As anyone who's played Defcon knows, it's the human rather than the artificial intelligences that can be the real bastards. Introversion's Wargames-inspired strategy gem is all about deft cunning, shaky alliances and relentless backstabbing. Oh, and collossal amounts of nuclear death.

But, not content with crafting an excellent and nerve wracking multiplayer experience, Introversion have just announced a project to create the ultimate and most evil of Defcon opponents in the form of a new AI program. Bods from the Department of Computing at the Imperial College in London have been developing an API (Application Programming Interface) for designing bots for the game, and Introversion have now teamed up with them to create a competition of sorts.

Fancy having a go at designing Skynet? Then head over to here. The goal is to use the new API to design your own Defcon playing bot. The Imperial College wants to hold a Defcon tourney at the 2009 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games (no, I've no idea what they do there either) and the best bots are in with a chance of competing there as part of the showcase.

And when the bombs do eventually drop, we'll know exactly who to blame. 

It's an auspicious day for gamers. Half-Life, a little known shooter from indie publisher Valve, was released ten years ago today. It's quite hard to believe. I remember playing this as a kid, and it sure as hell doesn't feel all that long ago. What's strange is that, given the fact that an entire decade has passed since Freeman fought his way out of Black Mesa, we've yet to see an FPS that has yet to really top the bar set by Half-Life, except Half-Life 2 of course. Half-Life is constantly referenced as being massively influencial, but looking at the kind of shooters we've seen over the years it doesn't seem like other developers have really learned all that much from Valve's ridiculously good break out game.

For those who don't already own it (which includes me, by the way, for I lost the disc long ago), Valve are celebrating the anniversary by marking down the game to the princely sum of $0.98 until this Friday. That's one of the greatest games ever made for less than a buck. Join me in a trip down the nostalgia highway won't you?

Today millions of Xbox 360 owners around the world will turn on their television sets, boot up their beloved consoles and BAM! RROD. 

Stranger things have happened, but global hardware failures or not, the NXE or 'New Xbox Experience' is moments from arriving, and its here to stay. Boasting a host of new features, including Mii's, the total interface overall is sure to enrage as many as it pleases. Site staffer Dale Cantwell has been using the NXE for over a week now and over the weekend he expressed concern that the avatar creation was even more limited than Nintendo's. Right now the only thing I'm looking forward to is that aspect of the update, so lets hope more options are available on launch. Let us know what your own feelings on the update are after you have your own play around.

As a complete GUI whore I was pretty disappointed to here my beloved blades system was being canned. It's probably my favourite menu system on a home console and in my opinion far easier to navigate and better looking than the X-media bar or Nintendo's Channel viewer. Better or not its nearly gone, so I took one final photograph that will sit in my wallet next to my photoshopped polaroid of myself and Gabe Newell on a rollercoaster.

Farewell Dear Friend. We barely new thee.

Who said they don't like Mondays? Bob Geldof, that's who. But who listens to a bearded Irish weirdo who made a fortune through starving children.

Mondays here on Citizen Game are totally brilliant and this week is no different which three must-read reviews your you to chomp on. Check out Rockstar's latest open world driving romp in our review of Midnight Club: Los Angeles. In need of some Playstation 3 reviews? Stop your whining, because we have the low-down on Media-Molecule's cutesy Muslim-hating platformer Little Big Planet. If your the only person on your friends list who isn't playing Gears of War 2, check out our review to see why its a sound investment. Video review coming tomorrow.

Loads more coming this week including Dale's interview with the producer of 'Street Fighter: The Later Years', accompanied by exclusive behind the scenes shots from the filming of upcoming 'Street Fighter: Reunion' TV series.

If you haven't told your friends about this site yet, now would be a good time.

Podcast - 14th November 2008
What up videogame! Danny and Deno check out Lich King, Gears 2, Left 4 Dead, Mirrors Edge and Fallout 3's Japanese release. We've also got news on our upcoming reviews, this weekends community game nights and Dale's upcoming interview with Mike Fass, producer and actor in 'Street Fighter: The Later Years'.

iTunes version coming later tonight.
PLEASE RATE & REVIEW THIS WEEKEND
- We want to dominate iTunes :)

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12:00am saw the launch of the second expansion pack for Blizzard's flagship title 'World of Warcraft'. I was working the launch myself in a HMV which saw a queue of around 150 Azerothians line up to grab standard and collectors edition copies of the game. Interestingly they weren't all long-haired grubby students either. The line consisted of mostly guys (and a few girlfriends) of varying ages, some father & son couples and a smelly guy with a dog who was probably homeless and didn’t know what was going on. He bought the game though, along with millions of others around the world, so many in America that apparently Gamestop's credit card system failed during the launch.

Current odds for Lich King to hit #1 at Christmas are 50/1. Thanks to Barry I managed to get it at 150/1 on betting site PaddyPower.com, so if the Citizen Game community buys it the week of Christmas ill fly you all over here for new years. Deal? Deal.

In other news, prepare for yet another weekend of community games (details soon), a brand new podcast tomorrow, and for your reading pleasure, Barry has a great review of Far Cry 2 for you to read. The Gears of War 2 video and review are coming in the next few days too.