Dante's Inferno won't be coming out in the Middle East according to gaming site, GamesLatest, based out in Dubai. Following an "evaluation process which is based on consumer tastes, preferences, platform mix and other factors.", EA has apparently decided not to risk publishing the title in the region.

The article indicates that it likely ran the risk of getting banned in the same way that Darksiders and Bayonetta were due largely to the sensitivity that certain topics can elicit there. A ban doesn't mean that the game is impossible to get, but that it can't be sold where it takes place in. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that it can't get into the hands of players willing to import it, either.

It's not that surprising considering the Xtreme angle that the marketing for Dante's Inferno has employed to drum up excitement over the game despite the controversy it brought down on them from last year's E3 to the last minute changes to their proposed trailer for the Super Bowl. But its interpretation of Dante Alighieri's classic has also drummed up as much concern here, especially from those that had actually read the original work it is based off of.

One thing that I honestly don't think it's going to do is to get more players to look up the classic despite the efforts being made for the book. It'll bring more attention to it, that I have no doubt, but I'm not entirely certain that players will be hitting up Amazon to get to it, either. How many players do you know had read through Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms after picking up the latest iteration of Koei's Dynasty Warriors?

But you have to give them props for even trying to bring attention to a classic like this and it will be interesting to see just what kind of imaginative interpretation the designers bring to it, even if the kind of attention it brings doesn't necessarily fit between the covers of the original book. Or within the public boundaries of every culture.

The adage "don't mess with success" clearly isn't in Bioware's lexicon. And thank goodness for that.

The surprise of "Mass Effect 2" isn't that the RPG powerhouse has released another great game, the astonishing thing is that Bioware has managed to make so many improvements on such an extraordinary foundation.

"Originals" as in the games that were made for the first Xbox according to this open letter from Xbox Live's general manager, Marc Whitten. From the announcement, it sounds like this is being done in order to pave the way for more positive changes in moving forward with Xbox Live as a whole on the Xbox 360 and those changes simply weren't compatible with what was leftover from the old Xbox.

You'll still be able to play a majority of your old Xbox games on the Xbox 360, but forget about any multiplayer support that you might have enjoyed with them particularly if you're still hooked on Halo 2. On April 15th, it all ends, so get in as many of those online match ups as you can with your favorite classics before it's over.

And as big as Halo 2 is, Bungie's also planning to mourn the passing of an era in their own way with plenty of gaming goodness on April 14th, so be sure to keep an eye on their site for the latest news on how that's going to go down.

It's not a new WW2 game or a sequel to Cinemaware's Rocket Ranger, but it's an independent film called Iron Sky that has been developing over the past two years or so. Premise: In 1945, the Nazis fled to the Moon thanks to secret super science (and a base in Antarctica). In 2018, they're planning to come back and conquer the world. It's the kind of plot that Buck Rogers would have been proud of.

The film is being made by the same group that did Star Wreck, a Star Trek parody from Finland, and has also invited the 'net to participate in its making. How this works is that the filmmakers will create a few tasks that they need help on and basically anyone is free to contribute their own ideas by posting at the amusingly named Wreckamovie site such as what they would like to see in an official poster. There are also quite a few other films there that are also embracing this kind of fan-participation approach so if Nazis in space isn't your thing, there should be something else to help flex your imagination.

I've been keeping an eye on this production for awhile and they've already cast the parts with one or two names that I recognized such as the incredibly prolific go-to guy for evil, Udo Kier (Bloodrayne, Blade), and Gotz Otto (Tomorrow Never Dies, Der Untergang) as the head bad guy.

You can find out more about Iron Sky at their official site. As for when the movie is going to be done, they're aiming at a release sometime in 2011, so they've still got a way to go. But at least there's the trailer.

From Bethesda Softworks arrives an official press release for Fallout: New Vegas, a completely standalone adventure under development by the crew at Obsidian Entertainment. If you didn't have enough post-apocalyptic fun with Fallout 3, get ready to head back into the wastes with a completely new adventure this Fall for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Games for Windows for PCs.

Does that mean this is Fallout 4? Nope, but it takes place in the same world pioneered with the first Fallout (and continued with Fallout 3) when members of Obsidian had worked on it as a part of the development team at Interplay before striking out on their own.

Read that again: members of the original Fallout crew (i.e. the ones that came up with the whole Fallout idea) are working on this. It might not mean much to those whose first exposure to the series was with Fallout 3, but for old-as-dirt Vault Dwellers like myself, it's a big deal when Fallouts 1 and 2 were undeniably classic material. Where do you think Fallout 3 got the idea to be able to plant live grenades in people's pockets first? I'm also hoping they include the nuclear car from the second game. So much fun.

And in checking out the trailer, it looks like Obsidian is making more than a few nods in that direction. In Wasteland, considered the granddaddy of Fallout,urban legend held that the reason Vegas dodged a nuke was because the house had bet against one hitting the city...and no one wins against the house. The New California Republic flag waving at the end was a very cool touch. Haven't seen them since...Fallout 2.

Seems that the last century's been really good to them. Really good.

You can read the official release after the jump.

Funcom's upcoming MMORPG, The Secret World, has sent over a trailer showing off what's happening at Kingsmouth - a quaint little town where something nasty has happened like the dead coming back to walk the streets turning it into a smaller version of Raccoon City.

Last week, Ubisoft made waves when they announced how they were going to use a new DRM (digital rights management) scheme for most of their upcoming PC games. PC players will now need to sign onto Ubisoft's online service in order to be able to play the game they purchased over the counter in order to activate it...and need to stay online to keep it activated. As Arstechnica's Ben Kuchera had put it, "This is like having to show your receipt every time you want to turn on your television.".

According to Ubisoft's FAQ on the service, the "added services" that this approach has over conventional DRM is that it will allow you to install the game on as many PCs as you want, save your games online, and not use a disc to play it. There are a few problems with this approach that are worse than the disc-based Securom or key-based authentication that some methods use. At least when Steam cuts out, you can still play the game. Not so with Ubisoft.