EA Sports and Virgin Gaming announced a new agreement whereby Virgin Gaming becomes the official worldwide provider of online tournaments for EA Sports. The agreement covers all head-to-head competitive play, pay-to-enter and sponsored tournaments for select EA Sports console video games.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit will transform online racing by bringing to life the adrenaline and intensity of high speed cop pursuits and changing the way that people connect and compete with their friends.

Portal 2 is a stand-alone, full-price retail release with new gameplay mechanics, story line, and some surprising new twists.

It came as a rather pleasant surprise yesterday morning that it was actually a holiday, MLK Jr. Day, which then also explains why it was quiet on the news front.

On the other hand, it gave us plenty of time to catch up on some TV stuff, so we watched Human Target, QI, The Cape, and a few episodes of No Ordinary Family.

We also decided to try out Mad Men, since it has been receiving so much praise, but two episodes in, we can't understand why. We'll give it one more try, but unless some magic happens, I don't think we'll bother with it any further.

Codemasters Online announced that it is actively recruiting talent for a new development team to be based at its headquarters in Warwickshire, UK, where it will work on a Formula One service-based online game.

Shift 2 Unleashed builds on the true drivers experience by introducing the driver’s battle, an even more authentic and primal feeling of power and speed which elevates the fundamental competitive race into a struggle for supremacy against other drivers and even the track itself.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock will once again redefine music gaming with an all-new, story-driven Quest Mode, a completely redesigned rock-inspired guitar controller, the biggest on-disc selection of rock music ever in a Guitar Hero game and Quickplay+, which invites challenge-starved fanatics to test their rock skills.

Gazillion Entertainment announced that David Brevik has been promoted to President and COO of the company. David served as President of Blizzard North for seven years and was responsible for creating Blizzard’s Diablo series.

The weekend was quite fun with friends stopping by for a new year's visit, lots of food, an equal amount of relaxing, watching movies (Super Size Me and Easy A), playing some video games and just lounging about.

Quite a bit of alcohol consumed over the past few days, and while we'll be on bread & water for the rest of the week, next weekend our friend Paul is flying in from Wisconsin, whom we haven't seen in quite a few months. He also happens to be a beer fan. Trouble ahead!

Next weekend, we may see Season of the Witch or The Green Hornet, or maybe both. Not quite sure yet.

In addition to the Xbox LIVE experiences unveiled during Steve Ballmer’s keynote, Microsoft is revealing new downloadable games and LIVE experiences for the Xbox 360 console, Windows PC and Windows Phone 7 onsite at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

UTV True Games announced that it has strengthened its management team and its international business development outreach with the appointment of Sean Lim as the new International Business Development Director for the company.

EA announced that servers for the games listed below will be shut down on the indicated dates, just like it has the past few years. Fans may continue to play the games online up until these dates, but certain community programs may begin to close down prior to the shutdown dates.

The new year has barely started, and we're already getting into convention mode. First off, there's the more technology-oriented CES in Las Vegas, and then we can start looking forward to our yearly E3 bash in Los Angeles.

Not much else has happened over the past few days. Watched an episode of Castle and waiting for The Road to arrive, even though feedback on that one has been not so positive. Maybe later today, I'll dig into my massive backlog of Criminal Minds. I have about an entire season saved up on the DVR.

Game-wise, I've been defending my parish in Stronghold Kingdoms and trying to familiarize myself with the workings of Genesis A.D.

Shift 2 Unleashed builds on the true drivers experience by introducing the driver’s battle, an even more authentic and primal feeling of power and speed which elevates the fundamental competitive race into a struggle for supremacy against other drivers and even the track itself.

The New Year has begun!  We had a relaxing NYE, no craziness, and yesterday we spent most of our time watching movies (Predator, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) and a few episodes of Supernatural.

Today will be equally quiet, apart from doing some grocery shopping, we have nothing planned, so we'll have done quite a bit of catching up on our DVR over the past few days. Go us!

We've been debating about upgrading our phones and switching to the iPhone, but we've been waiting for Verizon to announce their version. However, my current cell was getting on my last nerve (battery kept dying after 1-2 calls or text messages) and on our way back from the movies earlier this week, we decided to get it over with and we got ourselves a pair of Droid 2 phones. We picked that one over the Droid X because it works internationally, and now we get to play Angry Birds wherever we go!

Battle For Freedom will be multiplayer and playable up to 8 players, 7 freedom fighters and The Boss. The Boss sends enemies on the survivors with a RTS view, while the 7 freedom fighters have got unique abilities and fight in a FPS view.

Legendary female Japanese composer Kinuyo Yamashita will be performing her original music from Castlevania along with the New Jersey Symphony this Wednesday, December 29th and Thursday, December 30th at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC).

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon is a co-op multiplayer Arcade Shooter that gives the player the ability to destroy thousands of giant bugs and turn an entire city to rubble in an unforgettable gaming experience built for replay.

Earlier this year five independent game developers joined forces and created a bundle of games, and they are doing it again. The Humble Indie Bundle #2 consists of: Braid, Machinarium, Osmos, Revenge of the Titans and Cortex Command, and to top it off you can pay whatever you want.

With Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, the epic story continues as players once again assume the role of the devastatingly powerful Starkiller - Darth Vader's secret apprentice set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy faithfully recreates the experience of tactical land warfare in Western France during World War Two. The first installment in this new series covers the three months after the Allied D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944, from Operation Overlord in June through the Cobra Breakout in August.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit transforms online racing by bringing to life the adrenaline and intensity of high-speed cop pursuits and changing the way that people connect and compete with their friends.

We'll be traveling later today, so hopefully, the airport won't be a total madhouse. Apparently the new full-body scanners have the adverse effect of making lines even longer than they were before, so that ought to be interesting.

We've purchased our gifts accordingly, so there won't be any last-minute surprises at the security gate that will send us to the full cavity search line.

Off to take a nap, do some laundry and pack. For all the readers out there who are going to be on the road as well, we wish you safe travels.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a new action-adventure IP, a story of one man’s journey to discover the true meaning of sacrifice amidst murder and betrayal. Set in Southern Europe during the middle ages, Lords of Shadow has beautifully-realized locales that play host to an epic battle between good and evil.

Microsoft has launches its Games for Windows Horror for the Holidays sale, marking down half a dozen titles anywhere from 25% to 75$. The horror themed titles in question are Dead Rising 2 ($39.99, now $19.99), Resident Evil 5  ($29.99, now $14.99), STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl ($19.99, now $4.99),
FEAR 2: Project Origin ($19.99, now $9.99), A Vampyre Story ($19.99, now $9.99), Plants vs. Zombies ($9.99, now $7.49).