What is FragBU?
A friendly two night event for UT3 that starts on Friday and continues on until the end of the night on Saturday. It's not a pub server, nor is it a place to be super serious, so just remember to relax and have fun.

What do you do there?
We play all of the stock gametypes plus Greed and Betrayal. At any time people can vote on different mutators so that if a gametype is getting a bit stale, they can change it up a bit. One of the FragBU favorites is a hybrid gametype called Big Game Hunter which is really fun when the server is full. You really need to see this one to believe it!

Where's all the info?
Right here. Each week the page is reposted and will reflect any changes made to the server, rules, time and dates. Please check the thread each month for updates and new maps. The link also provides additional server information (players, map, gametype) and a link to our irc channel.

A portion of the

DLC for Killing Floor has been released along with a few small fixes. Coming soon will be the new map, Foundry, along with the new weapons.

Additions
• Added 4 new Characters as a purchasable DLC pack available via the Steam Store
• Added new animations for the specimens busting down doors
• Implemented a faster Quick Heal system
• Updated the Door Welded display
• Updated Mutator and Map White Lists(see Killing Floor forums at forums.tripwireinteractive.com for more details)

Fixes
• Fixed the Chainsaw blade not moving, and sleeves not appearing right on the Chainsaw
• Fixed the issue with the player going to an idle animation after firing a weapon, which made the player look stiff
• Fixed bug where specimens would stand at a door waiting to bust down a door
• Fixed specimens not playing a movement animation after breaking down a door
• Fixed Map White List retaining old Pass/Fail status from previous map
• Fixed the Hunting Shotgun's unlimited ammo bug
• Removed Stats Icon from servers that are currently on a non white listed map

Electronic Arts and Dark Horse Comics have announced a deal to pen a comic series based upon Bioware's Mass Effect.

In Mass Effect: Redemption, the story takes readers through the treacherous events leading up to Mass Effect 2 which opens with galactic hero Commander Shepard having mysteriously gone missing and left to fight for survival. What unfolds next will expose readers to new locations, aliens and extended storyline in the Mass Effect universe. Mass Effect: Redemption is scheduled to launch in January 6, 2010.

The Mass Effect: Redemption story is written by Lead Writer Mac Walters at BioWare. Walters is the script writer behind Mass Effect 2. He brings unique insight to the Mass Effect comic and nuance of the world within. The comic is scripted by John Jackson Miller (Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, The Invincible Iron Man) and drawn by Omar Francia (Star Wars Legacy).

If you want the full details, feel free to check out the press release right'chere.

Gearbox's UE3-powered Borderlands just might have the most guns in a game, ever, with over half a million possible combinations. But one thing that's no longer a roll of the dice is when the game will come out - Borderlands is

.

As a result, some kids might get just a LITTLE less Halloween candy from my household, this year. :)

UPDATE: (July 23rd, 4:25 PM) An official Press Release has been issued, confirming the game's dates and platforms. If you like reading press releases, you can read it

.

The International Game Developers Association, along with Epic, GameRecruiter and Blink Style, are running a level design contest, featuring, of course, Unreal Tournament 3, to be run concurrently with the ongoing Make Something Unreal contest. This should make those final stages a little more interesting. :)

GameRecruiter announced today the launch of the IGDA Unreal Engine 3 Worldwide Level Design Contest, a first-time level design mod competition that is open to all IGDA members, students and game industry professionals. Rules and contest submissions guidelines are available at

http://igda.gamerecruiter.com.

Co-sponsored by Epic Games, GameRecruiter and Blink Style, this IGDA-hosted competition is partnered with the $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest. GameRecruiter.com will help registered participants of the IGDA Unreal Engine 3 Worldwide Level Design Contest enter the $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest, and contestants will therefore be eligible to win prizes in addition to those provided specifically for the IGDA competition. This includes cash prizes, as well as autographed posters, comic books and art books.

But whoa there, buddy! There's some caveats... always gotta read the fine print. And that caveat is that the contest is open to IGDA Members and IGDA Student Members only, but you can

. It is important to note, however, that people entering the IGDA contest will NOT be given preferential treatment compared to regular MSUC Entrants.

If you would like the full press release, you may read it

.

UPDATED: (4:40 PM EDT) Eagle-eyed readers or RSS watchdogs might have noticed this post went AWOL for a little while. The original press release was a little bit vague, so we've sent some questions to Epic and they've clarified a few points. Among them is that international participants ARE allowed. The press release has been fully updated with this new information.

We've had Gears of War 2 for awhile now. But the folks in Japan are just about to get the game, which for them arrives July 30th. Weekly Famitsu's been known to have pretty tough critiques for a bunch of games. So

?

The fun, just like the violence, is even more dangerous than the previous game. Every stage in campaign mode has a different objective; the story is fascinating, and you play right through to the end without every feeling the pace slow down. With Horde and other additions to multiplayer, I think I'm going to have yet more sleepless nights ahead of me.

Final Score: 10/10/9/9, for 38 out of 40. In other (unrelated) news, King of Fighters XII was given a paltry 5/5/7/5 for a mere 22 points. How the mighty have fallen!

One of the big buzzes at E3 this year was Microsoft's Project Natal, something that could truly revolutionize gaming as we know it. Now, Mark Rein has said that none other than

to create the Ricochet and Paint Party demos.

"The ricochet game and the paint party game are Unreal Engine 3, so we're obviously the first technology on the new platform which is kinda cool," the Vice President of Epic Games revealed in an interview that's appearing in the 50th issue of OXM UK.

While the news was grim for Aliens fans after Obsidian got canned from the Aliens RPG project, the other two games seem to be doing quite well, with Aliens vs. Predator still being worked on, and, as Gearbox's Randy Pitchford told CVG, Gearbox is

.

"I know that there hasn't been much talk about what we're doing for awhile and that more details would be very juicy. Like so many people, I've been patient for years to finally be able to play this game and now that I'm actually involved in the creation of it I can tell you that it's extremely challenging to continue to be patient as it develops," he told us.

"I want to tell all! But I can't. But I can say that we are working hard and that there are great things afoot and I know that when the time is right, Sega will be excited to share more details about the game. Until that time, I guess the only thing anyone can do is just keep pressuring Gearbox and Sega to spill more beans. Maybe one of us will eventually crack."

Tripwire Interactive announces the "first of many" free updates to Killing Floor - the Heavy Metal pack. In addition to an all new level called Foundry and a new player-character, you'll be able to check out the Katana and AK-47 weapons.

Check out the screenshots and press release below and look for BeyondUnreal's review of Killing Floor soon!

20 July 2009, Roswell, GA: Tripwire is happy to announce details for the upcoming “Heavy Metal” free content pack for their hit co-op zombie shooter, Killing Floor. This first of many free updates planned for Killing Floor adds an all-new map, new weapons and new functionality and will be available to anyone that owns the game.

The new level, entitled “Foundry”, is set in an old iron works which the Horzine Corporation has converted to support their top secret military projects. Exactly what they have been up to here is a matter for conjecture – but before we can send in investigators, your squad has to get in there and clean out the infestation of specimens.

To assist in your task, there are now two new weapons. The first is an old favorite of armed forces the world over: the AK-47. In our case, it has the folding stock, for ease-of-use in close quarters. This one will fit in as a heavier weapon for the Commando Perk and provide extra stopping power over the base Bullpup. The second is a weapon that just about every special-forces soldier in every movie seems to know intimately, for no good reason other than personal interest: the Japanese Katana sword. Just where the squad got hold of it is a mystery, but this piece of Samurai history is just so fitting, such a thing of beauty and such a perfect melee weapon, that we aren’t going to ask too many questions.

In addition to this free update, Tripwire Interactive will be releasing our first paid DLC character pack for Killing Floor very soon. This character pack adds four new playable characters including a Horzine foundry worker and a soldier in prototype Horzine body armor.

Killing Floor is available now

on Steam and will be in stores across the world shortly.

A little gameplay footage from Epic Games' and Chair Entertainment's side scroller, Shadow Complex.

The normally reclusive Clifford Bleszinski has broken his silence during

Major Nelson podcast (40:22 – 52:58). Eurogamer has kindly

into a nice one-page summary. Here he talks about the upcoming Dark Corners DLC for Gears 2:

"It's a 90-minute section that was actually snipped out of Gears of War 2, where Marcus and Dom are actually going to the Locust homeworld and they're basically suited up in Locust armour and have a choice - because they knocked out a couple of Therons - they can go in guns-blazing as they always do, Rambo-style, or they can go with a more stealth approach, so it's a little bit of stealth in the Gears universe,"

Other topics include clarification of his earlier remarks about Microsoft's Project Natal and a brief mention of the Gears flick that is currently in the works.

If you've been holding out to the bitter end to check out Mirror's Edge (

), now might be the time to make the plunge: GoGamer is running Mirror's Edge (PC)

.

Note: This is the second time they've run the sale (sold out the first time) and they have a limited amount in-stock and it is in effect only until 5 PM PST!

Ok, it's simple. If you want to play some really good UT3 games, you really need to join FragBU It starts tonight and goes through tomorrow.

BeyondUnreal invite you to join BU staff members and your fellow BuF'ers for two nights of intense fragging through DM, TDM, CTF, vCTF, WAR, Greed, and Betrayal. If you've never been to a FragBU event before, don't worry, it's open to anyone who wants to join us for some good old fashioned gaming mayhem.

Before you start, check out the FragBU thread in the UT3 forums for the latest news, download links to the custom content, and to leave comments. All of the content is still available through the servers fast redirect, but it is still recommended to download the files before you jump on the server if you want to jump in on the action right away. There are quite a few large map packs like the excellent and often played HOLP1 and HOLP2 that would take a while even on a fast redirect.

To check on the status of the server without opening the game, you can either check the FragBU thread or log on to the official FragBU IRC channel at #fragbu on EnterTheGame where there's always plenty of people to help you out if you need any assistance. You can also get a play by play of the matches by checking out #fragbu.reporter on ETG.

If you are patiently waiting on the server and it's currently empty don't fret, it may take a while but people will eventually join. Most players do not start joining until 10pm EST but people will join earlier if they see activity on the server. So just fire up the game and join up! If idling on the server isn't working and you do not want to wait any longer, bugging people in irc to join usually works!

We hope to see you there!

If you've been meaning to check out the Brothers in Arms series from Gearbox (all Unreal Engine), now might be the time to give it a try. Steam's weekend sale features

- Road to Hill 30, Hell's Highway, and Earned in Blood - for a package price of $19.99. You can still pick them up individually on sale in case you're only missing one or two from your collection.

Joystick is reporting that Midway has closed it's corporate offices in Chicago, and that Warner Brothers has let the entire staff go including the executives. However, all of the employees that are a part of the Chicago development team have been offered jobs at Warner Brothers.