So! We have a brand new game to rave about, well, I do anyways! It is known as X:COM – Enemy Unknown. What is it about? Well, do you remember those old war games that were strategy based? Where you moved the troops around in an aerial style, not unlike C&C only with more focus on a small amount of troops going from cover to cover? You wouldn’t be far off from this game, however there is PLENTY more than that.

The idea of a Steam console has been the subject of speculation for a while now, and with the advent of the Steam Big Picture Beta that speculation is a step closer to reality.

Yesterday saw the beta launch of the service that allows Steam users to luxury of playing their Steam games from the comfort of their couch on a system designed for use  with the more traditional keyboard and mouse set up or the brand new controller based interface designed especially for the system.

Also included is what Steam call the world’s first “first person web browser”  but more importantly all of this is now available on your TV rather than having to sit at the PC in the more traditional manner.

It’s free to use and compatible with the usual Windows and Mac devices and is a public beta so you can sign up now at  http://store.steampowered.com/bigpicture and play with the future.

We hear so much about how gaming is bad for society, it turns us all into psychotic dribbling murderers and antichrists as well as encouraging bad language, bad hygiene, bad diet, bad grammar and most likely unsafe masturbatory techniques....

But recently released research by Keele University shows that playing video games can give people a better tolerance for pain. Especially if the games are violent.

Click after the break to find out more. And if you are in pain click violently....

So, you've all heard about the events in City of Heroes this week including today's monumental protest in Atlas Park. We've been covering the event all day on SI Radio and supporting those brave protesters. It's been a fun day of placard waving, torch bearing and random appearances from various Arch Nemesis, Hamidon and the odd cheeky costume change instigated by the game's developers, turning gamers into Statesman and Araachnos. There's even been a special gold title of “Paragon Backer” .

If that wasn't enough, a protest that was meant to take place on the Virtue server has spread. Over 35 instances of Virtue alone have spawned as a result alongside multiple instances of other servers including Guardian, Union and Justice. With each instance holding a maximum of 75 people this means over 2,600 people have joined in on the Virtue servers alone.

Servers have crashed because of the popularity of the protest, there have been appearances from various developers and the official CoX Twitter has been alive with comments including “We've said it before, our community is amazing. Join them on the Virtue server today if you can”

You can follow the action onair live with us and also on Facebook with the Call to Action: Unity group here and on Twitter here

We'll be keeping you up to date with the proceedings, and in the meantime we have a few screenshots for you to enjoy after the break.

Power to the people! And of course viva la revolution!

For those of you incensed, annoyed, dismayed and heartbroken about the closure of City of Heroes there may be hope or at least revolution in the air as a protest is planned for today in Atlas Park. It's all kicking off from 5pm EST/10pm UK on the Virtue server and is already attracting a crowd.

We already heard in the week that NC Soft are in "talks" about the game's demise and now players of the much loved MMO are going to be protesting and making their feelings known. If you want to be a part of it a Facebook group has been set up with full details of the event that you can check out here.

Check it out and let Split Infinity Radio be the soundtrack to your protest!

Viva la revolution!