SCEA has announced a new downloadable map pack for SOCOM: Confrontation is on the way. Known simply as the Cold Front pack, it will be loaded with new features and contents, including a brand new snowy Eastern European area of operations. It will also include two new maps and three classic SOCOM maps for 16 to 32 players.

Games for cheap! Get some good titles for your PS3 or Xbox 360 for as little as US$ 9.99, courtesy of BestBuy. Other titles on sale are at US$ 19.99, and there are more at US$ 39.99. Pretty good sale, this one. List is in the full article.

That's right, Gamestation's Advent Calendar is back, and we're gonna be seeing one discounted title every day until Christmas. Follow this calendar of games-for-less and I'm sure you won't use boughs of holly to deck your halls this Christmas.

Saboteur (Xbox 360, PS3) won't be making a splash on Q1 of 2009 as originally expected. Pandemic and EA's freedom-fighting action-adventure title has been pushed back to the next fiscal year. Read up on it more after the jump.

Yay for more destruction! Pandemic Studios has announced that they're prepping an update for Mercenaries 2: World in Flames on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Called the "Total Payback" update, it's set to add more features to the game.

We have several weeks left before we finally get our hands on Konami Digital Entertainment's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and the home stretch of the waiting period is killing us. To keep you preoccupied, we decided to feature some of the key characters of the game on a weekly basis to freshen our memories on their roles in the series. This week, we've got the creator of Metal Gear REX and nerdy sidekick extraordinaire Hal "Otacon" Emmerich.

Fans of Electronic Arts and Pandemic Studios' Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, and PC) rejoice! The game has finally been dated for launch. In addition, the developers have also released a new trailer of the upcoming video game. To find out more and see the video, head on over to the full article.

EA Montreal General Manager Alain Tascan revealed today that they are having problems with some groups of people who are rather affected by the subject matter Army of Two (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) tackles. He said, however, that they are not trying to make any political statements. The rest of the story after the jump!

Pandemic Studios and BioWare are currently on the hotseat after Electronic Arts' shocking acquisition of both development studios, and we're fortunate enough that they're giving answers to fans who aren't very happy. In an interview, Pandemic made it pretty clear that the partnership with EA won't hinder the developers from being creative.

According to Pandemic chief production officer Greg Borrud, nothing is changing in how Pandemic develops games or what games they choose to develop. He also adds that the acquisition will not break the company's "core pillars of building big brands", regular game events, or their ability to attract the best talent in the industry.

Co-founder and president Josh Resnick continued, saying that EA probably wanted to buy them because of Pandemic's "ability to be creative... and to really stretch our limits and innovative, and to really focus on creating blockbuster original IPs." He stressed out that new and original IPs will be coming without restrictions from EA.

What Pandemic can learn from the partnership, as Resnick sees it, is how to have a powerful marketing organization and make franchises go forward by spinning out many games. Pandemic CEO Andrew Goldman and Borrud agree that passing technology around is another positive draw to the US$ 860 million deal with a publishing giant like EA.

Aside from having access to support from Electronic Arts, Pandemic big wigs say nothing much will be changed in the development pipeline. Hopefully, we won't be seeing annual Destroy All Humans! titles or titles like Mercenaries 09 any time soon.

When Koei promised us one heck of a hack n' slash party and being able to mow through hundreds (even thousands) of enemies in the form of Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War, we just know that we're in for a big surprise. Now that the Bladestorm demo is out on PlayStation Network, we're going to find out what it is we can expect from the game, compared to our own expectations.

The game starts off in the tavern where mercenaries get their contracts from. Surprisingly, the demo already lets players customize their characters...and it's not just merely choosing from an available stock characters, but one can choose to play as a male or female character, and even choose facial features. Of course, players can name their in-game avatar.

The tavern also offers other services and options, like accessing character inventory and status, listening to gossip, and even buy equipment. There's only one piece of equipment available for purchase in the demo, however. It should be noted that in the demo, the System menu is blacked out, preventing players from using the save function in the demo.

Now, customizing characters in a demo and getting access to all of the game's features save the System menu is nothing short of awesome, but why is it that we keep on grinning and laughing amongst ourselves instead of dropping our jaws in awe? Simply put, it's the voice acting. The barkeep's badly-mimicked accent just sounds too strange to be French, and is nothing short of chuckle-worthy. Even the voice of our custom female player has a cute accent as well. But its bearable, though a bit distracting.

In the game, players can choose to play either for the English or the French, then choose any of the available job contracts offered by either army. Contracts generally require taking over a certain stronghold, or base. Once fulfilled, you will be rewarded with equipment and a certain amount of Fame.

Read the rest of the review in the Full Article link!