Patrice Desilets, the creative director of Assassin's Creed, revealed that with the Xbox 360 version the problem is the storage medium. Desilets told Pro-G in an interview that one of the biggest challenges the team is currently facing with the Xbox 360 version of the game is fitting everything into a DVD-9 disc; something that is not a problem with the Blu-ray Disc format used by the PlayStation 3.

At the same time we are now deploying a large amount of additional machines to our main server structures. This means that we are getting ready for larger-scale Beta deployment! We now have the hardware, the set-up (and an awesome game;) ready for larger scale testing! As a result of this we are also getting ready to start inviting thousands and thousands (and thousands) into our Beta programs. As we progress with this new stage of the Beta we expect to get lots of constructive feedback on the general gameplay, and we hope that the testers will also love this iteration of the new combat system. This testing will in turn lead to adding tens and tens of thousands of testers as we move over to the new year. This is surely great news, and for you in the community it means that we are escalating our invitation process. For those of you we have defined as “veterans” (which have not gotten a Beta invite yet), we are looking to send an invitation within the next few weeks. As we have stated before it is a goal for us to give you, our loyal followers, Beta advantage as we move into larger scale testing, but we can’t promise everyone access. It is still a matter of focused testing, not “open beta”.

As a part of this we would like to state that it is not a goal to move beyond several thousands of Beta testers at the stage we are now moving into. The needs of the game and our development team will, and must have, first priority. This means that we are not looking into any form of “open” Beta activities before next year. The Beta for Age of Conan will almost all the way up to launch be defined by development needs, but we have also planned a few surprises along the way ;)

This clip is recorded in Whitehall, one of the later areas of Act II, and the tileset is "Dank Sewers". Apache seems to be wielding a Zeus Rifle (very good at single targets), and Andy an Arclight Thermite Rifle (bit more of a "splash" effect, although being direct fire damage, a favourite of mine because of its sound). The first room of the movie is one of the standard starting rooms for the "Dank Sewers" tileset from looking at other videos, and as far as we know, monsters do not spawn in here (although they are more than willing to follow you there if you run!).

Cooling

• Vigor Gaming Monsoon II Lite - AMDZone
• Akasa Revo Thermaldynamic CPU Cooler - Overclock3D

  Keyboards
  

• Keysonic Illuminated Keyboard ACK-5000HL - Overclock3D

  Performance
  

• Unreal Tournament III (Beta Performance) - AMDZone
• Call of Duty 4 (Demo Performance) - AMDZone
• The Orange Box - AMDZone

  Power Supply
  

• Thermaltake ToughPower 1200W - Phoronix

  Video
  

• ATI Radeon HD 2900XT - Digit-Life
• Sapphire Radeon HD 2600 PRO - Modders-Inc.
• Geforce 8400GS - MadShrimps

Today's question:

Do you plan on buying the full retail versions of Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament III?

Check out Rob's hands-on impressions of UT3 Retail here.

For those of you who would like to revoke one of your activation credits before uninstalling BioShock from your PC, the BioShock Revoke Tool is now available and will help you do just that!

Below is a quick FAQ to help you decide if you need the revoke tool, and how to use it. You can also download the full instruction set included in the ReadMe for instructions on how to properly use the BioShock Revoke Tool.

Get the BioShock Revoke Tool now

Learn more about the multiplayer modes by clicking here.

MALMO, SWEDEN (October 12, 2007) – Sierra Entertainment’s Massive Entertainment, developer of the award-winning action-strategy game World in Conflict, will release the World in Conflict Broadcast Tool this Monday, October 15. The World in Conflict Broadcast Tool is a free downloadable add-on for World in Conflict that will provide Vista- and DX10-enabled users with easy-to-use television-style broadcast options – such as pre-set and custom cameras, follow-cameras, telestration and other capabilities – that will turn any LAN game or tournament into a fun-to-watch spectator event.

The World in Conflict Broadcast Tool will also include the ability to create a film of the broadcasted match directly from the tool that can be shared with friends, clans or competition.

“World in Conflict’s multiplayer is uniquely fun to watch with its amazing graphics, tactical strategy and huge explosions, and everyone at Massive really enjoys watching great matches in the game over the shoulders of our friends or at events ,” said Martin Walfisz, founder and president, Massive Entertainment. “We wanted to make it easy for World in Conflict fans to turn this awesome experience into the best spectator game ever. Some of the team members at Massive have a background in the TV industry, so anyone who has ever seen a TV production room will recognize the set up immediately. The World in Conflict Broadcast Tool will make watching – or broadcasting -- gaming competitions exciting and fun.”

Anyhow, like any good reporter, I went to Gilbert to get his response.

"Gilbert," I said, approximately, "people say you're cheating at Halo 3."

"I'm cheating?" he said. "How am I cheating?"

"Gilbert," I asked, approximately," are you creating dummy games with two fake friends and using the wins to rack up experience points?"

"Yeah," he said, laughing. "Yeah."

Sigh.

"It's a glitch," he explained. "It's a glitch in the game. I seen some kids that were like 600s, they won 600 Halo games and we only had that game for two weeks. And all the kids go to school. So I'm like, 'What the hell you all doing?' And they said that's what they doing, two-on-two."

Tsk tsk tsk...

Preload for the win.

Over two years since its original release, with the coming of HL2: Episode 2, I've completed a major revision of the Half Life 2 & Source Engine Tweak Guide. The guide is now fully up to date with the latest build of the Source Engine; I've retested and documented a range of existing and new settings, including several new advanced tweaks, and even updated all the screenshot comparisons. Give it a read through if you run any Source-based game.

YouGamers has more:

So why all the hype? FPS games are ten-a-penny these days and there has been some pretty stiff opposition this year. The magic card that Crysis has shoved up its sleeve is graphics. Now I fully understand and appreciate the spittle-flying rants from some folk of how games have been looks over content for far too long, but for this game at least, they're a key part of what makes this an AAA title.

We played the DX9 version of Crysis, with all of the settings put to "High" (more of why they couldn't be put higher later) at 1680 x 1050, and it's astonishingly good looking. Take the process of environment destruction: enemies will often try to take cover in huts, shacks or behind ubiquitous barrels and crates. No problem; just shoot the crap out of it (or lob a grenade in there) and remove their cover. You can do it piecemeal or wholesale, but either way, the combination of shaders, particles and physics making it tumble and collapse look akin to a waif-like model, slinking up and down a catwalk, rather than a mere rendering procedure.

PC

• Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts - GPM - A-
• ET: Quake Wars - GameSpy - 4/5
• Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer - GameSpot - 8/10
• Portal - Atomic Gamer - 94%
• Sword of the Stars Born of Blood - Gameslave - 6/10

  360
  

• Halo 3 - Gameslave - 9/10
• NBA Live 08 - TXB - 6.5/10
• Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - GameSpot - 9/10
• Two Worlds - Play.tm - 46%

Today's TGIF question:

WTF are you currently playing?