Having sold 2.5 million copies on its first month and hitting eight in 2009, Alta-yeer and Assassin's Creed definitely set the bar high for the trilogy. But as early as now, Ezio and Assassin's Creed II are expected to do much better, with pre-orders up 10-20% from their predecessor. According to Mike Hickey of Janco Partners, Assassin's Creed II will do better than the first, and it'll give a much-needed boost for Ubisoft and its Q3 numbers.

As with all covers of sports titles, Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PC, PS2) gets to showcase the figurehead of what the sport is all about. This year, however, Madden NFL 10 gets not one, but two coverboys sharing the spotlight, and with the announcement from EA Sports, we finally know who they are. No drumroll necessary, just a click to the full article will do.

It's one thing when Sony and Microsoft throw mud at each other and call each other names, it's quite another when actual game developers throw down and join the rumble. Shaun Himmerick, Executive Producer for Wheelman, remarks that programming for the PS3 was "a huge pain in the ass," while the Xbox 360 is like "a dumb PC."

Ouch and ouch.

Time for another round of new goodies on the US PlayStation Store. For this week's batch, we've got the usual shower of Guitar Hero and Rock Band tracks, a new edition of PULSE, new demos and new downloadable games. Check out the complete list in the full article.

Amazon's got another sweet deal for you gamers out there. Not only can you get Far Cry 2 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) at a discounted price, you will also get 50% off an additional game from Ubisoft. Details after the jump.

If you're looking to do some Christmas shopping, then you should consider going to Amazon's Gold Box deals for today. They got a whole lot of Wii games up for grabs, some going for as low as US$ 10. Great deals for the cheapskate!

Thanks to Dkraz3175 for the tip!

With the state of the economy as it is, people keep throwing the question, is the games industry recession proof? Well not entirely, not according to some analysts at least, who believe that certain game titles will have disappointing sales.

Word has it from French publisher Ubisoft that the latest iteration in the Tom Clancy video game franchise has finally been dated. Originally posted on MCV, Tom Clancy's EndWar is the new and upcoming real-time tactics strategy title that will see multiple releases on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Read the release dates and other info in our full article.

It's the first issue of the Apple Weekend Warrior and we've got some good stuff for everyone. To kick things off with the new and improved version of the QuickJump QuickPeek feature, we have a healthy dosage of Trojan malware, spiced with Snow Leopards on the side. Confused? Read the full article to get a better idea of what we're talking about.

iPhone users are in for another treat as developer Shaun T. Erickson recently rolled out the latest version of the iPhone homebrew puzzler aMaze!. Bumping the homebrew game up to version 1.2.3, the new build features an improved interface compared to its previous release. Find out more about aMaze 1.2.3 in our full article after the jump.