Yes, I know games should be released when they are ready, sound, fit, and properly ported to the the systems they are being made for. But that makes no difference to someone who is looking forward to a particular game and is bored with the current offerings on the market.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider is one of those games for me. The lieklihood of dissapointment in the game despite my impatient desire for it is still a popssibility, but if like me you enjoyed the original game then you know where I am coming from.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider is expect to be made available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on September 8, and while that is only a scant two weeks away, it is still no consolation when you are bored out of your mind.

You can get more yummy screens by clicking here.

Codemasters has announced the EU release of Book 14: The Ring Forges, the latest free content update for LotRO Shadows of Angmar.

Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion brings a wide array of changes to LotRO, including the addition of Eregion, the continuation of the epic questline, and preparations for Moria.  Codematsers has also been hard at work adding even more player-requested features to the game.

Highlights:

• Eregion: Journey to where the Elven Rings were forged
• Epic Quest: The epic quest continues with world events that open up the adventure to every player across all servers
• Moria Prelude Quests: Aid the Fellowship of the Ring as they prepare to leave Rivendell and make their way toward Mordor.
• Dungeons: The loot dropped in all instances and raids is being upgraded, and bosses and mobs are being adjusted to make for even better play experiences! Now is the time to prepare for the dangers that dwell in Moria
• Animation Improvements: LOTRO continues to polish the experience
• Animations and sounds for each Minstrel skill using their equipped instrument (no longer just the Lute!)
• Monster play emote animations for Orc, Uruk, Spider and Warg
• New animations for 12 emotes – plus three new animated emotes

You can get the EU Patch by hitting the badge below. Full release notes are listed after the jump.

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I am sure we will hear more about Golden Axe: Beast Rider when Jonathan and Shawn are finished with the  Sony press conference. I have heard that there are some exciting things happening at Sony’s and that it is blowing Microsoft’s out of the water. You can hear what Ron has to say about MS though if you listen to our latest podcast.

Now, back to Beast Rider. This game has been on our radar here at Gaming Today for quite some time and considering that the majority of us were fans of the original game, that should come as no surprise. It has been a while since we have heard anything regarding the game, and we have not had any fresh screens for it up until now. The game is slated for a September release for both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Check back with us later because I am sure the guys will have their impressions of the Sony announcements posted sometime this evening. The SEGA event is tomorrow, so I am sure we will hear more about Beast Rider then as well.

It’s another good week for the PlayStation Store this week — you’ve got a sizable game in Fatal Inertia EX ($30), the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database, a new course for Hot Shots Golf: Out Of Bounds ($5), new music tracks for both Rock Band and Guitar Hero III, and plenty more. There are also four new demos — a trial of Fatal Inertia EX, so you can see if the game is worth $30, as well as demos of NCAA Football 09, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3, and Hail to the Chimp.

And, of course, a random assessment of other things, including some trailers for various games and movies, a theme, and a downloadable music track — the PAIN theme song. Hit the jump to check out all of the new content.

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SEGA has just confirmed the release dates for their upcoming titles. When I say “confirmed” this also includes a vague time frame for a particular month or quarter and even titles coming in the first part of 2009 – one of which is Aliens: Colonial Marines which has been pushed into next year.

• Beijing 2008 PS3/360/PC – June 27
• Space Siege PC – August 22
• Picto Image DS – September
• Golden Axe: Beast Rider 360/PS3 – September
• Sonic Chronicles – September
• Yakuza 2 PS2 – September
• Sonic Unleashed 360/PS3/Wii/PS2 – November
• Empire: Total War PC – Q1 2009
• Alpha Protocol PS3/360/PC – Q1 2009
• Madworld Wii – Q1 2009
• Aliens: Colonial Marines – Q1 2009

All release dates are subject to change so don’t blame me if that should happen.

Thanks: Videogaming247

Another highly anticipated title has a new trailer floating through cyberspace, this time, it is for SEGA’s Golden Axe: Beast Rider. Although I usually do not take much stock in what a trailer shows, because like the ones we see on TV for movies etc, they show off the best bits just to get you hooked. Plus, they usually only show a few cutscenes and nominal amounts of gameplay. However, since I was such a fan of the original Golden Axe game despite it being released time and time again without any changes, I have to admit that Beast Rider looks like it will shake the dust off of the classic and give us something new to slaughter. Let’s hope the gameplay equals the coolness of what the trailer shows.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider is expect to be made available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on September 8th.

Okay, you win, Sega. I didn’t care at all about your newest Golden Axe game, but now these screens just make it looks just too awesome. It looks like the developers could be taking a page from God of War in terms of reaching that epic feel. That, and you can apparently ride and fight ginormous monsters like the ones above. I could do without the Chocobo-looking thing though. You can check out a few more screens for the game here.

Secret Level and SEGA have sent us some new screenshots from their upcoming Golden Axe: Beast Rider. This next-gen edition of the side-scrolling hack ‘n slash is a gamer favorite and we should see it it shelves sometime this summer for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Hopefully we will get some more information on gameplay and a broader of what the storyline entails when it gets closer to a release date, but in the meantime you can enjoy the screens of scantily-clad Tyris Flare.

All right World of Warcraft players, your wait is over. Blizzard has released the 2.3 patch for WoW, and it’s loaded with changes.

Not only does it introduce a brand new 10-man raid instance named Zul’Aman (it’s over in the Ghostlands), it loads in a ton of changes to classes as well. This patch also brings with it the start of WoW’s PvP Arena Season 3, which is reportedly scheduled to begin on November 20.

As usual, this patch is available in a ton of region specific flavors. You can grab the US version from the links below. The remainder of the regional patches will be released during the regularly scheduled maintenance periods for those regions. Check out FileFront’s version 2.3 patch page for other regional versions as they become available.

You can check out the patch notes for this release after the break, just prepare for some serious reading.

US Version

US Full Version
US Incremental Version

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As most of you know, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was released at 12am this morning. Many across the country, including yours truly, waited in line at local Gamestop stores to get their Guitar Hero fix. Sacrificing sleep for the greater good, many of these plastic guitar weilding heroes would be rocking away into the wee hours of the morning.

After investing about 3 and a half hours into the game already, I’ve progressed quite far. To be honest, the game is rather easy (for me) up until the 7th set; then the difficulty starts to ramp up… almost exponentially. In fact, I had somehow managed to avoid failing a single song up until the 7th set. I’m currently stuck at Living Color – ‘Cult of Personality’. Let me tell you, the main shredding solo in that song is pure insanity. It seems like Jordan all over again. Grrr. I can’t wait to get to the 8th set.

Anyway, along with the release of GH3 for Xbox 360 are those lovely/maddening achievements. Yes, you’ll be happy to know that Neversoft/Activision have upped the achievement count in GH3 to 59. Some of them will require playing online ranked matches via Xbox Live. One of them requires you to beat a GH3 developer. Of course, returning are most of the familiar GH2 achievements. Some of the newer achievements are rather silly (Button Masher), while others seem near impossible (Enlightened Guitarist).

There are also three ’secret’ achievements. Well… I wouldn’t call them achievements per se. More like unachievements. If you want to spoil what they are, check this thread out over at ScoreHero.

With that said, I’ve gathered a list of all the achievements for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, as according to Xbox Live. The arrangement is as follows:

(Achievement) – (Description) [GamerPoints]

You can check them out after the break.

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