EA just announced that undefeated EliteXC mixed martial arts fighter and American Gladiator Gina Carano will be playing Natasha, a deadly Soviet commando, in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, which comes out for the PC and Xbox 360 this holiday season.

Not only will Carano appear in the live-action movie cutscenes, but her character will be a playable unit in the game.  Carano made these comments about her new role:

The last year has been such a whirlwind for me, from everything that’s happening with EliteXC this weekend to American Gladiators and now with EA and Red Alert 3.

Natasha is such a cool, powerful character; her actions definitely speak louder than her words which is something I definitely identify with. I can’t wait to see how everything turns out and I hope all of the gamers out there have a great time wreaking havoc as me.

Now is it just me, or is Command & Conquer turning into Dancing with the Stars? What’s up with using B celebrities in this franchise? Let’s see: so far we have James Earl Jones (Star Wars), Josh Holloway (Lost), Billy Dee Williams (Star Wars), Michael Biehn (The Terminator, Aliens), Natasha Henstridge (Species), Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica), Jennifer Morrison (House), and Michael Ironside (Top Gun).

Who’s next on their list? Michael Madsen? Lance Henriksen?

Today Ray Maguire officially revealed that the PS3 has passed the 1 million mark in the UK.

Before Christmas Maguire was very confident that the 40GB PS3 would boost its sales dramaticly through the holiday season, even without PS2 backwards compatability. His fortune telling appears to have come good:

Achieving one million PS3 sales faster than both PSOne and PlayStation 2 is even more gratifying considering PS3 is a premium product introduced at a premium price.

Our momentum will continue with the introduction of in-game communication in the summer, firmware update 2.4 and the strongest line-up of games through our third party partners and our own studios.

I’d personally like to thank our trade and business partners for helping us on the start of the PS3 journey.

There are two things that catch my attention in his comments. One is that the PS3 is selling better than Sony’s other two smash hit consoles in a similar period. Though much of this can be attributed to the growth of the games market, it’s still surprising that the highly priced console has sold so well. Note: the PS2 had two price drops in its first year in the UK – a tactic that Sony had to employ once again.

Secondly, the mention of firmware 2.4 hitting this summer is news to us, especially with the inclusion of (improved) “in-game communication.” This must mean that firmwares 2.2 and 2.3 are on their way pretty soon.

Source: MCV UK

Image: Telegraph.co.uk

December was the last we heard of the lifetime sales of the next generation of consoles in France. We were given the figures 270,000 for the Playstation 3 and 500,000 for the Xbox 360. According to the French newspaper Les Echoes, the Playstation 3’s lifetime sales have since doubled.

Microsoft announced in December that they had sold 500,000 Xbox 360s in France since the console was released, and Jeux France filled in the gaps for the PS3 and Wii, placing them at 270,000 and 1,100,000 units sold respectively.

It is now been divulged that Jeux France’s estimate for PS3 sales were either inaccurate, or that the PS3 has sold more than the same amount in the holiday period.

According to Les Echoes, who reported Microsoft’s sales announcement, the PS3 has sold 563,000 units, compared to the Xbox 360’s 589,000 as of this month. Although the Xbox 360 leads in these numbers, Microsoft’s console was released over a year before Sony’s offering. These numbers are supposedly from the Gfk Institute, suggesting that Sony’s price drop considerably narrowed the gap during the holiday season.

It’s surprising that this could happen so soon, but with a statement from SCEE’s vice president George Fornay, this jump in sales is explained:

By selling, on average, three times more PS3 than Xbox 360 a week, it took precedence over Microsoft

Always defiant, Microsoft responds with the fact that the Xbox 360 still leads in lifetime sales:

Sony is in catch-up mode, but we are still the market leader, according to our data, even in France.

After the price drop, Europe has really taken to the Playstation 3, barring the UK, and with sales like they are in France, Les Echoes claims that the PS3 will double the Xbox 360’s sales in the coming weeks. I’m not so sure about that.

Source: Xbox Mag