Xbox 360 Features

So you’ve conquered Albion, gained the love or ire of your subjects, tracked down every key, gnome, book, and flower, and you still want more? Lionhead Studios figured as much and released the Understone Quest Pack to further fuel your need to interact with strangers, run fetch quests to gain their affection and fight hoards of reanimated skeletons. Oh, and you get some free new weapons too...

If there were a list of Rules for Videogames, the #1 rule would have to be, “Always make cutscenes skippable.” But the number two rule may very well be, “Don't play games based on movies.” It's a truth that's been self-evident rarely without exception ever since ET stunk up the Atari 2600.

But Rule #2's been in for some revision lately, as GoldenEye-shaped aberrations and Butcher Bay-escaping anomalies defy the “movie games are crap” truism. Maybe the way to make a non-terrible adaptation is to hold off until you're sure you have a classic property on your hands. Given movie games’ review history, the simple act of getting them to a stage where people say they’re “well-executed” or “worth the price” is a pretty big step...

What is Bungie working on, now that the developers are finally done with Halo? The answer is still a closely guarded secret, of course, but I can tell you one thing with 100% certainty – they're working on it here.

This is Bungie's brand new home, an ultra-sleek, ultra-modern and ultra-geeky office building filled with toys, statues, trophies, replica weapons, wearable armor… and very intimidating security guards. Few people are allowed to visit this videogame mecca. Thanks to my behind-the-scenes photo tour, however, you can consider yourself one of them. Let's head inside!

You can't play Halo: Reach's new multiplayer maps until November 30, when they're released to fans for free. Until next week, you can't learn each layout, memorize each weapon location or study each possible strategy.

You can't… but Bungie can, and has. For months, and for hundreds of hours, the developers who created these maps have thought through their every nuance and detail. They know how to win (or lose) on them by heart.

Care to share that expert knowledge, before the maps are even released? Read on as Eric Osborne from Bungie gives you 12 tips for complete multiplayer domination...

I love F1 2010. But I also love OutRun. Sadly, it's impossible to play them both at the same time - thumbs get tangled, engine noises clash... it just isn't going to work. But what if the two were combined? What if you could play a single lap of Sao Paulo, overtaking the entire field with Magical Sound Shower blaring from the speakers? Driving a Ferrari, of course. Well, we've made that a reality. Just for one fleeting moment of racing perfection.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (or Ass Broz as we're lovingly calling it around the office) is finally here, and it's got a load of additional content and collectibles for the interpid gamer to hunt down. In fact there's so much stuff to collect and complete that we've got multiple Ass Broz guides to help you out this week. Oh and there's some Black Ops stuff in there for ya as well.

By now, it's possible you've found every flag, feather and treasure chest Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood has to offer. But there are 10 more hidden collectibles that aren't quite so easy to find - and are a whole hell of a lot more fun when you do. The Clusters are Brotherhood's answer to Assassin's Creed II's Glyphs - hidden puzzles left behind by Desmond's mysterious, possibly insane predecessor, Subject 16. And while they're not quite as numerous or as challenging as those were, they're still worth hunting down, especially since doing so unravels a little more of Assassin's Creed's weird, conspiracy-laden backstory...

Thanks a bunch, Christopher Nolan. Ever since Batman Begins took the universally-reviled cinematic bastardization of a cool character and redrew it in the drab colors and long shadows of The Dark Knight Returns, the “gritty reboot” has been back in fashion. In Hollywood-speak, the term's a nice way of saying “we've screwed this up, can we have a do-over?” Of course, games being a forward-looking sort of medium, players have been wise to this trick for years now – and we're still suckers for it.

Whether it's a deeper-'n-darker sequel or restarting from scratch, rejigging your series with a darker palette and more distorted guitars is a great way to draw attention to what might otherwise be just more sequel-abuse. But how well does it work? From a player's perspective, a gray coat of paint is hardly going to turn gameplay upside down... but from a “cataloguing the tricks they'll pull to sell a new installment” standpoint, dark reboots are just gravy...

Virtual children are undoubtedly worse than the real thing. Diminutive, shrill and noisy, you can’t even send them to the naughty step when they’re misbehavin’. We’re used to solving our videogame problems with violence, but due to standards of ‘good taste’, that approach isn't generally allowed with young-uns. Often voiced by high-pitched women because kids can’t act, they also tend to look…weird – like shrunken adults. Because of this, we’ve put together a list of youngsters in games whose toys we’d love to take away, but can’t.

Much like the six assassin’s tombs found throughout Assassin’s Creed 2, there are six Lairs of Romulus scattered across the world of Brotherhood, each containing a deep, dark secret (and a bunch of dudes dressed like Lassie). Finding your way to the treasure at the end of each lair is reasonably easy, but can you do it like Ezio would have and achieve full synchronization? We’ve put together a guide to help, just in case you’re not a natural born killer.

For the timed lair runs, a good tip to remember is to position the camera in the direction you intend to leap before making each jump. True you can be a bit quicker if you don’t, but it’s not worth making a mistake and having to start the entire run over.