I’ve never been a big fan of fighting games. My technique tends to degenerate into repeating the same move ad nauseum, which works great in the early rounds but always ends in a sprained wrist and crushing defeat, just like a band geek’s senior prom. I am kidding of course, about band geeks getting serious ass, not about being hopeless at memorizing and mastering the complicated move sets central to every fighting game ever made.

But if ever there were a fighting game even a pacifist player like me could get excited about, it’s Mortal Kombat, the series that almost single-handedly jump started the ratings system movement with it’s shockingly and awesomely violent “fatalities,” bloody finishing moves that, among other things, allowed you to snatch the spine clean ‘outta your opponent. But this has been both the boon and the bane of the blood-soaked series from the beginning - is it a great fighting game or just a mediocre fighting game with a great gimmick?

The already released Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is poised to answer this question as the first game in the series not to bear the Scarlett “M.” As you watch these weakened and watered down fatalities, do you think MK vs. DC will rejuvenate the fighting franchise or perform a triple rib cage exploding brutality? I think the improved story mode and layered game play will make up for the lack of gristly gore, for even if the characters do not die, does not a double-dose of spiked fan to the chest still make them bleed?

Hit the jump for a relatively bloodless montage of all 40 finishing moves from MK vs. DC, including The Joker’s original fatality, which has been censored to be less “bullet to the brainy” for the series’ first teen-rated release.

Everyone knew this was going to happen sooner or later. I have to admit though, Sony has put up a decent battle in trying to make sure that the PSP 3000 didn’t get hacked. Sorry Sony, because it looks like your efforts were fruitless, as Datel (who is responsible for Action Replay), has figured out how to hack this latest portable. Just don’t expect to be able to accomplish this without putting some sort of dent in your pocket.

People who are willing to shell out $30 can buy themselves a new battery pack that allows them to switch their PSP to service mode, which will then let them download the firmware. With this firmware people can then gain access to all the apps, tools, and emulators — all illegally of course. And another cool little feature is that the PSP can go between service mode and normal mode all with the flip of a switch. Whoever is against breaking the law obviously hasn’t enjoyed the wonders and thrills of being able to do things they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

This one makes me feel grubby just typing it. It seems Eidos UK’s PR firm are attempting to control the Metacritic score of Tomb Raider: Underworld. The news originated when Gamespot UK journalist Guy Cocker revealed (via twitter) that Eidos was requesting reviews of less than 8.0 for the game to be held back until Monday. The story was followed up by Videogaming247 this morning, who placed a call to the PR agency Barrington Harvey. A representative from the firm confirmed, “That’s right. We’re trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos.”

The conversation continued, “[W]e’re trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that’s handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don’t put people off buying the game, basically.” According to the representative, the 7/10 score given to the game by Eurogamer had caused “problems”.

As the story swooshed around the net, Barrington Harvey jumped into damage limitation mode, releasing a formal statement from company director Simon Byron. “Barrington Harvey is not in the position of telling reviewers what they can and cannot say. We love Tomb Raider and believe it merits a score of at least 8/10, but if someone disagrees that’s entirely their prerogative. No problem at all. Seriously: no problem.

“As you can clearly see from the scores posted so far, Barrington Harvey has no issue with scores of below eight out of 10 being posted online. The Eurogamer review in questions caused “problems” in so much as it originally contained a couple of minor factual inaccuracies which, to its credit, the site has quickly rectified and addressed (without, quite rightly, changing the context of the review). Any site, be it Gamespot or whoever, is entirely within their rights to post whatever score they want and no-one is under any sort of obligation to delay any review. As an ex-journalist myself, I firmly believe in editorial integrity and the right to express an individual opinion. As an agency, we never — ever — make demands of the press in terms of awarding scores; at the end of the day, they are free to score as they wish.”

The statement goes on to say that, “Barrington Harvey has been working hard to ensure the launch scores of Tomb Raider Underworld are in line with our internal review predictions over the launch weekend - but to suggest that we can in some way “silence” reviews of the game is slightly overstating our influence.”

Worryingly, even this raises questions. Quite what a PR agency — who had nothing to do with making the game — can do to legitimately ensure reviews are in line with their “predictions”, we don’t know. But perhaps we’re being naive. Either way, the whole thing leaves a sour taste in our mouths. Let’s not forget that Eidos was involved last year in the sacking of Jeff Gerstmann, after he gave Kane and Lynch a 6/10.

Ubisoft has announced new single and multiplayer content for Far Cry 2 today, something that should add some extra sizzle to players partaking in multiplayer action and offer some variety to players enjoying the single-player campaign. Named the Fortune’s Pack, the DLC is set to add new weapons (silenced shotgun, sawed-off shotgun, crossbow), vehicles (unimog, quad) and four multiplayer maps (Cheap Labor, Lake Resort, Lake Smear, Fort Fury) to the game for the price of 800 MS Points on Xbox LIVE or $9.99 on PSN. The content will become available near the end of the month. There was no mention of a PC version.

Check our Far Cry 2 gallery for 15 screenshots of the upcoming content.

While Richard Garriott was floating around in the cosmos, his game, Tabula Rasa was struggling to stay afloat. Today, a little over a year after launching, NCSoft announced that Tabula Rasa will be shutting down in February 2009. This might explain Garriott’s recent departure from NCSoft or maybe he just wants to be a space cowboy, who knows. Players of an MMORPG that is getting shut down inevitably feel slighted. You paid for a game, continually paid to play it through subscriptions and now, are suddenly left in the dark with an unplayable game. Fortunately as a consolation prize, NCSoft will be giving away access to their other MMO’s, City of Heroes and Lineage 2, free for 3 months. They’re also giving away beta and pre-order access to their upcoming MMO Aion.

NCSoft took a risk. A risk that any MMO takes right now, going up against the juggernaut that is World of Warcraft. It’s the gorilla in the room that no one seems to be able to entice out, even with the tastiest of bananas. It’s extremely difficult for any MMO to succeed alongside WoW. Not even the supposed WoW killer, Warhammer Online, has managed to slow it down. Should developers not invest in MMO’s at all while WoW is still around? No. Competition is vital for any market. Without it there would be no inspiration for innovation. We want the market to grow and flourish, not sit stagnant. It is only a matter of time before someone hits that “eureka!” moment and comes up with the next big MMO, as long as developers keep trying.

You know, I really debated with myself when thinking about posting this. I mean, does Uno really appeal to everyone out there? Then I remembered the hardcore Uno games we carried out in grade school, and how I owe it to the public to spread the joy of the game. Then again, anything that is combined with Street Fighter immediately becomes awesome (unless it’s this). I know what you’re saying, “What the hell does Uno have to do with Street Fighter?”

Everything. Capcom has announced that they are bringing a Street Fighter themed card deck to the Uno game on Xbox LIVE Arcade. The package will include a Sagat themed background from Street Fighter II HD, portraits of characters on all cards, and special animated cards. The game will work just like your typical Uno, but there is one small edition that is just pushing this game to awesome. It’s called the haduoken card, and it gives you the ability to smash your friends face with the energy of your soul!!!!! Ok, maybe I went a little overboard there. It’s really a command card that forces the affected player to keep drawing until he picks a block or jump card. I’m sure Capcom is working on the smash your face edition.

We hope our readers are as impressed with Wheelman as much as we have been because you’re going to be seeing it much more. Not because we plan on covering it constantly but because Midway intends on making plenty of money on this new property for years to come. Along with confirming the launch date, Midway has let loose that there is already a script being written for the movie.

Vin Diesel is already starring in the game, so naturally we expect to see him front and center when a studio picks up the movie. Who wouldn’t want to see Vin Diesel in an explosive car chase movie based on a videogame, which in turn was based on and built around the idea of putting players into the greatest Hollywood style car chases imaginable? Now that’s a hamster-wheel we’d like to run around in. The above developer diary shows some of the immense effort put forth by Midway, Tigon Studios and Vin Diesel to make Wheelman “play like a Hollywood blockbuster.”

Midway is also planning a multi-million dollar advertising campaign making sure that gamers everywhere are ready this February. It is nice to know that even in these difficult economic times companies can still hype the hell out of games like we’re used to. It also helps to know that games like this can help bring more attention and potential gamers to our industry — if it is made into a summer blockbuster it certainly will — without just chirping about casual games and broadening our audience that way.

Not only do we know that Prince of Persia has now gone gold, is going to be a freakin sweet game and has loads of DLC for the future, but Ubisoft also has a special treat for loyal fans. The first DLC, available from day one, is a special “thank you” to the fans. Just create a Ubisoft account at ubisoft.com and then link up that account to your Xbox LIVE or PSN account. This will give you the chance to go through the entire game in Altair’s white garb from Assassin’s Creed. Though this is very cool, the new art style is great and many PoP fans may prefer the standard threads. At least the Prince does Altair more justice than say Ubisoft’s other poster child.

The history of Terminator videogames is spotty at best, much in thanks to the license being abused more than Harry Potter, James Bond and the Ninja Turtles put together. There was a Terminator chess game for gods sake! Then again without that rampant abuse we would have never been able to see the T-800 fight RoboCop, so we can’t always grumble. But enough with fond memories of mediocre games, let’s talk about what’s happening now.

Warner Bros’ Interactive Entertainment, Equity Games Production and Halcyon Games are bringing us the game based on Terminator Salvation, the new Terminator film starring the second sexiest man in cinema, Christian Bale. The game, which is being released in conjunction with the film in May of 2009, will feature the player taking on the role of John Connor, fighting Skynet in the future. The game will be a third-person action game with concentrated armed combat, and will feature new enemies for the Terminator cannon.

The press release tosses around a lot of words like “cinematic” and “fluid control system,” but I just want to be able to shoot robots with big guns. I mean isn’t that what Terminator is all about? This one might have some hope since WBIE usually doesn’t let its franchises go to total waster and developer GRIN, who worked on the PC versions of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter games, has a decent enough track record.

As the only person at TVGB who has gone hands-on with the new Prince of Persia, I enjoy rubbing it in my fellow writers’ faces that they have no idea how good this game actually looks. I’m a jerk, I know. All these videos we’ve been seeing, including the one above do absolutely nothing to express the true hi-def glory that this game is on a big, flat panel, television screen. My suggestion is to watch as many videos of the game as you can so that you think you know what the game looks like, then when you turn it on once you’ve bought it you’ll be even more blown away.

The video above does a good job of showing off some of the game mechanics and other dynamics. The whole conversation thing doesn’t wow me too much, but it’s a good way to flesh out a story in a non-linear game I suppose. At least she won’t be shooting off quips constantly during gameplay, which is probably the most annoying sidekick attribute in all of gaming. Well, that or getting caught and shouting for help every ten seconds.