The new Mortal Kombat, as revealed last week, will feature a 300 mission long mode dubbed the “Challenge Tower.” We played a handful of levels of the mode that lives up to its name with demanding while teaching players the finer points of this year’s Mortal Kombat.

Those 300 missions feature no lack of variety. They start off simply, asking the player to refrain from being hit for an entire match in some or defeat an opponent with only a handful of special moves, like throwing Sonya Blade‘s energy attack, or using only kicks. Occasionally, the Challenge Tower will ask players to fight with special match requirements. In one, Johnny Cage must battle an uppity stuntman (named Stunt Man) with double strength attacks. The next match, Cage attacks with half his normal strength.

In one situation, I was asked to defeat a very hard Baraka, then perform Sonya Blade’s fatality. Again and again and again, I couldn’t do it. I didn’t know the (unforgiving) range of Sonya’s fatality and could not progress.

Fortunately, Mortal Kombat addresses this particular problem. Players are awarded coins during missions, which can be cashed in to buy one’s way out of a challenge when stuck, easing the mode’s frustration. The new MK also has a Fatality Trainer, letting players get to the good stuff, NetherRealm Studios‘ gory, glorious finishing moves.

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Challenge Tower comes with a few other variations, including the return of the brick-smashing, button-mashing Test Your Might mini-game and a Three Card Monte game called Test Your Sight that hides a plucked eyeball underneath a table full of human heads. Fail Test Your Sight and Nighthawk’s trademark glowing green axe will punish you.

Test Your Luck, as seen in the announcement video, throws a ton of crazy variables into the mix, from headless battles to inverted gravity to vicious environmental dangers.

Part tutorial, part hardcore mission mode, Challenge Tower looks like a hefty stack of highly addictive tasks, ideal for Mortal Kombat players stuck playing the game solo.

in Diesel has done a brief video update his official Facebook pagewith a new video in which he and director David Twohy talk about the proposed third film featuring Diesel’s famed anti-hero character Riddick.

Twohy says the film be more along the lines of the first film “Pitch Black” than the second “The Chronicles of Riddick” as the budget is obviously a smaller scale like ‘Black’.

in Diesel has done a brief video update his official Facebook pagewith a new video in which he and director David Twohy talk about the proposed third film featuring Diesel’s famed anti-hero character Riddick.

Twohy says the film be more along the lines of the first film “Pitch Black” than the second “The Chronicles of Riddick” as the budget is obviously a smaller scale like ‘Black’.

Part of the reason for that is they want to maintain the R-rating that ‘Black’ had in this one. Keeping that higher rating is a “big deal” they want to achieve “at any cost”. The plan is to shoot it lean, quickly and they joked that it does feature “seductions”.

At last report the plot has Riddick left for dead on a desolate planet fighting for survival against not just alien predators but bounty hunters, yet this chess game is all part of his plan to return to Furya and save it from destruction.

Though there’s some ugly cover art and a pretty good trailer, no date for the release is specified other than a generic 2011/2012 one. The price is currently set at $84.

There’s nothing really in the way of new features, but all the previous special features from the DVDs will be ported over to the Blu-ray release. All three films will boast 1080p video and DTS HD-MA 5.1 audio transfers.

The packaging calls this a ‘Limited’ extended edition. No word if that means only a certain number of copies, or more likely the set will only be available for a certain amount of time before being pulled from the shelves – much like Disney does with its animated releases.

We’ve some new screenshots of SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs and we are afraid they aren’t as impressive as we were expecting them to be.

As you can see, poor textures and sharp corners are evident in almost all of these screenshots and the visuals overall look sub-par.

In the day and age where PS3 exclusives like the upcoming Uncharted 3 and the recently released Killzone 3 are setting an example when it comes to delivering the graphical goods on consoles, Socom 4 feels sorely lacking, atleast in these screenshots.

We hope the game turns out to be different and gamers get to experience a fun game albeit one which doesn’t really set new standards when it comes to visuals.

The game releases on April 19 in the US and is exclusive to PS3.

Perhaps spurred on by ripoff apps already in place, Angry Birds‘ developer says the game will have a Facebook adaptation inside of the month.

Angry Birds’ official Facebook page has the announcement, promising to update folks on the game’s rollout if they click the like button. If you don’t see that, you may be one of the 1.2 million who have already liked it.

Perhaps spurred on by ripoff apps already in place, Angry Birds’ developer says the game will have a Facebook adaptation inside of the month.

Angry Birds’ official Facebook page has the announcement, promising to update folks on the game’s rollout if they click the like button. If you don’t see that, you may be one of the 1.2 million who have already liked it.

Perhaps spurred on by ripoff apps already in place, Angry Birds’ developer says the game will have a Facebook adaptation inside of the month.

Angry Birds’ official Facebook page has the announcement, promising to update folks on the game’s rollout if they click the like button. If you don’t see that, you may be one of the 1.2 million who have already liked it.

Mikael Hed, the boss at Rovio, the game’s studio, says in the latest print edition of Wired’s UK magazine that in the Facebook app “there will be completely new aspects to it that just haven’t been experienced in any other platform.” For example, “the pigs will have a more prominent role.”

Elsewhere, the studio’s chief for business development says that Angry Birds could be spun off into other genres, including driving or sports.

Angry Birds flies to Facebook later this year

If you didn’t fall for the old buy Bulletstorm, get Gears of War 3 Beta access, then you’re in luck. Not that Bulletstorm is a bad game, but I for one am not into penis jokes let alone 237 of them. No but really, as much as I wanted to get access into the Beta, I figured there will be other opportunities (looking at you Crackdown), and I was right.

Starting today, you can  at  and secure access (receiving your Beta code today) to the most anticipated Beta (so says GameStop) The Public Beta access begins on April 25th and ends May 15th! The good news is if you did buy Bulletstorm (Xbox 360 only) that you get early access to the Beta, beginning April 18th. A full week earlier than anyone else.

You won’t be getting bored with this Beta. Epic will be rolling out three new multiplayer modes and four exclusive maps during the Beta period, all running on dedicated servers I may add! The PlayStation fanboys can’t say the Xbox 360 doesn’t have dedicated servers anymore. OK, maybe the Xbox 360 has had a few other games with dedicated servers but not a game of this magnitude!

Exclusice Beta Unlockables

I have taken part in quite a few Beta testings over the years and always thought they should have achievements or something to show off to your friends you were in the Beta. Epic Games is doing just that, at least in game. All Beta participants will receive a Beta Tester Medal and become eligible to earn the Thrashball Cole, Gold-Plated Retro Lancer and more!

To earn this medal, all you have to do is “Complete one match in the Beta to unlock the Beta Tester medal, which will carry over to your gamer profile in Gears of War 3″. Looks pretty sweet!

How do you become eligible to earn the Thrashball Cole and Gold-Plated Retro Lancer? Read on!!

Thrashball Cole Unlock Thrashball Cole to play as Augustus Cole as he was before Emergence Day—a legendary Thrashball athlete known for his ferocious, flamboyant style. Complete 50 matches in any game type to unlock for the Beta period. To retain this unlockable for your Gears of War 3 gamer profile, complete 10 matches as Thrashball Cole during the Beta period.

Gold-Plated Retro Lancer Before the chainsaw bayonet was deployed at the beginning of the Locust-Human war, the original Lancer assault rifle had a large fixed blade. Complete 90 matches in any game type to unlock for the Beta period. To retain this unlockable for your Gears of War 3 gamer profile, score 100 kills with the Gold-Plated Retro Lancer during the Beta period.

Wait, there’s more!!

• Flaming Hammerburst – Complete one match by Sunday, April 24 to permanently unlock. Did you notice the date? Only those that bought Bulletstorm will be getting this unlockable. Feel better now for buying Bulletstorm?
• Flaming Lancer – Complete one match during the week of April 25 to permanently unlock.
• Flaming Sawed-Off Shotgun – Complete one match during the week of May 2 to permanently unlock.
• Flaming Gnasher Shotgun – Complete one match during the week of May 9 to permanently unlock.

or head down to your local Gamestop, EBGames or otherparticipating retailers if you want to get in on all the Beta Epicness!!

So who’s looking forward to the Gears of War 3 Beta?

Follow Staff Sgt. Blackburn and his team of U.S. Marines into the bad part of town in this first installment of the Battlefield 3 Fault Line video series.

There’s a lot of mayhem and madness going on in these screens and fans of the series will enjoy viewing them.

The game releases in March 19 in UK and in April in the US, exclusively for PS3.