A nice first-look trailer of Soldier of Fortune Payback. Enjoy:

Activision has officially announced Soldier of Fortune Payback, the third entry in the iconic shooter series. As usual, players take on the role of a hired mercenary blasting through the world’s hottest criminal and terrorist hotspots.

The game will feature refined controls and an enemy damage system that “may be shocking to even experienced FPS players,” according to the company. More than 30 weapons will be in the game, all of which will be available during the single-player campaign as well as the multiplayer modes which include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Elimination, Team Elimination, Capture and the Flag and Demolition. Persistent player-tracking will be integrated to track gamers’ online careers.

It will be available on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 next month. Below are some nice screenshots.

Yes, the game has finally officially been confirmed: TimeSplitters 4 is in development at Free Radical Studios. It has been revealed via a small video that shows off the series’ trademark humor and parodies a recently released blockbuster game.

Nothing much is known about the game at the moment, but a small description on the site reads: “It’s funny, it’s frantic and it’ll do things you’ve never seen before! No, not naked girls, even better than that! We can’t tell you the details yet, the monkeys have a loaded banana pressed against our skull, but this game will take the first person shooter to gaming nirvana.”

Foundation 9 Entertainment announced that it has combined Shiny Entertainment and The Collective, two of its subsidiaries, into a single development studio in Irvine, California. The company claims that there will be no layoffs as a result of the move and that the new studio will be headed up by Shiny studio head Michael Persson. It is not currently known whether the Shiny and Collective brands will be retained in any way.

Shiny is known best for the MDK and Earthworm Jim series, as well as Enter the Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo. It is currently working on The Golden Compass, the game adaptation of the film adaptation of the first book in His Dark Materials series.

The Collective is known for creating Marc Ecko’s Contents Under Pressure and Wrath Unleashed; they are currently working on Silent Hill 5.

Following up on the BBFC rejection, EuroGamer reports that Rockstar is appealing to the British ratings board and that they find the refusal “unacceptable”.

Apparently, the version they submitted is the same as the M-rated Manhunt 2 that will be released in North America on October 29. “We are continuing to appeal the British Board of Film Classification’s decision to deny the edited version of Manhunt 2 an 18-plus certificate and thereby ban its release in the United Kingdom,” the company said. “The changes necessary in order to publish the game in Britain are unacceptable to us and represent a setback for videogames.”

Some new information on The Club was sent out earlier this week. Sega sheds light on three gameplay modes that will be present in the upcoming Bizarre Creations action-shooter. Here’s the scoop:

Run the Gauntlet
A single player mode: “Run the Gauntlet” is exactly how it sounds; a point-to-point run-and-gun race against the clock. Players will sprint through the level chaining together as many combos as possible by blowing away bad guys in stylish and deadly ways. The focus is on sprinting the character towards the exit and trying to finish the level within the time limit, achieving the set score.

Team Skull Shot
A multiplayer mode: This is a team-based game where both teams have coloured skull shot targets scattered throughout a level. The red team must shoot the blue skulls and vice versa. The team who shoots all the opposing team’s skull shots first is the team who wins.

Score Match
A multiplayer mode: Players are set a score target and must burst into the level and try to achieve it as quickly as possible by taking down the other players and keeping their combos going. It’s all against all and not a place to make friends, but then The Club is all about survival of the fittest, fastest and meanest.

The fourth in a series of character profiles from Team Fortress 2 has been released. This one focuses on the Demoman, the demolitions expert. Enjoy.

The official minimum and recommended system requirements for Crysis have been released by EA and Crytek, and they’re not looking good for most of us gamers. Here it is:

Minimum System Requirements
OS - Windows XP or Windows Vista
Processor - 2.8 GHz or faster (XP) or 3.2 GHz or faster* (Vista)
Memory - 1.0 GB RAM (XP) or 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
Video Card -256 MB**
Hard Drive - 12GB
Sound Card - DirectX 9.0c compatible

* Supported Processors: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or faster.

** Supported chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported. Integrated chipsets are not supported. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.

Recommended System Requirements
OS - Windows XP / Vista
Processor - Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Memory - 2.0 GB RAM
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar

The game will hit stores on November 16.

Casual games developer PopCap sends word that it is launching two new “greatest hits” compilations featuring many of its biggest-selling puzzle and action games. Dubbed PopCap Arcade Volume 1, for Xbox 360, features Bejeweled 2, AstroPop, Feeding Frenzy and Zuma; it retails for $29.95. The other compilation for the PS2 is dubbed PopCap Hits Volume 1 and features Bejeweled 2 and AstroPop for $19.95. This marks the first time that games from the company are available for the PS2 and Xbox 360 at retail.

On nZone are beta v163.75 drivers for various versions of Windows, including 32 and 64-bit editions of XP and Vista. The new drivers add SLI profiles for various games including Jericho, but most notably offers improved compatibility for Half-Life 2: Episode 2, which was recently released.

This thread on the Warhammer Alliance forums carries word that the latest round of beta testing for Warhamemr Online has wrapped up. It notes that the beta will reopen in early December with new content and servers.

A new Guitar Hero 3 trailer straight from Activision. The game launches later this month on PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

Get your Wii Remote and Nunchuk and go fishing! Sega has announced Sega Bass Fishing for the console, the latest addition to the “most successful fishing game franchises of all time.”

In development for release early next year, the game will utilize the aforementioned Wii controllers and will offer over 20 different types of lures to choose from, time-of-day and season during play, 15 environments and multiple game modes. As expected, it will make use of the motion-sensitive controllers, having players toss and move to catch their fish.

Ghostlight sends word that it will be showing off and promoting its WWI shooter To End All Wars at the E for All expo in Los Angeles from 18-20 October. The game is in development at Kuju Sheffield (Chemistry) and is being powered by Unreal Engine 3. It will be authentic to the first great war and has a lot of research going into its development.

The game is being shown off at the upcoming event as Ghostlight is seeking a partner to release the game in the United States. It is in the works for the PS3 and Xbox 360 for release sometime next year.

First, the demos:

• F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate on Sierra FTP, 3D Downloads, ActionTrip, FanGaming, FileFront, FileShack, Gamer’s Hell, GameSpot and PixelRage

• World of Warcraft v2.2.3 on 3D Downloads, ActionTrip and FileFront

• World in Conflict v001 on Rapidshare (direct link), FileFront, Gamer’s Hell and The Patches Scrolls