abundant

Form what I understand, there are 8 spells in the game. You can assign 5 of those 8 spells to the five spell caster levels. If I assign Inferno to the first spell cast level, I just tap B and shoot a weak fireball, where as if I assign it to the fifth level, I have to charge it up (hold B) and the result is a bigger and more powerful Inferno.

The penalty for charging up your spell cast is that the damage done by enemies increases while you're charging.

Abilities

Magic pt. 1

Magic pt. 2

There are no spoilers in these videos. The Abilities video talks about the traits you can level up; they're separated into three categories (Melee, Range, & Magic). The Magic videos explain how the magic system works.

There's no confirmed release date yet. You can get in either through signing up or by pre-ordering at Gamestop. Beta Code emails should be going out the day of or a little before the beta releases

To hold you over, here's a new multiplayer interview. The game will ship with 13 maps and include all the game modes from COD4 plus CTF and WAR from COD3. The video also explains the Second Chance perk; when you die, you go into Last Stand mode and anyone else with the Second Chance perk can revive you while you're in it.

If you don't want to click the link, here's the major news from Microsoft's TGS keynote:

New XBLA Games announced

Space Invaders Extreme

Arkanoid Live

Both due out this Winter

Metal Slug 7

King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match

R-Type: Dimensions

Due out in Spring 2009

The New Xbox Experience aka the major dashboard update launches November 19th

Halo 3 Recon is a prequel to Halo 3. You'll be playing as a ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper). It comes out Fall 2009

Peter Molyneux is almost certain that the Fable 2 Coop Patch will go up on October 21st.

Now if you preorder LBP from Gamestop, you'll receive the Kratos costume, a Minotaur and Medusa costume, and God of War themed stickers to place inside your custom stages.

IGN has 4 Call of Duty: World at War multiplayer videos.

The multiplayer looks exactly the same as COD4, except for the attack dogs and being set in WWII of course.

The wait for next week will be long and excruciating, but TGS begins tomorrow, so we should be getting new gameplay footage and news at least. And if you don't give a damn about spoilers, this Fridays GTTV on Spike will have about 15 minutes of never before seen Fallout 3 footage.

Prince of Persia preview

Mirror's Edge preview

I've been looking forward to Dead Space for a long time. I'm very interested in the story and the Strategic Dismemberment.

Here's another video that shows how awesome Saints Row 2 is going to be. It's a little mini-game you can play inside your safe house.

Oh yeah, and the Mix

I can't wait until I'm gunning people down to the melodic tune of Final Countdown.

The Mega Fall Update won't be released until sometime in November/possibly early December.

Well, this sucks. The Mirror's Edge demo won't be out until November 6th, the same week when Gears 2 comes out.

After getting into the beta last Friday through a random drawing, I can safely say that everyone here needs to get LBP. The platforming is a little floaty, but the whole "Play, Create, Share" aspect of the game is so much fun and addicting.

Another set of COD World at War perks have leaked. The leak comes from Playstation Universe.

Perk 1:

- Special Grenades x3

- Satchel Charge x2

- M9A1 Bazooka x2

- Bomb Squad

- Bouncing Betty x2 (similar to claymores)

- Bandolier

- Primary Grenades x2

- M2 Flamethrower

Perk 2:

- Stopping Power

- Fireworks (explosives cause more damage)

- Flak Jacket (decreases damage taken by explosives)

- Gas Mask

- Juggernaut

- Camouflage

- Sleight of Hand

- Shades (decreases intensity of signal flares)

- Double Tap

- Overkill

Perk 3:

- Deep Impact

- Extreme Conditioning

- Steady Aim

- Toss Back (resets fuse on tossing back enemy grenade)

- Second Chance (ability to revive allies)

- Martyrdom

- Fireproof

- Dead Silence

- Iron Lungs

- Reconnaissance (shows artillery and tanks on map)

Vehicle Perk:

- Water Cooler (slows overheating of tank's machine gun)

- Greased Bearings (speeds up rotation of tank's main cannon)

- Ordnance Training (boosts firing rate of main tank cannon)

- Leadfoot (boosts tank movement speed)

- Coaxial Machine Gun

Fable II Won't Ship With Online Co-op

The feature will go live as an update after the game's launch.

by Ryan Geddes

September 26, 2008 - Fable II, scheduled to ship to retail stores on Oct. 21, will not include online co-op functionality right out of the box and will require a downloadable update afterward, according to a post on Microsoft's Gamerscore blog this afternoon.

Offline co-op will work on day one, but Lionhead and Microsoft Game Studios are still hammering out the kinks in the online co-op. According to the post, the game's developers are "looking to get the update out within the first week of launch in North America." As of today, there's no specific date set for the patch, and there's no word on when other regions might see the update.

Although you won't be able to join up with a friend right away online, the Gamerscore post says you'll "still see your friends as glowing orbs as well as chat and trade with them."

Fable II boasts an ambitious co-op mode that allows you and a friend to interact and affect one another's game worlds to a large degree. And although we've previewed the offline co-op, we haven't yet seen the online functionality in action.

We'll keep you posted as we hear more from Microsoft and Lionhead on the feature and when gamers can expect to see it.

It looks like the next opportunity to get into the LBP beta is next week. Gamepro is giving out beta codes on Monday, X-Play is giving out codes on Tuesday, and it looks like Gamespot will be giving out codes next week as well.

Saints Row 2 Multiplayer

The first review for SR2 is out and it's from OXM. They gave it an 8 and stated that there's a massive amount to do and it's a major improvement over the first. They also stated that the Multiplayer's not fantastic and that there are still some glitches.

Bungie will be revealing their next game tomorrow at 10:07 AM Eastern time on their site.

I really want a demo of LittleBigPlanet to see if it's gonna be as awesome as it looks like it could be even though I really know nothing about it.

The public beta started yesterday. Eurogamer gave out 5800 beta keys, but of course I was attending school during this.

I don't know who else is giving out keys though, there's supposed to be about 60k keys for this beta.

New Resistance 2 footage was released today.

First ever look at Co-op:

Resistance 2 'Co-Op Switch' gameplay HD - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21593

Resistance 2 'Co-Op Lift' gameplay HD - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21594

Singleplayer:

Resistance 2 'Goliath' gameplay HD - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21582

Resistance 2 'Bunker Battle' gameplay HD - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21584

Resistance 2 'Firefight' gameplay HD - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21589

Resistance 2 'Orick' gameplay HD - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21585

Resistance 2 'Drone' gameplay HD - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21588

Resistance 2 'Firefight' gameplay HD - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21589

Multiplayer:

Resistance 2 'Defend Beacon' gameplay HD - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21591

Resistance 2 'Victory' gameplay HD - http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/21592

Holy shit, Resistance 2 looks bigger, better, and more badass then the first one. The Goliath video alone has more epic action than anything from R:FOM and the new Chimera shown is cool as hell. These videos instantly shot Resistance 2 to the top of my list.

Is playing the first game going to be necessary to enjoy the second? I know loads of people are really excited for it, but I'm just not fussed right now, am I missing out? Or is it just a case of a game being overhyped by fanboys?

Peter Molyneux has stated that you don't have to play Fable to understand and enjoy Fable 2.

It doesn't fix shit because when you're facing an AT-ST and about a dozen Storm Troopers and you tap R1 to lock on the AT-ST to avoid having the camera fuck up, it may lock onto it or it may lock onto a random Storm Trooper by it or it may lock onto some trash.

I agree with JairusCain, some parts can be fun if you're a Star Wars fan, but overall the game isn't that great. I beat the game in three days and the majority of my deaths came from falling into bottomless pits due to the horrible camera and shit platforming sections + the clunky controls or dieing in battle because the goddamn targeting system decided the a random floating piece of spacejunk was more important then the asshole attacking me. The story is easily the best part about this game though. It ties into A New Hope wonderfully.