Having problems getting the Marathon Man achievement in Halo 3? Found all the terminals (Located on The Ark, The Covenant and Halo levels) and still not getting the points? I am not surprised as the given parameters for this achievement are rather vague or incomplete.

Not only do you have to find the terminals and access them, you need to read them all the way through, and stay on the terminal screen until each one gets hacked (text turns red and garbled, you know what I mean). Hope this helps, it was driving me mad for days.

Can’t say I’ve ever been able to take browser games seriously before but I came across one last week that held me spellbound for the half-day or so it took me to complete it. It’s called Bloons Tower Defense and it’s all done in Flash.

Some details of the forthcoming expansion for Bethesda Softwork’s Oblivion have leaked into the public domain. Although no official announcement has been made, some magazines are reporting that the expansion, called The Shivering Isles, will feature a new island for players to explore. The island will be divided into two halves, Mania and Dementia, linked by a town called Split which features two of every citizen. Some of the quests are said to involve investigating this strange phenomenon.
A whole new range of creatures and dungeons will also be included.

XCM have announced that final testing for their XFPS 360 is complete and that full stock of the innovative keyboard and mouse adapter will be shipping to retailers very soon.

This neat little adapter is compatible with all standard PS/2 and USB mouse and keyboards. It also supports Playstation controllers and peripherals such as light guns, dancemats etc.

For the full sales pitch, head over to XCM’s product page.

Originally a PS3 exclusive, Sega have now announced that the next installment in the Virtua Fighter series will also be coming to the Xbox 360 sometime late summer 2007.

Jeff Bell, corporate VP of marketing for Microsoft, said:

“It’s a franchise that has grown an army of loyal fans both in arcades and on consoles worldwide, and is consistently rated extremely high by the media. Fighting game fans have been hungry for Virtua Fighter 5 and we can now proudly deliver this game with Sega to Xbox 360 gamers around the world.”

The PS3 version, due out on 20th February in North America and at PS3’s March launch in Europe, will still enjoy a brief period of exclusivity, albeit for just 6 months.

This scan from the Japanese weekly magazine Nikkei Business has popped up on the official Nintendo forums showing some of the Wii controller prototypes that (thankfully in some cases) didn’t make the final cut.

Activision and Treyarch have announced plans to release a new patch and two waves of multiplayer maps for their latest WWII shooter, Call of Duty 3.

In a post on the Xbox.com forums, one CoD3 team member revealed that they are in the final testing stages for a new multiplayer update that should be available on Xbox Live in the next few days.

Six new maps were also announced. A map called “Champs” which will be free of charge, while the premium “Valor Map Pack” consists of five maps and will set you back 800 MS points.

Following the recent fuss about the quality of the straps on Nintendo’s Wii controller, it seemed inevitable that legal action would be taken against the Kyoto-based company. An aggrieved Texan is first out of the gates. He has filed suit against Nintendo, claiming that the Wii strap is “ineffective for its intended use.”

EA have confirmed that their Tokyo development studio is working on a DS version of the classic Theme Park franchise.

“Theme Park is one of EA’s long standing properties, and we are excited to breathe new life into the series by bringing it to the NDS platform for the first time ever, taking advantage of the unique controls in the NDS, we are able to create an easy-to-pick-up game that will have the depth to satisfy fans of the series, and also be accessible to lighter and new gamers with its user-friendly controls.”

Theme Park for the DS is scheduled for release sometime in spring 2007.

Chris Satchell, general manager of Microsoft’s Game Development Group, has questioned whether the Wii, despite being the fastest selling console in history, has got what it takes to hold gamers interest in the long run.

“I’m not sure what its long term potential is. It’s a super-strong for Nintendo’s first-party IP” he says, “It’s going to start very fast, it’s a cool thing that’s different, but I’m not sure how big it’s going to be in the long term”

Chris also casts his doubts on Sony’s approach to online services and user-created content, stating:

“I don’t think Sony has the right focus. I’m not even sure, looking at how they execute, that they even think that it’s important.”

Read (GamesIndustry.biz)