The logo says Grand Theft Auto V – so no city or state name in the title as in Vice City and San Andreas – and the trailer is out on 2 November 2011. No specific time of day is given.

Head over to RockstarGames.com now to see the page for yourself and, if you’re into that kind of thing, speculate as to what the design of the logo might signify. The V is done in the style of an American bank note, which doesn’t necessarily signify any major departure given that GTA has always been about making money. But perhaps we are about to see a return to Vice City’s empire-building style.

As soon as that trailer, and any other details on GTA V emerge, X360 will be all over it.

We’ve just done an excited little dance in the middle of the pod, much to the bemusement of the rest of the team. Why are we doing more than the officially recommended amount of activity per day for a games journalist and jeopardising our careers as touring pro-tournament  Kinect players? (That circuit will spring up any day now, you wait and see.)

Well, it’s because epic upcoming dungeon crawler Diablo III is another step closer to appearing on 360. In a recent interview game director Jay Wilson confirmed that Blizzard has been testing its game on 360 controls, and they work fantastically.

“One of the reasons why we’re exploring the idea of a console version of Diablo 3 because we feel that the controls and the style of the game lend itself to a console,” said Wilson. “With some of our early experiments in putting a direct control scheme into the game via a 360-like analogue controller, I’ve been, ‘Oh this feels even better, with direct control.’”

That’s uber exciting news because we’ve just finished playing the Diablo III beta on PC and frankly it’s amazing. Having had a taste of its class based dungeon crawler goodness we can’t wait to have more, and can testify to how easily is looks like it could port over to 360. Blizzard has simplified enough of its mechanics that we could see it adapting it a bit like Torchlight did to the 360 pad. It’s a four player game as well, so we can imagine playing with four friends and having a blast over Live as well.

It only makes sense for Blizzard to target the 360 with Diablo III, which unlike it’s other games, StarCraft II an RTS and World of Warcraft an MMO, would be a great fit on console. Console gamers love dungeon crawlers too as proven by Torchlight’s success  on XBLA. With Blizzard already getting into testing for pad before it’s actually released the PC version we’re willing to bet that we can expect a 360 announcement early next year at the latest.

Dead Island
UK Release: 09 September 2011
It’s not much like that trailer, but it’s still an atmospheric, detailed and original first-person survival horror RPG.

El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron
UK Release: 09 September 2011
If you don’t think there isn’t enough freshness and creativity in games development these days, then you owe it to yourself to buy this just to make a point.

NHL 12
UK Release: 09 September 2011
EA Sports is getting everything right lately except golf. Ice hockey isn’t golf though, so NHL 12 is another solid, decent iteration.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
UK Release: 09 September 2011
Bit of a wet dream for Warhammer fans, this. You get to be an ass-kicking Space Marine, which is basically like being a tank with a crew cut.

Gears Of War 3
UK Release: 20 September 2011
If you’re a 360 owner and you need me to tell you to get this, then you’re just weird.

F1 2011
UK Release: 23 September 2011
Last year’s F1 2010 was the first really good F1 game in years. All F1 2011 really needs is an improved career mode.

FIFA 12
UK Release: 30 September 2011
We’ve only briefly dipped into the preview code but already we’re confident this is going to be a strong season for the FIFA series. The Impact Engine now governing collision physics is very impressive.

The very first episode of NowGamerTV, a brand new program from the makers of super-site NowGamer and the NowGamer podcast, is now live on YouTube. To kick things off in style NowGamer comes to you live from X11 in San Francisco with news on Gears Of War 3, Kinect and Halo Reach as well as interviews with Rod Fergusson of Epic, 343 Industries’ Frank O’ Connor and Lester Speight, the voice of Cole Train.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Keep an eye on NowGamer’s YouTube channel and NowGamer.com for more exclusive interviews and game demos from NowGamerTV

I can squeeze out some brief, alluring, out of context quotes from my review though. That’ll get you thinking…

“Certainly better than…”

“There’s little that’s original…”

“Surely has to be the best…”

“…suddenly gets a bit lazy.”

“…very, very powerful.”

“…totally unnecessary.”

“…is brilliant too.”

“…loads of fun, but…”

“…feels kinda wrong.”

Oh my God! What can all this mean? Is it certainly better than Dead Space? Or is it just certainly better than poking yourself in the eye with a spoon? Is it brilliant? Fun? Lazy? Wrong? Or am I playing tricks on your sub-conscious, like some sort of extra-terrestrial techno-virus?

You’ll just how to check out the full review in issue 68 of X360 – on sale 26 January.

Thanks to our friends at Blizzard, NowGamer is giving away 100 beta keys a day for the next ten days for the hugely anticipated Cataclysm expansion pack. So, maths fans, that means NowGamer has got 1000 keys up for grabs.

All you have to do to enter the draw is click here and answer the simple WOW-related question. Make sure you fill in your details and, if you’ve come here via Twitter, then make sure you retweet the original tweet and include your Twitter name with your answer – they’ll be checking!

At the end of each day, 100 names will be drawn from the proverbial hat and winners will be emailed their beta keys, so keep an eye on your email.

Apart from that, good luck and we’ll see you in Azeroth!

Brink

By some distance X360′s game of the show, Brink looks set to take your current idea of multiplayer gaming and knock it into a cocked hat. That is, if a mere concept can be treated as such.

For a videogame described as a science fiction shooter set in a dystopian shooter, it’s really quite excellent, bringing all character archetypes together for the greater good to create an Xbox Live love-in the like of which we’ve not seen since we played Uno and that bloke got his winkie out.

James Bond 007: Blood Stone

Okay, with Bizarre at the helm Activision’s movie, er, replacement was never going to sink without trace, but the quality of its set-pieces has significantly wowed us. Sure, it’s not going to be the next Gears Of War (‘cos the driving’s better, natch), but we’re certainly braced for the chance to use keys to the right of 6 sometime soon.

Mortal Kombat

Yes, it appears to be using the same staccato engine the series has employed since Deadly Alliance. Yes, it’s bound to kick up even more of a stink than Medal Of Honor when release day’s more imminent and non-specialist media gives a damn, but who cares? MK is looking back to its bloody best.

Like classic Midway titles of old, we’re looking forward to the best half hour of gaming this year, followed by an almost instant loss of flavour. But then, anything else would be out of character, and that suits us down to the ground, anyway…

From Dust

For all their posturing, so-called ‘god’ games rarely make their player feel exactly that. Popping balloons? Restoring sewage systems? Choosing the colour of someone’s hat? Child’s play.

From Dust, on the other hand, allows gamers the freedom to cleft chunks out of the terrain itself. Despite its press release describing the play mechanic as ‘ground breaking technology’, we’re still inclined to consider it a hit in waiting.

Fable III

Lionhead’s epic, considerable voice talent aside, stands in our list by way of contrast. After BioWare has led the industry in offering playersrole-playing experiences as accessible as they are deep, we’re worried that ‘streamlined gameplay’ could descend into ‘plays itself’ before too long. Unless you’re the type that agonises over which tunic to slip on of a morning, that is.

• Name change: This sixth episode in the series has had its title changed from the original “Heroes Of Might & Magic” of the first five games. The Might & Magic games were always better known by those outside the PC gaming fraternity and the Heroes Of Might & Magic strategy spin-off was constantly being confused with the first-person RPG. Maybe Ubisoft is capitalizing on a more commercial name to sell it to a console audience?
• New Developer: Ubisoft has recruited a new studio to tackle the development of Might & Magic Heroes VI – Budapest-based Black Hole Entertainment. It has three titles under its belt to date, the last of which (Warhammer: Battle March) was developed for the 360. Is Ubisoft drawing on Black Hole’s experience with porting a PC strategy game?
• New Gameplay: There are indications that this game is going to draw on the best parts of arguably the best game in the series, Heroes Of Might & Magic III. But we’ve spotted changes that hint at console possibilities too – boss battles, for one, are a new and very console audience-friendly feature. The number of resource types also appears to have been halved (missing all but one of the special resources), perhaps to make it more accessible to the completely uninitiated.
• Achievements and Leaderboards: Details of the new “online community interface” are yet to emerge, but the player rankings and competitive tournaments in previous Heroes Of Might & Magic games that are still organised on a regular basis by a sizeable fan community, make it an easy candidate for official achievements and leaderboards on console.

Last night, I saw a shooting star and made a wish. I wished that Bethesda would bring the release date of Fallout: New Vegas forward and that somehow, two of my favourite pastimes, poker and playing Fallout 3 could somehow be combined into some kind of sublimely addictive game.

That was two wishes, the latter being an absurd contingency in case the Bethesda fairies felt that the former threatened to compromise the quality of New Vegas. I didn’t actually expect either to be granted, so how happy was I when the details of the Fallout: New Vegas Collector’s edition was sent to me today and I discovered that it contained my dream game? Jubliant – that’s how happy.

The Fallout: New Vegas Collector’s Edition includes seven “Lucky 7” poker chips, a recreation of the game’s highly coveted “Lucky 38” platinum chip and (hold onto you breeches poker fans): a fully customised Fallout: New Vegas deck of cards “uniquely illustrated to depict characters and factions found within the game.” Obsidian has even created a card game called “Caravan” that’s playable within New Vegas!

Oh yeah – you’ll also get prequel novel called “All Roads” written by designer Chris Avellone, the making of Fallout: New Vegas DVD and some kind of first-person RPG game for the 360, set in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. We forget what it’s called…

Read more about Fallout: New Vegas and the Fallout: New Vegas Collector’s edition on the official Fallout website.

This time it’s war…

Who caught the new Gear Of War 3 trailer on Jimmy Fallon last night? Pretty good, wasn’t it? Ok, it was like all of Epics’ other trailers for Gears, but what’s really important is the glimpses it gives into the story.

Who’s the bearded COG? Our money is on it being Marcus’ father and the trailer depicting a flash back to the mission that landed Marcus in the slammer at the beginning of Gears 1. We know he broke ranks to save someone and it sure looks like he’s saving beardy here. Also, is this a few weeks after Emergence Day? The tentacled beasty in the background is taking out Locust and COG’s alike, it’s not being picky and with the climax of Gears 2 hinting that the Locust are a human creation, could this be an early mutation that’s simply running amok?

Having said that, popular opinion is that the bearded man is a young Dom, that Marcus is saving and this is an equally plausible story. The trailer does end stating ‘brothers’ and this would fit nicely in the cannon.

Does anyone else have any theories? Let us know below…