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New details have piled in on THQ sequel to Saints Row, which is heading to Xbox 360 and PS3 next year.

According to the latest mag previews, Saints Row 2 is set to feature a city 45 percent larger than the Xbox 360 original, with new vehicles including motorbikes, jet-skis and speedboats. So far, so GTA.

What’s new though is the introduction of aircraft such as planes and helicopters, which excitingly you can smash right through buildings. You can’t destroy buildings entirely, but smashing through windows should open up plenty of gameplay opportunities.

Hostages can now be taken and used as human shields, weapons can be dual-wielded and you can rip things out of the environment and use them as melee weapons.

Character customisation has also been enhanced with the option to tweak your characters sex; male, female or whatever’s in-between. Transsexual gangsters are well on the agenda.

The most exciting feature of the sequel though, and probably the only real reason you should divert your excitement from GTA IV, is the promise of a full-on Crackdown-style co-op mode allowing you to play through the single-player campaign with a comrade.

Considering how brilliant Crackdown co-op was, this feature could be crucial. We’ll let you know how it turns out.

Courtesy of CVG.

Valve Software is set to release new maps for Team Fortress 2, the team-based multiplayer sequel featured in The Orange Box.

Shacknews reports that the developer plans to release the maps individually for PC and in a map pack for TF2 on Xbox 360. As yet there’s been no mention of the maps releasing for the PS3 version.

Quite what the maps are and precisely when they’ll be released also has yet to be announced.

In related news, a patch for Team Fortress 2 on Xbox 360 that addresses bugs and exploits (among other things) is due. Fingers crossed, it’ll be before Christmas.

Courtesy of CVG.

Ubisoft has offloaded its weekly release schedule, revealing a handful of delays for its 2008 shooters Far Cry 2, Haze and Brothers in Arms.

As if we didn’t know already, the French publisher has confirmed that Free Radical shooter Haze won’t make it into the shops this year, and is now destined for release in “early 2008″.

Meanwhile Far Cry 2 has seen a month delay, putting its release back to March – though from what little we’ve seen of it so far we’ll be impressed if it even makes it out that early.

The really bad news is that Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway has been delayed again – though only on PlayStation 3. PS3 owners will now have to wait until March for the Gearbox shooter – one month later than Xbox 360 and PC gamers.

Isn’t it about time Xbox 360 and PS3 games actually came out at the same time?

Courtesy of CVG.

the Turok Blog has been updated talking about the Dinosaurs within the game.  I haven’t had time to read over this myself yet but going on previous blog posts im sure it will be interesting

The PC and Xbox 360 versions will be patched this week, says the game’s official site, and new download content in the form of extra plasmids and gene tonics.

“Both the BioShock PC Patch and the 360 Title Update will be available next week,” says the Cult of Rapture official site.

“In addition to these fixes, we will be releasing downloadable content free on both Xbox Live and for the PC, with the DLC bundled into the PC Patch.”

The site doesn’t go into detail on what extra goodies can be expected in the DLC, but we’ve heard that brand new plasmids – such as a splicer-flinging Sonic Blast and a Vampire-like trick – and new gene tonics will be included.

Full details will be on the Cult of Rapture as the patches go live.

Courtesy of CVG

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (UU’s)
1 Halo 3
2 Call of Duty 4
3 Assassin’s Creed
4 Guitar Hero III
5 Gears of War
6 Mass Effect
7 Madden NFL 08
8 MX vs. ATV: Untamed DEMO
9 Guitar Hero II
10 Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Vegas

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Undertow
2 Screwjumper!
3 Shrek-n-Roll
4 Switchball
5 Word Puzzle
6 Battlestar Galactica
7 3D Ultra™ Minigolf Adventures
8 Bomberman LIVE
9 Bankshot Billiards 2
10 Alien Hominid HD
The arcade list is based on full versions purchased.

Original Xbox Top Live Games
1 Halo 2
2 Battlefield 2: MC
3 Counter-Strike
4 Madden NFL 08
5 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
6 Call of Duty 3
7 Rainbow Six 3
8 Madden NFL 07
9 Ghost Recon 2
10 Rainbow Six 3 BA

These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade, full versions purchased this week.

Following the registration of the elderscrollsonline.com domain name, now ZeniMax, the owner of Bethesda Softworks, has licensed the Simutronics HeroEngine for a “massively multiplayer game project currently getting underway.”

Last year, BioWare licensed the HeroEngine for the company’s first massively multiplayer online game, currently in development at its Austin studio and rumored to be a KOTOR MMO.

With today’s announcement, there are enough evidence to believe that there’s a Elder Scrolls massively multiplayer online game in the works.

GAITHERSBURG, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Simutronics announced today that ZeniMax Online Studios has licensed the Simutronics HeroEngine. ZeniMax Online will use HeroEngine in connection with their massively multiplayer game (MMO) project currently getting underway.

MMO games are one of the fastest growing segments of the videogames market, with billions of dollars in global revenues – projected to reach $13 billion per year by 2011 according to DFC Intelligence. Millions of people around the world come together in online MMO games such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and Lineage to cooperate and compete with each other in a virtual world.

“ZeniMax Online selected HeroEngine because we determined it will serve our needs best,” said Matt Firor, President of ZeniMax Online Studios. “That fact that we can get up and running with meaningful art and content in the near term makes the HeroEngine a perfect fit for us.”

Simutronics first launched HeroEngine as a licensed development platform in 2006 after five years of development. Since that time the Simutronics team has added dozens of new features and integrated key technologies from the leading middleware vendors in the videogame industry. HeroEngine is being used worldwide by development teams looking for faster time to market through the HeroEngine’s unique collaborative development as well as unique tools for rapid prototyping and world building and a content pipeline that is optimized for the needs of MMO development teams.

“We are thrilled to have ZeniMax using HeroEngine,” said David Whatley, founder and CEO of Simutronics. “We have been fans of ZeniMax’s Bethesda Softworks games for years, and to have ZeniMax Online Studios as our latest licensee is an honor and strong validation of our team’s hard work and great design.”

Yesterday, as part of Ubisoft’s end of the quarter fiscal talk with their investors, they revealed that the 360 exclusive Splinter Cell Conviction is taking longer than expected to develop and has been delayed. Originally, Conviction was planned for release sometime between January and March 2008, but Ubisoft made it clear that the game wouldn’t release in that time frame and is now targeted for sometime on or after April 2008. And we know, being the kind heart you are, that your instant reaction to the Conviction delay is to worry about Ubisoft’s financials. But don’t, because Ubisoft already planned for the delay and their earnings outlook is in check.