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In action movies, when the hero has only minutes before the readout on the bomb counts down to zero, with many miles to drive (driving games) through a congested city in order to get there in time, he'll just ignore traffic lights and floor it. Wouldn't it be great if you could do the same thing on the Internet if your torrents don't download fast enough? Now you can. Maybe.

PCGH reveals the advantages and disadvantages of the PC version of GTA4. Poor shadows and textures contra good particle effects and big range of visibility.

From War Herald:

"The update you've all been waiting for, 1.0.6, is almost here! We wanted to thank everyone who tested and provided feedback on this update's content.

On Tuesday, 12/2/08 all servers will be brought offline to begin the update. North American servers will be brought down at 6:30AM EST with Oceanic servers to follow at 9:00AM EST.

Work continues on Battlefield Heroes despite the recent closure of the game (free games to play) 's beta, and producer Aleksander Grondal recently talked it up with Gamasutra. Grondal isn't a Battlefield developer veteran, instead having previously worked on Anarchy online (free-games-online) and Dreamfall at Funcom. As such, he brings a different mentality to the team working on Heroes, which he claims is a mixture of half newcomers to the series and half previous Battlefield developers.

A New Free to Play online (free-games-online) Hunting game (free games to play) Merges Realistic Hunting Action With Social Network Functionality.

From the Macintosh to the Wii there have been some great Star Wars video games, and this list names the ten best of all time.

Grundy the Man writes, "As much as I appreciate my own Mac, it is awesome to see someone poke so many holes in the stigma that is Apple. Sundays episode of the Simpsons did just that, taking Apple to task using the fake name Mapple. There is even a special appearance from Steve Mobs (yes, that is not a misspelling.) So sit back and relax, while The Simpsons tear Apple a new one! Check out the hilarious clip here..."

Google has published its plan to build into Chrome what is arguably its most requested feature: the ability to accept extensions that can customize how the open-source Web browser operates.

And guess what? Google's dependence on advertising notwithstanding, one of the extension examples the company points to is the ability to block advertisements.

Internet Usage Caps have been a touchy subject the past few months. The average user dont understand what an internet cap is, nor do they probably care as there usage probably only equates to about 3 or 4 gig a month. There Will come a time when the Avg user will have to fight back though as movie rentals via XBOX 360 and other devices are streamed though the internet costing 4 to 5 gig a rental. Played To Death Magazine, has written a nice life like article about how this could effect you.

WorthPlaying writes: Empire: Total War, the new installment in The Creative Assembly's Total War RTS franchise, will maintain the series 3D battles, grand turn based campaign map and rich historical flavor while for the first time introducing 3D naval combat into the series.

After the insane amounts of free Burnout Paradise DLC that Criterion has released, it's hardly surprising that the developer has decided to get paid for its next batch of downloadable treats.

The upcoming Big Surf Island update for the ball-out racer was previously touted as free content, like previous DLC packages, but Criterion has confirmed that it will instead be "premium paid-for content".

It didn't reveal a price, but to be fair the update looks bloody brilliant so we wouldn't mind handing over a few quid.

Greedy Raven writes, "No, I didn't get lazy here. The first Prince of Persia game (free games to play) on the next generation consoles is the first in the series without a subtitle. To be honest, I doubt it will need one. The series excelled as an action adventure game (free games to play) in the previous generation with little problem at all. The unique game (free games to play) play elements and stories of the past generation always brought something new to the table..."

EA and DICE have finally revealed some of the changes that can be expected from the 1.50 BF2 patch. Right now they are just talking about security fixes but the one's they do mention are vital at this point (at any point actually).

Inside the frosted glass doors of Afkar Media, located in Damascus's newly-built free-zone, software developers are trying to rebuild a civilization inside a video game (free games to play) .

Set to be released in September, "Al-Quraysh" is a strategy game (free games to play) that tells the story of the first 100 years of Islam's history from the viewpoint of four different nations - Bedouins, Arabs, Persians, and Romans.

Need for Speed Undercover maybe is not the best racing game (free games to play) but the Japanese distributor is doing a great job with a promotional web game (free games to play) based on Google Maps. The first who will fin a Porsche in the tokyo map will win 1 million yen!

LucasArts has been around for over a quarter-century now and in that time they've managed to create some pretty great and some pretty not-so-great games. Curious how that happened? The new book Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts provides a detailed history of the company - along with a lot of pictures for you word-haters out there.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com at a recent press event in London, Wheelman creative director Simon Woodroffe revealed that Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV has changed what gamers expect from an open world action title.

Strategy Informer writes: "With the BattleForge beta currently in full swing, we thought it high time we gave EA Phenomic a ring to learn some more about the novel RTS/trading card hybrid.

Taking its cue from the online (free-games-online) community of WoW and the card collecting of Magic: The Gathering, BattleForge is an intriguing concept for an online (free-games-online) RTS, so we caught up with BattleForge's producer, Sebastien Nell who was on hand to chat with us on the phone about the game (free games to play) and fill us in on the details. Read on…"

Eurogamer writes: "DICE hopes to start an open beta for Battlefield 2 patch 1.5 before Santa stuffs himself down chimneys.

"The beta would be for everyone that wants to install it, the more people that do the better feedback we get and we don't have an update 1.30 again," said a spokesperson for the developer on the official forum (spotted by Blue's News).

"The plan is to get it out before Christmas yes."

Rockstar Games is no stranger to Australia's strict videogame classification regime. Even before the company's highly anticipated title Grand Theft Auto IV hit shelves worldwide in April this year, rumours of edits to the Australian Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions began to circulate.

Internet Explorer, MSN, Windows, Office. Four of Microsoft's biggest products are under attack. What does this mean for Microsoft and the Xbox 360?

Engadget writes: "Hey you, hot-shot movie cutter! Now that we've got your attention, have a look at this. Adobe's research laboratory has been toiling away with a sophisticated interactive video-object manipulation system, which gives video editors all sorts of creative windows with next to no rendering lag. An After Effects demonstration shows an editor selecting the outside of a cab and typing "taxi" -- once the text is imprinted on the vehicle, it stays on the car (driving games) as it moves up and down the street.

Kit Blanke writes:

"PC gamers know, if you wanna game (free games to play) on a PC, you have to do it on Windows OS. Yes, there are notable exceptions. The different Linux flavors have a number of games that really aren't half bad, and Apple is starting to come around to some serious games. But there are always exceptions to the rule. Because of the iPhone, Apple is rewriting those rules."

SlapStic contributor Eclipse expresses his disdain for the modern MMO with this list. Addiction, possible girlfriend loss, and bank-account drainage are mentioned, among others.

Softpedia writes: "Need For Speed Undercover promised to bring back all of the things that made Electronic Arts' famous racing franchise so popular, namely the free roaming environment and the police. It was marketed by EA as the title that would erase the ugly memory of ProStreet from the minds of racers and offer them a great gameplay experience.

Eurogamer writes:

"But seriously: a genuinely ground-breaking blockbuster in videogame history. There were moments playing GTA IV that I thought back to my initial experiences with games, and realised exactly how far we've come. There's never been anything quite like GTA IV in the world. That there makes me genuinely happy to be a gamer.

Also, beating up people and taking their money and stuff."

Green Pixels gives 7 suggestions for how to save your loved ones from their destructive, potentially life threatening, addiction to World of Warcraft. Even if you can't help, this list has some crazy stuff that you've probably always wanted to do to frustrate someone.

The talented team behind Black Mesa published the official trailer from the complete re-creation of the game (free games to play) Half-Life. Enjoy.

GameXtract writes "Recently Kotaku's writer Mike Fahey received a creepy letter in his mailbox contained a message, and a DVD. The DVD featured an amateur yet mysterious overweight man talking through a digital voice changer about the case above. The instruction were along the lines of to go fetch the case seen above from a storage unit, and to await for the next clue on the December the 5th that will unlock the three digit combination that currently keeps the case shut.

Microsoft have announced that fans of the smash hit blockbuster Gears of War can further immerse themselves in the Gears of War 2 experience by enjoying the alternate soundtrack this Christmas.

Following on from the Mad World TV advert that accompanied the first game (free games to play) , Microsoft have again delivered an emotive, cutting edge TV ad for Gears of War 2 with Last Day. Invoking the emotion and desperation of humanity's last stand against overwhelming odds, the ad uses the track How It Ends, by Colorado-based band Devotchka...

Someone decides to prank call "Coast to Coast AM with George Noory" by describing a dream that sounds very much like Fallout 3.

Maybe you missed it last weekend, but on November 23, 2008, Guns N' Roses released their 6th album, "Chinese Democracy", after a 15 year wait! Many had given up all hope of ever seeing the album and had moved on, but apparently good things come to those who wait, as the record is getting good reviews.

"We're still reporting on Second Life, but only as part of our usual tech and media coverage," a Reuters spokeswoman confirmed to The Register (via game (free games to play) Politics). After only two years of activity, one of the world's leading news services decided to end its virtual branch in the world of Second Life, and it may have taken a month-and-a-half for anyone to notice. The last entry on their site is dated September 30.

A fifteen year old boy in Sweden has had a seizure from playing too much World of Warcraft.

X Motor Racing trailer 5 has been released, showing the telemetric side of the game (free games to play) 's performance. It gives us an idea as to how many different factors are taken into consideration to bring reality to the driving experience.

Eric Schild writes: