So Gears of War 2 is coming and from all the reports so far it’s going to be better than anything, including sliced bread. Well Gears 1 (and the Alpacas) were the reason I came back from the multi-player wilderness and I have huge expectations for this sequel. However I have some worries as well and most of them are …

A writer for StokedGamer.com has put up an interesting article comparing Ubisoft's version of Africa in their upcoming game Far Cry 2, to the real Africa that most of our Lazygamer readers see and experience for themselves. The author if from the US but lived in Johannesburg and Pretoria for two years of his life, doing quite a bit of travelling it seems. He compares not only the visuals and atmosphere of the game, but also its outlook and the political struggles that Africa faces everyday. As Africans ourselves, its interesting to read something like this and just realise where we are sometimes. He has also included a couple of photos as well as screenshots and concept art of the game for some comparison. Check it out here.

Wow how did I miss this earlier? I was just going through some of the older stories on the main gaming websites and I see that it was announced that Gears 2 is going to have bots in it… Much like the ones that have become a staple of Unreal Tournament over the years. I have to say that I …

Installs on the Playstation 3 have caused a lot of controversy over the last year or so, with the old debate of whether or not it is a problem and if it is necessary. A site called Tokipost.com posted up an article about how they wonder if the Xbox 360 will be heading down the same path now that the 60gb SKU is making its way into the market. I know that one of the reasons for game installs on the PS3 is the slower read rate of a Blu-Ray Disc, but it still makes you wonder if Microsoft is going to be taking a look at the idea. I personally think its a bogus idea unless it is only an optional install as Microsoft have made so many compromises in the past to accommodate owners of the Core or Arcade consoles that it will be strange if they suddenly flip their strategy around. But then again, nothing surprises me these days.

I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen but it has been officially confirmed by Microsoft SA now… or at least their press agency. That new 60GB Xbox 360 is only currently being planned for the US and Canada and the same goes for the price cut. To be honest we (and Europe) have already had our huge price …

What did you just say? Ok, so a couple of Square Enix titles were shown and dates were given, namely Infinite Undiscovery in North America on September 2nd, Star Ocean the last hope in Spring 2009 and The Last Remnant available first on November 20th. But then. Something nobody saw coming. Microsoft announces that Final Fantasy XIII will be coming …

Casual-ties Now if there is one thing I noticed, it was that Microsoft was doing everything in their power to target casual gamers as much as possible this year. Not only did they make a mention that 3 out of 4 games on their system was rated E or Teen, but they made a ton of announcements of products or …

Avatars, a new Dashboard and Primetime Microsoft confirmed the rumours that we have heard about Nintendo Mii like characters to be used together with our gamertags. Avatars allow all live users to create a character to represent themselves on Xbox Live much like the Mii's on the Nintendo Wii, but will allow more detail as well as the ability to customise your Avatar's clothing, with new clothing releases coming out over time ( Cha-Ching anyone?). Together with the announcement of the Avatar's was the first showing of the new Xbox 360 dashboard. The new dashboard is cleaner and allows you to access blades from your guide button, it's a little tough to explain so you will have to wait for some pics or videos to come up. A new games blade has also been introduced. Something that really did catch my eye was the new party system. You will know be able to partner up with 7 friends, which will allow you to do various things together. Not only will you be able to all chat in a conference call (something we have needed for ages!) but you will also be able to share photos, move the whole group into a game and even watch movies together. The other new feature that has been added is called Primetime. It's kind of like a series of interactive game shows that will allow players to all participate. They seem to be set to play at certain times, so it will be similar to the way television works, but we will have more details on that at another time.