Hanks onboard for Da Vinchi prequel

Tom Hanks is in final talks to star in a Da Vinci Code prequel.
He is reported to be close to agreeing to return as Harvard professor Robert Langdon.
Ron Howard is also in final negotiations to direct Angels and Demons, according to the Hollywood Reporter.The Da Vinci Code has made a healthy $758 million at the box office.
Sources say the prequel, also based on a Dan Brown book, will start shooting as early as January.

China clamps down on online gaming

The Chinese government has clamped down on the amount of time youngsters can spend playing online games, according to the official news agency Xinhua.
Under-18s who play for more than three consecutive hours a day will have limits imposed on the amount of points they can score, the agency reported. Online game companies based in China have been given three months to install the so-called anti-addiction software. It is part of an on-going attempt to limit how long people are online. A recent report from the China National Children's Centre said that 13% of under-18s who used the web were addicted to online gaming. In the past several years gamers mostly from Korea and Asia have even died through marathon gaming sessions, some literally die of exhaustion after 72 hour sessions non stop.

Halo 3 Beta test confirmed

Halo 3, one of the most anticipated video games for the Xbox 360, will be released to the public in test, or beta, from 16 May. The online multi player element of the game will be made available to the public with feedback going to developers Bungie. More than 14.7m copies of Halo titles have been sold and more than 800m hours of online Halo games have been played. The beta will last for three weeks and ends on 7 June. Three multi player maps will be available - Snowbound, High Ground and Valhalla. Halo 3 is expected to be released in the last quarter of 2007 and is a key weapon for Microsoft in its rivalry with Sony and Nintendo. The game has become an important franchise for Microsoft and has evolved into an industry which encompasses action figures, graphics novels, books and clothes. On the website of Halo creators Bungie, content manager Frank O'Connor said the beta would contain "quirks, a couple of rough edges".
He added: "A lot of secret features are hidden in this beta. We're keeping a lot of our powder dry for Fall."

Gears of war updated

One week ago, Gears of War fans got in a tizzy when Epic Games vice president Mark Rein revealed that the game's next update was "almost here." Rein said the update was out of Epic's hands and in the final stages of Microsoft's certification process.
Today, Microsoft announced that it has given the update the thumbs up and will release it over Xbox Live Marketplace at 4 p.m. Not just a few tweaks to bugs, the update will add a new multiplayer mode called Annex. In Annex, two teams will battle to occupy key map locations like a standard King of the Hill or Domination match. Each map contains two to five key locations, and throughout the match the area to be controlled will move.
Also included in the update is VGA cable support, tweaks to the Boomshot and Hammer of Dawn weapons, and several bug and exploit fixes.
The update is free, unlike other Gears of War content that was recently revealed to be offered initially at a "reasonable price" before becoming free months down the line.

Spore release date TBC

Since it first wowed audiences at the 2005 Game Developers Conference, Spore has seen the buzz around it grow. Its expansive game play spans the entire history of life on a planet, from primordial prehistory to modern civilization. While it ends with the technological wonder of space travel, it also focuses heavily on biology, letting players create their own race of creatures and watch them evolve. Like Spore's subject creatures, its release date has undergone several stages of evolution. Initially, the game had no release date, and then it was tagged for a late-2006 launch. But when Electronic Arts, Spore's publisher, released its E3 roster this past May, the date had reverted to "TBC." At the moment the games release date is unknown but many web sites and Magazines predict a late 2007 release. With a game as potentially huge as Spore promises to be I reckon we may even see it slip back until early 2008.