Blizzard has released three custom maps for Starcraft 2. Called Aiur Chef, StarJeweled, and Left 2 Die, the maps are available to players for beta testing. Blizzard acknowledged that the maps are still being developed and that no firm final release date is available. However, devs wanted players to get a first look opportunity to try them out and to provide the team with valuable feedback.

Aiur Chef
Category: Collection/Cooking
Mode: Free For All
Players: Up to 8

Each round of Aiur Chef features a theme ingredient and three succulent recipes that play upon its unique flavor. Before you can master these themed dishes, though, you'll first need to scout across the map and collect a variety of tasty ingredients (including the theme ingredient). Each recipe has its own set of required ingredients, listed in the recipe menu in the upper-left of your screen, which can be picked up off the ground or acquired by killing specific creatures. Don't get too greedy when loading up on ingredients, though -- inventory space is limited, so you'll want to focus on collecting ingredients for one recipe at a time.

Read each map's summary and check out several screens on the Starcraft II blog site.

Fallen Earth players have an in-game event to look forward to as Valentine's Day approaches. Called "My Bloody Valentine", players have the opportunity to earn The Heartbreaker and "a new Holiday Crafting recipe that will enable you to rip out your little clone heart."

Preserve your heart and gift it to your apocalyptic valentine—your significant other will receive a special stamina regen +3 buff when equipped.

As a bonus—and as part of a live Valentine’s Day Massacre against the Redstone—the dev team will be joining you in game throughout the day as you run the mission.

Read more here.

Ctrl + Alt + Del is arguably one of the biggest gaming-related web comics on the 'Net today. The comic features the gaming adventures of Ethan, Lucas, Lilah, and Zeke and revolves around video games and the gaming sub-culture. These giants of internet comics will be featured in AdventureQuest Worlds on January 28th to celebrate Winter-een-mas.

The last week of January is a very special time of year for Ctrl + Alt + Del fans; it’s the internet-famous Winter-een-mas, a holiday created for and celebrated by gamers! But this Winter-een-mas, something is not quite right…besides the whole holiday not being quite right in the first place. The Winter-een-mas Crown has been stolen and Ethan, Lucas, Lilah, and Zeke need help getting it back.

The free in-game event is available for everyone of every level at www.AQ.com starting January 28^th, 2011, at sundown EST There will be Winter-een-mas rare items pulled directly from the pages—erm, web pages—of Ctrl + Alt + Del along with a brand-new storyline full of cutscenes and voice acting that shows the true meaning of the 2011 gaming season.

Read more here.

Beyondthepillars has announced that the first three episodes of the Mac version of Winter Voices have been bundled together and that a new demo version of the game has been released. The Winter Voices bundle is $12.00 on PC and Mac and includes three episodes of turn-based psychic role playing: Prologue: Avalanche, Episode One: Those Who Have No Name and Episode Two: Nowhere of Me.

In Winter Voices, players control a 24 year-old heroine as she deals with the unexpected and tragic death of her father. She must journey through the heart of winter and battle her worst enemies - her own personal demons. Winter Voices combines "point and click" gaming with strictly defensive turn-based combat. As the game alternates real-time dialogue and world exploration with struggle, players will have access to more than 100 unique skills as they upgrade their character.

Find out more about Winter Voices at the official site.

EVE Online players now have the Sansha to deal with in game in addition to other players. Full scale incursions are on the rise throughout all systems. Capsuleers are being destroyed in droves as ships come to help stem the tide of the Sansha invasions.

I urge you to join EVE's 350,000 other pilots and check it out yourself with a review account or 14-day trial. You can find "incursed" systems in your star map if you are looking to jump right in.

And finally, if you haven't done so, I couldn't more strongly recommend logging in to EVE even if just to play with the newly released, industry leading character creator. Making a character in EVE is unmatched by any other character creation I've experienced in video games. The players "seem" to be liking it as well, as last Sunday we broke our Peak Concurrent User (PCU) record with 63, 170 pilots all in one un-instanced world space. Epic.

Check out a new EVE Online video on YouTube by clicking the image below.

Read more here.

Originally ported to Mac in 2004, adventure title Fish Fillets NG developers have continued to update their beloved title even as late as December 2010. In his latest Game On Mac review, Martin Chandler takes a look at the 8-bit adventure title and checks to see if all the work is worth the effort. Check it out!

The first two levels of the game give you a tutorial on how the game is played, and what all the rules are. You control two fish, and can switch back and forth between them. The goal is to be able to move your two fish through a series of obstacles and off screen, on to the next level. If one fish dies or is trapped, you have to restart. You are able to save at various points through the level, and restart from there, which is quite helpful, as you will inadvertently kill your fish with a good deal of regularity.

Read Martin's full Fish Fillets review here.

Game On Mac reviewer Martin Chandler has a new review of SNES arcade-like game, Armand and the Foppish Hat for Mac. The game harkens back to gaming days of yore but does it deliver the same excitement? Find out in Martin's review.

Do you have a half hour to kill? That’s about all it will take to beat Armand and the Foppish Hat, but it will be a fun and entertaining half hour. Maybe you’re waiting for a friend to arrive, or you’re just procrastinating from doing some work; whatever the cause of your free time (or procrastination), Armand and the Foppish Hat will give you a brief diversion, and little else.

Read Martin's full review here.

Valve's Chet Faliszek has confirmed via an as-yet unpublished interview with Now Gamer that user-created levels for Portal 2 will be available on PC, Mac, PS3 and Xbox 360. Check out this quote.

"The mod tools have to stay on the PC side just because there’s a bunch of dependencies that require the Windows platform," Faliszek told NowGamer. "But the content that comes out is agnostic, and so we will be seeing that on all the platforms. Depending on the platform you’re on I should say, will depend on how we’re delivering it."

Faliszek confirmed that PS3 gamers would receive such content through the upcoming Steam works features.  "There’s just a lot of value in engaging the community because they’re smart, they’re thinking of really cool things and we want to be able to have everyone share that," he added.

Read the full preview article here and keep your eye on NowGamer.com for the full interview.

Soldak Entertainment has released a cool half dozen screenshots from the upcoming Din's Curse Mac expansion, Demon Wars. The screens show off some nice spell effects and level designs. Check 'em out!