So how do you get them? Just simply tell us what is one the feature of Might And Magic Heroes Kingdoms that you like and why? The contest runs till April 17th, 5PM GMT. So time is running out. Let us know in the comments section below.

I order to activate the codes, players need to go to this URL  and register an account. They will then be prompted to enter the code which they can copy and paste in.

About the game:

Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms is a strategy game set in a persistent version of the heroic-fantasy world of Heroes of Might and Magic. Thousands of players will be able to rule their virtual kingdoms, lead gigantic armies against each other, master the trades or create legendary heroes. The game requires no download or installation, only an Internet connection. In addition, players can play at their own pace; from 10 minutes to multiple-hour sessions.

Bethesda has officially confirmed that the 1.7 Skyrim Patch Dawnguard is being released on PS3 this Thursday via their twitter account. It has been a long-time coming for the PS3 fans to finally enjoy the new Skyrim Downloadable Content. For the past few weeks, Bethesda have been saying there were a lot of software issues, and they weren’t sure if the PS3 version was even going to be released, even after the PC version was released.

Skyrim has a really bad reputation for the PS3 players due to the fact that Bethesda had technical problems from the get-go on the PS3.  When Skyrim came out it was flooded with  framrate problems,  and bizarre glitches since launch. The 1.6 patch is not in the PS3 version either, however, Skyrim: Dawnguard will include the 1.6 patch for the PS3 version.

This Thursday, the PS3 fans can finally forgive Bethesda, and enjoy being a vampire in Skyrim: Dawnguard.

The competition is now closed.

Great Scott! To celebrate the retail release of Back to the Future the Game on Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii on 4th May we’re giving away a copy of each.

Developed by Telltale Game and published by Deep Silver, Back to the Future The Game brings the iconic and unmistakeably duo of Marty McFly and Doc Brown, 6 months after the events of the third film, in a completely new adventure. The DeLorean mysteriously returns to Hill Valley and Marty has to recruit the help of a teenage Emmett Brown or else the entire universe will be forever destroyed.

As well as featuring the likenesses of both Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, Lloyd even reprises his role and voices the Doc.

In order to be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is comment below with your favourite Back to the Future quote and leave your email address, it’s that simple!

The competition is now closed.

November is almost here and that means Modern Warfare 3 is almost here.  Now usually when it comes to those big titles, publishers release a Standard version, a Limited Edition version (or Hardened Edition with past COD games), and the Ultimate Edition that always runs you somewhere around $150. This time around Modern Warfare 3 will not have a $150 version of the game but instead a Standard Edition ($59.99) and the Hardened Edition which will cost you $100.

Now you might know what you get with the Hardened Edition, but if you are like me, until now I did not know exactly what would be included.  For example what the hell is Founder Status (included in Hardened Edition)?  Well I will break it down for you and tell you everything you will get in detail.  The Modern Warfare 3 Hardened Edition comes with the following:

• The MW3 game featuring unique art on the disc
• A Collectible Steel Book Case
• 1 year of Call of Duty Elite Membership, which will include future downloadable content and maps for Modern Warfare 3
• Founder Status on Call of Duty Elite which will include an exclusive in game Emblem, Playercard, Weapon Camouflage, Clan XP Boost, and more (see below).
• Xbox 360 owners get an exclusive Juggernaut Avatar Outfit and Playstation 3 players will get a COD Animated Timeline Theme
• Collectible Book/Field Journal which chronicles the entire Call of Duty saga with 100+ pages of military sketches, diagrams and hand written entries.

Now back the whole ‘Found Status’ thing, which requires you to either activate your Call of Duty Elite Membership by November 13th (if you are not getting the Hardened Edition) or just get it included with the Hardened Edition.  Exactly what you will get out of this is as follows:
– Unique Founder Weapon Camo and Profile Skin
– Exclusive Founder In-game Player Card and Emblem
– Access to the Private “#Founder” Group
– Special Founder Clan XP Boost
– Special Founder Operations, Events and Leagues
– Exclusive Founder Prizes & Experiences

So there you have it… everything you are getting with the $100 Hardened Edition of Modern Warfare 3.  If you are a big fan, you will want to get this package and you might want to hurry to pre-order it because I am sure they will go quickly.  Modern Warfare 3 comes out on November 8th, 2011 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, DS and PC.

With the new free DLC going live tomorrow, (September 13, 2011) for Red Dead Redemption, a patch has gone live to fix some things including the gambling exploit to make you one rich cowboy.   This DLC is entitled ‘Myths and Mavericks’ and in center on multiplayer.  The latest patch for Red Dead Redemption, now live, has fixed all the following issues in the game:

• Return of Undead Overrun to original rules (extended sudden death, no explosive spit)
• Fixes for several multiplayer exploits, including invincibility, invisibility, flying, and rapid-fire
• Fix for exploit which resulted in use of Undead weapons in Free Roam
• The addition of an option to exit Undead Overrun without sacrificing XP
• Fix for killing other players in Friendly Free Roam by cooking dynamite
• Fix for a Poker exploit that resulted in rapid accumulation of money
• Fix for occasionally being unable to move after crashing in a wagon
• Fix for Nuevo Paraiso bounties being reset upon loading a save
• Fix for System Link issue on Xbox 360

Getting ready for the Battlefield 3 release in October?  Well then I would assume you are playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2.  All Xbox Live Gold Members get 50% off literally every piece of Bad Company 2 DLC there is from the VIP Pass to, Vietname Pack,  to Onslaught Mode, Shortcut Class Packs, Themes.. you name it.  It ends on September 13th so you better hurry if you want any of it.  Get to it right here to purchase and queue it up for download so you don’t miss it, (also available on you Xbox obviously).

Bernadette Mataki

Here are character profile pictures for the main cast in Gears of War 3.  They will most likely come with one of the editions of the game if not all of them, or maybe not, but they are straight out of Game Informer.  Nevertheless here they are.

Normally we would not post things like this but next month is September and we are celebrating the release of Gears of War 3 with TONS of giveaways, we’ll be posting Gears articles all month long as well as giving away all Gears of War 3 related stuff like Shirts.. Codes and much more, but I don’t want to spoil the good giveaways just yet.  Just make sure you have your ass planted in your chair on GamingBolt.com during September Gears fans, because it’s all about you next month.  Just to prepare you, having your own fan made trailer or badass montage just might get you something, we just hope you know crap when you see it.

Genki from Saints Row The Third

If you’re not interested in the return of Bevis and Butthead to MTV, or mass advertisements of a new Spiderman movie you might want to stop by the outdoor Mass Effect 3 setup. That’s right Mass Effect was set up outside the Sand Diego Convention Center; which means no ticket was required to see what they had to offer. To celebrate the first hands on preview to the public the game was giving out blow up Omni blades to anyone who stopped by. Mass Effect 3 showcased higher power weapons, better agility over commander Sheppard, and the ability to lob grenades. The demo expresses more control over the commander’s team which makes a strategic way to kill off some of the tougher enemies. Fans of the series will be excited to know that in Mass Effect 3 players will be able to upgrade their abilities the way they like; you will have more control over which area you would like to excel in. Mass Effect 3 was a show stopper at Comic-Con. When this game is released on March 6th of 2012 those of you who didn’t get a hands on preview will be more than pleased with what Mass Effect 3 has to offer.
Just down the street from the Mass Effect 3 set up you will find yourself in a completely different realm; standing in front of Professor Genki life size replica of the Super Ballistic Manapult vehicle. Saints Row: The Third took over Comic-Con this year, with a 3D light show on the side of a building, penthouse pets along with other stars signing posters, and you can’t forget the Saints Row bikini babes handing out postcard to advertise the next installment to the Saints Row series.  Not only did the Saints show who they were with taking over outside but inside Volition inc. provided fans with an exhilarating demo of one of the story missions. In this mission your player finds himself falling out of an airplane shooting everything in his path but also managing to save his female companion, Shaundi. The demo was nothing less than exciting! The day with the Saints wasn’t quite over yet. After all the Saints festivities they partied afterward at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Mass Effect 3 Crowd

Just around the corner from the Hard Rock sat one of the most interesting parts of Comic-Con, a Sega arcade. Sega had an idea similar to Mass Effect 3 and treated the public who weren’t able to get a ticket with some gaming fun. They had their games set up outside for all to enjoy, pass or not. The line was long making Sega one of the most popular stations at Comic-Con. Posters were hung displaying all the playable games such as Captain America: Super Soldier, Rise of Nightmares and many more. Sega wasn’t going to let the show end without announcing a new game based around aliens.
Sega wasn’t the only company with major announcements. Microsoft kicked off their time at Comic-Con by announcing a video walkthrough of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary straight out of E3 and for all the Comic-Con attendees to enjoy.  Capcom delighted fighting fans with the announcement of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. This new game will not only have all the characters return from previous games but also introduces 12 new characters, including one Frank West and Doctor Octopus. These new announcements leave players breathless; everyone loves a classic and a good fight.

The aftermath

With more than 125,000 attendees a day it’s no wonder why comic con turns so many heads each year. Comic-Con marks one of the most exciting experiences of pop culture fans lives. If there is one thing you should do in your life its check out this massive four day event; you won’t be left disappointed.

Written by Heather Spears

This November, the Nintendo DS will be completing seven years on the market. Few game systems have ever seen that kind of longevity- most of them are phased out around the five year mark, and their successors take centerstage. However, the DS is one of the rare exceptions to that rule, and joins the ranks of systems such as the NES, the Gameboy and the Playstation 2 that continued to get steady software and hardware support even well after their time on the market was up by conventional understanding.

There is a reason, of course, that the DS lasted this long. A reason that the odd, quirky, two screened handheld sold in excess of 150 million units worldwide to become the highest selling game system of all time, second, perhaps, only to the Playstation 2, if that. A reason that, even after the release of its high tech, persistently connected successor, the DS continues to outsell almost every other system on the market. A reason that the DS found such unprecedented success across all demographics, casual and hardcore alike.

The reason for all of that, and more, is that Nintendo simply got it right. Like never before, the DS hit all the right chords, and continued to do so throughout its lifetime, attracting major third party support and a swarm of users. And while the launch of the Nintendo DS was marred by some major mishandling by Nintendo (not entirely dissimilar to the way they have fudged up the 3DS launch, but not quite as serious), once the system found its footing, there was no turning back, and only a steady, relentless march onwards.

However, for all of us, it would perhaps be best if we stopped and considered just how the DS evolved from a machine that everyone believed was destined for instant failure, particularly in the face of the impending PSP, to a system that is often mentioned in the same breath as the PS2. It is worth looking back and noting on some eerie similarities between the handheld war then, and the upcoming one between the 3DS and the Vita. More than anything else, it is perhaps, worth noting the DS’s trajectory, if only to demonstrate just how unpredictable the gaming industry can often be.

The Nintendo DS was first announced at E3 2003 as a new game format that Nintendo was working on. Little specifics were revealed at that time, except for a couple that managed to leak through to the public. Initial impressions were not in the least encouraging: all that Nintendo had been able to state with complete certainty was that it was a handheld with two screens to provide multiple perspectives of gameplay to the player. That’s it. Compare this to the PSP’s debut, where it was introduced as a ‘console in the pocket,’ a full fledged multimedia device that would bridge the chasm that separated handheld and console gaming, and one that would act as an all purpose media device in the pocket, and it won’t be hard to understand why everybody’s sympathies were with the PSP at the time.

The original Nintendo DS prototype. The DS Phat suddenly doesn't look as ugly now, does it?

Nintendo unveiled a prototype DS the next year. While the hardware itself looked flimsy and horrendous, its capabilities impressed quite a few of the observers. The demo for Metroid Prime Hunters for instance, demonstrated the 3D capabilities of the hardware pretty nicely, with quite a few observers remarking that on the DS’s small screen, the graphics looked better than many late generation N64 games. However, barring this, the reception to the handheld was still largely muted, and it is not hard to see why. This unveiling was coupled with an announcement of the complete set of features for the DS, which included a touch screen, a microphone, two dated processors and Wi Fi. This unholy Frankenstein of a system, this mash of seemingly incompatible technologies, seemed to confirm everybody’s initial suspicions: Nintendo had panicked. In the face of competition from the impending PSP, they had probably decided to throw in everything including the kitchen sink, and mix up this contraption that would likely never work.

However, Nintendo had given this system it’s all. In its own words, the DS could spell the death knell for them if it failed. ‘If the DS is successful,’ a Nintendo exec had remarked in one interview, ‘then we will rise to heaven. But if it fails, we will sink to hell.’

Unfortunately, for all appearances, the DS seemed destined to fail, and it looked like just as the Playstation had driven the N64, and by extension, Nintendo, out of the home console market, so the PSP would steal the DS’s marketshare, and conclusively bring about the end for Nintendo, whose handhelds had been their sole steady source of revenue for quite a while now.

The system launched amidst a spate of advertising and heavy fanfare later in 2004 for an attractive pricepoint, beating the PSP to the market by several months. The launch was surprisingly successful, with Nintendo managing to meet its rather optimistic targets for the device. However, the DS, for its first several months on the market, continued to lack one very important thing- it lacked good games. The system launched with Super Mario 64 DS, a DS remake of the popular N64 title, as well as a demo of the upcoming Metroid Prime: Hunters game. But that was basically all that was worth playing on the system. The rest of the launch lineup was crap, and worse still, its slate of future releases looked absolutely barren. What was worse about this lineup was that all the games that were released on the system took zero advantage of any of the DS’s ‘unique’ capabilities. Super Mario 64 DS tried to debut touch screen control much like its N64 progeny had debuted analog stick control over half a decade ago, but the result was mixed. Metroid Prime Hunters actually provided a compelling touch control scheme. But at no point was the inclusion of the second screen over a touchpad justified, much less a microphone or the inclusion of Wifi.

Things did not improve. Just a few months later, the PSP launched, and it had a healthy, well rounded launch lineup that adequately represented its capabilities, graphical and otherwise. Following its launch, the PSP continued to get some major third party games, and its future looked increasingly bright. For Nintendo, this must surely have been a period of panic, as the DS was consistently outsold by the PSP over this period, and the sales lead that it had established seemed to be dwindling.

To add insult to the injury, third party support for the DS seemed negligible, and all the system seemed to be getting were hastily put together shallow minigame compilations or crappy GBA ports, none of which were doing justice to the system’s admittedly dubious capabilities. The PSP, on the other hand, was moving from strength to strength, as it lived up to its initial promise of providing the gamers with a ‘console in the pocket,’ and a true one stop multimedia device.

You couldn’t possibly blame third parties, though- the PSP was notoriously difficult to develop for, yes, but at least it was a conventional system, and you knew exactly what kind of results you were expecting from a finished game on the system. But  how could they possibly make a touch screen, a microphone, two processors and wireless connectivity work together, in their favour, in a single game? The DS, it seemed, was just the Sega Saturn all over again, chock full of useless technologies, and too complex for its own good, destined to an early death, and representing the total end of Nintendo’s presence in the hardware market.

Until Nintendogs.

This is the game that singlehandedly sold the DS. Until all the others came along.

The pet simulator was a surprise hit for everybody- nobody expected this unassuming under the radar game to actually accomplish anything, but it was the first game to truly showcase how things should be done on this odd new handheld. With Nintendogs, Nintendo properly demonstrated the use of every single feature under the DS’s hood for the first time, and the effect was simply marvellous, as Nintendogs turned into an unforgettable experience for all who played it. The launch of the game suddenly resulted in success in the system from absolutely unexpected quarters- from an audience outside of the traditional gaming market.

Suddenly, everyone was taking an interest in the DS, as to them, it was presented not as a game device, but as a gadget, a lifestyle product. The newfound ‘casual’ audience, all the mothers, and relapsed gamers, and grandfathers and grandmothers, teenage girls and more, all of them who would never have touched a game device before, suddenly went out in drives to buy the system. And when Nintendo followed up Nintendogs with Brain Age for them, the system exploded at retail overnight.

The wild success of Nintendogs was followed by the launch of the Nintendo DS Lite, a hardware redesign that transformed the ugly duckling into a beautiful swan- the DS became indisputably Nintendo’s best looking piece of hardware with the DS Lite. Suddenly, it became desirable and cool to own a DS, and that was something that had never been true of a Nintendo system before.

However, it was on the hardcore front that the DS suddenly began to shine. Nintendo finally released Mario Kart DS, and that was the game that, along with Advance Wars: Dual Strike, single handedly sold gamers onto this handheld, proving that the technology didn’t matter one bit, but the games that utilized that technology did. Following up this two punch with a steady stream of first party titles that lasted all the way into earlier this year, they released Kirby’s Canvas Curse, Metroid Prime Hunters, New Super Mario Bros, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Advance Wars: Day of Ruin, Golden Sun Dark Dawn, Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Pokemon Platinum, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, Pokemon Black and White, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and more. Each title was well received, and each title promptly proceeded to smash records at retail.

Happy birthday, Nintendo DS. You were the first and last mainstream dedicated gaming handheld.

However, more than even the first party games, the DS is probably one of those rare Nintendo systems that will be remembered for the third party games that it got. Games like Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, Final Fantasy IV, Dragon Quest V, The World Ends With You, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Dementium: The Ward, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, Okamiden, Ghost Trick, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, Dark Void Zero, 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Big Bang Mini, Picross 3D, Shantae’s Risky Revenge, Picross 3D, Dragon Quest IX, Sonic Colors, Scribblenauts and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars represented a steady stream of AAA support for the system that never once for a moment died out, and ensured a stream of quality content for the system even as all three home consoles struggled to find their footing in the market.

But the DS represented so much more- it was perhaps the last standing haven of quality JRPGs. As consoles continued to get bastardized JRPGs that compromised on the genre’s integrity, the DS continued to get quality efforts, from longstanding traditional ones like Dragon Quest IX to quirky and new ones like The World Ends With You.

At the same time, the DS also remained the last retail platform where genres such as 2D sidescrollers, shoot em ups and platformers could survive. Once mainstays of gaming, these 2D centric genres had been threatened to the verge of extinction with the dawn of polygonal 3D gaming, but they found a new lease of life on the DS, and they thrived there.

The Nintendo DS turns seven later this year, and what a journey it’s been for the quirky, odd handheld. The legacy of the DS has left an indelible mark on the industry- it led to the resurgence of Nintendo,and it re-established their dominance over the market. It led to the Wii, which has arguably, for good or for bad, changed the face of gaming forever. It is also the only system so far to demonstrate how casual and hardcore gaming can co-exist, without one, in any way possible cannibalizing the other. For a handheld that was relegated to failure status even before it launched, that’s a pretty impressive achievement.

Happy birthday, Nintendo DS. You and your legacy, both live on.

To celebrate the success of the DS, even as it continues to outperform its own successor, the 3D enabled 3DS, we at Gamingbolt will be posing a stream of DS related content to commemorate its success over the coming days. This will include the usual suspects, like a list of the best DS games and all, as well as some unexpected editorials and features. Stay tuned.