While details on the storyline are scarce at this point, it sounds as if you'll be given choices along the way that will allow you to dictate the moral standing of your character. The game description words this as follows: "The player's modern-day emotions and fears are driven into a world charged with grave responsibility affecting lives hanging in the balance and eventually finding himself torn between his professional orders and his own ethical standards. In the end, only the actions of the player and his squad can shape the outcome of BlackSite: Area 51 during this potentially pivotal moment in history."

Speaking of the squad, you're now in complete control of a Special Forces squad. Their morale will play a part in how well they perform. Properly commanding them will have them at their best, but running them poorly into bad situations will negatively affect their aim, wear down on their fatigue and make them even lose the will to fight. Squad commands are said to be contextual, utilizing a single button to take care of all your available commands without the need to scroll through menus or whatnot.

You can check out a trailer here.

Hardware & Tech Nuggets 01:26 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (0 comments)

Audio

• SteelSeries SteelSound 4H Headset - TechPowerUp

  Cases
  

• Aerocool Zero Flexi Tower - Pro-Clockers

  Cooling
  

• Eliminator CPU Cooler - GWN
• Spire Fourier IV Intel/AMD Copper Heatpipe CPU Cooler - Tweaknews
• Scythe Ninja Plus Revision B CPU Cooler - Review Desk
• TTIC nPowerTek NPH-K8 Big Heatsink - Frostytech

  CPU
  

• Intel's new 45nm technology, the Penryn - HWZone

  etc
  

• Gear.1Up - Now live
• Havok 4.5 Released - Havok

  Keyboards
  

• Razer Gaming Keyboard - Metku Mods

  Memory
  

• OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 FlexXLC - Madshrimps

  Mice
  

• Razer DeathAdder Gaming Mouse - Gear.IGN

  Video
  

• PowerColor ATI X1950 Pro Extreme 512MB - i4U
• Connect3D x1950XTX - XS Reviews
• HIS X1650 IceQ Turbo - Bjorn3D

  Wheels
  

• Logitech G25 - Overclockers Club

  Windows
  

• Countdown to Windows Vista - THG
• Windows Vista Version Comparison - TechAge

Assorted Downloads 01:19 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

• Alien Arena 2007 full install & patch v6.03
• LEGO Star Wars retail patch v1.2
• World of Warcraft US/European retail patches v2.0.6

RPG Vault Goodness 01:14 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Role-Playing (0 comments)

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Wrap Report
Four Raven team members' edifying self-examination of the hit action RPG featuring an abundance of superheroes

Sword of the New World Media #1
Developer imcGames' age of exploration persistent state title in which players can control multiple characters - Eight exclusive screenshots

Jonric's Blog
World of Warcraft surpasses eight million subscribers

Game Reviews 12:55 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

PC

• Everquest II: Echoes of Faydwer - C&VG; - 8.3/10
• Mr Robot - PC.IGN - 7.9/10
• Rise of Legends - Gaming Nexus - 8/10
• Sam & Max Episode 2 - Situation: Comedy - GamePyre - 91%
• World of WarCraft: The Burning Crusade - Eurogamer - 8/10

  360
  

• Star Trek Legacy - GWN - 7/10

  Wii
  

• Elebits - GameSpy - 3/5
• Far Cry: Vengance - Game Informer - 4.5/10
• Wario Ware: Smooth Moves - GameSpy - 4.5/5

  DS
  

• Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - GameSpot - 8.2/10
• Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - Game Informer - 7/10

  PS2
  

• The Shield - PS2.IGN - 2.2/10

  PSP
  

• Sid Meier's Pirates! Live the Life - PSP.IGN - 9/10
• The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean - PSP.IGN - 6.5/10

In Other News... 12:45 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (7 comments)
Alrighty, next week I think I'm going to get the new PC. It's usually not a good idea to buy the top tier CPUs as they have abysmal markups, so I'm going to grab the third best (E6700 2.66Ghz) which in most benchmarks is the same, or equal to those "Extreme" processors that are literally twice the cost. A DX10 card is also essential, so either a GTS or GTX 8800. There's no way I can afford an SLI, but I think one card is more than enough power considering I play games at 1680x1050 on a 22 incher. 2 gigs of ram is pretty standard (4 gigs would be cool, but I can always upgrade that later if Vista truly uses all of that the extra ram). The rest is just frosting on the cake. Hopefully, this sucker lasts me a few years. It's been almost three years since my last desktop (upgraded when Doom 3 came out), so I think this guy has served me long enough. It would be cool to have it up and running before Supreme Commander comes out, which looks to be the first DX10 game. Should be yummy.

Today's question:

What are you going to put in your next system?

It didn't take long for this thread to appear on our newly opened Shivering Isles forums. If you've got the Xbox 360 version of Oblivion but don't have an internet connection to your 360, we don't have a way to get you Shivering Isles. Distributing expansion packs on console to retailers like EB and Best Buy only works with compilations that include the original game -- much like the Morrowind Game of the Year edition on Xbox, that included both expansions, Tribunal and Bloodmoon.

I'm curious if there is a big demand for this. The main problem is copy protection. Since Shivering Isles requires Oblivion to play, you could essentially pass the Shivering Isles disk around to your friends.

Mass Effect Box Art 10:11 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox 360 (4 comments)
Lookie here, it's the box art for Bioware's Mass Effect:

(Click to Enlarge!)

Windows Vista Showcase Photos 09:59 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (0 comments)
The Gamerscore Blog posted some photos from the Windows "Elevate Your Game" Event held today. They even managed to capture a nudie of Dave and Joost who were of course camping the Crysis booth.

First CryEngine 2 Live Demo 09:45 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (1 comment)
Crytek announced that the first live, public demo for the CryEngine 2 will be held at GDC later this year:

Crytek, the award winning developers of the hit game "Far Cry" and the upcomming blockbuster game "Crysis", announce the world's first public presentation of their CryENGINE2 to be held at GDC 2007.

Crytek will be demonstrating the capabilities of their new CryENGINE2 game middleware to the public as well as potential future licencees. Professional developers and modders will be able to get a first hand look at the tools and editors used by Crytek's own specialists to create their highly anticipated PC game. Interested parties should come by Booth 848 and check the presentation schedule to see at what time their favorite engine feature will be demonstrated.

Aion Screenshots 06:20 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: MMOG (11 comments)
A few lovely new screenshots of of Aion, an upcoming MMORPG from NCsoft that's powered by the CryEngine. In it, you can play as an Angel, Demon, or Dragon.

(Click to Enlarge!)

Any game that has turtles gets a +1 from me.

Turok Screenshots 05:39 pm - Andrew Burnes - Consoles: Xbox 360 (12 comments)
That is one big pile of shit.

Random Rumblings 05:24 pm - Andrew Burnes - Games: General News (6 comments)

• Crackdown demo now available on Xbox Live. Includes co-op multiplayer.

• Mario Kart 64 will be available to purchase from the Wii VC Shop next week.

• Ubisoft revealed today that the PS3 version of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 has been delayed till "god knows when."

• Ubisoft also announced that a Xbox 360 demo for the sequel will be available on live shortly.

• New PS3 firmware is out today that allows you to hook a credit card reader up to the console and pay for stuff using your credit card, just in case entering some numbers on the screen is a bit too challenging.

• Tomy unveiled the world's smallest commercial robot today in Japan. One can be yours for just 245 bucks.

Bungie Admits Halo 2 Sucked 02:42 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Consoles: Xbox (25 comments)
Edge Online has an interview with various folk at Bungie who reflect back on the first two Halo games, and look forward to the third installment of the series.

There's a fair amount of criticism of Halo 2 amongst Bungie staff. Writer and community officer Frank O'Connor, an acerbic ex-pat Scot and former journalist, admits the cliffhanger ending was rather abrupt - "we drove off Thelma & Louise style". He also admits that Bungie's vocal, internal, inter-disciplinary self-analysis can be its own worst enemy sometimes: "The trick is to avoid designing or writing by committee. You have to take what's best from the input you're getting and not have it turn into that too many cooks situation."

"That's sort of what happened with Halo 2, agrees Greisemer. "Toward the end we were working on balancing the weapons and everybody was very vocal about a ton of things and I think eventually we just sort of polished away some of those hard edges."

WoW: TBC Sells 2.4 Million Copies Day 1 01:53 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: MMOG (20 comments)
The power of PC Gaming is overwhelming! Blizzard sends word that it has shipped over 4 million copies of World of WarCraft The Burning Crusade and sold 2.4 million of them on launch day:

Blizzard Entertainment� today announced that World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has broken the day-one sales record to become the fastest-selling PC game ever in North America and Europe, with a worldwide total of nearly 2.4 million copies sold in the first 24 hours of availability. The Burning Crusade, the first expansion set for World of Warcraft, was simultaneously released in North America, Europe, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia on January 16, and on January 17 in Australia and New Zealand.

Blizzard had supplied more than 4 million game boxes to retailers worldwide, and more than 5,000 stores throughout the world had their doors open at midnight to welcome thousands of expectant players.

Day-one sales totals on both continents were similar, with an estimated total of nearly 1.2 million copies sold on the first day in North America and an estimated total of more than 1.1 million copies sold in Europe within the first 24 hours of launch.* By the end of the first day of availability on both continents, a total of more than 1.7 million players had already logged in and upgraded World of Warcraft to play The Burning Crusade.

"The Burning Crusade has already exceeded even our most ambitious expectations," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're pleased that so many players are eager to see all of the new content that the expansion has to offer, and we look forward to seeing everyone online as additional players continue to upgrade in the days ahead."

Retailers are continuing to report sustained demand, so if players have not yet purchased their copy of The Burning Crusade, they are advised to call ahead to make sure their store has copies on hand. Additional shipments of the expansion have been routed to retailers to help maintain stock levels.

"The immediate popularity of The Burning Crusade once again shows that Blizzard consistently delivers what gamers want," said Robert McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop Corp. "In addition to setting a new day-one PC-game sales record at our GameStop and EB Games stores, the expansion garnered more online pre-orders than any other PC game in our company's history."

Prior to the launch of The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft was played by more than 8 million players around the world -- with more than 2 million on North American realms and more than 1.5 million on European realms -- making it the most successful subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game in PC-gaming history.

Quake Wars Screenshots 01:15 pm - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Action (17 comments)
Activision fired over some new(ish) 2048x1536 nudies of Splash Damage's online FPS Quake Wars:

(Click to Enlarge!)

Hardware & Tech Nuggets 01:15 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - hardware: General News (0 comments)

Boards

• Intel P965: abit AB9 QuadGT - Anandtech

  Cases
  

• Antec Nine Hundred - Boot Daily

  Cooling
  

• Alpha Novatech PRE9060M92P Socket 775 Heatsink - Frosty Tech
• Spire Fourier IV Intel/AMD Copper Heatpipe CPU Cooler - Tweaknews
• Noctua NF-S12 and RF-8 Cooling Fans - Big Bruin
• Noctua NC-U6 Northbridge Heatsink Madshrimps
• VIZO Voyager HDD Cooler - Gideontech
• Value Cooling: Two Towers for under $30 - Anandtech

  CPU
  

• Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 CPU Quad Core - MVK Tech
• Intel QX6700 Core 2 Quad Extreme Edition CPU - i4U

  Keyboards
  

• Saitek Eclipse II Illuminated Keyboard - Tweaknews

  Mice
  

• Logitech MX Revolution Laser Mouse - ASE Labs

  Power Supply
  

• Antec EarthWatts 500W - Overclockers Online

  Video
  

• MSI's NX8800GTX-T2D768E GeForce 8800 GTX - HotHardware
• MSI NX8800GTX Review and Mixed-Vendor SLI - NVNews
• Real-World Gaming CPU Comparison with 8800 GTX SLI - [H]
• Sapphire Ultimate X1650PRO 256MB - Virtual Hideout
• The GeForce 8800 in SLI - Tech Report

  Windows
  

• Top 8 Vista Annoyances - TechAge

Assorted Downloads 12:57 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

• AirStrike II: Gulf Thunder updated demo & retail patch v2.62
• Medieval II: Total War Digital River patch v1.1
• WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos & the Frozen Throne retail patches v1.21

RPG Vault Goodness 12:55 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: Role-Playing (0 comments)

Earth Eternal Interview
We question Iron Realms principal Matt Mihaly about his team's online world based on a variety of mythical themes - Includes two exclusive model images

Game Reviews 12:45 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - Games: General News (0 comments)

PC

• SPWW2: 1930-1946 - Armchair General - 85%
• World of WarCraft: The Burning Crusade - GameDaily - 9/10

  360
  

• Lost Planet - 3DAvenue - 4/5

  PS3
  

• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - PSU - 78%

  PS2
  

• Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles - Killer Betties - 2/5
• Superman Returns - Strategy Informer - 4.3/10

  DS
  

• Eragon - Game Revolution - D

In Other News... 12:30 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (82 comments)
Windows Vista launches in less than a week!

Today's question is from KevlarGorilla, who asks:

Name a game that people around you say was awesome, but you just didn't get.