For many gamers, Halo 3 is the reason they bought an Xbox 360. As the biggest title in the 360's arsenal, Halo 3 is undoubtedly the most hyped game in existence. Notice, however, that we didn't say over-hyped. We've put in some serious hours reviewing this game, and after several exhaustive playthroughs both solo and co-op as well as countless bloodthirsty multiplayer rounds, we can announce that Halo 3 is everything that it needed to be to fulfill our wildest gaming fantasies... and then Bungie showed us The Forge.

Is Halo 3 beta registration closed?

Yes, phases one and two of the beta have already ended. If you haven't received an email by this point, then you were not one of the lucky few.

Is there no other way?!

If you didn't get in to either phase, then you can still get in by buying Crackdown, releasing in the US, on February 20th. Inside every launch copy of Crackdown is an invite to the Halo 3 beta.

How will the Crackdown invite work?

Once the Halo 3 beta has been activated (start date is still TBD) you simply go to the Downloads menu in Crackdown to download the Halo 3 beta. After that, you will need to launch the Halo 3 beta from within Crackdown. You will need an Xbox 360 with a hard drive and an Xbox Live Gold account.

Spencer Halpin has been working on Moral Kombat, a documentary on video game violence, for a long time. He's finished the film and has posted this trailer for it on YouTube. Spence, the brother of Entertainment Consumers Association founder Hal Halpin, interviewed me for this film a while back at the Dice Summit in Las Vegas with a green screen behind me. I talked about the loss of my brother to real-life violence and how I can reconcile that with playing violent games. He's made the film a visual wonder by splicing in game footage in the background behind the interviewees. What's cool is not just the discussion but the melding of visual images that relate to what the interviewees are saying.

"Gears of War clearly has won the battle for the title of the must-have game of the year," said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft Corp. "Its phenomenal success is one of many reasons why Xbox 360 is the ultimate place to get together with friends to play this holiday."

"We've always held high hopes for Gears of War, but we never expected such an overwhelmingly positive response from critics and gamers all over the world," said Michael Capps, president, Epic Games. "I can't describe how stoked our team is right now. Our fans can absolutely count on Epic to keep delivering new gameplay through Xbox Live."

In addition to being the must-have video game of the holiday season, Gears of War continues to rage on the Xbox Live battlefield as well, with more than 1 million unique gamers engaging in 10 million online gameplay sessions and unlocking an impressive 7 million achievements.* On top of being the No. 1 title on Xbox Live, Gears of War has driven new members to the network; paid registrations per day have skyrocketed more than 50 percent since the game's launch.

Later versions of Bomberman added new twists to the battle arenas-conveyor belts, pipes, warp zones, mine carts, catapults, kangaroos-and the power-ups also became more plentiful and diverse. The Bomberman character itself is also enduring: with his antenna-capped white helmet, pastel blue vest, black belt, and red hands and feet, he's one of the most recognized video game creations ever. The game's simplistic musical chimes also had a nasty habit of playing through one's head for days.

Then came the Genji 2 demo, which made me laugh and laugh so much. The idiocy of it has already caused it to become a bit of an internet joke, and it can be seen in the Sony Press Conference in One Minute video that's making the rounds. Once the giant crab creature showed its face in this historic game with real battles from history, there was no saving Sony's showing.

There is a reason the developers describe Black as "gun porn".

In this four-course feast for the explosion-starved, players fill the hobnails of Jack Kellar, part of the world's most brutal strike force, as he hunts down an ex-CIA operative in the Eastern Bloc.

But just as Burnout threw realism to the wind in favour of pulse-pounding carnage, so Black is devoid of any real strategy, puzzles or needlessly complicated plot.

Instead it favours the most lethal cocktail of weapons ever seen in a game and with the emphasis on blowing up anything that moves.

In fact, even if it does not move, you can pretty much reduce it to rubble, as in the Red Faction game.

The program teaches military personnel some key gestures such as an up-down movement with the right hand to ask someone to slow down and gives them tips such as removing mirror sunglasses when approaching local people.

"In Iraq, to show sincerity you have to put more effort into your gestures," said Dr Vilhjalmsson.

"In Western countries, we control our body language more. In Arabic culture, it is important you show how open you are."

He added that reserved body language in exchanges with local people could be interpreted as having something to hide in Iraq, potentially escalating a tense situation.

Military personnel also learn that people can approach each other more closely than one normally might in the West.

Developed by Avalanche, 25 To Life is a third-person shooter set in modern urban streets. You'll choose to play either cops or criminals to either infiltrate a drug lord's inner sanctum, or bust out of jail and fight your way up the ranks of the underground.

Gangster shooter Roll Call has been renamed and re-dated this week, publisher Eidos Interactive has announced. Roll Call will from henceforth be known as Zero Tolerance -- City Under Fire, and will now be released in the second-quarter of 2006 (sometime between spring and early summer, broadly speaking). This new date serves Europe, and possibly other PAL regions, whilst the publisher has yet to announce plans for North America. The game is still being created for the Xbox and the PS2, with Rocksteady Studios of London developing this latest gang-land action title.

At the start of the game, the war against the Bugs is not going well the bugs are rampaging across Hesperus - a planet perilously close to Earth. Colonised by man, Hesperus was once a haven of earthly tranquillity. Now, it is a terrifying battleground where the weaknesses of an implacable foe must be discovered and exploited. In a mix of 'mass action' and 'infiltration' levels it will be up to the player to make a difference in this titanic struggle and drive the arachnid invaders back into the depths of space.

The player is a member of the elite 'Marauder Unit' - the 'Delta Force' or 'SAS' of the future. As such, they are supplied with upgraded weapons and equipment, enabling them to participate in commando-style raids and stealth missions as well as 'toe-to-toe' mass battles. This allows us to challenge the player with a wide variety of different game play situations and gives them the opportunity to unleash an extensive range of weapons with enormous destructive power.

The AI, for the most part, seems very well done and the dynamic lighting effects work particularly well in adding mood to this desperate battle.

Starship Troopers does not look like it will be the type of shooter that will appeal to everyone. Even at the easy settings, the game spares no bugs for assaults at the higher difficulty levels. Battles can go on and on and just when you think it won’t ever end, they seem to subside.

But for those who are looking for intense combat situations, seemingly non-stop action, that is graphically pleasing, Starship Troopers may be just the title you are looking for.

Fox Broadcasting Co. has acquired the rights to develop THQ's best-selling sci-fi video game "Destroy All Humans!" into a half-hour CGI-animated comedy by former "King of the Hill" writer/co-executive producer Jim Dauterive. The deal marks the first time a video game will be used as the basis for a primetime network television program. The script will be developed through 20th Century Fox TV, where Dauterive has an overall deal. Set in the 1950s, the third-person action game puts players into the bulbous gray head of Crypto 137, an alien who has landed on Earth and is intent on destroying it.

"Videogame geeks and LAN-party enthusiasts everywhere, prepare to meet your Doom -- because it's really not all that bad."

Once again the heat is on developers of violent video games as Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York has targeted 25 to Life; an upcoming game which the Senator claims makes the Grand Theft Auto games look like "Romper Room" (a popular Children's TV Show in the U.S.). The video game is due out this summer. In the game you can either choose the side of gangs or the side of the law. The Senator wants this "cop killer" game boycotted by retailers and even calls on Microsoft and Sony to end their licensing agreements with Eidos.

Even Bill Gates is being criticized in the media hysteria over 25 to Life, a game available this summer for the PC, Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 2. The game, by U.K. game developer Eidos is being deplored for allowing players to kill police officers.

After being announced nearly four years ago at QuakeCon 2001, how much do we really know about Quake 4? We know the single-player game will continue the story of the Strogg introduced in Quake 2; that it's being developed by Raven Software (creators of the Soldier of Fortune games as well as the latest Jedi Knight games) under the watchful eye of franchise creator id Software; and that it's using the same next-gen technology used to power 2004's DOOM 3.

Tim Willits: I believe that Quake 2 had the best single-player universe of the Quake series, and that's what we're returned to. And then Quake 3 had the best multiplayer feeling and experience of the Quake series. So with Quake 4, you have the best single-player environment to go off of, and then you have the best multiplayer environment to build off of. And honestly, I believe this will be our best Quake -- we've had 10 years to make this that game great. It's really building off the experience of the other Quake, the experience of id, the experience of the guys at Raven -- all the pieces have come together to create the perfect environment to make an awesome game.