Strategy Informer  

The developer behind Warcraft 3's popular Defense of the Ancients: Allstars mod has announced that it's now leading a team at Half-Life developer Valve, and hinted that there will be "great news for DotA fans."

"I finally have all the resources needed to do some very exciting stuff that you guys will love," says IceFrog. "As I've said many times in the past and especially after today's developments, I am very excited about DotA's future!"

Infinity Ward has revealed that Activision did not originally want Call of Duty 4 to be a Modern Warfare game.

Speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine, Infinity Ward boss Vince Zampella announced that the team had been wanting to produce a modern warfare game for years, but Activision held them back.

SCEE Studio London producer and Creative Art Director Nicolas Doucet has revealed that Eight Days and The Getaway 3 haven't been completely cancelled, but have in fact been put aside.

Original reports confirmed that both titles had been cancelled so the developer could put all its efforts into EyePet and SingStar, but will development on these games continue once EyePet is released?

Vogster Entertainment has announced that you can now try out CrimeCraft for free, and for an unlimited time.

The trial will provide players with access to the major features of the game, a generous offering when you consider the Premium sub costs $9.99 a month.

Bioware has announced that a Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator will be released on October 13th, giving PC users the chance to design their characters in anticipation of the game's release in November.

"What we have managed to do is get the awesome BioWare dev dudes/dudettes to break off the Dragon Age: Origins Character Creator from the main game so you can download it as a separate application to your PC," explained BioWare community coordinator Chris Priestly.

As Modern Warfare 2 gains momentum before release, gamers everywhere will be salivating at the news of the multiplayer maps and Achievements being uncovered.

This announcement comes after the release of a brand new trailer, and gives us map names such as "Rust", "Terminal", "High Rise" and "Scrapyard" to ponder over. The game's Special Ops missions also include match types such as "Body Count", "Snatch and Grab" and "Suspension".

Some rather ambiguous wording has left speculation in its wake, that the upcoming MMO from BioWare and LucasArts could be micro-transaction supported. It's one possibility.

The other is that it merely refers to in-game currency. The signups for closed beta testing mention "points" that are "non-refundable and non-tradable," and used in a "Game store".

Microsoft's Games For Windows label doesn't have support from Stardock Games, as CEO Brad Wardell says if they ever took over PC gaming then he's "done" making them.

Wardell isn't amused by their current strategy of title updates, especially if you go over the limit because then "you have to pay money." Luckily for Stardock many still avoid the label.

The Witcher developer CD Projekt has been bought by the Polish tech firm Optimus, with the company paying in shares which are now owned by the studios current bosses.

This has effectively given CD Projekt a way to become a publicly-traded company so they can get themselves on the Warsaw stock exchange, without as much red tape hassle.

Developer Creative Assembly will say "thank you" to the community by including five new multiplayer maps free when the 1.5 patch goes live, which is when Warpath retails.

Warpath is the mini-expansion to Empire: Total War. The patch is said to include significant tweaks to the game AI and the new maps support "all team sizes". Warpath here "soon."