New Captain on the block John Terry of England is the cover boy for Pro Evolution Soccer 6. This will the second time (first was last year's Pro Evolution Soccer 5) he'll be gracing the cover.

Why him yeh ask mate? 2004-2005: scored 8 goals; voted Player of the Year by fellow England players; was also chosen as a member of World XI at the FIFPro Awards; and voted best defender of the UEFA Champions League tournament. An obvious choice. No doubt that he is considered as one of the more talented defenders in the world; winning a second consecutive league title and earning the England's Captain armband just recently.

Naturally, he'll be present during the marketing of the game as will be others like Adriano, Brazil's striker extraordinaire. Konami Digital seems serious in getting the right players to get for this game. But does he enjoy playing the game he's promoting? According to Terry, "No other game can touch Pro Evolution Soccer 6 in terms of realism. The way the players move on and off the ball is second to none..." That's coming from England's Team Captain.

In a couple of months, we'll see if it's what he says it is.

LMA Manager 2007 (due September 22) isn't really a battle game. Not the kind with guns and bombs, anyway. The game involves creating the Dream Team and then letting it do maximum damage on the soccer field against your opponents.

LMA Manager 2007 takes football management game beyond monitoring tedious spreadsheets and into a graphically-rich, exciting and thoroughly gripping football management experience.

This X360 title has a realistic player transfer system with all-new transfer A.I. for more genuine contract negotiations that includes contract clauses, staggered payment options, player-swap deals, and transfers in advance. Exactly how managers sign up players in the real world!

Once you have formed your squad, your next move is to whip up your warriors into shape in the Training Match mode using all new field tactics that would come handy for the big game. With your players signed and trained, it's time to unleash the your players on the field. Don't be fooled. Soccer may be known as the Beautiful Game, but once the action starts it gets as ugly as any other war.

Every gamer is gearing up for a battle of supremacy as the World Cyber Games (WCG) announced that Aladdin Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, will host the 2006 WCG USA Championship Finals on September 15-17, 2006.

More than 175 of America's top PC and videogame players are scheduled to meet, compete, and play for the largest prize purse in WCG USA tournament history. -- a prize purse, which catapulted to over $75,000. Aside from the money, and the bragging rights, the winner would also have the chance to represent their country as members of Team USA at the WCG Grand Final in Monza, Italy.

The WCG USA this year is amping the ante as they will be providing multiple jumbo screens blasting all the e-Sports action and gaming commentators known as "shoutcasters" providing live play-by-play. Definitely, this is the ultimate crunch time for them gamers. Let's see if they will succeed or wither under pressure.

Also, celebrity appearances, music and entertainment, interactive booths from sponsors like Microsoft, Samsung, Shuttle and others will add to the Las Vegas spectacle, ensuring that the entertainment level is set to the max. At least if you don't win, you could still cheer yourself up.

WCG USA Championship admission is free and doors open at noon each day. But, if you ain't content with that, a limited number of Special VIP ticket reservations is available via email for the first 300 fans that send their complete names, addresses, and phone numbers to wcgfirst300@gmail.com. Fans on this Special "First 300" VIP list bypass any lines at the door and receive immediate entry to the event each day, as well as other onsite benefits.

The roster of official games for the WCG 2006 season consist of six PC games and two console games. The PC games are as follows: StarCraft: Brood War, Warcraft: Frozen Throne, Half-Life:Counter-Strike 1.6, Warhammer 40,000: Winter Assault, FIFA Soccer 06,  Need for Speed TM: Most Wanted. Console games would be Dead or Alive 4 and Project Gotham Racing 3.

Look who has taken some headbutting lessons from French soccer god Zinedine Zidane. Why, it's Sam Fisher! Just look at him demolish the entire Italian soccer team, one headbutt at a time. (We're lucky enough to be seeing this, thanks to poetayto for putting this up in YouTube.)

Ubisoft thinks that Marco Materazzi (the recipient of the headbutt) isn't the only one who deserves some good old chest-crushing headbutt from Sammy. Well, it's the only way to avenge France loss in the World Cup (Ubisoft is French company, in case you don't know).

Since they took time to hack Zidane headbutts into Splinter Cell: Double Agent, we're hoping that they actually make it to the final release of the game. An unlockable character ability, perhaps?

Dead Rising follows one scoop-hungry freelance photographer's journey, into a town where the only things hungry are its inhabitants that have become zombies. Frank West, trudges into the depths of Willamette Parkview Mall in pursuit of the scoop of a lifetime.

Armed only with his camera and various objects that he picks up at the mall, Frank battles zombies while trying to get the perfect shot. The object of the game is for him to take the best photo of someone being eaten alive, battling the undead or a family reunited in the thick of the bloodshed, in order for him to gain "prestige points." This also works as a level up for him, as he gets bonus points like additional life bar, weapon slot or combat skill.

Apart from main story missions, that will gain you access to more powerful weapons in the game, there are also mini games known as "scoops" that he has to accomplish to get more points and of course quality pictures. Also, try to take full advantage of the location. The mall is a very good place to shop for weapons, like CD cases that can be thrown at zombies like shurikens, a bucket that can be put over an enemy's head; and since it's the football season, a soccer ball, it may not be deadly, but it would sure be a lot of fun toppling over a corpse. Frank can also get some materials in the mall to improve his skills as a photographer, like books or instructional magazines.

Dead Rising is scheduled for release in North America this August and September in Europe. Thanks to Vecha for the heads up.

Here are the titles which topped the charts of the Xbox Live most played games for the week of 7/3/06, straight from Major Nelson himself;

(Xbox 360) Top Live Games
1) Call of Duty 2
2) Ghost Recon 3
3) Oblivion
4) BFMC
5) Prey Demo
6) Final Fantasy XI
7) EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 3
8) 2006 FIFA World Cup
9) PGR3
10) Perfect Dark Zero

(Original Xbox) Top Live Games
1) Halo 2
2) Battlefield 2: MC
3) Counter-Strike
4) Splinter Cell Chaos
5) Rainbow Six 3 BA
6) Star Wars: Battlefront 2
7) Pro Evolution Soccer 5
8) Madden NFL 2006
9) Forza Motorsport
10) Splinter Cell Chaos

Mr. Nelson apologized for not being able to give title-specific data, but he did say that if both lists were combined, Halo 2 would be number 1 on the chart (followed by all 360 games).

A whole bunch of Soccer themes and picture packs have become available on the Marketplace thanks to Universal Music Mobile. The themes and picture packs are for different countries so you can support your favorite country by having either a theme or picture pack. The themes cost the usual 150 Microsoft Points each and the picture packs cost 80 Microsoft Points. If you're really into soccer and don't like the 2006 FIFA World Cup picture packs and themes, head over to the Marketplace and check them out.

• Argentina Football Theme and Picture Pack
  
• Australia Football Theme and Picture Pack
• Brasil Football Theme and Picture Pack
• England Football Theme and Picture Pack
• Germany Football Theme and Picture Pack
• Italia Football Theme and Picture Pack
• Mexico Football Theme and Picture Pack
• Netherlands Football Theme and Picture Pack
• Portugal Football Theme and Picture Pack
• South Korea Theme and Picture Pack
• Espana Football Theme and Picture Pack
• Sweden Football Theme and Picture Pack
• Switzerland Football Theme and Picture Pack
• USA Soccer Theme and Picture Pack
• Angola- Cote d'lvoire- Togo- Tunisia Cameroon Picture Pack
• Croatia- Poland- Ukraine Picture Pack
• Bulgaria- Croatia- Czech- Lalvia- Russia Picture Pack
• France Football Picture Pack
• Mexico- Ecuador- Paraguay Picture Pack
  
• Algeria- Morocco- Tunisia Picture Pack

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U.K. Soccer champ Shaun Wright-Phillips will soon be taking time off the field to test his "virtual" skills against XBox Live members next week when he joins the XBox® Team for a Game With Fame session on its top soccer title, 2006 FIFA World Cup™ .  To get their shot at SW, XBox Live members should sign on and add Game With Fame Gamertags to their friends list. After that, go to XBox Live this coming Tuesday, 20 June between 5 and 7 pm GMT to see if you've been invited.

Microsoft touts its XBox 360 as "the most powerful video game and entertainment system, delivering the best games, the next generation of the premier Xbox Live online gaming service, and unique digital entertainment experiences."  The online  gaming service, XBox Live®, was launched in North America, Europe and Japan last year, with Columbia, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea added just this year.

With World Cup action heating up, how about trying out a soccer game as a warm up? But only if you're in Japan...

The demo of Love Football (since football is what most of the world calls "soccer") is now available on the Japanese region Xbox Live Marketplace.

However, users in other regions can grab the demo too, if you change your Xbox 360 region.

The demo runs about 600 MB. So go get your kicks!

Well there are a bunch of new picture packs for 2006 FIFA World Cup that just became available to download on the marketplace. Each of the picture packs looks to cover different parts of the World's soccer teams. The list is as follows:

• African Picture Pack: 100 Microsoft Points
  
• Asian Zone Picture Pack: 80 Microsoft Points,
• European Zone Picture Pack: 260 Microsoft Points
• North and Central American Picture Pack: 80 Microsoft Points
• Oceania Zone Picture Pack: 20 Microsoft Points
• South American Zone Picture Pack: 80 Microsoft Points
• All Zones Picture Pack, that should be a combined picture pack of all of the above backs, coming in at 500 Microsoft Points.

Go ahead and check them out if you are really into soccer, or if you just randomly want to get rid of your Microsoft points...