The game begins in 2010 with your character, US Air Force pilot Nate Renko, being flown to investigate strange readings from a mysterious ex-Soviet Union island. Here he discovers Element 99, a secret weapon developed by the Russians during the Cold War, and the Time Manipulation Device which lets him conduct all sorts of chrono trickery.

"The TMD can project items dusted in E-99 into a future state, or revert them to a previous state," says PCZ. "For example, as enemies rush across a bridge to attack you, the glove can be used to propel the bridge through time, across hundreds of years in a matter of seconds. The effect? Well, the bridge decays under their feet and they fall to their doom." You can even age enemies on the spot until they're nasty, crumbling skeletons, which looks cool.

What's more, mysterious timewaves on the island occasionally blast Nate back into the past - the 1950s to be exact - standing in the exact same spot but 60s years earlier. Expect Prey-style portals, grenades which 'freeze' time and even big, bug-like 'time ticks' to shoot at.

For viral trailers, head here.

X-Blades is all about combat, really. The story that's in place is presented in cel-shaded cutscenes and makes sense once you get rolling, but at the onset it feels like you're thrown into a story at its midway point. That's evidenced even further by the section of the manual titled, "Huh? How did this adventure begin?" No joke, it's there.

The nuts and bolts of X-Blades are that the story surrounds a treasure hunter named Ayumi and her trusty gun-blades (swords that are also pistols) as she seeks to find ancient all-powerful artifacts that are currently hidden away in a long-forgotten temple. Of course standing in her way are forces with the same goal in mind. Time for Ayumi to hack and, yes, slash her way through a myriad of arena battles.

Everything about X-Blades is mediocre. It works for what it is, and there’s some charm to the action and the characters, but the gameplay design is lacking in ingenuity; a notion that is perpetuated the longer you play. Some will be able to find more enjoyment with X-Blades than I, but most will likely wind up walking away before the adventure is over.

Mad Catz reported net sales for the fiscal third quarter ended December 31, 2008 of $40.8 million, a 19.0% increase from $34.3 million in the fiscal 2008 third quarter. Gross profit for the quarter declined 16.7% to $10.5 million, from $12.7 million in the fiscal 2008 third quarter. Gross profit margin for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 decreased to 25.8% from a record 36.9% in the prior year period. Net loss for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 was $26.9 million, or ($0.49) per diluted share, compared to net income of $3.3 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2008.

Selling, general and administrative expenses totaled $7.6 million, or 18.7% of net sales in the fiscal 2009 third quarter, compared with $6.4 million, or 18.7% of net sales in the prior year period. Research and development expenses decreased to $0.1 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2009. Reflecting the impact of the estimated non-cash impairment charge, loss before income taxes for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 was $25.8 million, as compared to income before income taxes of $5.6 million in the prior year fiscal third quarter.

A full breakdown of controller and accessory sales can be found here.

Ryu and Ken have been with the series for a long time, but so has their master. Although Gouken has never been a playable character, the legendary martial artist has been whispered about and alluded to for years and he's finally ready to be taken into the ring. Being the brother of Akuma, Gouken studied under the same master and thus shares numerous techniques with his devious sibling. However, Gouken rejected the dark techniques his master employed and developed his own, purified form of combat -- the one that was passed down to Ryu and Ken. Although some of Gouken's Special Moves may just look like rehashes of the other characters, we can tell you this with confidence: Gouken is an incredible fighter.

It may sound strange that I, creator of this game, have had a hard time trying to describe the type of game Noby Noby Boy (releasing on PSN this Thursday, February 19) is. Since the beginning of its development, I still haven’t been able to give a clear answer when asked, but allow me to try again…

Basically players can control and stretch Boy, the main character of the game. As players stretch Boy, the lengths to which he grows are uploaded to a persistent character known as Girl, who grows at the same rate as the combined length of all the players in the world. Girl starts at Earth and expands around the solar system. When Girl reaches a new milestone in the solar system, new areas are unlocked as playable stages for everyone around the world.

Well, that’s the best that I can do to explain the game, but I know people will still go, “Hmm…”

How come it’s hard to explain, you ask? It’s because I wanted to make a game that cannot be expressed by words in the first place. By making an undefined and ambitious game, I want the player’s reaction to be something like, “I don’t know why, but it’s somehow interesting. I can’t stop playing.” In that way, I would feel I have succeeded at creating what I wanted, that is, creating something that’s not easily describable. Anyway, it’s been a fun experience working on Noby Noby Boy.

One big question most people have asked is, “Why did you want to make such a game?” Seriously, I don’t know. When I figure it out, I’ll share. As I mentioned earlier, this game is indescribable, and some people may say, “This isn’t a game!” But, what is a game? Should there be a definition for a game? That’s the way I feel.

Hoping to get 100% completion by next Friday so I can move on to Dawn of War II, but...

I'm off to the U.S. on Monday to see a man about a dog, and won't be back until Thursday. The pair are only available on Tuesday, with the rest of the time being eaten by flights and layovers. Really really, really, long layovers. So this dog best be the next bloody Crufts champion, if you know what I mean.

What titles have occupied your time this past week?

P.S. Sign up to the Voodoo Extreme Twitter Feed!

"I don't recall modifying the game in any way after the controversy of racism." Kawata-san reiterated that the team had been taken aback by the reaction, adding: "Actually it was a little bit of a surprise for us as obviously the game is set in Africa and so depicting native Africans was a natural thing to do."

...in the new title, developer DICE has changed many of the revered gameplay mechanics. “Pacific” has cut back on the amount of classes, leaving only Infantry, Rifleman and Scout. My favorite class, Medic, has been removed to make way for regenerating health “Halo“-style. The Anti-Tank class has been replaced by giving all classes a rocket launcher.

In other news, "Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is proud to announce that Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earle Haley, stars of the upcoming Watchmen film, will lend their voices to the long-form downloadable videogame Watchmen: The End is Nigh. Developed by Deadline Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Watchmen: The End is Nigh will feature the voices of Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl, a refined fighter well-versed in martial arts and cutting-edge gadgetry, and Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, a feral, streetwise fighter who can disarm enemies and use their own weapons against them."

For further details, hit up IGN's four-page preview.

We've learned, for example, that Midway claims $167,523,000 in assets versus $281,033,000 in liabilities. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the list of Midway's top 30 creditors. Among these, Wells Fargo Bank has the most to lose. The troubled game publisher owes the bank an eye-popping $150,000,000 of unsecured loans. Others holding sizeable Midway IOUs include the current owner of the company, its former CEO and a variety of game retailers and licensees:

Wells Fargo Bank - $150,000,000

Acquisition Holdings Subsidiary - $40,000,000 unsecured loan

National Amusements, Inc. - $20,147,864

NBA Properties, Inc. - $17,294,849 (License/royalty settlement)

Tangible Media, Inc. - $8,675,954

Warner Bros. Interactive - $6,654,203

Artificial Mind & Movement - $2,000,000

Epic Games - $1,975,000 (License/Royalties)

Walmart - $1,576,035

Far Sight Technologies - $1,279,151

Best Buy - $1,114,036

Also available to view is Zangief's move montage.

The second element we would like to talk about is suppression. Generally speaking, the suppression mechanic should work very similar to how it did in Company of Heroes - to inexpensively neutralize infantry forces – however, directly porting over this system has proven insufficient. Here are some problems that have appeared in the Beta and the solutions we are implementing in the patch.

Suppression is too easily neutralized by melee based opponents because once a suppression unit is attacked in melee, that unit is rendered completely ineffective. To play an effective role on the DOWII battlefield, suppression is now more effective against melee units at short ranges.

Suppression units are quickly overwhelmed by groups of standard ranged units. To prevent this, suppression has been made more effective against ranged units who choose to enter their firing range.

Units in cover are too vulnerable to suppression. As a result, cover has been made more effective at dissipating suppression.

Together, these changes should dramatically increase player’s tactical options for using and countering suppression. Moving forward, we will continue to explain some of the changes we’re making to the game to a greater extent because we know many of you are very interested in how we arrived at the decisions we’ve made. Sometimes we just make mistakes, we’re only human after all, but other times there are very good and well thought out reasons behind the changes.

Our work to make DOW II’s multiplayer experience as fair, fun and exciting as possible has just started. We sincerely hope you enjoy the game and continue to support us through your community participation.

While we continue to wait for the retail launch, THQ sent out a video of a real-life Space Marine Rhino APC strutting its stuff, and a second, excellent Tyranid trailer:

We'd learned from a source last week that the game was planned to change publishers, with an announcement from Ubisoft expected shortly. Just recently, we'd been told by other sources at retail that outstanding orders for the game had been put on hold, with expectations that Wheelman would be re-solicited, delayed, and reappear as a Ubisoft game.

Whether Wheelman would be re-branded as part of the Driver series, the rights of which Ubisoft purchased from publisher Atari in 2006 is unknown. Given the extensive marketing Midway has put behind the Midway Newcastle and Tigon Studios developed title, it might seem like an odd fit, but could potentially benefit from the long-running Driver brand.

Microsoft Corp announced plans on Thursday to open its own chain of stores and hired a DreamWorks Animation executive to run them.

The company did not say how many stores it was looking to open, or when, or which products would be available. That is to be decided by David Porter, a former DreamWorks executive, which Microsoft named as its new vice president of retail stores on Thursday.

Lower prices direct from the manufacturer? Don't bet on it.

Boards

• MSI DKA790GX - iXBTlabs

  Cases
  

• Antec 900 V2 - XS Reviews
• Cooler Master Storm Sniper - PureOC
• Element Liquid Case - Test Freaks
• Thermaltake Spedo Advance Full-Tower - TechGage

  Cooling
  

• Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler - ThinkComputers.org
• Noctua NH-C12P Premium CPU Cooler - OCModShop

  CPU
  

• AMD Phenom II AM3 X4 810 2.6GHz Quad-Core - Techware Labs
• AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition CPU - BMR

  Games
  

• Fear 2: Project Origin - GPU and CPU benchmarks - PCGH

  Power Supply
  

• CoolerMaster Silent Pro-M 600w - Virtual-Hideout

  Storage
  

• Western Digital's Caviar Green 2TB hard drive - Tech Report

  Video
  

• ASUS Matrix and Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 - Hot Hardware
• BFG GeForce GTX 285 OCX - Hardware Logic
• PNY GTX-285 Performance Edition - Bjorn3D
• XFX GTX 285 XXX - Neoseeker
• Zotac GeForce GTX 295 1792 MB - TechPowerUp

Today's question:

What's your favorite scary game?