The game will be released next year and will be coming to PC and all the consoles you can think of, XBone, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3.

During the day, players will traverse an expansive urban environment overrun by a vicious outbreak, scavenging the world for supplies and crafting weapons to defend against the growing infected population. At night, the hunter becomes the hunted, as the infected become aggressive and more dangerous. Most frightening are the predators which only appear after sundown. Players must use everything in their power to survive until the morning’s first light.

“The next-gen technology allows us to create a truly dynamic open world that features a game-changing day-night cycle,” said Paweł Marchewka, CEO of Techland. “Inventive free running mechanics also allow for nearly unrestricted exploration and weapon-crafting to further enhance the action survival experience.”

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Andy
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If you pre-order the game then you’ll get access to an in-game blimp, exciting stuff! If you buy the special or collectors editions then you’re in for a lot more content, as listed below:

The Grand Theft Auto V Special Edition includes:

Additional Weapons
When visiting Ammunation stores in single player, merchants will have special weapons in their inventory available for free: the Pistol .50, Bullpup Shotgun and melee Hammer.

The Grand Theft Auto V Collector’s Edition includes all the contents of Grand Theft Auto V Special Edition as described above plus:

Unique Vehicles and Garage Property
Players will instantly receive a garage to store custom vehicles. In single player, the garage will be stocked with the 1930’s style Hotknife hotrod and the CarbonRS sports bike. In Grand Theft Auto Online, players will get the high-end Khamelion electric car.

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Andy
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Battlefield 4 will launch on October 29th 2013 for the US and 1st of November 2013 in the UK. That’ll be on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC – No Wii U version is being made – with the Playstation 4 and Xbox One’s versions coming at some point.

It’s also been announced that if you pre-order Battlefield 4 then you’ll get the China Rising DLC for no extra cost, the pack contains new maps, guns and equipment. Pre-order the game on Origin and you’ll get the DLC, some extra in-game items and access to the Battlefield 4 Beta.

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Andy
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- It will be released ‘later this year’
- There only seems to be one SKU
- It will ship with a 500GB internal hard drive
- It has a Blu-Ray drive
- No specifics were mentioned about the specifications, only that it has 8GB of RAM
- New controller with a redesigned d-pad and apparent programmable triggers to suit your use
- New Kinect, which will ship with every console
- The new Kinect can detect more range of movement and can apparently read heart rates, still don’t know if it can detect finger movement
- The new Kinect doesn’t have a motor so won’t move up and down like the current model
- The camera in the new Kinect is 1080p and 30FPS
- The console has a HDMI input
- This input will allow gamers to view TV content through the console
- You’ll be able to view your TV guide through the console
- The console offers seamless switching between games, movies and TV
- The console also offers multitasking – browse the web whilst watching a film etc.
- The console seems to be slightly larger than the original Xbox 360 however exact dimensions are not confirmed
- No backwards compatibility
- If you buy a second hand game then you may have to pay to use it
- The new Xbox Live will run off 300,000 servers
- Your current Gamertag, Gamercard and Gamerscore will transfer to the new console
- The new Xbox Live will have improved matchmaking features, reducing wait times
- Achievements have been expanded to reward you in new ways, no more details have been given so far
- The console has a built in DVR which can capture gameplay and save it to the cloud
- Smartglass compatibility is built in, allowing for improved interactivity
- The controller seems to do away with swappable battery packs, instead going for an internal, rechargeable battery.

That’s about all of the facts announced that the reveal event and the hour or so afterwards. The conference mainly focussed on the TV functions with the majority of the gaming content being shown off at E3 in a couple of weeks.

Have some screenshots:

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Andy
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The highest-rated racing franchise of the past 10 years will define the new generation of gaming. As revealed during today’s Xbox: A New Generation Revealed event, Xbox One is coming and Forza Motorsport 5 is leading the way. Built from the ground up to take advantage of Xbox One and the infinite power of the cloud, no game better delivers the sensation of being behind the wheel. “Forza Motorsport 5″ sets a new bar for racing games and will be available exclusively for Xbox One at launch.

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Andy
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The trailer is apparently running in engine on the Xbox One hardware, so check it out below. Below that is a behind the scenes feature with wire models and the like.

Infinity Ward Executive Producer Mark Rubin and the Call of Duty: Ghosts development team discuss the all-new world, story and characters, and take you inside the new, next-gen engine.

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Andy
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Click here for our full written review of Terraria, in it Paddy says:

Digging and exploring is a joy, and you’ll be dipping into every cave you see. Before you know it, a week has passed, the world outside has changed, and you’ll wonder where the time went. Just remember, come up for air every now and then, in the real world too!

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Andy
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Terraria follows a similar setup to Minecraft, and pushes some of the same buttons. You are dropped into a unique, procedurally generated world entirely your own, and left to your own devices to explore it, fight the inhabitants, and build a little place to call your own. As each world is unique, no two games are ever the same, and the randomness keeps the gameplay fresh.

The core gameplay of Terraria comes down to four key elements, which feed into each other, exploration, gathering, crafting and fighting. The start of every adventure begins with exploration, checking out the area around you. As you explore, you’ll gather materials from the world, be it cutting down trees or digging mines for minerals. As you collect, you can use your materials to build a house, or craft your supplies into new tools and armor. Better gear increases your combat and gathering efficiency, and allows you to explore further. Its a satisfying gameplay loop, and rewards you for widening your frontiers.

Terraria can be quite a complex game at times, but thankfully a tutorial is included in the package. It guides you through the basics of movement, digging and crafting, and drops a couple of handy hints to get a novice started. It is highly recommended that you do this first, as the built-in NPC guide is next to useless for beginners. Sure, he’ll tell you some tips, but finding specific information is impossible, and he won’t repeat most hints. There’s nothing fun about running about in the dark, because you can’t work out how to make a house the game considers safe, so pay attention in school!

Once you’ve absorbed the tutorial, starting the game proper is a snap. Character creation is easy and quick, and lets you put your own stamp on your explorer. Male and female options are available, and there’s enough hairstyles and colours to make a unique fashion statement. You also choose your own difficulty here, which affects what drops on death. Normal drops your hard earned cash, Hard adds your items, and Hardcore results in your character being deleted. Approach this mode with caution.

Getting about is easy peasy, and the 2D plane keeps it easy to work out where you are, and where you’re going. As you progress through the world, you’ll find and craft items which will improve your speed, grant you a double jump or even swing from a grappling hook. These modifications augment the movement without replacing it, and the core platforming is as solid as it comes.

Exploring the world is enjoyable, and you get a great feeling of breaking new ground as you progress. As each world is unique, you know that the awesome finds are entirely your own, and heading into the darkness always has rewards. The world will consist of a few biomes randomly arranged, such as grasslands, deserts, jungles and even dungeons. When you create the world, you can choose the size, small, medium or huge. Even the small map is pretty big, and it’ll take you a long time to uncover every secret.

The digging mechanics have been modified to work on the console. The default digging type is Auto, which digs a three block wide chunk in whatever direction you’re facing. For extended mining missions, this is a godsend, as you can hold R1 to dig a walkable tunnel in front of you without fiddling about. Changing direction mid-tunnel can be a bit awkward, and the Auto cursor can be a bit twitchy at times. For finer digging, Manual mode can be activated by clicking R3. This grants you a crosshair cursor, which can be freely positioned with the right stick. Mining individual blocks can be handy when trying to avoid an underground flood, and switching between modes becomes second nature quickly.

The biggest problem with exploring the deep dungeons in the PC version is that you can get very lost, very quickly. The new world map fixes this elegantly, and lets you see a blocky zoomed out version of your world. It might look like a colourful mess initially, but you’ll soon be reading the map like a pro. Nearby materials are marked clearly, which means you’ll never miss an underground cache again.

The crafting is unchanged from the PC edition, and is easy to get to grips with. You can create new items by simply collecting the ingredients, and selecting the recipe in your crafting menu. Tools, weapons, armor, health potions can all be constructed this way. Building materials can also be crafted, such as doors, tables and back walls for your house. More advanced crafting stations can be created, allowing you access to the more advanced items, such as iron bars, or cloth banners for your home.

Building your house is easiest in the manual cursor mode, and once you’ve got the hang of it you will be able to craft giant fortresses to live and work in. As you acquire certain materials, new NPCs will move to town, and if you craft suitable lodgings, you can move them in, keeping them safe at night. These NPCs can buy and sell items, and there are many to find and recruit.

The toughest part of crafting is working out what you need for the various recipies. You can ask the NPC guide to show you what you can build with certain materials, but won’t give you any hints as where to find any materials you don’t recognise. Having a wiki nearby is advised, as the game gives you no hints about things like requirements for NPCs to join you, or what materials you need to craft the stronger tools.

Of course, it’s not all happy digging and building, enemies will harass your adventures as well. Slimes will hop about in the daylight, providing valuable gel to use to make torches. At night, the real fight begins, with zombies and floating eyes assaulting you. Beware of the deadly Blood Moon, which allows the zombies to bash in your doors, bringing the fight into your home. As you explore, you’ll also meet burrowing worms, vultures and skeletons, getting tougher the further you explore.

Not only do you meet normal enemies, but bosses can also be fought. Terraria is unique here, as most of the bosses have to be summoned, so you can fight them when you feel ready. This allows you to plan for them, and fight them on your own terms. Of course, they’re no pushover, and will destroy you if you’re not ready for them, but the rewards they drop are well worth the effort, and are the key to progressing past certain gear levels.

While digging by yourself is fun, you can also join others for some multiplayer fun. The console version offers the same online mode that the PC has, allowing you to invite friends or random strangers into your world to build with you. PVP can also be activated, and teams can be assigned, making for a fun afternoon of competitive griefing.

New to the console release though is split-screen co-op. You can work together with two, three or four other friends, and the screen splits nicely. Exploring together is cracking fun, and each player can run wherever they fancy. Joining locally is simple, and requires a separate account to log in. The new player selects their character (or makes a new one) and jumps in to your land with you. The one problem with the split screen is that the menus become a bit small, so beware if you have a small TV.

Terraria stands as an example of a great console port. Nothing has been lost in translation, and the game is actually more accessible thanks to its handy tutorial. There is tons of depth to the crafting, even if it is impossible to figure out without outside assistance. The gamepad controls feel great, if a tad clumsy sometimes, and the auto cursor takes the fiddling out of mining.

Digging and exploring is a joy, and you’ll be dipping into every cave you see. Before you know it, a week has passed, the world outside has changed, and you’ll wonder where the time went. Just remember, come up for air every now and then, in the real world too!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Patrick
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“Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist offers two player CO OP mode with 4 mission types, 14 maps with 2 player split-screen.

Play as Sam Fisher or Isaac Briggs (a CIA operative) and work as a duo : help your teammate access parts of the maps you couldn’t access on your own, create your own tactics depending on your Play Style and watch each other’s back as you complete missions.”

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Andy
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The game follows the story of bounty-hunter Silas Greaves, he’ll recount his story to a group of patrons in a bar and you’ll be playing whilst he’s telling his story. Greaves will dispel myths about what happened in his travels, in some sections you’ll play through the ‘fairytale’ version of the story, then play through it again, this time the authentic version, told by Greaves himself. It’s a decent story and quite entertaining listening to the exaggerations by Greaves and the back and forth with other characters.

The download weighs in at just under 2GB and for that you get three single player modes, Story, Arcade and Duel. Story is how you imagine it, Arcade is a score attack mode and Duel will see you playing through a series of one-on-one gunfights but more on those later. As with the previous titles, Gunslinger is an out and out first person shooter, you’ll be moving from area to area dispatching a variety of foes with your trusty six-shooter.

There’s four main weapons types, pistols, rifles, shotguns and throwable dynamite. As you play through the story, killing chumps, you’ll gain XP – if you kill people quickly you’ll get multipliers, the more you kill the higher it gets, if you go without killing anyone for three seconds you’ll lose your bonus. You’ll also get more points for headshots, longshots, killing running enemies and so on.

This XP can then be traded in for weapon bonuses, these are things such as more ammo, faster reload, dual-wield pistols and so on. Killing cowboys doesn’t only get you XP, it’ll also fill up your Concentration and Sense of Death bars. Activating Concentration will slow down time and highlight all of the enemies on screen, allowing you to dispatch of them a lot easier. The Sense of Death only kicks in when you’re about to die, if your one bullet away from death then that final bullet will move in slow motion and you’ll be able to dodge it by moving left or right.

Occasionally throughout the story you’ll be challenged to a duel, this is simply a case of fastest draw wins. Here you need to keep your floaty reticle over your duelling partner, as you do so it’ll get smaller as your focus increases. You can also move your hand closer to your holster to try and increase your draw speed – once your focus is high enough you’ll hear your foe’s heartbeat, you can now draw your weapon and attempt to shoot him. However, to get the best score you have to dispatch of the yellow-belly honourably – this means you have to wait for them to draw, then draw your own weapon and get a shot away before being shot. I personally found this very tricky to achieve, it’ll definitely take some practice if you want to dispatch of everyone honourably.

The story mode itself is fairly linear, there’s areas you have to get to to progress the story but the levels themselves are quite large, with room for alternate routes and exploring. However, there’s not much to find by exploring, you might find an ammo stash or maybe a collectible but that’s about it. If you manage to turn yourself around and get lost then you can always bring up the objective marker which will show you the way.

As I mentioned before, there’s a couple of other options outside the Story mode, Arcade and Duel. Arcade unleashes you into levels with the aim of achieving the biggest score possible, you have to build up combos and multipliers to get the best scores. Duel is where you can battle through a series of Duels, you have five lives to get through all of them and you’re supposed to kill them all honourably, which is no easy feat. Apart from that you can view leaderboards, achievements and read about the secret items you’ve collected throughout the story.

Gunslinger looks great, Techland have opted for cell-shading and it works well, especially when you consider it’s a downloadable title. All in all, Gunslinger is an enjoyable romp through the wild west, there’s not much to it in the long run, move to an area, shoot some guys, move again, shoot some more. However, the Duel and Arcade modes help mix it up a bit and will keep you coming back once you’ve beaten the story.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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Andy
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