Feed: Jolt - AggScore: 45.1

Codemasters on Bodycount

Sony announces new PLAY promotion on PSN

It's essentially buy four and get one free on PSN

Sony announced their new PLAY promotion on PSN in order to shed a light on their PSN downloads lineup.

Starting on the 10th of August, PSN will be able to pre-order some of the biggest PSN title due out over the next two months. Pre-order or purchase all four of the specially selected titles by September the 20th and you will be rewarded with an additional free game, Payday: The Heist.

The games begin with Street Fighter III Third Strike Online Edition (14.99 EUR) which releases on August the 24th. This is followed by the next game in the DeathSpank series, The Baconing (12.99 EUR) on August the 31st. Next is the 2D action platformer BloodRayne: Betrayal (12.99 EUR) on September the 7th. The offer concludes with SEGA and Avalanche's driving action title Renegade Ops (12.99 EUR) on September the 14th.

Payday: The Heist will be available to pre-order from September the 21st and those who buy all of the above titles will receive a code to download the game on its release. No price has been announced for Payday as yet.

DOOM 3 source code to be released by id for free

DOOM 3 to follow in Return to Castle Wolfenstein's footsteps

John Carmack has announced that id will be releasing the source code for DOOM 3 for fre later this year.

Id Software has a history of releasing the source code of their titles once they become obsolete to let the modding and indie development community get their hands on them and DOOM 3 will be the first title they make public as part of Zenimax.

Carmack also urged other developers, when he made the announcement at this year's QuakeCon, to make similar moves in the hope that the source code will allow new developers to better learn their trade.

The DOOM 3 source code will be released some time after Rage debuts this October on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Thanks Eurogamer.

EA confirms no Battlefield 3 on Steam

EA and Steam rift continues

EA has confirmed the rumours that Battlefield 3 will not be available through Steam potentially indicating the rift between EA and Valve's dominant download platform is at the very least continuing if not growing.

Crysis 2 and Dragon Age II have already been removed from Steam due to conflicts with the download platform's new terms of service although EA maintains that they are looking for ways to return their key titles to Steam.

EA said of the pulling of Dragon Age II: "Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to sell downloadable content. No other download service has adopted this practice. Consequently some of our games have been removed by Steam. We hope to work out an agreement to keep our games on Steam.

Battlefield 3 is out on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October the 25th in the US and October the 28th in Europe.

Thanks IndustryGamers.

The crowded November schedule is healthy for the industry says Bethesda

There may be some casualties though

Bethesda's Pete Hines believes that, despite the congestion, a busy November is good for the industry.

November is usually a fairly busy month for big releases but this year is especially packed with top titles. This year the congestion includes The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim alongside the usual Call of Duty release, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Need for Speed: The Run and Saints Row: The Third.

Hines explained: "It's probably healthy for the industry because the industry gets a lot of attention when there's all these things happening. Just like the movie industry gets a lot of buzz when there's a bunch of really big things at the movies and everyone's talking about them all."

He added: "It's probably not healthy for everyone who has one of those titles, because as you rightly pointed out usually someone gets the short end of the stick. Someone ends up falling short and not doing quite what they expected to do."

Bethesda has The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on November the 11th and they also have Rage out on October the 4th. Both are out on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Thanks GamesIndustry.biz.

Xbox 360S 250GB model now comes in a matte finish

360 now fingerprint-free

Microsoft has announced that they are now doing the slim Xbox 360 250GB model in a matte finish as well as the standard gloss finish.

It was only the 4GB model that was previously available in matte as a way to distinguish between the two different models.

This move will please a lot of fans who felt that the glossy finish on the 250GB model was as susceptible to fingerprints and scratches as the original fat PS3s.

The new model is available from today.

Thanks ShopTo.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

SOCOM: Special Forces

Decide the greatest NBA team ever in NBA 2K12

Legendary teams to feature in this year's title

2K Sports will give NBA fans the chance to settle once and for all the argument over which NBA team from history is the all-time greatest with NBA 2K12.

After seeing huge amount of success last time out with the extensive tribute to Michael Jordan's career in his Hall of Fame year with NBA 2K11, This year's game will feature a whole host of legendary line-ups featuring the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Julius 'Dr J' Irving, Larry Bird and Avery 'Magic' Johnson.

As well as playing through classic match-ups from some of the greatest games of all time players will be able to pit these historical team lineups against the best today's NBA has to offer.

NBA fans will be able to see in Kobe Bryant's Lakers are a patch on Magic Johnson's or Kareem Abdul-Jabar's or see if Larry Bird's Lakers can match up to the Jordan-era Bulls.

NBA 2K12 is out on Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP and Wii on October the 7th.

Steam's Jason Holtzman to keynote the London Games Conference

Digital is the theme for this year

This year's London games Conference will take a distinctly digital theme as it has signed Steam's Jason Holtzman up as keynote speaker.

Also on the lineup will be SEGA's head of digital development, John Clark and the London School of Economics visiting professor and digital forensics expert Peter Sommer talking about online security.

The conference will also feature talks from Square Enix Life president Ian Livingstone and the always entertaining Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux.

The London Games Conference is scheduled for the 10 of November at the Royal Society for Medicine.

EA reveals the pre-order bonus packs for Battlefield 3

GAME and Gamestation shoppers get the best bonus

EA has announced what they will be giving out as pre-order bonuses with Battlefield 3 when it arrives at the end of October.

Pre-orders at GAME and Gamestation will receive the Physical Warfare pack which includes the Type 88 light machine gun with bipod for laying down lethal suppressing fire for the rest of your squad, the SKS sniper rifle flash flash suppressor that makes sniper rifles less easy to pinpoint and the armour-piercing flechette rounds for the DAO-12 semi-automatic shotgun.

Those pre-ordering at Amazon.co.uk will receive the SPECACT Kit which features eight unique multiplayer skins giving players more customisation options in multiplayer modes.

Finally, Play.com pre-orders will receive the Dog Tag Pack giving player five new unique Dog Tags which are displayed every time an enemy is taken down.

Battlefield 3 is out on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October the 28th in the UK.

No PS Vita this year in the West

Only Japan will see the new handheld for Christmas

Sony has confirmed sadly that they will not be releasing the PS Vita in Europe or the US this year.

Sony Kaz Hirai made the announcement at their Tokyo offices giving every indication that the console would be released in Japan at least by the end of 2011.

Hirai seemed unperturbed by the impending 3DS price slash saying: "We packed so much into the device and made it very affordable. There is no need to lower the price just because somebody else that happens to be in the video game business decided that they were going to lower their price."

We have heard unconfirmed reports from our retail sources that they delay is to do with a shortage of batteries for the device.

Thanks Associated Press.

Modern Warfare 3 due on the Wii this year

Infinity Ward series to skip an episode on the Wii

Activision has announced that there will be a Wii version of Modern Warfare 3 due out this year.

While they wouldn't be drawn on a date or on whether the game will be compatible with the Call of Duty Elite social networking service they are adamant that it will arrive in tome for Christmas.

This will mean that the Modern warfare story will skip an episode as the Wii version of Call of Duty 4 was only released around the same time as the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC release of Modern Warfare 2.

Modern Warfare 2 was not released on the Wii due to hardware constraints although World at War and Black Ops both launched on the Wii at the same time as the other versions.

Thanks CVG.

Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge

Borderlands 2 announced by 2K Games

Gearbox's RPG sequel to debut at Gamescom

2K Game has announced 2 pieces of very good news for Borderlands fans that will give them a very happy August.

The first bit of good news is that Gearbox are working on Borderlands 2 due for release some time in the financial year beginning April 2012 on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Borderlands 2 promises new areas of Pandora to explore, an ambitious new story, new characters and skills and, most importantly bucketloads of new weapons to get to grips with.

The world will get its first taste of Borderlands 2 at this years Gamescom in Cologne which runs from the 26th to the 28th of August.