Remember Naval Strike, the battle ship like iPhone game developed by MIH Swat right her in South Africa?

The reaction to Naval Strike has been overwhelming, and MIH Swat have reached their two week download target in a mere 5 days and to celebrate this they are giving away a $50 iTunes voucher.

To win the $50 iTunes vouchers, players will need to play Naval Strike through Game Center and the player with the highest score by Friday 22 April 2011 will win the $50 iTunes voucher.

So what are you waiting for, go download Naval Strike and start playing.

If you are a Xbox Kinect owner, Xbox LIVE would like to invite you to help them set a new Guinness World Record.

On Saturday 23 April 2011, Xbox LIVE would like to set a new world record for the largest online sprint ever by joining hands across the world with all Xbox LIVE players.

The Guinness World Record attempt will just be one of the fun events that will take place over a weekend of entertainment on Xbox LIVE. During the weekend, dubbed XBox Nations, all Xbox LIVE members will be given Xbox LIVE Gold access to gain access to the latest content online and enable them to play multiplayer games.

Xbox Nations will take place from Thursday 21 April 2011 to Monday 25 April 2011, for more details about Xbox Nations follow Xbox South Africa on Twitter or Facebook.

Starting this weeks local South African Xbox LIVE players will get 50% off all 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold subscription purchases.

Xbox South Africa has teamed up with various retailers to offer South African Xbox LIVE players 50% off 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold subscriptions when they either buy a console or a game.

Apart from the normal LIVE experience that enables you to connect with friends, download and play games and give you access to a large library of games, Xbox LIVE Gold membership also gets you early access to game demos, exclusive discounts, Facebook and Twitter, and more.

You can get the Xbox LIVE Gold subscription special at your nearest Incredible Connection, Musica, Look & Listen, CNA, Hi-Fi Corporation, Dion Wired, BT Games or Makro, while stocks last.

South Africans are really starting to see that social and mobile gaming are hotting up, and latest company to release a mobile game is Naspers owned MIHSwat in Cape Town.

MIHSwat has released their new iPhone game called Naval Strike, Naval Strike is based on the popular Battle Ship game where you strategically place you fleet of boats and then on turn based against your opponent try to bomb their ships. The player that bombs all their opponents ships first are declared the winner.

Naval Strike adds some nice addition to the classic Battle Ship game by introducing multiplayer functionality through bluetooth or via Game Center.

You can grab the Naval Strike iPhone App from iTunes for free or for more information about the game and how it works check out http://www.mihswat.com/naval-strike-iphone-app/

Angry Birds has to be one of the most popular mobile games at the moment with all of its releases topping the Apple iTunes App Store charts as soon as they are released.

Last week Rio the makers of Angry Birds released the latest installment of their popular mobile game, Angry Birds Rio.

Angry Birds Rio adds a whole new twist to the game, and they also upped the graphics a bit. With Angry Birds Rio, there are no more pigs, instead all the birds have been kidnapped and shipped to Rio headquarters and you have to free them. The new Angry Birds Rio takes place inside a warehouse and there are also new obstacles like hanging chains with fruit that can obstruct your shooting.

Up until now the only way Android users could get access to Angry Birds Rio was through the new Amazon App Store, but unfortunately this is only open to US users. Good news for international Android users is that Rio will be releasing Angry Birds Rio on the Android Market sometime this week. The game will be free on the Android Market and will be supported by Ads.

For me the XBox Kinect is one of the hotest gadgets available in the gaming market today and it seems that others tend to agree with me.

Microsoft has announced that their XBox Kinect system has officially hit the 10 million units sold mark and that is in only a few months making it the fastest selling gadget on earth. Rightfully so, the Kinect has earned its place in the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition as the fastest selling consumer electronics device.

“The sales figures here speak for themselves,” said Gaz Deaves, Gaming Editor for Guinness World Records. “According to independent research, no other consumer electronics device sold faster within a 60-day time span, which is an incredible achievement considering the strength of the sector.”

The Kinect has sold on average 133 333 units daily in its first 2 months of launch totaling more than 8 million units over the period.

Do you own a Kinect? Tell us what games you enjoy.

Okay so I am not a hardcore gamer, I tend to think of myself as a more casual gamer, but when it comes to having a full weekend with all your best mates in one room jamming away at a First Person Shooter, or racing for pole position or just pretending you are the hottest band on earth with Guitar Hero, then things do tend to get more serious.

I remember when we where still studying we used to every now and then on a Friday just decide this will be a gaming weekend, then we get as much gamers as we can in the hostel and cram them into one tiny room for a weekend full of beer and gaming. Things do get quite interesting when you start to play drinking games in conjuction with the normal gaming, giving the rookies some form of advantage.

Well the folks over at Chaos Computers, I guess most of you know who they are, have put together a great competition for gamers. How does 5 days of gaming sound with 4 of your best mates? Awesome doesn’t it? Well they are doing just that, giving you and 4 of your mates the change to win a 5 day gaming marathon at their cost.

If that does not sound awesome enough, they will be shipping you of to a nice villa in Camps Bay for this 5 days of gaming madness and give you a supply of unlimited junk food, Red Bull, Games and even throw in some gadgets to surround you with during your stay.

So what are you waiting for? Go enter on the Chaos Computers Facebook Page or on their website.

Microsoft has one of the hotest gadgets available on the market today, the Xbox 360 Kinect, allowing you to use your body as the controller, but it seems they are not willing to let it at that.

Microsoft recently launched Windows Phone 7, a new mobile operating system that are set to compete head on with the likes of Android and Apple iOS, but since its release uptake of Windows Phone 7 has been very stale.

Microsoft is however hard at work trying to integrate its Windows Phone 7 operating system into as many other systems as possible, and one such integration it that of their very own Xbox 360 Kinect. You are probably asking now, how on earth will you integrate Windows Phone 7 with Xbox Kinect? Have a look at this video.

So what do you think? Will this change your mind on Windows Phone 7? Would be cool to add to the Kinect gaming experience by controlling additional features via your Windows Phone 7 device.

Wired has reported that gaming company Activision will be closing down their music game division that was responsible for the Guitar Hero games.

Activision said that the decline of the genre, plus the high cost of licensing music and producing the games, led it to close the business.

“There was nothing that Activision or anybody could have done to save Guitar Hero,” said Jesse Divnich, vice president of analyst services for Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, in an interview with Wired.com. Divnich said that Activision realizes the “opportunity cost” of continuing to make Hero games when it could instead be putting those resources towards more profitable games.

I for one was a big fan of Guitar Hero, almost having all the title so this comes as really sad news to me. Luckily we still have Rock Band to help us live the dream of being a rock star, also with Kinect now being popular I think we will see more music games heading over to the motion controller platform, although it won’t beat jamming away on a mini guitar or drum kit.

Back in 2009 Microsoft released an update to XBOX 360 consoled that allowed gamers to browse Facebook and tweet straight from their consoles through Xbox LIVE.

A few years down the line and us South Africans finally got Xbox LIVE in our own country, but despite all the hype it was not welcomed with warm feelings as most of the services and feature we got used to when using international accounts was now gone. Some of these features included the ability to browse Facebook and Twitter from your console.

Xbox LIVE South Africa is now 3 months old and things are finally starting to look like its taking shape as Microsoft has announced that from 26 January 2011 Xbox LIVE subscribers will be able to access Facebook and Twitter from their Xbox 360 consoles.

Facebook on Xbox LIVE features include:

• Connect with friends using Facebook
• Explore news feeds from friends and family
• Post, read, and respond to comments on status updates and photos
• View photos using the Xbox 360 built-in scaler for great-looking pictures
• With Friend Linker, find friends on Facebook that also have Gamertags and invite them to your Xbox LIVE Friends List
• Update your status with achievements in-game

Twitter on Xbox LIVE features include:

• Read Tweets from people you follow, post new messages and reply to existing  ones
• Automatically sign into Twitter when you sign into Xbox LIVE
• Link your Gamertag to your Twitter username
• Connect with Xbox LIVE friends who you follow on Twitter, view user lists and favourite Tweets

Please note that the Facebook, Twitter, video chat features and Xbox LIVE Party require an Xbox LIVE Gold membership.