News has come in from Elecplay.com saying that they have received word that EA has cancelled future Need for Speed titles. While we are still waiting for an official word from EA, this could be a real possibility. Lots of companies are cutting back and only the strongest franchises will take EA in the right direction. The Need for Speed …

Believe it or not, it seems like World of Warcraft is starting to get a heck of a lot more attention from suits than I would have originally thought. News like this does not do much for the world of videogames but the truth is that it may actually be a scary fact that we all need to accept. During …

On Saturday, we posted up an article about a price increase for the Xbox 360 and it’s software that will come into effect in January 2009. Local gamers are fuming and everybody is cringing or complaining over the concept of paying a thousand Rand for triple A titles. We got on the phone with Microsoft’s Product and Marketing Manager, John …

[WARNING: Excessive use of bad language and violence against common household items] Anyone who has had a taste of online gaming will know that there are some seriously strange people out there. Join any American game however and you will usually be treated to an absolute barrage of high-pitched, whiny, disrespectful little monsters who do nothing but scream and shout about how they are going to own you and how everytime you owned them was only because of lag, luck or a whatever else they can think of. I have posted a video after the jump that is not what I would call "office friendly" as it involves a young american kid who has possibly the worst anger management problem that I have ever seen and his language will not impress your boss, so you have been warned. It really got me wondering about these kids, at the risk of sounding like all of our parents I ask: What has happened to the kids of today? ...The guy above might seem a little familiar to you, it's because there was a previous video up a while back of him playing Halo 3.... Games are supposed to be about having fun but it seems that so many people have just gotten so obsessed with proving their amazing skills that the concept of gaming for fun seems to be lost altogether. It's a sad day to see a young person having such an incredibly bad time with a game when we all know that we should all be relaxing and enjoying it.... He spills coke, further breaks his headset, cracks his Halo 3 poster and in what must be the most amazing moment of self-pwnage, actually manages to get the microphone of his headset shoved halfway down his throat (See it to believe it - 5min 18 secs in).... I myself have been having some frustration problems with control schemes and online issues with some of the more recent games but to take it out like these guys do is utterly ridiculous.... This sort of play is getting out of hand to the point that there are a few games that I have at the moment that I am playing online with public international matches because I am so tired of the guys who want nothing but to win, that I would rather suffer with a second of lag and play with a bunch of Japanese folks who just want to have some fun. It really does make a statement that I would rather play with people that I don't understand, with a second of lag, rather than have to sit through round after round of players who only use cheap tactics, camping and assorted other methods so that they can top the scoreboards. Thanks to all of those people, I just stopped playing a lot of the games that I really enjoyed and have now resorted to only playing with close friends that I know I can relax with.... It means that if I want to play online with random people, I don't get to choose between the hardcore no-fun bunch or the relaxed games just trying to have some fun. So the next time you are playing a game and being a douche-bag, try to remember that it's all about having fun. If your concept of fun is sitting in a corner surrounded by trip mines, up a hill with a sniper rifle and every sort of cheap trick you can think of to get to the top of the scoreboards, then you need to have a slap sent your way because nobody likes it and no one will go to be thinking about how cool you are.

While the console race has been a close and interesting one to follow, it seems like Microsoft may be whipping a card out of it's sleeve that may just give them a big advantage. The sickening thing about this whole story is that it's an advantage that is going to be obtained by making their console reach a standard of quality that should have already been there all along. Is there a bright future ahead for the Xbox 360, or are we just being setup for even more disappointments from Microsoft? The problem is obviously that Microsoft released a console that was flawed from the start and even though they were in the knowledge of those flaws, decided to release it anyway. It was good to see that Microsoft landed up paying for their underhanded tricks in the long run, with the need to extend RROD warranties for a problem that really shouldn't have been there from the start. Usually I don't enjoy seeing anyone suffer for no reason but they deserved it because at the end of the day it was always the consumer paying the price for a lazy design job and some underhanded business tactics. Many of the issues with the Xbox 360 may now be coming to an end with the latest batch of Xbox 360's to leave the factory and if a decent job was actually done this time around, we may see the era of problematic Xbox 360 consoles actually come to an end.... The new consoles have had their internal memory pushed up from 16MB to 256MB, meaning that the console will now be able to store the NXE dashboard without the use of a hard drive.... The internal memory, while not of much use for other functions is at least big enough that it can now carry the NXE and still have a little bit of space left for a few small Xbox Live Arcade games.

...While the change isn't entirely revolutionary it is a welcome addition for all of the consumers who are going to be looking at buying an Arcade unit.... According to a recent article on Neoseeker , the latest batch of Xbox 360's to come out of the factories are now packing what is called the "Jasper" chipset, which now has a reduced 65nm graphics chip as well as what has now also been revealed as a lower power requirement.... All consoles produced after October 23, 2008 now have this new chipset and if all goes well with the new design then we may see the end of the Red Ring of Death as we know it.

While many of you may already be clued in about the Jasper, a new piece of information has come to light with regards to identifying if an Xbox 360 console is a Jasper or not.

...Will the new chipset mean that consumers in future will no longer need to deal with the terrible woes that have plagued so many gamers in the last two years or are we only being set up for even more disappointment from a lazy design team? Time will have to tell on this one but if Microsoft have actually done a decent job then them and us could possibly looking at a much smoother future for the console and one that should have been there from the start.

So, the other night we were playing a game of Gears of War 2 and we were all destroying each other on a map called Day One. I have taken quite a liking to the photo mode that came with the game, so after my death, I was having my usual fun taking photo's of the action. On the Day One map there is a small street corner arcade, in which I found something rather interesting. You may remember that the infamous anti-videogame lawyer Jack Thompson always referred to the Grand Theft Auto series of games as a "murder simulator". Now looking at that header image will show you that Epic decided to poke a bit of fun at that whole mess by creating an arcade game by the name of "Murder Simulator" and placing it into the map. I live easter eggs like this and I think it was really cool that Epic took the time to take a quick stab at an industry story that has caused a lot of grief for gamers worldwide. At least Jack is barred for life now, so until another lunatic comes along and tries to pick up where he left off, we can all rest easy knowing that we can play our violent games in ironic peace.

I literally cannot explain exactly how jealous I am that I cannot enter this competition. Reason being that one of our readers is going to get to take home a limited Call of Duty: World at War Zippo, courtesy of Megarom. Because the prize is so insanely cool, we have decided to make the competition a little interesting. For this competition we have devised an interesting, albeit unlikely scenario involving yourself, a zippo and a really angry Nazi. The full competition question can be found after the jump. Not entering will be considered an absolute crime. Don't miss out on the opportunity.... We have a rather interesting scenario worked out and you need to tell us how you are going to get out of it. The best and most creative answer will be chosen as the winner, so be sure to get those creative juices flowing. Here is the scenario: You are a soldier in World War 2, you are stuck inside a destroyed house that has only one exit. Problem is, you have just run out of ammo and a crazed Nazi is about to bash through the door and introduce you to the business end of his rifle. The only thing that you have left in your possession is your trusty Zippo lighter. How will you utilise your Zippo to survive this fatal predicament ?... Your answers can be smart, funny or even strangely detailed.... Mail your entry to comps@lazygamer.co.za by 5pm on Friday 21st with the subject COD Zippo and you could be the lucky winner of this incredibly cool Zippo.

Earlier this week, Videogamer.com posted up a 720p comparison of Call of Duty 5 on the PS3 and Xbox 360. I saw the video and started noticing differences between the two that I felt couldn't be ignored. So what I did is, I took a screengrab of the comparison to show you. Comparison videos always cause a general ruckus between the different console owners and this one is obviously doing the same. Truth be told, the Xbox 360 version looks significantly better and what bothers me the most is that I picked up the differences in the introduction cut-scene, which is a controlled environment that doesn't really have that much complexity to it. So why I ask, does the PS3 version look significantly worse?... You can click the above image to see it in full resolution, although take note that there is a little bit of compression on the image.... When you take a closer look you can clearly see that the texturing on the man's clothing and even the little badge on the bottom right is significantly lower and more "jaggy" or pixelated than the one on the Xbox 360. Not only that but you will also notice that the guy all the way in the background has some missing models on him. Now I have seen Uncharted and Metal Gear Solid 4 running on a PS3 and the graphics were phenomenal. So why again is the PS3 getting the short end of the stick. Why on earth, in a cutscene so simple, would Treyarch have to resort to lower texture resolutions and less geometry. I can't even see such small changes making a large difference to the framerate anyway. At the end of the day, small differences like this won't completely change a gamers experience but really, this doesn't make any sense because we know that the PS3 should be able to handle graphics like this without any issues. I ask again if it is just down to developer laziness because regardless of which was the lead platform, it can't be that damn difficult to make the graphics look equal in quality on both.