In Silent Hill Homecoming, Alex Shepherd Has Returned To His Hometown Of Shepherd's Glen To Investigate The Sudden Disappearance Of His Brother. From Shepherd's Glen To The Foggy Streets Of Silent Hill, Alex Will Face The Darkest Of Horrors While Struggling With His Own Grip On Reality. Alex Must Unravel The Mystery Behind His Nightmares, Discover The Truth Behind His Brother's Disappearance, And Confront The Evil That Has Taken Hold Of His Soul.

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Testing The Waters Before The Orange Box Officially Ships Out On October 10th, Valve Has Cracked The Floodgates On The Team Fortress 2 Beta. As Previously Reported, Those Who Prepurchase The Orange Box Through Valve's Online Portal Steam Before October 10th will Receive 10% Percent Off The PC Game's $49.95 Price Tag,A Free Copy Of Peggle Extreme, And Exclusive Access To Team Fortress 2's Multiplayer Beta. Team Forttress 2's Beta Launch Comes In The Wake Of Last Week's Community-Oriented Overhaul, Which Opened UpA New Web Portal For Steam Users And AddedA Number Of Features Designed To Enhance The User Experience. Team Fortress 2 Iterates On The Original Team Fortress Quake Mod WithA New Cartoony Vibe But Retains The Same Over-The-Top, Team-Based Action. It Will Be Included In The Orange Box Along With Half-Life 2, Its Episode One And Episode Two Expansions, And Portal.

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Left 4 Dead Would Have Undoubtedly Been A Finalist For Multiplayer Gameplay Of The Year, If Not For The Fact That Valve Recently Just Announced That The Game Has Now Slipped To Early 2008. Still, It's Hard Not To Be Completely Engrossed In This Cooperative Multiplayer Action Game That Has You Playing Alongside Three Other Players As You Try And Battle It Out Of A Zombie-Infested Los Angeles. It Really Feels Like You're Trapped In A Movie Like 28 Days Later, And The Game's Desperate Firefights And Awesome Scenes Of Dozens Of Zombies Rushing You Hits Something Primal In Your Brain. You Play As One Of Four Survivors Who Is Somehow Immune To The Zombie Disease. That's The Good News. The Bad News Is That The Zombies Want To Eat You, And You Have To Battle Work Together To Fight Your Way Out Of The City. You Can Play As Louis, The Retail Manager Of A Big Box Electronic Store. Then There's Zoey, A Teenage Girl; Francis, A Biker; And Bill, A Grizzled Vietnam War Veteran. Each Of These Characters Can Use Every Type Of Weapon In The Game, So They're Fairly Interchangeable. At The Same Time, Each One Makes An Impression Thanks To The Incredible Facial Animation In The Game. The Heart Of Left 4 Dead Is The Fact That You'll Have To Battle Against Incredible Odds In Very Familiar Urban Settings To Get Through The Game. You Can Carry A Primary Weapon, Such As A Shotgun Or Assault Rifle, As Well As A Pistol That You Van Use As A Last Resort. We Started Out Each Level In A Safe Room Where Our Characters Could Change Between Different Weapons, Refill On Ammunition, And Pick Up Health Packs. Each Character Can Only Carry A Single Health Pack, By The Way. This Game Is So Incredibly Atmospheric, Cinematic, And Engaging That We Didn't Want To Stop Playing. Left 4 Dead Uses Valve's Source Engine, So The Graphical Look Is Comparable To Half-Life 2 And Counter-Strike: Source, But It Looks Even Better Thanks To The Fact That It's Set In Such A Familiar Setting. As Good As It Looks, Though, We're Hyped On The Actual Combat, As It Really Feels Like It's Going To Be The Definitive Zombie Game. Even Better, We're Told That The Game Has An Incredibly Amount Of Replayability, As There Are Different Situations And Wild Moments That Can Occur Each Time That You Play. This Is A Game To Most Definitely Keep An Eye On, And It'll Be Released Early Next Year.

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Microsoft's first new operating system in more than five years and the successor to Windows XP. However, it is not worth rushing out to purchase. If you desperately need to buy a new PC (if your old one died or you've been waiting and waiting for Vista to be released), then by all means do so; there's nothing wrong with Windows Vista. But there's no one compelling feature within Windows Vista that cries out to switch over, neither the enhanced graphic capabilities (Aero) nor the improved system performance features (truthfully, our Windows XP doesn't crash). As for security, Microsoft's biggest improvements in Windows Vista are within the Enterprise or 64-bit editions, editions most home users will not be running. Windows Vista is not the Apple Mac OS X 10.4 killer one hoped for (or feared). Nor are there specific big-name software packages written exclusively for Windows Vista--most software available today is compatible with both Windows XP and Windows Vista. But the extensive tie-ins to Microsoft.com and Live.com, and the many, many interdependences upon Internet Explorer 7 left us desperately wanting more (and often best-of-breed) alternatives. Hard core Microsofties who live and breathe within the MSN, Live.com, and Microsoft desktop software ecosystem will rejoice with the release of Windows Vista, but for the rest of us who are product agnostic, who use Firefox, Google Desktop, ZoneAlarm, GMail, and Corel WordPerfect, Windows XP SP2 will suffice nicely until some killer program necessitates that we all upgrade to Windows Vista.

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First impressions? Familiarity. Well, that and the fact that at 900MB it takes a while to download. When it's finished downloading and you first pick up your pad to play the Halo 3 beta, your first thoughts will probably be that the game looks, and feels, like Halo 2 (and, come to that, the original Halo). The maps feature a visually similar mix of arctic wastes and red sandstone gulches. Your initial payload is the same assault rifle that served so well in the first game. The controls are only subtly different. And the range of play modes is pretty similar to Halo 2. Clearly then, this is another case of combat evolved. That's no bad thing, of course. Indeed it has one key advantage, which is that the first two Halo games were brilliant, especially in multiplayer, and if it ain't broke don't fix it. But it does mean that it takes a while before the various new additions begin to make themselves felt. Initially, then, you'll probably start playing this like a conventional game of Halo multiplayer. I certainly did, and a load of other players on the beta test clearly did, and the game certainly supports that. If you were to run the game right next to Halo 2 you'd no doubt spot the differences pretty quickly, but your gut reaction will probably be that, in terms of the quality and **** of the graphics, it looks the same. Even the HUD, though revised, isn't really meaningfully different. Various play modes make a return, from the ubiquitous Slayer through the likes of Oddball and Crazy King. And the Assault Rifle feels just like it ever has. Picking up the first new weapon - the Brute Spiker, it fires different bullets, but it's difficult to tell what they do. So yeah, familiarity then.

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Capcom Today Announced Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, Set For Release This Summer. The Wii Version Of The Game Will Use The System's Motion-Sensing Controller For Functions Like Aiming And Shooting, And Capcom Promises All Of Resident Evil 4's Original Gameplay Systems HaveBeen Kept Intact In The Conversion. It Will Also Include All Of The Extra Content Added To The PlayStation 2 Version Of The Game.

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Finally After 6 Years In Development S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Is Finally Here. Go Grab A Copy Now! ;)

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