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Ubisoft have decided to give fans an early taster of what to expect from Splinter Cell: Conviction in the form of a demo.

Sam Fisher's long awaited return is due in April but Xbox 360 owners will have the chance to get their hands on a snippet of the finished game on Xbox Live Marketplace from March 18th.

Ubisoft's Tony Key says: "Splinter Cell was the franchise that defined third person action adventure games on the Xbox and we believe that Conviction will revolutionize the genre on Xbox 360. We are thrilled gamers will be able to get a little taste of why we are so excited about Conviction's release in April."

Splinter Cell: Conviction is due out in North America on April 13th and April 16th in Europe for PC and Xbox 360.

ThatGameCompany have made it clear they will not have another game out until 2011 at the very earliest.

After taking the award for Best Downloadable at this year's GDC for the achingly beautiful Flower, ThatGameCompany's creative director Jenova Chen told Kotaku the sad news.

When asked if they'd have another game out by next year Chen replied simply: "2011? We are not going to have a game by 2011."

Despite being pleased with their award for Flower, Chen went on to emphasise what really matters in their development philosophy. He added: "What I care about is actually people who played it and how they felt about it."

To be fair that is probably why Flower won this year's award.

2K Games have announced release dates for the Borderlands DLC double-pack that they have coming out soon.

The double-pack will feature Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot and The Zombie Island of Dr Ned on a single disc for PC and Xbox 360.

Despite the DLC being available on PSN, there seems to be no plans for the double-pack to be released on PS3.

Nevertheless the double-pack will release in North America on April 6th and April 9th everywhere else.

Thanks Joystiq.

The latest NPD sales figures are out and Electronic Arts must be feeling pretty pleased with themselves as they are ruling the PC charts.

Of the top ten selling PC games in the US, Electronic Arts publish a whopping six of them.

With the Sims 3 still topping the chart and Mass Effect 2 camping out at number 2 it is pretty difficult for even the mighty Modern Warfare 2 to get a look in.

In fact, Modern Warfare 2 is kept out of the top 3 by the Sims 3 World Adventures expansion pack.

Most surprising though is that The Sims 2: Double Deluxe is still selling well enough to feature at number 5.

With Battlefield Bad Company 2 well and truly out there, PC gamers have been experiencing a few problems.

EA and DICE have endeavoured to solve the problems with a new patch now available to download for non-Steam players.

The patch seems to not to have solved the problems and indeed may have made things worse, however.

One forum user reported the following: "If any of you, dear fellow readers, is considering either to get this patch or not, you may shoot your foot as well, it was crappy before, now it's even worse. Cannot connect EA is a standard msg, server browser inoperative, cant even do the old trick when you pressed "Cancel" after refreshing servers list to get the result faster with more low-ping servers."

Fingers crossed that DICE are on the case.

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg has dismissed any notion that the Xbox 360 will suffer from its lack of Blu-ray drive.

In an interview with Edge, Greenberg pointed out that Microsoft is entirely devoted to the 360 becoming a digital delivery platform.

"For us, our bet was on digital distribution, that that was the future," said Greenberg. "The ability to do 1080p movies with no disc, no download required; we have the largest movie and TV library, the largest HD library of any console."

He continued: "Sure, there are trade-offs, but the convenience of pushing a button and watching a movie instantly is, we think, pretty appealing. The great thing is that we built the heart of the Xbox 360 for continuous innovation. We can always add more features and functionality, and you don't have to buy new hardware to do that. You can do it through software updates."

The success of the new updates to the Xbox Dashboard are already a testament to early successes for this strategy.

Greenberg finished off by saying: "Someone who buys a 360 today can know that one, two, or three years from now they will get a whole variety of new experiences that make it better through Xbox Live. That sort of thing has never existed before in our industry."

Sony, being the proud braggards they are, they have been showing off the new box art for ModNation Racers over on their official blog.

As well as nifty box art they have finally allowed themselves to be pinned down on a release date for their quirky new racer.

After teasing for a long time, ModNation racers has been given the green light for a US release on March 25th.

European Product Manager for SCEE, Liam Quigley, added: "I wanted to let you know say that we are aiming to release ModNation Racers across PAL regions during the same week. I will confirm this as soon as I can..."

At the very least ModNation Racers will be out on PS3 and PSP on Friday May 28th. Now, if only they will confirm a release date for GT5...

With all the rumours flying around that Gears of War 3 is to be expected on April 8th, 2011, Sony have decided that they will not be upstaged.

Accompanying the Gears 3 rumour is one that Killzone 3 will also be released in April 2011, two years after Killzone 2 blasted its way onto PS3.

The rumours surfacing on 1UP are contrary to the information that we received from a source inside Sony saying that Killzone 3 is destined for a Christmas release.

Given that both Move and GT5 have been strategically delayed to throw sizeable spanners into Microsoft's plans for the festive period, Killzone 3 coming out alongside Gears 3 is not unrealistic.

We are expecting more on Killzone 3 at E3 this year especially with our sources telling us that it is 3D and Move-enabled. This might be a show-stopper.

Square Enix has finally given a North American street date for the eagerly awaited Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.

The latest instalment of the multi-million selling Kingdom Hearts story is due out stateside this summer hopefully heralding a subsequent European release.

Birth By Sleep is the fifth game in the series and Square claim that it is the most advanced yet, including four new multiplayer modes.

The North American version also adds an extra boss and a smattering of multiplayer options onto the original Japanese version which came out in January.

Development legend Goichi Suda, also known as Suda 51, has been teasing fans ahead of No More Heroes 2's European Wii release.

In an interview with NowGamer, Suda 51 said that there was always the possibility of doing another game even though Travis Touchdown's story seems to be at an end in No More Heroes 2.

Suda said: "I want to conclude Travis Touchdown's story with this game. But No More Heroes 2 is really for fans of the first one, so if I get a lot of response from the fans asking for a No More Heroes 3 - and as long as Rising Star make a lot of sales (glances at Rising Star PR) - then it's possible that we could do a third game."

He seems to have taken a lead from Hideo Kojima in bowing to fan pressure to keep the story alive, adding: "I think the reason that Kojima keeps on making Metal Gear Solid games is because he gets so many requests from his fans, and people who want to see more Snake. If people sincerely want to see more Travis Touchdown, I think it's my responsibility to meet their requests."

You heard it. If you want No More Heroes 3 all you have to do is ask.

With Yakuza 4 yet to be released - the game appears on shelves later this week - Sega is already teasing a follow up without waiting to see how the game sells.

Andriasang interpreted a story posted by Famitsu that describes vague references to a Yakuza sequel issued by Sega.

Entitled "Project K," the game apparently continues the story of Yakuza's protagonist. The end of the teaser trailer shown by Sega quips, "A new challenge for Ryu ga Gotoku starts."

While it's admirable that Sega is supporting the series, perhaps it would be prudent to wait and see how Yakuza 4 performs before committing to a big sequel.

A similar situation has been noted with another Sega game, Alpha Protocol, in which developer Obsidian Entertainment claimed interest in a sequel ahead of the game's summer release.

The most popular PSP franchise is getting another instalment later this year, as Capcom announces Monster Hunter Portable 3rd for release on the handheld in Japan.

The announcement doesn't come as a surprise given the enormous popularity of the series. Both previous iterations on PSP have outsold every other game on the portable, racking up millions in sales.

According to Siliconera, the game will offer new monsters, weapons, items, locales, and a revamped combat system. How about simplifying those ridiculous controls too?

A US and UK release aren't mentioned in the announcement, though it's expected that Capcom will reveal plans to publish the game in these regions during E3 in June.

Just as copies of God of War III go on sale in the US, Sony is falling victim to a shortage of PS3 consoles that are likely to impact overall sales of the mammoth action game.

The LA Times writes about the dwindling PS3 stock and its potential impact on God of War III sales. For some, the game presents a reason for purchasing a PS3; however, without the console in stock, such sales could be lost.

Sony Computer Entertainment America President Jack Tretton told the newspaper, "It's not ideal, I won't kid you. But I firmly believe we'll get our hardware back in stock and keep selling God of War III for a long time."

God of War III is now available for PS3 in the US, with a UK release slated for Friday.

In confirming the US release date for PSP stealth-action sequel Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Konami revealed support for online multiplayer via PS3 adhocParty.

Peace Walker is the first major game to tout adhocParty mode support prior to release, which is of course a good thing since it guarantees online multiplayer on day one.

Even better, said multiplayer mode is cooperative. Entitled CO-OPS, the mode has both players sharing ammunition, medical supplies, and covering for each other to progress through unique scenarios.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will be available for PSP on June 8 in the US with a UK release expected the same week.

Wii has played host to a number of family-friendly games and that's because Nintendo admits to specialising in this type of content in lieu of the inability to create compelling mature games.

Don't take our word for it - Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime said as much in an interview with IndustryGamers. Specifically, Fils-Aime pointed to BioShock 2 as an example of the kind of games Nintendo isn't good at making.

And we also recognise that we don't create that type of content ourselves. We're not good at it and it's not a key focus area"

While Metroid: Other M is being billed by Nintendo has a mature title, Fils-Aime's point underscores the difference between games like it and more elaborate hardcore titles such as BioShock 2 and Assassin's Creed II.