THQ has released a new trailer for its upcoming action adventure Darksiders.

Darksiders sees players stepping into the role of War, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and exploring a world set 100 years after the biblical Apocalypse.

Watch the Heads will Roll trailer below, but beware…it may just be your last! Darksiders will be available for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on the 8th of January.

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XonaGames, the developers behind the upcoming dual play 2D shooter Duality ZF, have released a new trailer featuring gameplay footage from the game.

Duality ZF features six game modes (home, survival, arcade, score rush, bullet hell and boss rush) and four control modes (solo play, dual play, multidirectional and g-mode). To make things even more interesting, every game mode can be played with every control mode and up to four players can enjoy all the game- and control modes too.

Feast your eyes as three players take on Boss Rush in hard difficulty below:

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Many gamers have feared the end of PC gaming has finally arrived. What utter nonsense! The PC is here to stay. I have heard stories of the PC gaming scene being dead for the last 10 years. But fear not! Below is a short list of must have titles this coming Christmas. If anything, it proves that the PC is as healthy as ever, and lives in harmony with its console siblings. When all else fails, stick in a game controller.

Continue reading El33tonline’s PC Christmas Buyer’s Guide for South African gamers.

I unfortunately never did get the chance to play the first iteration of Assassin’s Creed when it released at the end of 2007, so I don’t really have a point of reference from which to draw worthy comparisons to the latest entry into the open-world action adventure series, Assassin’s Creed II, but from the tone of message board denizens and internet commentators the world over, the original is one of the most divisive games of the last few years.

Some loved its original setting and range of actions, setting you loose in an historical setting and given you free reign to navigate your way through the environments by climbing up any building, running over rooftops and leaping from perch to perch, all in one string of fluid motions using a new context-based control system that could, if you allowed it, become an extension of yourself.

Other players of the original Assassin’s Creed hated it for its repetitive mission progress and non-standard control system that bucked conformity, introducing an entirely new and initially confusing method of navigating your in-game avatar through city streets and over building tops with, from what I can gather, catastrophic, rage-quitting consequences.

After playing Assassin’s Creed II for any length of time, it appears as though the reported repetitiveness of the original is gone, replaced with hundreds of different side-quests and distractions, but the (initially confusing and frustrating) control scheme is still present, while an incredibly ‘slow burn’ start to the adventure may just put enough people off to disregard this sequel as no better than the original. If you get past this admittedly poor graining period, however, you’ll be rewarded with a rich experience that grabs you without noticing, ensuring you remain fully invested for the duration of the game.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Assassin’s Creed II.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising takes me back (way, way back) to my formative PC gaming days, when I subsisted solely on a diet of first-person shooters ranging from the more action-oriented games (like Doom, Quake and Unreal/Tournament) to more team-based, strategic and ‘realism’ based shooters, like Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Call of Duty… and the original Operation Flashpoint.

While the games geared more towards action were (and still are) always a blast, the shooters that were slanted more towards realism offered something deeper in the long term, with rich rewards of satisfaction doled out in pockets while playing, and more heavily instilled after a lengthy play session, rather than second-to-second mini-rewards while going on a frag-spree in Quake 3.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.

When it comes to videogames, I like surprises, so it was with some pleasure that I discovered Saw was (palindrome alert!) not as dire as I had been lead to believe by pre-release internet chatter, and actually does a good job of emulating the terror and gore present in the movies upon which it’s based.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Saw.

Santa’s little elves have been busy at El33tonline, tallying up the votes for our Game of the Year 2009 edition, and putting the finishing touches on our Christmas Buyer’s Guide for the Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, DS and Bargain Bin.

But we are sure that you understand that even elves need to rest sometimes, so El33tonline will be taking a short break from now until the 4th of January. During this time the occassional review might surface to keep you entertained, but we will be back up and running at full steam, bringing you the latest news and reviews as well as cool competitions, in 2010.

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After a long break since Tekken 5, the King of Iron Fist Tournament is back, this time in high definition. The question is whether it has anything to offer for the fighting game fan over its predecessor – and my answer is yes, but not a huge amount. There’s online play, of course, and there’s a more extensive single player adventure (which is still a poor man’s brawler – any of the recent super-hero games are better than this), more characters and more polygons and shiny textures. The fun level is about the same – so if you enjoy the series this is a decent upgrade, and if you don’t then Tekken 6 certainly won’t change your opinion of it.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Tekken 6.

When Nintendo released the first new 2D Mario game in about 15 years in 2006 on the DS, New Super Mario Bros., it went on to become one of the best selling games of all time, so now, when the Wii seems to really need something to light its sales up, they turn to Mario again and deliver one of the best games of the year and the best platformer I’ve played since Super Mario Galaxy.

I was one of those who thought New Super Mario Bros. on the DS was a breath of fresh air for gaming – a new 2D platforming game with a lot of creativity but without much complexity. With New Super Mario Bros. Wii it’s clear though just how much more there was to do – this game is brimming with more interesting ideas and clever level design. In fact it surpasses the DS version in every way (other than, of course, portability), and I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes on to become one of the most successful games of the generation.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

The selection of games available for the Nintendo DS has come along in leaps and bounds since the handheld was released in South Africa in February 2008. This year saw the release of a number of high profile titles as well as quite a few older classics, adding to the library of games that was already available in stores.

In addition to the white, black, silver and pink DS, this year also saw turquoise, green and red being added to the colour palette, giving you every excuse to spruce up your console wardrobe a little or bring a splash of colour to someone else’s life.

Here’s a list of the top DS titles now available, just in time to add a little something extra to that Christmas stocking.

Continue reading El33tonline’s DS Christmas Buyer’s Guide for South African gamers.

The PSP has had an up-and-down year, with the highlight being the release of the PSP Go and the lowlight being the price of the PSP Go. It’s the handheld we all want but can’t afford. Kind of like the iPhone in South Africa. Meanwhile there has been some great content out on the PSP this year. Here is a list of 8 of the best.

Continue reading El33tonline’s PSP Christmas Buyer’s Guide for South African gamers.

If there were ever a time in 2009 to snag up a good deal on a game that’s “fairly” recent, now is the time (and probably your last chance, anyway)! Retailers are trying to pump their promotions left, right, and centre - sadly in my mind this unashamed capitalist venture is a direct assault on the “real meaning of Christmas,” but no matter, I am sure we still all agree that there is no better way to celebrate the festive season than to have FUN, so go forth and unashamedly buy these bargain goodies and knock your Christmas stockings off!

DISCLAIMER: Bargain bin hunting is a refined art, and owing to the dynamic nature of these specials, some of these may have already passed…I provide this list without prejudice, and also in no particular order!

Continue reading El33tonline’s Bargain Bin Buyer’s Guide for South African gamers.

For PlayStation 3 fans, 2009 was a bounteous year, filled with amazing platform exclusives that would make any owner of the console proud to be so, with Uncharted 2, inFamous, Killzone 2 and Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time beefing up the bragging rights.

This was also the year that multiplatform games releasing on PS3 were no longer treated like distant cousins and finally lived up to the quality of their Xbox 360 doppelgangers, as developers took more care in ensuring both platforms received the attention they deserved resulting in excellent versions of Batman: Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and more.

What follows is a list of ten of the best games to release on the PlayStation 3 this year, both exclusive and multiplatform alike (and in no particular order, mind).

Continue reading El33tonline’s PS3 Christmas Buyer’s Guide for South African gamers.

The Xbox 360 came to South Africa almost a year before the PS3 officially came to these shores. It started off slow but then steadily created a very colourful community. The initial technical problems have been resolved and the console is as steady as any other out there. Quite a few new features of the Xbox Dashboard were implemented and you now get loads of features like Twitter and Facebook on the console, albeit for Live Gold members only. Not to forget pets and accessories for your Avatars.

Gaming wise the difference between multi-platform releases are at that stage of the consoles’ lifetime that they are virtually indistinguishable. This year saw fewer “Only on Xbox” games, but the range of games available was extensive. Come Christmas time you will be under quite a bit of pressure to narrow your shopping list down. Here you can find our 10 highly recommended purchases for Xbox 360, which will hopefully help you narrow down your options.

Continue reading El33tonline’s Xbox 360 Christmas Buyer’s Guide for South African gamers.

As technology grows each year so does the gaming industry, and 2009 has been no exception. In fact 2009 has been a great year for the gaming industry around the world. It saw the release of several highly anticipated blockbuster titles, including Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2, as well as the emergence of a number of original IPs, such as Borderlands and Brutal Legend.

The El33tonline team sat down and drew up this list of what we believe to be the very best games of 2009. We salute the developers and publishers from around the globe who helped to create these masterpieces, and hope that they will continue to create great games, so that we may in turn continue to enjoy playing them.

Continue reading El33tonline’s Game of the Year 2009 list.