PopCap Games, has  announced plans to release Plants vs. Zombies for Xbox LIVE Arcade this Autumn.

With an anticipated launch in early September, Plants vs. Zombies on XBLA will deliver more game content than any previous iteration of the franchise, boasting seven game modes, including two all-new multiplayer modes, 12 unique achievements and 21 mini-games. Upon its release, Plants vs. Zombies for XBLA will be available for 1200 Microsoft Points (US$15.00).

“With a ton of new features and content exclusive to the XBLA version, we’ve pulled out all the stops to both expand and optimize this adaptation for a hard core gaming audience,” said Ed Allard, head of worldwide studios at PopCap. “The two new multiplayer modes allow gamers to work cooperatively to defeat hordes of invading zombies, or go head-to-head in a true ‘plants vs. zombies’ challenge. We’re also featuring a customized ‘house’ for tracking and sharing progress as well as a total of 21 mini-games and 12 achievements, all designed to enthrall Plants vs. Zombies players once again.”

Plants vs. Zombies for XBLA showcases many standout features, including:

• A total of seven game modes, including two new multiplayer modes: Co-Op and Vs. Mode
• 12 achievements and 21 mini-games – more than any other adaptation, and including the exclusive Heavy Weapon-inspired mini-game
• A goofy new way to track and share progress online, where players create their own custom house and cruise down the street to see their friends’ cribs!
• The highest resolution of any Plants vs. Zombies adaptation to date at 1920 x 1080
• All 50 levels of the original Adventure mode along with Puzzle, Survival, and Zen Garden

Later this year, PopCap will also release a retail boxed edition of Plants vs. Zombies (including full versions of Zuma and Peggle as well) for the Xbox 360 as well as a new “Game of The Year” boxed edition of the PC/Mac original, a limited number of which will include a zombie figurine. Both are expected to arrive on retail shelves later this fall and carry a suggested retail price of US$19.99 each.

A certified number one bestseller, Worms 2: Armageddon is still the title of choice for thousands of gamers across the globe.

With this in mind, Team17 are thrilled to release the feature-packed Worms 2: Armageddon Battle Pack on Xbox LIVE Arcade, a new downloadable content pack containing new weapons and utilities, a new single-player campaign, tons of crazy new customization features, new achievements and an all-new game mode amongst other upgrades to the original smash hit.

The Body Count mode pits a single worm against a never-ending army of enemies, with the aim being to amass the largest number of kills before eventually being laid to rest with your own signature tombstone. Your high scores will be tracked on an all-new Leaderboard, so it’s easy to see whose worm is harder than yours!

With 30 new singleplayer Deathmatches, new “Warzone” theme and a cluster (grenade) of new weapons and utilities including termites, ferrets and worship statues there is plenty to keep the average Wormer occupied; 10 brilliant new Forts and new items to customize your team mean that it’s now even easier to remember who you blasted off the landscape in previous matches, and which players pounded you into the dirt.

Worms 2: Armageddon: Battle Pack is available now for 400 MS Points via Xbox LIVE Arcade.

Here’s the breakdown of what you’ll get.

• New single-player content:
  • Warzone Campaign – 30 all-new single-player Deathmatches (with an additional Achievement for completion)
  • Body Count Single Player Mode (one level per theme and one random level)
  • 7 Body Count Leaderboards
• New weapons and utilities - 6 new weapons/utilities:
  • The Three Ferrets (an animal-based explosive attack)
  • Termites (an animal based “quick” tunnel creation)
  • Marked For Death (utility that doubles the effect of any damage taken)
  • Invisibility
  • Steal
  • Worship (utility that places a statue which simultaneously heals your team while damaging any opponents)
  • Extra Achievement for the use of all new weapons
• Forts additions:
  • 10 all new Forts (includes 2 contest-winning Forts designed by Facebook Worms Fans)
  • Super Forts Game Style including ranked Leaderboard
  • Extra Achievement for winning a game on each new Fort
• New Game Styles:
  • New Warzone Game Style
  • New Super Forts Style
• Customization elements:
  • A range of new customization features; new voices and hats.
  • Additional colour variants of all existing hats
  • Custom HUDs – ‘light-side’, ‘dark-side’ and ‘fire’
  • 40 new player titles
  • Custom particle sets for light side and dark side players
• Bonus Landscape themes – enhanced landscape themes to make a total of 13:
  • Warzone (all new)
  • Arctic
  • London
  • Hawaii
  • Space
  • Hell
  • Jungle

UTV Ignition Entertainment Ltd., a global publisher and developer of videogames, recently announced that it has reached an agreement with Hothead Games to co-publish Swarm worldwide on all platforms via digital channels.

Swarm was  unveiled via a short teaser trailer at recent E3 .

Swarm lets the player take control of 50 utterly fearless Swarmites and drive them through an intense, entertaining and often suicidal battle for a greater good. Run, bash, huddle, boost, stack, jump, push and throw your way through gauntlets of death and destruction in an attempt to collect valuable DNA and ensure that at least one Swarmite survives. With a unique combination of mass character control and fast action, the resulting brutal aftermath will make players want to play Swarm over and over again.

“UTV Ignition is delighted to be able to partner with Hothead Games to bring this title to market” commented Nigel Fox, President European Publishing for UTV Ignition Entertainment. “Swarm is a high quality and incredibly creative title, and it is that level of quality and creativity that is the basis of our digital download strategy.”

“Swarm is very special to Hothead – it’s an idea we’ve nurtured for a while,” added Joel DeYoung, Director of Game Technology for Hothead Games. “We are excited to work with Ignition to make sure everyone hears about and ultimately gets a chance to play Swarm, Hothead’s next great game.”

Swarm is being developed by Hothead Games and will be available early 2011 across multiple platforms.

Ruffian Games are ready to put the Crackdown 2 demo out sometime today on live for the general public to play.

Mature-gaming had a chance to play this already over the weekend and have to admit that it is a lot of fun.  Weighing in at around 1.09 GB the demo will available to play in 30 minute blocks and has 10 achievements that you can earn which will unlock fully when you play the full version of the game.

The demo will also allow you to play co-operatively as well.  After playing the demo, I have to say that I wanted more time as it was so much fun.  30 minutes just isn’t enough!  Crackdown 2 will be available to buy on the 9th July and is exclusive to Xbox 360.

Activision  announced today a multi-year agreement that will continue to bring Call of Duty game add ons and map packs first to Xbox LIVE.

The news was revealed today to a capacity-crowd at Microsoft’s Xbox 360 E3 press conference in Los Angeles. The agreement which began in 2009 now extends for all add ons and map packs from the mega-blockbuster Call of Duty franchise through 2012, including Call of Duty: Black Ops, the follow up to the largest entertainment launch in history and one of the most-anticipated titles of the year set for release Nov. 9th.

“Our Treyarch Studio is doing something special with Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is why we’re thrilled to announce this Xbox LIVE agreement,” said Philip Earl, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Activision’s Call of Duty Business Unit. “This agreement reflects our shared and continued focus on creating the most compelling and exciting content releases for fans around the world.”

With billions of hours logged online, Call of Duty titles consistently rank atop Xbox LIVE’s most-played charts, making it the largest Call of Duty community of any entertainment system.

“With 25 million members, Xbox LIVE is the industry’s premier online gaming service that establishes the best in cooperative and multiplayer online play for blockbuster franchises like Call of Duty,” said Marc Whitten, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Xbox LIVE. “With the release of game add ons and map packs coming first to Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE is the place to play Call of Duty for years to come.”

ESPN and Microsoft have just announced that ESPN HD will be available free of charge for all xbox live gold owners.

Available in the community section on xbox live, members will be able to watch over 3,500 live sporting events or rewind and re-watch games that have already been screened.  Also interactive polls and trivia will also be present.

Further details have yet to be announced but as the U.K. gets ESPN hopefully, this deal will be available here too.

The official Microsoft announcements are now only hours away and whilst most people already know what to expect there seems to be a few more surprises up their sleeve.

First and foremost we now know that Project Natal has now been officially named Xbox Kinect and looks a lot smaller than we previously thought.  There has also been a leak overnight that a slim line version of the 360 is also on its way with 250gb hard drive and kinect built in.  The exact details and specs are not available yet but expect some more surprises with this as word at the conference centre is that security is heavier than the Bank Of England which normally means there are announcements that for once, have actually been kept secret.

Microsoft are the first of the big three to get the show on the road later today (5.30 GMT) so check back just after that for all the news here.

This month Xbox is launching the “Summer of Football”, a variety of football themed games and entertainment to mark the most anticipated football tournament of the year in South Africa.

Running from 11^th June until Sunday 11^th July, the “Summer of Football” includes a new collaboration with the sporting giant adidas, so Xbox LIVE members will be able to dress their avatars in a range of branded clothing.

Xbox has also joined forces with Konami to allow fans to dress their avatars up in their country colours.  LIVE members can download officially licensed football kits for the Brazilian, Dutch, French, Australian, English, Spanish, German, New Zealand and Italian national sides, which will then appear as options within the avatar marketplace.

Additional items such as animated balls and banners as well as fan hats and caps will also be available in the Konami Soccer Kit Collection – each available in the user’s chosen national colours.  Costs vary from 240 Microsoft Points for a shirt, and 320 Microsoft Points for balls and additional items.

Xbox is also celebrating the big kick off in South Africa with a LIVE “unlock weekend” for a limited time only (11^th – 13^th June).  During that weekend, all LIVE members will be given Gold member access including multiplayer gaming opportunities.

The celebrations continue with a range of promotions on football games with up to 50% off top titles such as FIFA 10 Ultimate Team, Football Genius and Sensible World of Soccer as well as a tournament predictor tool and a free “penalty shoot out” application – a fun game in which fans can test their soccer skills and even compete against their friends.

Those who can’t make it to South Africa can sit back and enjoy daily updates from the tournament including news and interviews with fans as well as celebrity views and gossip.

Xbox has also joined forces with the charity 1Goal, which aims to get all children into school, to offer LIVE members the chance to download a free avatar t-shirt to show their support for the cause.  1Goal is seizing the power of football to engage people and over the course of the summer it aims to secure 72 million signatures to an online petition to take to world leaders.

For more details on the upcoming promotion as well as the opportunity to join in the fun and win some superb prizes visit www.xbox.com.

All deep cover agents are ordered to break off from current assignments and head to www.TrueCrime.com to scope out and gather intel on Activision Publishing, Inc.’s upcoming open-world/action game True Crime: Hong Kong.

Inspired by classic Hollywood and Asian cinema style thrillers, fans can dive deep into Hong Kong’s Triad criminal underbelly and gain access to the latest True Crime news, assets, promotions, and more!  The new web site also reveals the first details on some of the project’s Hong Kong Cinema and Hollywood talent, further underscoring developer United Front Games’ (UFG) commitment to delivering a game experience that looks, feels and plays like a true Hong Kong action flick.  Additionally, fans should be sure to track True Crime on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TrueCrime, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TrueCrimegame, and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/TrueCrime.

As a newly hired thug within the Triad organisation, undercover detective Wei Shen must do whatever it takes to stay undetected and survive, balancing his moral duty as a cop with the objectives of the assignment.  In order to ascend the ranks of the underworld, gamers will engage in visceral, fast-paced martial arts combat and explosive gunfights, along with high-octane driving sequences and acrobatic free-running chases as they go deeper and deeper undercover.

True Crime’s story takes players on a roller coaster ride through the game’s vast, action-packed open-world Hong Kong setting, introducing handfuls of intriguing characters in a truly unique and dangerous city.  Lending more authenticity to the game’s narrative and further bringing True Crime’s characters to life, Activision and UFG have enlisted the voice over skills of top Hong Kong cinema and Hollywood talent, including Tom Wilkinson, James Hong, James Liao, Byron Mann, Dustin Nguyen, George Cheung and Sammo Hung to name a few.  Additional True Crime cast details will be revealed soon enough, however, gamers can head over to www.TrueCrime.com today for all the latest and greatest info, and make their best guesses at what remaining talent is yet to be debuted.

Go undercover and “become one of them” with True Crime, currently in development for the Xbox 360, PS3  and Games for Windows.  The game is yet to be rated by PEGI.

Everyone who is worth their salt will remember the birth of the modern day fps that was popularised in 1993 by ID Software’s gorefest, Doom.

One of the first games to provide on the PC, 3d spacial awareness with a heady mix of gore, Doom revolutionised the genre and office dogs worldwide linked up their work PC’s for a lunch time session of multiplayer too.  So popular was the game that the media soon jumped on the “games need banning” bandwagon and the attention it brought not only helped sell millions of extra copies but cemented Doom’s place in the history of games as one of the defining moments in the genre ever.

Flash forward 17 years and ID Software has ported Doom’s sequel, Doom II to xbox live so that you can relive countless memories of yesteryear on your xbox 360 hard drive.  The game itself downloads at just over 36mb and with so many other DLC titles using a lot
more memory you would initially think that not too much attention has been paid to the port itself.

Well, not so.  Doom II has been transferred into the marketplace with perfection to the asthetics of the original.  All the pixallated graphics are there and the classic look, feel, sound and movement do not seem to be tampered with from what I can remember of the original. For those of you who are too young to remember the original franchise or that their parents wouldn’t allow you to play it, then Doom and Doom II are the original archetypal FPS’s. Simply put, all hell (literally) has broken loose and you must find your way to the exit of each level whilst keeping yourself alive, finding bigger and better weapons to take on the enemy, keeping your ammo well stocked and defeat some meaty bosses to progress and finish the game.

The movement and control system work very well here indeed and many of you will remember cutting your teeth with the simplicity of move, strafe and fire for survival that have grown up with you to this very day. All the controls have been mapped ideally for the xbox 360 control system and geared for today’s traditional FPS layout. That pretty good seeing as there is no way of mapping the buttons yourself.

All the weapons and enemies that were in the original Doom make a welcome return here with some additions to the family to keep you on your toes. There’s nothing like getting down to a small amount of ammo only for one of the dastardly elementals to come around the corner wanting a ruck. Cue the strafing and running to try and protect yourself whilst you hunt around trying to find something to take them down with in what can only be called some of the most well designed fps maps that you will ever come across. Well, you wouldn’t expect anything else from ID Software to be honest as they have spent years getting it bang on in every single game they release. By the way, if you are looking for a beastly weapon then the Super Shottie for the win!

The campaign itself has had an addition of an extra chapter to it. No Rest For The Living is its name so you can expect a few new levels to blast through which adds a little something to it. For those of you who like hunting for secrets then you will get more than your monies worth here for a lot of searching around a level. Big guns can be found ahead of time if you know where to look or are lucky enough to stumble upon it.

As with Doom on XBL, Doom II also has its multiplayer options deeply rooted in within the game. After all, that is partly what it is famed for! Online deathmatches a plenty can be held as well as going local for some friend on friend action. Online, like its predecessor, it does falter a little with lag. It is not that off putting and doesn’t make you feel as though you want to put the game down but it is apparent and something that needs mentioning. But all in all a good blast with plenty of bodies getting mauled and enough to put a smile on your face whilst slaying some random victim has never been so satisfying.

Given the age of Doom II, it stands up very well to the modern day FPS’s. Great level design with rewarding gameplay that is unforgiving and can prove hard as nails will have you spending many an hour trying to complete it. I love the way ID Software has stayed faithful to the original game and not felt the need to cater to the COD generation and adapt the game with modern graphics and some other overhauls. It is definitely worthy of the money to buy it and the reminiscence value itself should be enough for you to want to make the purchase.