Serious Sam caused something of a murmur when it burst upon the FPS scene back in the early 2000's. Even back then, the FPS genre had backed away, bit by bit, from the balls-to-the-wall insanity of early genre heavyweights like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D and was easing its way into the sophisticated world of Half-Life and System Shock 2. Serious Sam, with its brightly colored, mow-'em-down ethos unexpectedly evoked the zeitgeist of an era long past, and tapped into an undercurrent of adrenaline-fueled gameplay that had been lying dormant in gamers' twitchy index fingers. So developer Croteam must hope it will go, again, with the series' latest release: Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter. This budget-priced update of the original Serious Sam title features revamped graphics, a new co-op online mode, and a whole lot of old-school ass-kickin' for the greater glory of mankind. And while the new visuals go a long way in toward moving the series into today's world of bells and whistles, at its core, Sam HD is very much from the "old school." - 3 hours ago

While we're still waiting on official confirmation that Yakuza 3 is indeed being localized for western release, Amazon Germany has appeared to provide further unofficial evidence that fans of the series should keep up hope. A listing for Yakuza 3 has appeared on the Amazon Germany site, where it's apparently set for a March release. We were told back in September by a source close to the project that game was in fact undergoing localization for an eventual U.S. release, but Sega has yet to confirm it. VG247 also contacted Sega concerning this Amazon Germany listing, but were given a standard "no comment" response by a Sega representative. Still, this seems to provide more hope that the series will once again make its way outside of Japan. So far only the original Yakuza and its sequel have been released in the U.S. Yakuza 3, which was released in Japan back in February, is actually the fourth game in the series as it follows a spin-off title set in Kyoto during the Edo period (which was also released only in Japan in March of last year). And even if (when?) Yakuza 3 finally does make it state-side, we're still going to be behind: Sega already announced Yakuza 4 (confusingly, the fifth game in the series) back in July. - 3 hours ago

We already started to get an idea of what to expect in the second title update for Madden NFL 10 last month: Fewer INTs thrown by sacked QBs, fewer gimme plays by throwing into the flats, better pursuits by defenders, and exploit fixes were among the changes we've already seen outlined. A new post on the EA Sports blog has given us more details about what's included in the upcoming patch. Uniforms are getting some attention, as the Seahawks' home pants will now be blue instead of white, and they'll also have access to those silly looking neon green uniforms they wore earlier this season. Both the Titans and Eagles will have tribute stickers show up on their helmets, with the Titans' in honor of the late Steve McNair, and the Eagles' for former defensive coordinator Jim Johnson who passed away this past summer. Replay have also been enhanced and can now play for twice as long as they could previously. This thankfully means that long plays like kick/punt returns or interception returns won't have a chunk of the play missing when watching a replay. You'll also see auto-replays pop up more often, particularly those following touchdowns. What you won't see as often is the unskippable sequence where the chain gang coming out to measure for a first down. I'm particularly happy about that change, as it's frustrating because any frequent player knows immediately whether or not it was a first down based upon the camera angle shown while they're measuring. - 4 hours ago

We got our first look at Puzzle Quest 2 a few days ago, but now D3 Publisher has made the announcement official. Puzzle Quest 2 is due out for Xbox Live Arcade and the Nintendo DS sometime next spring. The game features the same match-3 puzzle system that made the first popular, and lets players choose from one of four classes: War Mage, Inquisitor, Barbarian, or Assassin. The press release seems to indicate separate stories for each of the classes, though they all focus on fighting the demon Gorgon. The first game was a critical hit and eventually rolled out to just about every system. Its follow-up, Galactrix wasn't as popular, and fans didn't seem to connect as much with its more complex puzzle type. D3 seems to be returning to the well of a simpler match-3 system that fans seem to want, with a few new twists for returning questers. We're likely to see this initial 360 and DS launch expand to PSN and PSP, but there's no word on those versions yet. - 4 hours ago

Building Blocks How the Games We Play as Kids Shape Our Tastes By Nadia Oxford Video games, like so many things, can make an indelible impression on us early in life. Though we may not necessarily realize it, the games we love as kids can condition us to gravitate towards certain titles as adults. Many of us who have grown up alongside games since the days of the NES or Atari 2600 still love to experience the medium's cutting edge. But sometimes it feels good to forego exposing ourselves to a new experience in favor of playing games that re-connect us with our roots. The games industry has recently taken to defining gamers as "Core" and "Casual," which is as useful as classifying movie-goers as "People Who Dig Explosions" and "People Who Dig the Weepy Stuff." Realistically, the choices we made on the NES and further back has shaped us into a very diverse-and very lucky-generation of gamers. - 4 hours ago

Select PlayStation 3 owners have already had a week or two to fawn over the beta for Battlefield Bad Company 2, but what about PC gamers? Producer Gordon Van Dyke showed up on the official Battlefield blog with some good news and some bad news for fans of Battlefield on the PC (via Shacknews). The bad news: Battlefield Bad Company 2's PC beta has been pushed back until "very early next year." According to Van Dyke, the overwhelmingly positive response to the PS3 beta inspired the team to increase the capacity of the PC beta. Unfortunately, this also forced them to delay PC testing in order to further optimize the game. Don't start a hilariously fruitless boycott just yet, PC shooter fans; Van Dyke also revealed a handful of PC-exclusive features for Bad Company 2, including an increased player count, dedicated servers, and DirectX 11 support. Will these additions be worth the wait? Read up on the full list of PC features below: - 5 hours ago

We've seen Valve take some heat from others in the game industry recently over the potential conflict of interest it faces with Steam -- most notably, these criticisms have come from Gearbox's Randy Pitchford. Although his claims that Valve exploits "small guys" were shot down by one such developer, Pitchford's comment that allowing Steam to "win" (by allowing it to dominate the digital distribution market) is "dangerous" hasn't really been addressed until now. Valve's business director for Steam, Jason Holtman, explained to GamesIndustry.biz exactly why having Valve's own games on Steam actually benefit everyone else. "There's nothing better in the world for anyone making an Xbox 360 game than the fact that Halo exists," Holtman said. "It's awesome, there's nobody saying 'boy I wish Bungie hadn't made Halo' because it sold an awful lot of Xboxes that you can sell your games on." And likewise, Holtman believes the same applies to increasing the Steam user base by selling those big name Valve games on the platform. "Having the content and the distribution that go hand-in-hand make it a stronger platform, make it a platform to reach more consumers with your own game. If you look at any given time on our top-sellers and our marketing, it's clear that [Valve games] are not the only push out there. In terms of whether we get too big or maybe our content shouldn't be on the platform, it's just doesn't make much sense. Because the content helps the platform grow." - 5 hours ago

With the Wii experiencing a bit of a dropoff in the past year, Nintendo has started deploying standard tactics like price drops to stimulate demand. So far, it seems to be working, as the Wii has reportedly seen a nice increase in week-to-week sales since dropping to $199. According to executive vice president of sales Cammie Dunaway, Wii sales up 85 percent on a weekly basis thanks to the price cut. She said that the Wii is in a "good position" for the holidays (via the San Francisco Chronicle). Wii sales are down overall, dropping 43 percent from April to September. However, it was the top-selling console in October, moving some 506,900 systems. - 5 hours ago