The Bigger They Are, The Further You Have To Walk
These days, linear is for losers. Developers are turning their attentions to crafting free roam environments of immense size and beauty. These creations range from fantasy worlds filled with sorcerers and swordsman, to sun-baked prairies teeming with coyotes and cowboys. Some of them are vast wildernesses where a man can roam for miles and never see another soul, while some are considerably smaller in size and heaving with life. Then there’s the really big ones. Getting lost in these beasts may result in your in-game avatar being declared MIA and his virtual wife and kids holding a candlelight vigil. Here we are going to count down the games that boast the biggest maps, some of the results may surprise you. So, starting at number 10.

Map of Azeroth

10. World of Warcraft – 80 square miles
World of Warcraft is the fourth game set in Blizzards Warcraft universe. With over 11.5 million subscriptions, World of Warcraft is the worlds most subscribed MMORPG. As with all games in the Warcraft series it takes place in the fictional world of Azeroth which, in this iteration of the franchise at least, is a modest size of 80 square miles.

9. Burnout Paradise – 200 square miles
The seventh game in EA/Criterion’s successful racing series, Burnout Paradise featured an impressive map. The game was released with over 70 cars to explore the 200 square miles of open road with and was later updated to feature motorbikes and a day and night cycle.

The island of Panau

8. Just Cause 2 – 400 square miles
The original Just Cause was a less than gratifying affair. The map was pretty and the parasailing was cool but the island was far too vast with very little in it. To fix this problem and make the sequel Just Cause 2 more enjoyable Avalanche Studios decided there was only one thing to do, make the map even bigger. Interesting idea. It seems to have worked though as Just Cause 2 sold well and has received positive reviews from most critics. It sits here at number 8 on our list with a map size of 400 square miles.

7. Asherons Call – 500 square miles
Slightly older fans of MMORPGs among you may remember this title. Asherons Call was released in 1999 for Windows and was the third major MMO to be released. Set on the continent of Dereth, itself set on the fictional planet of Auberean, the game map covered 500 square miles. Along with Ultima Online and Everquest this was one of the “Big Three” of early MMOs but its subscription numbers fell when newer titles began to flood the markets. Never the less its servers still remain online, more than ten years later.

The Oahu inspired island

6. Test Drive Unlimited – 618 square miles
The Test Drive series is one of the longest running arcade racing franchises of all time and the ninth game in the series, Test Drive Unlimited, featured a map modeled after the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The map was a magnificent 618 miles long, all the better for getting the games collection of 125 cars and motorbikes up to dangerously awesome speed.

5. FUEL! – 5560 square miles
We’re into the thousands of miles now, this is where the maps really start getting big. Released in 2009 Asobo Studio’s Fuel is truly immense. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and boasts a map that is 5560 square miles in size(roughly the size of the American state of Connecticut). This makes Fuel’s map the largest gaming environment ever to appear in a console game. Couple this with over 70 vehicles to cruise around in and you have one immense game.

The continent of Elona

4. Guild Wars Nightfall – 15,000 square miles
Guild Wars Nightfall is the third game in ArenaNet’s Guild Wars series. The game took place on the continent of Elona, in the Guild Wars universe. Elona was the biggest game map created for a Guild Wars game spanning a mighty 15,000 square miles(that’s bigger than Kuwait, Isreal, Jamaica, Cyprus, Barbados, Singapore, Albania or Macedonia. Just to give you some idea).

3. Lord of the Rings Online – 30,000 square miles
Released in 2007, Lord of the Rings Online completely one-ups the Guild Wars series. LotRO(as it is known) features a Middle-earth inspired map twice the size of ArenaNet’s offering. This means that theoretically you could fit the entire of Belgium into it 2544 times.

The Tamrielic provinces of High Rock and Hammerfell

2. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall – 62,394 square miles
If LotRO went one-up on Nightfall by doubling its map size, Daggerfall two-ups it by quadrupling it. The second game in Bethesda Softwork’s highly successful and much loved franchise, Daggerfall is thought by most to be the largest game map ever created with a colossal area of 62,394 square miles(and Bethesda claims it’s even bigger, twice the size of Great Britain in fact. This would make it roughly 181,008 square miles). Spread out across this land there are 15,000 towns, cities, villages and dungeons to explore. The games sequel The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind didn’t even come close to this, with its map being only as big as 10 square miles.

1. Midwinter – 160,000 square miles
As we get to the end of the list I’ve pretty much run out of decent adjectives meaning “large”. It’s just as well though as there really aren’t any that would do this game justice. Midwinter is a first-person action role-playing game with strategy elements. It was released for the Atari ST, Amiga and PC back in 1989, making it slightly before my time. The game is set(as so many are) in a post-apocalyptic world where a giant meteorite landed in Burma and caused nuclear winter. The impact also caused a lot of volcanic activity in the Azores islands, forming the isle of Midwinter where the game takes place. Midwinter is an enormous(found one!) 160,000 square miles stretch of ice and snow, that’s nearly as big as the state of California. The game was well received upon release but due to a very steep learning curve it never became the hit it could have been.

So that completes our rundown of some of gaming’s biggest maps, with sizes ranging from big, to immense, to ridiculous. As a bonus extra here a few maps that didn’t make it into the top ten.

GTA III – 3 square miles
GTA San Andreas – 13.6 square miles
Fallout 3 – 14 square miles
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – 16 square miles
Far Cry 2 – 19.31 square miles

Note: Most, if not all map sizes are approximations made by either the writer(based off some evidence) or the game developers. They should not be taken as gospel fact or as cause for a flame war. Chill out man.

And not a Duke in sight…
The games industry has been good to us. Over the years a plethora of great titles have been released to critical acclaim and hearty fan reception. When Halo 3 was released back in 2007 for example it broke sales records, caused the biggest Xbox LIVE gaming day in history and(apparently at least) caused movie ticket sales to decline by 27% from the year before. It also caused me to lose about five days. Some games weren’t as fortunate however and every year countless new potential best-sellers are left lying in gaming purgatory. Today we’re going to run down a few of what I feel are the best games never made. What’s that? Why would I tease you with games you’ll probably never get to play? That’s simple really, I’m an arse. So here we go, in no particular order the games are:

The games map screen

1. Star Fox 2 – SNES
Star Fox 2 is the would-be sequel to 1993s well received space shooter confusingly called Starwing in Europe and Australia. Star Fox 2 would have done away with the linear gameplay and on-rails action of the original instead allowing players full control over two ships, which could then be flown around a map representing the Lylat system. Nintendo never officially gave a reason as to why this game wasn’t released but insiders who worked on the game blamed it on the impending release of the company’s first 64-bit console, the N64. By all accounts the game was 100% complete when Nintendo canned it. As a result of this pirate copies of the ROM files became available on the internet. While I don’t condone piracy I’m here to help, you can find the pirate copy here.

2. Star Wars Galaxies – PS2 and Xbox
Released in 2003 Star Wars Galaxies is an MMORPG set in the Star Wars universe. The game allowed players to choose between 10 different species and 9 different professions for their character. Originally the game launched with 10 different planets to explore but since then more have been added. Gameplay is much the same as any MMORPG with players being able to join guilds, embark on quests and battle for cyberspace supremacy in designated PVP areas. Despite a few criticisms Star Wars’ first outing into MMO territory was generally well received by PC gamers but it seems originally a PS2 and Xbox version of the game were planned but these were cancelled without any real explanation, a blow to console loving Star Wars nerds everywhere.

3. Halo DS – Erm… DS…
Yes you read that right. Many a year ago talks went on between an anonymous corporate body known only to the world as “major publisher” and Microsoft. These talks were about the possibility of creating a DS version of Bungie Studio’s much loved FPS franchise. A demo was produced and was, according to the blessed few who played it, pretty damn good. Everything seemed to be moving forward until suddenly(as is often the case in the rough-and-tumble world of business) the sky came crashing down. Due to disputes regarding licensing the game was never finished or released. Just to add insult to injury IGN added videos of some of their guys playing it. You can find one here.

One of the very few existing screens of the remake

4. GoldenEye 007 – XBLA remake
When GoldenEye 007 was released in 1997 it was the subject of near universal levels of praise and adoration. Game critics held the stealth elements and 4 player split-screen deathmatch mode in particularly high regard. The game sold eight million copies and quickly found it self swimming for it’s life against a tidal wave of awards. The game also landed developer Rare the award for “Best UK Developer” at the 1998 BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards. So people were understandably excited when it was announced that an Xbox LIVE Arcade version was in development and even more so when it was revealed that the games original developers Rare were at the helm. Predictably though production of the game hit a snag when Microsoft and Nintendo couldn’t agree on the financial side of things. You see folks a lot has changed since the game was first released. The GoldenEye situation has become so complex it would take a super spy with all the genius, savvy and global plot diffusing prowess of James Bond himself to unravel it. At the time of the games 1998 release Rare were owned by Nintendo, now they are owned by Microsoft. The original game was published by Nintendo, now all the rights to the video game franchise of James Bond are owned by Activision. However there is a ray of hope you MI6 addicts(say it aloud). A while back Nintendo expressed an interest in releasing the original game on the Wii’s virtual console. Hmm… they want to release the game but would need Rare’s permission and Microsoft want a remake but would need Nintendo’s permission. Just goes to show there is no such word as ‘compromise’ in the business lexicon.

Gordon doesn't say much, he talks with his crowbar

5. Half Life 2: Episode 3 – ???(but presumably Xbox 360, PS3 and PC/Mac)
Half Life was Valve Corporation’s first ever game. Released in November 1998 the game put players in the shoes of the now iconic silent protagonist Dr. Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist at the Black Mesa Research Facility. As is inevitable though when your working for giant shady corporations everything quickly goes to hell in a Bonham Carter and Gordon finds himself fighting for his life against government agents and beings from another dimension. Half Life did fantastically well, with critics praising it’s presentation and it’s use of scripted sequences, something not commonly done at the time. Since then the Half Life series has expanded to two full length games, two episodic games and three third-party expansions which combined have sold over 20 million units. The last Half Life game to be produced was Half Life 2: Episode 2 which ended on an emotional cliffhanger leaving fans crying out for more. So just when is Episode 3 coming? Well your guess is as good as the developers. Although not the end of the Half Life franchise Episode 3 is planned to be the final episodic expansion and the end of the current story arc but no further details have been revealed and a release date still isn’t set.

6. Star Wars Battlefront 3 – ???(but once again probably PS3, Xbox 360 and PC)
The fate of SWB3 is a confusing one indeed. The original Star Wars Battlefront was a first/third person shooter released in 2005 for the PC, PS2 and Xbox. Allowing players to fight their way through some of the sci-fi series’ most famous battles, the game was a smash hit and spawned a sequel which was, funnily enough, sequentially titled Star Wars Battlefront 2. SWB2 featured many improvements over its predecessor including a stronger, more story driven campaign, space battles and the ability to play as a Jedi or Sith. With the success of the first two games a third was inevitable and SWB3 looked set to improve even further on the series’ winning formula. Built with next gen consoles in mind SWB3 would apparently have featured the ability for players to fly from the ground to space and enter orbital space craft, all without loading screens. The game was rumoured to have been in development at Free Radical Design, which went into administration in 2008. This rumour was seemingly confirmed when an ex-employee of the company released what appeared to be screenshots of the game bearing an SWB3 watermark. After that rumours once again began to fly, this time that the game had been taken over by Pandemic Studios, something the company vehemently denied. Had there been any truth to these rumours however the point would now be moot as Pandemic Studios was also closed down in 2009. The year is now 2010 and rumours about SWB3 continue to shoot around as it seems some observant battlefront fan noticed that GameSpy had set up lobbies for the game earlier this year, leading many to speculate that the game may be a secret announcement at this years E3. Well we don’t have long left to wait to find out.

7. Timesplitters 4 – PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii
Originally exclusive to the PS2, Timesplitters is a successful FPS franchise that spanned 3 games and the second game in the franchise Timesplitters 2 eventually became the highest ranking first-person shooter on the console. Developed by Free Radical Design the games drew comparison to GoldenEye 007 and were described as being a more cartoon like version of the Perfect Dark series, fitting when you consider that Free Radical was founded by ex-members of the developer of both those games, Rare. As is always going to be the case when a franchise does well rumours abounded that a forth game was on the way, rumours that seemed to be confirmed by teaser pictures released by Free Radical. The pictures were parodies of already existing FPS franchises, for example one picture showed a picture of Halo’s Master Chief with a monkey’s head(monkeys are a common theme in the TS games) and another showed the Gears of War logo with a monkey’s face replacing the skull. Humour seemed assured and the world, myself included waited with bated breath for news of a release. With the eventual demise of Free Radical however the future of TS4 became uncertain. TS fans take heart though as all is not lost. When Free Radical went into administration it was brought up by Crytek, the German developers behind the Crysis series and became Crytek UK. While Crytek UK have said that they would be willing to produce the game the project currently remains on hold and will stay that way until there is(and I quote) a “high industry demand” for it. So get demanding. Write letters(nice ones mind), fill out petitions, write MAKE TS4 in giant letters with weed killer on every football pitch and farmers field you can. I don’t usually condone vandalism but hey if it helps.

So that’s it. The 7 best games you may or may not ever get to play.

Check out our Panau Snow Holiday Guide containing an amazing opportunity to win some Just Cause 2 goodie bags! To view it simply click the link below and wait for your browser to download the magazine. It contains a few articles some pictures and the competition.

Holiday guide 01

Or you can read the comp details below:

If you have the PS3 version of Just Cause 2 this will be easy. We want you to take a video of an amazing creative crash!

In doing so you can win a JC2 Goodie bag which are very rare. You can be in the UK or US to win a bag and all you will need to do is email the Youtube link to contest@thegamershub.co.uk

Contest ends 25th April 2010

Winning entry’s will be added to the site and will receive a bag.

Example video:

Ubisoft are giving UK Splinter Cell fans the chance to play Splinter Cell Conviction on Xbox 360 a week before its release! Featuring single player, co-op and 1v1 multiplayer, the event will take place at Reading HMV Gamerbase, mere minutes from Reading Train Station. Read on for your chance to be one of the first to play the game and receive exclusive Splinter Cell Conviction merch!

Venue:                 Reading HVM GamerBase (Upstairs Inside HMV, 138 Friar Street, Reading RG1 1EX)

Date:                     April 8^th 2010

Time:                     19:00 – 21:00 PM

Places:                  30 Xbox 360 places

Entry:                    Email webmaster@ubisoft.co.uk with the subject “Splinter Cell Conviction Event” if you’re interested. We’ll be picking 30 winning attendees at random.

Gameplay:          Gamers will have the chance to play both 1v1 multiplayer and the first level of co-op and single player story mode.

Freebies:             There will be a free Splinter Cell Conviction T-Shirt for every attendee, plus some special spot prizes!

Also:                     Chosen attendees can bring one friend or other +1 if they wish, however names on the list get play and t-shirt priority.

Free pizza will also be available during the event! Please remember to email  webmaster@ubisoft.co.uk , we will confirm by reply if you’re a lucky winner of a place at the event.

Hello all,

Today, and for a while you all have the amazing opportunity to be funny.  Yes, thats right; we are running a PlayStation Home (Joke) Magazine containing funny articles developed by some TGH staff and YOU. Before we give you details about what you can add to the magazine i thought it would be cool to tell you how we got to the stage of the idea.

It all started back, about 2-3 months ago when I called a meeting with the head’s of the site:

The meeting took place 9:15 AM from TGH Towers based in Europe. Sadly Call of Duty: MW2 was released with its 12 midnight launch. Everyone was still playing it apart from Alan, who has a girlfriend.

As you can see in the picture TGH’s photo shop guy was also playing COD. So me, thats HennyFarthing had to PowerPoint the photo.

Alan came up with some great ideas, he thought we could give away some goodies to funny articles and arrange a ‘All In Red Rave’ so we could all meet and talk about stuff, while raving.

Alan then thought we should arrange some private party’s to get some ideas for articles. Bioshock 2 was released causing a clash and our summer house party was a flop. The only people who turned up were using Home without keyboards, getting ideas from them, was waaaay to annoying.

We then arranged a beach party, some game called FF 14 came out, enough said.

So, what do we mean by funny articles, go on Alan, make your pitch.

Well HennyFarthing, i’m looking for some stupendous articles like ‘Man caught pooin’ in Home Square, Cat dies as result’  with loads of details, maybe some Photoshop’ed images, or for normal people, paint. All amazing articles can be submitted to you Henny, as editor. Thats henry(dot)m(at)thegamershub(dot)co(dot)uk who will gather the crew and put together a magazine, which will be as long as we can do to fit all articles in. We will develop it in PDF so easy download for all.

Cool, so what can you win?

You can win game codes, really whatever we have left that is burning a hole in our pocket.

Thats cool, when will the magazine be uploaded?

When we have enough articles.

Cool! Oh and yeah, we will all group up and rave Home in red clothing  taking it back to the TGH run club, Sundown.

Get emailing.

Guinness is giving gamers a chance to win the God Of War III Limited Edition Strategy Guide from Brady Games. More info below.

To honor the release of one of this year’s biggest titles - God of War III on PlayStation 3 – Guinness World Records is offering a very special giveaway on the Guinness World Records 2010 Gamer’s Edition website. By correctly answering a God of War franchise trivia question, entrants have a chance to win both a copy of BradyGame’s God of War III Signature Series Strategy Guide, as well as a copy of the Guinness World Records 2010 Gamer’s Edition!

For a chance to win the God of War III Signature Series Strategy Guide and the Guinness World Records 2010 Gamer’s Edition book, head to the Guinness World Records 2010 Gamer’s Edition Competition Zone and answer the trivia question.

To make the community side of the site more exciting we have developed a points system. This means when you post on any of the articles you will gain points (Instant), when you post on the forums your points will go up (weekly).

We also give out points for people who @ us on twitter, points will be gained to people who make us laugh or have some good points or questions.

So, what can you do with all of these points?

Well you can buy stuff of course! We have developed a points shop, you gain the points, email Points@thegamershub.co.uk with the item you want, we will take away the points and send you the item! To view the points shop click here!

You can buy things like exclusive beta codes, full game codes, games, posters, t-shirts and many other goodies.

To gain points you must be signed up on the site.

The Blade slashes and the Sealer seals. Though different, Nine and Aisha work together to tackle their worst enemies.

What about your alter ego?

Provide the Last Rebellion team with either an image of yourself (photo, sketch, composite…) next to your alter ego, an entertaining photoshop, or a description of you and your “Other.” Feel free to submit both an image and a description, as well. The most clever entries will win a free copy of Last Rebellion for PlayStation®3 and the RosenQueen exclusive double-sided poster!

2. Submit your rendering of you and your “Other” as .jpg, .gif, .png, or .tiff format if an image, or typed clearly into the body of your email, to eu-contest@nisamerica.com with your Full Name and Address.

3. Contest ends on the release day of Last Rebellion in Europe, 26 March 2010!

4. We will pick our 3 favorites to receive a copy of Last Rebellion with its double-sided poster. Please allow a few weeks after the contest to receive your prize.

5. By entering, you are stating that you are 13 years of age or older, and it is legal for you to enter this contest and submit your personal information.

OFFICIAL SITE

Hey ladies and gents,

Fallout: New Vegas is a exciting new addition to the Fallout games.  It would be so exciting to get your questions answered don't you think? Well now you can!

Email your questions to askadev@thegamershub.co.uk with the subject title 'Fallout New Vegas' When we get the answers they will be posted on the site.

We have selected the best Questions so no more please.

After the shocking success of ‘Free Stuff Friday 01′ we thought we would bring it back again! Pop over to our super cool twitter account at 8:00pm UK time for the giveaway.

So what can you win today…

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For Xbox 360:

Darwinia+ (2)

Puzzlegeddon (2)

Fret Nice (2)

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For PSN US:

Puzzlegeddon (2)

Fret Nice (2)

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For PSN UK:

Alien Zombie Death (PSP) (2)

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For PC

COGS  ’STEAM’ (1)

Star Trek Online (2)

With this code you get the first 30 Days is FREE.

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Goodies!

Fairytale Fights T-shirts (5)

Fairytale Fights Posters (5)

You can view pics if you go down.

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How do i win these amazing prizes? Well thats simple, pop over to our twitter account, TheGamersHub and follow us. We will then follow you back giving you the ability to DM us. Each time a code or goodie is about to go, we will tweet telling you to DM us something. All DM’s will then be given a number and our random number calculator will pick one of the numbers. That means that number is a winner! We will DM you the code or ask for more details to send something to you.

Have no fear, we keep your details in a safe place and you can view our terms and conditions here!