JoWood has announced that a demo for Acania – Gothic 4 will be released on 24th September on the PC and Xbox 360. The demo includes the first two hours of the game, featuring the tutorial island Feshyr. Gothic will be released on the PC, PS3 and 360 in October.

Capcom has announced that Dead Rising 2: Case Zero has broken the record for best week one unit sales in the history of all content distributed through the Xbox Live Arcade. Case Zero was released last week exclusively on the Xbox Live Arcade. It’s a standalone title that bridges the gap between Dead Rising and Dead Rising 2. Dead Rising 2 will be released on September 28th for the 360, PS3 and PC.

EA has announced that a demo for EA Sports MMA will be released on September 28th on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network. The demo features Jason Miller against Jake Shields and Alistair Overeem against Bobby Lashley with both matches overseen by John McCarthy. The demo will also have a tutorial and information about the game’s other modes. Apparently, if you share the demo with friends, you’ll unlock Randy Couture as a playable character in the full game.

Codemasters has confirmed that the European free-to-play re-launch of The Lord of the Rings has been delayed. Apparently, the reason for its delay is so that Codemasters can prepare for what they assume will be a “massive increase” in players. The delay means that Book 2: Ride of the Grey Company and the Free to Play Store will now be released “later than expected”.

“We are really pleased with the performance of the game and excited about the response to Free to Play from our players,” said Rowland. “Given the complexities and challenges faced in the preparation and implementation of the new store to work within our infrastructure, we feel more time is needed to deliver the high level of service our players have quite rightly come to expect.

“As a result, we have decided to delay launch to ensure that we can support the massive increase in players that we are anticipating and deliver them a Free to Play experience like none other.”

Ubisoft has confirmed that the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood multiplayer beta will go live for PS3 gamers on October 4th. The beta is only available to people that pre-order the PS3 version of the game from a participating retailer. Apparently all of the game’s nine different characters will be available in the beta, including the doctor, the priest, the executioner and the courtesan.

You will be able to play with up to seven other players in two different modes. There’s Wanted, where players have to get the higher score by killing their assigned targets and escaping their hunters. Next, there’s Alliance. This mode allows players to compete cooperatively in teams of two, tasking them to fulfil their contracts and confuse their enemies. Both modes will be playable on two different maps located in Rome and Castel Gandolfo.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood will be released on November 18th 2010 on the 360 and PS3. It will be released on the PC in Q1 2011.

Microsoft has unveiled a new Brain Training game for Kinect that is being made with Dr. Kawashima. It’s currently called: “Lead: New Brain Training Where You Answer With Your Body”. Catchy. Regardless, the game will be a launch title for the Kinect in Japan when it’s released in the territory on 20th November and will be published by Namco Bandai.

Apparently, the game poses puzzles to players and they have to provide a physical answer. For example, an on-stage demonstration showed a woman translating a 24-hour time into a physical representation of a clock face with her arms (using them as the small and long arms on an analogue clock). Here’s a video to wrap your noggin around (there’s a rather snazzy Pac-Man one after the jump too):

Some figures floating around the internet have reported that Dead Rising: Case Zero managed to clock up 330,000 downloads in less than seven days. The game costs 400 Allards and even though that doesn’t sound like it could make anyone much money, Capcom could’ve made $1,149,015 for just this week. That’s assuming Microsoft took only 30% of the game’s sales money.

Microsoft has confirmed a 250GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle, which includes the new version of the console, the Kinect camera and a copy of Kinect Adventures. It will be released in the US on 4th November for $399 and the UK/Europe on 10th November for £299.99. Microsoft had previously announced a 4GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle.

Square Enix has confirmed that Japanese Xbox 360 owners will finally be able to play Final Fantasy XIII. The publisher will be releasing a special edition of the game in the territory at the end of this year. This version of the game will be officially called the “Final Fantasy XIII Ultimate Hits International Edition” and should be released on 16th December for 4980 Yen. Apparently, the special edition features an easy mode, a book that shows what happens to some of the game’s characters after the game and an art booklet.

EA Japan has announced that Suda51 and Mikami’s new game is going to be unveiled at the EA Tokyo Showcase 2010. That event is held on September 15th, one day before the Tokyo Game Show begins. EA claims that more games will get announced at the event, so we’ll keep you posted.

Square Enix has announced Dissidia Duodecim Final Fantasy for the PSP and confirmed that it’s due to be released next year. Lightning from FFXIII and Kain from FFIV will be playable characters. Expect to hear more about the game at the Tokyo Game Show next week.

The Map and Characters Pack 2 for Transformers: War for Cybertron has been released on the PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live Marketplace. The PS3 version costs $9.99 and the 360 version costs 800 Allards. The DLC includes two new Transformers (Zeta Prime and Dead End) and five new maps for the game’s online multiplayer. The new Transformers can be used in the game’s co-op Escalation mode and their chassis can be used in the create-your-own Transformer builder.

We’ve just been browsing the new demo releases on the office Xbox 360 and we can confirm that demos for R.U.S.E. and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock are now available to download. The R.U.S.E. demo (878.39MB) has a full mission to play through, which we’re informed has a nuclear conflict to sort out.

The Guitar Heroes: Warriors of Rock demo (706.79MB) has four tracks in Quest mode to play through, as well as the ability to unlock Johnny Napalm’s chapter. The tracks are: Black Sabbath’s Children of the Grave, Foo Fighters’ No Way Back, Slash featuring Ian Astbury’s Ghosts and Dethklok’s Bloodlines.

Activision has said that a DJ Hero 2 demo has been released today on Xbox Live in a press release issued earlier, but it isn’t available for download yet.

2K Sports has today announced Top Spin 4. It will be released in 2011 for the 360, PS3 and Wii. There will be an odd pre-order incentive: a vintage Andre Agassi playable character. The game will have redesigned controls, new player models, improved animations, TV-style presentation and a large player roster. It will have all your current tennis favourites as well as some old pros.

“Top Spin 4 is shaping up to be the most realistic and exhilarating tennis game in the Top Spin franchise,” said Greg Thomas, president of product development for 2K Sports. “For this iteration, the development team is focused on delivering a bold new take on the sport of tennis by allowing gamers to experience first-hand an uncanny level of realism in the player and stadium models, authentic audio captured directly from real tennis matches, and all-new innovative controls to dominate the competition.”

Sony has released a new ‘mandatory’ firmware update for the PlayStation 3. Entitled “3.42”, the update adds “additional security features” according to Sony. If gamers don’t update, they will not be able to access the PlayStation Network unless they play around with a proxy server bypass (and that will only last until Sony clamps down on it again). Homebrew/backup fans across the internet have confirmed that the patch currently stops the PSJailbreak and PSGroove exploits. So if you want to be homebrew/backup guaranteed, stick to 3.41 (for the moment).

Sony has announced that some new downloadable content is in development for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. A Sony spokesperson told Kotaku: “Now that Emily [Rose] is just back from filming Haven she will be working with Naughty Dog on some DLC content.” Uncharted 2 was released last year and has been supported with some updates and bits of DLC focusing on the game’s multiplayer mode so far.

Harmonix has confirmed that gamers will be able to export their Rock Band 2 tracks to Rock Band 3. The exporting system will work across all three console versions of the game (including the Wii). Harmonix is working on getting the re-licensing rights for every song at the moment, but it looks like they’re confident on getting it done. Furthermore, Harmonix believes the price of downloadable tracks will remain the same for Rock Band 3, but songs designed for Pro Mode will be more expensive. Rock Band 3 will be released on 29th October on the 360, PS3, Wii and DS.

Gary Oldman and Ed Harris have been announced as voice actors for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Gary Oldman will be playing the same role he took on in Call of Duty: World at War, Viktor Reznov. Ed Harris will be playing CIA operative Jason Hudson, who’s apparently one of the game’s main characters. The actors are joined by Batman Begins and Batman: Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer, who will be providing script consultation and story development support. Black Ops will be released on 9th November for the PC, PS3, 360, Wii and DS.

“Oldman, Harris and Goyer are considered some of Hollywood’s finest talents and they perfectly complement Call of Duty: Black Ops’ ambitious and immersive single player experience,” said Treyarch studio boss Mark Lamia. “Their contributions have helped us to push the boundaries of our story telling and character development far beyond anything we have ever attempted before in the franchise.”

Epic Games has confirmed that the Gears of War 3 ‘Fate of Carmine’ campaign has raised $150,000 for Child’s Play. The charity event ended September 1st and now Clayton Carmine’s fate has been sealed and avatar shirts brought from now on won’t count to the end result. It’s not currently known if shirt sales from September 1st onwards will still contribute to charity. Here’s a video of Cliff Bleszinski and Rod Fergusson talking about the results of the promotion:

Chart Track has released this week’s UK gaming sales chart:

1. MAFIA II (2K GAMES)

2. KANE & LYNCH 2: DOG DAYS (EIDOS)

3. WII SPORTS RESORT (NINTENDO)

4. TOY STORY 3 (DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS)

5. RED DEAD REDEMPTION (ROCKSTAR)

6. JUST DANCE (UBISOFT)

7. SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 (NINTENDO)

8. SNIPER: GHOST WARRIOR (CITY INTERACTIVE)

9. PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE FORGOTTEN SANDS (UBISOFT)

10. TOM CLANCY’S H.A.W.X. 2 (UBISOFT)

11. LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 1-4 (WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE)

12. METROID: OTHER M (NINTENDO)

13. WII FIT PLUS (NINTENDO)

14. MASS EFFECT 2 (EA GAMES)

15. BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2 (EA GAMES)

16. CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION)

17. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. (NINTENDO)

18. NEED FOR SPEED: SHIFT (EA GAMES)

19. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII (NINTENDO)

20. TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 11 (EA SPORTS)