Blizzard invited 100,000 more North American players to the Diablo III beta. Check your Battle.net accounts to see if they were chosen.

Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning will features 5 distinct factions, 4 playable races, and 3 class trees with 22 abilities per tree. The 4 playable races are the Almain who are noble Humans, the Ljosalfar the Light Elves, the Dokkalfar the Dark Elves, and the Varani who are nomadic Humans. The 3 class trees are Might, Finesse, and Sorcery. They correspond to the fighter, rogue, and mage classes respectively.

• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Pre-load Available) [Download]
• List Price: $59.99
• Price: $50.99
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Rockstar Games has announced the official Max Payne 3 website. The official Max Payne 3 website will have all the Max Payne 3 news, videos, downloads. You can pre-order it ($59.99 for the standard edition). You can also find out more about the 608 Bull weapons that will be in the upcoming game.

• Max Payne 3
• List Price: $59.99
• Price: $59.96
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Get ready for some Office warfare with this Ballista Kit. They may have Nerf guns, but you can go Medieval with this Balista kit. It’s $22 and there is some assembly required(see picture below).

Some Assembly Required:

• Ballista Kit
• List Price:
• Price: $18.95
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• Desktop Warfare Kits (Catapult)
• List Price:
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Zynga went public and now plans to fund 2 billion dollars into global expansion. Facebook has completed its Credits transition, establishing itself as a prime gaming platform. Google is now joining the ranks with Google +. What is the future of the social gaming market, come 2012? Let’s take a look.

1. Advent Of Platform Independent Games
Gaming devices such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire among tablets are cross platform. By using a cloud-based gaming service, gaming device manufacturers can open up their APIs so that game developers can develop platform independent games. This means that users can play on their tablets while on the move and continue the same game at home on their computer via Facebook.

2. Expansion In Social Gaming Due To Mobile Phones
Social media and mobile gaming consolidation continues, what with Zynga and Nexon going public and spending billions of dollars in this area. Electronic Arts and Disney, not to be left behind, are also acquiring and expanding their market shares in the social and mobile gaming spaces. Facebook’s platform changes alter the way social games reach users. Further changes are expected, and with Google+ joining the fray, social gaming’s expansion into mobile phones is a done deal.

3. Smartphones And Tablets Becoming The New Gaming Consoles
Forget gaming consoles; get yourself a tablets or a smartphone. With iPhones and Android smartphones coming with multitouch screens now, they don’t need a touchpad or trackball to play games. Of course, this won’t satisfy a true gaming fan, but for people on the move, tablets and smartphones are the new gaming devices.

The graphics quality is mind-blowing, apart from the fabulous experience of gaming on a multi-touch tablet. Gaming companies such as Zynga, Atari and Electronic Arts are coming up with new games aimed at tablets and smartphones.

Mobile devices are becoming more powerful, with casual and social gaming creating a new generation of gamers. There’s no specific demographic when it comes to mobile social gaming. Young people, both male and female, middle aged job holders, homemakers – anyone who has a smartphone or a tablet is joining the fray. Look at this example – out of the 10 billion Android applications downloaded, 2.5 billion have been games. That’s just a small indication of the way things are going to be in the gaming world in 2012.

4. The Advent Of Kinect for Windows
The Kinect for Windows commercial program will be accompanied by Windows-specific Kinect hardware, to enable PC-centric scenarios. Kinect for Windows tracks both voice and human motion, as close as 40-50 centimeters. This means users can communicate with computers using true virtual keyboards, facial expressions and hand-gestures. You might have seen this sort of thing only in sci-fi movies in the past! Kinect for Xbox has succeeding in revolutionizing gaming, and one can expect no less for the Windows environment in 2012.

5. Launch Of Blockbuster Games
Several blockbuster games are coming out, to take advantage of the slew of gaming devices to be released in 2012. Some of the more famous ones are Halo 4, with Master Chief returning to face an ancient evil, Mass Effect 3 with its Commander Shepard, Diablo III, Twisted Metal and so on. The award winning game Bioshock: Infinite is due to be released in 2012; it already has dedicated audiences waiting for it. Other must-play games for 2012 are Final Fantasy XIII-2, Grand Theft Auto V, Resident Evil Revelations, Borderlands 2, and Max Payne 3.

6. Fabulous New Gaming Devices
Gaming consoles are not just for gaming anymore. They are multi-tasking, becoming multi-purpose, high end gadgets. With the upcoming gaming consoles of 2012, you can broaden your entertainment scope beyond into movies, music and even sports. Major channels such as Netflix, ESPN and Hulu are already planning to gear their content for gaming consoles. Here are the major gaming consoles coming up in 2012.

7. Sony PlayStation Vita
The Vita is expected to hit Europe and North America sometime in February. Sony has already sold more than 320,000 units in Japan alone. Graphics promise to be beefier and user experience more intense with interactive touchscreens both on the front and back. Similar to the PlayStation 3 controllers, the Vita has dual analog sticks.

8. Nintendo Wii U
This console comes with 1080p high-definition graphics, controller embedded touchscreen to make it independent of TV and enable interaction with other Wii Us. The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2011 saw a Nintendo Wii U prototype, with the full release in June 2012 in LA.

9. Xbox 720
Xbox 720 from Microsoft may combine as a digital video recorder, enabling gamers to record media content on their gaming consoles. One could record online and offline gaming experiences apart from everything else. While recording, users can choose to switch their time between gaming, TV and so on.

This article is written by Dean – Dean is a conversion rate optimization expert and helps businesses in improving conversion rate and optimizing their landing pages. Invesp is also offering free landing page templates that have been tested for high conversion rate.