First place this month: Telrse - 30 Pwnage Points
Second place this month: Bennyboy - 20 Pwnage Points
Third place this month: Phill1393 - 10 Pwnage Points

and first place overall: Telrse - 25 points
Congrats to Josh for another first place, and to Bennyboy and Phill for the runners-up spots.

Solve exciting criminal cases on the mean streets as member of the autobahn police force, or freely explore the open game world while chasing down high-octane racers. Escort politicians, transport precious goods or take down the criminal element with over 500HP and close to 200MPH.

•   5 huge criminal cases to solve with up to 10 missions each - or freely pursue crimes in the game world.
•   Many bonus assignments, more than 40 new tracks.
•   Over 20 AI cars with visual damage system.
•   Spectacular pileups with impressive and realistic graphics.
•   3 different difficulty settings.
•   Additional tasks and mini games are hidden to be discovered.

Fight your way through the streets of a zombie infested city to save the survivors... Your car is your weapon as you race through the streets smashing everything on your way including fences, phone booths, street lamps and hordes of zombies. When they become too much to handle, buy a new car or get more guns and upgrades installed.

•   17 story missions with sub-quests and bonus objectives.
•   Huge, free roaming city, infested by thousands of brain hungry zombies, just waiting to be explored.
•   6 different cars, each with 9 different upgrades, which can transform even an innocent Taxi into a Chariot of Death.
•   All cars can be mounted with miniguns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers or even dual railguns.
•   All weapons have 3 upgrade levels which come with unique features.
•   Dynamic combo system with tricks and hordes of zombies to try it on.
•   Many vicious zombie types including even zombie dogs.

Zero Gear - Mario Kart style game, with multiple maps and mini-games.

Chains - simple puzzle game, along the lines of Puyo Puyo/Dr Robotnik but with free-flowing bubble physics in place of a rigid grid.

Alien Shooter series - isometric third-person shooters. Clear the alien invasion.

Zombie Shooter - Alien Shooter but with zombies.

First place this month: Dark_Knight - 30 Pwnage Points
Second place this month: Bennyboy - 20 Pwnage Points
Third place this month: Phill1393 - 10 Pwnage Points

and first place overall: Joshikinz - 25 points

First place this month: Telrse with 130.332 skillpoints - 30 Pwnage Points
Second place this month: Dark_Knight with 115,282 skillpoints - 20 Pwnage Points
Third place this month: Apockolips with 94,298 skillpoints - 10 Pwnage Points

and first place overall: Telrse - 25 points

The skillpoints are lower this month than recently, which looks like being due to the release of Modern Warfare 2 - everyone's playing that instead. Of course if it had dedicated servers, we would have added it to the stats, but that's unfortunately impossible.

Set in the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning Left 4 Dead, the #1 co-op game of 2008.

This co-op action horror FPS takes you through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive campaigns.

You'll play as one of 4 new survivors armed with a wide and devastating array of classic and upgraded weapons. In addition to firearms, you'll also get a chance to take out some aggression on infected with a variety of carnage-creating melee weapons, from chainsaws to axes and even the deadly frying pan. You'll be putting these weapons to the test against (or playing as in Versus) three horrific and formidable new Special Infected. You'll also encounter five new "uncommon" common infected, including the terrifying Mudmen.

•   Over 20 new weapons & items headlined by over 10 melee weapons - axe, chainsaw, frying pan, baseball bat - allow you to get up close with the zombies.
•   New survivors. New story. New dialogue.
•   Five expansive campaigns for co-operative, Versus and Survival game modes, plus a new multiplayer mode.
•   Uncommon common infected. Each of the five new campaigns contains at least one new "uncommon common" zombies which are exclusive to that campaign.

It's gone down well so far - those who've tried it seem to love it.

Just a couple of things to be aware of:

(1) Because it's been given a legally-binding 18 rating by the BBFC (the British Board of Film Classification), and due to some its content, the single-player mode is available only to members over the age of 18.

(2) Your "profile" is your Steam account, so the only way to rank up yourself is to have your own copy of the game and log into your own account when you're here. Your profile is saved online, so the game picks it up wherever you log in. If you don't have your own account, you can log in with one of Crossfire's accounts.

Yes, another one. There's now Demigod (full of bugs), Heroes of Newerth (looking great but not due to be released for a while yet), Bloodline Champions (again not due to be released for a while, but trying to combine action and RPG elements into DotA), and League of Legends, a new free version that also tries to add elements from MMORPGs into DotA. If you enjoy DotA, you'll soon be spoilt for choice.

The League of Legends development team contains Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, who originally created DotA Allstars in 2004, before handing it over to its current developer IceFrog in 2005. DotA Allstars was a heavily expanded version of the original Defense of the Ancients map for Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, after The Frozen Throne expansion was released. Guinsoo has used his learnings from DotA Allstars to help create this new game, which is free to download and play, and is to have in-game extras that can be bought via micro-transactions.

Empire At War
Real-time strategy. As you build, manage and progress your space- and ground-based units, troops and vehicles, memorable Star Wars hero characters will begin playing a role in key situations. In addition to the single-player campaign, the game includes a 2-player Empire vs. Rebellion mode and up to 8-player online/LAN skirmish modes.

Battlefront
First-person shooter based on Battlefield 1942. Single-player and multiplayer modes - up to 32 players over the Internet or 64 via LAN.

Republic Commando
Squad-based FPS that lets you explore the elite world of the Star Wars military. Based on the Unreal engine with some elements taken from the Rainbow Six series. Single and multiplayer modes (up to 16 players via Internet/LAN).

Knights of the Old Republic
Single-player RPG, with customisable and evolving playable characters and fast paced mini-games, such as racing swoop bikes or manning turret guns.

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
A first- and third-person shooter, powered by the Quake III Team Arena game engine. It primarily revolves around ranged and melee combat, including such classic Star Wars weapons as blasters, lightsabers and Force powers.

Set in the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning Left 4 Dead, the #1 co-op game of 2008.

This co-op action horror FPS takes you through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive campaigns.

You'll play as one of 4 new survivors armed with a wide and devastating array of classic and upgraded weapons. In addition to firearms, you'll also get a chance to take out some aggression on infected with a variety of carnage-creating melee weapons, from chainsaws to axes and even the deadly frying pan. You'll be putting these weapons to the test against (or playing as in Versus) three horrific and formidable new Special Infected. You'll also encounter five new "uncommon" common infected, including the terrifying Mudmen.

•   Over 20 new weapons & items headlined by over 10 melee weapons - axe, chainsaw, frying pan, baseball bat - allow you to get up close with the zombies.
•   New survivors. New story. New dialogue.
•   Five expansive campaigns for co-operative, Versus and Survival game modes, plus a new multiplayer mode.
•   Uncommon common infected. Each of the five new campaigns contains at least one new "uncommon common" zombies which are exclusive to that campaign.
•   Stats, rankings, and awards system - not sure of the details of this yet!

The game comprises two factions that battle against one another. The factions, the Hellbourne and the Legion, offer players a wide variety of unique heroes that the player controls in the game. The heroes of each faction are organized into three categories; strength, intelligence and agility. Currently there are 26 heroes on the Legion side, and 27 on the Hellbourne side. Every hero comes with their own unique style of play and their own animations and sounds, much like in DotA. Although many of the heroes were directly transferred from DotA, there are a few new ones as well.

Each unique hero has four special abilities that help them with their conquest of the opposing faction's base. Heroes start at level 1 but can eventually reach level 25, depending on how long the game lasts. Each faction has its own base on opposing sides of the map and these bases each contain numerous buildings, the most important being the barracks, towers, and one guardian building which ends the game when destroyed. These guardian structures, however, are heavily guarded by "creeps" and numerous towers - to destroy one, a team must "push" through at least one lane and destroy all 3 towers in that lane. Once all three towers in a lane are destroyed, the team has the option of destroying the ranged and melee barracks, then the two towers that directly defend the guardian structure. Only then can you attack the guardian structure itself.

There are also bug fixes including improved collision detection, improved attack animations, improved headshot detection, removal of known exploits on all official maps, and improved healing tool functionality - no more "false positives" where the healing animation plays but no actual healing occured.

All in all a massive new update. New weapons, a new perk (player class), a new Specimen, a heal dart - with this medics can now heal from a distance - and all the rest. I'm looking forward to playing this game even more :)

Experience the thrill of flight. Soar to great heights and battle in the open skies of Aion. Flying in Aion is not just a way to travel--it is a strategic and integral part of the game that adds a new dynamic to all aspects of the genre, including combat, quests, exploration, and harvesting.

Engage in visceral combat. Engage in a spectacular and evolving combat system utilizing combos, skill chains, counter-attacks and stunning aerial combat. Group with friends or fly solo in the Abyss, where attacks can come from any direction. Experience the thrill of combat like never before.

Unprecedented customization. Totally customize your character through an incredibly in-depth character creation tool, advanced crafting systems and extensive item customization. Take individuality to a new level with the innovative Stigma system, allowing characters to utilize and combine skills and abilities not normally available to that particular character’s class.

Set 50 years after the climactic events of the original Red Faction, Red Faction: Guerrilla allows players to take the role of an insurgent fighter with the newly re-established Red Faction movement as they battle for liberation from the oppressive Earth Defense Force. Destruction-based gameplay with a huge open-world, fast-paced guerrilla-style combat, and true physics-based destruction.

Open World Guerrilla Warfare - you decide who, when, where and how to battle. Utilize guerrilla tactics, improvised weaponry, and modified vehicles to lead insurgent attacks on EDF targets. Launch attacks based on your own gameplay style, take on missions in any order you choose, or engage in destructive activities to weaken the EDF's grip on Mars.

Strategic Destruction. Use destruction to your tactical advantage, setting ambushes or chain reaction explosions to attack enemy strongholds and permanently modify the game environment. Leverage fully-dynamic physics-based destruction to improvise on the fly: blow holes in a wall or floor to set an ambush or escape, take out a staircase to stop your pursuers, or drive vehicles through blown out walls.

Evolving & Emergent Gameplay. Carve your path through an ever changing landscape as you improvise your combat tactics - mixing gameplay styles, vehicles, weapons and explosives to defeat the EDF.

Epic Sci-Fi Setting. Explore the huge, unforgiving Martian landscape, from the desolate mining outpost of Parker to the gleaming EDF capital city of Eos; then tear through the fully destructible open-world environments swarming with EDF forces, Red Faction resistance fighters, and the downtrodden settlers caught in the crossfire.

Multiplayer Combat. There is no place to hide when you put your guerrilla warfare skills to the test in a variety of highly destructive multiplayer combat modes.

First place this month: Telrse with 877,798 skillpoints - 30 Pwnage Points
Second place this month: GizmoDuck with 335,292 skillpoints - 20 Pwnage Points
Third place this month: Pwnstar with 324,915 skillpoints - 10 Pwnage Points

and first place overall: Telrse - 25 points

Very well done all.

The old ones we're taking out each have:
• Athlon 64 3700+ processor
• 1GB DDR RAM
• 250GB hard drive
• Geforce 7900GT 256MB graphics card

These are available for £249 without a monitor, or £299 with one of the 17" silver and black TFTs of the type we have on the ground floor.

We're also making a few available without the graphics cards, with their onboard Geforce 6150 graphics instead, as home/office PCs - for internet access/office work etc - for £199 without monitor, or £249 with one of those same 17" TFTs.

They've all been cleaned out (which we do every few months anyway), the parts fully tested, Windows reinstalled and brought fully up to date (including IE8), and had the essential bits and pieces installed (Firefox 3.5, Flash and Shockwave players, PDF reader, that stuff). The ones with the gaming graphics cards run Battlefield 2, Counter-Strike Source, DOTA, Call of Duty 4 etc, very well; we're guessing that they'll run Modern Warfare 2 at medium-low detail levels when that comes out in November, but as they haven't released the minimum specs yet it's impossible to know for certain.