Company of Heroes Senior Designer, Brian Wood, was tragically killed in a collision last week, according to an update on Relic's website.

We are all deeply saddened by the loss of Brian Wood who was killed in a tragic traffic accident last Friday. Both Brian and his wife Erin were struck by a car on Whidbey Island in Washington State. Erin, who is six-months pregnant, survived the crash and has since been released from the hospital to be with her family. Brian was the Senior Designer on the Company of Heroes franchise and a key member of the Relic family. Everyone here has a tremendous amount of respect for Brian and he will be greatly missed.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Brian's family during this difficult time.

Very sad news indeed. AusGamers would like to pay our respects to the Wood family; his contributions to the world of RTS gaming and the industry in general will be long remembered.

There's a bit of contention about the interwebs regarding freedom of speech and improper, insensitive conduct, which came to an embarrassing point for Microsoft, who enforce the latter on their Xbox Live service, when they banned a user whose profile listed his location as "Fort Gay".

The thing is, said user, Josh Moore, actually lives in Fort Gay, West Virginia in the United States, and according to a report over at V3D, it took some convincing to get the mega publisher to realise he was speaking the truth, though he did suffer his account being banned and Microsoft being pretty narky about it before they realised their mistake.

"I figured, I'll explain to them, 'Look in my account. Fort Gay is a real place'," Moore says. "I told him, 'Google it — 25514!', he [just] said, 'I can't help you'."

The full story can be found on the above link.

LucasArts (by way of Activision in Australia) will be launching a special Collector's Edition of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II next month for PS3 and Xbox 360 (the game is coming to PC, but no CE), which is exclusive to EB Games, so pre-orders are a must.

Here's what you get:

• Premium Collectible Steelbook
• Exclusive In-Game Content
• Three exclusive challenge mode levels
• Exclusive Ralph McQuarrie concept "Deak Starkiller" skin
• Exclusive Lightsaber crystal
• Exclusive Mimobot USB Designer Drive Preloaded with Bonus Content
• Starkiller 2GB Flash Drive designed by Mimobot
• Digital art book, featuring insights into the art of The Force Unleashed II

Click on the image to the right for a larger look at the CE.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II will release on October 27 on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii and Nintendo DS.

CVG reports that the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) would happily have Microsoft join its family and that "any company willing to join [and adopt Blu-ray] would be welcome", despite Microsoft being so anti Blu-ray in the past.

"Already games such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves are pushing the limits of the Blu-ray 50GB discs," said Graham Heaton, CEO of BDA Europe. "The infrastructure for broadband throughout the world varies greatly and is a long way from being able to support the downloading and streaming of 50GB games in a consumer friendly format. It will be a very long time before this changes, so Blu-ray is in a ideal position to ensure that the best games are available to all gamers."

True that, we know broadband issues better than anyone. Of course, that's just the BDA offering Microsoft an in, it's still pretty unlikely they'd ever go down that route. Shame though.

The second round of DLC for Transformers: War For Cybertron, Character and Map Pack 2, is now available for download from the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.

The pack offers two new playable characters for multiplayer, Zeta Prime and Dead End, and offers up a further five maps. Two Escalation maps, Pulse (Autobots) and Static (Decepticon) and three competitive maps: Horizon, Sector and Metropolis.

Pulse sounds cool, because it's actually set inside Trypticon - the massive Decepticon. If anyone grabs these, be sure to let us know how they play.

2K Sports has revealed Top Spin 4 to be coming in 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii (no PC), with Aussies and Kiwis being given a chance to score Andre Agassi as a classic player through selected stores, presumably as a pre-order bonus, but we've been given no details just as yet.

"Top Spin 4 is shaping up to be the most realistic and exhilarating tennis game in the Top Spin franchise," said Greg Thomas, president of product development for 2K Sports via press release. "For this iteration, the development team is focused on delivering a bold new take on the sport of tennis by allowing gamers to experience first-hand an uncanny level of realism in the player and stadium models, authentic audio captured directly from real tennis matches, and all-new innovative controls to dominate the competition."

There's no specific 2011 release window for the game, and only these three screens below, which you can click on to see in full size.

The Xbox 360 offering of BioWare's next round of DLC for Mass Effect 2, Lair of the Shadowbroker, is now up and fully available. PC users, however, will have to wait as the initial file offering has turned out to be corrupt and so it has been pulled for the time being.

BioWare are working on a fix, and if you grabbed the file, don't stress, it won't do any damage to your game or your system (at least as far as we know), it's just essentially 1.4 gig of zeros (so avoid grabbing it).

There's no ETA for a renewed PC DLC post, but as soon as we know, we'll let you know.

They may have caused a serious stir with recent dedicated server announcements, but on the single-player side of all things Call of Duty: Black Ops, Treyarch may just be getting things right, today revealing the voice-actors behind the game's story, which has an equally big name attached.

David S. Goyer (The Dark Night, Dark City) has helped pen the narrative for the game as something of a script consultant, while Gary Oldman reprises his role as Viktor Reznov from CoD: World at War and Ed Harris offers his vox as one of the game's main characters, CIA Operative, Jason Hudson.

"Oldman, Harris and Goyer are considered some of Hollywood's finest talents and they perfectly complement Call of Duty: Black Ops' ambitious and immersive single player experience," said Mark Lamia, Studio Head of Treyarch via press release. "Their contributions have helped us to push the boundaries of our story telling and character development far beyond anything we have ever attempted before in the franchise."

Further to this announcement is news the game has passed classification in Australia with an MA15+ and is on track for its November 9 release date.

Gamasutra points out that within its first week of availability, Capcom's 'prequel' to Dead Rising 2, DR2: Case Zero, which is exclusive to Xbox Live, has attracted more than 300,000 users.

The game pretty much plays exactly like a demo, however, everything you do within the game, to a certain point, transfers across to Dead Rising 2 (carried over PP for example). But there are also Achievements to unlock and multiple ways to play through. It's suggested though, that the strong response to this could be a caveat for other publishers offering paid demos on Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network if they had actual gameplay incentives attached (such as Trophies or Achievements), and while Case Zero really won't set you back that much (400 MS Points - AU$6.60), it presents an interesting case.

Have you checked it out yet? Would you pay for a demo if it offered gameplay incentives or even exclusive features the full game won't?

The fifth and final developer diary for Brink has landed, and we have it up for you now, right here on AusGamers.

This last video goes a little bit into the sound behind some of the weapons in the game (including a sniper rifle that sounds like "God coughing" when it fires), and also introduces some of the talented people involved in the project, such as Richard Ham who worked on Fable II and Neil Alphonso who worked on Killzone 2.

Check it out embedded below.

A week back AusGamers was invited out to Namco Bandai's Sydney headquarters to check out a preview build of Enslaved from Heavenly Sword developer, Ninja Theory, and to also speak to Nina Christiansen about the game's development, their goals and just what we can expect with a modern, videogame reimagining of the story of Journey to the West. That's Monkey Magic for anyone unawares, ad the way this game is shaping up, it's going to be one very epic journey.

Alongside the feature, we also have a batch of new screens, three of which you can jump to below (click for larger versions), while the rest can be found by clicking here.

Hit this link for the feature.

Anyone who's been wanting to push their maxed Borderlands characters that little bit more will be happy to know Gearbox are raising the cap to 69 (no jokes, please), and will be offering that to all players for free as part of a full game update (which will also address balance issues as a result of the changed cap).

There's also a new round of DLC coming called Captrap's Robot Revolution (September 28), continuing Gearbox's impressive support of the FPS/RPG hybrid post-release. A Game of the Year edition is also coming later in the year and will feature all the game's DLC released to-date.

Check out some screens and art for the new DLC below.

Anyone who managed to nab an early retail copy of Halo: Reach will have to say goodbye to any in-game credits earned, as Bungie plan on resetting the credits when the game is officially released on September 14.

"Don't get too attached to any fancy new gear you might have already acquired," wrote Communications Manager, Eric Osbourne, on the Bungie Forums. "Consider any expenditures or investments you've made in the Armory the cost of doing business early. It's nothing personal; we just want to make sure the playing field is kept nice and level upon launch. It's only fair."

Sounds about right to me.

Variety reports that Microsoft are still very interested in Bringing Halo to the big screen, but in the interim are keeping a close eye on the smaller screen, with the potential for a television adaptation.

Microsoft is also "intently watching" the TV landscape as a potential outlet for a "Halo" series.

For now, it's relying on commercials director Noam Murro to helm a series of live-action short films, including "Birth of a Spartan" and "Deliver Hope," and TV ads that introduce viewers to what life was like on planet Reach before it was invaded by aliens.

Those shorts are definitely a solid taste of what could happen if Halo were given any such live action series green light, and honestly, I think it could work as a full TV show more than a 90-odd minute flick. What do you think - TV or big screen?

Another new reveal to come out of PAX was the first public showing of actual gameplay action from Dungeon Siege 3. Previously we'd only been offered a teaser trailer, some concept art then a few rather nondescript screenshots, so check out this in-game trailer for the first substantial look at Obsidian Entertainments upcoming sequel to this proven action-RPG franchise.

Torn asunder, the delicate balance of power between the kingdom of Ehb's powerful factions has fallen apart. As one of the few remaining members of the disgraced protectors of the land, the 10th Legion, it is up to you to rebuild the once great Legion and stop Ehb from falling into darkness. Joined by a group of unique companions, you will travel through the striking land of Ehb defeating all manner of villains and beasts through a combination of heroic abilities, screen shaking magic and fearsome weapons.

Dungeon Seige III is currently in development for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a release date target has yet to be confirmed.

Following their demo of the game at the recent PAX Prime 2010 event in Seattle, Sony and Sucker Punch have now released some new media from the upcoming Infamous 2.

Today we have a new gameplay trailer, showing off three minutes of electrically-charged action as well as seven new stills.

Blamed for the destruction of Empire City and haunted by the ghosts of his past, reluctant hero Cole MacGrath makes a dramatic journey to the historic Southern city of New Marais in an effort to discover his full super-powered potential - and face a civilization-ending confrontation with a dark and terrifying enemy from his own future. Gifted with extraordinary god-like abilities, Cole alone has the power to save humanity, but the question is- will he choose to do so?

Infamous 2 is due in 2011 exclusive to PlayStation 3.

BioWare have released another new trailer for their hotly anticipated MMO Star Wars the Old Republic, this time throwing a bit of fan service out there for fans of their acclaimed non-mmo Star Wars RPG, Knights of the Old Republic.

The Jedi Civil War left many unanswered questions. In the difficult days following the showdown between Darth Revan and Darth Malak, the Jedi Order struggled to survive, leaving little time for investigations. Redeemed as a Jedi, Revan traveled into deep space in search of a mysterious evil. We now know that the source of this evil was the reconstituted Sith Empire, but that solves only a portion of the mystery...

Those familiar with KOTOR should recognise that the described showdown is the final battle of that previous BioWare game and today's trailer gives us a glimpse at what we can expect (as well as a surprise returning character if you watch right to the end).

Check it out right here on AusGamers.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently slated for an early 2011 launch on PC.

Among the chaos that was last weekend's PAX Prime expo, fledgling developer Red 5 Studios announced their debut title, a very adventurous shooter/RPG hybrid called Firefall.

Perhaps the most interesting point of this announcement is that Red 5 Studios team is helmed by some pretty proven developers, CEO and Chief Creative Officer Mark Kern who was the project lead on a little game some of you might have heard of called World of Warcraft as well as Scott Youngblood the lead designer of Tribes.

Firefall paints a beautifully devastating vision of Earth, 200 years in the future. The promise of a new clean energy source, Crystite, leads to the disastrous arrival of the Melding, a hostile energy storm that engulfs most of our home planet. Earth’s surviving humans must band together in the eye of the Melding storm to save our species. Unfortunately, a new danger emerges as a bloodthirsty race known as The Chosen threatens humanity’s survival.

Players will protect the Earth through the use of high-tech battleframes, which can be customized extensively to unlock the power of Firefall’s class-based combat. Battleframes allow players to specialize in their favorite style of play, while giving them the flexibility to swap and trade their way to new configurations on-the-fly. Whether you enjoy supporting your team, aggressively assaulting an enemy position, or sneaking behind enemy lines, there is a battleframe for you.

Firefall will feature a free-to-play model that allows players to experience every detail of the vibrant world without having to pay a penny. Updates to the game, dynamic world events, and other content will also be offered without a price tag, while a marketplace will allow fans to purchase optional enhancements.

A debut cinematic trailer has been released, as well as a video of the gameplay demo that was shown off at PAX, offering 10 minutes of in-game action.

Screenshots and more details can be found on our new Firefall game page.

Internode have just announced they're joining iiNet in offering one terabyte of downloads in their latest round of plans - though they're throwing down the gauntlet by calling it the "first true terabyte broadband plan", by virtue of the fact that it is not separated into peak and off-peak:

Taking a lead from the over-size T-shirt shelf, Internode's 1000 gigabyte (GB) XXL Easy Broadband ADSL2+ service drapes its customers in a true one-terabyte data quota plan, costing $149.95 a month when bundled with NodeLine telephone service.

In a generous overhaul, Internode has doubled the data quota of its popular Easy Broadband plan ($49.95 bundled) from 50 GB to 100 GB per month and introduced 200GB ($69.95 bundled) and 300GB ($89.95 bundled) plans - dubbed respectively S, M and L. For customers with big data appetites, Internode provides the 600GB XL plan for $99.95 (bundled) as well as the true-terabyte XXL plan.

Check out the full announcement for more details about the latest plan changes.

And everything seemed to be going so well. Treyarch have confirmed in a post on their forums that the much-touted dedicated servers for Call of Duty: Black Ops will be limited to a single game service provider called GameServers.com:

GameServers.com Exclusive: Confirmed
We have partnered with GameServers.com as the exclusive provider of dedicated servers for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Every dedicated server for this title will be running on top quality hardware and infrastructure with excellent bandwidth. There will be a ton of official servers at launch for everyone to play on for free. If you want to run your own server you will be able to rent one at a great price (which will never go higher than $0.99/slot). They are actively adding new server locations and staffing up to meet global demand. If you don’t see your location you can suggest it here: http://www.gameservers.com/blackops/

Mere words cannot describe what a terrible idea this is for a dedicated server-based game.

The entire reason you would make a game with dedicated servers is to allow as many people as possible to provide servers for your game, all over the world. Their actual announcement post actually admits that they don't have all locations covered - only ten countries are listed in their promotional page. Australia is one of them, though given the fact that most other new, popular titles require almost all of Australia's ISPs/GSPs to run servers to meet demand, I am skeptical that they will have sufficient capacity.

This is, in my humble opinion, a real kick in the crotch for any gamer that has been looking forward to this game. It will massively reduce the number of servers available on launch. It will mean no choice in which GSP community you play on. It will mean no competition in terms of renting your own game servers. It takes the main feature that makes the dedicated server model work so well - server accessibility to anyone, anywhere that can run a server - and strips it from you.