The Official XBOX Magazine Website reveals Medal of Honor: Warfighter, saying the next installment in the Medal of Honor series of military first-person shooters is the April cover story of their print magazine. This is shy of details as they promote the article, which will hit newsstands on March 6th, so its not even clear what platforms this is coming to, as only the Xbox 360 is mentioned. Thanks GameInformer, where they say this will again follow the story of Tier 1 Operators and note this is teased on the Medal of Honor Website. They also say that like its predecessor, the game is being developed by Danger Close studios, who will handle multiplayer as well (DICE developed MP on the previous MoH), and it will use Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2.0 engine.

Develop has a report saying it "understands" that one of Blizzard's upcoming projects is a free-to-play game. There are no further details in the report, which they attribute to a "source connected to the matter."

Rockstar Games now offers the first screenshots from the Windows PC edition of Max Payne 3, the upcoming third-person shooter sequel. Here's word:

Launching on May 29th in North America and June 1st in Europe, the PC version of Max Payne 3 will feature gloriously increased resolution and graphical detail in both the epic story and the explosive multiplayer modes.

Today, check out the debut selection of screens from the PC release below – and look for many more to come, including as part of the first hands-on previews of Max Payne 3 hitting next week. And stay tuned for more detailed information including special graphics hardware support and enhancements – as well as system specs to be announced a bit closer to game release.

Click each image below to open it in full high-definition or view via the screens section of the official Max Payne 3 website.

Battlelog now offers a list of confirmed changes for the upcoming Battlefield 3 patch, though there's no word on when the changes will go live. The list covers all three platforms, and word is that it is not complete, in spite of the incredible number of items it lists.

Matrix Games announces Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear!, a computer adaptation of an award-winning World War II board wargame. Here's a description of what to expect when the game is released late next month:

Designed and developed in cooperation with Uwe Eickert, the original designer of Conflict of Heroes, no effort has been spared to bring the outstanding Conflict of Heroes gameplay to the computer. Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! includes an AI opponent as well as full multiplayer support with an integrated forum and game lobby. To remain true to the core gameplay of the board game, the PC version is designed to be fun, fast and easy to play, though hard to master. The game design is also historically accurate and teaches and rewards platoon and company-level combined arms tactics without overwhelming the player with rules.

The Containment: The Zombie Puzzler Website offers a trailer from this puzzle game. The game is currently available for the iPad, but the website announces it is also coming to Steam as of March 2nd. Continue here to read the full story.

The Nuclear Dawn Website has details on update 6.0 that's now live in this multiplayer Source-engine game. In addition to tweaks and bug fixes, the new version is also a content update. The full change log has all the changes, and some highlights follow. Continue here to read the full story.

• Alan Wake Update on Steam.
• American Conquest + Fight Back on GOG.com.
• Costume Quest Update on Steam.
• Day of Defeat: Source Update on Steam.
• Fallen Earth Free-to-Play on Steam.
• King Arthur 2 Update on Steam.
• Nuclear Dawn Update on Steam.
• PoxNora Crusade of the Vashal Update on Steam.
• Saints Row: The Third Update on Steam.
• Ship Simulator Extremes: Ocean Cruise Ship on Steam.
• Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter Update on Steam.
• Team Fortress 2 Update on Steam.
• Wargame: European Escalation on Steam.

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution on Steam. Save 66%.
• Mirror's Edge on Steam. Save 75%.
• Serious Sam Complete Pack on Steam. Save 66%.

Thanks Acleacius.

• Google Glasses Will Be Powered by Android.
• Nokia to unveil cheaper Windows smartphone.
• New Qualcomm chips aim to bring 1.3Gbps WiFi to one and all.
• Beatles hits become mobile phone ringtones.
• TapGeoHunt on the iTunes App Store.
• Is smaller better for iPad size- Two gadget repair gurus weigh in.

• Inside Facebook's Outsourced Anti-Porn and Gore Brigade. Thanks Acleacius.

• GPS jammers and spoofers threaten infrastructure, say researchers.

• Aussie woman scammed Nigerians: court. Thanks HARDOCP.

• Closed beta testing of collectible card game Carte is now underway…
• Code Hero raises over $100,000 for shooter that teaches computer programming…
• Jessica Chobot's Companion Cube wedding cake and cake toppers. Thanks Ant via ThinkGeek…
• World of Warcraft could help your grandma focus…
• Replica Portal gun coming from NECA in late spring-early summer…

Link of the Day: Scifi author spoils his entire book series for terminally ill fan. Thanks nin.

The Fray Website now offers downloads of a playable alpha demo for Fray, Brain Candy's science fiction strategy game. The demo is mirrored on AtomicGamer and Gamer's Hell. They are also now accepting preorders of the game, which will entitle customers to free weekly alpha builds, a discounted price, and two full copies of the game so one can be passed along to a friend.

Indie Royale now offers Alpha Collection #1, a new bundle of flexibly priced indie games. The bundle's name comes from the alpha state of all three games, so participating entitles you to the game's in their current unfinished state, as well as to future game updates. The bundle includes Towns, 3079, and Wyv and Keep, with all three coming to Windows, OS X, and Linux, though the OS X and Linux versions of Wyv and Keep are not expected for another six months. Thanks nin.

The Konami Website offers a job listing revealing plans to bring the next Metal Gear Solid to Windows, as it calls for "Project engineers for the latest Metal Gear Solid targeted for high-end consoles and PC." If that sounds like you, there will be a chance to apply for the spot at the GDC Career Pavilion next month. Thanks Joystiq via Voodoo Extreme.

Wargaming.net announces the launch of Global Alpha testing of World of Warplanes in Europe, North America, and Russia, saying they are looking for test pilots to assist in preparing the airborne MMO shooter for release. "With the Global Alpha, we are entering a very challenging, important, and exciting phase for World of Warplanes, which will require support of a massive number of testers," said World of Warplanes producer Anton Sitnikau. "Our most important task now is to gather feedback from our test pilots and prepare a well-balanced, stable version with a large amount of vehicles and battle arenas, which we'll be able to enter the beta with." You can sign up to participate through their three localized websites for the game: North America, Europe, and Russia. Word is: "The Global Alpha phase will initially offer players more than 20 plane models and two battle arenas. The amount of content will be growing steadily, as the developers add new warplanes and maps to the roster."

The Terraria Website has word that development the game is at an end (thanks nin via Rock, Paper, Shotgun). Here's word:

The future of Terraria has been highly debated as of late, not just with the community, but for us as well. The last year has been a crazy ride! When I started on this game, I just had a few ideas of what I thought would make a fun game. I had no idea that it would receive so much attention. I want to thank all of you for supporting us and making this game's success possible.

After a lot of internal debate, we have decided that it is time to move on. My wife and I are due to have another boy soon, and I want to spend some time getting to know him. I also want to spend the time recharging and bettering myself as both a programmer and game designer. I have learned a lot from working on Terraria and plan on using what I've learned, building upon it, and moving forward with another, even better project. However, we are still planning at least one more bug fix for Terraria.

For those that haven't already heard, Finn "Tiy" Brice has moved on to form Chucklefish and is heavily at work on an exciting new game called “Starbound”. It's looking to be a lot of fun, so make sure to check it out if you haven't already!

Thanks again for all your support, and I am very much looking forward to providing you with something much better than Terraria in the future!

Digitalmindsoft now offers a love letter to Steam, saying Steam's online service helped them recoup development costs of Men of War: Assault Squad before the World War II RTS sequel's release:

We at Digitalmindsoft wanted to take a moment and thank you for creating a platform that has completely revitalized the PC gaming market and allows us to deliver exciting content to millions of players. Never before has it been so exciting and rewarding to develop games for the PC. Hit game Men of War: Assault Squad paid for its development costs during pre-order with Steam as the largest contributor! The game continues to sell and generated more than 5 times of its costs, thanks to your ability to promptly update and maintain our game. This dedication has made it possible for us to re-invest into our company, continually support our products and strive to make bigger and better games.

A marketplace can never be free of issues, but through excellent communication and response time, you've managed to find a solution to all our requests and helped us to provide the best possible experience for our players.

Therefore we are extremely excited to see Steam growing, as well as maintain its well-deserved status as a market leader and we look forward to a continued partnership as we launch future titles on your platform.

So in the name of our company and a large part of our player base, thank you so much for your great job!

A Game FAQ on the Guild Wars 2 Website offers the promised additional details about plans to beta test ArenaNet's upcoming MMORPG sequel. They explain that being accepted into one event does not ensure entrance into others, offer details on how NDAs work, and explain that all beta data will be wiped, including character names, but that players of the original Guild Wars will have their player names reserved in the sequel.

• The Art of Video Games Video - Smithsonian Magazine.
• Eurogamer Expo 2012 tickets now on sale.
• EA Shows Off How You Can Win Mass Effect 3 Early From Space.

• Guild Wars 2 on Ten Ton Hammer.

• New Xbox 360 update tinkers behind the scenes.
• FIFA 12 gets January transfer update.

Thanks Ant.

• U.K. 4G TV interference- Up to a million homes 'need filters'. Thanks Slashdot.
• iPhone and Android apps now required to have privacy policies.
• Mastered for iTunes: how audio engineers tweak music for the iPod age.
• Sony securing “bigger size” memory cards for PlayStation Vita in UK.
• Mafia Rush on the iTunes App Store.
• Sticky Sheep on the iTunes App Store.
• Ninja Splash on the iTunes App Store.
• Retro Racing on the iTunes App Store.
• Vita's -augmented reality- games seem to miss meaning of "augmented".

• "Unethical" HTML video copy protection proposal draws criticism from W3C reps.
• 500,000 zombie PCs imperiled as expiration of court order approaches.
• Dating site for gamers launches in the UK.
• Millions with no internet after unexplained Telstra outage. Thanks Darth Guybrush.

• HP profit falls 44% amid weak PC sales.
• The Tech Report 's March 2012 system guide.
• Steve Jobs 1995 interview unabridged. Thanks Ant.

• Exposed: YouPorn passwords in all their plain-text glory.

• White House announces new privacy "Bill of Rights," Do Not Track agreement.
• Man gets served on Facebook, literally. Thanks HARDOCP.
• Swedish Piracy Crackdown: #2 Torrent Site Calls It Quits.
• Taco Bell fails to deliver on Vita contest, blames hacker.

• Alan Wake on ActionTrip.
• Darkness 2 on Zero Punctuation. NSFW.
• King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame on Game Over.
• Law & Order: Legacies on GoozerNation.

• Aerocool Strike-X ST Case on Vortez.
• Alienware X51 Desktop on Hardware Heaven.
• Antec High Current Gamer M 620W PSU on Hardware Secrets.
• ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 Motherboard on Mad Shrimps.
• AZZA Fusion 3000 Full Tower Case on Overclockers Online.
• Cooler Master 690 II Advanced Black & White Case on Overclock3D.
• Gigabyte Z68X UD3H Motherboard on Ninjalane.com.
• HP Compaq 8200 Elite All-in-One PC on TechReviewSource.com.
• Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E CPU on Hardware Canucks.
• Noontec A9 Smart TV Box on eTeknix.
• NZXT Switch 810 Full-Tower Case on TweakTown.
• OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 120GB SSD- 1TB HDD on t-break.
• Silverstone DC01 Data Center NAS on Metku.
• SteelSeries Simraceway [S¹] SRW-S1 Steering Wheel on TweakTown.

• Behind the Reflection 2: Witch's Revenge is a new hidden-object adventure from Alawar Entertainment. A playable demo is available…
• LEGO Video Game Montage (2012 Interactive Achievement Awards Opening). Thanks Kotaku…
• Guerrilla co-founder quits for Visceral…

As spring approaches, I'm starting to make plans to up my game this year at the man stove. My grill has a side fire-box for smoking, but I don't think it's an ideal smoker at that, and obviously using it as a smoker prevents using it for grilling, so I'm looking at dedicated smokers (though the draw of a kamado-style ceramic grill is quite strong). The thing is there's such a variety of them out there to choose between, I think I should have started researching this before last spring for this one. I certainly am interested in hearing anyone's personal experiences on the topic.

Smoky Links:	Thanks Ant and Mike Martinez and Acleacius.
Play:	Quantum. Gemollection.
Stories:	Seinfeld actor in critical condition after shooting himself in the head. Thanks nin.
Science:	FDA To Review Inhalable Caffeine. Plan all-nighter. Thanks Slashdot.
Media:	Freeman's Mind- Episode 40. Videogame Dog Park. World's Largest Rope Swing.
Follow-up:	Faster-than-light neutrino result reportedly a mistake caused by loose cable? Humanity's water footprint: US exports the most, uses the most per capita.