The developers from Bungie have revealed the changes in Halo 3's matchmaking playlists for June in the latest Weekly Update. They're making quite a number of modifications so regular online gamers should definitely check it out. For more information, head on over to the full article.

Can't wait to get your hands on Bungie's Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack? Well, you might want to know that the developers behind the downloadable content has released a little more information about Blackout, one of the maps included in the pack. In addition, a few new screenshots were also released. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

After weeks of anticipation, hints and hype, Blizzard has finally released the notes for World of Warcraft's Patch 2.4! One of the bigger updates is that the PTR will now be available to all US, European and Korean players without any regional restrictions. Check out the patch notes for 2.4 in the full article!

 

While the Transformers movie buzz may have faded into warm, fuzzy memories for most of us, there are a dedicated few that have yet to do so - in fact, one could even say they're just getting into the swing of things. It's the same with Lego customizer Adrian Drake, more commonly known as Brick Frenzy, having recently constructed an actually-transformable replica of the Decepticon Blackout. Yes, it actually CAN transform.

Measuring over 16 inches in robot mode and over two feet in vehicle mode, the little devil not only looks the part of a Decepticon, but also the same look as the Blackout of the movie itself. This in itself is quite a feat, if you consider the fact that the medium used is nothing but Lego blocks. There's just one catch, though: Lego Blackout is a bit on the brittle side during mid-transformation, so it takes a bit of doing shifting the guy from helicopter mode to robot mode. It's still awesome, though.

With this little revelation made, yours truly can't help but wonder why Lego hasn't capitalized on something like this. After all, they've made sets out of famous movie franchises, right? And who wouldn't want to have their very own Lego Optimus Prime fighting a Lego Megatron? Yours truly certainly would.

Online site PS3 Vault did a series of experiments to its PlayStation 3 unit that were designed to test the console's durability and stability. Before we proceed though, please note that we do not recommend doing the following to your PS3 units even though the results acquired are favorable.

Anyway, what the said site did was leave the PS3 unit on for 108 hours alternating between playing video games and watching Blu-ray movies. The interesting part here is that the test was done three times under these environmental circumstances: a typical family room, the back of a freezer van, and a heat sauna.

Curious? Here are the results:

• Family Room: Console ran continuous for the 108 hours with only one incident happening at 12 hours in - a slight vibration coming from the tray area which lasted approximately 20 seconds. For the remaining time allocated no incidents were reported.
• Back of Freezer Van: Temperature started at 50F and was progressively scaled down over the next four days to reach zero degrees.
• We noticed a slight sluggishness in playback once the temperature reached 0 degrees , this was maintained for the last 24 hours, with 12 hours to go we thought we were going to crash with a sudden , blackout to the screen, this was tracked down to condensation on the cord for the screen. 108 hours in and still working fine.
• Heat Sauna: Starting temperature was 100 F and Gradually increased to 120F over the last 24 hours.
• The only incident we noticed was a slight burning smell that came in around 64 hours at 110 F, the console was extremely hot when we finished the overall test but had come thru all environments with flying colors.

You can learn more about the tests via the Read link below.

 

Gearbox Software founder Randy Pitchford has announced that the press blackout for the game Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is over. This is good news for fans of the game who have been dying to find out more details about it. He said that the game is not only worth the wait but that it also "will be the best WW2 action game ever released."

Pitchford has been setting this up for a couple of months now, he gave the details of it in his post on the GBX forums.

Colonel Antal and I are spending the entire month at press events meeting with journalists from all over the world. By the end of May, news and information should start trickling out. Then, the trickle will turn into a stream. I'm going to be on the road pretty much non-stop until the last week of May.

That's all well and good and a lot of the fans have been information-starved for about a year now. Questions have already been posted such as "when will it be released?" or "Will it have realistic gun-sounds?" have already been asked. Slated for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and the PC, let's wait and see if this game is really "worth the wait".

 

Speaking to the FiringSquad, Traveller's Tales' Callum Godfrey, producer of Transformers: The Game, revealed several details about their upcoming videogame version of the silver screen adaptation.

Okay, first up, game mode details. Godfrey says that the game runs two campaigns, one for Autobots and one for Decepticons. He adds that while the Autobots campaign follows the movie story closely, the Decepticons campaign is a bit altered.

He adds that the missions are themed for each campaign, so expect to do a lot of protecting when playing Autobots. The stage design of each mission also factor in the fact that you can transform into vehicles, so expect to do some driving around.

There will be 9 playable characters including Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Barricade, and Blackout, among others. As far as the weapons the characters will be using, Godfrey says that it will be similar to the movie.

When it comes to using the weapons, Godfrey notes that they have a targeting system that should allow gamers to switch quickly from one target to the next. They use the same targeting system for melee and ranged combat.

As we've previously reported, the game features the voices of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime and Frank Welker as Megatron, so that's a nice nod to the franchise's history. Godfrey himself says that the inclusion of the voice actors makes them happy about their project.

Sadly, the game does not support online multiplayer .

Transformers: The Game should be available this June for North America, and this coming Summer for the EU region. It is set to come out for the PS3, the Xbox 360, the Wii, the PS2, and the PC.

"Finally some answers!" This three word post from Level 70 Blood Elf Paladin Ino reflects our sentiments exactly. While Blizzard had made absolutely no remarks about the development of their fixes slated for the next major patch (Patch 2.1.0) of World of Warcraft, people have been exasperated by the complete news blackout.

But when Community Manager Ommra did her signature bovine cha-cha at the European World of Warcraft Forums with Game Master Tigole's dev updates not far behind, the community flocked right down over to that thread for some well-deserved appreciation for Big Blue.

We aren't going to place all that Tigole discussed here. We'd rather have you get the news straight from the horse's mouth.

That way, if someone forgets to deliver on their promise, you'll know there wasn't any misunderstanding between us and you guys. While these fixes aren't all that's coming by the next patch, they are what people have been hounding the forums for - for weeks on end.

• The Rogue Situation - the 360-degree striking sweep issue is being addressed.
• End Game Itemisation - end-game items will be balanced and scaled accordingly
• ”Trash” Concerns - non-epic dropping, non-bosses should be easier to clear
• Consumables - plans to remove massive consumable farming
• Boss Tuning - WoW's Big Baddies are getting an attitude readjustment

Despite lackadaisical issues with Blizzard's efforts to patching the game, the Game Masters and developers are actually listening to what's hot and what's not in the community forums. So if you think your little concern isn't being looked into, think again. Expect Patch 2.1.0 to be up in the Public Test Realms first, before making its way permanently to the live Realms. Don't forget to hop over to the thread via the "Read" link provided below.

 

There sure is a lot of maintenance stuff going on over at Blizzard's backyard. After the announcement on the live maintenance schedule for WoW Europe and America, here comes yet another schedule, this time for their forums.

Starting on 11:59 pm PDT on March 14 (Wednesday), there will be an extended maintenance happening, in which the forums will be taken down. So obviously, the WoW forums won't be available for this duration. But don't worry, it will only last until 10:00 am PDT, so it's not like it's gonna be a major forums blackout or anything.

Also, this will not, in any way affect Account Management, so all should still be good in that area. So sit tight, and be patient. The forums staff extend their apologies in advance for whatever inconvenience this may cause.

Picture this: You're enjoying some rare 'me' time in your house, relaxing, and reading a book. All of a sudden, the lights go off. You're getting bored to your wits and the darkness is beginning to creep you out, big time. You curse yourself for not buying some batteries for your trusty flashlight, or some candles. What to do, what to do?!

Since blackouts are inevitable and you may not always have some spare batteries lying around your house, Ambient Weather thought of a practical gizmo that some would find really useful. The Blackout Buddy will most likely spend its life plugged into a socket, but once power goes out, you'll not only get a flashlight but you'll also get an AM/FM radio.

The flashlight will last for 12-16 hours, so unless the end of the world dawns upon us (or something pretty bad), it would probably do. You could also listen to phone-in radio programs, cheesy songs, and talkative DJs for four hours. It could also serve as an alarm clock and has an on/off switch if you're a bit conscious about your energy consumption. Not too shabby for 30 bucks.