of the user to on-screen movement.

Although there is currently no date given for release, the Eee Stick will be bundled with certain models of the Eee PC and the Eee Box. It will also be included with a variety of games designed or adapted specifically with the Eee Stick in mind.

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.

I am a big fan of mods… be it store-shelf or low-amateur quality, there’s something about mods which have a different appeal from retail games. There’s a lot more scope for originality… doing things the original developers couldn’t possibly do themselves due to financial or legal restrictions (they wouldn’t sell enough copies of a Half-Life 2 Meets Metal Gear Solid Crossover to cover the cost of covering legality issues). It also produces a game made by fans, with their own interests in mind… meaning something more humourous (albeit sometimes unintentionally) and definitely cheekier than anything made by the bigwigs.

Morroblivion is a fantastic Olbivion mod which allows the player to revisit the dark plains of Vvardenfell - where life is cheap, and loot is abundant… or the frosty forests of Solstheim - where the locals’ hearts are as cold as the land they inhabit (bar Uncle Sweetshare of course; what a gangster) or… the rubbish land of Mournhold, where there’s little to do and much to lament (such as the fact that you’d spent your hard earned on a pathetic excuse for an expansion pack).

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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.

Microsoft recently announced DirectX 11, the sequel to DirectX 9 (A  known and loved video-game programming interface for Windows - much unlike the quiet middle-child we call DirectX 10) during a recent Video-Game developer conference. Unsurprisingly it’ll be a vista exclusive, with probable support for future operating systems.

Microsoft Noggin Chris Satchell explains that the discontinuity between DirectX 9 and 10 (caused by the unnecessary necessity of DirectX 10 being limited to specific hardware) and that "DX11 is totally compatible with DX10. There’s not that 9/10 discontinuity we created before," while sweat emerged from his forehead and his eyes darted about the room… maybe Good news for the majority of gamers who don’t want to upgrade before their time.

Among the features announced is the fascinating inclusion of technology which will allow your GPU’s power to be shared with/work in parallel with the processor - meaning that you would be able to use any spare juice from your graphics card(s) as general processing power. An interesting concept which would hopefully, among other things, mean that you would be able to use your graphics card(s) as extra power for desktop (and other graphically non-intensive tasks).

Microsoft’s supposed PC-equivalent of Xbox Live has finally been made free - news which made me put down my cold beans on toast an applaud.

I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping that over the next year or so, people will flock to GFW Live simply because it’s free, and we might see the advantages of MS’s relationships with indie developers come to fruition in the form of a wave of launch titles for the (inevitable?) stand-alone client and marketplace.

Check out the Gamerscore Blog for the announcement.

The first o f the big three, and arguably the best conference was delivered by Microsoft this year. They not only made a reasonably beefy number of announcements but also covered a lot of highly anticipated games and gave us a deeper look into them.

They also introduced the new dashboard design, along with their infamous new Avatars which are due to hit Xboxes worldwide come Autumn (delivered via the mandatory Autumn update). Don’t worry if you bought any themes before the upcoming new dashboard… Microsoft assures that they will be compatible with the new dashboard, and Gamerpics are rumoured to follow suit.

Follow us for our comprehensive coverage of the Microsoft E3 Press Conference…

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