Robert Bowling, Community Manager for Infinity Ward, has revealed that the team has been hard at work on a playlist update for their hit shooter Call of Duty 4.

Along with the playlist update, which hasn’t been given a date yet, there is an Xbox Live and Playstation Network double-experience points promotion in the works for the weekend of September 13-14.

Here is a peek of some of the game types we should be seeing in the new update. Bowling has stated that the list is nowhere near complete yet, but it’s a teaser of what we might see soon. Read more…

Something in this image shows how the Celtics cheated, I’m just not sure what it is.

Electronic Arts has released a demo of NBA Live 09 today. New features like the Pick and Roll Control, Defensive Lockdown Control, Signature Playcalling, and Quickstrike Ankle-Breakers will make the NBA Live experience so much more fun. Read more…

Labor Day week officially starts off the fall gaming season with some high anticipated releases such as FaceBreaker, Infinite Undiscovery, Mercenaries 2 and, of course, Wiil Wright’s Spore. One of the most surprising, and delightful, releases for me this week is the classic SNES RPG, Super Mario RPG for the Virtual Console.

All I got to say is wow, too much gaming already this past month, and with even more hit titles coming out in the next few weeks and months, it looks like we’re all gonna be broke. Read more…

Kotaku is reporting the great news that Street Fighter IV has finally hit North American arcades. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll be able to find an arcade and if you’re even luckier you’ll find one with Street Fighter IV. Read more…

EA has announced today that their upcoming sci-fi/survival horror game Dead Space is launching a week earlier than planned. The 360 and PS3 versions were originally set for an October 31st launch, but will instead be dropping on the 21st in North America and on the 24th in Europe. The PC version will still be coming out on Halloween.

EA says they just finished earlier than expected, which is a great sign that the game is ready to scare the shit out of us!

Check out the E3 2008 video below for a quick peak at the game: Read more…

According to the official Gears of War website, the Microsoft booth will be hosting 5V5 Gears of War 2 multiplayer matches during this weekend’s Penny Arcade Expo. Read more…

This has easily got to be one of the best weeks for game releases this summer, and with fall quickly approaching, we needed one more big push of releases to end the summer off right.

There’s plenty of notable releases this week, including Tales of Vesperia for the 360, Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice for the PS3, Mario Super Sluggers for the Wii, and Tiger Woods 09 for multiple consoles.

Also a nice week for downloadable titles including Castle Crashers, the newest game from the makers of Alien Hominid, for the 360 and Helix, as well as Samurai Shodown II and Ys Book I & II for the Wii. Read more…

Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series, is 45 today, and we here at Ripten would like to wish him a very Happy Birthday.

Turning 45 doesn’t mean Kojima is old by any means, it just means that he’s got one less year left to give us more great games like Metal Gear Solid 4 before he retires. Happy Birthday Hideo!

The highly anticipated and long awaited PlayStation Home online virtual service has been delayed several times, but it seems that a launch date may finally be in sight.

Home producer, Martijn Van Der Meulen, commented at the Leipzig Games Convention about the release date of Home, guaranteeing that it would come out this year.

In an article published by IGN UK, Ryan Clements had the following to say: Read more…

Just a heads up for you Star Wars fans, the demo for LucasArts latest Jedi combat game, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, is up on Xbox Live now (and PSN later today) for those who want to try the game out.

The demo isn’t very long, weighing in at 904mb, but shows off plenty of force powers and fast combat. Go ahead and start your download now!

Source: Gamersreports.com

Nintendo just keeps getting tapped with patent troubles, with its highly successful Wii now the target of a patent lawsuit from Hillcrest Labs.

Hillcrest claims that its patent for “a handheld three-dimensional pointing device” and a vague description of a “navigation interface display system that graphically organizes content for display on a television” apparently predates Nintendo’s Wiimote.

On Wednesday, Maryland-based Hillcrest Labs announced that it has filed a patent infringement with the U.S. International Trade Commission, as well as another patent infringement suit in a U.S. District Court in Maryland regarding Nintendo’s Wiimote.

Hillcrest Labs does have a product based on this technology, called The Loop remote (pictured above), based on what the company calls “Freespace” motion control technology. It seems clear that The Loop remote is much different from the Wiimote, and its hard to believe that something so vague as “a 3D pointing device” could actually best Nintendo in a court of law. Read more…

Qwerty FTW! Straight out of the Leipzig Games Convention today, Sony has taken steps to make typing out invitations for your Home house warming party a little easier.

The company has confirmed that they are launching a bluetooth-enabled wireless keypad attachment with full support for all typing related actions in the console’s line up of games.

The device features a “touchpad mode” for mouse input along with two additional short cut buttons giving easy access to XMB presets such as “Friends” and “Message Box”. Connecting the keypad to your controller will be simple, as it snaps onto the top of a SIXAXIS or DualShock3 controller via the mini-USB port.

The keypad will ship with eight different flavors to support multiple languages. No word on pricing yet, but we can expect to see the device in the US and Japan by the end of November, and in Europe before the end of the year.

Full specs available after the jump. Read more…

After ten years in the making and jumps from the PS One and Gamecube to the Xbox 360, Too Human is finally coming out this week and we’ll get to see if the game was truly worth the wait.

Other highlights of the week include Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty for the PS3, Two Worlds: Epic Edition for PC and I’m pretty hyped up for the original Mega Man for the Wii, via the Virtual Console. Read more…

The latest issue of Famitsu is all about the recent Square Enix DKS3713 event, and according to reports, the Playstation 3 exclusive Final Fantasy XIII demo that comes bundled with the upcoming Blu-ray edition of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete will actually run longer than the CGI film.

The FFXIII demo will come on a separate Blu-ray disc to the film, is reported to be from the begining of the game, and will run at least 90 minutes long, if not longer. That’s tight shit!

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete is scheduled for a March 2009 release.

Source: Famitsu, via PSU.com

EA Sports has announced the 42-song soundtrack to FIFA Soccer 09 this morning. Featuring songs from 21 countries and a number of genres, the soundtrack follows the style of their previous sports games with a mix of both established and new music acts. Some of the artists include The Ting Tings, Kasabian, The Kooks, Foals, and Duffy. Read more…

Weighing in at just over 1GB, the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 demo just hit Xbox Live today and is packed with three holes on the new course, Gary Player Country Club in South Africa. Read more…

Football season has finally arrived as Madden NFL 09 hits almost every game console including the original Xbox, but not the GameCube. The highly anticipated Bionic Commando: Rearmed also comes out this week hitting both the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. A few other notable games are coming out too, but with Madden 09 being released, I won’t be playing any other game. Read more…

The SOCOM: Confrontation Public Beta will finally start up on September 1st and will last through the whole month of September.

There are two ways of getting into the SOCOM: Confrontation Public Beta. The first way is by pre-ordering SOCOM: Confrontation at GameStop and you’ll receive an access code to get into the Public Beta. You’ll also be able to share the code with two other friends to allow them access into the Public Beta. You can pre-order the game at GameStop either in-store or online to receive your voucher. Read more…

Starting the week October 14th, you will be able to pick up the following versions of SOCOM: Confrontation in North America: Bundle version at $59.99, stand alone version at $39.99 and the PSN version at $39.99.

Here’s a quick description of the bundles: Read more…

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Bungie’s lead AI programmer Damian Isla praises Activision and Infinity Ward’s hugely successful FPS, Call of Duty 4. Even going as far as saying that Halo could learn a few things from Call of Duty.

“We have a lot to learn from their success too, they did some very innovative things to keep people going and their experience-rewards system was something that we paid a lot of attention to,” Isla explained.

“I think it’s a great game and single player obviously is fantastic… they did a hell of a job with their set pieces, of scripting certain moments that they were really sure the player was going to actually see and experience first hand. The way that they use those moments to craft the player experience…Halo has a lot to learn from.”

While both games are extremely outstanding and have a strong fan base, the battle for the most-played game on Xbox Live continues between Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4.

It’s good to hear that Bungie is willing to learn from other successful games so they can make their titles better. Because we all know improvements can always be made to make any game better.

Source: gamesindustry.biz