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…

Only this retrospective is actually a great deal more current; your reporter having finished BioWare’s masterpiece just yesterday night. What do you mean ‘where has he been?’ He’s had some other things to do. It seemed important to me to take a few seconds out of my day to ponder the nature of videogame endings. Even such a majestic work, with its consummate pacing, almost infinite narrative interactivity and stunning dialogue, stumbles over the finishing line like a Weeble thrown down a hill. Obviously there’s somewhat of a spoiler alert on what’s to come, however it’s impossible not to feel just a tad dismayed by the total exposition Shepard receives during his final mission, stumbling on what remains of a Prothian AI. There’s something about having twenty hours worth of gaming condensed into twenty minutes that feels like somewhat of an insult. Why not have your hero stumble across the ruins of the installation? Why not set one of the former Prothean scientist free as an additional, drip-feeding party member? Why not simply spread its conclusion throughout a couple of missions, rather than just the one?

Just a few initial thoughts on completion of what remains a masterpiece – how did everyone else feel?

Watch out for the Splash Damage!

Richard Ham, creative director at Splash Damage talks us through some of Brink’s finer points…

Multiplayer has for many people become the reason why they invest in a game, is Brink’s ambition to marry single and multiplayer a reaction to this?
Actually, our fusion of single and multiplayer gaming came about for the opposite reason.  We think there are still too many players out there who love solo shooter gameplay, but never go online once they’ve finished their single player campaign, and therefore are missing out on some of the best action videogames have to offer.

With Brink, it’s really important to us that there are no barriers to entry that would prevent players from going online.  So while they’re playing through the campaign, we’ll actively encourage them to make the jump and play the story online, with their friends in co-op (up to 8 players), or taking that next step and trying to play online competitively.  But no matter how they play, they’ll still experience the same story, they’ll still earn XP and unlockables for their characters, and they’ll have a fantastic time.

It’s interesting too that it goes the other way.  For players who traditionally only play online and ignore the single player game, they’ll find themselves experiencing stuff they don’t normally get to see when they jump from random match to random match:  an actual story that ties everything together, collectables that flesh out the background of the world and the conflict, and tons of great character customization.

It seems the designing of Brink centres around enticing players to work as a team by designating XP, why did you come to this decision?

Teamwork has been really important in Splash Damage’s previous Enemy Territory games, and Brink is taking it to the next level.  And while there are plenty of great games out there that encourage team play, most of the time, a player’s experience in those games will still be that of a bunch of individuals running around, pursuing their own agendas, ignoring their teammates; basically being lone wolves.  We feel there are very few players who ever really get to experience the incredible rush you get when you’re working as part of a well-organized squad, accomplishing objectives and defeating the enemy together.

So in Brink, we’ve added a lot of features that really enhance teamwork, and make it rewarding to accomplish.  One of the biggest features centers around communication, ensuring that everybody knows what’s going on everywhere on the map, so they can make smart decisions.

For instance, if you’re alone standing guard at a computer server that the enemy is trying to destroy and bad guys start to attack, your character will automatically tell the rest of the team, via radio, “We’re under attack in the server room”, and everyone else on the team will get new objectives to come and help you defend the room. They’ll also have their mini-maps updated immediately to show where those enemies that you’ve spotted are.

That sort of thing happens automatically, so as a player in this situation, you can really just focus on the task at hand:  defending the position.  But because that report has gone out, everyone else knows what they now need to do, and they have interface systems that make it really easy for them to get their jobs done.

This “auto-spotting enemies” example is just one of many different ways that we encourage team play.  I think when people really get into Brink, they’ll find it hard to go back to same old death match/capture the flag gameplay!
When designing the world of Brink did you keep in mind your multiplayer and single player ambitions? The structure of the world seems perfectly suited for the red vs blue set up but also has some darker connotations with players not understanding the motives of either side, what other elements of narrative are you fusing with multiplayer?

Probably the most unique and exciting element of our narrative is that we’re telling the story of a modern civil war from two different sides.  To me, this is really interesting as a storyteller, because we let players decide what they think is “the truth” in the world of Brink.

We fully support multiplayer in every element of the game (including story), meaning that every time you’re playing in an online match, fighting on the side of your chosen faction, pursuing objectives that help finish your storyline, you’re actually playing against other players who are on their own campaign, pursing their storyline, with wildly different goals and motivations.  And when you finish the storyline you’re on, you can start playing the game again and experience the civil war from the other side, and you’ll learn all kinds of new insights and points of view about the overall conflict.

It’s really fresh and exciting, and it’s the kind of thing we can only do because we’re a multiplayer shooter.  We have to make sure that both sides of the civil war are equally fun to play.  So players get twice the value out of every map!

Many multiplayer games now allow customisation on a huge level, not just of characters and their abilities but often what players can do within matches (call in air strikes etc) have you approached these ideas in Brink?

Definitely!  In fact, back in 2003, our title Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory introduced earning XP (experience points) to level up and earn new combat abilities.  So we’ve been doing this kid of gameplay for a long time, and Brink definitely takes it to the next level.  I think players are going to be really surprised by the sheer number of new items, abilities, weapons, weapon add-ons, and outfits they can earn as they play.

Since Brink is a class-based shooter, you can choose to be a Medic, a Soldier, an Operative, or an Engineer (and you can change from one class to another at any time).  But the type of Medic, Soldier, etc. that you are can change hugely depending on what abilities you buy for yourself as you level up.

For instance, will you be a Medic who focuses on improving “the basics” (healing people and keeping them alive)? Will you branch out and focus on other elements (like focusing on a wide variety of medicinal “buffs” you can give to others and yourself).  Or will you ignore all the neat potential Medic abilities, and focus instead on being a strongly varied Operative?

The amount of choices you can make is staggering, and what’s even better is that you’ll be playing online with tons of other people who also have this huge list of things to choose from.  So every match you play in will be a new adventure of fun and surprising combinations.

How have you balanced a single player narrative with matches that can be joined by multiple players?

Very carefully.  The way it basically works is that you have to think of every level of the story that you’ll play through as an 8 on 8 match, even if you’re playing by yourself.  Now, when you’ll start the level, there’ll be characters and cutscenes that establish why you’re doing what you’re doing, what’s at stake, and what the ramifications of your previous actions in other levels have been, and then you’ll start the action, with 7 teammates, trying to achieve your new mission.

Now the important thing to remember here is that you’re not the center of the universe.  The world won’t wait for you to make big things happen.  Each one of your teammates (whether you’re by playing by yourself, or co-operatively with others) is as capable as you of doing whatever needs to be done to win.  So maybe you’ll take the lead and always stay on the front lines, fighting against the enemy to complete big objectives, or maybe you’ll hold back and support the other guys, while they take all the big risks.  Or maybe you’ll search around on the battlefield to find other opportunities to ensure your team wins the day.  Eventually, your team will complete their objectives, and then move on to the next mission in the campaign storyline.

Meanwhile, a completely different group of people out there will be playing through their own storyline, on the other side of the civil war.  They’ll have their own opening cutscene that explains why they’re fighting, what their goals are, and why they’ve got to win.  They’ll start the same match as you, and do everything they can to stop your team from succeeding.  And if they do, then they win and get to move forward in their storyline.

This is what makes Brink so unique.  But it’s a lot of extra work for us to pull it all together so it always makes sense for players, and they always have a great time and feel like the heroes of their own story.

There have been very few games that have focused on just providing a multiplayer experience, Brink is a step in a new direction and is crossing the divide, with consoles now constantly online is Brink the sort of experience we can expect to see in the future?

I hope so.  I think we’re starting to see this a little bit in other titles.  Left 4 Dead is easily one of the best examples to date of a radically new approach to multiplayer structure. We hope Brink inspires other developers in the same way!

Would you consider Brink to be the console equivalent of a PC MMO? Or at the very least as far as an MMO would realistically work on a console; drop in drop out play, fast gameplay and less time consuming.

It’s an interesting analogy, but I don’t quite think so.  Brink is something that’s really different to everything else out there, taking the best of single player shooter gameplay, the best of multiplayer shooter gameplay, and meshing them into something completely new.  It’s kind of hard to even describe to players who haven’t tried it, because it breaks so many rules.

How exactly will the squad single player work with drop in drop out co-op, will the enemies for example be controlled by the AI or real players, will there be a lobby system or will the inner workings be invisible to the player?

Yeah, it’s all invisible.  There’s only one place where the player has to get involved with the inner-workings of the system:  when they accept a mission, they’re asked “Do you want to play this publically, or privately?”  If it’s private, that means they can play on their own, solo, and have their friends seamlessly join in the action mid-mission (no lobby screens or any of the traditional stuff) for co-op, if they like.  If it’s public, it means that anyone can join in the game, either as teammates or enemies, again, completely seamlessly.  Either way, the player will be able to continue working through the storyline campaign, continue to level up his character, and continue to have a great time shooting bad guys.

How have you structured mission objectives around the storyline and the fact that there may be multiple players of differing skills playing all at once?

The most important element that makes this work is gameplay variety.  At any given time in any mission, there’s up to six different objectives the player can give himself.  There’s always so much to do in any level, that if you find you’re having a hard time completing one objective, you can switch and try a different one.   For example, in the middle of a match, you might be a medic with the following choices:

a)    Stand guard at an important objective that must be protected
b)    Change class from medic to soldier to blow up an obstacle that’s impeding your team
c)    Revive a couple of teammates who have been injured by the enemy
d)    Search for hidden intelligence somewhere on the battlefield that would give your entire squad the upper hand

No matter what, one of those things (usually more than one) should be doable by you, regardless of the skill level of the enemy you’re up against.  And all these tasks are hugely important to the overall success of your squad.  So you can’t make a wrong choice, but it is up to you to make the smart choice.  And that’s where the fun comes in.

Are you looking forward to the multiplayer specific Brink? Come on, let us know below…

Will I wave my sword if I’m simply reaching for my beer?

Whatever your thoughts and feelings over Natal, it’s hard not to give over just a little bit of excitement for Lionhead and Fable III. Now that it’s been revealed ex-Python and all round funny man John Cleese will be providing the voice of your own personal butler, the steam roller of hype has already begun. We’ve no doubt Cleese will provide plenty of sarcastic quips as the general populace becomes  totally bitter towards whatever ridiculous mistakes you’re making, especially when all we give them to eat is cake.

Lionhead and Peter Molyneux have used GDC10 to show the industry they’re building on the success of Fable II with careful consideration. In a Fable III presentation, Molyneux revealed that 60% of Fable II’s players understood 50% of the features and as a target for a mainstream  product that simply isn’t good enough. It needs to be simpler and easier to understand. Molyneux also revealed that if Fable III is to be considered a success it has to sell at least 5 million units. Like that’s not going to happen…

Will you be picking up Fabe III and returning to the colourful world of Albion, let us know below…

Oh, LucasArts you do know how to win us over…

We’ve not tried to hide the fact that pretty much every person on team X360 is a massive fan of the old point and click Monkey Island adventure games. It was a dream come true when LucasArts HD’d up the original and let it loose over Live. It seems most of you agreed with us and now we’re happy to report that the sequel, Le Chuck’s Revenge will be available later this summer.

Considered by many to be the pinnacle of the series, it also boasts the SHOCKING and unforgettable ending (but we won’t spoil that here for you). LucasArts’ President Darrell Rodriguez, had this to say about the exciting news:

“The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition really resonated with gamers young and old thanks to its classic storyline and updated gameplay features. We’re adding even more great new features in this sequel and can’t wait for classic Monkey Island fans and newcomers alike to experience perhaps the most beloved installment in the franchise ever.”

Seems like we’re getting everything we want, but what do you make of popular retro games getting remakes for XBLA? Would you like to see more? Let us know what you’d like to see on Live below…

It does make Hakan an incredibly slippery character to fight against however, apparently bringing to the table some of the most impressive moves and ultra combos we’ve seen in the series so far. Plus that layer of flammable grease gives him an extremely hot temper…

Super Street Fighter IV will be available on 360 from 30 April.