My own curiosity-killed-the-cat moment happened over Christmas last year. Going back to Scotland meant waving a tearful farewell to desktop PC and consoles behind, and the need to work on the train meant lugging a woefully underpowered laptop around. Still, a little retro gaming inspired by a trip to Reddit would soothe my soul, right?

Well, almost. Look at this:

And that’s actually one of the better looking screenshots I could find.

While you get over the sight of all that terrible head trauma poor Gunther seems to have suffered, I’ll give you a little background.

Deus Ex was a real rough diamond of a game, coming around as it did at a time when game developers were really stretching themselves, breaking the stale genre boundaries that had come to characterise 90′s gaming, and pushing the technology of the consoles of the time to its limit. PC gaming was at one of its periodic high points, with Counter Strike and The Sims proving that there was life in the old dog yet.

So it’s really no surprise that Ion Storm’s first person RPG found an audience. What was surprising, and gained the game such critical praise and enduring player popularity, was the way that it blended astonishing narrative complexity and deeply satisfying gameplay, with a real sense of making choices that defined your journey through the game. Sure, you were always going to end up at the same place, but the way you got there defined how your character related to the people, plots and secret agencies around him.

And that ridiculously dystopian plot! From relatively humble beginnings as a nano-enhanced UN agent investigating and thwarting terrorist attacks, the narrative twists and turns like a labyrinth, taking in secret government conspiracies, organised crime and the Illuminati. It’s difficult to imagine anyone managing to play through Deus Ex without developing a deep and abiding distrust of anyone in authority claiming to represent their best interests

Dark Horse is set to take a dive into the Mass Effect Universe with the panel ‘Dark Horse & Bioware Present: Mapping the Mass Effect Universe’. Join lead writer on Mass Effect, Mac Walters and Director of Public Relations Jeremy Atkins and Director of Custom Programs, Nick McWhorter over at Dark Horse in talking about the franchise as well as a sneak peek at Mass Effect 3 and other announcements. Check out the official site here as well as the description below.

With comics, novels, movies, and a third game on the horizon, Mass Effect has become one of the largest science fiction franchises in the world. Join Mass Effect lead writer, Mac Walters, along with Dark Horse Director of Public Relations, Jeremy Atkins and Director of Custom Programs, Nick McWhorter, for an exploration of what makes Mass Effect so special! Fans will get a first hand look at the upcoming comics series, the Art of the Mass Effect Universe, as well as a taste of Mass Effect 3! With announcements to be made, surprise guests, prizes and giveaways, we couldn’t give you more reasons to attend!

Dark Horse and Mass Effect universe could make some pretty awesome comics

Today, at the Eurogamer Expo, I’ve been spending some time with all three versions of Battlefield 3. It’s not looking too shabby on any of the formats, but I thought I’d chime in with some thoughts about what the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC versions look like. A bit of subjective analysis, if you will. Here goes…

PC

The PC version is, without a shadow of a doubt, the prettiest of the three formats. That is, of course, to be expected. It’s the lead platform, and the processing power of high-end PCs is quite remarkable these days. (Bear in mind that the game was running on top-spec machines with the latest nVidia video tech.) Textures are astonishingly crisp, even up-close, and while I noticed a tiny bit of pop-in, it’s a rare occurrence and by no means a real problem. The lighting and shadows are gorgeous, and the game world has a real sheen to it. The reflections are subtle, realistic, and wonderful.

It’s also extremely smooth, as you might expect, and the draw distance is great, with none of the foliage pop-in that the other two versions suffer from. The only real issue I noticed was that there was a teensy bit of tearing at times.

PS3

While nowhere near as gorgeous as the PC version, the PlayStation 3 version of Battlefield 3 is the prettier of the console iterations. It’s very crisp, very smooth, and textures only appear slightly blurred when close up. Trees sway nicely in the breeze, although they do suffer from some pop-in when viewing them from a distance, which can be a little bit offputting.

There’s also some quite noticeable texture pop-in, which is a little unfortunate. But the water effects are beautiful, the lighting and shadow effects are extremely strong, and overall it’s a lovely-looking offering.

Xbox 360

Alas, it’s the weakest of the bunch. That isn’t to say it doesn’t look nice. Even on Xbox 360, the Frostbite 2.0 tech is strong. Unfortunately, there was some noticeable framerate stuttering in larger outdoor areas during my time with the game. That’s the biggest hurdle Battlefield 3 Xbox 360 will have to overcome before release, lest it be a little annoying.

Lighting and shadows, as well as reflections, are decent but not quite as strong as the PlayStation 3′s, and nowhere near the level of the PC. There’s some foliage pop-in as well, along the lines of that in the PS3 version. Interestingly, texture pop-in seemed to be almost entirely absent, although said textures are markedly lower-res – disappointingly blurry when up close, in fact.

So there we go! This is, of course, an unfinished build of the game, so these things may change before release. Watch out for our full hands-on Battlefield 3 preview in the coming days. And in the meantime, make sure you’re following all the latest Battlefield 3 news right here at BeefJack!

With the first game's developer, Kaos Studios, shut down earlier this year, the sequel to Homefront will be handled by a division of Crytek, the makers of Crysis and Far Cry.

THQ announced today that Crytek will take over development duties for the next Homefront. We knew such a game was inevitable, although this developer announcement does come as a surprise -- back when Kaos was closed in June, THQ said its new Montreal studio would "take over product development and overall creative management for the Homefront franchise."

Instead, it'll be Crytek UK that works on the new Homefront. Crytek UK is the former Free Radical Design, developer of the TimeSplitters series and Crysis 2's multiplayer component. The new Homefront will run on the newest version of the CryEngine technology that also powered Crysis 2, so if nothing else, the game should look quite nice.

"We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ," said Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli. "We believe that bringing our level of quality, creativity and production values to the next Homefront title creates an opportunity for both THQ and Crytek to deliver a truly blockbuster game. It's really important to us that THQ has the faith in giving us a lot of creative freedom over one of its most important properties to allow us to bring the Homefront world to life in a new and innovative way."

The original Homefront, released this past March, didn't receive especially positive reviews but it was the best-selling game in the United States during its debut month behind Pokemon Black and White, according to the NPD Group. Today's announcement deemed it a "commercial success for THQ," though we'd previously heard the company refer to it simply as having been "moderately successful."

The new game won't be out for some time; the press release indicates it'll be available on consoles and PC in fiscal 2014, meaning it could be released anytime between April 1, 2013 and and March 31, 2014

Blizzard said the game of Diablo 2 serial:Diablo III beta would begin in the year's third quarter, and it's managed to make that date. The company today announced the highly-anticipated public beta has begun and that the first wave of invites have been sent out.

To see if you're among those lucky enough to have received an invite, check the e-mail account you have attached to your Battle.net account (and make sure to beware any of those very persistent US World of Warcraft spammers). Alternatively, you can check the Account area on the Battle.net website to see if you've been granted access so that you can begin downloading the client immediately. From there you can also check the Beta Profile Settings area to ensure you've indicated your interest in the beta.

Beta testers will be able to play through the entirety of Act I as any of the game's five classes -- Demon Hunter, Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Wizard, and Monk -- both online and solo. An active Internet connection is required either way.

Even if you haven't already received an invite -- I feel your pain -- don't despair. More will be sent out as time goes on.

The full game is still without an official release date. Later this year is the goal, but depending upon what happens with the beta, it might very well slip into 2012.

It's a bit later than expected, but gamers will finally get to try out Battlefield 3's multiplayer for themselves in just over a week's time.

Initially we thought we'd already be playing it by now; during E3, a September 11 launch date for the beta was announced, although it seems DICE needed a bit of extra time or someone realized that particular date might not be the ideal date to begin a beta. So instead gamers on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 will all get beta access on Thursday, September 29. Those who purchased the Limited Edition of last year's Medal of Honor or have pre-ordered the digital PC version through Origin will get the promised two-day head start on September 27.

Once the head start is over, gamers on all three platforms will be free to download the client -- it's an open beta, meaning you won't have to rely on getting an invite or anything of the sort. Only a single map, Operation Metro (which is set in Paris), is included, and it's playable only in Rush mode. Fans of Battlefield's traditional Conquest mode like myself will have to wait until the game is out on October 25 to get a taste of that action.

The beta will run until October 10. On PC, like with the full game, Origin is required. It'll be used to download and run the beta client.

Regardless of your platform choice, you'll get the chance to try out Battlelog, the new social platform that tracks stats, allows you to communicate with other players, and so on, either through the website or mobile apps. EA is also encouraging players to sign up for the Gun Club, where they can get in-game "benefits," such as the M1911. Alternatively, Battlefield veterans will get automatic access to the gun.

Warning: this article could be unpleasant news for some Battlefield 3 beta enthusiasts. In a recent tweet from Battlefield, it has been revealed that you will indeed need the Medal of Honor disc if you wish to gain early access to the Battlefield 3 beta

The conversation reads as follows:

CodyReed:

@Battlefield, I bought MOH: LE for the 360. How exactly will I access the Battlefield 3 Beta early? Will I need the MOH disc?

Battlefield:

@CodyReed, Yes you will need the disc, you will have to play it off of there ^CT

On a good note, they have yet to announce the beta start date and by the looks of it, you have yourself at least a week or perhaps two to re-purchase Medal of Honor before time is up. The manufacturer’s suggested current price of MoH is $19.99USD.

Are you upset that DICE wasn’t clear from the get-go whether or not we would need to keep our MoH for early access? Let us know in the comments!

In other news, Alan Kertz, aka Demize99 has revealed some specifics regarding squads in Battlefield 3.

It was brought to his attention that there is some concern regarding “spawn spamming”. The situation in question is: if each squad member carries a radio beacon, could the squad leader (who has the ability to spawn on any of his squad mates) have a total of six spawn options (three squad members plus three radio beacons)? Kertz answered, “The beacon replaces the squad mate in the spawn menu,” putting this concern to rest.

Remember that squad mates only have the ability to either spawn on their leader or another beacon.

Kertz was also asked to clarify exactly how many attachments and specializations a soldier could carry at one time. He replied, “3 attachments, 1 spec. 4 specs for high level squad members sharing specs. Teamplay FTW!”

The Battlefield series has always been a rewarding experience for team players and it seems DICE is finding ways to improve upon this. Speaking of teamplay, how do you support your team in Battlefield? Let us know!

We received an anonymous email today from MrBattletube? showing a screenshot of what appears to be the login page of Battlefield 3  for Open Beta. We don’t have any clue where this page is located, but this is a sign that the Open Beta is just around the corner. Our guess is that this page will be on the official  page soon just like it was for the Battlefield 3 Alpha a month or so ago.  The Battlefield Community is eagerly waiting news on the Open Beta. Even our team is getting anxious to get in game and play with everyone.

Update: Techland issued a statement to Tracey John in addition to what's contained below. It reads, "It has come to our attention that one of Dead Island's leftover debug files contains a highly inappropriate internal script name of one of the character skills. This has been inexcusably overlooked and released with the game. The line in question was something a programmer considered a private joke. The skill naturaly [sic] has a completely different in-game name and the script reference was also changed. What is left is a part of an obscure debug function. This is merely an explanation but by no means an excuse. In the end that code was made a part of the product and signed with our company name.

"We deeply regret that fact and we apologize to all our customers or anyone who might have been offended by that inappropriate expression. The person responsible for this unfortunate situation will face professional consequences for violating the professional standards and beliefs Techland stands for."

Original Story: It's been a tumultuous week for Dead Island. The game had a number of bugs that led to developer Techland releasing a day-one patch that could cause players to lose access to their save games, while the version released on Steam was the "incorrect" one. Now a line of code that's been found references a skill called "Feminist Whore."

This was discovered by a Steam forum member who shared a selection of code from the skills for Purna, a female character from the game. Along with skills that are listed as things like "TeamSpirit2Purna" and "MeleeDurabilityPurna" is "FeministWhorePurna." That's the name used in the pre-release version of the game on Steam for what likely became Purna's "Gender Wars" ability that grants her extra damage against men.

Long ago, it was a common practice to hide things in a game's code. Many developers used it as a way of making sure their name was somehow attached to the project. But, as one would expect, the Dead Island reference isn't quite so harmless and isn't sitting well with a lot of people.

"It obviously violates professional and ethical standards at Techland and should never have happened," international brand manager Blazej Krakowiak told Eurogamer. "We're investigating this right now and we'll issue a statement later.

"For now, I can only express my sincerest apologies for this incident and assure you that whoever acted so irresponsibly did not represent the views and opinions of Techland," he continued. "I'm equally sure that aside from the author of that unfortunate line of code, everyone at the office is as disturbed by this as you are."

The game's publisher, Deep Silver, has issued a statement which reads, "These unfortunate actions were of one individual at developer company Techland and do not in any way represent the views of publishing company Deep Silver."

We'll report back as we learn more.

The NPD Group has released its monthly sales figures for August today, with Deus Ex: Human Revolution being the best-selling game in the month despite being on store shelves for only five days.

NPD tracks new, physical sales at retail in the United States. The tracking period for August includes everything from July 31 through August 27. As Madden NFL 12 came out on August 30, it'll count towards September's sales figures. Its absence had a huge impact on sales during August -- software sales were down 34 percent as compared with last year, from $403.5 million to $264.8 million.

NCAA Football 12 was the second best-selling game during August. NPD analyst Anita Frazier points out that this year's NCAA sold better in August than last year's title did in August 2010, possibly due to football fans opting to pick it up this year with no Madden release to provide their fix earlier in the month.

Call of Duty: Black Ops continues to be a strong seller at number three, followed by the DS, Wii, and PS3 title Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension. That was followed by other casual- or kid-oriented titles Cars 2, Just Dance: Summer Party, Just Dance 2, and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. A single 3DS title, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, made the top ten list at number nine; it was number five during its debut month in June and then disappeared in July. It no doubt has the 3DS price drop in early August to thank for its reappearance as new system owners looked to pick up the best available title on the platform.

Only portable games hardware saw an improvement as compared with August of last year; all other categories saw a decline.

"All platforms (if you combine DS and 3DS) saw unit sales increases over July," said Frazier. "The 3DS price cut drove portable hardware sales into positive territory, to a year-over-year increase in both unit and dollar sales. The PS3 price cut also drove a notable uptick in sales of that platform."

Nintendo said sales of the 3DS improved by 260 percent with 235,000 systems sold in the month. 185,000 of those units were sold after the price drop went into effect on August 12; the 260 percent figure comes from comparing August 12 through the end of the reporting period with the same 19 days during July (all of which were before the price drop was announced). 235,000 systems is good enough to make it the second best-selling system in August.

190,000 Wii systems and 165,000 DS systems were also sold in August. It's noted that five of the ten top-selling games during the month had a version for a Nintendo platform, and 15 of the top 20. Nintendo also stated that 540 million units of software have been sold to date for the Wii and DS combined; 50 million software units for Nintendo platforms have been sold so far in 2011.

Sony was fairly brief in what it had to say. SCEA's senior director of corporate communications, Patrick Seybold, said in a statement, "Despite inventory constraints at retail during the first half of August, PS3 hardware sales were very strong the last two weeks of the month following the $50 price cut and the new Infamous 2 bundle. The new PS3 price point, combined with PlayStation Move and the industry's strongest lineup of exclusive titles, including Uncharted 3 and Everybody Dance, positions us for an amazing holiday season."

Using the numbers provided by Microsoft and Nintendo, we can conclude that Sony sold about 218,279 PS3 systems during August in the U.S.

Microsoft went into greater depth, again highlighting a recurring theme -- it's had the best-selling console in the U.S. for 14 out of the past 15 months. Xbox 360 is the year's best-selling console to date in the U.S., and Microsoft claims this will be the biggest year in Xbox history. It expects 360 to end up as the best-selling console this year worldwide -- an awfully impressive feat, if it turns out to be true, given how poorly the system sells in Japan.

August saw the 360 sell 308,000 units, representing a 43 percent share of current-gen consoles. Total retail spend on 360 (a number that includes hardware, software, and accessories) was $232 million, good for the top figure of any console in the U.S. last month.

The first, and perhaps most drastic change affects Call of Duty's kill streak system. The designers at Infinity Ward found that kill streaks worked well in deathmatch, but that the best players wouldn't get access to them in objective-based modes. Good players are too busy completing goals for the team to bother focusing on racking up kills. So the designers transformed kill streaks into "point streaks"; now capturing points, flags, and completing objectives will count towards your kill streak count.

Instead of picking individual streaks, players now choose between three different streak progressions (or "strike packages"). Fans of the old game will feel at home with the assault package. Those that choose the support package will be rewarded with SAMs, UAVs, and other equipment that when used properly can turn the balance of the game (they also find themselves of being in the enviable position of not facing a kill streak reset upon death). Those on the specialist package will actually unlock additional perks (in place of kill streak rewards) for kills; eight kills will activate every perk in the game -- they will however reset after death.

Beyond kill streaks, players will also be able to upgrade their weapon proficiencies to change things such as sway, recoil, and number of attachments on their guns.

IW has added a new multiplayer mode called Kill Confirm to its playlists. You won't get points for killing enemies per se -- instead players will drop a set of dog tags when killed. The only way to score is to pick up the dog tags of killed enemies. You can perform a kill deny by picking up allies tags as well. You won't be limited to playing this mode on a specific playlist either. In fact, users won't be confined to IW's preset playlists. Modern Warfare 3 will also introduce user generated game modes. Do you want to play capture-the-flag in third-person mode with kill streaks off? Now you can.

All these changes come alongside a huge overhaul of the social aspects of the game. You'll be able to import your Facebook friends list and that's to say nothing of Call of Duty Elite (which will have its own console, iOS, and 360 apps). While the base features of the COD-specific social network are in beta for Black Ops, the premium level of the service will make its debut in Modern Warfare 3. Costing $49.99 a year, premium will give you access to all MW3 DLC, which would cost you $60 over the course of 2012. Subscribers will also get content more often -- every month as opposed to quarterly. They'll also have access to daily refereed competitive events for real and online prizes. Clans run by premium members will be able to level up, and premium members will have eight times more video capacity for HD replays, and access to expert strategy and analysis from pro videos. They'll also get Elite TV content produced by famous entertainers and filmmakers like Ridley Scott and Will Arnett. Scott's show is called "Friday Night Fights" and features deathmatches between rival groups (fire fighters vs. cops for example). Arnett's show will feature the "most amazing and funny Call of Duty videos uploaded to COD Elite." As detailed in our news story, a full year of Elite will be included with the hardened edition of MW3.

The beta for Assassin's Creed Revelations' which is a series of Assassin's Creed 2 multiplayer mode began earlier this month exclusively on PlayStation 3, just like the beta for Assassin's Creed :Brotherhood. Not all PS3 owners were allowed in, as access required players to be either a Uplay member or a PlayStation Plus subscriber. Beginning tomorrow, that is no longer the case.

When the beta was first talked about, it was referred to as a "timed exclusive." That made it sound as if non-Uplay/Plus members would be able to play at some point, but Ubisoft refused to confirm if that's what it meant when asked by 1UP. We now know that's exactly what the timed exclusive was alluding to.

Ubisoft announced today that the beta is opening up to all PlayStation Network members beginning tomorrow, Thursday, September 8, at 10am Pacific.

The end of the beta is still set for September 11, so there isn't going to be a great deal of time to play. On the bright side, at least PS3 owners will get a chance to see what Revelations' multiplayer is like and if it's one of the games worth setting time aside for during the super-busy fall release slate.

That's according to a Blizzard spokesperson who told VG247, "We're getting very close to starting the closed public beta test for Diablo III."

The "closed" aspect of the beta simply means you'll need an invite to actually play. You can indicate on your Battle.net profile that you're interested in participating in the beta (along with those for StarCraft and World of Warcraft, if and when those come along). Even if you don't get in, Blizzard isn't requiring that players agree to a non-disclosure agreement, meaning they'll be free to take screenshots and videos, as well as talk about the experience. It's not uncommon for the opposite to be the case, where players are not supposed to talk about what it is they're playing. Of course, that doesn't always work out, as evidenced by the leaks from the Battlefield 3 alpha test earlier this summer.

Some new screenshots and videos from Diablo III have made their way out in recent weeks as Blizzard began to roll out the an external beta with friends and family. Like the upcoming public beta, there's no NDA on that, so expect to see more even before the public beta begins.

Since May, Blizzard has been saying to expect the beta to launch in the third quarter, which runs through the end of September. A pre-October date was reiterated early last month during an Activision Blizzard conference call.

As for the launch of the game itself, the goal is to have it out by the end of the year. That isn't being guaranteed at this point, and how things go in the beta will have some effect upon when the game comes out.

"[W]e are still working hard to ship the game before the end of the year," said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime last month. "However, we are not ready to commit to a release date at this time."

Of course, these bonuses make it easy to become a walking tank -- though Dead Island is one of the few "realistic" zombie games I can think of where the walking dead are harmless on their own but a handful can take you out in just a few seconds. Outside of this exception, Dead Island isn't a hard game, and its punishment for dying is a little more than a slap on the wrists; upon death, the game removes an arbitrary amount of money from your wallet, and forces you to wait five seconds before returning to a world that's still in the same state as when you left it. I assume Techland couldn't come up with an elegant single-player solution to dying alone, despite the game constantly implying that the alternate three characters are by your side, even if you can't see them -- but given the issues Dead Island has with A.I., it's probably better that they're M.I.A. And with there being no shortage of cash on Banoi, there's no real incentive to play well, even in a multiplayer setting. If anything, death on Dead Island is a barely perceptible inconvenience for our main characters, which kind of undercuts the game's grim tone and ever-present carnage.

While killing zombies has its moments, Dead Island only features two types of missions that don't involve killing horde A at location B: fetch quests, and glorified fetch quests. And while the game tries to offer up a few new kinds of zombies to vary the gameplay, these overpowered and irritating enemies are better off left behind, unless you enjoy time spent chipping away at an oversized reserve of hit points. I don't feel it's my place to tell game developers how to do their job, but an open-world zombie game has far more potential than what Techland is putting on display. There's certainly a lot of fun to be had on Dead Island, but don't be surprised if tedium sets in once you've murdered a zombie in every way imaginable (estimated time: 20 hours).

Yesterday we posted a huge list of all the weapons in Battlefield 3, and today it’s vehicle time. DICE has released a list of confirmed vehicles in Battlefield 3. In total, Battlefield 3 will ship with 22 unique vehicles and 30 vehicle specializations, spread out across the different tanks, helicopters and jets.

Activision will be on hand in Cologne to show off Modern Warfare 3's Spec Ops Survival mode, the wave-based co-op 'Horde' mode new to this year's game.

Social gaming platform Call of Duty: Elite will also be on show.

To have a go, just head over to Booths B20 and B30 in Hall 6 of the Koelnmesse.

"Gamescom continues to be one of the foremost destinations in the world for the interactive games industry and represents a remarkable opportunity for Activision to showcase its upcoming portfolio of titles," said Thibaud de Saint-Quentin, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of European publishing for Activision.

"We're thrilled to be able to reach such a devoted audience of consumers and look forward to making a big impact during this year's show. Excitingly, as a platform for entry into the unprecedented Call of Duty $1 Million Tournament, I urge all local fans to enter the qualifying event on the show floor for a chance to represent this continent on 3rd September in LA."

We've already played Spec Ops Survival, and you can check out what we thought in this month's issue of P3Zine.

As has been previously announced, Modern Warfare 3 is due to get its first multiplayer reveal at this year's Call of Duty XP event, held in Los Angeles on September 2nd and 3rd. The game will also be playable in the UK at GAMEfest in September.

Somewhere there’s a group of lunatics that want nothing more than to see Valve work on Half-Life 3.  In fact, a few of them came out in droves over the past week, protesting at the company’s headquarters to voice their complaints.  While we wait a little while longer for that eventual classic to simmer and reveal itself (2012 is a fair guess), we have another classic franchise to keep us busy.  The Half-Life spin-off Counter-Strike is back, priming for a premiere on the downloadable front next year.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (also dubbed CS: GO for those of you who don’t feel like spouting out its full name) is a reconstruction of the classic game series, featuring a wealth of incredible, first-person, tactical action.  This is by no means a remake, but rather a fresh celebration of the series that will no doubt attract old fans of the series, as well as plenty of newbies.  It’s currently slated for a launch on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Steam (for both Mac and PC).

The goal of the game is simple—work alongside your fellow players and survive the wrath of the other team.  Out in the field, they’ll have just as many tactical advantages as you, including plenty of long-lasting firepower and tons of weapons.  Valve is working closely with a fellow Seattle-based developer, Hidden Path Entertainment, to assure that the quality of the game remains just as intact as previous versions for PC and Xbox.
remains just as intact as previous versions for PC and Xbox.

The game will deliver a fresh mix of old and new content.  Various maps will be included and upgraded from the original game, such as Dust, Dust 2, Inferno, and Nuke.  In addition, new maps will also be included, adding spanking new content that everyone can get into.  The four main weapons in the game will return, along with a bevy of new ones, with plenty of pistols, shotguns, sub-machine guns, and heavy machine gun rifles to go around.  Bouncing Molotov cocktails and decoy grenades, which give off interesting shotgun sounds to startle enemies, will also be included, so you can really make a bang over the course of each battle (and boy, do we mean bang).  Some of this content MIGHT be cut out of the final release, as Valve is still making a few decisions here and there on player structure.  They’re also wondering if full Kevlar gear should be included, along with a defuse kit for an individual player in each round.  We’re pretty sure they’ll make some fair choices, though.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Counter-Strike game if there weren’t some kind of detailed multiplayer initiative.  While we don’t know exactly how many players will be supported in each match, what kind of upgrade system will be included, or if online leaderboards will somehow play a part, but rest assured, with Valve on the case, it’ll be evenly measured, exciting.  It will no doubt be legendary to those who have spent countless hours on previous Counter-Strike games (or for that matter, Team Fortress 2 in The Orange Box package).

CS: GO will be playable next week at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, Washington, and we’ll be sure to take it for a test drive as soon as we can.  Be sure to check back for full impressions and other details very soon.  2012’s looking like a great year to do some killing—or be killed, depending on whom you run into on the battlefield.  CS is a GO.

You can now pick up a 3DS for $169.99, $80 off the old regular price. To go with it, GameStop is offering $10 off a number of 3DS games including Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, which is one of the best games on the system to date. And many Kalypso games are 66% off on Steam and Dead Space 2 on PC is less than $12.

Indie title Frozen Synapse is on sale in more than one place, namely Steam ($12.49) and GamersGate ($9.98). A demo was finally released this week if you're uncertain that it's something you want to invest in, but by many accounts, it's an excellent game.

Section 8: Prejudice is half price ($7.49) on Impulse, and Steam is holding a big sale on Kalypso games. That means you can get 66% off many of its games like Tropico 3 ($6.79 for the Gold Edition) and Patrician IV ($10.19), although you may want to hold off on the former with Tropico 4 not too far off.

Other deals of note include Dead Space 2 on PC for $11.95 at Direct2Drive and Evil Genius, a personal favorite of mine, for $3.98 from GamersGate.

Read on for a look at this week's deals and let us know what we missed in the comments below.

Amazo

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor -- $20.99 (from $29.99)

Mortal Kombat -- $39.99 (from $59.99)

Sonic Colors -- $17.89 (from $29.99)

Direct2Drive

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood -- $15.95 (from $39.95)

Dead Space 2 -- $11.95 (from $29.95)

Need for Speed: Shift 2 -- $14.95 (from $29.95)

Alice: Madness Returns -- $24.95 (from $49.95)

Red Faction: Armageddon -- $32.95 (from $49.95)

GamersGate
Frozen Synapse -- $9.98 (from $19.95)

Frozen Synapse (w/ soundtrack) -- $11.98 (from $23.95)

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light -- $7.48 (from $14.95)

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GameStop

Save $10 on select 3DS games (Ghost Recon: Shadow War, Rayman 3D, and more)

3DS Explorer Kit -- $19.99 (from $29.99)

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THQ Ultimate Bundle -- $99.99 (from $294.83)

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Kalypso games -- 66% off select titles

Aion: Assault on Balaurea -- $7.50 (from $29.99)

Dungeons -- $13.59 (from $39.99)

Tropico 3: Gold Edition -- $6.79 (from $19.99)

The First Templar -- $13.59 (from $39.99)

Patrician IV -- $10.19 (from $29.99)

MUD TV -- $6.79 (from $19.99)

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Earlier today, word got out that two fans were picketing Valve's headquarters in Washington. But what is it that they want? Half-life, of course.

For those who thought it was a joke, Bungie's Jason Sussman tweeted the image above (via IGN) this afternoon. It shows Valve boss Gabe Newell standing with the two fans and each of their signs: "Canada 4 the Release of Half-Life 3" and "Half-Life 3... is it Left 4 Dead?"

Chances are this won't have any impact on Valve's release schedule (which is to say, it won't). It's been almost four years since the most recent game in the series, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, was released as a part of The Orange Box in October 2007. It hardly gave fans any closure, and it clearly wasn't intended to finish Gordon Freeman's story arc.

The episodic releases were intended to speed up the delivery of Half-Life games after the franchise saw a six-year gap in between the release of the first two games.  came out less than two years after HL2, and Episode Two followed less than a year-and-a-half after that. Valve has remained tight-lipped about Episode Three (or a full-on Half-Life 3) ever since, releasing Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, loads of new Team Fortress 2 content, and Alien Swarm since The Orange Box's release. It's currently at work on Defense of the Ancients 2, coming later this year.

When most recently asked about the subject of Episode Three/Half-Life 3, Gabe Newell answered, "If you know enough to ask the question, you know enough what the answer is."

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was originally released for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in North America on March 2, 2010. The first-person shooter was developed by EA Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment (also known as EA DICE or DICE), who previous worked the previous games in thee series including Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield 1943in addition to the upcoming Battlefield 3.

July wasn't a strong month for the games industry in terms of new, physical sales at retail in the United States. In fact, it was the worst month since October 2006 using that criteria, although it's not all bad news if you look at the entire year, according to the NPD Group. Duke Nukem Disappears in the worst month for new game sales since October 2006.
"Despite the very rough month, new physical retail sales are down just 4% year-to-date and based on seasonality trends observed over the last 10 years, which have been remarkably stable year-in, year-out, industry sales in this particular channel are poised to land in the flat to -2% range once the total year is completed," reports NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

The Xbox 360 was again the best selling console with 277,000 units sold. It, along with all other platforms, saw a decline compared with last July. Impressively, this was the first time the 360 had seen a year-over-year decline since December 2009. The drop is said to be due to the fact that last July was 360's biggest month of 2010 (outside of November and December) because of strong sales of the slim Xbox 360 console, which launched in June.

Every platform, 360 included, sold worse than it did on a per-week basis in June, accounting for a total of $223 million generated by new hardware. That's down 29% compared to last July's $313.8 million.

DS and 3DS sales combined "were about flat to last year," according to Frazier. That can't be blamed on the upcoming price cut, as it was only announced on July 28, meaning it would have only impacted about two to three days covered in this report.

In a statement, Microsoft boasted about having the best selling console in 13 of the past 14 months, as well as a a 45% share of all current-gen console sales in July. By my math, that means Wii and PlayStation 3 combined to sell about 338,555 systems in July, which likely explains why neither Sony nor Nintendo decided to announce hardware sales figures for the month.

A statement from Sony's Patrick Seybold highlighted the PS3's 18% increase in peripheral sales over last July, attributing this to interest in PlayStation Move and its Sharp Shooter accessory.

Nintendo's announcement mentions that Just Dance 2, which sold 120,000 units, is now the eighth Wii game to sell over 5 million units in the U.S. That's twice as many as the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined can claim. The other seven Wii games to surpass 5 million units sold are Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros., Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

The software side dipped 17% from last July to $336.2 million, though keep in mind there were 12 fewer games released this July versus last year. NCAA Football 12 sold 15% better than NCAA 11 in July 2010, making it the best selling game in the country when combining sales across all platforms. It was followed by Cars 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. The top three games from June -- L.A. Noire, Duke Nukem Forever, and Infamous 2 -- all dropped outside of the top ten for the month.

Next month may suffer from the late release of Madden NFL 12. As August 30 falls inside the NPD's reporting period for September, you can expect a big drop off for August numbers as compared with last year. In 2010, Madden 11 "comprised 28% of new physical retail software sales," a pretty massive chunk to suddenly have moved to a different month.

Update: Shadows of the Damned, after a rough June, only sold 14,000 units in July, according to Joystiq. Catherine, another quirky title, fared much better with 78,000 units sold, just below Mortal Kombat's 85,000.

When you hear the word "puppet," it might not sound particularly exciting. But a lot of work went into Wheatley, as documented on the blog of deviantART user ~TRP~Chan. Work began on the Wheatley look-alike in July, with the final product coming together just recently. Besides looking exactly like the real (virtual) thing, it has a sound module loaded with quotes of Merchant's voice from the game.

Following Portal 2's release, Merchant talked about how surprised he was by the overwhelmingly positive response. Playing the villain wasn't something he was used to (the agent in Extras isn't such a bad guy, he's just an idiot with a fun ringtone), and the entire process of recording was "really exhausting."

Now Wheatley can live on in a way other than just the game. I don't think I'm alone in saying: I want one.

Activision is holding the first ever Call of Duty fan experience over the Labor Day weekend in sunny Los Angeles, California and we want to help you attend! Call of Duty XP is an event catering to hardcore and casual COD fans alike, attendees will have a wealth of exciting activities to participate in over the course of this 2-day event:

Much like the beta for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the Revelations beta will be open only to PlayStation 3 owners. The games were made and came out by YUBI Game Company,and they are AVG games also belonged to PC games ,you can have a try!

The easiest way to get into the multiplayer beta is to be either a PlayStation Plus or Uplay member. (Uplay is Ubisoft's free online service.) The beta will be open to either service's members from September 3 through September 11. It's referred to as a "timed exclusive," which makes it sound as if non-members will be able to get in on the action after this period. Ubisoft wasn't forthcoming when asked to clarify what the date and timed exclusive talk means, only saying that more information on how long the beta will last is "coming up."

Details on what the beta entails are laid out on the Ubisoft forums. The beta client will be available for download prior to the actual launch, which should help testers to avoid slow download speeds on launch day. There will be four modes in the beta (Wanted, Manhunt, Deathmatch, and Artifact Assault), all of them available from the start, to play on three maps (Knight's Hospital, Antioch, and Constantinople). Nine characters and eight abilities are available for use, including the new tripwire bomb.

The level cap is set to 30 and unlockables have been scaled to fit within this limit. In other words, what you unlock and when during the beta isn't indicative of when you'll get those things in the final game, set to come out on November 15.

Well I have some good news for you. Today I popped into my local store to discover that they have confirmed exactly what the ‘Classified Intel Pack’ version of the title includes. While they currently have no confirmed pricing, they expect it to be the same, or £5.00 more than the standard game, and if Black Ops is anything to go by, this November isn’t going to be cheap!

The currently available to Pre-Order Intel Pack edition of MW3 is set to contain –

•     -Mini-Modern Warfare 3 Strategy Guide (BradyGames produced)
•     -British Special Forces Avatar Outfit
•     -Excusive Item that will be revealed soon!

Hopefully the guide will come in handy when trying to track down all the collectables that the game will no doubt include, while my avatar is dressed up in his suitable attire. The other top secret item though it a mystery though, hopefully some kind of in game unlock maybe?

Getting a firm grasp of Elder Scrolls 5:Skyrim's scope in under an hour is an absolutely impossible feat -- I don't care what any other preview says, period. Bethesda has crafted such a large and all-encompassing realization of the Elder Scrolls universe in this newest installment, that dipping your toe into the pool only results in your entire leg being dragged into the water by the game's vicious undercurrent.

The character creation alone could easily clutch players within the intricacies of every single detail of their avatar. Ranging from a selection of races, each have received a considerable facelift not just in terms of fidelity, but in tone. The high arched brows of Elves now imply a sinister touch to their character; the slick scaled skin of the Argonians lavish a specular sheen unique to their race alone. The Khajiit emanate plumes of fur from every patch of their body, and Humans have distinct and recognizable features that separate them as races. This serves as an example of how every shortcoming that you could have thought of from Oblivion seems to have been fully addressed in its long awaited sequel. 

Rather than discuss or spoil quests and the like, I'm going to touch on the fundamental of how the game actually plays. The combat in particular is probably what most people are interested in experiencing, and the added weight and sense of gravity -- thanks in a very large part to Skyrim's completely rehauled animation system -- constantly remind the player that they are firmly grounded in every engagement they take. A swing of your sword is an act of will and its weight -- whether it be a claymore or a simple dagger -- can be felt via the rattled perspective of your character in first person view, or the counterbalance of his stance in third. Each effort to try and connect a blow results in the drainage of the player's constantly recharging emerald-shaded Stamina meter. While tapping the trigger to slice at your foe marginally affects your gauge; charging your swing by holding down attack hits the meter in a big way which then results in a bigger payoff if your enemy has the misfortune of being caught in the arc of your assault. A strike is a decisive and fulfilling victory every time you connect a blow in Skyrim.

Extending into archery, the hollow clinks and sliding shaft of an arrow lining up on your bow as you take aim get heightened again by Skyrim's constant and conscious effort to make every action you perform have weight behind it. Releasing the arrow from the tightly pulled twine of your bow snaps the wooden bolt away from your view at such a realistic and accurate trajectory that you'll be tempted to shoot the bark off trees just to go retrieve your arrow and do it again.

Rounding out your ability set is Magicka, which gets given an entire quadrant on the game's cardinal-based options screen. Setting flames to the environment scorches both terrain and objects indiscriminately as you go about your own "scorched earth policy." Your Magicka meter goes through the same time/strength/risk/reward mechanic as its green counterpart (Stamina); if each fist is armed with a spell, then expect the results to be doubled, but your use of Magicka to be halved. Much like combat, the reward for playing big in Skyrim has its drawbacks that permeate across its systems of design.

  But perhaps the biggest improvement is simply the way the game communicates all of its vast levels of information to the player. Taking its cue from the cardinal bearings of a compass; the directions of north, south, east, and west take on layered meanings in Skyrim's world. Skills, maps, weapons, and magic fill each direction respectively, and carry the player logically to the next subset of menus they can further deliberate on. From here, the process of accessibility is simplified again with the implementation of a "favorites" system. Tagging a favorite piece of gear, weapon, item, or spell ushers each selection into a dial of options easily accessible anytime during gameplay by using the D-Pad. Much like the rest of Skyrim's design, once you wrap your head around how the mechanic works, the appreciation for all the trimming of the fat seen in Bethesda's prior games quickly becomes evident.

   The funny thing though, is that Bethesda knows they have lightning in a bottle with Skyrim. They know that even in the alpha build the press were allowed to play -- in its buggy and often crash-riddled condition -- that anyone with a controller in their hand would merely grimace at the event of a crash and immediately restart the game with anticipation for their return to the evergreen thickets of Skyrim's mountains. The only thing Bethesda didn't know, was that Skyrim would blow a fuse in the suite they had rented out, causing everyone in the room to exhale a large sigh as they realized that this time, there wouldn't be a return to the snow encrusted bluffs of Tamriel's northern territory. This time, the umbilical cord to Bethesda's fantasy RPG really was cut.

Since being released in May 2010, Red Dead Redemption has impressively sold in more than 11 million units. That accounts for the number of games sold to retail, as opposed to the number sold through to customers. It was announced as a part of Take-Two's financial results for its first quarter of fiscal 2012, which ran from April 1, 2011 through June 30. But now,the reality is that :Duke Nukem to be Profitable as Red Dead Ships 11 Million.The Duke Nukemis an FPS & PC game,and it was designed by Realms Company and came out by Apogee Software Company,it's wonderful!

Net revenue was down to $334.4 from $375.4 during the same period a year ago. That's no surprise, as fiscal 2011 enjoyed the strength of Red Dead's launch, whereas L.A. Noire -- while doing very well with 4 million units sold-in -- couldn't match its success. This all contributed to a GAAP loss of $8.6 million, as compared with income of $27.4 million last year.

Before you go blaming Duke Nukem Forever for the decline, Take-Two said it expects the game to make money despite the... poor critical reception. Strauss Zelnick said today, "Although it received disappointing reviews from critics, the release is projected to be profitable for Take-Two."

Things were somewhat helped by Red Dead's Undead Nightmare expansion. It was made available on disc along with two other expansions (Legends and Killers, Liars and Cheats) last November and has shipped 2 million units. That figure doesn't account for digital sales, an area that saw net revenue of $24.6 million. That's a 49% year-over-year increase and is attributed to Red Dead, Borderlands (with its four expansions), L.A. Noire, and others.

There were several mentions of games that have yet to be announced during today's conference call, which is nothing unusual. But given that Rockstar is believed to be working on Grand Theft Auto V, those unannounced projects become much more intriguing. A recent rumor indicated development was "well underway" and that a 2012 release for the next GTA is "pretty likely." We've seen a fair amount of evidence pointing towards a new GTA, and Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter has weighed in previously on how soon he expects it to come. Matters changed when key Rockstar employees extended their deals with Take-Two, delaying any rush to get the game out before their contracts expired.

Take-Two today said it expects non-GAAP income to exceed $2 per share in fiscal 2013 (which runs from April 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013). During a conference call, company executives were asked if it's possible to reach such a figure without a GTA game's release. That particular point wasn't addressed, and the games that are set to come out during that timeframe like BioShock Infinite and Borderlands 2 were instead highlighted. Still, that number does reveal that Take-Two is expecting a big year, and one way to ensure it happens is to release a new GTA game.

The most popular digital games distributor has yet to begin selling one of the most highly anticipated games of the year. Since Crysis 2 was first pulled from Steam, we've noted that Battlefield 3 had been conspicuously absent from the service and, in fact, was never at any point available for pre-order. Since then, Dragon Age II has also been kicked off, and in both cases the move was due to arrangements with how downloadable content is sold. EA has finally offered up an official explanation for why Battlefield 3 is missing from Steam, and it's the same sort of thing we've heard before.

"Gamers can pre-order Battlefield 3 at Origin.com as well as over 100 digital retailers worldwide," reads a statement on the EA forums. "EA offers games to all major download services. Unfortunately, Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content. No other download service has adopted these practices."

This echoes what EA's David DeMartini recently said about Dragon Age II's removal, which came right after the game's first big DLC pack, Legacy, started being sold in-game (as opposed to through Steam and other digital retailers). He had previously suggested the moves were due to Steam's business terms in a statement explaining EA's policies on digital retailers.

"We are intent on providing Battlefield 3 players with the best possible experience no matter where they purchase or play their game, and are happy to partner with any download service that does not restrict our ability to connect directly with our consumers," the statement continues. "We hope to work out an agreement where Steam can carry Battlefield 3."

So EA hasn't ruled out -- at least publicly -- the possibility of selling Battlefield 3 on Steam. For now, though, it's probably happy to push Origin as the best place to pre-order, what with the early beta access and other bonuses it's offering.

Another EA game, Alice: Madness Returns, was slightly delayed in making it on to Steam back in June. It did end up on there after a few-day wait, although the delay was never explained. The two games that have been pulled altogether were already out when they were removed, whereas Battlefield 3 isn't out until October 25. It's unclear exactly what Battlefield is doing that violates the terms of service, but perhaps it's the aforementioned pre-order bonuses that are to blame.

Valve has been quiet throughout all of this, opting not to speak on the situation. Regardless, we've requested a comment and will update on the off chance that it decides to offer up a statement.

Although the player impact engine was over two years' worth of work, so we knew to get to the next level of physical interaction, we had a big job to do.
1UP: While it wasn't completely static, the momentum of the game would often come to a halt with the cut-scenes...

DR: So that was one of the things we wanted to do with the player impact engine: try to keep it as smooth and fluid as we can. One of the things we have this year are quick throw-ins -- if the ball goes out of play and the team and the players are all set up correctly, you'll be able to drop straight into a throw-in. And also with the injury system that we've put in this year, if the players play the ball out of play because of injury, you'll get a drop ball after as well. We're trying to add authenticity with that.

1UP: Are you doing anything with handball calls? They were very sporadic and inconsistent in FIFA 11.

DR: For last year's game we put handball in; it's an option you can switch on or off -- it's defaulted to off on purpose. It's really difficult to do handballs because obviously in real life if you're moving your hand out of the way on purpose, then they generally won't call it. We know exactly when it hits your hand; that's not a problem. What is a problem is whether it's deliberate or not, and whether you're making an effort to get your hands out of the way, and that's more of a challenge. So we've not done a great deal of work on handballs this year, but we've done a few tweaks and tunes; but it's not really a massive priority for us at this time.

One of the reasons I always enjoyed the Dungeon Siege series is because long, drawn-out plot explanations aren't necessary when beating the crap out of people and collecting loot. That, or I have distorted and fond memories of Dungeon Siege 2: walking up to my character's destroyed farm, and immediately being told to pick up a weapon and kill anything that attacks me. Beat up a bunch of people? Sure, I can do that. Combat has always been the best part of these games for me. This time around, an overarching storyline gets half-heartily forced down your throat.

Dungeon Siege 3 borrows the conversation-driven storytelling approach from Mass Effect, without having as much of an influence on what occurs. Sure, there are moments where you can choose what sort of response is merited, or what action to take on, say, a prisoner of war, but these options are limited. To be frank, the fruition of your choices aren't made apparent until the very end of the game -- and with lifeless storyboard cut-scenes no less. Because of this strange disconnect (from realizing the impact of your decisions until the end), the story seems easily dismissable.

Initially, I did my best to pay close attention to the storyline. Yet the first hour or two makes this task a bit grueling; my main gripe is with how much time it takes to fill you in on what's going on. The cut-scenes are long and dull; they throw so many awkward names at you; and it's particularly challenging when you're with a co-op partner and are waiting for the dry presentation to end. Of course, this issue gets mitigated with the cut-scene skip option. Other factors that help a bit include plenty of scattered book segments to pick up and read that provide additional morsels on what's going on around you (somethingI enjoyed in Dungeon Siege 2); and how lore gets s collected and can be read at any time in the menu screen when I had confusion.

Luckily, the pace eventually picks up with the offering of side-quests and interesting boss battles that actually hook me. For the sake of getting myself into more combat situations (not for story elements), I play every single side-quest I came across -- which then gets me addicted to leveling up Katarina (one of four playable characters, and the typical ranged character while the other fulfill similar magic and melee roles) and discovering how useful each of her abilities is. It's not until my encounter with a Lescanzi witch that I start to warm up to taking dialogue choices seriously. Another interesting layer is how Dungeon Siege 3 gives players a chance to perform "deeds." Based on the decisions made in discussions with other characters, the game then awards you with additional stamina, agility, and so forth. In the case of the witch, I give her ownership of a manor -- which results in a boost to my will stat.

Strangely though, my most boring experience of the campaign happens during online co-op. I start a new campaign with a friend, and Dungeon Siege 3 surprisingly doesn't accommodate appropriately for that. The tutorial screens never appear unless you are playing alone. I initially had no idea how large of an oversight this is until I have my co-op partner drop out of my game. It's a shame too, because I believe the first few hours I loathed would have been spared of irritation if this wasn't the case. For instance, when my friend and I first level up, we feel lost on how to upgrade our character's abilities. Which result in us making a lot of careless decisions -- unlocking skills with little thought. Also, I realize later rather than sooner how to utilize all of Katarina's combative talents, once I make it through all of the tutorial screens alone.

The most meaningful piece of advice I can give you (from personal experience) is to choose your co-op partner wisely. An hour's worth of discovered loot and acquired gold was put to waste in less than a minute when my cheeky coworker Jose visited a shop -- I learned the hard way that your teammate can sell the items you don't have equipped at any time. Oh, and money is shared with the whole party as well; I only noticed this when I tried to equip a new midriff-revealing corset for Katarina -- I witnessed every item disappear suddenly.

If Jose wasn't playing with me online, I could have punched him. On the upside, it's easy to have friends drop in and out at any time -- so I quickly told him to get the hell out. From there on out, I continued on alone. Initially, I worried that I would have a hard time getting through each quest without help, but the game compensates via a lot of save points. On top of that convenience, my A.I. party member needed revival only a handful of times during my entire playthrough.

Obsidian's attempt at adding story elements fails to impress this time -- which stands out even more due to how plenty of other RPGs (especially Obsidian's) pull off a much better narrative. At most, the combat remains as fun as ever, and I enjoy playing the campaign as Katarina -- seeing how quickly she drained health bars with her guns becomes a satisfying experience. It's just unfortunate, though, that other factors such as the not-very-engaging story or the awkward co-op mechanics mar the "kill whatever that moves" experience of previous games.

Following Grimbley's presentation, I play an early build of NFS: The Run and drive though a dangerous stretch of interstate near Death Valley titled, "Run for the Hills". Grimbley couldn't give me any specifics regarding the story at this point, but he hints that due to certain circumstances Jack has lost time in his race across the country. More importantly, playing through the demo, I get a closer look at how races actually feel in the new NFS. Each one is point-to-point, and in this demo I run through a typical Sprint race -- where I have to pass a specific benchmark of cars in order to succeed. The target gets listed clearly on the top left of the screen, and slowly counts down as I pass my racing rivals in a smokin' Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

According to Grimbley, the team wants to go after the most "badass" versions of each car for their game. The E3 demo featured the magnificent Ford Shelby GT500 Super Snake, and EA has announced other cars like the BMW M3 E30 Sport Evolution and McLaren MP4-12C through its community Facebook page. The shiny Porsche I drive handles about as well as I'd expect it to, since this isn't a racing simulator; I deliberately swing out its rear end to drift into an upcoming U-shaped turn. The car handling itself feels a little "slide-y," but still manageable. After putting on a pretty entertaining (mainly to myself, anyway) show and blowing past 90-percent of my opponents, I completely wreck after an awkward jump -- just one car short of the passes required to finish my race. The built-in rewind feature would have helped me avoid this disaster ending, but starting from a mid-race checkpoint feels like the right penance.

Visually, the build I play hits all the right marks. The surrounding desert hills look dusty enough even at this early pre-alpha state. The track itself features a mix of hairpin turns, straightaways, dangerously narrow short-cuts, and oncoming traffic. The course doesn't feel like the open world of a Criterion game, but Grimbley says that focusing on point-to-point races allows the developers to craft the drives and think about every camber, bend, and sequence. He also mentions that Autolog has been integrated as well, and through it you'll keep friends aware of your progress.

Grimbley says there are other types of races in NFS: The Run, but I only get to see one of them for this demo. The list I'm shown earlier in the presentation lists Time Attack, intense 1-on-1 Rival Battles, Cop Pursuit (because you can't make a NFS game without high speed car chases escaping the fuzz), and Survival -- which he doesn't really go into great detail about, but a trailer hints at escaping an avalanche as a possibility. Grimbley does clarify that there won't always be a natural disaster involved for every Survival race.

Big action moments (a.k.a. the scripted sequences) rounds out Grimbley's list, but you already saw plenty of that at E3. In hindsight I guess EA's backpedaling on NFS: The Run should've been expected. Their first presentation focused on how they tried to make the game different. Now, the focus of EA's messaging shifts to how it's still a racing game. At least what I see today feels like the game is finally heading in the right direction.

Our play session began with choosing Shepard's class (soldier, adept and sentinel were the three options available) and distributing skill points to our squad. At first glance the level-up system looks the same as Mass Effect 2's system, but we soon saw that it's much deeper than before, with branching skill trees within each stat.

When you add a point to a particular stat, a sub-menu pops up where you can further choose what direction you want that stat to take, starting at the fourth level of each stat. For example, adding a point to combat mastery might let you choose between an offensive or defensive boost on one level, and on the next level you might choose between a boost to special ammo damage or weapon power damage. And for biotic powers, would you rather have increased damage or quicker recharge times? Because each new level is an either/or choice, you can't just max everything out – you must decide how each character will take shape and what his or her specialties will be.

With class and stats out of the way, we began the mission in earnest, which was the same mission we saw in the E3 demo where Shepard must protect a female krogan that Mordin is escorting in some kind of medical pod. Liara and Garrus joined Shepard as squadmates, but disappointingly, Liara only had a little flavor dialogue during the mission, and Garrus had none at all. I asked about Garrus after the demo and I was assured that he would have plenty to say later, so not to worry – but it was still a letdown not to hear him say anything.

As waves of Cerberus agents attacked, the most obvious difference in the combat is the new cover system, which was difficult to get used to because we're so familiar with the old controls. In short, it feels very Gears of War. Hitting the A button near cover makes you take cover as usual, but when you're away from cover pressing A makes Shepard do a dodge roll in the direction you point the analog stick. The rolling animation looks bizarre at first, because we've never seen Shepard move like that before, and it looks especially weird when you roll him toward the camera to dodge backwards. It doesn't look bad, just really different compared to how Shepard moves in the previous two games.

Also like Gears, when you're behind cover, you can use the analog stick to bring up arrows on screen that allow you to jump from cover to cover by hitting A. This proved particularly useful when we had to quickly flank a couple of Cerberus agents with riot shields so we could attack them from their vulnerable sides. By the end of the demo we were still adapting to the differences in the cover system, so it's still hard to say whether the Gears-style will be an upgrade or a downgrade overall, but so far it seems to work well for navigating combat zones quickly and stealthily.

Speaking of gunplay, we also got a good look at the improved return of weapons customization. Instead of accessing weapon upgrades through Shepard's inventory, you can select up to two add-ons to any weapon at the weapons load-out locker, which was located within the level during the demo, but we assume there will also be a weapons locker on the Normandy too. Upgrades seem to work like they did in the first Mass Effect, but the interface for choosing upgrades is much easier to use. The menu here gives you a remarkably physical sense of the gun itself, as if you were really looking at a gun on a table with the upgrades laid out before you. You can see what each upgrade actually looks like on the gun and see how it affects the stats of the gun all on the same screen.

Other than the changes to the cover system and the addition of the omniblade melee weapon (which honestly, we didn't get a chance to use much here), the rest of the mission played out like a typical mission from Mass Effect 1 or 2, where we progressed through the base to find Mordin. It almost felt a little like the Archangel mission from ME2, because the hull integrity of the krogan's medical pod decreased over time, shown by a health bar at the bottom of the screen, so we had to move quickly to reach it in time.

Right as we reached Mordin and the krogan, a giant Atlas walker mech appeared out of nowhere and the demo suddenly ended, much to our dismay. We can only assume that a boss battle with said humongous mech followed, but we'll have to wait until another time to find out. Like the E3 demo, our hands-on time at Comic-Con just left us wanting to see and play more, so we hope to have more opportunities to play Mass Effect 3 before it releases in March of next year.

Above: What a GameStop pre-order gets you

If you want more than that – and you probably do – simply pre-ordering isn't enough. It's all about where you pre-order. GameStop, Amazon, Best Buy and EA’s own Origin download service each have “exclusive” content to offer on top of the Karkand DLC, with the most lavish offerings coming from Origin. Opt for EA’s download service, and you’ll get exclusive open beta access this September, as well as an in-game 870 combat shotgun and a beret. You’ll also get the Physical Warfare pack, which grants access to the Type 88 light machine gun (with a trusty bipod for stability), the KS sniper rifle flash suppressor for sneaking, armor-piercing flechette ammo and the semiautomatic DAO-12 “Shooting” Shotgun (we may have made its nickname up ourselves).

GameStop’s offerings are the next-most-generous, with pre-orders netting the Physical Warfare pack (but no beta access). PowerUp Rewards members also get a free Battlefield 3 digital strategy guide from Prima. Meanwhile, Best Buy pre-orders include The SPECACT Kit, which includes eight multiplayer weapons and uniform skins, one for each class (so nobody gets their feelings hurt).

Amazon orders get a pack of five exclusive multiplayer dog tags. This is the worst one.

If you don’t pre-order from GameStop or Origin, don’t worry; the Physical Warfare pack will be given to all players, for free, sometime later this year.

Above: The multiplayer skins from Best Buy

Battlefield 3 isn't coming out until Oct. 25, so you’ll have plenty of time to decide who to give your money to. And while EA says that, right now, the game has 10 times the number of pre-orders that Battlefield 2 did when it was three months from launch, there's no real limit to the number of copies that can be sold.

How can someone start an article about F.E.A.R. 3 and not mention its origins? Few years ago when I was younger, had more hair and was full of ideas and dreams, a new FPS caught my eye. It was F.E.A.R, an FPS that was developed by the talented Monolith team - the same studio that was behind some incredible games like Shogo, No One Lives Forever, Blood and Tron 2.0. F.E.A.R. was meant to be one of the best horror-themed first-person shooters and featured amazing AI, great fire-fights, engrossing story and mind-blowing graphics. It also featured the first slow-mo effect we’ve ever seen in an FPS. It was refreshing, original and scary. It was one of the best games of 2005.

Fast forward some years and here we are today with the third p of the series. F.E.A.R. 3 is the final chapter and ties up some loose ends that were introduced in the previous parts and expansions. So let’s see how does it run with a modern-day PC. As always, we used an overclocked Q9650 (4.2Ghz) with 4GB DDR2, a GTX295, Windows 7 64Bit and the latest version of ForceWare.

At first, F.E.A.R. 3 was not performing as well as we’d expect. There were major framerate drops
here and there, and we were wondering why the game was behaving this way. We thought that we were CPU limited, but after taking a closer look to the CPU usage, we’ve found out that the game doesn’t require a fast CPU. So what was the cause of this abnormal performance? Apparently, the game’s SLI profile is not good. When we tried to run the game in Single-GPU mode, we’ve witnessed better performance without frame drops and GPU usage. We’ve decided to contact Nvidia to find out whether there was any issue with the game’s profile and the company confirmed that the profile is bugged. A new, proper, profile will be included in the next WHQL version of ForceWare, so those of you with SLI systems should definitely run the game in Single-GPU mode.

A single GTX275 is sufficient for F.E.A.R. 3 as we didn’t encounter any slowdown at all with maxed out settings at 1080p. However, we should note that we didn’t enable any kind of AA. Those of you who want to get constant 60fps with high levels of AA will definitely need a more powerful card. F.E.A.R. 3 is based on a heavily modified version of the Despair Engine, and its CPU requirements are pretty low. As you can see above, our CPU wasn’t stressed at all. We didn’t notice any slowdown even when we tried to simulate a dualcore system. F.E.A.R. 3 will run on a wide range of PC configurations, which is good news for all those that are stuck with old CPUs.

Graphically, the game is a disgrace, and you can easily tell that it was primarily developed
for consoles. There are a lot of low resolution textures and when we say a lot we mean… a lot. There is no ambient occlusion and the environments seem bland and washed out and there are pre-baked shadows all over the place. A lot of light sources don’t cast shadows and there are a lot of blurry post-process effects. Interactivity and destructibility are limited once again, and some outdoor environments look as bad as those of some low-budget games. They are THAT bad. There was also a 30fps movement bug that was transferred from the console versions. It was, however, fixed via a patch. Moreover, some glowing light sources are awful. But who cares about the lighting system… just take a look at the following screenshot. Are those supposed to be steps? Really Day 1 Studios? Was that the best you could do? Yikes!

All in all, F.E.A.R. 3 looks awful and doesn’t require a high-end PC. SLI users will need to run the game in Single-GPU mode until Nvidia fixes its profile. Given the fact that SLI wasn’t working correctly and that our one core was already maxed out, we didn’t test 3D Vision. Those of you stuck with old dualcore systems should not worry, as the game won’t stress your CPU. And we are saddened by those disgraceful visuals because underneath them, there is a good game with great fire-fights, AI and an interesting story.

Enjoy the following screenshots and if you liked this Performance Analysis, please Donate Us or click on the ads located at the top of the page. This gaming site is currently at its infancy, and we’d really appreciate your donation. It doesn’t matter how much you donate us. This will give us the strength and the motive to bring you more complex and interesting performance analyses.

Kalypso Media released today a new trailer for Dungeons: The Dark Lord, the standalone add-on for the evil dungeon builder game by Realmforge and Kalypso, adding a new story-driven campaign and multiplayer. Dungeons: The Dark Lord is slated for a September 2011 release on the PC. Enjoy the trailer after the jump!

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Blizzard has just announced a new edition for Starcraft II. StarCraft II: Starter Edition allows anyone to play the following Starcraft II content for free. Yeap, you read that right. What’s more interesting is that you can play MP matches for free with this Edition. Consider it an extended demo of Starcraft II if you will, but this is something huge and was really unexpected. And all that is required to enjoy this free version is a Battle.net account and Internet connection.

The Starter Edition gives players access to the first three campaign missions on Mar Sara, and then gives the player the ability to choose a fourth mission – either the first mission offered by Dr. Hanson or the first mission offered by Tychus Findlay in the campaign.

Players will also get access to a pair of Challenge Missions, a selection of multiplayer maps, and a custom-game map. The multiplayer and custom game maps available may be cycled from time to time.

In addition, Starter Edition players can earn achievements within the available content; can view profile, ladder, and achievements pages; and can access many functions of the map editor.

No matter how your team has done this season, we've got something to make you look forward to next season. Even Arsenal supporters.

Lucky old us were recently invited out to Vancouver, Canada, to go to EA Sports' HQ to get a first look at the forthcoming FIFA 12 (you knew it was coming, right?). And because we knew we'd get a chance to grill the developers on what's new this year, we thought we'd take your questions straight to them.

So we asked you for your suggestions on what you'd like to see in the new game via Facebook and Twitter, then took these over to Canada and hurled them at FIFA supremo Dave Rutter like a Rory Delap bullet throw-in.

Only we didn't need a crafty towel at the side to dry our hands as we did it. Though we did need to takea run-up... But that's just the writer's peculiar interview technique...

FEETS OF STRENGTH

Despite EA Canada's attempts to throw us off our mission via a fire alarm as we were interviewing Dave (true), we've got the dev's responses to what you want to see and we're sure you want to know what's happening with the new game, what's being added and why FIFA 12 is already looking like a real humdinger. We're impressed by what we saw. So much so that we've forgotten about our team's relegation last weekend.

The most significant news is that there's a new physics engine. The devs are calling it the new 'Impact Engine' and essentially it means the game will be more realistic. This new tech means there'll be less 'clipping' - that's where players' body parts unrealistically contact and 'ghost' through someone, and not where a sly fullback like Gary Neville trips up a speedy winger.

Players will collide in more realistic fashion than ever before and you can really boot the opposition up into the air now - time a challenge incorrectly and they'll cartwheel into the sky like a cheerleader.

Midfield hardmen will weep with joy at the news, as the likes of Didier Drogba roll about on the floor in proper pantomime fashion. Get ready to boo a lot more loudly with FIFA 12. Coupled with the improved physics, there will also be refurbished 'Precision Dribbling' - a term coined by the devs to explain how skilful players will be able to better utilise their close control of the ball.

You'll be able to 'shield dribble' with strong players with good technique: this means keeping the ball under control but placing the player's body between the opponent and the ball. It was in FIFA 11 but didn't work very well so few people used it. Now they will.

OUT OF CONTROL

Players will also use more contextual dribbles and touches to keep control of the ball, particularly when near the sideline - the top pros don't just let the ball run out of play, unless they play for Bristol Rovers...

The devs also noticed that in real matches skilful players might take many slight touches of the ball in a confined area. If you tried this in FIFA 11 you'd end up moving across two-thirds of the pitch. No more. The devs are hoping this will encourage creativity in the middle of the park in a Barcelona style, and add a new pace to the game.

And coupled to the precise dribbling is another major change: gone is the holding down of A/X to 'press' the ball. Instead this will get your defender to 'contain' an opponent.

By that we don't mean that they'll bound and gag said attacker; instead they'll run alongside their prey, patiently waiting in the best defensive position rather than charging in. It's all part of a drive to add more timing and skill to tackling, making defending more engaging. So Vinnie Jones will enjoy playing FIFA as much as Leo Messi does.

The developers are hoping that their improved 'Tactical Defending' will make online players want to play as defenders in Be A Pro 11 vs 11 games. We're not so sure about that, but it does sound like the gameplay will be suitably deepened and given the variety needed to progress the game from FIFA 11.

PRO GROW

As well as some big improvements to the presentation, including new menu screens (woo!), a cool new TV-style game build-up and a new camera angle, a more TV-like angle that will both show off the players better and look more like a game on the box, the devs are also upgrading the player intelligence.

Calling it 'Pro Player Intelligence', this refers to how CPU-controlled players will be more aware of their own and their teammates' abilities. Fabregas will launch raking passes. Teams will utilise the long ball to Crouchy.

It'll have an effect on players' off-the-ball runs and will mark out the difference between great players and average journeymen more, between Real Madrid and Burton Albion. EA say it will "realise the fantasy of playing with real football stars".

It'll also have an effect in your Virtual Pro games because your teammates will adjust their behaviour according to what you're good at/not good at. And this will then have a knock-on effect to career mode transfers where players with certain attributes are sought.

EA are giving FIFA 12 a tagline of 'Revolution, not evolution' emphasising their big changes. Although some improvements do sound a tad similar (such as the AI) to some of FIFA 11's refinements, we're genuinely impressed by what we've seen so far and we're cup-final-excited (though not a cup final involving Stoke) about the prospect of getting to play it.

Once we get some good hands-on time we'll know if it's worth piloting our team to glory in next season's league and cup. Better lace up the virtual boots again.

EA has sent out the first details of the limited edition of Need for Speed: The Run.

Racing from San Francisco to New York against 200 other drivers in the game, the limited edition gives players an edge with access to three elite cars - Lamborghini Aventador, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and the all-new Porsche 911 Carrera S.

It also features five exclusive challenges "offering players the chance to one-up their friends and master their driving skills while earning bonus rewards and achievements".

A brand new chunk of Need For Speed: The Run gameplay hit the net last week, showing all but a few cut sections of an entire race

EA's racer isn't set to hit shops until November 17, but it'll be available for public hands-on time at this September's TRAX car show at Silverstone.

EA is offering early access to the Battlefield 3 multiplayer beta as a perk for anyone who pre-orders the game via its Origin service.

 "Players who pre-order the game from Origin will be granted early access to the Open Beta for Battlefield 3 when it goes live in September 2011," it says on the Origin store page, boasting of its Origin exclusivity.

DICE confirmed last week that there will be two trials; the closed, invite-only alpha trial for which you are able to register your interest, and a more open beta trial for those who purchased a beta-labeled copy of Medal of Honor or the Limited Edition version. Invites for the Alpha trial have already started arriving in email inboxes.

Read up on DICE's trial plans through here, and head through the source link to check out Origin.

Battlefield 3 will "probably" ship with an online pass system, DICE's Patrick Bach has told GamerZines, but there's still some confusion over how the team plans to implement it.

Talking to us last week, Battlefield 3's Executive Producer told us that players would "probably" need to register a code included in the box to access the game's multiplayer, "but I don't think it's an online pass, I think it's our own backend. I'm not sure I want to call our system an online pass."

Confused? So were we.

We asked Bach directly whether DICE would be locking second hand players out of the game's multiplayer unless they were to buy an online pass separately, to which he replied, "I think we are".

An EA representative then asked us to pick up the conversation at "another time".

Of course, if Battlefield 3 were to ship with an online pass, it may automatically give Modern Warfare 3 the upper hand.

Modern Warfare 3's publisher Activision has made it clear that it will never charge players to access Call of Duty's multiplayer and has yet to include an online pass system in any of its games.

P3Zine Issue 50For our latest Battlefield 3 coverage, click here to download P3Zine Issue 50 for free.Bach, however, denied that the inclusion of an online pass with Battlefield 3 would give Modern Warfare 3 an advantage, saying that Battlefield games have "always had a code in the box in one way or another".

"The whole idea is that we're paying for servers," continued Bach, "and if you create a new account there is a big process on how that is being handled in the backend. We would rather have you buy a new game than a used game because buying a used game is only a cost to us; we don't get a single dime from a used game, but we still need to create server space and everything for you.

"We want people to at least pay us something to create this because we're paying for it. It was actually a loss for us to have new players.

"Hopefully people understand why. It's not to punish people. To us it's compensation."

Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which released in March 2010, shipped with a VIP Pass, a code that gave new buyers access to additional content free of charge.

The vast majority of games published by EA within the past year, however, have shipped with an online pass system which blocks second hand users from accessing the game's online multiplayer unless they purchase a pass from Xbox Live Marketplace or PlayStation Store at an additional cost.

Other publishers have since followed suite, including Warner Bros and Codemasters, with Sony and Ubisoft both due to introduce their own online pass systems with Resistance 3 and Driver: San Francisco next month.

It seems like every time Blizzard announces something Diablo III related, there is a giant uproar of unhappiness from the fans who have been following Diablo III news since Blizzard first announced its development. 

Today, fans have a lot of Diablo III news to debate over.  With recent announcements of a player-to-player auction system and that you can only play Diablo III while being connected to the internet, there is plenty for fans to complain about, but is it really that bad?  Let’s take a look at some of the announcements regarding Diablo III, and see if they are good or bad for players.

The most recent news is the introduction of an in-game, real-world cash auction system.  We’re all used to in-game auction houses, but nothing like what Blizzard is introducing in Diablo III.  For the first time, a game will incorporate a player-to-player auction system that will allow players to buy and sell in-game items for real-world cash.  The idea of buying items for cash isn’t anything new.  Plenty of free-to-play games have in-game stores where players can buy items from the company for cash; it’s how the company makes money.  This system, however, is groundbreaking because it allows players to buy and sell from each other—in a regulated environment—and not from some sketchy, foreign website run by gold farmers.  Not only does this system ensure that players won’t be getting scammed, but it also enables Blizzard to get their share of the profit when an item is sold. 

Ultimately, the decision to include this real-cash system comes down to profit.  The fact is, when you create a game that lets people trade items that are both rare and valuable, you create a black market.  This black market is usually in the form of a foreign-run website, where players can go and purchase items or gold for cash.  Not only do the people who are forced to play for hours to “gold farm” face health dangers (this is a big problem in foreign countries), but from a business stand point, Blizzard gets no cut of the profit from this. So rather than just ban players who rely on this “black market” or banish the people who gold farm, Blizzard is embracing this.  The fact is, people are going to do it, so why not incorporate it into the game and make a little money off of it?

The way Blizzard is incorporating it into Diablo III isn’t going to break the game structure at all, either.  It will still be a self-sustained, player-run economy.  Players will be charged a flat fee to list an item (similar to Ebay).  If that item sells, there will be another flat fee paid to Blizzard.  The price of the item has no effect on the fee, and the “nominal” fee will dissuade players from dumping everything they find on the auction block.  Blizzard won’t be selling items directly to increase revenue, and since the drops are random and only players can sell to other players, the economy is self-contained.  Pardo did say that cosmetic items may be sold on the market.

The auction house will allow people to purchase items for gold in one house and cash in another.  After you sell an item, you can either remove the money from the game and use it in the real world via a third-party company, or keep it in the game to use on other auctions, Blizzard games, subscription fees, or Blizzard merchandise.  Blizzard seems to be handling the currency issue in a smart and safe way.  Blizzard will be limiting the auction house to one per currency.  If you’re in a country that uses euros, for instance, your auction house is shared with other euro-using regions.

It looks like Blizzard is taking the “If you can’t beat em, join em” approach to gold/gear farming.  Pardo stated: “What’s the difference between a player that plays the game a lot and a gold farmer? They’re really doing the same activity.  If you are doing an activity where all you’re trying to do is generate items for the auction house, you’re not making someone else’s game experience poorer. If anything you’re making the game better, because you’re generating items for the auction house that people want to purchase.”

Basically, people are going sell it and people are going to buy it.  So why not just include it into the game and provide a safe, legit way to do this without the fear of being ripped off or banned?  It’s not going to break the game.  You don’t have to buy or sell for cash, if you’d rather stick to in-game currency.  For those of you who think it will kill the point of Hardcore mode, Blizzard has already announced that hardcore players won’t have access to the real-money auction house. 

Personally, I like the idea of being rewarded for my hard work and time spent in the game.  This system enables the people who really put time into the game to be rewarded.  Those who don’t have the time to farm endlessly for gear are still able to enjoy it through purchases.  Who knows, this could be a great summertime job for some of you hardcore gamers out there.  Who said you’d never amount to anything playing video games?

On to the next bit of news coming from Blizzard, which is that the game will only be accessible if you are connected to the internet.  I get why people are upset.  Nobody wants to be constricted or told what to do with their game.  After all, we are the ones who shell out the money for it.  If I want to play the game without being on the internet I should damn well be allowed to, but at the end of the day, does it really matter?  How often is your computer not connected to the internet?  My computer at home is always connected.  We’re at the point where it’s impossible to find a place that doesn’t offer internet.  Even Starbucks and Mcdonalds offer internet!

Honestly, I don’t see the big fuss over this DRM, aside from connection drops causing you lose your progress.  I can see how that is annoying, but if it combats hackers, dupers, or anything else that ruined Diablo 2, then I am all for it.  Not to mention, always being online allows Blizzard to incorporate plenty of additional elements to the game, such as a persistent friends list, cross-game chat through the RealID system, persistent characters stored server-side, PvP and game matching, drop-in/drop-out co-op, larger item stash, an auction house, an achievement system, and a banner system which allows you to display your successes in the game.  It’s not like Blizzard is the first to adopt this form of gameplay either. Capcom and Ubisoft have both used this same DRM in their games.

What are your thoughts on the real-world cash auction house?  Are you for or against the online-play only?

Crysis 2 was already made my GPU scream when I tried to play it at Ultra DX11 settings. The beautiful Crysis 2 graphics only achievable on a powerful PC put consoles to shame. The community of Crysis 2 will now take the graphical intensity of Crytek's amazing game to new heights with the Black Fire Mod. Seen in the two videos below, the Crysis 2 Black Fire Mod enhances the visual fidelity of the game, including shadows and textures.

The official hub for the Black Fire Mod can be visited here, where you're given instructions on how to install it.

Here are some GIFs that show before and after shots of Crysis 2 with the Black Fire Mod.

There has been a great deal of complaining that the console versions of Battlefield 3 don't look quite as beautiful as the PC version. It's no coincidence that the PC version is what was shown for months, and given how far we are into this console cycle, it's expected that PC games will look better than their console counterparts. Besides the visual disparity, another difference is the decreased player limit -- up to 64 players can go at it online on PC, while only 24 can do the same on consoles. As a result, DICE says that levels have been somewhat compacted to make them play better.Ensuring the game is as fun as possible is the thinking behind all of these moves; it's not that DICE is "evil or stupid."

Speaking with German site GameZone (as translated by CVG), DICE Executive Producer Patrick Bach defended the choices that have been made regarding Battlefield 3 on consoles. He emphasized that the different versions are "more or less the same," as they run on the same engine and technology. The goal isn't to offer a dumbed-down game on consoles.

Bach said trying to make the games identical is "really, really hard," but it's a matter of finding compromises. "We tried to get more players in [to the console version] but then you need to scale down all the graphics, scale down all the destructibility, and sometimes you need to scale down all the map sizes."

Regarding the last point, Bach said maps are "more or less" the same. With fewer players on consoles, though, DICE has "tried to compact them slightly to keep the action up." It's a reasonable thing to do, and Bach noted, "If you compare it to Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the maps weren't really small on console. We actually had huge maps even for console. We have the same kind of angle on it right now [in Battlefield 3]."

24 players is still more than many games -- and more players doesn't necessarily make for a better game, Bach argues. He has a point, even though console fans are still going to be frustrated over getting what they feel is an inferior game.

"Everything is a compromise," Bach said. "It's not that we're evil or stupid. We didn't choose not to have more players -- we would love to do 64 players on console but then we would have to cut away so much; people would get very upset that it looked worse, played worse and wasn't as fun as the PC version. We would never do that because the fun is always more important."

That includes the inclusion of jets, something that might not have been possible on consoles had they tried to bump up the player limit.

Battlefield 3 will be out for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on October 25. An open, multiplatform beta is set for September, and a tech-focused alpha test is currently ongoing. 

Space Marine is challenging the long-running joke in video games that our hobby has become dominated by personality-less, indistinguishable space marines. It's running headlong into that notion with the dark and violent Warhammer universe, and a single soldier leading the charge. But this franchise was born out of competitive play with other human beings. So what is developer Relic doing to embody that in a virtual game?  We checked out Space Marine's multiplayer to find out:

"Space Marine’s multiplayer can be divided into two distinct categories: gameplay and customization. Given Warhammer’s pedigree of giving players endless choice when it comes to personalizing and managing the countless units that comprise the various armies available to players, it’s no wonder that Space Marine features a deep character customization system that lets players tweak, color, and outfit their soldiers--Space Marines and the evil Chaos Space Marines--in 1.8 billion potential ways."

But don't worry, customization isn't the only Warhammer tribute Space Marine employs. Combat is brutal and tactical, encouraging classes to work together to destroy the enemy. If you want to know more about that though, you'll just have to check out the full Warhammer 40k: Space Marine multiplayer preview!

As long as computer games, consoles, PC tech’ and anything that offers an alternative or a reason to be loyal to a specific brand, there will be flame wars an aruguments. We are going to look at the latest argument to take center stage in the battle between Modern Warfare 3 with its 60 frames per second and Battlefield 3 having 30 frames per second and ask, does it really matter?

What Is Frames Per Second?

This is the refresh rate and the speed of which the image displayed is shown. So, the higher the refresh rate, the smoother the image – right? Well, yes and no. There are many processess and other issues that can cause a choppy frame, such as: Latency (imput lag – when excessive pre-processing causes delay from player imput to computer response), Motion Blurring – without realistic motion blurring, you can have a game running at 100 FPS but, without adequate motion blurring stringing together images which reduces the gap between frames, you’re left with a choppy image.

The Difference

Battlefield 3

Modern Warfare 3

You have to realise that each game is developed in a specific way so it can perform at its optimum level for the hardware or platform it’s using. Battlefield 3, which features huge, lush landscape, 24 player online carnage with a vast array of vehicles and truly stunning graphics, really is half a decade ahead of its time – so, to give you the best experience playing Battlefield 3, the developers have locked it at 30 FPS 720p native resolution and it still looks amazing, even on dated consoles (Crysis 2 anyone? Yup, 30 FPS 720p). The only compromise DICE have made, is to scale the number of online players from 64 to 24.

While the comparison’s and arguments will never die, the notion that Battlefield 3 will be inferior due to visual fidelity running at 30 FPS 720p is nonsical and out-right silly. Locking the frame rate at 30 FPS means a consistant experience running at peak performance with incredible lighting effects and state of the art rendering techniques. Running with variables, like Modern Warfare 3′s 60 FPS means that in high-load performance situations that 60 FPS may dip below 30 FPS and that you will notice with potential screen tearing and maybe some other issues. ,the difference, I’m sure you will agree is negligible.

Modern Warfare 3 has been developed around its engine to run at 60 FPS, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be better or worse than a game that runs at 30 FPS, only that it has been designed to run that way to reach its optimum performance.

Both games will be great in their own right, they will be running at peak performance and both will maximise the stregnths of the hardware it’s running on.

If you want my opinion? I’d take the fixed Frames Per Second over a variable one for stability during gameplay. Considering this with the negligible visual differences between 30 and 60 FPS, I think Dice have made the right call.

Robot Entertainment announced today that Orcs Must Die! will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade and PCs later this summer. The game will be playable at the upcoming 2011 San Diego Comic-Con which runs from July 21st to 24th. Robot Entertainment also announced that it has chosen Microsoft Studios to publish and distribute the game.

Patrick Hudson, CEO of Robot Entertainment said:

“Players on both Xbox LIVE Arcade and PCs will get their chance to massacre orcs by the thousands soon. We’re excited that Microsoft shares our orc bloodlust and will publish the game.”

Robot Entertainment also announced today they will be releasing an Orcs Must Die! prequel comic book. The single-issue comic tells the story of a world endangered by savage monsters and of the heroes that rose up to drive them back.

Orcs Must Die! will be playable at the Xbox Lounge on July 23-24 in the Hard Rock Hotel during Comic-Con. Limited print editions of the prequel comic will be available to players at Comic-Con at no charge. The digital version of the comic will release later this summer, also at no charge.

In case you were unaware of, Orcs Must Die! is an action-strategy game that challenges players to defend fortresses under siege. The game features a wide variety of traps and weapons to choose from, a vibrant look, addictive gameplay, and a blatant disregard for the welfare of orcs.

The open-ended nature of the Elder Scrolls series has been somewhat of a double-edged sword in the past. While the lack of hand-holding and clear story objectives in Morrowind – and to a slightly lesser extent Oblivion – brought a sense of liberation to some, it also spelt intimidation to others who struggled for a sense of purpose without obvious checkpoint markers dragging them through the narrative. It's something that Bethesda is certainly aware of, but the developer is only making some slight tweaks to its open-ended formula.

"I don't know if we're concerned about it," says lead producer Craig Lafferty. "We'd certainly like for people to be able to finish the games. We've gotten better at sort of guiding the player along – almost like the carrot on the stick – guiding them towards how to finish the main quest. But really we make these huge open world games so you can go where you want, be what you want, play what you want, so if you don't ever finish [the main quest] but you're still having a great time then that's fine too. We've heard stories of players playing 200-300 hours of our previous games without ever finishing the core narrative."

At least 100 of those hours will be spent staring enigmatically into the distance.

One of these 'carrots on the stick' is the new Clairvoyance spell that draws a path along the ground to your next objective. Another nice feature of the game is the dynamic class system, which essentially means your character will level up and evolve in an organic manner depending on your actions – so you can just pursue the things that you're interested in and your character will automatically mould to your style, eliminating the need to get bogged down spending stat points.

One of the best aspects of Oblivion was its abundance of water-cooler moments – because there was so much to see and do off the beaten path, there was always plenty to talk about with friends who were playing the same game at the same time but in an entirely different way. Like that time you became a vampire, or when your friend happened upon a body floating in a stream with a suicide note tucked into his pocket. Then there was that quest – 'A Brush With Death' - that transported you into a painting in search of a missing artist. It was a watercolour water-cooler moment!

"There's definitely lots more stuff like that," says Lafferty. "We don't want to give anything specific away to spoil it, but we've got a big open world to go anywhere and do whatever you want, on top of the main quest which is about 30 hours long. We still have the guilds – so the mage's guild, the thieves' guild, the fighters' guild, those are back. The mage's guild takes place in the College of Winterhold. So we have that as well as 150 handcrafted dungeons, and probably over 500 individual activities to do in the world so there's a lot of that as well as the main focus of the story."

Dragons are the big bosses of Skyrim and the battles with them appear to be suitably intense – at least if the climactic encounter in the game's E3 demo is anything to go by. You can use magic to summon electrical storms to combat them in the air, and when you inflict enough damage upon them they'll crash to the ground with all the heft of a mythical jumbo jet – carving out deep grooves in the earth and churning up dust and topsoil as their hulking bodies grind to a halt. Then once they're dead, you consume their souls and inherit their power. But the dragons will always come back.

"They're not limited, they're like any other creature in the game, they're not scripted – you can come across them as you play through the world but they don't go away," explains Lafferty. "It's not like you can defeat all of the dragons and they'll cease to exist – they'll always be there in the game. And they're also a central focus to the story – it's the first Elder Scrolls game with dragons - and you're dragon born, you can speak the language of the dragon. So it's just trying to figure out why the dragons are back, why they're special and how does that play out in the world?"

Are all of the dragons in the mythical land of Skyrim evil, or will you be able to tame them for the purposes of fighting alongside you? Bethesda is keeping tight-lipped on the subject for now.

"We're not really getting into a whole lot of specifics about that," says Lafferty. "But they're not all out to kill you, let's just put it that way."

Thus we're willing to bet that there will be friendly fire-breathers to summon using one of your 'dragon shouts' – calling on a friendly dragon to fight an enemy dragon would be the definition of fighting fire with fire. Plus the game's mountains look like they'd take an absolute dragon age to ascend on foot or horseback, but on the back of a saddled dragon it could be a short flight to the summit. It's probably unlikely, but mountable dragons as DLC would definitely have us opening our virtual wallets post-release. How about it, Bethesda?

We wonder what the view is like from up there?

The map of Skyrim is said to be roughly the same size as Cyrodiil in Oblivion, but thanks to a complete overhaul of the game engine since then Skyrim is infinitely more detailed and lush in appearance, with an incredible draw distance that doesn't just extend out into the horizon but upward to the peaks of the towering mountains that loom large over the landscape.

"We made Oblivion and then Fallout 3 on the current gen of consoles, so we've learned a lot more about how to bring a lot out of the current systems," says Lafferty. "So now we have a new UI system, a new animation system, a new renderer, the radiant story and then the world itself, so all these things kind of combine and as a result the world of Skyrim really feels like a solid place you can get lost in."

Just how much is there to do and see in Skyrim? With 280 perks to unlock, five major cities to explore, over 300 books to find, 150 unique dungeons to loot and some 500 individual activities to indulge in, it would truly appear that the sky is the limit.

So, you just got done vacuuming the living room and sat down to read a book with your younger sister when a fairy floats out of the pages and transports you into the fairytale world. Now, you have to defeat an evil wizard. What kind of weapon do you get? A legendary sword?

 No, you brought your vacuum cleaner.

 Don’t underestimate it. This isn’t an ordinary flying dirt devil. The vacuum in Kyuiinfires lasers and whips enemies behind it with an extension cord. I think that sums up the concept of Kyuiin in a nutshell.

MonkeyPaw Games will release Kyuiin in North America as a downloadable PsOne import. Being a horizontal shooter with a quirky concept, Kyuiin should be more import friendly than some of MonkeyPaw’s other releases. Look for it when the PlayStation Store updates next week.

Call of Duty: Elite will add a premium layer of content onto Modern Warfare 3, but multiplayer will remain free.

As suspected, COD: Elite will be a premium service offering extra content for a monthly fee, not an attempt to charge for multiplayer gameplay. In fact, some of the content offered on Elite, such as a Facebook-like social networking aspect, will be completely free.

"COD ELITE is free, for all players, some paid aspects TBD. Absolutely NO fee to play #MW3 multiplayer. Detailed reveal coming tomorrow AM," tweeted Infinity Ward creative consultant Robert Bowling Monday night. " #MW3 multiplayer is free to play as it always is."

According to the Journal, Activision executives expect the monthly cost for COD: Elite to be less than that of Netflix's lowest-level service, which costs $8/month. In exchange for that fee, subscribers will get access to more map packs and analytical tools that will allow players to gauge their in-game performance according to kills by weapon type and other factors.

Speaking with the Journal, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said the service is intended to supplement the Call of Duty experience, and emphasized that the multiplayer aspect of Modern Warfare 3 will remain free. He also said that customer service for Elite is so extensive, that the service couldn't be supported for free.

[UPDATE] Activision has now formally announced Call of Duty: Elite, saying "many key features" of the service will be free. It also confirmed the premium level of the service will include "a wide range of state-of-the-art services, exclusive entertainment programming and all-inclusive game content for less than the cost of any comparable online entertainment service currently in the market." The company did not, however, announce the price of the service.

Activision also revealed that Elite will be the stage for a variety of Modern Warfare 3 competitions, as well as undefined "events." Both types of festivities will see the doling out of both in-game and real-world prizes to winners. A just-released trailer for the service (see below) reveals that Elite's social aspect will let players form groups and clans, as well as share films of themselves in action.

A public beta for Call of Duty: Elite will begin this summer using Call of Duty: Black Ops, with sign-ups already under way at http://www.callofduty.com/elite. However, when the service launches on November 8, it will be "fully" integrated with Modern Warfare 3, allowing for two-way communication between Elite and the game. That means that actions made in Elite--which can be accessed via mobile devices, PCs, consoles, and games themselves--will affect users' in-game experience.

I'd love to be able to say that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker achieves this lofty goal, but ultimately it falls just short. But then, it wouldn't really be a Metal Gear game if it didn't suffer from one or two glaring flaws, would it? To its credit, though, Peace Walker is the best thing to come from Hideo Kojima's long-running series since Metal Gear Solid 3, despite a handful of compromising shortcomings.

Click the image above to check out all Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker screens.

That Peace Walker would have to make some compromises is a given; it is a PSP game, after all. No slight intended to the system, but the PSP lacks either the horsepower or range of controls of the PlayStation 3, which played host to the most recent entry in the series. Yet despite taking a technological step backward, Peace Walker does an admirable job of reproducing both the spirit of MGS3 and the control mechanics of MGS4 to the furthest extent possible.

Certain Metal Gear standards have been streamlined or removed altogether in order to make the game play as smoothly as it can: Camouflage feels largely irrelevant, and it's no longer possible to crawl. For the most part, however, Peace Walker seems to have been designed with these limitations in mind -- in fact, the entire game feels very deliberate in its design. It was clearly intended to be a thoroughly portable experience above all else, and this is the source of its main appeal.

Far too often, portable iterations of console-based franchises are either grossly simplified in design or else attempt to do too much and ignore the realities of handheld gaming; the Metal Gear franchise is hardly innocent of these crimes. In Peace Walker, Kojima Productions has reduced Metal Gear to its essence -- sneaking, fighting, and watching -- and rebuilt it from the ground up to work on PSP. It carries over a few elements from its direct predecessor, Portable Ops (such as the base-building and mission structure), but by and large the developers have looked to other portable series (most overtly Capcom's Monster Hunter) for inspiration. The result is a game that offers up a quintessential Metal Gear experience, yet which feels perfectly at home on a handheld system.

At the heart of Peace Walker's design is the relationship between its single- and multiplayer components...or rather, the fact that it doesn't really have single- and multiplayer components. The entire game, be it the main story or the extra content, is divided into bite-sized missions that can be tackled solo or with up to three friends (with a handful of exceptions). Peace Walker can ostensibly be completed by a single person, though a sizable percentage of the extra missions (which greatly outnumber the story missions) are nearly impossible to complete alone. And even for the less daunting missions, you'll have a much easier time earning S-rankings with a friend or three in tow.

Click the image above to check out all Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker screens.

This doesn't always work to the game's advantage, though, and herein lies one of its most significant failures. Like so many other games designed around co-op play, Peace Walker doesn't scale its difficulty according to the number of players. This is fine for the extra content, but it also makes for a handful of poorly-balanced story missions that can become infuriating sticking points for one person to tackle alone.

The bosses in particular suffer from this issue, and in fact Peace Walker's bosses are the lowest point of the game -- a real let-down in a series famous for its imaginative boss encounters. Don't expect to test your wits against clever super agents with flamboyant code-names this time around; Peace Walker's bosses are strictly military mechs and A.I. constructs, and they're all designed to be beaten by four people using sheer brute force. Worse still, the game's interface limitations severely hamper boss fights; Peace Walker's control schemes are a fair improvement over those available in Portable Ops, but they work best in slow, methodical stealth situations. In white-knuckle battles against towering mechs, they're often Snake's deadliest foe of all.

Okay, enough about level editors, already. Who is Joe Danger? He's a dude playin' a dude disguised as another dude! No, wait, that's Robert Downey, Jr. from Tropic Thunder, what the hell am I thinking? Joe Danger is a former motorcycle daredevil aiming to make a comeback on the motorcycle daredeviling circuit. He looks kinda like Leisure Suit Larry, but make no mistake: unlike Larry, Joe's actually got game...with the ladies.

Click the image above to check out all Joe Danger screens.

And with everyone else, too, I'd wager. Hello Games has cleverly taken the core elements of the Super Mario Bros. series -- multiple routes through a level, mutually exclusive challenges for replayability, and a high difficult level -- and integrated them into a motorcycle racing engine. Each level features multiple objectives (and often multiple paths) that are impossible to complete on a single run -- for example, beat a certain time and/or collect a certain number of stars -- so you'll end up racing the same tracks again and again. It's a good thing, then, that Joe Danger is colorful and fast-paced, with a pervasive sense of joy in its design. It's impossible to describe in the black-and-white confines of a review like this one, but more than anything, as you play Joe Danger, you'll get the feeling that the dudes who made this game infused it with a real love of the form. Sounds very touchy-feely, I know -- but sometimes it's good to get touchy-feely...with the ladies.

Now, love aside, Joe Danger isn't without its flaws. First off, the damn thing is too hard. While it's an innovative design feature to cause jumping to happen when you release a button (specifically the "duck" button), it's so counterintuitive that it would've taken a monumental feat of self-deprogramming to make it feel instinctual for me. Moreover, a lot of the challenges require too much repetition to surpass. If, like me, you're a completionist, prepare for hours of narrowly missing time trials and frustratingly whiffing that one trick you need to get the high score. But hey, that's me. Another, more minor problem is the sound design. While the music and sound effects are jaunty enough at first, the lack of variety combined with my compulsive need to complete everything -- and therefore repeat levels again and again -- made wonder if I shouldn't just use the mute button...on the ladies.

At the end of the day, though, Joe Danger is a truly enjoyable game with some minor quibbles. You can pick it up and race in five-minute sprints when you feel like killing a little time, or you can drill down into it with the level editor and the myriad unlockables. Considering the penny-ante cost of this title, if you're at all interested in racing, platformers, or fun generally, you'd be crazy not to give Joe Danger a try.

...

Among the few additions MMZC offers over the standalone games, the most important is the option to play through the entire series in sequence. The Zero games remain the most story-driven niche of the entire Mega Man franchise, picking up a century after the Mega Man X series and ultimately building to a very conclusive finale that brings unambiguous closure to the tales of heroes X and Zero.

Click the image above to check out all Mega Man Zero Collection screens.

This mode also reduces the difficulty level considerably -- something many gamers will welcome, since the Zero games had a tendency to cross over the line between "ferociously challenging" and "downright spiteful." At the same time, you're left with the nagging sensation that you're not getting the full experience -- the action tends to be a little too easy, and the Cyber Elf collection system which made the games so compelling is completely gone. In that sense, the story mode feels almost like an appetizer designed to whet your appetite for the individual games.

Click the image above to check out all Mega Man Zero Collection screens.

Beyond the arrangement mode, MMZC's only other significant extra is an art gallery that's unlocked as you complete various challenges. Otherwise, it's more or less four GBA games running in a DS wrapper: No new graphics or sound, no relocalization to restore the missing blood and goofy typos in the U.S., not even an expansion of the screen boundaries to take advantage of the DS's slight resolution advantage over the GBA.

So, basically, MMZC gives gamers four good (and increasingly rare) action games in a straightforward package. The presentation won't blow anyone away, but the convenience of having the entire series on a single cartridge -- and one that, unlike the GBA versions, can be played on a DSi -- counts for a lot.

Powered by Unreal Engine 3, Hunted will be released for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Windows PCs. The companies have not yet issued a release date.

Most video game developers are hired hands for publishers and not represented by talent agents. As such, landing the top game developers behind one of the industry's biggest franchises marks a coup for CAA. At least one of the other top Hollywood agencies was looking to sign West and Zampella since they lost their jobs last week, according to a person familiar with the situation.

It's no wonder the entertainment industry's top agencies were clamoring to sign the duo. According to UK ChartTrack, Modern Warfare 2 just passed Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to become the second highest-selling videogame in UK history (Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training on DS still holds the top spot). And according to Activision, the Call of Duty franchise has generated more than $3 billion in revenue.

The game will also offer new multiplayer modes, including Undercover Cop, Cops & Robbers, and Arcade to go along with the existing Fragile Alliance mode.

The demo begins with a bathroom interrogation scene that allows gamers to go Jack Bauer on a source, before shifting to a warehouse loaded with armed guards. In the warehouse, Parizeau demonstrated the mark and execute system, marking traps and guards at different ranges before hitting execute and unleashing Fisher in a John Woo-like rapid-fire sequence.

Light and shadow will still be a critical element of gameplay, Parizeau said, and this time around, Fisher will have a gaggle of new gadgets to manipulate environments. For example, the producer demonstrated Fisher using EMP grenades to knock out lighting in certain areas and pounce on guards blinded by darkness. "These tools allow you tip the balance in your favor," Parizeau said.

Gamers interested in taking part should head over to the game's official web site and click the "Apply for Beta" button. Need for Speed World ships this summer for the PC.

The Singularity synopsis from the developers:

In Singularity, you will fight your way through an ever-shifting environment haunted with time ravaged creatures, while sudden time waves hurl you back and forth between 1950 and present day. Use your wits and the perfect weapon-the Time Manipulation Device - to unravel the conspiracy on the remote island of Katorga-12.

In detailing the impact the switch to digital will have on the environment, Ubisoft said that producing one ton of paper for game manuals consumes an average of two tons of wood from 13 trees, with a net energy of 28 million BTU's. That's equivalent to average heating and energy for one home for an entire year.

The Assassin's Creed and Ghost Recon developer also announced that, starting with Splinter Cell: Conviction for the PC, the company has switched to 100% recycled DVD cases for all of its PC games.

"Eco-friendly initiatives are important to the global community and introducing in-game digital manuals on Xbox 360 and PS3 is just the latest example of Ubisoft's ongoing commitment to being a more environmentally conscious company," Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America, said in a statement.

Brink features 8-member squads, with AI friends and enemies seamlessly being replaced by players as they log-on. And when a player goes idle, they can even enable AI to temporarily take over their character. "You won't be earning any Experience Points during that time, but we want to give players the break option," Ham said.

"Not only are the enemies more ruthless and surprising, but your teammates are more self reliant and useful. In Brink, you won't have to babysit your AI squad mates and make sure they do their jobs. Actually, if you're not doing well, they'll babysit you!"

Brink is set for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC on September 30.

Other voice actors have helped fill out the cast of characters. Futurama voice actor Maurice LaMarche told Kotaku he would be playing Mr. Freeze, and Stana Katic tweeted she will be playing Ra's al Ghul's daughter and Batman love interest Talia.

Two Face, Mr. Freeze, Talia al Ghul, and via the game's first teaser trailer, the Joker, are confirmed. And with Talia involved, can Ra's himself be far behind? Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 (for lack of a better title) is being developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, and does not yet have a release date.

Play with a friend and have even more fun as you lure zombies in using strategic items like a toy helicopter or a firecracker. Once the zombies have gathered, your friend can rain bullets from above or shoot at a strategically-placed gas tank to create a deadly explosion that will take out masses of the enemy.

Along with the co-op mode, Capcom also provided details about its Dead Rising 2 DLC prologue, Case Zero. The full-game's new protagonist, Chuck Greene, is introduced in the standalone DLC title, trapped in the desert town of Still Creek with his daughter. According to Capcom, Case Zero bridges the gap between the two titles while giving players a taste of the new gameplay experience to come in Dead Rising 2.

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is an Xbox Live exclusive. Capcom has yet to announce a release date or pricing, but the full Dead Rising sequel is set to ship on August 31 in North America for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PCs and in Europe on September 3.

No other details were provided in the post, and BioWare and Electronic Arts have yet to make an official announcement of the DLC. So aside from the title, the only thing to go on is the add-on's price. At 400 MS Points, Darkspawn Chronicles is the same price as the Return to Ostagar DLC, released on January 29. Ostagar gave gamers a chance to return to the battlefield where Duncan fell and take revenge on the encamped Darkspawn and pick up the armor and weapons of the dead King.

We'll let you know when we learn more about Darkspawn Chronicles.

UPDATE:
Electronic Arts has issued a press release detailing the new DLC. From EA:

For the first time ever, fight as the darkspawn in BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins. In the new downloadable content pack, Dragon Age: Origins Darkspawn Chronicles, players have the chance to experience life on the dark side, playing as the corrupted army of the Blight, enslaved to the will of the Archdemon. In North America, Darkspawn Chronicles will be available for the Xbox 360 videogame system for 400 Microsoft points and PC for 400 BioWare points on May 18th, and on PlayStation Network for $4.99, with its launch date to be announced later.

The Darkspawn Chronicles offers players a look at an alternate history in the Dragon Age universe. Darkspawn Chronicles begins as your character dies during the Joining ceremony, and the Grey Wardens now march under Alistair's command. As a hurlock vanguard, you alone hold the power to make thralls of their fellow darkspawn and drive them into the heat of battle as Denerim burns! This adventure gives you command of genlocks, hurlocks, shrieks, and even the mighty ogres.

Key features include:
--Imagine a world without heroes, where the greatest among you never became a Grey Warden

--Play through the Fall of Denerim from the perspective of the darkspawn

--Complete the module and unlock an epic darkspawn item for use in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening

--Use the "Enthrall" ability to recruit any darkspawn you encounter into your party

From Ubisoft:

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 plunges fans into an explosive environment where they can become elite aerial soldiers in control of the world's most technologically advanced aircraft. The game will appeal to a wide array of gamers as players will have the chance to control exceptional pilots trained to use cutting edge technology in amazing aerial warfare missions.

The image Vidic mentioned is a symbol for fans of the franchise to post to indicate they side with the Templars. But why would Assassins join forces with the franchise's antagonists? According to reports, Brotherhood will feature a multiplayer mode, and it's likely, given the Vidic posts, players will get to play as Templars.

Kotaku came across placeholder box art for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood yesterday evening, materials Ubisoft has since confirmed are legitimate. The blurb on the box art reads:

Live and breathe as Ezio, now a legendary master assassin, in his struggle against the Templar order. Lead your own brotherhood of Assassins and strike at the heart of the enemy: Rome. And for the first time, take part in an innovative multiplayer layer allowing you to embody an assassin of your choosing and define their killing style.

Ubisoft would only confirm the box art was legit, declining to provide further details on Brotherhood. However, the developer did say it would officially reveal the title next week. We'll keep you posted.

To tout the partnership and get the pre-orders rolling, Valve and 2K are offering a special promotion: gamers who order Civ V from Steam will receive the Cradle of Civilization Map Pack: Mesopotamia. The pack includes the Fertile Crescent with the Nile River valley to the west and extending east down the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys to the Persian Gulf. And in true Civilization fashion, you will be able to conquer it all.

Sid Meier's Civilization V is set to launch this fall. The standard edition will retail for $49.99 and the deluxe $59.99.

We'll pick our favorite at noon on Tuesday, May 11th, so be sure to get your entry in before then. Please note that you must be over 18 and live in the United States to be eligible to win.

Wondering exactly what you'll win? Here's a complete list:

• ME 1+2 Bundle
• Aion
• Titan Quest Bundle
• Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines
• Sid Meier's Pirates!
• Civilization 4 complete
• SimCity Societies
• SWAT 4 GOLD
• Fallout 3
• Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
• Divinity 2
• Chessmaster 9000
• Defense Grid
• Majesty 2 The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
• The Settlers: Rise of Empire Gold
• Trine
• Guild Wars Nightfall
• Grand Ages Rome
• AI War Fleet Command + Zenith Remnant Bundle
• Europa Universalis Rome Gold
• Dark Fall Lost Souls

We look forward to reading your submissions, and good luck to everyone who enters!

Baer's Brown Box, what would become the Odyssey.

"The individuals of this year's class of outstanding inventors have shaped our future and their remarkable achievements will surely inspire a whole new generation of like-minded dreamers to see the worth of hard work and passion," Edward Gray, president of the Board of Directors of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, said in a statement.

Becoming a Hall of Fame member is just one of Baer's many accolades: In 2005, he was given the Legend Award by G4; in 2006, President George W. Bush presented him with the National Medal of Technology; in 2008 he received the Pioneer Award at the Game Developers Conference; and also in 2008, Baer won the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award.

The studio is still on track to release Iron Man 2 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii on May 4.

We'll know for sure just how big Kratos is in North America when the NPD Group releases its March videogame sales report on April 8. One thing appears certain, with Final Fantasy XIII and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 reporting multi-million unit months, March should prove to be a huge rebound for the slumping videogame industry.

According to Ronjini Mukhopadhyay, a public relations rep for K2 Network, Hong's original idea has "morphed into something bigger than us." Hong is now seeking the required signatures to become a candidate of the Independent party and will be formulating his real platform in the coming weeks.

In an election that already includes an artist, a car salesman, and a college student as candidates to replace a former actor as governor, Hong's videogame publisher title doesn't sound so out of place. Further, with an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a successful, rapidly growing company in his hands (GamersFirst now boasts 23 million members in 160 countries) Hong has the pedigree to match up with any of the Independent party candidates already on the ballot. And that's no joke.

For the sake of accuracy, Wada's announcement was specifically for Japanese PlayStation Network. No official word on a U.S. release, but is there really any doubt?

We'll know for sure just how big Kratos is in North America when the NPD Group releases its March videogame sales report on April 8. One thing appears certain, with Final Fantasy XIII and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 reporting multi-million unit months, March should prove to be a huge rebound for the slumping videogame industry.

According to Ronjini Mukhopadhyay, a public relations rep for K2 Network, Hong's original idea has "morphed into something bigger than us." Hong is now seeking the required signatures to become a candidate of the Independent party and will be formulating his real platform in the coming weeks.

In an election that already includes an artist, a car salesman, and a college student as candidates to replace a former actor as governor, Hong's videogame publisher title doesn't sound so out of place. Further, with an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a successful, rapidly growing company in his hands (GamersFirst now boasts 23 million members in 160 countries) Hong has the pedigree to match up with any of the Independent party candidates already on the ballot. And that's no joke.

For the sake of accuracy, Wada's announcement was specifically for Japanese PlayStation Network. No official word on a U.S. release, but is there really any doubt?

From Atomic:

For the first time, virtual warriors can punch holes through floors to get the drop on enemies below, breach both interior and exterior walls, crush enemy fighters by collapsing ceilings and balconies, and even shoot away individual bricks to create shooter's holes.

Gamers will play as CIA Special Activities Division operatives and use accurate weapons, gear, and unspecified "spy gadgets" to take out their enemies. Breach also features an active cover system that allows players to instantly attach to cover, peak out, pop in and out, and blind fire.

Atomic said Breach will be available for download on Xbox Live this summer offering "the kinds of innovation and features expected in a full packaged game." We'll keep you posted.

The details are still being ironed out, Smith said, but credits earned will then be used to increase a player's Military Rank (which replaces Halo 3's Ranking system) and purchase customization items in Reach's new "Armory."

Bungie intends to keep players busy, issuing daily and weekly credit challenges to be achieved in multiplayer and campaign modes, and there will be plenty of goodies available to spend those hard-earned credits on in the Armory. And all customizations a player makes to their Spartan will be reflected in the multiplayer and campaign modes, including in-game cut scenes.

Smith also described how the Player Investment system will track a player's style of play, awarding long-lasting Commendations for sniping, melee, and driving achievements, and using that data to better match players in multiplayer games.

Halo: Reach is scheduled for a fall release. The online multiplayer beta kicks off on May 3 and can be accessed through the Halo: ODST menu.

In addition, anyone that takes part in the demo and purchases the full retail package of Lost Planet 2 will be given immediate access to the Machine Gun SP which fires three-round bursts.

The Windows PC version of Lost Planet 2 is set to ship in the fall.

Powered by Unreal Engine 3, Hunted will be released for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Windows PCs. The companies have not yet issued a release date.

The Turtle Rock website doesn't offer any new insight into these events, or explain the circumstances of the company's resurrection, but does have some nice rootin' tootin' visuals and links to a recently released "side project", an iPhone application called Garage Buddy.

Whether or not Turtle Rock Studios gets back into developing mainstream games or sticks with mobile apps remains to the be seen. It was also heavily involved with Counter-Strike: Condition Zero back in the day.

Back from the dead.

The demo begins with a bathroom interrogation scene that allows gamers to go Jack Bauer on a source, before shifting to a warehouse loaded with armed guards. In the warehouse, Parizeau demonstrated the mark and execute system, marking traps and guards at different ranges before hitting execute and unleashing Fisher in a John Woo-like rapid-fire sequence.

Light and shadow will still be a critical element of gameplay, Parizeau said, and this time around, Fisher will have a gaggle of new gadgets to manipulate environments. For example, the producer demonstrated Fisher using EMP grenades to knock out lighting in certain areas and pounce on guards blinded by darkness. "These tools allow you tip the balance in your favor," Parizeau said.

The demo will be available for download exclusively on Xbox Live on March 18, and Splinter Cell: Conviction launches for the 360 and PC on April 13.

Gamers interested in taking part should head over to the game's official web site and click the "Apply for Beta" button. Need for Speed World ships this summer for the PC.

Over on EA's official Battlefield blog, the company posted a Q&A that detailed the work it has done to address the most prominent issues gamers have been having on all platforms. Most notably, the company stated: "EA Online has been adding more capacity to handle the high number of player connections to EA servers. This is an ongoing process but we currently have enough capacity to handle all BFBC2 connections."

Jump over to the Battlefield forum for more details on common problems and EA's fixes.

The Witcher 2 has not yet been given a release date, and as of now it is a PC-only title. Those of you interested in learning what's in store for Geralt should check out the exclusive preview at Gamespot.

UPDATE: CD Projekt Red has officially announced The Witcher 2 will also be an Xbox 360 and PS3 title.

Born the son of a poor immigrant, Vito is a beaten down Italian-American who is trying to escape the life of poverty that consumed his childhood. Vito, along with his lifelong friend, Joe, will descend into the world of organized crime. Looking to escape the life of hardship that his father led, Vito dreams about becoming a "made man," and together with Joe, will work to prove themselves to the Mafia as they try to make their names on the streets. However, the two quickly realize that life as a wise guy isn't quite as glamorous as it seems.

For those of you headed to PAX East, Take-Two also announced the game will be playable by the public for the first time at the sold-out expo, which kicks off tomorrow in Boston.

"BlizzCon offers us a great opportunity to meet with our players and share our enthusiasm for gaming with one of the most passionate communities in the world," Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard, said in a statement. "We're looking forward to providing another great show filled with entertainment, competition, and the latest information about Blizzard Entertainment games."

Details about ticket availability and pricing will be announced on the official BlizzCon web site in the near future. The company did state tickets will be sold in much the same way as last year, meaning a Battle.net account is required, and tickets will be sold to the lucky few that queue into the system first.

Ryan Scott: So, to kick this off, let's talk a little bit about you and your history. You worked on a few Blizzard titles -- and you're a renowned StarCraft player as well, right?

Tom Cadwell: I'm terrible now, but that's OK. So my background is, I was really into StarCraft in college. I played really competitively, and I was a top player for a while -- I was really good with the Protoss [faction]. And then I started developing games. I made a small title in college called Strifeshadow; it was a real-time strategy game, and then I moved on to work at Blizzard for about three years, as the balance guy on Warcraft III. And then on World of Warcraft, I worked on a bunch of systems and content polish and some other interesting things. After that, I went to business school; I wasn't really sure why at the time, but it's proving more useful now. I was a producer at Red 5 Studios for a while, and realized I hated being a producer and just wanted to be a designer -- so I took the opportunity to be Riot Games' design director.

Ryan Scott: That said, let's talk about League of Legends. Right off the bat -- do you think Riot jumped the gun with its release? It was sort of lacking in some important features, like spectator mode, draft mode, and replays -- which you guys have talked a lot about since launch. In any case, what do you think about LoL's launch?

Tom Cadwell: I think we made the right decision. You know, once upon a time, game development was about releasing a monolithic product when it was ready, and then you marched on to the next thing, and didn't look back. But these days, you want to create a really fun experience for people, one that they're going to enjoy and stay loyal to. And while I want replays and observer mode as much as you guys, getting those done along with everything else would have delayed us a lot. We felt like we had a really fun product that stood on its own, and we felt like it was ready to launch. With the growth we've had in our users, we've been pretty successful, and we are going to build those features, and more features after that. So, I'm happy with the decision we made, even though I understand why some users were disappointed at those specific features not being included in the launch.

Ryan Scott: Were you ever apprehensive about the microtransaction-based revenue model?

Tom Cadwell: Yes! I mean, it was a big decision. No one had really done a free-to-play model for a competitive, hardcore game. We felt like we had a solution that worked, but it's scary to jump off the cliff and not know if it's going to work or not. It was a big risk -- but it was one that was really successful for us. We got a ton of users into the game, and they've been very loyal in supporting us by opting in to buy skins or permanent access to champions. And we're also happy that our users understand we're not selling in-game power, or being unfair or unbalanced [with the model]. When we first explained the model, a lot of players had that concern, but we don't hear that much [anymore], because we've been very careful to mitigate that.

Ryan Scott: With regard to the "we don't sell power" stance... I almost feel like you kind of do in a way, because you have the Influence Point boosts. Have you ever thought about cutting out that middleman and straight-up selling runes for real money?

Tom Cadwell: We thought about it. As gamers, a lot of us felt like we probably wouldn't be super-thrilled with it, so we decided to go more indirect there. And the advantage you get from buying Influence Point boosts is not that large in the grand scheme of things. I have a pretty good rune book, and I haven't used the boosts, other than the free one I got from being a high-rated player in the beta. There's nothing in the game that you can't earn in a reasonable space of time -- it's not like some of the free-to-play games where you have to grind for 20,000 hours to get something. We wanted LoL to be an honest commitment to gamers, so we didn't do a pay-to-win thing.

Ryan Scott: To get into some nitty-gritty design topics, it definitely seems that you've iterated on your matchmaking system quite a bit, in ways that players don't really see. As many players certainly know, it's derived from chess' ELO rating system. Has that system proven very difficult to implement? Obviously, it was originally designed for a one-on-one game, and you've applied it to a five-on-five game with enormous amounts of variables...

Tom Cadwell: Regardless of what system you use, it's hard for it to figure out "Well, who caused the win and who caused the loss?" in a team game. In a one-on-one game, you can make a pretty good guess -- either somebody played really well, or somebody played really badly, so you just assign the blame and it works out. It's much harder in a team game, because to be accurate, you have to figure out who's causing the win and who's causing the loss. That said, we're pretty happy with how our system (which has a number of improvements on top of ELO to make it work for a team game) is working out. Over the next couple of months, we're going to be adding some additional analysis tools that can more rapidly figure out who is actually causing the win and who is causing the loss, in a really smart way. We contracted a guy who has a kind of a computational biology background to do some data-mining and analysis on that. We're going to go through each champion and look at things like what a good Chronokeeper looks like, and what a good Soraka looks like. We'll use that to help clue us in on new players and people who are less competitive, so we can more quickly get people up to that skill level. The bottom line is, it's a hard problem.

Ryan Scott: The hardcore guys on the forums have pointed out plenty of perceived unfairness in the matchmaking system (grouping high-level players with much lower-level ones and such). Do you ever feel like they have a point -- that these perceptions do the matchmaking system a disservice, even if the math behind it is sound?

Tom Cadwell: We know [the system] is effective because we've looked at the results, and the predictions are pretty accurate in general. There are always cases where a bad match happens. I agree with you, though -- I think your point about perception is important, and that's why we're going to be rolling out some changes pretty soon where the game tries to match you with people who are both around your skill and around your summoner level. Right now, it just looks for people of the same skill level, and we see that, say, level 13 versus level 30 actually ends up being pretty fair, on average, when it's looking at just your skill. But it's perceived, like you say, as being unfair. So we're going to be adding these tweaks to reduce people's hesitation, and get them to believe that the matchmaker is [playing] fair.

Shot from the live-action Future Soldier trailer released today.

"We don't look at it just as a videogame brand," Adrian Lacey, a producer on the film, told Variety. "For us, it's very much an entertainment brand. Videogames talk to a lot more people than they did a while back. It's a much bigger audience so we're trying to bring more people to it."

According to Variety, the Future Soldier short film will be released in multiple formats in the fall.

In the upper right corner of the screen, a circular, clock-like gauge appears to be filling up, most likely counting down to whatever it is the site is teasing as players earn platinum trophies in God of War III. As our friends at IGN pointed out, PSP game God of War: Chains of Olympus had a similar teaser site, so a new Kratos adventure on Sony's handheld could be in store. Our money, however, is on DLC. The question has been bandied about for some time, and we believe the teaser site will eventually tell us DLC is coming for God of War III.

Batman also won for best Gameplay and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 took home the public vote for best game. EA Sports FIFA 10 won two BAFTAs for innovation and evolution of the franchise, and Valve's Left 4 Dead 2 was named best Multiplayer.

Nintendo mastermind and Mario and Link creator Shigeru Miyamoto took home BAFTA's highest accolade, the Fellowship. In accepting the award, Miyamoto said, "Our imaginations and creativity should be the only limits and that is what makes our industry a joy and a dream to work in."

Visit the BAFTA web site for the full list of winners and nominees.

I've spent the last week playing through Final Fantasy II for the first time through the Wii's Virtual Console, and it's been a lot of fun to experience it, totally fresh, in an emulation of its original American release. I can easily see how this installment in Square's long-running series became such a fan favorite, as it transitioned the wildly popular role-playing franchise from Nintendo's 8-bit hardware to a machine with a lot more power to take advantage of. Even just the opening scene -- employing Mode 7 scaling techniques to present a pseudo-3D view of the world while airships soar through the sky -- I can still appreciate for its artistry and technical achievement here, nearly 20 years later. It still looks great.

But I wasn't really ready for this game to have so many little quirks.

Yes, the numbering in the game's name is weird again. This one is more commonly called Final Fantasy IV today.

Take the translation, for starters. It's been pretty well documented that this first stab at bringing the game's script into English was pretty rough, but I always thought that just meant a few chuckle-worthy lines like the famous "You spoony bard!" got through into the final product. I didn't realize that the whole game was filled with grammatical errors and weird dialogue exchanges. It's a bit of a turn-off.

Then there's a ton of character turn-over. I'm used to some switching around in the ranks of your core adventuring party from those other SNES RPGs I listed up above, but Final Fantasy II feels like the most inconsistent of them all -- characters come and go with ridiculous speed, sometimes only joining you for the length of a single dungeon crawl before the plot carries them away from playability. It feels almost worthless to spend time investing in leveling anyone up, because it's like you're always only five minutes away from them leaving you anyway.

And then there's the total lack of challenge. Again, I knew enough about this edition going in to remember it was an "Easy Type," a toned-down, less-difficult edition of the Japanese original created as a concession to RPG-inexperienced American players in the early '90s. Every town in the game even has a "training room" to tutorialize the uninitiated. But I didn't realize just how easy this Easy Type would be -- it's almost comically simple at times. There was one major boss in the middle of the adventure that I killed in one hit. No joke.

Along with the DLC announcement, Quantic Dream today released the second patch for Heavy Rain. According to the company, this patch addresses the freezing and crashing problems some players have experienced and will improve the overall stability of the game.

GameSpy: What was the goal that Quantic Dream had when they set out to make Heavy Rain?

David Cage: It was to create an experience based on emotion, for an adult audience. And breaking with most of the conventions, most of the traditional videogame rules. So it was about trying to reinvent a way to interact, not using patterns and loops but really trying to use contextual actions and discovering what it takes to create an experience where your actions, where you tell a story through your actions and not through cut-scenes. So that was what we tried to discover.

GameSpy: Heavy Rain is obviously a game about the decisions that you make. Were there ever times that you considered not giving players the ability to reload at all? Because it seems like you were really trying to emphasize that each choice you make matters.

David Cage: You know, when you create a game and people buy it, it's [bad] to frustrate them, even when it's for their own good. So the decision I made in the last month of the project was not to frustrate them, but rather to evangelize, and to explain that the best way to experience Heavy Rain was to play it in one walkthrough, bearing with the consequences of your actions. I'm really glad, because most of the people I talk to, or what I read on the forums, is really... even if people lost some characters, they still go until the end and want to see everything that happened in this configuration. And then they go back and replay, and I think that's the best way to experience Heavy Rain.

GameSpy: That was actually what I was going to ask you. In my review, I said that it was very important that the first time you play, no matter what happens, it happens, because it's your characters and it's your story. Fahrenheit -- the last game you did before Heavy Rain -- was a story-heavy game, too. Was the goal with Heavy Rain to make it even more of an interactive movie than Fahrenheit was?

David Cage: I never wanted to create, really, an "interactive movie," or a "cinema" experience. I really wanted to create an emotional experience, that was my only goal. So it's true that I used storytelling, characterization, visual narrative to achieve this goal, but all I wanted was to trigger different types of emotions than the ones that you usually find in games. In games, you often find adrenaline, stress, frustration, competition, anger, fear, but I wanted to explore how it was possible to trigger, you know, empathy, sadness, making you feel uncomfortable, feel depressed -- the kinds of things that you never find, never feel in games.

GameSpy: A lot of people are skeptical when they hear that the game's mostly played through quick-time events. Has that been something that your studio has worked to refine time and again in order to give it more of a tactile feel? How have you learned about using these sort of inputs from your past games like Farenheit?

David Cage: Well, you know, all this quick-time-event stuff was really big before people could actually play the game. But now that people can play the game, and we read all the reviews and checked on the forums and talked to gamers, and no one complained about it. On the contrary, they thought it was a really immersive way to feel [like you're] at the heart of the action. So yeah, we learned a lot from Fahrenheit. It didn't work in Fahrenheit, as action sequences, because they were really out in front of you and you couldn't see exactly what was going on. The actions were actually disconnected, whereas here, it works exactly the opposite way. Heavy Rain started from a blank page; we decided that each action on screen should be triggered by you, and that we should use all of the controller. We should use the sticks, the buttons, the triggers, the Sixaxis, and make you really feel like you're doing the actions, that these actions are different and that each action scene is choreographed. Everything is really like in a movie, except that you're in control of the timing of what's going on. And we made sure there's a consequence to every single action you take. So, for example, if I'm supposed to throw a punch, if I succeed, I would immediately see the result... but if I fail, I see the result immediately as well. That was the most important thing for me.

GameSpy: The faces are something that a lot of people have talked very positively about in Heavy Rain. What was the hardest part about actually getting those emotions to come across on faces? What sorts of problems does that present?

David Cage: We had a lot of technical issues, but also some issues with the acting and the directing, because it's a lot of technical constraints to do real facial animations. Many games out there just do a key frame animation for the face, which is fine when you do 20 minutes of cut-scenes -- but when you do four or five hours of dialogue like we have to do, in 16 different languages, you need to find another solution. So everything was motion-captured, which implied many different things regarding directing and how you work with the actor on-stage. So in many ways, it was quite similar to the work done on Avatar, with performance capture for the movie. We faced probably very similar issues. But at the same time, I'm quite pleased with the result, because it seems that people feel the emotions that the characters convey, and it seems that the characters are believable, people can find empathy for them, that was the most important part.

For those of you not up to speed on the latest tricks, "My Name is Earl" star and former pro skater Jason Lee will appear as Coach Frank in the game's new Skate School. And once you learn the ropes from the Tracer, you can hit the streets of the newly designed city of Port Caverton, a place Black Box calls "a true skater's paradise."

If Port Caverton isn't quite your style, an in-game editor allows players to drop objects anywhere in the city or start from scratch and create their own plazas and ramp parks. User creations can then be uploaded and shared with friends via Xbox Live or PSN.

After its North American release on May 11, Skate 3 is slated to ship worldwide on May 14.

Over on EA's official Battlefield blog, the company posted a Q&A that detailed the work it has done to address the most prominent issues gamers have been having on all platforms. Most notably, the company stated: "EA Online has been adding more capacity to handle the high number of player connections to EA servers. This is an ongoing process but we currently have enough capacity to handle all BFBC2 connections."

Lady Gaga was the other news surrounding Harmonix today. The reigning pop queen's Track Pack, including "Bad Romance," "Just Dance," "Monster," and "Poker Face" will be available for download on March 16 for the Xbox 360 and Wii, March 18 for the PS3. In addition, South Park's take on Lady Gaga's "Poker Face," featuring Eric Cartman on vocals, will also be available for download.

The official release underlines the 13 letters and a single number to create "drattmannh0nee." The mysterious announcement immediately lit up Portal forums and blogs across the Internet as posters tried to work out the potential meaning.

As it turns out the 14 characters are another username/password for the Valve BBS which was discovered earlier this week. This, of course, leads to more cryptic tomfoolery -- check out this forum thread over at Facepunch.com for the incredibly detailed blow-by-blow.

The Valve announcement coincided with a cover story on Portal 2 from Game Informer. The magazine does not reveal many details other than to say it is "a standalone, full-price retail release" with "new gameplay mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists." We'll keep you posted.

"This latest Rock Band title aims to encapsulate the spirit and energy of a band that has sold more than 50 million records worldwide and been hailed as one of the best live acts touring today," MTV Games said in a statement.

Give me back my son!

Considering Dragon Age: Origins was in development for nearly seven years, a full-blown sequel just one year after the original was released seems premature, particularly considering the game's most talked-about flaw, dated graphics, is linked directly to its engine. However, according to a January post on Joystiq, that's exactly what BioWare is working on for its Dragon Age sequel:

Dragon Age: Origins presents strong evidence that great games can overcome gawd-awful graphics, but BioWare isn't about to test that theory -- and the limits of our forgiveness -- again in the sequel. "I think one of the key things we're working on in Dragon Age 2 is the technology," BioWare VP Greg Zeschuk recently told Joystiq. "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."

We'll let you know when we hear more from EA and BioWare about Dragon Age 2.

"The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition really resonated with gamers young and old thanks to its classic storyline and updated gameplay features," LucasArts' President Darrell Rodriguez said in a statement. "We're adding even more great new features in this sequel and can't wait for classic Monkey Island fans and newcomers alike to experience perhaps the most beloved installment in the franchise ever."

For PS3 gamers who missed out last summer, LucasArts also announced that the first Monkey Island special edition will soon be available for download on PSN.

- Image courtesy of CNET

Rhode led a series of live demonstrations that illustrated Move's capabilities. In the Sports Champions game pack, Sony demonstrated how two motion controllers can be used simultaneously to create sword and shield battles in Gladiator Duel. Playing Table Tennis, the company successfully showed how the system is sensitive enough to replicate hard and soft shots as well as topspin and slice. And in Motion Fighters, Sony demonstrated how flicks of the wrist won't do when a real punch is required.

Social games like Move Party were shown, illustrating how the Eye camera and Move controller can be used to create augmented reality family games, such as Paint Brush and Wacky Barber Shop, and then Sony pulled out two of its big guns. In LittleBigPlanet, developers played cooperatively with one person using Move to flip blocks and move platforms, while a partner controlled SackGirl moving through the environments with a standard Sixaxis. And in SOCOM 4, developers demonstrated how Move could be used to aim and fire weapons while a second controller could be used to control direction.

All the games demonstrated are still in pre-alpha, Dille noted, and will only improve when Move launches in the fall. On packaging and pricing, Dille said the details were still being hammered out, but Sony does plan to release a Move Starter Kit, including Eye camera, Move controller, and game for less than $100.

"We're paving a path from the Wii household to the PS3 household," Dille said. "We're planning to design games that target all genres and audiences, including core gamers, and we're treating this like a virtual platform launch. This will be our biggest effort of the year."

Well, probably.

Taking the old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" rule at face value, Sony Santa Monica has done very little to alter how things work, though there's been a bit of welcome polish on nearly every facet of gameplay. That is, if you were expecting a revolution in terms of design, you'll be sorely disappointed. But, if you simply wanted more of what has made the series so great up to this point, you're going to be quite happy indeed.

Click the image to watch our in-depth video review.

What has worked in the past largely still holds true here in great fashion. God of War III practically redefines what the word "scale" means with regards to videogames, as it throws you into scenes with Titans that are larger than entire levels in some other games. The scope of some of these sequences is nothing short of astounding, with playable sequences that take place on creatures the size of a skyscraper. Sony Santa Monica has been promising this all along, but even when you know what sort of experience you're in for, you'll still be blown away by the immensity of some scenes.

While size is a hugely impressive aspect of the game, more than anything else, God of War III is a tour-de-force in terms of its visuals, and it's even more brutal than any of its predecessors. Yes, this is a very M-rated game, one filled with blood, gore and detached limbs, but what's important is that it all makes sense. Greek mythology was filled with violence, and Kratos' latest doesn't hold back in all the right ways.

The combat is just as responsive as ever with big, massive combos that you'll always feel completely in control of. You can cancel out of almost anything and go into a block or roll, making defensive maneuvers a strong (and very necessary) part of your arsenal. One subtle tweak this time around is that the old Square-Square-Triangle combo that ends with Kratos whipping down the Blades in a big overhand motion isn't as easily abused as it once was. This is partly due to the fact that you'll find yourself surrounded by more enemies than ever before, requiring that you utilize your area attacks more often, but it's also because enemies can be more aggressive. If you're in their sights, they're probably attacking, which makes the combat a little more balanced between blocking, rolling and attacking; that's great. It's not a huge change, but it's certainly very welcome.

Kratos looks incredible (and deadly).

One problem with past God of War titles was that despite the fact that you'd pick up a handful of other weapons along the way, in large part they weren't very useful as your blades seemed to almost always be more