MMO launches tend to be hectic affairs. Long queues, bugs, problems with the launcher, account issues, and lots of horrible lag can all ruin the first few days. BioWare is taking steps to ensure thatStar Wars: The Old Republicdoes not falter at the first hurdle. There’s been lots of talk of instancing to deal with the initial explosion of players in the starting areas and now the developer has opened up a “state-of-the-art”customer service centerin Galway, Ireland, specifically to deal with the MMO’s launch....

It’s amazing that Blizzard continues to supportDiablo IIyears and years after its initial release. But the studio does, and seemingly will continue to do so in impactful ways. Take, for example, the latest update released — 1.13c — which addresses a myriad of bugs and even game-side tweaks to enhance the experience inDiablo IIand its expansion, “Lords of Destruction.” The patch list is massive, but we’ve whittled it down to the two most important band-aids: visual improvements for Intel-based Macs with OS 10....

With the release ofXNA Game Studio 3.0 CTPyesterday, the Zune community was quick to start tinkering around with putting games on the multimedia device. One such enthusiast was even kind enough to release a guide on installing homebrew games, whichcan be found here. The process itself involves downloading and installing a couple of programs, among other things, but the guide is chock-full of helpful pictures, so it’s nothing you shouldn’t be able to handle....

At the same CES press conference where Sonyannounced a landmark partnership with MTV, EA Sports announced exclusive content for the PlayStation Home beta. It’s exclusive because Microsoft doesn’t have Home. They only have silly online stuff like Avatars, Netflix streaming, and snowglobes. What EA is planning to release this spring trounces all of that.The content comes in the form of a building called the EA Sports Complex. As seen in the video evidence above, it is obvious that the building will become a very important recreational hub in Home....

You can make a pretty convincing argument that Bethesda thirdFallout 3expansion, “Broken Steel,” should have been the first. It expands the original story line, allowing you to travel the Wastelands beyond the silly conclusion. It also increases the level cap from 20 to 30, successfully giving you a reason to keep playing and exploring. Wouldn’t “Project: Anchorage” and “The Pitt” rocked much harder if you were gaining something in the process of playing?...

Sony has released a new gameplay demo forUncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, one of our more obvious picks for2011’s most anticipated PS3 titles. None of you will be surprised to learn that the game looks utterly gorgeous, which is par for the course with this series. In fact, “par for the course” is very much the theme I’m getting from this game. Not that I think that’s necessarily a bad thing. You all know what to expect from this series by now, kids....

The US economy may be a bit weak, but it doesn’t look like the game industry will suffer for it. In fact, 2008 may lead us into “the largest, most robust cycle in history,” according to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian. Sebastian thinks that game software sales will exceed $10 billion in 2008. He projects that growth will come from the continued demand for both Nintendo consoles as well as improved sales of the PS3....

I’m already salivating overCiv V. Here’s how ready I am: I downloaded a high-res screenshot of the game and set it to cover my full computer screen to simulate that good feeling I’m going to have when the game finally launches. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it, but I’m more than ready to lose large chunks of my life to this game come this September 21st. The good news is that we’ll get an early treat with a demo, which has just been confirmed from thegame’s website....

Everyone has seen plentyof videosof the single player campaign ofCrysisby now. So I’m going to start things off with the multiplayer aspect of the game instead. Also, because I’m slightly narcissistic, I wanted to start off with the videos that showed me getting owned. Twice (watch for the name CTZ). The Gametrailers guy was destroying everyone, especially in the Instant Action multiplayer match.The first two multiplayer videos are from the Power Struggle portion ofCrysis....

Three new songs forDance Centralare hitting Xbox Live on August 16th, with the common theme being “Songs that start with ‘Get'” this time around. I thought James Brown wasdead, but later on it turned out he wasstill alive? Either way, this is the DLC on offer next week with all songs being 240 Microsoft Points a pop. I remember dancing toSean Paulin the “club,” so that seems to be an easy purchase for old time’s sake — provided it doesn’t have too much of that booty shaking that I’mawfulat....

Look, I’ll be honest here. This isn’t some knock-your-pants-off kind of deal deal. It’s just some things that are cheap and that you might be interested in. My conceited ass wanted a copy ofWetbecause I have a quote featured on the back of the box. I haven’t picked it up yet, so I thought I would check out Amazon. First off, a little Amazon lesson. If you’re willing to buy used, look for the Warehouse Deals seller....

Yesterday marked the official10th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast, and I was both honored and delighted to be able to talk shop about its hardware for a while. What I didn’t have room for in that post, however, was what truly made the Dreamcast the legendary system it was: its game library. Today we’re going to fix that. While it’s not altogether impossible for one person to fully expound on the entirety of the Dreamcast’s complete lineup of software titles, it wouldn’t be a fun project to undertake, and would probably be evenlessfun to read....

Last week saw the release ofSpore, Will Wright’s genre-defying game of evolution and exploration. After years of hype, it seems to have delivered the goods and reviewers have been praising the game left and right for its creativity, design and ambition. As they’ve already invested so much into creatingSporeas an IP, even discussing the possibility of licensing the core game itself for other developers to make games based on it, it was only natural that we’d be seeing the title make its way out to some other platforms....