This Week in Gaming Mar 9-15, 2008

A mixed week for gamers; nevertheless, sit back and enjoy the ride as we take you through a whirlwind tour of what happened or didn't this week in the world of gaming.
Capcom announced releasing their next edition, "Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies" on both Xbox 360 and the PC on May 27th. Essentially the same game, plus a few perks, the game saw a recent release on Sony's PS3. The highlight of this iteration is the all new modes for a single-player campaign; these include: Score Attack, with each enemy and destructible object having points assigned, and players awarded different points basis how they defeat the enemy; Trial Battle, where players take on each of the game's Bosses, one after the other; Off limit, a roller-coaster ride of sorts -- complete with super-charged weapons, unlimited ammunition, and increased speed of movement; New online modes; and Cross-platform battles, where Xbox 360 owners join forces or play against PC gamers. Meanwhile, we think gamers won't be too excited about this one; all the same the game will carry a price tag of $30. Creators of the wildly popular 'Burnout Paradise' series, Criterion, announced they will add more cars to the existing collection via DLC or downloadable content; Islands expansions will be free. Recently announced by Criterion Head Honcho, Alex Ward, Islands or the new DLC areas, are intended to give more head room to gamers to race in open-ended 'Burnout' environs. Now, Islands will come free to download and play. Good news this, and coming from an EA studio, surprising!
A big blow for PC gamers the world over: Epic President, Tim Sweeney's announcement that the next version of their legendary 'Unreal Engine' will be developed primarily for gaming consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3) and their successors. Considering Unreal built a reputation and a cult following around their amazing game engines that made PC games look 'unreal', this kind of capitalist twist (consoles making more moolah) to the story is surely going to disappoint PC gamers. Sad that the PC has been relegated to secondary citizen status when Unreal 3 Engine forms the backbone of some of the highest-selling PC games. If it's any consolation, Unreal Engine Next is unlikely to surface till about the next five years.

Lastly, this one's the mother of them all: for weeks after Toshiba declared the HD DVD format dead, Microsoft kept everyone guessing whether they would or wouldn't ultimately go with the rival Blu-ray format. Just a few days back, it was reported that Sony and Microsoft are in talks for the latter to add Blu-ray support to their Xbox 360 gaming console. Finally there it was: Microsoft confirmed they are trying to figure out the best way to connect with Blu-ray. They are also working on ways to include device driver support for Blu-ray drives in their Windows operating system. So why we wonder, did Group Product Manager for Xbox 360, Aaron Greenberg, recently tell Reuters that "Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience."Source