One of the scariest video games of all time is Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Fans were expecting of a new DLC to be released by it developer, Frictional Games, but the hope has withered when a new website with “nextfrictionalgame” in its URL was launched.

According to a gaming community, Game Arena, the said site bears the logo of Amnesia while having a background of blurred picture which is intended to intrigue or scare the audience. When you on the image, it will bring you to Google Maps viewing China.

At the bottom of the screen, the words ‘Something is emerging…’ appears which intends to build even more intrigues and hype but it seems not working at this time with no official statement coming out from either the publisher or the developer.

While there are no sufficient information about the upcoming game, viewing the source of the website will definitely give one an idea of what’s to come or emerge on it.

Its meta description says, “Welcome to the next frictional game site, a site with information about our game projects in development. We use this site to post content about a project in development, during the period it does not have a final name decided.”

But what’s more revealing are the keywords used, “3D game, frictional games, advanced physics, survivial horror, action adventure, first person, horror, scary, HPL, work in progress, upcoming game, next frictional game, game development.”

So, basically, we can expect Amnesia: The Dark Descendant sequel to be in 3D with more sophisticated controls to affect realistic physics.

There’ll maybe hundreds of video games planned to be released in February for North America, however, only a handful of them have been confirmed. Xbox 360 plays a very special place in the hearts of the Americans that’s why Sony’s PlayStation is always on the second place outside Japan and UK.

For American Xbox gamers, here is a list of confirmed video games scheduled for launch in February:

Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress – this is the second iteration of the popular Two Worlds franchise developed by Reality Pump. It’s scheduled for launch on February 3rd under TopWare Interactive. It’s first episode, Two Worlds, was critically acclaimed with almost all gaming communities gave good reviews and high ratings.

The Darkness II – the first episode seemed to have left gamers hanging with its almost unfinished story, now we know why it happened like that. This second iteration will continue what Jackie Estacado has been started. Digital Extremes continued the development and it will be released under 2K Games on February 7th.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – this game seems to be promising as it combines third person combat with deeper exploration. The characters were developed immensely to catch gamers’ attention. Big Huge Games, the developer, could just make this game a hit. Electronic Arts will be the one to release this game on February 7.

Zumba Fitness Rush – what do you exactly expect from a fitness game? Well, for this you can expect 40 new cool soundtracks and hot choreography. It’s scheduled to launch on February 13th by Majesco Games.

UFC Undisputed 3 – perhaps, it could be the best in the UFC Undisputed series. Being the best-selling MMA video game really means a lot to Yukie’s Osaka that this iteration will simply add the things lacking in the first two iterations. It will be released for Xbox 360 and PS3 on February 14th.

Grand Slam Tennis 2 – this could just another hit for EA Sports. Grand Slam Tennis series is actually the most preferred tennis video games in the world because of its realistic properties. So, it’s safe to say that what you’ve experienced in the first iteration, you can double it for this release. It’s slotted for February 14th release.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend – scheduled on February 14, this game uses the classic 2D platforming which may be just appropriate for yet untested game. Arc System Works, however, has a history of developing really good games so it may be worth a try.

Syndicate – it’s not another Yakuza or Mafia game but the theme may be similar as you will be brought to an underground community without government where you will struggle to survive. It may just become a big break for Starbreeze and it will be published by Electronic Arts on February 21st.

Sledge Hammer – this game is developed by Maximum Family Games and it is just about crashing, bumping and slamming. Yes, if you’re good in doing those things then you could be a champion in this game. It is set to launch on February 21.

Outdoors Unlimited – it’s never another skateboarding or skiing game. Ironically, it’s about fishing, hunting and camping being made possible by role-playing game system. Mastiff is responsible for this game. It’s for February 21st release.

Heavy Fire: Afghanistan – when you read the title, what do you expect? Yes, it’s war and violence. But it may be worth a try to see if it’s faithful to the reality of what really happened in Afghanistan. Mastiff will release it on February 21.

Asura’s Wrath – CyberConnect2 goes fantasy. This game is about a god betrayed by his fellow gods, now he seeks revenge and that he will do with your help. Capcom publishes this game and scheduled it for release on February 21st.

Binary Domain – it is a futuristic game and you will be put in the middle of human-robot battle in 2080; the place will be Tokyo, Japan. But it’s no surprise as this game is developed and published by Sega and scheduled for launch on February 28th.

There could be more games to be released next month but as of now, these are the only games that have been confirmed with information available over the internet.

Despite speculations that Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3 will beat Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, sales charts show otherwise. According to the GfK Chart Track, the latter topped the UK game sales in 2011 putting BF3 on the lower rank which was actually expected by majority of video game analysts.

The Call of Duty franchise captured the top spot three years in a row. Modern Warfare 2 was a big hit in 2009 followed by Black Ops in 2010.

MW3 has become the highest-selling video game of all time while second highest-selling entertainment product in 2011. Popular singer Adele’s album topped last years entertainment sales charts.

Battlefield 3 has made a lot of hype in gaming communities making it one of the most anticipated games last year. But it wasn’t really converted into cold cash unlike what MW3 did.

Modern Warfare 3 was not released until the second week of November but it has beaten all the game sales made since the first month of 2011. While others believe it couldn’t acquire more sales before the end of the year, they were wrong.

Activision made it a habit to release new iteration under the Call of Duty franchise every year and this could have helped MW3 a lot to generate revenues more than it is expected. People don’t need to be told that a new title is coming because they know there should always be one. So, they’ll just have to wait until the product is released.

In comparison, Battlefield 3 sold 1,186,895 units last year. It is way lower than Modern Warfare 3′s 2,814,609 sales. In truth, BF3 didn’t make it to the top ten of entertainment sales chart;

1. “21″ Adele – Album – 3,924,985
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Game – 2,814,609
3. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 – Video – 2,532,551
4. FIFA 12 – Game – 2,193,302
5. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 – Video – 2,147,606
6. The Inbetweeners Movie – Video – 2,074,652
7. The King’s Speech – Video – 1,882,175
8. “Christmas” Michael Buble – Album – 1,349,195
9. “Doo-Wops & Hooligans” Bruno Mars – Album – 1,264,763
10. “19″ Adele – Album – 1,264,273
11. Battlefield 3 – Game – 1,186,895

Aside from the sales, Modern Warfare 3 still dominates in the hearts of the gamers as it has received more positive reviews than Battlefield 3. IGN gave it 9 out of 10 which is too high a score for very meticulous gamers.

Game Arena, an Australian Gaming Community known for giving accurate video game reviews, gave it 9.5.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 deserves all the accolades it is receiving now. With new DLC coming soon, fun is just beginning.

Blizzard confirmed reports that the third iteration of popular hack-and-slash Diablo series will be brought to consoles and that it is currently in development. Micah “Bashiok” Whipple, Blizzard community manager, answered to a question in Twitter earlier this week.

“Yup,” Whipple said. “Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project.”

Although Blizzard didn’t confirm what console Diablo III will run on, it is safer to assume that PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will be considered. It is expected to be released this year. In fact, the PC version is now in its closed beta.

Few hours after Whipple tweeted the update on Diablo III, a representative emailed Wired.com saying that Whipple’s tweets do not directly confirm that Diablo III will be coming to consoles.

“Bashiok’s response on Twitter was intended as a confirmation that we’re actively exploring the possibility of developing a console version of Diablo III, as we’ve mentioned in the past. This is not a confirmation that Diablo III is coming to any console platform,” the message goes.

Blizzard has always been reluctant to release its games to consoles but it will, this is not the first time.

Back in 1998, Blizzard teamed up with Electronic Arts to port the first Diablo to PlayStation but it wasn’t received warmly by gamers and critics. The PC version was just too good that gamers were frustrated with the outcome after the company successfully made the game run on Sony’s PlayStation.

But that’s not all, Blizzard also ported its StarCraft to Nintendo in 2000 but the game suffered the same fate as the previous porting.

Lead designer Jay Wilson said they are developing the console version from ground up. However, he understands why people simply don’t trust them when it comes to porting their strongest titles to consoles because it happened before.

“I understand why they don’t believe us, because we’ve tried this before. We’ve also never invested in it to the degree that we are doing now, and we’ve never had a product we felt was appropriate for it,” Wilson said.

Despite all the rumors that run around the web, there is no specific date as to when Diablo III will be released.

Activision believes there is a need to frequently release Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) downloadable content (DLC) so that gamers’ love for the game won’t fade out. It is common for everyone to feel a little bit empty after playing the same game over and over without variety and from there the love for the game will slowly die as gamer tries to find something new.

MW3 already achieved the highest recognition and sales projection more than any other game. Being dubbed as “Game of the Year” while recognized as the highest-grossing entertainment product is impossible for other games to achieve and Activision couldn’t just allow it to fade without doing something.

Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, said they are planning to make MW3 a constant  incremental game wherein gamers couldn’t be stuck in just playing it but getting more than what it offers. This includes setting up new challenges and various environment to play on, thus, new DLCs are needed.

“The idea of giving people constant incremental playable content and making it so you’re never more than a few weeks away from the next new experience within the Call of Duty universe is part of what we’re experimenting with,” Hirshberg said in a phone interview with Wired.

Activision sees really great potential on MW3 to earn more before a new Call of Duty game will be released. MW3 hasn’t reached its peak yet as fans are just starting to make their way into the deeper side of the game. As it continues to capture more fans, the company sees more dollars coming into its pocket through DLCs.

Modern Warfare 3 earned $400 million in day 1 setting up a new record in its category. Sixteen days later, it hit a $1 billion mark which no other game ever achieved and there’s a great possibility the sales projection will be doubled and Activision just knows how to do it.

“One of the things that was most appealing when we were researching these ideas with consumers is the idea of breaking up the DLC so that it comes more often and more regularly,” Hirshberg said.

For MW3 fans, missing out a single DLC would means getting left behind but that rarely happens especially for social gamers. These types of gamers want to play with friends; the more, the merrier. Therefore, there is also a need for them to purchase new DLC so as to keep the excitement going at the same level.

“We want to provide DLC to people more often and also experiment with more of a variety in the forms of playable content,” Hirshberg added.

And one way to achieve that is constant iteration.

Just recently it comes to the attention of gamers, especially Call of Duty lovers that a new CoD is coming. A website ironwolfproject.com was launch to serve as a teaser for the upcoming game but our researchers have valid reasons to believe it is fake.

The website was not registered under Activision, which is the official publisher of Call of Duty series ever since the first iteration was launched. The whois record shows that a person who registered the domain has protected himself from being known.

Activision’s callofduty.com’s whois record shows that it is registered under the name Mary Tuck who is also the registrant of activision.com domain. Besides, all new CoD websites are attached to callofduty.com which means Activision does not launch a new site for a new release but it simply adds a sub-domain except for the Modern Warfare 2 which takes on modernwarfare2.com.

Call of Duty is a registered trademark and should depict registered ® sign not the copyright © sign. The logo on the website, however, says otherwise so there is a clear inconsistency. Perhaps the website owner hasn’t done his homework well.

The Iron Wolf website’s homepage shows the logo with a link that says “Watch Trailer” beneath it but it doesn’t work. Our researchers say that it could be because the site has just been launched and there are no further details available for the moment. However, Activision is not a type that reveals its new projects prematurely and that exactly what happened in this website.

Now, if you are keen on the details of the site, you will notice that Treyarch’s (developer) logo was mispelled which is very alarming. How could a business partner misspell its partner’s business name?

It is not new to us that companies spend thousands, if not millions, of dollars to acquire domain names from individuals who have first registered them. And maybe the owner of ironwolfproject.com is hoping Activision will come after it.

Sony created a lot of hype prior to the release of PS Vita making it popular in a short period of time especially in Japan. Its sales projection reached up to 321,000 units sold in the first week Japanese campaign and it wasn’t really bad at all considering it’s next to 3DS when sales figure is concerned.

3DS actually sold 371,000 units in the same time span and in the same scope of area. It wasn’t really that far for gamers to think that PS Vita could be the next popular thing all over the world when it comes to handheld gaming devices.

However, it seems that Sony’s latest entry to gaming industry has dropped dramatically in the second week selling only 72,479 units. It’s predecessor’s, the PlayStation Portable (PSP), performance is even better considering it was in its primitive form unlike Vita which is way too better when technology is concerned.

Vita is without a doubt a very popular gaming device especially in Japan but how could 3DS, Wii, PSP and PS3 beat it? Analysts say it is because it lacks compelling software or games. In fact, the hardware-software ratio during the launch was 1:1, meaning for each PS Vita sold, only one game is bought to go with it. And it could be because major and more popular titles are still not available for this device.

Unlike 3DS, PS Vita games haven’t made it to Top 20 chart for games. It means that its software is performing really bad compared with other the ones designed for other platform.

Apparently, PS Vita is not doing so well in Japan. Sony, however, still got a chance to excel when it launches the device in North America and Europe in February 2012, although there is no guarantee it would beat other gaming devices in the U.S.

Europe is actually Sony’s last hope considering the brand is among the most preferred names when it comes to electronic devices.

But will PS Vita perform what is expected of it?

The most recent FIFA 12 trailer uploaded on a video sharing site reveals the features and highlights PS Vita gamers and football fans could get when it’s released. While there is just a handful of information available as of the moment, the trailer sets expectations and adds excitement.

Sony’s PS Vita is among the most popular devices in 2011 that would be carried on next year and FIFA 12 will compliment to its reputation.

Among the features revealed in the trailer are the following:

Touchscreen Passing – there was no other devices to have tried touch-passing before and so this release is going to be historic. Electronic Arts is the first one to have leaped into touchscreen football gaming bandwagon.

Touchscreen Free Kick – touchscreen functionality for passing and free kick could be the most convenient way to play football on a handheld device.

Rear Touchpad Shooting – shooting is the most rewarding part of football and rear touchpad shooting is just perfect and most convenient way to score so as not to disrupt the excitement buildup during game.

And here are the highlights PS Vita gamers can expect from the game.

Over 500 Officially Licensed Clubs
15-Season Career Mode
50 Authentic Tournaments
1 vs. 1 Online Matches

FIFA 12 for PS Vita was developed and published by Electronic Arts and due for release on February 21, 2012.

Watch video below:

Batman: Arkham City has awakened the passion of old Batman movie-lovers and gamers alike. It could be just a reboot of the old popular franchise but it sure is a lot of fun to play that is why it comes as no surprise when the game receives good reviews.

Arkham City for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC was developed by Rocksteady Studios but NetherRealm Studios did the job for iOS version. It was published and made popular in the gaming market by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Square Enix (for Japan).

One of the reasons why Batman: Arkham City has made good appeal to gamers is because it now runs on the recently developed Unreal Engine making it smoother and more sophisticated in all platforms.

In short, Arkham City was a success in terms of global sales and reviews. As much as it garnered millions dollars in sales, it has also received positive criticisms from popular game reviewers around the globe.

IGN, a popular community of gamers, gave it a 9.5 rating out of possible 10 points.

“Batman: Arkham City isn’t just better than Batman: Arkham Asylum, it’s better than most games on the market,” Greg Miller of IGN said in his review.

Gamearena.com.au (GA), a Bigpond-owned gaming site, rated it 8 out of 10 which is considerably high for a meticulous reviewer.

“Batman: Arkham City is the best in a lot of ways. It’s the best treatment of a comic book character outside of graphic novels ever. It’s the best Action Adventure/Open World game ever. It’s the best game I’ve played this year. And finally, it’s the best superhero game you’ve ever played,” GA reviewer Joaby said.

While these are just two of the sites that gave Arkham City a positive review, you have the option to test the game for yourself. And if you’ve already played it, you can ask yourself if it’s worth a good rating.

Infinity Ward’s and Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 bags Spike Video Game Awards’ Shooter of the Year title despite public speculations that DICE’s Battlefield 3 is more deserving.

The shooter of the year genre is the toughest of all gaming genres considering developers don’t just release first-person shooter (FPS) games if they know others could easily outdo their entries. Such is the case of two archrivals, BF3 and MW3. Until now, both games are divisive because FPS gamers are looking for their own comfort zone where they could enjoy in their own way and style.j

Aside from these two shooters RAGE and Killzone 3 are among the games which received good reviews and votes from critics.

Metacritics results show that BF3 and MW3 are indeed very close when it comes to competition and being people’s choice; Battlefield 3 was rated 89 for PC, 85 for PS3 and 84 for Xbox 360 while Modern Warfare 3 was rated 80 for PC, 88 for PS3 and 88 for Xbox.

Reports say MW3 got the highest sales for video games this year, although last week Electronic Arts (EA), Battlefield’s publisher, claimed stealing that position from Activision.