I don’t know about you guys but I’m waiting for a good excuse to stop playing Wii games altogether. And I haven’t played that many of them in the first place. I certainly have arguments to back up my decision. Like the crappy graphics of the Wii or the fact that its follower, the Wii 2, isn’t going to offer us any significant changes! Add to that the fact that both Microsoft and Sony are adding motion sensing support to their console next year and you’ll understand why I’m more and more determined to ditch the Wii.
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British Intelligence wants you… so you can work for them, that is. British Intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (or GCHQ) is the Signals Intelligence branch of the British intelligence community, and have begun placing adverts on the Xbox Live Dashboard to try and recruit gamers to positions within their organization.

The ad campaign to recruit gamers will run six weeks and is being handled by a third-party advertising agency. This isn’t the first time that GCHQ has run ads in the video gaming domain, as in 2007, the GCHQ ran ads in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent for the PC, also trying to recruit gamers.

Xbox Live’s key demographic is 18- to 34- year old men, which is also the GCHQ’s key recruiting demographic. The GCHQ recruiting website point-blankly states that “you have to be a British citizen to for GCHQ. There are no exceptions.” The United Kingdom is one of 26 countries where Xbox Live is legally available. No current data is publicly on how many of  Xbox Live’s users live in the UK.

GCHQ is not MI6. Its mission is intelligence analysis, so it’s doubtful that Call of Duty addicts will be infiltrating foreign governments and wooing accented women anytime soon. A spokeswoman for GCHQ told The Guardian that it looks for in an employee is “reflected in game-play experiences on Xbox, such as quick thinking, problem solving and team work”. She added that GCHQ is responsible for dealing with communication and cyber threats to England, and that gamers may inherently be inclined to know more about these fields.

Targeting gamers for employment is nothing new. In addition to GCHQ’s earlier attempts, the US Army spends $10 million annually in continually developing America’s Army, a free PC shooter that has players playing the role of American soldiers.

Just when we thought that the PS3 firmware 3.10, which brings Facebook integration among other goodies, was Sony’s latest attempt to get some attention and possibly new customers, a late night report came in stating that the company’s next firmware upgrade is going to bring 3D stereoscopic capabilities for the games played on their consoles.

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Super hero-themed MMORPG Champions Online is having its second free-play weekend, after only being released two months ago and having its first free-play weekend one month ago. The upcoming free-play weekend, which will be based around Thanksgiving, will coincide with an in-game content update called ‘Nemesis Confrontation’, and will feature new player costumes and quests.

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Microsoft have officially confirmed that, by way of celebrating the integration of new Xbox Live services such as the Xbox Live Facebook and Twitter functionality, they are offering up a free upgrade to their Xbox Live service for Silver members in all Xbox Live regions expect for us Europeans (quite why Europeans are excluded is not explained but that’s sure to get a few people’s back up, and understandably so).
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Microsoft is no stranger to the inside of a court room in its 34-year history, and another is potentially coming what with Law firm Abington Law having announced that they are investigating a Class Action Lawsuit against the software giant, representing people who have been unfairly banned by the Xbox Live service.
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Toys R Us has decided to pleasantly surprise us and tempt us with a few pre-Black Friday game deals. And we certainly love pre-Black Friday deals, don’t we? The company will offer you a couple of extra savings on various products starting with Sunday, November 22 and ending on Thursday, November 26.
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Lexar has announced today new storage solution for your gaming consoles. These are the Memory Stick Micro M2 and the Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) memory cards.
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Having advised you earlier this week that the new PS3 firmware update (specifically the 3.10 PS3 firmware update – which has now become available) was to introduce Facebook integration to the PS3 according to as yet unsubstantiated rumours just hitting the wires it appears that Sony and Mozilla are currently in talks with view to integrating Mozilla’s Firefox browser in a future firmware update.
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Activision has announced today a brand new Tony Hawk game, the Tony Hawk: RIDE. What’s particularly interesting about this new title is the introduction of a new controller. The skateboard controller is a unique concept so if you love skateboarding you’ll certainly love the RIDE.
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Biggest entertainment launch in history, surpassing its predecessor Grand Theft Auto IV, the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has managed to sell 4.7 million copies in the US and the UK only in the first 24 hours, accounting for the most profitable games of all times. But as good as the reviews may seem, there has been some bad press surrounding the new Modern Warfare 2, when word got out that Russia banned the console version.

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We knew it was coming but it looks like the much reported Playstation Facebook integration is set to become available as soon as this week as the new PS3 firmware update (specifically the 3.10 firmware update) is made available.
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Say what you will against the device but I happen to be fairly interested in Apple’s tablet despite not having actually seen it in action. Sure a tablet can’t be your main computer but if you need to have the Internet at the tips of your fingers at all times, then maybe a gadget bigger than the iPhone, capable of offering a better browsing performance while adding some extra features, is definitely welcomed.
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When it comes to getting the web on your DSi, any early adopter can tell you that it is sluggish at best. Sure, the photo integration with Facebook is a lot of fun, but basic tasks like checking your Gmail account can often fail because the processor is just too slow to handle anything serious. Don’t even try to watch a You Tube video, like you can on your iPod. Well, at least don’t try until the new Nintendo DSi is being upgraded with NVIDIA’s new Tegra 2 processors.

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Microsoft have confirmed that if you’ve been banned from Xbox Live and are looking for a way back in you’re luck’s out – as any ban is permanent meaning that your barred console will never access Xbox Live again, period.
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The BBC have now confirmed that they are set to offer their iPlayer catch-up radio and television service on the Nintendo Wii console via a dedicated iPlayer Wii channel which will be made available via the Wii’s online store for free from next week.
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Sanyo have introduced a newer version of its dual Wii Remote, Eneloop battery charging station that serves to build upon the features of the initial version seen last year by offering compatibility with Wii Remotes with Wii Motion Plus attachments.
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Having just splashed out a fair whack of money to get my hands on Canon’s new (and shockingly impressive, I might add) EOS 7D I now feel somewhat stupid as, for a faction of the cost I could have opted for this DSi Studio Kit from Thrustmater that comes not only with a macro and a wide angle lens, but also a removable flash and no less than 6 color lenses. Well, how stupid do I feel?
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Electronic Arts has officially announced a new title in the Command & Conquer Tiberian series. Tiberian Twilight will be available next year and I bet that RTS lovers are already waiting for it. The Command & Conquer strategy games are definitely a turning point into the way we currently look at RTS games.
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It looks like the old saying “no day without some PS3 news” confirms. After hearing yesterday that the Netflix streaming is official, today we laid our eyes on a set of screenshots that hint to some sort of Facebook integration that would allow you to manage your account straight from your console.

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Few, if any, Xbox owners will not be aware of Mircosoft’s Project Natal motion capture accessory for the X360 since it was initially previewed at E3 and now, according to an apparent leak, it would seem that we have a release date concerning when Project Natal is set to hit the shelves.
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The rumors which  surfaced back in March regarding the PS3 offering Netflix members access to on demand content via a free streaming facility have been confirmed last month have been slated for release sometime in November. Sony has kept their promise, and today announced that the Netflix PS3 streaming has become official and it’s now live on the Playstation 3.

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Last week Microsoft has released a software update that would provide WPA2 support for the upcoming Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter N, and that got us pretty excited knowing that the Xbox 360 will soon be getting support for the new speedier Wi-Fi 802.11n standard. But imagine our disappointment when we heard that the N Networking adapter has made an appearance (at $100) in a GameStop.com catalog, only for it to be later taken off.

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Don’t get all too excited yet about the second generation Wii. The first rumors regarding the Wii 2 are out but we’ll be waiting for official confirmation before getting the party started. We have already seen the new handheld console from Nintendo get released but the new DSi LL isn’t exactly that impressive.
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While they’re not sitting on pink with dreary sales leading to slashed profits, Nintendo have officially unveiled today the new DSi LL with availability starting from November 21, in Japan, and are all geared up to release the new Nintendo Wii Fit Plus, tomorrow.

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In case you happen to love your Nintendo DSi then I just hope you didn’t just purchase your own DSi. I am saying all this as there’s a new DSi in town, a bigger one that you’ll like even better. The DSi LL has been officially unveiled today by Nintendo and the new handheld console will be available in Japan starting with November 21.
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You can’t ignore the signs, can you? Netflix movies have only been available to Xbox 360 consoles for a while now but everybody hopped that will change. Despite the economy, Netflix has had a great year and the company is looking to expand as much as possible.
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Back in March we offered you a heads up concerning the PS3 being set to offer Netflix streaming, regardless of the Xbox’s billed exclusivity (apparently the Xbox was to be the only gaming console to offer a Netflix streaming), and now Sony have acted to officially confirm that Netflix members will be able to access on demand content directly via their Playstation 3 from November via a free streaming facility.
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You may have read reports recently that seem to suggest that Microsoft’s Xbox console looks set to gain a Blu-ray drive – the reports being based on comments made by MS’s Steve Ballmer – but it now seems that MS are acting to quickly to stem the speculation in claiming that Bellmer’s recent comments have been misunderstood (ah, yes, and not for the first time).
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Microsoft has been quietly setting up its online store and starting today you will be able to purchase hardware and software solutions straight from Redmond’s online store. I think it was about time that Microsoft to stood up from the crowd and started selling stuff from its own online store. After all, Apple has been doing it for a while and the concept works very well in their favor.
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