The action-role playing game, Torchlight was released for PC back in October 2009 available only by digital download up until recently when a box copy was released. The game received great reviews but got poor mainstream recognition. This could change when the game is released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

“We’re going to put some serious effort into it -- pretty quick-- getting Torchlight onto consoles. There’s a lot of really cool things about the console world, too, that would work well with our game. So, we are definitely going to be going in that direction." - Runic CEO Max Schaefer

The developer of the game seems very enthusiastic about the future of this project. I'm personally really excited as I'm not a PC gamer. It will be great to play out their new innovative developments on another platform. Very few details have surfaced other than its existence, but expect it to bring a great new game to your collection.

Runic Games 'putting serious effort' into console Torchlight [Joystiq]

With the recent Snowboarding Gold Medal Award being dominantly won by Shaun White, it's inevitable the man will receive more media attention than usual. In a recent interview with KROQ Radio, Shaun states how excited he is for his upcoming game. "We've been working on it for a while now and it's ready to melt minds." Although no official announcement has been released, it has been said that it will be developed by Ubisoft Montreal and be released before the Holidays.

Does this sound like a lame sequel? Absolutely not, due to this is a skateboard game. Did you know Shaun is also a professional skateboarder? That's right, a new competitor enters the skateboarding genre, hoping to revolutionize it the same way EA did with Skate. Could this be another failed attempt? Will they try to bring anything new to the table? What else is there left to be done? Tony Hawk already proved that the skateboard peripheral was a failure. Only time will tell what Ubisoft decides to bring to the game. More news to come!

Kotaku [Shaun White Takes on Tony Hawk]

Remember back in late 2007, when everyone raved about how extraordinary this new dystopic, first person action/puzzle game was? There was, and still is quite the cult following for Portal. Large enough to go through a massive investigation on a recent strange, surprise Portal update Valve posted. The update stated, "Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations."

This lead Steam forum members on a wild investigation on what this actually meant. They found out it added a secret achievement which relates to the radio frequencies. These frequencies gave 22 cryptic images and 4 Morse code messages, which is actually an md5 hash which decodes to a network they can telnet to. Yes, this happened. There's more to it to, just too detailed to post here.

In the end, these investigators found a bunch of ASCII artwork that makes pictures of levels, diagrams, turrets and people. People assume Gabe Newell will make an announcement when he receives his award on March 11. Lots of speculation have gone into these and the three main theories are the announcement for The Orange Box 2, Half Life 2: Episode 3 or Portal 2.

For further documentation, and images, visit the main conspiracy thread at the official Steam Forums.

Portal Update Released [Steam Blog]
Main Thread [Steam Forums]

The recent release of Geohot's Playstation 3 exploit has attracted some very talented developers.  These developers, who work mostly behind the scenes, are pushing towards achieving something everybody can enjoy by reverse engineering memory dumps and other system files.

A developer by the name of xorloser, has coded a few scripts which allow you to dump your system memory. He, along with others are working towards dumping the lv2; the cell which works around the XMB. Although this has already been done by Geohot and our very own community member, Mathieulh, they plan to work on it in private. A recent post by Geohot states the following:

"In OtherOS, all 7 SPUs are idle. You can command an SPU to load metldr, from that load the loader of your choice, and from that decrypt what you choose, everything from pkgs to selfs. Including those from future versions.

The PPU is higher on the control chain then the SPUs. Even if checks were to be added to, for example, verify the hypervisor before decrypting the kernel, with clever memory mappings you can hide your modified hypervisor."

This brings out many possibilities and it's only a matter of time before something is released to the public to fully take advantage of the PS3 security system. When it does, you can be sure to read all about it here, at MforMature. Also, if you're curious about the more technical details associated with this, check out this blog which seems to be a favorite among developers.

As the majority of you know, the classic first person shooter, Perfect Dark is coming to Xbox Live Arcade this March. Due to licencing issues, Rare's similar, more popular game, Goldeneye 007, will never be released again (most likely). This however, is the next best thing. Microsoft recently confirmed that Perfect Dark will contain maps and weapons from their Nintendo 64 exclusive, Goldeneye.

Maps confirmed to be included in the game are classic recreations of Facility, Temple and Complex. I realize these were included in the original game as unlockables, however some people aren't aware of that. You can expect to relive the Nintendo 64 glory in high definition on March 17, costing you 800 Microsoft points.

MS confirms GoldenEye Maps for Perfect Dark [Videogamer]

Almost one year after the console version of the game Street Fighter IV was released, an unexpected surprise was announced by Capcom, claiming that the game would soon be released on the Apple App-Store. With great reviews, and a large community supporting it, SF4 has gained a great reputation as a fighting game. You can expect to purchase this in March at a price yet to be determined.

The visuals and graphical effects were quite stunning, which brings up the question, how will it run it? The iPhone version will run a scaled down version with a decreased amount of colors and detail. It however, retains all of the combos, moves and everything else you enjoyed or disliked about the original. The fighting controls are claimed to be completely customizable and flexible to suite your iPhone gaming needs.

The best part is hands down the Bluetooth multiplayer. To battle a friend (or foe) without the need for wireless internet is an amazing thought. More details will emerge closer to the release date. Stay tuned for more details!

Street Fighter IV for iPhone Revealed [IGN]

New Super Mario Bros. was a major accomplishment made by Nintendo and sold over ten million copies worldwide. Unlike most games, this was released in Australia before any other county.  Like most popular games, it gets pirated in large quantities and gets uploaded before the release date, which in this case was over a week before the worldwide launch.

Nintendo was able to track down this pirate using "sophisticated technological forensics" and made the offender pay a sum of $1.3 million. According to Nintendo, this large sum of money is to compensate the company for the loss of sales revenue. In my opinion, that's a high price to pay just for getting "internet props." This incident could also affect the release dates of games in Australia and since this exception didn't go over well, publishers might be reluctant in the future to make the Aussie's games first to be released.

Nintendo Sues Pirate [Gamespot AU]

The official iPhone SDK has always been exclusive to Mac osx operating systems with very few exceptions. Options for Windows users include programming Actionscript applications with Adobe CS5, and developement with web applications for Safari. Both of which are very limited and can't be submitted to Apple.

DragonFireSDK is a new solution which enables developers to code applications using Windows Visual C++. This application lets you code in C or C++ as opposed to in Objective-C on the official development kit. Once completed, your project will automatically be converted to Objective-C, then submitted to the App-Store through the DragonFire Distribution Portal, or through your own developer account.

"UnStacker" is a free application created with the DragonFireSDK which is currently on the App-Store, if you would like to check out its capabilities. This development kit will cost $49.95 when released. However, if you intend to buy the software, beta copies are given away for free by requesting one from support@dragonfiresdk.com. Make sure you provide a good reason why you should have a copy though.

Official Website: DragonFireSDK

After years of speculation on Apple's new touch device, it has finally been revealed at their event in San Fransisco, earlier today. Steve Jobs announced it by walking all over the disadvantages of Netbooks. "We think we've got something that is better. And we call it the iPad" said Steve Jobs as a picture of what looked like a giant iPod Touch appeared on the screen.

Weighing in at 1.5 pounds, the iPad is half an inch thick with a 9.7 inch capacitive touchscreen IPS LCD display running a custom 1GHz Apple "A4" chip developed by the P.A. Semi team. This device can run on battery for ten hours and be in standby for one month. Other features include a 30pin Dock connector, a speaker, a microphone, Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi, an accelerometer and a compass.

The iPad has an operating system based on the iPhone and can run all the applications on the App-Store, rather pixel for pixel, or doubled for full screen display. Developers can also make specific applications for it with the updated iPhone OS SDK, which is out later today. With all the possibilities of VOIP, this could very well replace your phone.

The iPad comes in three different models, along with the option to give it 3G capabilities. Pricing starts at $499 for the 16GB, $599 for 32GB, and $699 for 64GB along with the 3G upgrade being $130 extra. Every iPad is unlocked and includes a GSM micro-SIM, so you can use it abroad. At the moment, international users will have to wait until Summer for new announcements regarding their plans.

You can expect the WiFi only model to ship in 60 days, while the 3G models will arrive in 90.

Source:Engadget