This week for the gaming news round-up we're reporting to you straight from the rAge expo at the Coco-Cola dome in Johannesburg.

 

The really awesome gaming expo (rAge) is taking place over this weekend, so if you don't have any plans, consider heading to the dome to attend the country's largest and most rocking gaming and technology expo.

 

 

If one were to compare premium gaming rigs with cars, Alienware would be the Lamborghini of the computer world. Featuring literally the fastest gaming notebooks and desktops available in the world, the Alienware brand has always been drenched in premium flavour, as well as that not so tasty premium price tag.

 

But now, thanks to Dell, the beauty and sheer horsepower of Alienware rigs are available to South African gaming enthusiasts. Expanding to a whopping 70 new countries over the past few months, the Alienware invasion is truly in full swing.

 

Some of the devices shown at rAge to a crowd of journalists include the tiny M11X, an 11” notebook sporting the title of the world's smallest gaming notebook. This little demon also brags with a very competent battery reaching 3.5 hours of gaming time and a full 8 hours in normal non-gaming use.

 

The granddaddy of gaming notebooks, the M17X, was also present for us to drool over. This insane machine sports a Core i5 or i7 CPU, up to 8 GB of RAM, a 1.2 TB HDD (hard disk drive) or SSD (solid state drive) and a glorious 17” display.

 

All the Alienware rigs are sculpted according to the company's unique design themes, while also sporting customisable lighting options and comprehensive warranties.

 

If you're interested in spending a couple of grand on one of the world's fastest gaming notebooks, they are available exclusively from Incredible Connection. Only the Alienware notebooks are available at this stage, with the desktops coming later. 

 

 

One of the main attractions at this year's rAge is undoubtedly Microsoft's Kinect stand. Here showgoers can come experience the as yet unreleased controllerless gaming peripheral first hand.

 

A couple of different games are available to try out, including a humorous racing game, table tennis, some dancing and exercise games and of course the infamous Kinectimals.

 

We tried out some of the Kinect games for ourselves and found them to be highly amusing. While the launch titles for the peripheral may not be the most exciting games around, they still grabbed our attention. We did encounter some lag while playing, especially with the racing title as it couldn't always keep up with our movements. If this is purely initial problems remains to be seen. 

 

If you're wondering what exactly Kinect will have in store come this holiday season, head over to rAge and check it out first hand.

 

 

Would-be assassin’s looking forward to the latest title from the Assassin’s Creed franchise can head over to the Megarom booth at rAge for some hands-on time with the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Here players can spend a few minutes running around Rome trying to outwit their opponents and land that perfect assassination. 

 

After our brief time with the game we can definitely say that we're very excited for this latest outing into the world of cut throat assassin’s. The Assassin’s Creed games have always been critical successes, but its lack of multiplayer have kept the series from staying at the top of the charts for more than a few weeks. Now, with Brotherhood, this is set to change as we finally have the opportunity to cooperatively take down targets or engage in an old school assassin duel.

 

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood will be releasing on the 19th of November for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. 

 

 

Everyone's favourite survival horror sci-fi shooter, Dead Space, is back at rAge this year as EA shows off the upcoming Dead Space 2.

 

Aspiring necromorph slayers can grab a controller at rAge and start blasting away at the mysterious, and supremely scary foes. Just like the previous title, Dead Space 2 looks, feels and sounds great, perfectly recreating the kind of nail biting horror sequences gamers got introduced to in Doom 3. No matter how hard your gaming constitution is, Dead Space 2 will turn your legs to jelly with its overwhelmingly horrific action.

 

Dead Space 2 will also support a great multiplayer component reminiscent of Left 4 Dead as four players fight against a horde of constantly spawning necromorphs controlled by the opposing team. Dead Space 2 is coming to the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on the 28th of January 2011. So if you don't want to wait that long for your first experience of this amazing game, head on over to the EA stand at rAge for some hands on time.

 

RPG fans will also be delighted to find Dragon Age 2 present at the expo, also playable at the EA booth.

 

 

Finally, in some news unrelated to rAge, the highly anticipated Gears of War 3 has been delayed by at least five months. Gears of War 3 was set to blast its way onto the Xbox 360 on 5 April 2011 in the US, 7 April 2011 in Japan and 8 April 2011 in Europe and the rest of the world.

 

According to Kotaku, the delay hasn't been caused by the development team being behind schedule, but comes down to marketing and to have sales boosted by holiday shopping.

 

"Gears of War 3 promises to be the biggest entertainment launch of 2011," a statement from Microsoft, the game's publishers said. "The teams at Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games have done great work thus far readying the title for release in the Spring of 2011. However, we've elected to move the launch of Gears of War 3 until Fall 2011 to make it the marquee title for the holiday season."