It's a name that strikes fear in the hearts of gamers everywhere: Crysis. Add the inevitable 2 at the end of it, and you have a nerd version of an aphrodisiac. Recently, a torrent of the Crysis 2 beta was reportedly leaked by a warez website; gamers immediately swooped in on the download and posted screenshots everywhere. We've taken some of the best looking ones and reposted them here.

There's been a lot of talk about Crysis lately, and certainly it serves more as a benchmarking utility than as a game at this point, but we wonder whether or not the sequel will serve similar purposes. CryEngine 3 has been out and about for a while now, and with Crysis 2 rapidly approaching, it won't be long before gamers are once again saying: "uhh, nice $484 budget PC build, but will it run Crysis 2?"

Check out the screenshots below. Click to view full-res versions.

Magicka's explosive entrance to the multiplayer arena can only be explained by one phenomenon: wizards have been possessed by lemmings. Yes, it's finally happened; we all knew that those little green men would return -- but who knew that it would be in the form of wizards self-destructing on a wildly generic battlefield? Under the visage of Paradox, publisher of successful franchises like Majesty 2 and Warband, our wizard friends saw the top of the Steam sales list in no time.

We fell in love with Magicka's quirky artistic style and great sense of humor, and in the spirit of the game, I worked with Tim "Space_man" Martin to compose a list of the top seven coolest looking element combinations in Magicka (note: not necessarily the strongest spells, but the best looking). Check out the screenshots and spell combos below.

Nothing quite matches up to the feeling grafted from tearing (already damaged) shipping boxes to shreds; the gain is multiplied significantly when those boxes house the newest, most affordable computer hardware currently available. If you missed our December budget build, you're in luck: this is the best one yet.

This budget PC gaming rig is what we call an 'upgrade build.' The components list does not account for hardware that most everyone already has (keyboard, mouse, headset, monitors, etc.). However, if you are in need of a new keyboard or mouse, we'd suggest their respective links. There are alternative options listed for some of the components below, just in case you have different tasks in mind.

I'm not quite sure what was “nail'd” here, but it certainly wasn't game design.

When most people think about the first time they came across a racing game, they recall an arcade style racing game such as OutRun, Crazy Taxi, and Ridge Racer. Over the past couple of years this style of racer has taken a back seat to the much more realistic Gran Turismo, DiRT, or Forza Motorsport. These are all well and good for people that like to get down and dirty with the specifics of a car, look at the engine, and kick the tires before they head out on the track, but what about the people that don't really care? What about the people that just want to jump into the first thing with go-faster stripes and tear up the track with their friends? That's where nail'd comes in. Supposedly.

The complete Total War: Shogun 2 trailer was released on Steam recently, offering a full three minutes of sword-swinging glory on the Steam page. Shogun: Total War (the original) was one of the most admired strategy games of its time, and the series has continued through releases of Rome, Medieval, Medieval 2, Empire, and Napoleon Total War games. Although the most recent two launches were somewhat disappointing, especially with the enormous amount of bugs at launch, Shogun 2 promises to turn the series around and make a return to the original amazing gameplay that we can all remember.

The Shogun 2 trailer gives a look into the warring countryside of 16th century Japan, unveiling (somewhat expectantly) thousands of samurai, awkward-feeling diplomats, and war. Check out the trailer below for more information on the Shogun 2 release.

http://store.steampowered.com/video/34330/80626

The old trailer is embedded below, just in case you need to catch up.