Partnering with Virgin Gaming, EA have revealed a $1,600,000 "Worldwide Conquest" cash prize tournament for their forthcoming first-person-shoot epic, Battlefield 3. They claim it's the biggest console cash prize pool in history! You did read that right, however. Yes, console. Unfortunately for PC gamers, you will need BF3 on your Xbox 360 or PS3 to take part.

Here's the press release in full:

EA and Virgin Gaming Announce Battlefield 3 Videogame Competition with $1.6 Million...

As far as the franchise goes, Street Fighter III remains the best in the series thus far as far as I'm concerned. So, unsurprisingly, I'm a little excited about the forthcoming Online Edition of Third Strike, which has now been scheduled for an August 24 release. It's the highest-budget download game from the studio working on it, and when you consider the feature list below that's not hard to believe.

• GGPO Netcode
• "Arcade-perfect" gameplay
• New Trials mode
• Hundreds of challenges
• Enhanced

...

If you fancy yourself a bit of a fighter, and have been giving Super Street Fighter IV a good run-in, then you should probably get involved with one of the OzHadou tournament qualifiers running in your state during May. Brisbane's OzHadou final will be held at Australia's first and recently opened gaming lounge, Mana Bar, this Monday from 5pm. Even if you're not playing, come along for a drink and the spectacle. Head on over to OzHadou's tournament announcement forum for a full event listing and all of the details.

If the international spotlight is more your thing, there's always Evolution Asia-Pacific in Sydney in the final weekend of the month. You may even land yourself a paid flight to Las Vegas to represent the APAC region in SSF4 at EVO 2010. Of course, that's only if you like your chances going up against 2009 world champion, Daigo, who's flying to Sydney to compete in the same EVO APAC qualifying round. If you're not sure who Daigo is, view the video embed for a look at his most famous fight moment. Daigo fights as Ken in the clip, and you should pay close attention to his starting health and the fact it's a deciding round....