The release of God of War III is just around the corner. In fact, with Sony bringing the Indian release date forward, many PS3 owners have the game already. To celebrate the launch God of War III, probably the biggest PS3 game release in the console’s three-year history, we bring you the IVG GOW3 launch centre and contest.

Head to the launch centre find out about the game’s features, view game screenshots and concept art, and download God of War III wallpapers in 1080p resolution. You can also enter the contest through the launch centre. All you have to do is answer one easy question to stand a chance to win a brand new PlayStation 3 and a copy of God of War III courtesy Sony and Milestone Interactive.

Click here to visit the IVG God of War III launch centre.

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It’s becoming all too familiar. Some country in the Middle East breaks the street date of a Sony first party title. A couple of days later, import copies from the Middle East flood the Indian market at exorbitant prices. Fearing a drop in demand for the official release and faced with the prospect of being stuck with dead stock, Sony decides to officially bring forward the release date in India. It happened with Killzone 2, and now, it’s happening with possibly the biggest PS3 exclusive yet. God of War III, which had a scheduled release date of March 19, will now be available at retail stores across India starting tomorrow, March 13. That’s three days before anywhere else in the world.

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We’ve known for some time that Batman: Arkham Asylum’s Game of the Year Edition was on the way, but now we know exactly what extras we can expect. The biggest feature in the GOTY edition is the inclusion of Trioviz 3D technology, and two sets of 3D glasses included in each copy of the game. Hit the jump for all the additional features in the GOTY edition.

Click here for additional features in the GOTY edition

Looking at the release list for March, it resembles something you would usually see towards the end of the year. While heavyweights like God of War III, Final Fantasy XIII, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will attract the most attention, there are a whopping 18 releases in total this month, in addition to February releases like Napoleon Total War, which got delayed. Here’s a complete list of releases this month:

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Game4U, the retail arm of Milestone Interactive, opened its flagship store in suburban Mumbai on Wednesday, having already established itself in the online space last year with Game4U.com. The new store is located at Mega Mall in Oshiwara, Mumbai, and offers an expansive collection of games and hardware across console, handheld, and PC platforms.

Visitors can also try out the latest games at the store, with PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, PC, and PSPgo units set up with full games and demos. There’s even a sweet Rock Band set up. The store is extremely well organised, unlike anything we’ve seen in India before. There’s a preorder section, a Top charts section, where you can find the best selling games for each platform, and there’s even a Game4Girls section.

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GameShastra, the Hyderabad-based studio behind Desi Adda, today announced that they’ve further expanded their relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and are set to release the first Indian game for the PlayStation 3, titled Eklavya. They’ve also announced that Desi Adda will soon be available for purchase in digital form over the PlayStation Network.

The company also revealed that to meet the requirements of their ramp-up in high-end game development, they have expanded their game development facility to house a team over over 1,000 game designers, artists, animators, developers and QA specialists, making it one of the largest game studios in south Asia.

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Codemasters’ Guildford facility has been hard at work on a new action first-person shooter for a while now. The studio is comprised of many former EA Criterion, Sony, and Blackrock employees, and the team behind the new shooter is being headed by Stuart Black, previously co-creator and designer of Black. The game will employ Codemasters’ proprietary EGO engine, which has powered games like Race Driver: Grid, DiRT & DiRT 2, and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising in the past.

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In EA’s recent financial report, there’s mention of a shooter from Epic Games scheduled for release between January and March 2011. After a little digging around, it’s almost certain that this game is Bullet Storm, developed by People Can Fly, which is a sub division of Epic Games. The game will be a collaboration between People Can Fly and Epic, and will be published by EA Partners for consoles and PC early next year.

People Can Fly is the Poland-based studio that brought us Painkiller as well the PC port of Gears of War. Further evidence comes from the developer’s website which states, ‘A brand new IP is in development as a collaboration between People Can Fly and Epic Games. The title is being published by EA Partners’, although the title ‘Bullet Storm’ isn’t mentioned. It’s unknown whether this will be third-person or first-person shooter, but with release only a year away, we should see an announcement very soon.

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Those who listened in to our latest IVG Podcast would have known about a little contest we held to celebrate the release of Mass Effect 2. We asked listeners to name all the EA games that Nash and I mentioned throughout the podcast. We’ve picked six winners, one of whom will receive a copy of Mass Effect 2 for PC and an N7 T-shirt, while the remaining five winners will receive N7 T-shirts.

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Resident Evil 5 is now a PS3 Platinum and Xbox 360 Classics title, which means that the game will now be priced at Rs 1,999 on both platforms. So if the original Rs 3,499 price tag was keeping you away, now’s the time to pick it up. Also look out for Resident Evil: Gold Edition in stores this March, and expect pricing to be lower than the standard Capcom price of Rs 3,499. The Gold Edition includes Resident Evil 5 as well as two new episodes - Lost in Nightmares and Desperate Escape.

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