Strategy Informer  

2K Games has confirmed you won't be able to jump straight into the action as a mandatory install pop-ups up before your descent into Rapture.

This allays concerns that the installation was to take 24 minutes but apparently it should take 5 minutes and 24 seconds, if a BBFC list is to be believed.

With Google's increasing interests in things non-search related, Forbes' Chris Morris ponders whether the giant might be looking to get a piece of the gaming pie.

Given Google's "policy of encouraging side projects" it's likely that someone is bouncing the idea around having already acquired in-game advertiser Adscape.

The developers behind the current Halo Wars is having its doors shut the moment the game hits the shelves, but Microsoft say they'll "form a new studio".

The Ensemble leadership has "agreed to provide ongoing support for Halo Wars" in their new digs. This was a "fiscally-rooted decision" reveals the corporate giant.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced today that SingStar ABBA is currently in development for the PS2 and PS3, and will be available for this Christmas.

Owners of either system will now be able to sing along with some of the most iconic pop tracks of all time including 'Mamma Mia', 'Gimme Gimme Gimme', 'Waterloo' and 'Dancing Queen'.

SingStar ABBA is being developed in full collaboration with ABBA and Universal Music Group in Sweden, which manages the rights to the ABBA brand. The terms of the agreement include a window of exclusivity for disc-based PlayStation titles until December 2009.

VG247 had a chat with Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce at the Games Convention to talk about Warcraft IV, and were told that a fourth WarCraft game could be the next project in line for Blizzard, if one of the companies current teams are interested in working on it.

"If there's a team that’s passionate about doing another WarCraft RTS, then that's definitely something we would consider," said Pearce.

Activision-Blizzard has sold the intellectual property rights of the F.E.A.R. brand to Warner Bros., who in 2004 bought Monolith Productions.

While they had the rights to the technology behind F.E.A.R. they couldn't command the brand and so Project Origin was born as the spiritual successor.

Recently Brad Wardell unveiled the Gamers' Bill of Rights which he believes would strengthen the PC games market, and he wants publishers to sign up to it.

He'd like to banish the 'it's just gonna work' attitude that regular gamers have toward consoles, as PC titles come bloated with DRM and other haphazards.

While both publisher EA and developer Crytek are adamant that they're "not getting into the hardware business," they wanted this PC build for "convenience".

The upcoming Crysis Warhead expansion used the PC as the benchmark for Crytek; they wanted it to run on High settings with an average 30 frames per second.

Wednesday, that day that allows tomorrow to happen, will see three new titles arrive on Xbox Live Arcade.

There'll be a new puzzle pack bundle for Buku Sudoku and 150 new levels for N+ too, both will be going for 200 MS points.

Poor Europe. Fans excited to get a taste for Warhammer Online in the open beta program will just have to wait a bit longer as servers get inundated.

Closed beta gamers are fine as their accounts are simply carried over but new recruits aren't having quite the same joy as the "key validation system has been taken offline".