Games

Can "Halo" hero Master Chief blast his way past "Spider-Man 3" too? We'll soon find out as the third installment in the "Halo" video game franchise debuts Tuesday for the Xbox 360 console.

"Ha. won't divulge exact sales predictions for "Halo 3" (and won't specify just how many tens of millions they poured into developing it) but seems confident of outdoing the "Spider-Man 3" movie, the summer blockbuster that grossed $151 million in its first day -- a comparison the company has embraced itself.

In the world of organized crime, nothing is exempt as long as it will further their schemes. In line with this thinking, Symantec warned authorities with the possibility of criminals using online games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life for money laundering purposes. That's another form of online crime apart from piracy.

NBC’s hit series ”Heroes” is powering up for a video game adaptation by French gamemaker Ubisoft.

The long-in-the-works deal gives Ubisoft the rights to build a third-person superhero action game that brings the series characters, locations and story lines to next-generation game consoles and the PC. The untitled game could be in stores as soon as late 2008.

Poker champion Phil Laak has a good chance of winning when he sits down this week to play 2,000 hands of Texas Hold'em — against a computer. It may be the last chance he gets. Computers have gotten a lot better at poker in recent years; they're good enough now to challenge top professionals like Laak, who won the World Poker Tour invitational in 2004. But it's only a matter of time before the machines take a commanding lead in the war for poker supremacy.

SEGA of America on Friday announced plans to bring the hit anime fighting franchise Bleach to both Wii and DS this fall in time for the launch of the television show's second season on the Cartoon Network. Bleach: Shattered Blade is underway for Wii and Bleach: Blade of Fate for handheld.

Couple months ago, Sony mentioned that a PlayStation Network-like service was coming to the PSP. No details on what exactly would be available on this download service were given, only that it was coming soon.

Now, Mathieulh has uncovered a tiny module named np9660.prx in both Firmware 3.50 and 3.51. This module is none other than an official ISO loader by Sony, used to load encrypted ISO files off the memory stick.

The Korean Navy on Sunday announced that it will form a team of video gamers dubbed "Aegis" to develop the talents of pro-gamers in the service.

The Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) said it expects to see gamers in Navy uniforms playing in Starcraft pro competitions in the second half of this year.

The order to create the team came from Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Song Young-moo, a Navy official said, after it was concluded that a gamers team could be an excellent low-cost publicity move.

In what must be a record time, Sony has responded to PSP hacker's latest efforts to subvert the handheld's security and play unsigned software and pirate games.

Just days ago, hackers released an exploit that allowed PSP owners to use a copy of the puzzle game Lumines to downgrade their PSPs to an earlier version of the firmware, which was vulnerable to further hacking and homebrew applications.

Bungie’s winks and nudges regarding the Halo 3 single-player campaign continue apace and, while the teasing very nearly drove us to tearing our hair out in frustration over the carrot dangling, now we’re nearly done with the multiplayer beta we’re willing to accept more teasing from the boys at Bungie.net. So tease away, lads...

"We’ve been playing all the way through the game for weeks now," says Bungie man Frank O’Connor, in the latest Bungie.net update. "Our favorite level at the moment (and it changes week by week) is the challenge presented by the very last level."

The ABC has revealed that cyber vandals have "bombed" an island created by the company in the virtual world of Second Life.

The broadcaster says said its island in the alternative universe where companies are carving out virtual presences had been "griefed," or subjected to virtual vandalism.

Abigail Thomas, the head of strategic development in ABC Innovation, says a hacker has "bombed" the island and various features that users had painstakingly created had been removed.