If you think the Bungie Studios people are off on some vacation island right now enjoying the fruits of their three-year effort culminating with Halo 3’s release for the Microsoft Xbox 360, you couldn’t be more wrong. They’re back in the studios and fanning the game-making forge once more.

While some of us are still busy collecting skulls in the single player campaign of Halo 3, MSXbox has reported that Bungie is indeed on the roadmap to another big project hot of the heels of the biggest game release in history. Some are betting on Halo The Movie, while others are thinking of a Halo prequel trilogy a la Star Wars. Of course this is all mere speculation as we don’t know if this could be an entirely different project altogether.

Whatever it is they’re working on, we’ll be monitoring it closely from here on out. Some may be disappointed that Halo 3 isn’t the “last” one in the franchise, but come on now, you didn’t really believe that, did you?

Ascaron Entertainment is still hard at work developing its upcoming Microsoft Xbox 360 and PC RPG Sacred 2: Fallen Angel. The video game is the sequel to its original game Sacred and it introduces new jobs, quests, and plotlines to boot. This time we’ve got the second job class, the Shadow Warrior, on display.

Not a lot of specific details have been revealed by Ascaron Entertainment about the Shadow Warrior’s abilities and nature, but they’re giving us a glimpse of what he looks like in this Shadow Warrior “Light” art they released along with a recent press release. The word from the devs is that the game will be deeply customizable and will even allow class themes to take over the interface.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is a Diablo-style role-player that sports some of the most unique classes ever seen in a game. Its side quest-oriented gameplay makes sure that you stick around long, and the main story keeps you feeling significant in how everything plays out.

It’s time once again for GameStop’s Deal of the Week, for the week ending October 4. This time Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground by Activision is in the limelight with its US 5 discount for every pre-order. The discount is available for all versions of the game (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, DS).

Another big pre-order offer for this week is the extra 20 trade-in credit given for games traded in towards the reservation and/or purchase of Nintendo’s Super Mario Galaxy. That’s a pretty nifty offer right there, handy when you’re itching to get Mario’s latest romp and don’t have enough cash to nab it.

GameStop now also offers some exclusive Hellgate: London items along with every purchase of the game, for both the Collector’s Edition and the Regular Edition. The free goodies are not to be scoffed at: a Hellgate poster, a customized armor kit, beta invitation, and even a Founder’s Offer Subscription. If you missed out on the last Hellgate: London contest and the chance to get Hellgate goodies, then consider this your second chance.

As always with GameStop’s weekly offers, there’s much, much more in store for gamers (there’s even something for Tabula Rasa fans), so just click on the above images for more information, or better yet, click on the Read link below.

The Bungie community have been complaining about the missing game browser called XBL Public in Halo 3. The feature was supposed to allow players to search and join custom games instead of having to rely on the matchmaking service in the game.

The feature was supposed to be in the game considering that Halo 3 user interface designer Colm Nelson explained what it is supposed to do in an interview with 1UP. When he was asked about XBL Public back then, he said:

The basic idea with our online play still begins with our party system. You can invite your buddies to the party and it’s easy stay together and play whatever you want in the game. If you want to keep it private you can set the privacy so that only friends can join, or so that an invite is required in order for any player to join the party.

On the other hand you might need more players to play the type of game you want to set up and that’s where XBL public comes in handy. When you need more people you can just open your party to the public. It’s the perfect way to create a custom game and find people to join you.

The Halo 3 players have started a 35 page message board thread in an attempt to get Bungie to secede to their demands. Tom Achronos, one of the moderators on the Bungie.net servers, responded to the community in a post saying that “There is not and will not be any game browser for custom games.” He then cited the fact that the addition of this features is not something that can be implemented with a patch.

Until Bungie or Microsoft releases an official statement on this topic or decide to act on it, players will be stuck with the current matchmaking system included with the game. This is too bad considering that it can be rather difficult to join an unranked custom game with other players who aren’t in your friends list.

Fans who plan on picking up Traveller’s Tales’ and LucasArts‘ LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga for the Xbox 360 will be pleased to know that the achievements for the game have already been revealed.

Standard achievements such as finishing all levels in story mode, collecting all the characters, and killing a certain amount of enemies are present as well as a few others that gamers will normally get by playing through the game once.

Imaginative achievements like Let the Wookie Win which you can complete by ripping the arms of 25 other characters and Crowd Pleaser which gives you 20 points for breaking Jar Jar Binks 20 times should keep gamers busy long after finishing the game. Here’s the complete list:

• The Phantom Menace - Finish Episode I in story mode (20 points)
• Attack of the Clones - Finish Episode II in story mode (20)
• Revenge of the Sith - Finish Episode III in story mode (20)
• A New Hope - Finish Episode IV in story mode (20)
• The Empire Strikes Back - Finish Episode V in story mode (20)
• Return of the Jedi - Finish Episode VI in story mode (20)
• Collector - Unlock all characters (60)
• Secret Master - Collect all available red bricks (60)
• Going for gold - Collect all available Gold Bricks (60)
• Mini Mayhem - Collect all mini-kits (60)
• 100 - Complete the game to 100 (100)
• Lightsaber Master - Perform 20 unblockable combo attacks (20)
• Lightsaber Defender - Perform 200 perfect lightsaber deflections (20)
• Dodger - Perform 200 blaster character dodges (20)
• Stormtrooper Slayer - Destroy 300 stormtroopers (20)
• Droid Slayer - Destroy 300 droids (20)
• Fighter Ace - Destroy 50 TIE fighters (20)
• Yee Haw - Ride all mounts types & ride-ons (20)
• Cash In - Sell your landspeeder to the Jawas (20)
• Crowd Pleaser - Break Jar Jar 20 times (20)
• Slam Dunk - Destroy 5 people with one attack (Jedi super slam) (20)
• Harmless? - Disable 5 Droidikas with R2D2 (20)
• Fire in the hole! - Destroy 10 characters with one thermal detonator (20)
• Let the Wookiee Win - Pull 25 arms off other characters (20)
• Disco King - Set off all three Discos (20)
• Use the Force Luke - Death Star Trench Run without Firing (20)
• Bar Room Brawl - Start a Cantina Fight with 50 casualties (20)
• LEGO build-master - Make 100 Build-its throughout the game (20)
• Gopher - Max out the Stud counter (20)
• Cloud Cover - Finish Cloud City still wearing a Helmet (20)
• Follower of Fashion - Wear Every Hat (20)
• Undecided - Crossover: Destroy Anakin with Vader (10)
• Love is… - Crossover: Destroy Jango Fett with Boba Fett (10)
• Unfaithful - Crossover: Destroy The Emperor with Darth Maul (10)
• Did I Break your Concentration? - Destroy The Emperor with Mace Windu (10)
• Nobody Expects… - Revenge: Destroy The Emperor with Kit Fisto (10)
• Hands Off! - Revenge: Destroy Anakin with Dooku (10)
• Who needs Obi-Wan? - Revenge: Destroy Darth Maul with Qui-Gon (10)
• Strike me down - Revenge: Destroy Darth Vader with Obi Wan (10)
• Arcade Master - Get 100 points in Arcade mode (20)
• Online Player - Play through an entire level online (20)
• Shoot First - Shoot First (20)

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (also available for the PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, and Wii) is slated for launch on November 6 in the U.S. this year with a Europe and Australian release following soon after on November 9.

For those of you who’ve played the PC exclusive S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, you might be pleased to know that the crew at GSC Game World is considering a console version release for the game after its initial success.

Knowing the FPS nature, as well as the dark, post apocalyptic theme, the game would definitely look pretty sleek if it were transferred onto a next-gen console. GSC project manager Anton Bolshakov stated that they wanted to expand their market with their plans to move to the console. He had this to say on the matter:

PC game development is very traditional for ex-USSR and over 90 percent of gamers here play on PCs. However, we are pretty aware of the tendencies in the markets internationally and have been considering console development for a while.

 
While they have no definite plans just yet, they have been considering this option for some time already. Whether or not this will push through for the recent game or its sequel is still unknown, it’s also unsure what platform exactly we’ll be seeing their debut on.

Until they have any more news on the matter though, we’ll just have to hang tight and see what GSC has under its sleeves regarding the matter.

Namco Bandai still continues to deliver to gamers unadulterated melee fighting action with the upcoming Soul Calibur IV (Xbox 360, PS3). With its preview during the Tokyo Game Show 2007, gamers across the country were given a good amount of eye candy with what the series will be like on the next-gen platform.

In a video interview with the director of Soul Calibur IV, Katsutoshi Sasaki, he talked about just some of the characters that will be making their way into the sequel of their popular fighting game. He also mentioned about the multiplayer aspect and some of the new features that they will be including in the game.

Sasaki gave particular attention to Hilda, one of the new characters in Soul Calibur IV. Of course old time veterans such as Cassandra and Voldo will be making their next-gen comeback as well. He also mentions that they have a lot of plans for the multiplayer aspect, but most of them are up in the air so far.

However, Sasaki stressed that the most important thing that he wanted to have was to build a strong online community and fan base to strengthen the popularity of the game. He also mentioned a couple of tidbits about whether or not they might include platform specific characters for Soul Calibur IV (similar to a playable Link in Soul Calibur II for the Nintendo GameCube). He also hinted about a new game system and a even a new gauge which ties directly into this.

Anyone who has tried to design a level from scratch in Halo 3 using its built-in map editor called the Forge will probably spend most of their time removing all the vehicles and items from the base map they plan on using.

Chevmeister on the Bungie forums realized this as well and has come out with blank variants or canvases of every map to help cut down on level development time.

Until Bungie Studios decides to release a patch for Halo 3 which has a “clear all items and vehicles” option for the Forge, downloading the canvases is the next best thing.  The maps cleared of all items include Snowbound, Sandtrap, Construct, Epitaph, Guardian, High Ground, Isolation, Last Resort, Narrows, The Pit, and Valhalla.

Getting the empty levels is easy, simply access your Bungie.net account and queue the templates to download the next time you log on to Xbox live and you’re done. With this release, we can probably expect more players to come out with new maps for the community to enjoy.

If you want to find out more, head on over to the Bungie Forums via our Read link below.

For this of you waiting for the Microsoft Xbox 360’s upcoming first-person survival horror game Dead Island, you’ll be interested to know that developer Techland has put up the project’s official site and it has a lot to share.

Goodies that will be included in the site are screenshots, updates about the development efforts, forums where the devs and the public can hold discussions, and much more. This should help keep you busy before Dead Island launches, which is still quite some time off.

In Dead Island, players will be treated to a grisly thriller where key actions will twist the non-linear plot. The gameplay also allows freedom as almost anything you can get a hold of can be used as a weapon. What evils lurk in this mysterious and exotic island? We’ll find out together when updates hit.

As if the collection of bands and tracks to grace the upcoming video game Rock Band wasn’t enough, Harmonix decides to add more star power to the posse with the inclusion of more acts. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kiss, and Soundgarden are all pitching in classics to make the experience more worth the buy.

Anthony, Flea, Chad, and John will have you in the groove with more funky rock tunes through their track Dani California. Kiss will belt out Detroit Rock City, while Soundgarden highlights their classic Black Hole Sun.

Rock Band stretches the rhythm game genre popularized by the Guitar Hero series with the inclusion of more instruments than one. The game is set to come with all the peripherals you’ll need to feel like a true big shot.

Rock Band will sell at the suggested price of US 169.99 and will include the game along with the accessories. The game will be coming out on the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.

Buy: [Rock Band Special Edition (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Rock Band Special Edition (PS3)]