Servers and video games......you have got to love to hate them right? On the up side they provide a solid "host" for a match, unlike other games that use P2P (Person 2 Person) hosting; because as we all know, P2P hosts don't always have a stable connection or an ability to not rage quit when losing. On the other hand, what if those servers have issues? Go down due to maintenance or another issue all together? Well on the weekend 2 separate devs had servers go down; leaving what was probably millions of people very angry.

So, let's start with Ubisoft. For those uninitiated, Ubisoft recently added a new DRM to their recent PC games. This DRM needs a constant internet connection to the game's servers, even when playing offline and not having any need for internet connectivity. No doubt this was created to combat piracy right? Well it is reported pirates have already cracked this DRM for the 2 games that currently utilize it (Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin's Creed 2); even though a tweet by Ubisoft confirms otherwise. It appears that this downtime was not just simple overload though; it seems the servers were "attacked". Ubisoft report that "Apologies to anyone who couldn't play ACII or SH5 yesterday. Servers were attacked which limited service from 2:30pm to 9pm Paris time", and later to say "95% of players were not affected, but a small group of players attempting to open a game session did receive denial of service errors". It's nice that Ubisoft is trying to combat piracy with a new DRM system, but are all these issues really worth it? And what will happen when the day comes that the game's servers need to be turned off permanently due to lack of players? We can only hope for an update that bypasses the DRM at that point.

But it seems that Ubisoft are not the only dev with serveritis, as DICE's Xbox 360 servers for Battlefield Bad Company 2 went down over the weekend. When you look at the twitter for BFBC2, you may just think "oh it's just maintenance that's taking a little longer than expected", well it seems you would be wrong as the interwebs are reporting it's due to overloading of the servers. DICE have been reporting figures like "400% more peak time traffic than any other Battlefield title to date"........soooo let's get this straight......DICE are reporting much more peak traffic, and the servers weren't prepared for it so they overloaded right? Well considering the Xbox360/PS3 DEMO was download by millions of people in the first 5 days alone (around 2.5 million), how could they not see this coming? God only knows.

Either way let's hope both Ubisoft and DICE learn from this, and try their best not to have it happen again....oh wait i spoke too soon....Ubisoft just reported more attacks on their servers *sigh*. Ubisoft has also confirmed 1 more game to support their new DRM, Splinter Cell: Conviction, we shall wait to see if they get their act together before then so the headache caused by attacks now, isn't still happening in April when SC is set to release.

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We all knew this was eventually going to happen; considering the success Portal had as just a simple extra in "The Orange Box", there was no way Valve would let the game go without a sequel. And now we can put the speculation to rest as Valve announces Portal 2, "coming this holiday season".

Ok, so let's go back a couple of days to when Valve released 2 updates for the PC version of the game. 1 of these added new radios to every level which also set off certain sounds depending on where you carry the radios too. These sounds were eventually discovered as image files coded into the audio, which with a special program could be turned into an image. The resulting images can be found on the Steam forums, here. Some you can make out quite easy, but others just simply bogle the mind. With these updates also came a new PC exclusive ending to the game which can be viewed here, it shows the player being dragged along the ground from behind. Of course there is a lot more that has been revealed, so do yourself a favour and go to these forums to check out a good summary of all this chaos.

Anyway, after a lot of speculation, today Valve have finally decided to put everyone's mind at ease and officially announce Portal 2. The official statement reads, "Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike and Half-Life) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Portal 2 for shipment this coming holiday season." And yes those underlined letters mean something, see the thread i linked to above for info.

So there you go, Portal 2 coming later this year; everyone get ready for some more frustratingly good puzzle action haha.

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Thursday, 4^th March 2010 – Australia’s first video game licensed venue the ‘Mana Bar’ will open its doors to the public on Saturday, 20^th of March.

Brisbane’s partygoers are invited to take advantage of our strict “no cover charge” policy and join us for a cocktail whilst they enjoy some of the best latest releases and nostalgic games classics on our array of games consoles. What’s more, you can leave your small change at home: it’s free to enter AND free to play!

The venue caters for all tastes – the Mana Bar welcomes all, and patrons will be delighted by the wide range of games on offer, everything from Wii Sports to Guitar Hero to Street Fighter IV.

For our launch weekend special, The Mana Bar is also proud to offer exclusive early code of the new Xbox Live game “Raskulls,” currently in development by acclaimed Brisbane-based games developer Halfbrick Studios.

With hourly prizes, giveaways, live entertainment and special guests, the Mana Bar will open its doors from midday to midnight, and will be operational every night thereafter.

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 Hi All,

Rockstar have just released a brand new video showcasing The Women of Red Dead Redemption.

The video entitled The Women: Sinners, Saints and Survivors highlights an array of female characters from Red Dead Redemption.

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