One of the most frequently asked questions I get is “how do I get into a beta?” Most of the time, it’s a long process of signing up for beta months in advance and then waiting for an answer. Other times it’s a little easier if you get on a beta list but mostly it’s a pain to get starting.

This is all true but if you want to get into the Xbox 360 beta for Blur, the new racer from Bizarre Creations all you have to do is ask. The good people at Bizarre Creations send me 20 beta keys. To get one all these hot codes all you have to do it email me at moderngamergiveaways (at) gmail dot com and I’ll send you a code and all the instructions for the beta which starts on Monday.

What would the summer be without QuakeCon? For fans of id Software it would be pretty dull. So make your calendars because it’s time again to plan a trip to Texas and one of the world’s largest LAN parties.

This year QuakeCon will take place from August 12 through August 15, 2010 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel - Dallas, Texas. More information should be release in the coming weeks. For now you can visit www.quakecon.org for the latest information. 

Today, Valve announced Portal 2. The game is set to be released the holiday season but there is little other information.

In the statement issued by Valve there was more information about the company, it’s games and the first Portal’s 70+ industry awards than the new game. So basically Valve just wants everyone to know that they are working on the game and we should know more later this year.
 

I’ll be honest, I didn’t think too much about Halo Reach until today. I had seen some screen shots of the game but it didn’t grab me like the other Halo titles. This all changed with the release of this new multiplayer trailer. From start to finish this video is screaming “buy me.” From the weapons to the jet pack I can’t find a bad thing to say or think about this new game. If you don’t believe me, watch the video for yourself.

Bad news RockStar Games fans, the next installment in the Red Dead series just got pushed back a few weeks. The game’s new release date is May 18th, 2010.

This is a pretty frustrating situation but RockStar Games is confidently stating that this will be the final release date for the game. I guess we’ll all see on May 16th, 2010.

Today, a slew of websites began displayed several images of popular Valve characters in parodies of Apple ads. These teaser images continue to fuel rumors that Steam is heading to the Mac. So even though there’s no official announcement of Mac OSX getting Steam power it’s pretty obvious that a proper conformation is only days away.

While there are many of these images available for display I decided to go with an image that was sent to Macworld. In the image Alyx of Half-Life 2 fame replaces the central figure in the classic 1984 Apple commercial. Of all the images released today I think this is best mix of iconic Valve and Apple imagery.

For a well written timeline on today’s image releases, visit Macrumors for full details. 

The shake ups continue at Activision. Yesterday the news was all doom and gloom over at Infinity Ward with two senior employees losing their jobs. A short 24 hours later and Activision is reworking the entire Call of Duty franchise and brand. These changes are for the most part bold but after the yesterday’s events they sound necessary.

Today Activision issued a press release that details the many changes to the Call of Duty brand. Hopefully all the information will be easy to understand.

Some acquisitions are obvious and some are long overdue. In the case of Sony and Media Molecule, it’s a little of both. Today it was report that Media Molecule, maker of the hit PS3 title, Little Big Planet was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment.

This new acquisition will pave the way for new content from the team behind one of Sony’s flagship titles. However there is no news on any new games in the works from Media Molecule but this does secure an interesting future from the UK based studio.

Yesterday it was reported on G4’s The Feed that large bouncer type men were sent to the Infinity Ward offices by Activision. When these man arrived at the offices unannounced and when questioned as to the reason for their arrival they were unresponsive. As it turns out these intimidating men were sent by Activision to remove the studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West. Both man had been fired and were asked to leave the premise.

As strange as this may sound it only gets stranger from here on out. Later in a Facebook status update by Jason West it was confirmed that he was in fact unemployed and currently drinking. Later Infinity Ward’s community manager later addressed the issue on his twitter by saying “I should also say, while I appreciate all the calls, tweets, messages and hearing my ringtone alot. They're in vain - as I have no info.”

This is however not the end to Activision’s problems. Right now it it’s starting to look like Activision has conducted a human resource investigation into "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward." It looks like this may be the tip of a very large iceberg of the World’s largest video game publisher.

While this story is fairly bizarre it will be interesting to watch it turn into a legal matter. Hopefully there were will be more news on this in the near future.

Source: G4

Problems affect different people in different ways. For some the PS3 Error: 8001050F mess may not have been a problem. However for this guy, he couldn’t take the stress of one day without his beloved PS3.

Luckily we can all laugh with him as he takes anger out on camera. I just want to thank the guy for a good laugh and let him know that all the problems should be fix.