According to JoWood (that always sounded dirty to me), an expansion for Gothic 3 will hit the streets in Q4 2008. Entitled Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods, the add-on supposedly answers “many open questions and guarantees a seemless step to Gothic 4.” The company really didn’t spill the beams regarding the expansion, however there was mention that they troll the Gothic 3 message boards daily, and will incorporate fan-based suggestions (or as many as they can implement) when possible into Forsaken Gods (and probably G4).

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Today CDProjekt released a few goodies for its uber-popular RPG for the PC, The Witcher. Today’s sacrificial offerings include a new downloadable adventure called “Price of Neutrality” along with the English version of the D’jinni beta adventure editor. The new adventure is but a sample according to the company, offering an addtional two hours of gameplay, taking players into the outskirts of Kaer Morhen. The editor, on the other hand, allows players to create new adventures using the pre-existing graphical assets, maps and environments.

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Mike Masnick over at Techdirt posted an interesting article on the emotions that first person shooters evoke in players. The part worthy of mentioning is the possibility that players actually enjoy getting killed. Apparently, hunting other players increases players’ stress and dying acts as a sort of relief mechanism.

Check out the original post for the rest of the story.

[H] Enthusiast posted an article on Nvidia’s new GeForce 9600 GT graphics card. The card is up to par with (if not a little better than) Nvidia’s 8800 GT and ATI’s latest offerings, but it’s main selling point, in my opinion, is it’s sub-$200 price. Starting at $169 MSRP, it will help open up the high-end gaming market to those not willing to dole out $500 for a top-of-the-line video card.

NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 

So now, we have the data to critically examine the question: Is PC gaming in crisis? On the surface, recent NPD figures would indicate an affirmative, with retail sales dropping nearly US$60 million from US$970 million in 2006 to US$910.7 million in 2007. This number fails to take into account the revenue earned from MMO subscriptions and from digital distributors such as the booming Steam network. Factor those into your figures, and you’ll see that PC gaming is alive and kicking without a doubt.

But if raw retail figures and rankings give you a real buzz, hit the jump for the top 10 selling PC games of ‘07.

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Don’t expect us to hold back on any GTAIV news - since the official announcement of a release date, there’ll be videos, sneek peeks and screenshots galore.
The latest set of screenshots released today are nothing short of impressive, showcasing a stylized world that truly surpasses its predessesor.

In other GTA news, Digital Battle has reported, nay, speculated on the PC version’s release this October. The basis for their claim? Previous GTA games have made the transition to PC six to eight months after the console release date. But who’s to say these rules are set in stone, anyway?

via Gaming Today and PALGN

Ubisoft have just released this video of Far Cry 2 running on their new Dunia game engine. A word of warning though, if you are expecting a action packed video don’t look here, its pretty much a video showing off the engine. If you didn’t know any better you’d think Far Cry 2 was an African safari sim. The fire at the end is rather interesting - is Far Cry 2 going to do for fire what the original Far Cry did for water?

via Game Trailers

With every platform except for the Wii getting Bionic Commando, one can understand the widespread frustration felt, especially from gamers respectful of its initial console incarnation on the NES. That, coupled with the huge potential the Wiimote could bring to the grappling system, has led to many puzzled feelings about the platform’s exclusion.

If you believe that Capcom has the ears to listen to its fans, you should check out and sign this online petition to let them know where you stand on the issue. As of today, they’ve got a total of 11,951 signatures which is growing steadily.

EA Games have revealed their plans for Battlefield Heroes, a cartoon shooter with Battlefield style gameplay, which will be completely free to download and play later this year. >

The Team Fortress-esque cartoon style of the game will lend itself toward quick and easy access for a mass audience. A built in matchmaking system will ensure the fairest experience possible when dealing with such large numbers.

It’s one of those rarer occassions where we can congratulate EA Games on giving gamers what they want, at a reasonable price. We’ll pay good money for a game with a bit of depth, but if we’re after some quick fun, its still pretty unreasonable to fork over a few bucks. By revenue earned through advertising and microtransactions, EA are able to distribute this game to everyone, which is a win-win situation for all.

Battlefield Heroes will be hitting the web for PC downloads in summer 2008.

via GameInformer

Quarterly financial statements are not exactly the kind of place where you would drop big news like this, but that’s how Ubisoft chooses to roll. According to said statement, fiscal year 2008 - 2009 will see the arrival of a new Prince of Persia title.

But that’s pretty much the extent of the details. Ubisoft are unwilling to divulge any information as to which platforms will be getting it, or who they’ve got working on the project

via IGN