Activision brass took the nuclear option at Infinity Ward in March, firing studio cofounders Vince Zampella and Jason West over charges of breach of contract and insubordination. Though the reaction was strong in the games press, analysts largely shrugged at the decision. A consensus said that the move wouldn't have much impact on Activision's bottom line, unless it sparked a brain drain of talent at Infinity Ward.

Source: Pictures posted on a Chinese message board A9VG, as pointed out by Kotaku.

What we heard: Last August, Sony announced the PS3 Slim, a smaller, cheaper redesign of the PlayStation 3 system it launched less than three years earlier. The impact was immediate, as the Slim, which also received a $100 price cut, sold more than a million systems in less than three weeks.

Stop the presses: The motherboard will be green.

In BioShock 2, players return to the underwater dystopian city of Rapture as a Big Daddy, several years after the events of the highly acclaimed original. Soon, players will have the chance to make multiple return trips and in quicker succession, as 2K Games announced today that the first in a batch of downloadable content will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC this March.

The first add-on pack, titled Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, will cost $5 (MSP400) and be aimed at the game's multiplayer mode, which was developed by Dark Sector studio Digital Extremes.

"When the city of Rapture was first unveiled, it was an underwater dystopia ravaged by civil war and self-destructive genetic manipulation. This strange and unforgettable world was also one of awe and wonder. Set nearly a decade after the events of its precursor, BioShock 2's Rapture is just as haunting and atmospheric the second time around (and perhaps even more so), but the sunken tomb of Rapture has lost much of the mystery that made it so memorable. Everything seems a bit too familiar, and the story that accompanies your journey is not as impressive or shocking as the original.

Command & Conquer 4 allows C&C fans to finally experience the epic conclusion to one of gaming's most beloved and longest-running series, the 15-year Tiberium saga. Kane. GDI. Nod. Tiberium. How will it end? Find out in Command & Conquer 4, told through persistent player progression, trademark live-action cinematics, and a multitude of innovations to the classic fast and fluid Command & Conquer gameplay.

Now is your opportunity to be a part to the development of Command & Conquer 4 by participating in this exclusive Beta program!

EA is releasing a Bad Company 2 beta for the PlayStation 3, but before then, we risk life and limb to see what kind of action this South American map will offer. When EA released the public beta for Battlefield: Bad Company in the spring of last year, it was limited to the Xbox 360 even though the full game would also arrive on Sony's rival console. For the upcoming sequel, EA is taking the opposite approach. The publisher has decided to spread the love around with the announcement of a Bad Company 2 public beta due out exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

The massive hype machine behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 got a boost from some grassroots buzz today, courtesy of a leaked video. The nearly eight-minute YouTube clip shows what appears to be a multiplayer bout of the upcoming first-person shooter being played from a third-person perspective. (The clip has since been pulled due to "copyright restrictions.") The clip's authenticity appeared to be proven by its French-language menus, which match those seen in preview footage and a brief shot of the packaging, which bore the European PEGI rating label. But while Activision reps had not commented on the clip as of press time, Infinity Ward director of communications Robert Bowling quickly confirmed it as genuine. "Yes, there's a leaked video,"

Most modern first-person shooters are so very serious. They feature a whole lot of brown environments and gruff characters, but never have enough archways into alternate universes. Well, if you're in the mood for an FPS with a glint in its figurative eye, Wolfenstein is a good way to stave off the forces of evil without the in-game grumpiness that usually accompanies such endeavors. This sequel to 2001's Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a worthy addition to the series and a fun romp in its own right.

Fans of Guild Wars have been patiently waiting for a full-blown sequel to the free-to-subscribe massively-multiplayer online role playing game, and from what we saw in its debut trailer, it certainly looks worth the wait. Guild Wars 2 takes fans back to the fantasy world of Tyria and takes place 250 years after the events in Guild Wars, following the awakening of the powerful elder dragons, described by NCSoft as pure "engines of destruction" in the game. If that's not daunting enough, the dragons have also enslaved an undead army to help them in their quest to corrupt and consume Tyria.

GamesCom 2009 is officially underway here in Cologne, Germany. While the show has a heavy focus on European games, there’s still a huge presence of American games. But few games from the States are as high profile as Modern Warfare 2. We opened the show by checking out that game's new Special Ops mode, which expands on the format of the short, action-packed Mile High Club bonus level from Call of Duty 4 and adds some interesting new bells and whistles.