Xbox Live’s code of conduct has been updated to allow references to users’ sexuality in profiles and Gamertags, Microsoft announced today.

Previously, “to prevent the use of these terms as insults or slurs,” Live’s general manager Marc Whitten wrote in the note announcing the changes, certain “expressions of self identification” were not allowed. After hearing feedback from its customers however, the company has eased restrictions and now allows the use of the terms “lesbian,” “gay,” “bi,” “transgender” and “straight”.

Naturally, this also means “increased stringency and enforcement to prevent the misuse of these terms.”

“I truly believe that our diversity is what makes us strong: diversity in gaming and entertainment options, and diversity in the people that make up this amazing community.”

You might not realize that this is great news, but believe me, this is great news. One of the most underappreciated games from the last generation was The Red Star. The game is based off of a comic book and had the unfortunate distinction of being published by Acclaim, who happened to go under when development was nearly complete. After years of being in limbo, the game was finally released by XS Games in May of 2007, and the fourteen people who played it wanted to climb the nearest mountain and sing to the heavens praising the game for being one of the best traditional beat ‘em ups since Streets of Rage 2.

Those who missed it the first time around are getting another chance, as XS has announced that the game will be re-released as downloadable titles on the PSP and iPhone sometime this spring. If you’ve never played The Red Star, do yourself a favor and give this part brawler, part shmup the chance it deserves. It reeks of awesomeness.

While applauded for its gameplay and narrative, BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins didn’t quite tick all the check boxes when it came to graphical prowess. The PC version clearly looks the best but the console versions have had more than a few complaints thrown at their feet — a problem the studio aims to fix in future installments.

For Dragon Age 2, BioWare is putting a lot of focus on making the game’s engine “visually super hot,” VP Greg Zeschuk says, revealing that the technology is one of the key things they’re working on for the sequel. “I can confirm that we’re doing a lot of work on the Dragon Age engine, and doing a lot of stuff to pump it — to make it visually super hot,” Zeschuk told Joystiq, adding that they’re also going to continue to evolve the game’s visual style. “People are going to see some cool … I can’t really say too much, but I think Dragon Age as a world is interesting. It’s a timeline, and you can go anywhere.”

Dragon Age 2 is still likely a few good years away, leaving plenty of time to get that save game ready. In the meanwhile though, there’s going to be plenty of downloadable content to keep dark fantasy fans occupied, the latest of of which made its belated entry just today.

The BBC has said that it is unlikely to increase its focus on videogames – despite high ratings and critical praise for the ‘Electric Dreams’ season of shows on BBC Four.

The highlight of the season was arguably ex-PC Zone writer Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe, a videogame flavoured version of the acid-tongued Newswipe and Screenwipe shows. Gameswipe attracted over 300,000 views for BBC Four, a big number for the niche digital channel.

Understandably, the commissioning team behind the season are pleased with results, telling MCV, “We were delighted with the response both to Gameswipe and Electric Dreams.”

“In Charlie Brooker you have an original, savagely funny view of the world and also an expert knowledge of games and gamers. People who have no interest in the subject trust him to introduce them to what it’s all about and enthusiasts trust him to have something well-observed and truthful to say.”

However, despite all this, “Games are unlikely to be a regular feature of BBC Four but we’ll almost certainly return to the subject at some point.”

Because, y’know, who wants a successful, critically acclaimed, “savagely funny” programme cluttering up the schedules?

Though Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper and Rubber Soul will be soon be available for download in their entirety, not every album in the Fab Four’s catalog will be coming to The Beatles: Rock Band, according to Harmonix.

“Every time we do one song, it’s not like Rock Band where we wait for the masters to come in and just author them… It’s like, send people to Abbey Road, use the original tape, separate them out… it costs thousands of dollars,”  explained Harmonix PR representative John Drake in an interview with BBPS. “We’re waiting to see how things sell. We’re waiting to see how the albums do. If they sell well, we’ll have a lot more content.”

Considering the amazing amount of work that went into creating the game’s elaborate music videos, which Harmonix appropriately dubbed “dreamscapes,” I understand wanting to see how the first batch of DLC fares before making more. But if Rocky Racoon doesn’t eventually come to the Rock Band store, prepare to see me tear up like one of those hysterical Shea Stadium teens.

Rare is one of the industry’s more beloved studios. Or rather, it was once upon a time. Nowadays Rare is little more than a footnote in Microsoft’s gaming division. A very, very expensive footnote. Microsoft expected the studio to churn out multi-million selling hits that they peppered Nintendo with, but games like Viva Pinata and Perfect Dark Zero are a far cry from what Microsoft expected sales-wise. And so, Rare quietly retreated from stage center and have since been “that” studio people know about but don’t expect much out of. This has a lot to do with the studio itself being so secretive, using the Nintendo strategy of keeping its games close to heart until they’re absolutely sure nothing will go wrong. That’s all well and good but its not exactly conducive to the creation of hype and general excitement.

Peter “Euro-Head-Honcho” Molyneux wants to change all of that. In an interview with GI, Molyneux outlined some goals he had for Microsoft’s European projects and regarding Rare, Molyneux said, “one of the things I really want to do is help Rare have more of an identity. And make sure the people at Rare are seen more within the industry…I just want to give them the confidence to tell the world what they’re doing. I hope you’re going to see more from Rare and I want to help them get well known. But you’ll definitely still recognise a Rare game.”

Super. Now let’s see Rare actually show me a new game and remind me of my childhood reverence.

..apparently the people at Crytek couldn’t handle the constant ‘When is it coming to consoles?’ nagging anymore. Crytek CEO and prez Cevat Yerli explains: “It’s a question of more than economics. At the end of the day we’re paying salaries and we all have to live, but that’s one side of this job. But most importantly and a bit more tangible to us are the families, the nephews, and sons who ask, ‘Why aren’t you going to consoles?’” So a few relatives accomplished what armies of gamers could not, eh? I don’t know if we should be impressed or ashamed. “It’s kind of like bothering people. We’ve been asked a lot in the last three or four years now, ‘When consoles? When consoles? When consoles?’ It was literally inevitable that we would bring it.”

But this move to make CryEngine work with the 360 and PS3 didn’t come fast. Before even thinking about the story, settings etc of Crysis 2, a certain level of quality had to be reached, and Yerli says 2-3 years were spent on technical research and development, “We had to make a technological breakthrough before we could commit to those quality bars.” If you missed it before, some of that quality can be seen in the CryEngine 3 tech demo below which Crytek released during GDC earlier this year.

As for Crysis 2, seeing as the announcement can barely be classified as such and the announcement trailer just showed the game’s logo for 60 seconds, chances are we won’t be playing it in our living rooms anytime soon.

Continuing from the sadness that took over the head of Activision a few days ago, we now at least have some sort of answer as to why Sony didn’t announce any price cuts at E3: it just wasn’t the appropriate place to do it. “From our perspective, this show is all about content,” said Peter Dille to Kotaku, “We believe that our content story is unrivaled. It’s really a relentless line-up of great exclusive games that will speak volumes to the value inherent in the PS3. Obviously people come to E3 expecting all sorts of announces. We’ve got a plan in place for the platform. A price drop at the show wasn’t part of it.”

In the meantime, we’ll just have to wait for Sony to decide the proper place to drop some prices. Sony may have the most expensive console on the market but with a strong line-up for the future, including some promising motion controls, it should perform well against its competitors even if they are less expensive.