Splinter Cell Conviction is the latest installment in the hit Tom Clancy series from Ubisoft

It was announced on Xbox Live’s Inside Xbox service that a playable demo of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction will be available this week.

360 players will be able to download the demo on March 18th (this Thursday) and get a taste of Sam Fisher’s latest, and possibly greatest game.

The demo features a ‘brutal’ interrogation scene, as well as a level from later in the game in order to give the player a good idea of the gameplay and story of the game without giving away any big plot points.

Judging by some of the previews that have been out and some of the announced features in Conviction, I would definitely suggest downloading this demo and giving it a try.

If you’re into retailers creating their own ‘virtual spaces’ then you may be interested to know that GAME, the British retailer, is coming to Playstation Home. I know that might not be many of you, and I also know that many of you will probably have only touched Home for five minutes, but let’s talk about it anyway.

The new space, launching on 18th March, is apparently a way of finding out about upcoming releases and activities across the Playstation brand. Of course, there’s always been GAME’s website and, erm, the rest of the Internet but you don’t get to visit a TOTALLY AWESOME Moonbase if you do that, do you? No, I didn’t think so!

So, there you are on a virtual recreation of Earth’s Moon walking around in a branded Moonbase, what the hell is there to do? There’s poster sites, video screens, a dance floor, billboards, meeting places and four internet browser terminals. Did I mention this is also on the MOON? THE FREAKING MOON! Screw Obama cancelling plans to go back to the Moon, GAME has got us covered!

In case that’s not enough (you want more? We can’t please you people can we?) there’s also a ‘Lunar Leap’ game where players boost themselves in zero gravity across a giant crater. If you successfully land your avatar on a designated pad you can win an exclusive GAME astronaut outfit (see above). Isn’t this just the best thing EVER?

(this post may not entirely be devoid of sarcasm)

Crackdown 2 is being developed by Ruffian Games in Dundee, Scotland

Ruffian Games – the developers of Crackdown 2 – today announced the release date for their upcoming sandbox game via their Twitter feed.

After a couple of little teases, they announced a 9th July 2010 release date (6th July in America).

The game will take place in Pacific City, the setting established in the first game, and will feature 4-player co-operative play as well as all-new 16 player online multiplayer modes.

The original was a brilliant game – one of my personal favourites on the Xbox 360 – and so I am very much looking forward to the sequel. I would definitely recommend keeping an eye on this one…

Ensemble Studios, creators of the Age of Empires PC strategy games and Halo Wars on the Xbox 360, was closed due to problems with the corporate culture. Speaking at GDC, Paul Bettner, a 12-year veteran at Ensemble, refused to blame Microsoft for the closure of the developer.

“Microsoft is a public company, they answer to their shareholders, and we were simply too expensive.”

In his impassioned talk during the “rants” session, Bettner, now working at iPhone developer NewToy, blamed himself for the cost, inefficiency and poor quality of life caused by Ensemble’s dependence on long, “crunch” working hours.

Ensemble had a company culture where “everyone was a workaholic”, developers worked late and slept at the office, and were addicted to the rush of success of the Age of Empires series.

“I watched this happen and I did almost nothing to stop it. As an employee, and later as a manager, I didn’t take a stand. I just kept hoping for that next high,” Bettner said.

There’s a nice little surprise watching in the package for the retail version of upcoming Dragonage: Origins expansion, Awakening. It contains a leaflet with a date of 02.01.2011 printed on it, which seems to hint at the release date for Dragonage 2. Well when we say ’seems’ we really mean ‘what the hell else can it be?’.

EA has already announced that they’re going to be releasing a new Dragonage next year, so when you put the two things together it’s pretty obvious. Given the early next year release date it’s also looking likely that we’ll find out more about the sequel at E3.

Awakening is available as a download and retail release for PC and 360. The PS3 release is download only, so no little leaflet for owners of that version. You can get it from March 16.

(picture from 1UP)

Bioware released some more free DLC for Mass Effect 2 today, this time in the form of a new weapon for the game.

The Arc Projector ionizes targets with a non-visible laser to ready them for a high-voltage electrical attack. As the lightning-like bolt hits its first target, a sophisticated auto-targeting system paints succeeding targets with the ionization laser, allowing the electricity to take the path of least resistance and arc between them. An entire enemy strike team can be shocked to death with a few pulls of the trigger. Careful aiming will also allow the user to arc shots to nearby explosives as well.

You can get the new DLC through the Cerberus Network, which is located on the games main menu.

If one weapon isn’t enough for you then you’ll be able to download the ‘Firewalker Pack’ later this month, which includes five new missions and a tank.

If you’re looking for some hardcore RTS fun on that PC of your’s then you might be interested to know that Steam has now made available the R.U.S.E public beta for pre-load.

All you have to do to join in on the fun (well, in 19 hours anyway) is go to this link and download the public beta. You will then be ready to play the beta straight away from tomorrow, meaning you don’t have to sit and wait for the download to complete.

R.U.S.E is a World War II based RTS coming to the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime next year.

Some new Fallout: New Vegas screenshots were released by Bethesda today, and we’ve got the full gallery below.

The game uses the same engine as Fallout 3, hence the similar look, although apparently the game will have more varied plant life.

Portal was one of the biggest surprise hits of 2007

After updating Portal on the PC a few times this month, with little things such as this alternative ending sequence to tease a potential sequel, Valve have officially announced Portal 2.

The only info so far is that the game is set for a Holiday 2010 release – which means November/December time in American-speak. The game was rumoured a while ago to be a prequel, but these rumours were circulating about two years ago, so who knows?

I am definitely looking forward to doing some new crazy tests with the ‘help’ of good ‘friend’ GLaDOS…

Marc Witten just posted a new letter regarding an update to the Xbox Live Code of Conduct. Previously, they had restricted certain words from being a part of your online identity despite even video games having those words in the title (Ballad of Gay Tony). Now though, if you feel like it, they’ve allowed a handful of new words allowing you to declare your sexual orientation.

You may use the following terms to express your relationship orientation in your profile or Gamertag:

• Lesbian
• Gay
• Bi
• Transgender
• Straight

Other terms regarding relationship orientation are not allowed. In addition you may not use these terms or any other terms regarding relationship orientation to insult, harass, or any other pejorative use against other users.