Ubisoft has delayed the release of pretentious first-person shooter Haze from early December to the first quarter of 2008, according to Gamasutra. The timed PS3 exclusive, Free Radical-developed shooter should be worth the wait, however, because it’s, like, totally a work of art, man.

All joking aside, Haze hasn’t failed to impress with its gorgeous graphics, superpower-fueled gameplay, and focus on narrative. It features several 16-player competitive multiplayer modes and 4-player online co-op as well, so regardless of your personal poison, Haze has just what the doctor ordered.

This delay comes as a surprise, as Ubisoft just recently announced the game was on schedule to hit its December release date. In order to avoid stiff competition from AAA titles like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4, however, the publisher has decided to hold the game until it can be loosed in friendlier (but more more dinosaur-infested) times.

The end is nigh. The Xbox 360 actually passed the PS3 in the latest weekly Japanese sale charts, albeit barely:

Xbox360 17,673
PS3 17,434

Chalk it up to Namco’s Ace Combat 6, I guess. Both consoles are still dwarfed by the Wii, the DS, and surprisingly enough, the PSP, however. Microsoft has always fought an uphill battle in Japan; even with eastern-friendly exclusives like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, the 360 hasn’t managed to do any better than “terrible” in the land of the rising sun. Obviously, the PS3 isn’t doing much better in the once Sony-dominated market. What’s next, Call of Duty 4 outselling Halo 3?

Hit the jump for the full (and considerably saner) hardware sales data.

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Crytek has contacted Crysis community fansite inCrysis to let them know that

…We are aware of the currently occurring issues regarding playing Crysis Multiplayer online. We are already in touch with Gamespy, EA and the world-wide server provider to resolve the problems. This topic has the highest priority for us now and we hope to come up with a solution as quickly as possible.

Crysis’ most loyal and supportive fans – the ones who played the multiplayer beta or single player demo, but waited to uninstall them until after they installed Crysis – are unable to play the graphically impressive FPS online. Thankfully, inCrysis has the details on six different workarounds, but unfortunately, none of them are very pleasant, including such hassles as re-entering your CD key and editing the Windows registry. Of course, using some superpowers on fellow gamers in the game’s beautiful environments just might be worth the trouble. Who am I kidding? Of course it is.

Still, this is a pretty obvious problem to slip past EA’s QA department. Nothing like buying a new game to find you can only play half of it, and unlike most game-crippling problems on the PC, there isn’t even a patch to fix this one.

UbiSoft announced plans to release Rainbow Six Vegas 2 this coming March. For those of you that played the first Vegas game, you are probably very excited. The game had everything a first-person shooter lover would want. Though, newer games have caused the multiplayer match ups to become less satisfying, it only goes to show that it is time to hit the charts with a new and even more impressive game.

RBS Vegas had an amazing AI engine for being two years old now. As a gamer that tends to beat games well before they are due back at the video store, I can honestly say that Rainbow Six Vegas gave me a run for my money when set to the realistic difficulty. Obviously, the game had its points that became frustrating because of glitches, but compared to the other games released at the same time period, there is no doubt that it deserved the awards it received.

Now, when we look at newer Tom Clancy games, such as Ghost Recon 2, one can only wait with excitement to see how they make the new Vegas 2 better than the rest. Based on comments from the president of UbiSoft, it is apparent that the developers aim to make this new game innovative with supreme new graphics and action. Expect this game to raise the bar for First-Person Shooter games.

Hi, my name is Matt and I’m an achievement whore.

However, even achievement whores have morals. Apparently, the brilliant minds over at Touchstone and Propoganda Games do not.

Their latest title, an update to the previously lost cause Turok games, awards online gamers for doing the unthinkable: killing a teammate. The 10 point achievement, called Grab Bag, is a new low for the achievement point system. At the very least, it’s only attainable in a public match, so the score boosters (which of course I’ve never done on my quest to 50k… really) can do this on their own time.

The only way around it is to stick with ranked matches and to avoid me… err, other people looking to gain a couple of points.

The holiday rush has officially subsided, and as the wave of AAA titles breaks, all that remains in the undertow are mangled bits of waterlogged budget titles and terrible oceanic metaphors.

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Pick of the Week: The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific You know you’re in for a slow week when a game licensed by the History Channel, of all people, is the most promising offering. While it won’t be usurping Call of Duty 4 on the PC, 360, or PS3, PS2 and Wii owners could do worse than this historically accurate shooter. You can play online as either an American or Japanese soldier in any of a host of decidedly not historically accurate game modes such as capture the flag and death match. Perhaps most shocking of all, this game doesn’t just look decent, it looks positively great.

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Runner-Up: Speedball 2: Tournament Yes, it’s just a PC port of the Xbox Live Arcade remake of the 1988 Amiga’s Rollerball-inspired sports title (try saying that three times fast), but Speedball 2 is fun, dammit. Little has changed in the game’s translation to the PC; it still offers the same sort of violently frantic action as the original. Online leaderboards and multiplayer support for up to four players should help keep you occupied, but don’t go in expecting anything more than an arcadey sports game that’s fun in small doses. The game will supposedly be available through Steam on Tuesday, but even this close to release, Frogster Interactive, the game’s publisher, still hasn’t announced a price.

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Hit the jump for the rest of the week’s multiplayer offerings. If you’re a Wii fan, you might want to look away. It gets ugly. More …

According to a thread in our Forums, no one seems to remember a game that helped start this crazy world of multiplayer gaming. Yes, I know we talk about old school gaming a lot here, but I believe it’s important for you kids to know the roots of your favorite online games. The game I speak of is called Warbirds, by iEntertainment Network’s Total Simulation series. This game was what got me hooked on online, multiplayer games, and I believe it was one of the first true and pure MMO’s.

Way back in 1995, (yes, in the last millennium) I was reading a gaming magazine (yes, it was made out of paper) and it was touting a title named ‘Confirmed Kill’ that was set to revolutionize interactive and simulation gaming for the PC. The screenshots were enough to captivate me. The article wrote of battles fought between literally *dozens* of real life, real time players in a World War II simulated air-combat theatre. This, quite literally, blew my mind.

Check out the rest of my nostalgic rambling after the jump.

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When I boot up Xbox Live, it’s generally to game with people I know. Lately, it’s been Halo 3, teaming up with buddies for ranked team deathmatch and team doubles.

Something has been missing from the experience though; something that makes Xbox Live what it has been known for five years now: the idiots.

After multiple weeks of play, we have yet to encounter a team killer, most people have been polite, and even after slaughtering someone else (or being slaughtered), fellow gamers seem to have increased their politeness level +10.

That’s not to say it’s been problem free. There have been times where we’ve encountered the racist moron (with the brilliant comeback, “It’s okay guys, I’m black”) and the “That was so gay” geniuses who are barely into their teens.

These encounters have been incredibly brief and rare, certainly way down from the days of Halo 2, or even at the launch of the 360 with games like Perfect Dark Zero.

It’s hard to tell what it is, but consider this an extended thanks to those inside Microsoft working to eliminate those who only pay $50 a year to annoy others. Either they’re doing their job, or people have become nicer, and if it’s the latter, the apocalypse must be upon us.

Boing Boing has discovered a hilarious 1960s “Dangers of Alcoholism” comic that has been remixed and repurposed to explore the dangers of World of Warcraft addiction. It’s very funny stuff, and certainly beats out Blizzard’s own official World of Warcraft comic. The comic contains enough insider WoW references and laugh-out-loud humor to appeal to recovering addicts and non-players alike. Be forewarned, however: you may just find yourself quoting the comic for weeks. If your friends remind you they’re “unable to compete with the evolving world of Azroth [sic],” you might have a problem.

Halo 3 fans can land themselves three additional maps in early December for $10. The Heroic Map Pack (as opposed to the “evil bastard” map pack apparently) will feature Standoff, Rat’s Nest, and Foundry. The latter is supposed to be a Forge fanatics dream, so if you’re not likely to edit maps and customize stuff, this is only a two map release.

Last year, Epic launched four maps for Gears of War for the same price. Fans were angry. If the announcement post by Major Nelson is any indication, Bungie followers are not exactly thrilled either. In unedited form, here’s a wonderful comment from an obviously irritated user:

nice…a 60$ becomes 70$ and a 120 game Just became 130$….FU M$ quit FUBARing the player base

Word. Nice use of random capitals, and check out the form on the dollar signs. Brilliant!

It’s important to note that the the announcement also makes note these maps will be free in the spring. Is there any reason to complain then?

There is a lot of content out there on the web and sometimes the best way to share great stories and new gaming blogs is to link to them! Click away…

Roundup of some of the hottest girls in gaming - that actually play games!
Top 10 Hottest Girls in Gaming

Game Informer debut’s their upcoming cover showing confirmation of the new Ghostbuster’s movie being worked on.
Game Informers Ghostbuster’s cover

What do William Shatner and Mr. T have in common? They are both in new World of Warcraft commercials. They are actually both very funny.
Mr. T WoW Commercial
William Shatner WoW Commercial

Download Halo via Xbox 360
via Joystiq

Top 20 Free games of 2007

These games are certainly not new and do not come close to the awesome graphics power found in Call of Duty 4 or the new Half-Life chronicles, but they are still awesome. We are always linking to games that have recently come out, require some serious hardware, or are simply too expensive. I thought it was time to throw together a nice list of games you can play online for free, download for free, or register to get. ALL AT NO COST.

First up is the always awesome lineup from CNET including 10 titles you can download absolutely free! They include:
Abuse
Americas Army: Special Forces
Command and Conquer (yes the first one)
F.E.A.R. (multiplayer goodness!)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
..and more!

Here is another set of games you can download all for free from DOSGamesArchive.com
This list includes:
Prince of Persia (4D)
Mario
Aladdin
DOOM
SimCity 2000
Duke Nukem 3D
&
Scorched Earth
+many more!

Looking for the real oldies?

Then checkout OldGames.NU which has every old system on the planet ready to play. I am talking about games on the Amiga system, GameGear, NEO Geo, and the list goes on.

This list should keep you busy for awhile, but if you know of a great list that I missed please let me know. Sometimes with all the new games that are out there is it nice to see where it all started. After all, these game developers are standing on the shoulders of giants. Like the makers of Balloon Fight for Ninendo