Ridge Racer 6 does incorporate the three stage nitrous meter (x1, x2, x3) that was featured in the PSP version of Ridge Racers, but aside from that, everything feels very typical of previous versions. The HUD displays a map along the upper left hand side of the screen, while the current and previous lap times decorate the right.

TeamXbox

Register now for a free playable demo of Dragon Quest VIII! It's easy; just provide your mailing address and answer a few questions, and we'll do the rest. Help us spread the word by getting a friend to sign up for a demo and receive a super-cool clear slime figurine!

We bring you the scoop on the Public Beta for one of fall's most anticipated PSP titles, including details of online play and screenshots.

PSPworld

Electronic Gaming Monthly's October 2005 magazine reveals some interesting tid bits about the future of the ambitious God of War franchise. [ Link]

Activision has released the playable demo for Call of Duty 2, offering the first opportunity to try out the World War II first-person shooter sequel in production at Infinity Ward. This is a single-player demo that contains one mission situated in El Daba, Egypt, where you're tasked with destroying four artillery guns.

Here are the Perfect Dark Zero videos that were recently leaked onto the internet by someone over at the GameInformer forums. There is five in total, and although the quality isn't the best, they are still great to watch.

Planet Xbox360

PS3 is dead? Notorious French gaming site, jeux-france.com, has posted the cover image for the November issue of Xbox World 360?and it?s a doozie.

Joystiq

John Carmack has said he would like to make a Doom 3 super edition for the PlayStation 3.

Pro G

CroTeam's long-awaited sequel to Serious Sam is nigh upon us, and they have released a teaser of what awaits in the demo. Is it worth the download though? Check Jakub's comments out.

FiringSquad

Day of Defeat: Source is the 2005 remake of the classic Half-Life WWII mod, Day of Defeat. It features revamped maps, higher resolution textures & models, and that must-have feature, HDR. We take an exclusive sneak peek at the changes between old & new.

6 brand new screenshots of Quake 4 are now available for download, illustrating the sci-fi first-person shooter under construction, at Raven Software.

techPowerUp

According to the electronics retailer behemoth, Best Buy, Halo 3 will be released on May 15th, 2006. Of course this seems to be more of a best guess and not an official statement. At this point Microsoft has not cofirmed a release date. Statements from Microsoft have put the launch somewhere around the time the PS3 will be released. Rumors have indicated that Halo 3 will debut with the Halo movie that is speculated to be released in 2007. [ Link ]

Updates to Steam have been released. The update will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. This release includes a number of very specific CPU and memory footprint optimizations brought over from the Half-Life 2: XBOX development codebase. The release also includes all of the engine groundwork to enable the Day of Defeat: Source launch that will happen Monday, September 26 at 3:00 PDT.

Wondering how Valve's super-duper Lost Coast level is going to play on your system? We've run it through a range of different setups to find out what's playable and what's not. We also have an awesome preview video of the level to tide you over!

Bit-Tech

2K Games now sends along the playable demo for Serious Sam II, allowing the chance to pull out all the stops in this frantic first-person shooter sequel that is nearing completion at Croteam. Word is: This demo contains the complete Seriousopolis Uptown level from the game, which can be played solo, or over LAN or online by up to four people. It also contains all the weapons from the game (although you may have to cheat to see all of them), one of the game's vehicles and a nice variety of the insane enemies that Sam is well known for.

Ubi Soft have released the playable demo for Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, offering the first opportunity to try out the now-complete World War II first-person tactical shooter sequel by Gearbox Software. This demo includes a single-player mission (Close Quarters), a skirmish map (Last Stop) playable in single- and multiplayer (LAN only), as well as assorted extras.

Good news for all the Serious Sam fans, as 2K Games just let us know that a Serious Sam 2 demo is being released tomorrow! The 250mb download includes one level which can be played solo, or co-op over LAN or online with up to four people. It also includes all of the game's weapons, one of the vehicles and several enemy types. Look for the demo at 9AM CST.

ShackNews

When Activision asked me to be a part of their Call of Duty 2 event in Poland, I figured we?d be playing their latest Xbox 360 creation Call of Duty 2 in some swank club in Warsaw. Little did I know that the setting for the ?mother of all PR events? would be an area of Poland filled with remnants of Germany?s WWII occupation of this beautiful country.

TeamXbox

The short demo was the exact same one showed at E3, however, this time running on the final Xbox 360 development kits. So what is so significant about that? Well, it means this is the first real indication of what Gears will look like when you take it home in 2006.

TeamXbox

This is footage is made by CryTek (the people who brought us FarCry) on the DX10 API, shown at the PDC Microsoft Conference. It looks simply amazing!

TheTechNews