<span class="articleText">The open world crime simulation genre (if you can even call that a genre) has always been the most logical one to use to bring the 1940s and 50s world of organized crime seen in The Godfather to life in videogames. Neither of EA's actual existing gamesbased on Mario Puzo's epic story ended up being that great though for a number of reasons. In 2002, even before those games had been released, Illusion Softworks was able to craft a rich period piece that evoked memories of some of the best mafia-based movies ever made called, appropriately enough, Mafia. This year, 2K Czech (the renamed

<span class="articleText">Even if you love the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games, you can't deny that the genre has plateaued. The minor tweaks and improvements those games have gotten over the last few years haven't really introduced anything "new," and even at their best, the plastic guitars are a long way from imitating the real thing. That's where Seven45 Studios comes in; its upcoming game, Power Gig: Rise of the SixString, lets you pick up a real guitar and strum along in a game that's partly about learning how to play an actual instrument, but is still geared to be just as accessible and

It looks like companies are busy trying to turn the humble coffee table into something way more interesting. Despite there already being other options and designs being worked on, Digital Touch seems confident in its T3-B table, which is a coffee table sized unit that has a built-in 26-inch LCD, as well as Wi-Fi, allowing users to browse, select and interact with various options on screen. The inclusion of an orientation switch should be fairly useful, as it allows you to view your content from any side of the table. The table can also be hooked up with an

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Moving beyond the tabloid fodder of the past several months, Electronic Arts has a series to market. EA Sports has started spinning up the hype machine for Tiger Woods 11, announcing that will feature support for the PS3 Motion Controller as well as the inclusion of the Ryder Cup.
As was the case with the Wii MotionPlus-enabled Tigers Woods 10, this year's PS3 edition is aiming for "an authentic interactive swing experience." The Wii version will continue to support MotionPlus, and will also be adding an "Advanced Plus" swing difficulty that reads rotation and swing able. There's also the "Tour Pro" swing mechanic, which focuses on rotation,

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For those of you still tromping around the galaxy in Mass Effect 2, BioWare is giving you a helping hand with a new toy. The Arc Projector has been released over the Cerberus Network, the latest piece of free DLC for those who purchased a new copy of the game.
This new heavy weapon apparently "ionizes targets with a non-visible laser to ready them for a high-voltage electrical attack."
The description continues, "As the lightning-like bolt hits its first target, a sophisticated auto-targeting system paints succeeding targets with the ionization laser, allowing the electricity to take the path of least resistance and arc between them.

We published about the new MSI U230 back in November, and today it is official, the MSI Wind12 U230 are available now in two flavors, the 033 is powered by an Athlon Neo MV-40 processor with 250GB storage capacity while the 040 gets the Athlon X2 L335 with 320 GB. Successors of the Wind12 U210, both models sports a 12.1" HD (1366&times;768) 16:9 aspect ratio LCD, 2GB DDR2, Windows 7 Home Premium, 6 cell battery, an ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card. Additional features include MSI&rsquo;s EDS (Ergonomic De-stress) keyboard with keys that are 51%

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As they've established previously, Blizzard isn't anti-console and plans on making another console game -- eventually. World of Warcraft might seem like the natural choice for what game to bring to consoles, given its incredible success, and as producer J. Allen Brack told G4tv, it's certainly something that Blizzard thinks about often.
Asked why MMOs haven't made much of an

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Codemasters has officially announced their spiritual successor to 2006's Black. Titled Bodycount, it will feature a "clandestine global power struggle" highlighted by online multiplayer and co-op.
"We?re all massive FPS fans," said creative directory Stuart Black, "and believe that there?s room for a refresh of the shooter experience. If GRID was all about the purity of racing, then everything in Bodycount is absolutely centered on the bullet and its impact on the world.
He continued, "Our shredding

Check out this ordinary Ikea coffee table which has been hacked to include a whole bunch of LEDs - we're talking about 6,144 of these in total. Tobias, the brain and hands behind this mod, sourced a trio of display boards from Sure Electronics for a total of 96 8&times;8 modules. These boards rely on a serial interface to be addressed, where a quartet of serial lines are used for each board although a shared data bus for each of the row select pins and the data/latch/clock pins. Definitely worth checking out if you're into DIY goodness to enhance the overall look of your home.

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Following a span of a number of hours yesterday when owners of the PC version of Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5 couldn't play due to problems with Ubisoft's DRM authentication servers, the company now says the server problems were the result of hacker attacks -- attacks that are evidently still ongoing. As of this writing, Ubisoft's official Twitter account reports the DRM authentication servers are once again under attack, locking some gamers out of

<span class="articleText"> Ah, the 1950s -- an era when Elvis Presley ruled the radio waves, Senator Joseph McCarthy helped fuel Cold War paranoia, and the internet hadn't yet made Playboy magazine totally irrelevant. That's precisely the point in American history that 2K Games hopes to capture with Mafia II, and they're partnering with Playboy to help lend a little authenticity to the game's '50s mobster atmosphere.
The licensing deal allows developer 2K Czech to place more than 50 vintage covers and centerfolds from the magazine's early history throughout the world of Mafia II. According to the announcement, players

You know that when it comes to safety of your offspring, you would spare no expense. Hence, booster seats in your vehicle are a must, since it helps buckle up your little ones safe and sound during a long journey. How about letting them carry their own load instead when they arrive at their destination? This is made possible thanks to the BoostApak, since it comes with a hard plastic shell that caters to kids aged from 4 to 11, and is ergonomically designed to &ldquo;protect growing spines and encourage better posture.&rdquo; No idea on how much it will cost, but do keep a keen eye out for it when the BoostApak hits the markets this April.

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Portal 2's existence was only just recently confirmed a few days ago, but details out of Game Informer's cover story continue to make their way online. Now the entire cover story itself has evidently been scanned, and VG247 pulled a few of the major details.
Portal 2 will, reportedly, take place hundreds of years after the first

Is the &ldquo;Elan&rdquo; an upcoming device from Palm, or is it just another (code) name for the Palm Pixi? Screenshots of a site listing the Palm Elan have surfaced, and according to a user who claims to work for AT&T, the testing for the Elan should begin in about two weeks and will have a &lsquo;soft keyboard&rsquo;. That being said, some folks have dug up certain sites listing

Don&rsquo;t you wish you could take your hands of the steering while during those pesky traffic jams? Well, if the &ldquo;road train&rdquo; concept becomes a reality, you might just be able to do it, and save fuel in the process. The system is quite simple: The cars will all follow the &ldquo;leader&rdquo; of the train, and if you want to join in, the sensor will send out the signal, and your car will obediently follow the train, and stay close enough so that you could save some fuel by being in the slipstream. When it&rsquo;s time for you to pull off in another direction, just disengage, and the system will widen the gap between the cars, allowing you to leave the pack, after which the car previously behind you will be linked to the car in front of you. Pretty neat, isn&rsquo;t