Hoping to attract movie-goers as well as gamers, Microsoft and New Line have partnered together to offer advance screenings of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning followed by the chance to play Gears of War. This chance is being offered in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, with all events taking place on October 4 in unspecified AMC Theatres.

To sign up for a ticket, head on over to the Match Made in Hell promotional site. However, the announcements were quick to point out that the receipt of a ticket does not guarantee admission; tickets will be entertained on a first-come, first-serve basis. The other condition is that guests will have to be at least 17 years of age.

Buena Vista Games will acquire Climax Racing, the team behind the MotoGP and ATV Offroad Fury franchises. They’ll be joining the ranks of the publisher’s other internal studios Avalanche Software and Propaganda Games.

It is not known yet what will happen to the aforementioned franchises, though BVG has mentioned that Climax Racing will now work on “triple-A racing titles for the next-generation of games consoles.”

Codemasters announces that Archlord will launch across Europe on October 6 sans the PLAYplus payment system, instead opting for standard MMO subscription packages.

The PLAYplus payment system allowed players to choose from a range of monthly subscription packages, each offering different levels of in-game incentives at varying price points. Following experimentation with the system within the beta test and monitoring the feedback from thousands of ArchLord community members, the PLAYplus system will not be implemented for the game’s release.

ArchLord will now launch with a standard monthly subscription of UK £8.99, US $14.99, Europe €12.99 (plus applicable taxes). The single monthly subscription will also include free credits for all players to redeem against in-game enhancements. All players will receive the same amount of credits as part of the single monthly subscription, providing a level playing field for all subscribers.

Ed Relf, Director of Marketing, Codemasters Online Gaming, commented:

“We have listened to our community and delivered. From the start of the test of the PLAYplus system, we had an open dialogue with players to monitor reactions to the system. Thanks to their feedback and continued support, we are pleased to confirm that ArchLord will now launch with a single standard subscription package.

“Here at Codemasters Online Gaming we place great importance on our open dialogue with players and our ability to react positively to their constructive feedback. We wish to thank all players that spent time testing PLAYplus and the detailed feedback they provided us, which assisted in reaching the final subscription decision.”

VU Games announced that it has purchased two development studios: Secret Lair Studios, located in Washington, and Studio Chin in Shanghai, China. The purchase of the latter is subject to approval by the Chinese government, and VU Games is currently in the process of obtaining said approval.

These acquisitions position the publisher’s Sierra Online division as a key publisher of Xbox Live Arcade titles. It already has numerous titles in development, including Assault Heroes, Carcassone and many others. The newly acquired studios will contribute to the development of titles for Xbox Live Arcade and PC.

First, the patches:

• America’s Army: Special Forces v2.7.0 on 3D Downloads, 3D Gamers, AOL Games, FilePlanet, GameDaily and Worthplaying

• Age of Empires III v1.09 on the Official Website

• Battle for Middle-earth II v1.05 on EA FTP

• Company of Heroes v1.2 on the Official Website, 3D Downloads, 3D Gamers, FileFront, Gameguru Mania and Worthplaying

• Caesar IV v1.1 on Sierra

• Glory of the Roman Empire v1.01.346 on CDV

• Galactic Civilizations II v1.31 on the Official Website

• Joint Task v1.1 on 3D Gamers, FileFront, Strategy Informer, VGPRO and Worthplaying

• LMA Manager 2007 “Roster Update” on 3D Gamers and FileFront

• Star Wars Lego II v1.01 on LucasArts

• Titan Quest v1.20 on 3D Gamers, FileFront, Gameguru Mania, VGPRO and Worthplaying

• War Rock on the Official Website

• World of Warcraft v1.12.1 on 3D Downloads, 3D Gamers, FileFront and Worthplaying

• Championship Manager 2007 on the Official Website

• DEFCON on 3D Downloads, 3D Gamers, FileFront, FilePlanet, VGPRO and Worthplaying

• Heroes of Annihilated Empires on 3D Gamers, Computer Games, Gamer’s Hell, GameSpot, Strategy Informer and Worthplaying

• Romanians in Space on 2 Bad Design, 3D Gamers and Gamer’s Hell

• Space Empires V on 3D Gamers, Strategy First and Worthplaying

These have gone gold:

• Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs
  
• Brigade E5: New Jagged Union
  
• Call of Juarez
  
• Flight Simulator X
  
• Football Manager 2005
  
• Neverend
  
• NBA 2K7
  
• Sam & Max: Culture Shock
  
• The Guild 2
  
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade
  
• Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania

• 18 Wheels of Steel Haulin’
  
• Arvoch Conflict
  
• Broken Sword: The Angel of Death
  
• Cabela’s Alaskan Adventures
  
• Caesar IV
  
• DEFCON
  
• Dominions 3
  
• EverQuest: The Serpent’s Spine
  
• Ford Bold Moves Street Racing
  
• GTR 2
  
• Hunting Unlimited 4
  
• HyperBall Racing
  
• Just Cause
  
• King of Fighters 2006
  
• Mage Knight Apocalypse
  
• Mage Knight: Destiny’s Soldier (DS)
  
• NBA Live 07
  
• NHL: Eastside Hockey Manager 2007
  
• NRA Gun Club
  
• Okami
  
• Open Season
  
• Pacific Storm
  
• ParaWorld
  
• Silent Heroes
  
• Saint Seiya: The Hades
  
• World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions
  
• Zatchbell!: Mamodo Fury

Confirmation comes from EA that Need for Speed: Carbon and Madden NFL 07 will be launching alongside the Wii on November 19. However, former launch title Blitz: The League by Midway has lost its status. No new release date was given, but it is known that the game will not be a launch title for the Nintendo console next month.

Bethesda has confirmed this 1Up report, which states that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will be a launch title for the PS3 and that the November issue of OPSM contains the first preview of the title. In addition to the PS3 version, Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion for the PSP was also revealed; it’s due for release in Spring 2007 in North America and Europe.

Set to release alongside the PS3 console this November, and March 2007 in Europe (by Ubi), the game will essentially be the same as the one released last year on PC and Xbox 360. However, it will introduce a new faction: “Knights of the Nine” which is described by the developers as “the good Dark Brotherhood.”

“Oblivion has these really good character archetypes for evil,” says executive producer Todd Howard. “It has the Dark Brotherhood: You get your outfit, you feel like an assassin, you feel like an evil guy, [and] you role-play like an evil guy. We [didn't] have the opposite end of that. There [was] very little reward for being a goody two-shoes.”

Looking forward to it!

This year’s X06 saw a couple of big announcements from Microsoft. Very big announcements. Let’s check them out:

• Peter Jackson, who is currently associated with the upcoming Halo movie, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Fran Walsh and Microsoft Game Studios have teamed up to create two new games exclusively for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. The first series will be a collaborative with Bungie to co-create the next game in the Halo universe, while the second series will be a completely new IP. Additionally, they have also partnered up to form Wingnut Interactive, the studio which will dedicate itself to bringing these series’ to the next-gen console.

• Besides the Wingnut Halo game, Ensemble Studios is working on Halo Wars, a new real-time strategy game based on the legendary universe. Before you cry foul, keep in mind that these guys are behind the Age of Empires franchise, which has been a solid series so far. The game is entirely exclusive to Xbox 360.

  For more information, check out the game’s website which hosts a cinematic trailer, as well as these screen grabs from the trailer.

• Hoping to make a dent in Sony’s future, Microsoft revealed that the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV will receive two exclusive downloadable, “epic” episodes via Xbox Live, each with many hours of entirely new gameplay. These episodes will be available just months after the game’s release next year.

  Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game will ship at the same time in October 2007.

• In a move that is very uncharacteristic of Ubisoft, the publisher confirmed that the next Splinter Cell title after Double Agent will be a console-exclusive on Xbox 360. It will also be released on PC for those without the console.

• Yes, BioShock is also exclusive to the console. It’s on PC as well.

• Banjo-Kazooie is back, courtesy of Rare! Another exclusive to Xbox 360, the title will feature the much beloved characters, who, according to the press release, will thankfully retain their “sharp wit and hilarious sense of humor.”

• Another exclusive: Marvel Universe Online. In development at Cryptic Studios, the game will also be released for Windows Vista.

• Everyone saw this coming, but not this soon: Project Gotham Racing 4. The game was unveiled at the show, though it is not expected until late next year, or 2008.

• id Software’s DOOM and Codemasters’ Sensible World of Soccer are now available on Xbox Live Arcade.

• And finally, the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player will be released in North America, UK, France and Germany this November. It will retail for $200 in North America and €200/£130 in U.K., France and Germany. The player will also come with a copy of King Kong on HD-DVD and the Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote.

And finally, five new shots from Gears of War:

Three desktop resolution grabs from the Halo Wars cinematic:

Eleven stunning new shots from Forza Motorsport 2:

Call of Duty 3

Tony Hawk’s Project 8

Halo 2 for Windows Vista

Ten new awesome screenshots from Alan Wake: