Risen, an open world RPG, will be hitting North American shelves in February. Risen is described as a “massive, open-world RPG where every decision counts and every action continuously shapes a player’s reputation. In a medieval setting, the game begins with the player shipwrecked on an island in turmoil, rocked by mysterious ruins rising from the ground. Players will battle dangerous creatures yet the promise of ancient treasures will lead them on an adventure where they must choose to align with either the native Rebel faction, or the mysterious Order and its Inquisition.”

"We’re incredibly excited about RISEN and the opportunity to publish it in North America. What we bring to market is a deep, immersive RPG that Xbox 360 gamers have been clamoring for. RISEN is going to start off this year for RPGs in an amazing way," says Geoff Mulligan, Chief Operating Officer at Deep Silver.

Look forward to that, North America.

EA have released a new Skate 3 trailer with information of a new DLC pack available for those that pre-order. The ‘Black Box’ skate park will ‘cater to every skater,’ which sounds like a must for skate fans. Check out the trailer below.

Yet another video for Mass Effect 2 details the moral obligations you will face whilst playing the game. Armor customisability has grown rapidly, with players able to change tint and add colours to the shield palette. Shepard will be able to look the way you want him/her to. Moral choices play a big part, so much so that you will see a drastic change to overall gameplay.

But don’t just take my word for it, watch the trailer:

A week of video game journalism wouldn’t be complete without a report of yet another Modern Warefare 2 glitch. It appears that every since Infinity Ward has taken out the Javelin glitch, hackers have just started running wild on MW 2. The latest glitch is another server hack, and its very troubling. The new exploit being used, will cause you to gain negative experience points per kill. So instead of gaining +50 or +100 points for a kill, you will get -5,000,000. And your character will de-level all the way back to a Private when the match ends. No joke.

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Being that this is another server hack, be wary of who’s hosting games that you are playing in. While I haven’t came across this glitch personally, as I have with many of the others, this news is beyond ridiculous. All of the rampant hacking going on in Modern Warfare 2, needs to be addressed immediately by Infinity Ward. It is unacceptable that the most financially successful game of the year, and one of the most popular games being played currently, is experiencing glitch after glitch.

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We have sent an email to Infinity Ward to see when they plan on addressing the matter, as well as what the penalties will be for those that use the glitch. As soon as we hear back from them, we’ll keep you informed. For now check out this nifty YouTube video of the glitch in action:

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According to reports from the New York Times, Espn and Microsoft are currently in discussion about providing a service that will provide programming from the sports channel on Xbox 360 consoles. Basically the service would allow users to view live streams of sporting events. The best part of the supposed deal, is the fact that you wouldn’t need a cable television hook-up. Just the internet.

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Microsoft has gone on the record to say that the report is just “rumor and speculation,” so when we hear something super official here at Talk Xbox. We’ll keep you in the know.

Here are some new screenshots for the Arcade version of Risk.

EA States:

“Players will be able to engage as one of five playable factions, each with different strengths, as they wage war on new maps with dynamic terrain in their quest for missile silos in order to strategically dominate the game. Additionally, as rivals go head-to-head during unique, animated combat missions, enemies will be able to trigger ‘Overkill’ moments, based on the roll of the dice, and unlock avatar awards while attempting global supremacy. With a new animated art style, kooky humor and a choice of five oddball factions, RISK: Factions is sure to offer something for veteran RISK strategists and newcomers alike."

EA has confirmed that only Australia will be receiving a Mass Effect 2 ‘Super Elite’ Bundle. Here are the pack details:

• 250GB HDD
• Two Wireless Controllers
• Headset
• A copy of Mass Effect 2

The package will cost $550 (£335,) and seems to be a replica of the Modern Warfare 2 Elite with a Mass Effect skin.

Regardless of the sales for the first game, Activision has confirmed that DJ Hero 2 is in the works.

During a press release at MIDEM 2010 Activision stated: “2010 DJ Hero will be hosting an exclusive Listening Session, providing one lucky undiscovered musician the priceless opportunity to have their winning song mixed, mastered and featured in a future instalment of DJ Hero.”

No word on new peripherals, look for further announcements.

According to a tweet by BioWare, Mass Effect 2 may have free DLC on the launch day of Mass Effect 2.

The tweet says: "Addressing rumors: BioWare will not be charging extra for any new Mass Effect 2 content on launch day. More DLC details next week.”

It’s not clear what they mean by new content on launch day, but further developments will be reported.

A new trailer for Splinter Cell: Conviction shows the story still has a very heavy emphasis on the mentality of Sam Fisher. The trailer shows Third Echelons fatal mistake of pushing Sam Fisher until he snapped.

The Sam Fisher of 2007 who looked ready to cry has well and truly gone, and left a complete badass in his wake. The trailer features a character named Victor Coste, a private security consultant who has a pretty good idea of the inner psyche of Fisher.

Here’s the trailer.

Whilst unannounced by Rocksteady, a BBFC listing for a GOTY edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum has surfaced. The hit game had fairly minimal DLC releases, aside from the occasional challenge map pack. That hardly constitutes as a fair package for a GOTY release. Could this mean new DLC to come?

Only time will tell.

The recently announced Transformers: War for Cybertron has gotten the trailer treatment. Before you skip reading these words, and commence to scrolling down and pressing play. I must warn you, there is absolutely no footage of actual gameplay. Just a lot of animated robot on robot violence. So if you want to see Autobots vs. Decepticons, as well as how being a Prime means you can take a missile straight to the chest and live to monologue. Then feel free to take a glance at this:

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There’s still a ways to go until Halo Legends is released for everyones viewing pleasure. In the meantime Halo Waypoint is offering a nice motion comic, titled “Midnight in the Heart of Mdlothian,” based on the short story of the same name written by Frank O’Conner. There will be four episodes, every Saturday starting January 16, and ending February 6. So be sure to keep it your eyes on Halo Waypoint. If you’d like to see a trailer for the motion comic, just click on this link right here.

Unless you’ve just started gaming recently, chances are you know the ill-fated story of the SEGA Dreamcast. For those of you who may not be too familiar with the sad, sad, tale of SEGA’s system. I’ll clue you in. The Dreamcast was released in 1998 and was a bit of technological marvel. Not only did it have some pretty impressive graphics for its time, but it was also the first system to ever feature online gaming. Consumers and critics alike saw the console as ahead of its time, and in many ways the Dreamcast paved the way for a lot of todays modern systems, with its early focus on online gaming.

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Things didn’t got to well for the system. While it was released ahead of Nintendo’s GameCube, Sony’s Playstation 2, and the original Xbox. Once the PS2 hit the market, the Dreamcast was never able to recover from the aftershock of the consumer phenomenon that was Sony’s little black beast.

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Isao Okawa who was the head of SEGA during those times, visited Microsoft HQ and spoke to Bill Gates himself trying to strike up a deal. Microsoft exec Sam Furukawa offers a glimpse in what could have been via a tweet, stating, “Before Mr. Okawa passed away he visited Gates several times, to see if it would be possible to add Dreamcast compatibility into the Xbox.” Okawa’s vision was to try and broker a way for Dreamcast games to be played on the Xbox, thus insuring that the fans of the system would still be able to get their game on, and possibly give the system some sort of resurgence.

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The deal all hinged upon one minor or major detail. Okawa was very adamant about Dreamcast games having internet capabilities. The House of Gates did not want the Dreamcast games to have an internet connection on their system. A middle ground could not be agreed upon, so negotiations fell apart.

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Although the Dreamcast was dying, Okawa was intent on doing everything in his power to try and help the system succeed. Furukawa states that before Okawa passed away in 2001, he gave SEGA $900 million (!!!), of his personal money to try and help the company succeed with the Dreamcast. Once he passed away, the plug was pulled on the Dreamcast, and SEGA began to focus on software only. This decision was helped to be reached by then SEGA of America executive, Peter Moore, who we all know joined Microsoft in 2003. And who also believes that online gaming and distribution is the way of the future. The rest as they say, is history.

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One can only wonder, what could’ve been? I’m sure there was some sort of negative financial aspects to the deal. Because I can’t understand why Bill Gates would not want to have incorporated a system that had some modern success, into his first foray into the video game arena. Seems like a no brainer to me. It all gets a little suspect when you look at the reason why, the supposed deal went sour. No online support? Considering that the Xbox gave us the gift of Xbox LIVE, and the fact that the original Sonic Adventure is rumored to be coming to LIVE, you can only wonder what happened?

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Seems like Microsoft dropped the ball on that one. But what do I know, I get paid to sniff out and write articles, not make no-brainer business decisions. Zing!

Whether you dig GameStop and its super corporate machine policies or not. One thing that the gaming retail giant has in its favor, is the fact that they sure do know how to make some hilarious commercials. It all started with that funky Halo: ODST spot showing off some retro disco music, and badass Sgt. Johnson. Now they have topped themselves with a short spot for Mass Effect 2, showing off the Terminus Armor, and M-490 heavy weapon.

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There’s nothing like kicking back, watching some Robot Chicken, and in between laughing at the randomness of that show; seeing this GameStop commercial. It’s been floating around for a little while now, but in case you haven’t caught it yet, check this out:

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So I’m watching the fresh new international trailer for Final Fantasy XIII, and all I can keep thinking about is the original Resident Evil and its classic voice acting job. My favorite line has to be the tense moment when a character screams, “Shoot me!” and Sazh Katzroy follows that up with “You die! And everything ends up sugar and rainbows?!” Good stuff right there.

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The trailer is about what you’d expect from a FF game. But I’m thinking they need to go with a song a little less emo-tronic, and get something that sets the mood a little better. Like the original Gears of War commercial, or the one for Lost Oddyssey, or even that Prince of Persia commercial. I can honestly say that due to the marketing of those commercials, my interest in those games increased. I purchased Gears of War, and that Prince of Persia spot was single-handedly the sole reason I went out the very next day and purchased that game.

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But enough about all that. To view the very first international Final Fantasy XIII trailer, just scroll down.

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So Final Fantasy XIII has been released in Japan, it will arrive in other areas within the next couple months. Recently art director Isamu Kamikokuryou sat down for an interview and discussed what didn’t make the games final cut. And it turns out that the developers left out enough material that could be used to make a whole entire complete game.

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Kamikokuryou talks about some of the areas that were cut to save space. There’s mention of a secret base for Snow’s hero squad, a park that was inside of a characters home, and last but not least a zoo. One can only wonder how many more DVDs FF XIII would’ve taken up, considering that it only uses a measly three.

Can you feel it? There’s a little over a week to go until Mass Effect 2 is released! BioWare is looking to help all fans of the series get their fix with the release of a novel that precedes the events in the game. The novel is dubbed Retribution; and it follows the exploits of the Illusive Man, (Martin Sheen’s character) as he tries to outfit a former mercenary with Reaper technology.

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For those worried if the novel will follow the proper canon, rest easy, Retribution is being written by Drew Karpyshyn, who is also the lead writer on the actual game.

Activision has released a press release for the ages. Seems the company has been going over their estimates for the 800 lbs. gorilla, also known as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and it’s made them a lot of money. It’s been two months and four days since the game was released and in that time time span the game has hauled in $1 billion.

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“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has exceeded our expectations and shattered theatrical box office and video game records,” said Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “There are only a handful of entertainment properties that have ever reached the $1 billion mark, which illustrates the power of the Call of Duty franchise and mass appeal of this game.”

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That puts Infinity Wards shooting opus in some pretty exclusive company. Like Titanic and some other movie you might have heard about named Avatar.

Herds of gamers have just put the finishing touches on Assassin’s Creed II, and Ubisoft is hard at work on delivering another installment into series. While chatting up investors about their financial forecast for the upcoming year, Ubisoft’s Michael Beadle let the world know that a new Assassin’s Creed game would make its way to consoles in 2010.

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According to Ubisoft representatives the new game will be a whole new gaming experience, feature Ezio again as the title character, and include online multiplayer – a first for the series. Assassin’s Creed wasn’t the only franchise that Ubisoft was pushing earlytalking up, other titles also mentioned were Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction (of course), a new Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon game, Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands, Driver, and Raving Rabbids 4.

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I’m curious to see how they are going to pull off another Assassin’s Creed game. Things were wrapped up pretty nicely in the last game, and set up perfectly for sequel. Saying that Ezio will be the featured character in the next game seems to be a stretching his storyline a bit, but hey they’re the professionals. I’m sure they know what they are doing.