Kotobukiya has announced they will release an ARTFX statue of Deathstroke this November.

The 12-inch tall, 1/6 scale statue is based on the way the DC Comics character looks since the New 52 makeover, and comes with a display base.

But the coolest thing about it is that his mask is attached with magnets, so you can chose to display him with his face showing or covered.

The statue will retail for $119.99.

Gentle Giant has announced they’ll release a new Walking Dead mini bust and the newest addition to their line of Star Wars Kenner Jumbo Figures early next year.

The Walking Dead mini bust is of the zombie who had been chasing after Sophia. Each 1/6 scale bust is hand painted, individually numbered, and comes with a certificate of authenticity. It will retail for $75.00.

The Star Wars Kenner Jumbo Figure is of the bounty hunter Zuckuss from The Empire Strikes Back. Scanned from the original 3.75-inch tall action figure, this 12-inch tall version is full y articulated and comes with his trusty blaster. It also comes with a replica of the original packaging, albeit one that opens up so you can take Zuckuss out and play with him. It will retail for $80.00.

Both collectibles can be pre-ordered from Gentle Giant here.

Shout! Factory has announced they’ll release an 11-disc DVD & Blu-ray boxed called The Bruce Lee Legacy Collection on August 6th.

The collection will include The Big Boss, First of Fury, Way of the Dragon, and Game of Death on DVD and, for the first time, on Blu-ray.

It will also feature the documentaries I Am Bruce Lee, The Grandmaster and the Dragon: William Cheun and Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee: The Man, The Legend, as well as the updated version of that documentary, Bruce Lee: The Legend.

In addition, it also features numerous extras, including the original trailers and TV spots, new interviews, the previously unreleased original Mandarin audio and English dub audio tracks for Boss, a montage of Game outtakes, extensive still galleries, commentaries on the movies by Hong Kong film expert Mike Leeder, new interviews with famous fans and disciples, new English subtitles on Boss, Fist, and Way, and other extras yet to be announced.

There will even be extras for the documentary I Am Bruce Lee, including the original trailer and Lee’s Hollywood audition tape. The documentary comes housed in a deluxe book-style package that has 68 pages of previously unseen photos, archival materials, a new essay on Lee’s legacy, and, of course, much more.

The box will retail for $119.99, and is available for pre-order from both shoutfactory.com or some website called Amazon or something.

The core tenet of any great survival game is tension. Not cheap scares or unfair disadvantages, but rather a persistent sense of dread that keeps you on the edge of your seat, constantly looking over your shoulder, eyes darting from corner to corner. Creating that tension—and stretching it until it’s nerve-rackingly taut—is something Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us seems to do quite well.

With a month left before The Last of Us launches on PS3 worldwide, Naughty Dog and Sony gave the gaming press an opportunity to spend some hands-on time with their latest exclusive before its release. The demo they provided was short, consisting of only two excerpts from the game, but it offers a taste of what’s in store for protagonists Joel and Ellie.

The first part of the demo is set in Lincoln, Pennsylvania. About 20 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, it’s a town so small it doesn’t even have its own post office. If not for the haunting absence of townsfolk and its state of ruin, Lincoln would be an idyllic slice of rural life. As the demo opens, Joel and Ellie—and players—see some of the beauty that’s survived. Hopping a highway guardrail, they take a shortcut through a lush deciduous forest still vibrantly alive with flora and fauna. The Last of Us is set in a world in ruin, yes, but not in devastation.

That unassuming sense of serenity, of safety, is betrayed by the town itself, which has been barricaded with barbed wire and laced with traps. Because Lincoln is locked up tight, getting in requires a bit of creative thinking by way of environmental traversal through simple puzzle-solving.

Getting Joel and Ellie into Lincoln—where they hope to find Bill, an old acquaintance of Joel’s he believes can supply the two with a working vehicle—involves leveraging a plank of wood as a resource. It’s not a terribly complex puzzle (using the plank as a bridge linking the roofs of two buildings), but the solution isn’t immediately apparent. It took me a moment or two to figure out how to get the plank up where I needed it, and the solution—while obvious in hindsight—still felt rewarding.

Once inside Lincoln, it wasn’t long before I encountered my first Infected—hearing the creature well before spotting it in a nearby toolshed. The sounds made by the Infected are perhaps the biggest contributor to tension in The Last of Us. See, these once-humans are blind and emit a series of unsettling clicking sounds to navigate by sonar. Naturally, they’re aurally sensitive and easily alerted to Joel and Ellie’s presence by even the slightest scrape of their boots. It took me three attempts to successfully sneak past this particular Infected.

One-hit kills from Stage 3 Infected—Clickers, as they’re colloquially referred to—also ratchet up the tension. At the advice of the demo’s tutorial, I attempted to distract the Clicker by throwing a brick. It worked, but as soon as I made a run for it, the creature picked up on my footfalls and was quickly on top of me. Dead—try again. The next time, I took a makeshift melee weapon—a pipe with scissor blades duct-taped to one end—and bashed in the creature’s skull. That approach was more successful, but the ruckus drew the attention of another Clicker, who summarily dispatched me.

The third time was—as always—the charm. By tossing the brick again, I drew the Clicker away from the toolshed, hunkered down, and crept safely past it into an abandoned building. And while I managed to survive, a sense of threat lingered as the sounds of the Clicker carried in from the shattered windows and broken walls of the building. I was convinced it might find its way through the same door I got in through, and I’m inclined to think that had I rummaged through the remains of that building more noisily, I might have turned around at some point and suddenly found the creature feasting on my neck.

Deeper into Lincoln, another Infected encounter—this time Stage 1, the Runners. They’re less fungal than their Clicker cousins, but still rabid. Drawn to pounding coming from a door to an apartment, Joel—against Ellie’s protest—decides to poke around. Inside, I found the hastily abandoned remnants of the apartment’s former occupants—pictures of a family, the personal touches of home décor, ghostly fragments of pre-infection normalcy.

Entering the kitchen, I was blindsided by a Runner—presumably the husband of the household. And while Runners don’t instantly kill Joel, the whole experience was thoroughly unsettling—as was the way Joel callously shrugged off the attack and continued to ransack the house. Not so much in the fashion videogame characters typically tend to dismiss things like emotionally detached monsters, but because this is everyday life in Joel and Ellie’s broken world. It was a jarring, if not sobering, realization.

After weaving through more of Lincoln’s abandoned streets and alleyways, Joel finds himself on the receiving end of one of Bill’s traps, ensnared and dangling from his feet. And since his capture causes quite a stir, players must protect Ellie—immobile and strung upside down—while she tries to sever the counterbalance and free Joel. Armed only with Joel’s handgun, the controls during this sequence felt awkward. Perhaps this is intentional—an attempt to convey Joel’s compromised state. But it didn’t feel altogether tense—just frustrating, like fighting for decent control over the game. Had Ellie died, I wouldn’t have felt like it was on me. I would’ve faulted the game.

The Lincoln section of the demo wraps up with Ellie eventually freeing Joel and the two of them being rescued by Bill, who leads the way during a hair-raising flight from the remaining Infected. While the gunplay didn’t feel like a great fit, this moment certainly did, and it was a thoroughly satisfying endnote for the first part of the demo.

The second half of the demo takes place after Joel and Ellie have procured a truck from Bill, as they enter Pittsburgh. Much shorter than the Lincoln excerpt, the Pittsburgh portion illustrates another type of enemy found in The Last of Us—Hunters, uninfected human raiders. As Joe and Ellie are ambushed by a pack of Hunters and forced out of the truck, a firefight ensues. Again, I’m not sure if the shooting in The Last of Us just doesn’t feel satisfying, or if perhaps I want the game to rarely—if ever—devolve into excessive gun battles. The point is, I was considerably less interested fending off Hunters than I was avoiding detection by Infected. It’s not that it’s bad or incongruous to the atmosphere Naughty Dog is trying to cultivate in The Last of Us—it’s just rote and typical. Ammunition is far from plentiful, and once I ran out of bullets, I was left only with my bare hands to dispatch the remaining hunters. Dealing with intelligent, strategic human enemies definitely shakes things up from Infected encounters—as it should. But it’s certainly less satisfying.

Was I impressed by what I played? Certainly. The Last of Us is, expectedly, gorgeous. It has a lot going for it, but I’m not without reservations. I’m concerned there may be a disproportionate amount of bullet-swapping exchanges reminiscent of Uncharted, when the emphasis in The Last of Us should really be on balancing exploration with less-bombastic moments drenched in tension. There’s certainly a place for the Hunters and other still-human encounters, but they should take a backseat to Joel and Ellie’s efforts to survive. If The Last of Us proves two-thirds exploration and survival, relegating shootouts to only a third of the overall experience, then Naughty Dog will have—as far as I’m concerned—nailed it.

XL Games has released a new trailer for ArcheAge‘s upcoming Chinese beta phase, and after watching it you’ll really want Trion Worlds to hurry up and get the game released for the west.

It has everything, wing gliders, boat construction, housing, combat. I seriously can’t wait for this to get released over here so I can try it out.

You can check out the trailer below.

I grew up in the gaming era where, when you mentioned the name “Donkey Kong,” most folks didn’t think of rolling barrels down girders or Mario trying to save a damsel in a cage. No, we thought of Donkey Kong rocking out with his buddy Diddy, lounging around in the jungle, protecting his precious bananas from a bunch of fruit-deprived reptiles. While some around the office still swear by the arcade original, Donkey Kong Country is how many of us more fondly think of the big ape.

After Donkey Kong Country’s initial yearly success on the SNES (yes, the first three games came out in back-to-back-to-back years), the series had difficulty adjusting to the N64. And when DK finally made the jump in 1999, it was a mistake that still haunts many of us—particularly that awful “DK Rap.” (Which is, also, oddly beloved by certain individuals in the EGM offices.) Because of this shame, Nintendo relegated DK to the shadows for over a decade.

Thankfully, Nintendo franchise-saviors Retro stepped in to save the day. After their success with Metroid Prime, they were approached by Shigeru Miyamoto himself and asked to bring back DK. Retro obliged, dropping the hip-hop and returning the super-strong simian back to his platforming roots with Donkey Kong Country Returns, which released in 2010. Even Diddy came back—with a bit of a rocket-pack upgrade—along with the rest of the core gang: Cranky Kong, Rambi the Rhino, and Squawks the Parrot. Retro had done it again.

But now the bad news: Clearly, Nintendo feels that since Donkey Country Returns was such a huge success on the Wii, they can just cash in again by slapping some 3D on Retro’s gorgeous visuals and making the game portable.

It’s at this point of the review where, as EGM’s resident curmudgeon, I’ll try to channel my inner Cranky Kong. Just call me Cranky Carsillo. Sure, the core of the original remains intact, and, yes, this could possibly reach a new audience who didn’t play the original Wii version, but there’s absolutely no need for this game. Their big selling point this go-round? An Easy mode.

Back in my day, gamers didn’t need an Easy mode in our platformers—we simply learned the levels and got better. If you didn’t, you sucked and never got your 15-second ending and credit roll and lived with it, in shame. I’m sick and tired of Nintendo not only porting games over to their portable platform in a desperate attempt to produce titles, but then catering to people because the experiences are “too hard,” coddling a generation of soft gamers.

Sure, Donkey Kong Returns 3D features a handful of new stages, but the game doesn’t offer enough new content for those who played Retro’s offering in 2010 to come back to DK’s isle a second time—especially if you found the plethora of collectibles once already.

Essentially, developer Monster Games just slapped on a coat of 3D paint in order to hide the lack of new features. Donkey Kong Country Returns was a 2.5D platformer; this 3D look does very little for the overall visual experience because of the tricks of the eye Retro already tried the first time around. And don’t forget: We were lucky to get that extra half-dimension when I was a kid, and we were grateful for it! We would’ve walked barefoot in the snow for miles, uphill, for a full 3D experience back then.

OK, time to take off my cranky pants. At the end of the day, I’ll admit the great gameplay that made the first game such a hit returns here. It’s a throwback of a platformer if you play it the way it’s meant to be played—and if, for some reason, you missed Retro’s 2010 offering, this is a nice way to catch up. But if you played the original version a couple of years ago, there’s very little here to make it worth picking up again.

Nintendo has announced the official release date of New Super Mario Bros. U‘s upcoming Super Luigi U DLC and also revealed that it will be getting a standalone retail release.

The DLC will be available as a digital download on June 20 in both North America and Europe. However, a standalone retail version will be available to purchase from July 26 in Europe and August 25 in North America. You won’t need a copy of New Super Mario Bros. U to play the standalone version.

Nintendo also revealed that Nabbit, a little creature who chased you in the first game, will be added as a playable multiplayer character with Super Luigi U.

During today’s Nintendo Direct Broadcast, worldwide president Saturo Iwata announced that the next game in the Sonic series would be coming exclusively to Nintendo Wii U and 3DS.

A new partnership with Sega means that Sonic: Lost World will be a Nintendo exclusive. The title is described as an action platformer and more details will be released before E3.

City Interactive has released a new teaser trailer for its upcoming downloadable co-op shooter Alien Rage, previously titled Alien Fear.

“Alien Rage puts the player in the role of a highly trained elite commando on a mission of sabotage. Featuring non-stop, visceral run-and-gun action in an explosive environment with meaningful co-operative gameplay,” the developer explains.

Alien Rage is scheduled to release later this year for XBLA, PSN, and PC. A list of key features can be found below:

Visceral Gun Combat

• Strong thru-the-gun experience – impressive visual effects, satisfying physical impacts and great gun animations make gun play a whole damned lot of fun;
• Fast-paced, close quarters combat – the action moves fast, enemies are always advancing, and you never, ever have to look back;
• Solve all your problems with a gun – don’t look for keycards, don’t push on buttons, just point your gun and pull the trigger, demolishing the environment as you go;
• A veritable arsenal of weapons – nine unique guns that don’t just differ in looks, but have different effects, abilities and functionality.

Co-op Experience

• Co-operative environmental puzzles –challenges that require team work to alter the physical environment in order to proceed or complete objectives;
• Impactful choices and rewards – compete cooperatively to gain a better individual score, but beware, you will lose points if you let your teammate fail;
• Co-op centric mechanics – work together to breach open doors, gain access to areas that are otherwise unreachable, and provide medical support when your teammate is down.

A new batch of screenshots for Evolution Studios PlayStation 4 exclusive racer Drive Club have been released, featuring plenty of expensive-looking cars and beautiful vistas.

Drive Club is set to be a launch title for the PlayStation 4 this holiday season and the developer promises visuals that are ”borderline insane.” For those who don’t know the game is a multiplayer-focused racer which allows players to join Clubs and compete in both real-time and asynchronously.

You can check out the debut trailer for the game released earlier this year here.

Via: AGB

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 players on all platforms can enjoy double weapon XP from today all weekend to celebrate the release of Uprising on PlayStation 3 and PC.

From 10am PDT today until Monday, May 20 at 10am PDT players can earn double weapon XP in all game modes. So clear you schedules and go earn that XP!

Black Ops 2‘s Uprising DLC released for PlayStation 3 and PC yesterday.

Hideo Kojima announced during his HideoRadio podcast that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is finally going to get a release on PC.

The game released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 earlier this year. Platinum Games creative producer Jean Pierre Kellams later confirmed the news.

I am excited to see Rising hit the PC. BTW – direct all please direct PC MGR questions to @konami.

— JP Kellams (@PG_jp) May 17, 2013

Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy VIII is set to get a PC release complete with a high-res graphical upgrade.

The game has currently only been slated for a Japanese release, with no release date set, but I’d expect a western release to be announced at a later date.

The publisher didn’t say whether it will contain any additional content, but I’d expect it to be a straight up port. Two images of this high-res upgrade have been released so far, one of Squall visiting the doctor and one and a battle.

Source: Famitsu (via Kotaku)

The PlayStation 4 version of Diablo III will use the console’s DualShock 4 touchpad for inventory management, Blizzard has revealed.

Speaking in Sony’s latest Conversations with Creators video, Blizzard Entertainment production director John Hight revealed that making use of this new feature will help streamline the game’s inventory.

“Diablo is a pretty deep game and we don’t like a lot of overload on the buttons,” he said. “We want to keep it really simple so you can get to the things you need to get to fast as you need to do it because the monsters are pouring at you no matter what. We think the touch pad’s going to give us a lot more opportunity to make that interface a lot easier.”

No additional information was given regarding how the touchpad will be used to achieve this. Diablo III was announced for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 at Sony’s PlayStation 4 reveal event back in February.

Dontnod Entertainment has released a new story trailer for Remember Me, which shows Nilin fighting the Memorize corporation, and also some snazzy new concept art.

Remember Me is set to release June 4 in North America and June 7 in Europe for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Zenimax Online has released a new gameplay trailer for The Elder Scrolls Online which focuses on the game’s crafting skills and resource gathering.

Just like in every Elder Scrolls game before it anything in the The Elder Scrolls Online‘s game world can be picked up and stored in your inventory for later use, such as bread, grain, and bottles. These items can then be used in crafting recipes.

Players will also have the ability to fish and take up lockpicking to access locked chests that are discovered while adventuring, which contain rare gear and items.

You can sign up for The Elder Scrolls Online‘s beta here.

GameStop has removed Rainbow Six: Patriots from its database and it is no longer available to pre-order sparking rumors of the title being cancelled.

A source with intimate knowledge of the retailer told IGN that GameStop ”actively flipped a switch” to remove Rainbow Six: Patriots from its system. “GameStop tends not to remove big-name games from major publishers without an official confirmation that a title is dead,” the source said

Other retailers such as Amazon and GAME are still carrying pre-order listings for the game casting a cancellation into doubt. It could just be that the game has suffered a significant delay due to a overhaul, or it could mean nothing at all. If I had to have a guess, I’d go with a next generation overhaul of the game which will be announced at Ubisoft’s E3 press conference.

Rainbow Six: Patriots was announced back in 2011, but very little has been heard about the game since. When asked about the listing removal Ubisoft told IGN, ”We have nothing further to share about Rainbow 6: Patriots at this time.”

Cryptozoic’s Kickstarter for its MMOTCG Hex: Shards of Fate has reached the $600,000 mark and to celebrate the developer has revealed two more stretch goals.

First up is the addition of three new raids which will be ready for when the game launches and, as a backer bonus, all tiers Squire and above will receive three Booster Drafts for free. Next up at $660,000 five new game boards complete with new animations and effects will be added as well as a backer bonus of a new PvE card for Knight tier and above and an additional copy of every bonus PvE card for all tiers.

The game is currently sitting on $598,428 with 21 days still to go, you can check out its Kickstarter page here.

Nintendo has filed a “content ID match” copyright claim on a large group of “Let’s Play” videos on YouTube featuring its games. If successful it would mean that the company could place advertisements in user’s videos and receive revenue from them.

Several Let’s Play YouTubers claim that this would mean that they are unable to receive revenue from their own videos. Let’s Play YouTuber Zack Scott posted the following on Facebook, “I love Nintendo, so I’ve included their games in my line-up. But until their claims are straightened out, I won’t be playing their games. I won’t because it jeopardizes my channel’s copyright standing and the livelihood of all LPers.

“With that said, I think filing claims against LPers is backwards. Video games aren’t like movies or TV. Each play-through is a unique audiovisual experience. When I see a film that someone else is also watching, I don’t need to see it again. When I see a game that someone else is playing, I want to play that game for myself! Sure, there may be some people who watch games rather than play them, but are those people even gamers?”

Nintendo offered the following statement to defend its actions,  ”For most fan videos this will not result in any changes, however, for those videos featuring Nintendo-owned content, such as images or audio of a certain length, adverts will now appear at the beginning, next to or at the end of the clips. We continually want our fans to enjoy sharing Nintendo content on YouTube, and that is why, unlike other entertainment companies, we have chosen not to block people using our intellectual property.”

Several other Let’s Play YouTubers have come forward on Reddit claiming that Nintendo is filing copyright claims against them.

This is kind of a gray area to be honest, on the one hand these YouTubers are making money off showing footage of titles that Nintendo owns the copyright to, but on the other they are only making money because of the personality which they inject into the videos.

Do you think Nintendo is right to make these claims? Share your thoughts below.

Via: BBC

Valve has revealed six new titles that will be added to its Steam service via the Greenlight system, one of which is the incredibly popular Game Dev Tycoon.

The new titles are:

• Bleed
• Game Dev Tycoon
• The Legend
• Legends of Eisenwald
• RIOT
• Stardew Valley

“These titles were selected on the same criteria we have been using in the past: Votes in Greenlight give us a hugely valuable point of data in gauging community interest along with external factors such as press reviews, crowd-funding successes, performance on other platforms, and awards and contests to help form a more complete picture of community interest in each title,” Valve stated.

Sony has updated its official PlayStation 4 website with a new section which suggests that the Vita Remote Play feature showcased at the console’s reveal event will be a standard feature available with most games.

A message on the website reads, “Play your favorite PS4 games on your PlayStation Vita’s beautiful 5-inch display using Remote Play.”

Of course this doesn’t mean that every game will support it, but it does strongly suggest that the majority will. It would be pretty bad advertising if it turned out that only a handful of titles actually supported the feature.

Would you make use of this feature? Share your thoughts below.

Via: PSMania

Rockstar has released four new Grand Theft Auto V screenshots to help see you through this final day before the weekend.

The screenshots feature some deep sea diving, Franklin on a dirtbike, a little bit of criminal activity, and Trevor on the run. You can check them out below.

If you’ve got a bit of time you can take a look at the game’s latest trailer featuring all three main protagonists here.

Epic Games has revealed “Lost Relics,” the next round of multiplayer DLC for Gears of War: Judgment.

Lost Relics adds four new maps: Ward—an OverRun map—Lost City, Museum, Ward, and Checkout. Longtime Gears fans might recognize Checkout, which is set in Hanover’s most famous grocery store, from Gears of War 3.

The upcoming DLC also adds a new single-objective game mode called “Breakthrough”—in which one team must deliver a flag to a set location while the opposing team defends the line with unlimited resources—new armor, and new weapon skins.

The Lost Relics DLC will be available for download sometime in June.

Atlus has released a new, English trailer for Shin Megami Tensei IV, in which—without a doubt—you play as a samurai.

While not terribly long, the video does offer a brief glimpse at gameplay, the RPG mechanics, and the general premise behind the 1492-set fourth proper entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series.

The last proper installment of Shin Megami Tensei was 2004′s Nocturne on PlayStation 2.

Shin Megami Tensei IV twists time and space on 3DS July 16 in North America, and sometime later in the summer for Europe.

A leaked product page and confirmation from Maxis has revealed SimCity’s next add-on will be the Amusement Park Pack.

A video from webshow Hypnotoad Productions outed the DLC after spotting screenshots of it on Green Man Gaming, an online downloadable game retailer.

“Some of you may have seen thrilling new SimCity content that arrived too early at the gate. It’s coming May 28th. We think you’ll be amused,” a post made earlier today on the SimCity Facebook page reads.

Care to guess what the Amusement Park Pack adds to SimCity?

The Red Son DLC for Injustice: Gods Among Us, previously a GameStop pre-order exclusive, will be available for purchase to all next week.

The Red Son DLC adds alternate costumes for Superman, Wonder Woman, and Solomon Grundy, as well as 20 additional missions inspired by the Red Son storyline, which imagines a world in which Superman was reared in communist Russia instead of ‘Merica.

The Red Son-related tweet also polls its followers on what other characters fans would like to see in the Red Son universe, implying that additional communist costumes might be added to Injustice.

For more on NetherRealm’s superhero scrapper, check out Ray’s review of Injustice: Gods Among Us.

The Red Son DLC will be available for download Tuesday, May 21.

Telltale Games’ latest adventure title, The Wolf Among Us, will feature RPG-like choices that impact the story more dynamically than in The Walking Dead.

In an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Telltale president and co-founder Kevin Bruner described how their Fables-based game, The Wolf Among Us, expands upon the choice mechanics from The Walking Dead.

“We’ve come up with new storytelling techniques. We call it the evolution of choice,” Bruner told Rock, Paper, Shotgun. “A big thing in Walking Dead was going where the story took you, and we would throw these choices at you, but you couldn’t really determine what was going to happen next. Whereas in Fables, the choices you make in the moment are all there, like in Walking Dead, but there are places where it branches timeline-wise.”

“If you go one way, people will be like, ‘Where were you? We were over here and we could have really used you,’” Bruner added. “You have to explain why you weren’t there. These are all new role-playing aspects that we’re using as tools to help us stay within the bounds where Bigby Wolf can be Bigby Wolf and the Fables universe can stay consistent.”

Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us is due out on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 sometime this summer.

Posting on Kotaku, domain bloodhound Superannuation reports Sony has privately registered domains for The Last of Us 2 and 3.

Sony’s American division, SCEA, registered “lastofus2.com” and “lastofus3.com,” hinting not only at a continuation of the yet released action-adventure survival game, but perhaps even a planned trilogy.

While The Last of Us is supposed to be narratively self-contained, it’s no surprise that Sony would want to turn their latest exclusive IP into a franchise. Personally, I don’t mind sequels—so long as they’re simply set in the same world as the original game and not a direct continuation.

It’s also more than likely that these continuations will be PS4 exclusives.

Sony also registered a series of domains for something on the PS4 titled The Order: 1866, grabbing up the dot com, dot net, “theorderps4.com,” and “theorderps4.net.”

The Last of Us launches exclusively on PlayStation 3 June 14 worldwide.

City Interactive today announced a new fantasy action-RPG, Lords of the Fallen, being developed for PC, PS4, and the next Xbox.

“From the very beginning, Lords of the Fallen will intrigue and satisfy players’ hunger to explore each corner of a brand new world, freely customize and build their own character, and take down some of the most epic enemies ever seen,” executive producer Tomasz Gop said in the press release.

Gop previously served as senior producer on CD Projekt Red’s The Witch 2: Assassins of Kings. Speaking to Eurogamer, Gop described Lords of the Fallen‘s as a challenging action-RPG in the same vein as Dark Souls, with its skill trees reminiscent of Borderlands’.

Lords of the Fallen, as described in the press release, sees players assuming the role of protagonist Harkyn as he travels throughout the game’s fantasy world on a quest to “stand against an apparently unstoppable supernatural force.”

Lords of the Fallen is slated for release sometime 2014. CI Games says the action-RPG will be presented live at this year’s E3.

NHL franchise producer Sean Ramjagsingh returns in the latest dev diary for NHL 14 to talk about one-touch dekes and gameplay balancing, including the addition of defensive strafing.

“The new one-touch dekes are intuitive: simply press the left bumper, or L1, and select a direction with the left stick,” describes Ramjagsingh in the video. “See space to the right? Simply hold that direction and press the button. Need to toe-drag around a defender? Hold that direction and tap deke.”

According to Ramjagsingh, pivots and high-speed turning have also been improved from NHL 13.

NHL 14 skates onto PS3 and Xbox 360 September 10 in North America, September 13 e’rywhere else in the world.

Twisted Metal and God of War creator David Jaffe has joined indie developer Pixelbionic to create a new car battler: Autoduel.

“I was super excited when I heard Pixelbionic’s vision for Autoduel,” said Jaffe, who is acting as Pixelbionic’s creative advisor. “As a huge fan of the genre, I’m really looking forward to contributing to the game’s vision and design goals.”

Jaffe joins several other game development veterans, including Max Kauffman, who worked on The Bard’s Tale; Mike Arkin, who worked on Battlezone; Scot Kramarich, who worked on Interstate ’76; Rafael Paiz, who worked on Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and others.

“Our mission is to assemble a team of car combat visionaries to deliver the game fans want to not only play but also help create,” Pixelbionic co-founder and president Mike Arkin said. “Autoduel pairs the vision of the best talent int he industry with the enthusiasm and support of gamers, a combination we are confident will set the bar for what can be achieved in a new PC vehicular combat game.”

Autoduel will be PC-exclusive. Pixelbionic will be crowdfunding development of the multiplayer car combat title through a Kickstarter campaign.

Insomniac Games has released a launch trailer for their upcoming third-person shooter Fuse.

The trailer focuses primarily on the main characters of Fuse—no, not the Overstrike 9 team, but rather their xenotech weapons—four distinct firearms built around the game’s fictional Fuse technology to create crazy weapons that can generate bullet-catching barriers, fire “living crystal” rounds that encase enemies, burn through enemies with Fuse-augmented mercury, and blow them apart with small-scale singularities.

Fuse lights up PS3 and Xbox 360 May 28 in North America, May 31 in Europe.

Four U.K. members of the hacking group LulzSec have been given jail sentences for their parts in the group’s cyber attacks on several companies.

The group targeted companies such as Nintendo, Bethesda, Sony, 20th Century Fox, the CIA, and the U.K.’s Serious Organized Crime Agency.

“It’s clear from the evidence that they intended to achieve extensive national and international notoriety and publicity,” prosecutor Sandip Patel stated. ”This is not about young immature men messing about. They are at the cutting edge of a contemporary and emerging species of criminal offender known as a cybercriminal.”

Ryan Cleary, Jake Davis, Mustafa al-Bassam, and, Ryan Ackroyd had all pleaded guilty at earlier court hearings. Cleary will serve 32 months and admitted to additional charges of hacking the U.S. Air Force and possessing images showing child abuse (which will be dealt with at a separate hearing), the BBC reports.

Ackroyd was sentenced to 30 months and Davis to two years. Al-Bassam got off the lightest receiving a 20-month suspended sentence.

Via: Eurogamer

Crysis 3 is set to receive some multiplayer DLC, according to a recently posted set of Achievements for the game.

The list appeared on Xbox 360 Achievements and indicates that a new multiplayer pack will be released for the game adding 250 Gamerscore worth of Achievements. The pack will include four maps–Creek, Crossing, Ascent, and Coastline–and two new modes–Frenzy and Team Possession. It will also allow players to use a boat oar as a weapon.

You can check out the list of Achievements here.

A website for a new fantasy MOBA titled Dawngate has just launched, listing EA as its publisher. It appears as if the website has gone live a little earlier than originally planned.

Superannuation spotted the site earlier today. Links to the game’s Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch pages all lead to inactive or private pages. The game is being developed by Waystone Games.

“Dawngate is a new MOBA built from the ground up to look and feel familiar while offering a whole new way to experience MOBA gameplay. Dawngate empowers you to forge the champions you love for the roles you want in a competitive arena, shaped by ever-evolving, community-driven content and story,” the website reads.

Players can use their EA Origin account to sign up for the game’s beta right now.

Via: Joystiq

Warner Bros. has released a teaser trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins which sees Batman taking on Deathstroke in a snowy Gotham City.

The game is set in Gotham City on Christmas Eve and features a younger Batman then the one featured in previous games by RockSteady.

Arkham Origins is bring developed by Warner Bros. Montreal and is due to release October 25 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Wii U. A full trailer for the game is set to go live on May 20.

Codemasters has released yet another gameplay trailer for GRID 2, this time showcasing a drift event taking place in the Japanese region of Okutama.

Yesterday the developer released a trailer featuring several of the game’s Asian tracks and events which you can check out here. The game’s full track list was also announced, take a look at it here.

GRID 2 is set to release May 28 in North America and May 31 in Europe for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Coffee Stain Studios has released an official launch trailer for its first-person tower defense title Sanctum 2, which is available now on Xbox 360 and PC.

You can check out the trailer below.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies was announced for a western release earlier this week, however, it came with the note that it will be exclusively available through the Nintendo 3DS eShop. This has left some fans feeling a little cheated about there being no boxed copy.

Senior VP Christian Svensson has taken to the Capcom forums to explain the publisher’s decision to go down the digital only route.

“I do understand the values of having a game box on a shelf or in a crates (as someone who still has had many, many crates full of them). There’s a feeling there. However, it is a sign of the times that increasingly our business is going digital and not everything is going to be in both formats,” he said.

“Not every game is appropriate for both formats given the economics involved. This is similar to Darkstalkers Resurrection or RE4 HD or Okami HD being physical in Japan, but digital in the West. Their COGS (costs of goods sold) and retail margins and reserve issues are entirely different there given the market differences. It’s a sad fact, but it’s still a fact.”

Svensson concluded by saying, “We worked very hard to ensure a Western release on this title. If we’d said “no, it’s not coming”, it would have triggered the inevitable “please bring it to eshop, at least” cries. Instead we shortcutted that and brought it straight to eShop.”

The Slightly Different Edition patch for Skullgirls is finally available to download on Xbox 360, several months after its release on PlayStation 3.

The patch released on PlayStation 3 back in November, but issues with Microsoft’s patching process caused a major delay on Xbox 360. It adds new colors for fighters, an in-game move list, an expanded training mode, and features a ton of bug fixes.

The list is far too long to post here so head over to the official patch notes here to check out all the changes.

Riot Games is throwing out a massive patch for League of Legends which tweaks several champions, items, and allows for custom item sets to be created.

The full notes for patch 3.7 can be found below:

Akali

Twilight Shroud

• Now grants vision in the area of effect

Shadow Dance

• Essence of Shadow charge time reduced to 30/22.5/15 seconds from 35/25/15

Caitlyn

• Base attack speed reduced to 0.625 from 0.668
• Attack speed per level increased to 4% from 3%

Headshot

• No longer gains stacks when attacking structures

Cassiopeia

Twin Fang

• Now counts as a single target spell for the sake of items like Rylai’s Crystal Scepter

Diana

Moonsilver Blade

• Damage reduced to 20/25/30/35/40/50/60/70/80/90/105/120/135/155/175/200/225/250 (+0.6 Ability Power) from 20/25/30/40/50/65/80/95/110/125/140/155/175/195/215/240/265/290 (+0.6 Ability Power)
• Range of the cleave behind Diana reduced

Pale Cascade

• Total damage changed to 66/102/138/174/210 from 60/105/150/195/240
• Shield reduced to 40/55/70/85/100 (+0.3 Ability Power) from 55/80/105/130/155 (+0.45 Ability Power)
• The second application of the shield now stacks with the first shield instead of replacing it

Elise

Skittering Frenzy

• Ability Power ratio increased to 0.04 from 0.02

Spider Form

• No longer grants bonus Armor and Magic Resist

Jarvan IV

Demacian Standard

• Vision radius of the Standard reduced to 700 from 850

Karma

Inner Flame

• Mantra Bonus – Soulflare
• Slow area now spawns directly under the primary target

Miss Fortune

Impure Shots

• Passive
• Max stacks increased to 5 from 4
• Damage per stack reduced to 4/6/8/10/12 from 6/8/10/12/14

Mordekaiser

• Recommend items updated

Nami

• Basic Attack Missile Speed increased to 1500 from 1350

Surging Tides

• Bonus Movement Speed increased to 40 from 30

Aqua Prison

• Stun duration increased to 1.5 seconds from 1.25

Nunu

Consume

• Damage increased to 600/700/800/900/1000 from 500/600/700/800/900
• Healing reduced to 90/130/170/210/250 from 125/180/235/290/345
• Healing ratio reduced to 0.75 from 1.0
• Consume now grants bonuses for 120/150/180/210/240 seconds based on the type of monster consume was used on:
• Golem-type monsters grant 10% increased size and maximum Health
• Lizard-type monsters grant Nunu’s attacks and spells additional magic damage equal to 1% of Nunu’s maximum Health
• Wraith or Wolf-type monsters grant 15% movement speed for 3 seconds after Nunu kills a unit

Quinn

Vault

• Fixed a bug where Vault failed to interrupt targets that were immune to slows

Rammus

Puncturing Taunt

• Can no longer target minions

Rumble

Flamespitter

• Damage decreased to 75/135/195/255/315 (+1.0 Ability Power) from 90/160/230/300/370 (+1.35 Ability Power)
• Danger Zone damage bonus increased to 50% from 25%

Electro-Harpoon

• Damage decreased to 45/70/95/120/145 (+0.4 Ability Power) from 55/85/115/145/175 (+0.5 Ability Power)

Syndra

Scatter the Weak

• Improved detection of Dark Spheres at longer ranges

Twisted Fate

Pick a Card

• Blue card now restores 50/75/100/125/150 Mana instead of 26/39/52/65/78 (+0.6 total Attack Damage)

Stacked Deck

• No longer grants Cooldown Reduction
• Bonus Attack Speed increased to 10/15/20/25/30% from 3/6/9/12/15%

Destiny

• Cooldown increased to 180/150/120 seconds from 150/135/120
• Tooltips updated

Udyr

Tiger Stance

• Fixed a bug that caused Tiger Strike to only apply in the first 5 seconds of the stance

Varus

• Base Movement Speed reduced to 330 from 335

Piercing Arrow

• Minimum damage increased to 10/47/83/120/157 from 10/43/77/110/143
• Maximum damage increased to 15/70/125/180/235 from 15/65/115/165/215
• Improved hit detection at the end of the missile

Hail of Arrows

• Damage reduced to 65/100/135/170/205 from 65/105/145/185/225

Chain of Corruption

• Improved hit detection at the end of the missile

Warwick

Infinite Duress

• Channel time reduced to 1.5 seconds from 2.1 (the target is still suppressed for the full 1.8 seconds)
• Infinite Duress now always places Warwick in front of the target rather than a random spot around the target

Zac

• Base Health Regen reduced to 7.0 from 12.5

Let’s Bounce!

• Damage reduced to 140/210/280 from 160/240/320
• Fixed a bug where Let’s Bounce! was applying a 0.25 Ability Power ratio on every bounce rather than 0.4 on the first bounce, halved on subsequent bounces
• Tenacity reduced to 50% from 75%

Zed

Razor Shuriken

• Damage dealt to secondary targets reduced to 45/69/93/117/141 (+0.6 bonus Attack Damage) from 60/92/124/156/188 (+0.8 bonus Attack Damage)

Living Shadow

• Vision radius of the Shadow reduced to 700 from 1300

Shadow Slash

• Cooldown increased to 4 seconds from 3

Zyra

• Thorn Spitter and Vine Lasher plants now correctly display their bonus damage from Ability Power
• Thorn Spitter and Vine Lasher plants now benefit from Banner of Command’s minion damage aura

Items

Mana Manipulator

• Recipe changed: Faerie Charm + 120 gold = 300 total gold
• Mana Warp Passive Aura reduced to 5 Mana Regen per 5 seconds from 6

Mikael’s Crucible

• Recipe changed: Philosopher’s Stone + Chalice of Harmony + 920 gold = 2500 total cost
• Grants 7 Health Regen per 5 seconds from 0
• Grants 18 Mana Regen per 5 seconds from 9
• No longer grants Mana
• Active Heal changed to “Heals for 150 + 10% of the target’s Maximum Health” from “Heals for 150 + 15% of the target’s Missing Health”, Cleanse effect unchanged
• Active travel time changed to 0.2 seconds from variable with distance
• Fixed an issue with the hit effect particle

Shard of True Ice

• Total cost reduced to 1600 gold from 1700
• Mana Warp Passive Aura reduced to 5 Mana Regen per 5 seconds from 6

Summoner’s Rift

Caster Minions

• Base Attack Damage reduced to 23 from 25

Howling Abyss

• High Winds duration and intervals tweaked to match the pace of the music
• Statue destruction algorithms tweaked to become more consistent throughout the match

Game Interface

Loss of Control UI

• Loss of control indicators now appear underneath a player’s nameplate when the player’s champion is afflicted by a crowd control effect
• A unique icon is displayed for each type of effect, and a shrinking progress bar indicates time remaining on the effect
• When multiple, unique crowd control effects are active:
• An additional icon is displayed for each unique effect type
• The progress bar represents whichever effect has the longest remaining duration
• Icons are removed as their associated effect type becomes inactive
• Indicators are visible to the afflicted player, that player’s team and the player who inflicted the crowd control effect

Co-op vs. AI

• Fixed a bug that caused Co-op vs. AI games on Twisted Treeline to award more IP/XP than intended for games under 20 minutes
• Fixed a bug that caused Co-op vs. AI games on Twisted Treeline to award less IP/XP than intended for games over 20 minutes

League System

• Fixed a number of cases where icons on the league view were not showing up correctly
• General

Custom Item Sets

• Custom item sets can now be created and edited in the summoner profile.
• Saved item sets appear as an option in the Recommended tab of the in-game item shop
• Item sets can be associated with a specific champion, multiple champions or all champions
• Item sets can be associated with a specific map, multiple maps or all maps
• Silence, Taunt, Stun, Fear and Suppress effects have been updated with a new, consistent visual
• Karthus’ Requiem should no longer have a major FPS performance hit across all maps.
• Rerolls in the ARAM queue will now prefer champions not being played by a member of the other team.
• The ‘Random Champion’ option is no longer available in ranked game champion select.
• Players who fail to connect to the game will now be granted the same bonus Magic Resistance/Armor that disconnected players receive.
• Fixed a bug with certain AMD Radeon video cards when playing Dominion.
• Players may now disable moving their champion via right-clicking on the minimap in the options menu.
• Logitech G-Key, LED, and LCD technologies are now supported.
• Fixed: Players joining private custom games in the PvP.net client were not able to submit passwords using the Enter key.
• Adobe AIR no longer uses the Debug Launcher and has been updated to version 3.7. This should result in increased client stability.

Exactly one month after its release on Xbox 360, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2‘s Uprising DLC is due to go live PlayStation 3 and PC today, so cancel all plans.

The DLC introduces four new maps to the game–Magma, Encore, Studio, and Vertigo–as well as a new Zombies map titled Mob of the Dead.

Uprising will set you back $14.99 on both platforms, but is a free download if you own the Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Season Pass.

It’s time to d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dual! Valve has put a new Steam rewards program into beta titled Steam Trading Cards.

This new system allows players to collect trading cards and then trade them in for rewards such as game badges, profile backgrounds, coupons, and more.

The list of games currently supporting Trading Cards includes Don’t Starve, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, and Half-Life 2. Valve has stated that more games will be added to this list over the coming months.

To get involved in the beta all you have to do is join the Steam Trading Cards group. Valve is inviting players to the beta in the order that they join this group, sooner you join, the sooner you get in.

What do you think of this new system? Let us know in the comments below.

Another major release, another set of retail exclusive pre-order bonuses. Next up on the merry-go-round is Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

Players who pre-order at GameStop will net themselves the Black Island Pack which includes the Black Island treasure hunting mission, the Deadly Black Ship, Captain Morgan’s costume, and Captain Morgan’s legendary silver flintlock pistols. Amazon is offering the Hidden Mystery Pack, containing the Mystery Island treasure hunting mission, Stede Bonnet’s Ship, and Stede Bonnet’s costume.

Next up is Walmart where you can get the Sacrificed Secrets Pack, which includes the Sacrifice Island treasure hunting mission, Captain Drake’s dual wield swords and pistols, and Drake’s picture and relic. Best Buy has the Lost Treasures Pack with the Ivory Wheel and Spyglass Relic. Finally Target is offering the Trove of Mystery Pack which contains the Iron Wheel and the Astrolab Relic.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is set to release October 29 in North America and November 1 in Europe for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Wii U. A PlayStation 4 version is also going to be available after the console launches. You can check out the game’s latest trailer, released yesterday, here.

Via: Ubisoft

Gran Turismo 6 was officially announced by Sony yesterday, however there was no mention of a seemingly obvious PlayStation 4 release. Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi has now commented on the lack of a next-gen version.

“We actually do have a PlayStation 4 version in mind, but for this holiday season, we thought it would be best for users to release on PS3 for now,” he told IGN. ”I thought the best scenario would be to have the game come out, then to have new scenarios, new DLC and other updates.”

“Once the players have thoroughly played out the system, if the PlayStation 4 version came out naturally, as part of that process, I think that would be the best scenario.”

It’s pretty obvious that at some point next year we are going to get a PlayStation 4 release. The only worry is that its sales may suffer unless it’s a major upgrade over the PlayStation 3 version. Fans will be pleased to hear that if a PlayStation 4 version does see the light of day then the option to transfer data between the two games would ”probably” be available.

Are you interested in buying the same game twice? Let us know in the comments below.

Ding dong the witch is dead, which old witch? The controversial Online Pass witch! Well, at least for EA games anyway as the publisher has announced that it is abandoning the feature going forward.

EA’s senior director of corporate communications John Reseburg confirmed the discontinuation of the Online Pass feature to Venture Beat. “Yes, we’re discontinuing Online Pass,” he said. “None of our new EA titles will include that feature.”

According to Reseburg, EA launched the program ”As an effort to package a full menu of online content and services, many players didn’t respond to the format. We’ve listened to the feedback and decided to do away with it moving forward.”

Electronic Art’s VP of corporate communications, Jeff Brown offered Game Informer a more detailed explanation:

“There’s not much to say. The online pass came out in 2010. It was a way of packaging together a suite of post-launch content and services for people. There was also an element for people who bought the game second sale. It never really caught on. People didn’t like it. People told us that they didn’t like it and you know, we went through a cycle and we’re about to put out some new games and we just decided not to do that anymore. We’re 100 percent committed to creating on-going content and services so the consumers get more value out of the game – you know games like Battlefield and FIFA where there’s all sorts of new things that get added all the time – but the whole idea of packaging it up with an online pass, clearly it was not popular, so we listened to people and we stopped doing it.”

Of course this doesn’t mean the complete destruction of the Online Pass, sadly. Other publishers will still require you to input that little code before you can enjoy half the game. However, as far as EA games are concerned you will never have to use one again.

Are you happy to see EA move away from the Online Pass? Should all publishers do the same? Share your thoughts below.

Diablo III is now one year old and to celebrate Blizzard is offering all players an extra boost to experience and magic find over the next few days.

“One year ago today, the gates of the Burning Hells opened and Diablo III was unleashed onto the world. Since then, millions of heroes have been created, billions of hours have been spent in games, and trillions of demons have been slaughtered without mercy,” the developer wrote.

“We’ve grown and improved a lot since release, both as a game team and as a community, and thanks to your feedback, passion, and unquenchable bloodlust, we expect the next year to be even more epic.”

Between now and May 21 players will receive an extra 25 percent boost to experience gain and magic find, which will stack above the 300 percent cap. This makes the next few days the perfect time to gain some levels and farm a few items.

Before THQ went the way of the dinosaur and Deep Silver took over as publisher for Metro: Last Light, then THQ president Jason Rubin’s job included overseeing Last Light’s development.

In an article written for GamesIndustry.biz, Rubin details and champions the studio’s accomplishments in the face of some pretty crazy obstacles. Rubin specifically cites a very restrictive budget, a physically uncomfortable work environment, and time wasted trying to accommodate THQ’s demands for multiplayer and co-op to be shoehorned into Last Light (features ultimately cut from the game after being picked up by Deep Silver).

“Let’s be honest: 4A was never playing on a level field. The budget of Last Light is less than some of its competitors spend on cut scenes, a mere 10 percent of the budget of its biggest competitors,” Rubin wrote.

According to Rubin, despite the small size of the 4A team, their resources were spread so thin that the team “sat on folding wedding chairs, literally elbow to elbow at card tables in what looks more like a packed grade school cafeteria than a development studio.”

Harsh Ukrainian weather—including freezing temperatures and routine power outages were also among the hurdles 4A overcame during development. “All developers have deadlines, but I know of few that had to bring in construction generators to be able to work the weekend before final submission because an extra day meant missing shelf dates by weeks,” Rubin wrote.

As far as Rubin’s concerned, the development team at 4A should be applauded and recognized for all that they accomplished with Metro: Last Light despite only having a fraction of what studios like Ubisoft Montreal or Irrational Games are given.

“If you care about the art of making games then you have to care about more than the final product,” wrote Rubin. “The struggle and the journey becomes part of the story. Like sport, you cheer when the underdog comes from behind, and triumphs in the face of incredible odds.”

Metro: Last Light has been received quite favorably by most gaming press outlets, ours included (reviewed by EGM’s Ray Carsillo). The rest of Rubin’s article is up on GamesIndustry.biz for your reading pleasure.

Cryptozoic Entertainment’s MMOTCG HEX: Shards of Fate has reached the $500,000 mark, and to celebrate the developer has detailed a subscription option for the free-to-play game.

Four of the Kickstarter’s five stretch goals have been reached so far, the fifth is the addition of a VIP Program. Players who sign up for the VIP Program will have to pay a few dollars each month, but will be given a number of free packs, access to an exclusive monthly tournament, and access to a “goldfish” tool, which allows players to practice drawing cards from created decks.

The latest developer video for the game focuses on Mercenaries, you can check it out below. HEX: Shards of Fate‘s Kickstarter is currently at $505,036 with 22 days still to go.

Talking to Edge Online about the company’s inspirations, Avalanche Studious co-founder and chief creative officer Christofer Sundberg touted action over emotion as their endgame.

“We’ve never had any ambition to go very deep with our narrative and focused more on explosive fun. It’s entertainment! I have no ambitions to make players cry or have any deeper feelings,” Sundberg told Edge. “A great laugh and a big smile as players pull off a completely over-the-top stunt is all I can ask for. I can assure you that with our next games there will be plenty of ‘holy fucking shits’ to go around for everyone!”

Whatever that next game may be, however, it seems it won’t be the steampunk-style game Avalanche was teasing on Instagram.

“They were from a steampunk-style game we had in development that we put on ice,” Sundberg said about the Instagram photos. “I really love that art style, and to combine it with sandbox gameplay is a dream of mine. Fortunately, being an independent developer I can control my own destiny and we’ll make something in that world sooner or later.”

Sundberg recently revealed that Avalanche almost had a shot at making an open-world Star Wars game. Unfortunately, that project never took off.

About this time last year, Avalanche said they were working on three unnamed project, one similar to Just Cause, the other two based on movie and comic book franchises. Seems likely that Star Wars was the movie-based project. As for the other two, well, clearly the steampunk game was some way into development. So what the company  most assuredly is working on now remains a mystery.

EA might not be able to get Frostbite to run well on Wii U, but they are bringing “true Frostbite experiences to all mobile platforms.”

The official Frostbite engine website mentions Frostbite Go, the name of the mobile version of EA’s proprietary game engine as well as a mobile division within EA designed to develop Frostbite-powered experiences for mobile platforms.

There’s no mention of specific projects underway on the website, but it’s possible EA may reveal more come E3 next month.

Talking to OXM, Namco Bandai PR director Lee Kirton says the company plans on pushing Dark Souls 2 as ceremoniously as a AAA title.

“The good thing this time round is we’re investing more in it from a marketing perspective,” Kirton told OXM. “With Dark Souls and Demon Souls it was very focused, small-scale. We’re treating this as a massive, massive triple-A title.”

It’s an admirable and understandable mentality—all games, arguably, should be marketed with as much bombast as possible. That is, after all, the very point of marketing. And regardless of how you might feel about Dark Souls 2, it’s impossible to deny that is had a very strong, enthusiastic audience.

“We’re going to go guns-blazing with it, and hope to god that it works,” Kirton added. “We’re going after people who love and adore Dark Souls, while hopefully widening the net a little. I’m not saying that every Skyrim player’s going to be jumping on Dark Souls, but it would be nice if some of them did. It’s a different game, sure.”

A release date for Dark Souls 2 has yet to be determined, but when it drops it’ll do so on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

The previously reported Scribblenauts/DC crossover has officially been revealed as Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.

5th Cell and WB Games invite gamers to “unleash the superpower of your imagination” in the latest entry in the Scribblenauts series, which sees Maxwell teaming up with the usual DC roster: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, and more. Their respective villains will, of course, be featured as well.

“Fans of both DC Comics and Scribblenauts can really let their imaginations run wild with the Super Hero Creator in Scribblenauts Unmasked,” 5th Cell CEO and creative director Jeremiah Slaczka said in the press release. “Players will be challenged to craft new and never-before-seen characters such as Wonder Joker or Bane Lantern and use them to solve puzzles or share them with friends.”

Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure is slated for release on Wii U and 3DS this fall.

A new dungeon building tool is coming to Allods Online as part of the Path to Victory expansion which allows players to generate their own private islands.

These islands, called Allods, act as customizable labyrinths for players to explore. The update goes live on June 5 and will add the Weaponsmith tradeskill and includes several graphical improvements.

Ubisoft has released a brand new gameplay trailer for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag titled “Under the Black Flag” which contains plenty of guns, knives, swords, explosions, blood, and death, exactly what you’d expect basically.

You can check out another trailer for the game here if you’re still itching for more after watching the one below.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is set to release October 29 in the U.S. and November 1 in Europe for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Wii U. The game will also be available for PlayStation 4 once the console launches.

Guild Wars 2‘s updates page currently has some new art for a patch called “Last Stand at Southsun,” which is due to release later this month.

The art states that the update will go live on May 28 and carries the statement ”A desperate villain–a monstrous plan.” No other details were offered.

The game’s latest update “The Secret of Southsun” went live yesterday.

Konami has released an official launch trailer for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance‘s latest piece of DLC titled Blade Wolf.

Blade Wolf is a giant metal wolf who likes to rip people open with his chainsaw tail and throw knives at them. He’s not exactly the sort of animal you want to play fetch with.

“Reactivated by Desperado Enforcement’s leader Sundowner and serving under Mistral, the DLC reveals LQ-84i’s story prior to his battle and eventual partnership with Raiden, and his transformation into Blade Wolf. Players can battle countless enemies using an arsenal of weapons and abilities, culminating in an all-new boss battle”

The DLC is available to download now on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. You can check out the trailer below.

Well we all knew it was coming, but finally Sony has officially announced that Gran Turismo 6 is heading to PlayStation 3 this holiday season.

“I’d like to announce today that we are developing GT 6 for the holiday season this year on the PlayStation 3,” said creator of Gran Turismo Kazunori Yamauchi.

Every car from Gran Turismo 5 will be in the game along with a ton of new cars, the total count is around 1200. Silverstone is one of the new tracks which will be added to the game.

Toyota Europe shared a few new details about the game which you can check out below:

#15yearsofgt ‘talking about tracks, we will start with 33 circuits but will add more month by month. Course maker will also be updated’ #GT6

— Toyota Europe Comms (@Toyota_EU) May 15, 2013

#15yearsofgt ‘several thousand aero parts will be available in GT6, and many new wheels’

— Toyota Europe Comms (@Toyota_EU) May 15, 2013

#15yearsofgt ‘new adaptive tessalation of GT6 gives a much more realistic vehicle visual’

— Toyota Europe Comms (@Toyota_EU) May 15, 2013

Valve has begun rolling out a new update for Steam which adds a personal level to a player’s profile based on community badges earned.

The update is being rolled out across various territories, so if you haven’t seen any change yet don’t worry. The more community badges you have unlocked the higher your level will be.

You can view the badges you have and those still to be earned via a sidebar on the new profile layout. Each badge is worth a different amount of experience. If you’re interested then you can check out a collection of screengrabs of the new profile layout here.

What do you think of the new layout? Share your thoughts below.

Via: PCGamesN

Codemasters has announced the official track list for GRID 2 so keen racers can see what there will be up against when the game launches later this month. Set aside a bit of time because it’s quite a list.

GRID 2 is set to release May 28 in North America and May 31 in Europe for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Earlier today the developer released a new trailer detailing some of the game’s tracks and events.

You can check out the full track list below:

• Tenshi Way, Okutama [Day & Night]
• Collins Park Ring, Miami [Day & Night]
• Indy Circuit Reversed, Brands Hatch [Day]
• GP Circuit Reversed, Red Bull Ring [Day]
• Arc De Triomphe, Paris [Day & Night]
• Le Trocadero, Paris [Sunset]
• National Circuit, Algarve [Day]
• Infield Circuit, Indianapolis [Day]
• Columbus Pass, Barcelona [Day & Night]
• South Circuit Reversed, Red Bull Ring [Day]
• Memorial Gate, Barcelona [Day & Night]
• Redwood Approach, California [Day & Night]
• Tatsu Valley, Okutama [Day & Night]
• Downtown Speedway, Miami [Day & Night]
• Pacific Way, California [Sunset]
• Big Sur, California [Day & Night]
• GP Circuit, Algarve [Day]
• Fountain Loop, Barcelona [Sunset]
• Championship Circuit, Yas Marina [Day (Pre-order) & Night]
• Shinto Shrine, Okutama [Day & Night]
• Sport Circuit , Indianapolis [Day]
• Saint-Laurent, Cote d’Azur [Day & Night]
• LiveRoutes, Dubai [Day]
• Al Sufouh Strip, Dubai [Day & Night]
• International Circuit, Yas Marina [Day (Pre-order) & Night]
• Ap Lei Chau, Hong Kong [Sunset]
• Riverside, Chicago [Sunset]
• Kowloon Climb, Hong Kong [Day & Night]
• Marine Gate, Barcelona [Day & Night]
• Paddock Circuit, Yas Marina [Day (Pre-order) & Night]
• Pont De L’alma, Paris [Day & Night]
• Nakheel Vista, Dubai [Day & Night]
• Hattan Way, Dubai [Sunset]
• North Circuit, Red Bull Ring [Day]
• Circuit De La Seine, Paris [Day & Night]
• Wan Chai Gap, Hong Kong [Day & Night]
• Causeway Approach, Miami [Day & Night]
• Ocean Drive, Miami [Sunset]
• Torii Rush, Okutama [Sunset]
• GP Circuit Reversed (Pre-order) , Brands Hatch [Day]
• The Loop, Chicago [Day & Night]
• Leopolda, Cote d’Azur [Day & Night]
• Cabrillo Highway, Cote d’Azur [Sunset]
• Mizu Mountain, Okutama [Day & Night]
• Gulf Approach, Dubai [Day & Night]
• Wabash Run, Chicago [Day & Night]
• LiveRoutes, Chicago [Day]
• Route d’Azur, Cote d’Azur [Day & Night]
• GP Circuit (Pre-order), Brands Hatch [Day]
• La Turbie, Cote d’Azur [Day & Night]
• Peak Road Descent, Hong Kong [Day & Night]
• Champs Elysees, Paris [Sunset]
• South Circuit, Red Bull Ring [Day]
• Sakura Pass, Okutama [Sunset]
• LiveRoutes, Miami [Day]
• GP Circuit, Yas Marina [Day (Pre-order) & Night]
• Pebble Beach Drive, California [Day & Night]
• Route De Corniche, Cote d’Azur [Sunset]
• North Circuit, Indianapolis [Pre-Order Bonus] [Day]
• Sport Circuit, Algarve [Day]
• Indy Circuit, Brands Hatch [Day]
• Magazine Gap, Hong Kong [Day & Night]
• Avenue De New-York, Paris [Day & Night]
• Underpass Ring, Chicago [Day & Night]
• Orra Quay Loop, Dubai [Sunset]
• Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong [Sunset]
• High Street, Barcelona [Day & Night]
• Club Circuit, Algarve [Day]
• Lake Shore Point, Chicago [Day & Night]
• Bixby Pass, California [Day & Night]
• GP Circuit, Indianapolis [Day]
• Oval Circuit, Indianapolis [Pre-Order Bonus] [Day]
• Columbus Bay, Barcelona [Sunset]
• LiveRoutes, Paris [Day]
• LiveRoutes, Barcelona [Day]
• South Point Bay, Miami [Day / Night]
• Art Deco Loop, Miami [Sunset]
• GP Circuit, Red Bull Ring [Day]
• South Circuit, Yas Marina [Day (Pre-order) & Night]
• Marina City, Chicago [Sunset]
• Jumeirah Beach, Dubai [Day & Night]
• North Circuit Reversed, Red Bull Ring [Day]

Microsoft is set to announce that it will be scrapping its points currency with the release of the next Xbox, according to a new report.

The Verge claims that sources familiar with the matter have told them that Microsoft Points will be replaced by a gift card system similar to iTunes, which will allow users to purchase real currency to be used for downloadable content. Of course credit and debit cards will still be accepted.

This new system will apparently spread across the Windows Store, Windows Phone Store, and Xbox Live. According to The Verge, Microsoft is planning to announce the change at E3 next month.

Are you happy to see the end of Microsoft Points? Share your thoughts below.

All five of Battlefield 3‘s DLC packs have been reduced by 50 percent on Xbox Live for a limited time only, so don’t hang around.

Each expansion pack is now available for just 600 Microsoft Points instead of the usual 1200 and Battlefield 3 Premium, which includes all five packs and other extras, has been reduced to 2,800 Microsoft Points instead of the usual 4,000.

The sale is expected to last until May 20, 2013.

Via: Videogamer

Last week a leaked script for an upcoming PlayStation 4 commercial appeared online stating that the console’s marketing slogan will be “Greatness Awaits.” Well it turns out it was right.

Sony Computer Entertainment America has now registered a trademark for the “Greatness Awaits” slogan, pretty much confirming that it will be at the front of the PlayStation 4′s marketing push. This also means that the leaked commercial script is probably real as well, so I look forward to seeing that at Sony’s E3 press conference.

For those wondering what the commercial is all about, you can find all the details here. PlayStation 4 is set to launch holiday 2013.

Source: Siliconera

Codemasters has released a new trailer for GRID 2 introducing us to some of the racers Asian locations such as Dubai and Hong Kong.

GRID 2‘s drift events will see you get three runs down a technically challenging track with the aim being to string as many drifts together to wrack up the maximum amount of points. Next up is check point racing in Abu Dhabi, which is all about speed and control, simply get to each checkpoint before the opposition to win.

Finally there’s Touge events in Hong Kong, these are one-on-one battles where quick reactions and bravery is required to overtake your opponent before the end of the lap.

GRID 2 is set to release May 28 in North America and May 31 in Europe for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. You can check out the trailer below.

DC Universe Online‘s Origin Crisis update is now live offering new raids, operations, feats, gear, and a new Quantum Powers set.

In Origin Crisis players must travel to alternate versions of Metropolis and Gotham City to fight alongside Future Batman or Future Lex Luthor in various raids and operations. You can check out all the details over on the game’s official website.

After you’re done there why not check out the launch trailer below.

Atlus has released a new trailer for Etrian Odyssey: Millennium Girl which focuses on the team’s medic Simon.

Millennium Girl is a story-driven rework of the series which focuses more on the character’s personalities as opposed to their individual classes.

The game is due to hit Nintendo 3DS in Japan on June 27. No official release date for other territories has been announced so far.

God of War: Ascension players will be able to access new weapons and armor for their multiplayer characters this week thanks to some new DLC.

The Armor of Typhon and the Mercenary Blade, otherwise known as the Primordial weapons, are now available to download from the PlayStation Store.

Sony Santa Monica is continuing to work on DLC for the game and plans to release more weapons and armor in the future as well as new maps and a fourth weapon class.

4A Games has released an official launch trailer for Metro: Last Light to celebrate the game’s release in the U.S. It’s due to hit European stores on Friday.

You can check out Ray Carsillo’s thoughts on the game in his review here.

EA is opening up a new DICE studio based in Los Angeles which will work on the Star Wars IP which it acquired from Disney recently.

A new report in the Wall Street Journal states that the publisher is investing in a new LA office for its DICE studio with the hopes of poaching talent from key rivals such as Activision Blizzard. The developer is now hiring for several positions at DICE Los Angeles including audio artists, a development manager, and level designers.

The article goes on to state that DICE LA will be a “key cog” in EA’s plans for the Star Wars franchise. DICE’s general manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson told the site, “There is an extreme talent pool over that we want a part of. It’s no secret that our main competitor is there,” meaning Activision and its Call of Duty studios.

DICE LA is aiming to add 60 new staff members by the end of 2013 and has already absorbed several members of Medal of Honor studio Danger Close.

It appears as if the cat is finally out the bag as a listing for Gran Turismo 6 has appeared on the Sony-managed website gran-turismo.com.

The link to Gran Turismo 6 has since been removed, but it originally led to a blank page with no additional details. Sony is expected to officially announce the game at an event in the U.K. later today at the Silverstone circuit.

Let the waiting game begin.

Via: Joystiq

TERA‘s latest update is now live adding a new raid, new achievements, and offering several bug fixes.

The patch adds the Kelsaik raid in both 10 and 20-person mode along with connected achievements for both. Solo or duo queue options are now available for the Champions’ Skyring and the game’s prologue tutorial has been removed.

You can check out the complete patch notes below:

Cool New Stuff

Dust 514 is finally our of beta and to celebrate CCP has released three new purchasable packs for the game, Mercenary, Veteran, and Elite.

The Mercenary Pack will set you back $19.99 and includes boosters, weapons, and dropsuits. The $49.99 Veteran Pack includes both active and passive boosters, a light attack vehicle, and over 200 consumables. Finally, for those who really feel like splashing the cash, there’s the Elite Pack for $99.99, which contains two months worth of each active and passive charge, four weapons, an entire array of dropsuits, and 50 copies of three heavy vehicles.

You can check out a detailed rundown of each pack over on the game’s official website.

Out of Print Clothing—who make t-shirts and other things with images from famous book covers, and then donate a book to the charity Books for Africa—have put a playable game on their website inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby, and if you score 25,000 points in it, they’ll donate a book to B.F.A.

Originally released in 2011, the game is an 8-bit style 2D side-scrolling shooter, which is about as relevant to the original novel as, say, a 3D movie with a hip-hop soundtrack. But it’s for charity, and it’s free, so you really have no excuse not to play it.

There’s also no excuse not to shop their site, which include shirts and other fun stuff inspired by such classic geeky novels as Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, among others.

The game can be found here.

Dark Horse Comics has announced that Fred Van Lente—who previously wrote the comic Halo: Blood Lines as well as issues of The Amazing Spider-Man and Wolverine: First Class—will pen a new Conan The Barbarian miniseries titled Conan And The People of the Black Circle.

An adaptation of an original Conan story by Robert E. Howard, the four issue miniseries will launch October 16, and feature art by Ariel Olivetti, who previously worked with Van Lente on The Incredible Hulk.

Funko has announced that they’ll release a talking Wacky Wobbler bobble-head of The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper sometime about June 20 (the final release date to be determined).

The bobble-head has Sheldon wearing his Superman t-shirt, and spouting such familiar lines as ”You’re in my spot,” “I’m not crazy, my mother had me tested,” and “Bazinga!”

According to Ubisoft creative director Jean-Philippe Caro, the company is currently prototyping a sequel to last year’s ZombieU.

When asked by a Twitter user about whether fans can expect a ZombieU sequel, Caro tweeted back, “Thank you for your interest in zombie. The team is working hard on a prototype. it’s too soon to tell you more.”

Granted—and IGN points this out as well—a prototype does not guarantee a sequel, it’s certainly a step in the right direction. And with Rayman Legends wrapped up, Ubisoft Montpellier is free to move on to their next project. If nothing else, Caro—who acted as director on the first ZombiU—certainly seems interested in it, and by replying to the tweet is intentionally drawing public awareness about the potential for a ZombieU sequel.

Konami will be live streaming a pre-E3 conference on June 6 through GameSpot and their official website.

Announced via Twitter, Konami will broadcast their pre-E3 conference through GameSpot, the GameSpot app on Xbox 360, and on the events page of their official website. The pre-3 show kicks off in 22 days.

Expect news about Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 to come out of the show, in addition to whatever else Konami has up their sleeve.

Naturally, the EGM crew will be on hand covering the event live.

Videogame live stream and eSports vehicle Twitch TV’s Xbox 360 app goes live today.

Twitch TV considers itself to be the “ESPN” of gaming, and hosts a wide array of videogame coverage, notably games that fall under the eSports umbrella, including StarCraft II, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2—and other titles without a “2″ branded in their name.

According to Microsoft’s Major Nelson, Twitch TV has over 800,000 users trimming gameplay and 34 million viewers. The Xbox 360 Twitch TV app will give Gold subscribers access to the 300 most popular Twitch TV streams.

The May 21 Xbox Reveal will also be streamed over Twitch TV, moderated by Major Nelson himself.

While taking questions during a Reddit AMA, Insomniac Games CEO and president Ted Price mentioned that his company is not working on any games for Nintendo’s Wii U.

“Wii U is something I’d consider more current ten—but we’re not working on games for it,” Price posted. “When it comes to PS4 I’m excited that they seem to [be] lowering barriers for independent developers. It’s cool to see almost weekly announcements from Sony explaining how they’re opening things up for indies. And of course I’m very excited to see what Microsoft announces soon.”

Price also touched upon their upcoming third-person co-op shooter Fuse’s absence from the PC scene.

“We wanted to make sure that we nailed it on Xbox 360 and PS3 before considering anything else,” Price wrote. “New IP, new engine [and] tools, new publishing partner. There was a lot of ‘new’ on the project.”

When asked about release Fuse PC—as well as other Insomniac games—Price replied tersely, “Maybe…stay tuned.”

Fuse lights up PS3 and Xbox 360 May 28 in North America, May 31 in Europe.

A new trailer for Killzone Mercenary contains about a minute of Helghast heads being blown off.

The PS Vita exclusive side story puts players in control of Arran Danner, a former UCA soldier turned mercenary, who gladly accepts missions from both warring factions—so long as the price is right. Mercenary is the second handheld spinoff in the Killzone series, following 2006′s Liberation for PSP.

Killzone Mercenary launches on PlayStation Vita September 17 in North America, September 18 in Europe.

D3Publisher and Cartoon Network Enterprises are rolling out three new games based on their most popular animated series this fall.

Coming to a smattering of consoles and handhelds are:

• Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! (Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC)
• Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby In 8-Bit Land (Nintendo 3DS)
• Ben 10 Omniverse 2 (Wii U, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3)

“Having the creative talents of these widely popular animated shows working directly with very proven development teams, it has given us the recipe to create the very best and most authentic videogame experiences that will please fans of all ages,” D3Publisher’s vice president of product development Peter Andrew said in the press release.

WayForward Technologies, the team behind last year’s Adventure Time 3DS title, will be developing both the Regular Show game and the second Adventure Time game, which will boast four-player co-op.

The second Ben 10 Omniverse game is being handled by High Voltage Software, the studio behind The Conduit.

All three games are slated for release this fall.

Guild Wars 2‘s Secret of Southsun patch is now live, extending the game’s living story, adding a new mini-game, and adding traps to World vs. World.

Yesterday it was revealed that an expansion pack for Guild Wars 2 is currently being prepared. You can check out the key features of this latest patch below:

Keep the Peace on Southsun Cove

Patch 2.1 Customization for Star Wars: The Old Republic is now live and available to download, adding a new species, character re-customization, and more.

Players can now roll characters as Cathar, or change their existing charter into one thanks to the new design kiosks. The kiosk allows you to completely re-customize your character from hair style to body type. There’s also several new appearance options available to buy from the Cartel Market.

Finally there’s the introduction of the dye module system which allows players to redye their armor a different color.

505 Games and Overkill Software have announced that Payday 2 will no longer be a digital download only release, but will now also be getting a retail release.

The game will be released globally at retail this August on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and will get a digital download on Steam, XBLA, and PSN. You can pre-order the game from GameStop right now for $39.99.

Check out Chris and Josh’s DoubleTake on the game for their impressions on this bank robbery gone south simulator.

Which will you choose? Let us know in the comments below.

Despite stating on several occasions that it would never happen, Trion Worlds has today announced that its MMO RIFT will be going free-to-play next month.

The F2P option will be added on June 12 with the usual leveling experience being offered for free and items such as cosmetics and consumables being offered in the cash shop. An optional subscription will still be available for those who wish to use it.

“We have been listening to feedback from our players and watching the continuously developing MMO community, and are now ready to launch RIFT as a premium free-to-play experience,” said Bill Fisher, creative director. “After taking our time and planning a careful transition; we are very excited to bring an enhanced game experience to everyone, without barriers.”

Trion will offer current and previous subscribers a boost in the form of loyalty and currency bonuses. Update 2.3 will kick off RIFT‘s F2P charge by adding a new zone, world event, chronicle, and more.

EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR METRO 2033. IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED METRO 2033, YOU MAY WISH TO TURN BACK. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.

Three years ago, THQ released a first-person shooter called Metro 2033 to little fanfare. Based on a self-published book of the same name, the game found a niche among those looking for more than the standard military-shooter experience. Players embraced a rich, enthralling story—even if the gameplay itself was flawed and ultimately detracted from the experience.

Back in the present day, that cult status has given 2033’s sequel, Metro: Last Light, a groundswell of buzz. Looking to deliver an even more in-depth experience and to fix the technical problems of the past, developer 4A Games has overcome mid-process publisher problems to deliver a game that picks up on Artyom’s story two years after his initial adventure in post-apocalyptic Moscow. Yes, fans of the novels, I said “Artyom.” Instead of following the storyline of the books—which would carry us right into Metro 2034 and follow Artyom’s friend, Hunter, Metro series author Dmitry Glukhovsky penned an entirely original script that continues Artyom’s tale.

Since Metro 2033 featured multiple endings—one where Artyom destroyed the Dark Ones, (humanoid creatures with charcoal skin and telepathic abilities), and one where he spared them—Glukhovsky and 4A Games looked at gamer tendencies to see how they would proceed. An overwhelming majority of gamers chose to destroy the Dark Ones, so Last Light considers that ending the canonical one.

Artyom’s been plagued with nightmares since the end of the first game, even though many laud him as the hero who saved the Moscow Metro from the insidious Dark Ones. But Artyom knows the truth: He made a terrible mistake when he launched those missiles from the local TV tower. Redemption may be near for Artyom, though, as his good friend and adviser, Khan, says he’s spotted a young Dark One that survived the blast near the Botanical Gardens. If Artyom can save this child, he hopes that he can still save what’s left of his scarred soul. Unfortunately for him, the other factions within the Metro have plans for Artyom—and this young Dark One as well.

As one of those fans of the first Metro, I was blown away by how far Last Light has come compared to its predecessor. If you thought the narrative was intriguing before, now it’s downright intoxicating. The game’s pacing and levels are broken up like chapters of a book—a clear indication of Glukhovsky’s involvement—each introduced by Artyom’s narration, which allows for both simple character development as well as a streamlined setup for the action. And if you want more of Artyom’s inner voice brought to the forefront, the game includes 43 collectible journal entries that flesh out the longer sequences and Artyom’s thinking.

The story’s constantly moving forward, which helps the pacing and narrative tremendously. The game offers few optional missions, and the ones that are included are well hidden within the context of the happenings around you; this way, even if you miss them, you probably won’t realize it.

When you combine how the plot unfolds with the brilliantly designed world of the Metro, you have one of the most immersive, atmospheric experiences you’re likely to get on consoles. I wish some survival-horror games would take a page out of Metro: Last Light’s book when it comes to building tension and atmospheric presence; I couldn’t put my controller down, as I got sucked into Artyom’s sad existence. Yet I was still in awe and aware of Artyom’s insignificance compared to the sprawling mass of Metro tunnels or to the ruins of Moscow’s mightiest monuments on those rare sojourns to the surface, which only sucked me further down the rabbit hole.

The improved graphics definitely help here; many of the creatures, people, weapons, and locations have an intense amount of detail, often so minute that you can actually count how many expended shells are in your six-shooter or watch as the flame of a broken lantern slowly engulfs dried-up cardboard boxes or furniture.

Not all of the creatures are as frightening as the developers intended, however. The Demons and Watchmen from the first game look better than ever, but new monsters that lurk in the water—or are sequence-specific—look like they belong more on a Ray Harryhausen stop-motion stage than they do in a modern game.

The biggest improvement between the two Metro games, however, is clearly in the gameplay. Sure, you’ve still got your typical first-person shooter mechanics, but Last Light also sports an interesting weapon-customization feature. If you’d rather save your military-grade shells (returning as the game’s currency), you can actually make it through most of the game with very few weapon upgrades. I personally picked up only a few along the way and was fine throughout, modifying my pistol so it acted more like a sniper rifle, adding night vision to my assault rifle, and picking up a quad-barreled shotgun along the way that put most any monster down very quickly.

The idea of needing to survive is also still prevalent here. Much like in 2033, keeping an eye on your air supply when in toxic areas, charging your headlamp with a portable generator, and making sure the visor on your gasmask doesn’t crack all add extra tension to several scenarios, where facing off against giant spiders or a Communist patrol are unavoidable.

I realize I keep referring to Last Light as a first-person shooter—and although that’s technically true, that description makes the experience sound more action-oriented than it really is. Sure, you can go through the game guns-a-blazin’, but the true sense of playing in Artyom’s shoes comes when you must play stealthily: trying to time patrol patterns, shooting out ceiling lights with silenced weapons, and making sure dead bodies won’t alert guards. And this leads us into the next major improvement: enemy AI.

Foes will now actively search you out if they suspect you’re near, and they’ll go to great lengths to try to flank you or flush you out with grenades and other tactics. At several points, however, I took advantage of standard stealth strategies to fool the AI and easily overcome drastic numbers disadvantages, meaning that the AI has come far—but not far enough to put Last Light on par with more traditional stealth titles.

The game also makes it more difficult to be stealthy, because it lacks one simple mechanic: dragging away dead bodies. Oftentimes, it wasn’t that I made noise or missed an instant-kill headshot—it was the fact that a guard stumbled upon a corpse strewn across the floor. I’m not expecting Artyom to be like Agent 47 in Hitman, hiding bodies in every container known to man, and I get that his character’s a somewhat-naïve twentysomething, but just let me drag the bodies out of sight!

Despite these flaws—along with the occasional ragdoll-physics glitch and a convoluted user interface for selecting secondary weapons and items—I found Metro: Last Light to be one of the most complete experiences I’ve had from a game in quite some time. The story is all-consuming and made me lose sense of the world around me—and myself—as I poured hours into helping Artyom save the Metro.

Nvidia has announced that its Shield handheld will launch by the end of June and pre-orders will open next week.

The Tegra 4-powered Android handheld will set you back $349.99 and can be pre-ordered from May 20. Nvidia also announced five new games for the handheld, Broken Age, Costume Quest, Flyhunter: Origins, Skiing Fred, and Chuck’s Challenge.

Shield is running Android 4.2.1, has a 5-inch retina display, 16GB of internal storage, a built in mic and GPS. The handheld is also capable of streaming games from your PC, providing that it has a GTX 650 or higher graphics card.

The Nvidia Shield will include two free games: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 and Expendable: Rearmed.

Gaijin Entertainment has announced that its free-to-play military MMO, War Thunder, is heading to PlayStation 4 later this year.

War Thunder features real-time battles between planes, tanks, and warships, and is described as having “intelligent personalization, deeply integrated social capabilities, and innovative cloud options.”

The PlayStation 4 version of the game will feature “smart and easy options to record, stream and share homemade gameplay videos and will have full support of PlayStation Cloud.”

“We’re convinced that our cooperation with Sony will not only make the War Thunder franchise better, but it will give our fans a new level of gaming experience that will figuratively blown their mind,” said Gaijin Entertainment’s Creative Director Kirill Yudintsev.

“Partnering with Sony Computer Entertainment is the most natural progression for the War Thunder brand, from our hugely successful beginnings on PC with more than 1.5 million players, to our recent announcement that War Thunder is under development for mobile devices. We are excited to bring War Thunder to the leading next-generation platform, the PS4.”

A new trailer for Pokemon X and Y has been released showcasing some of the information revealed yesterday.

Yesterday we learnt of four new Pokemon that will appear in the game and also got a look at the game’s male and female heroes. You can check out the new city, characters, and Pokemon in the trailer below.

After that why not head over to this post and read up on these new Pokemon, one of which can be used as a mount.

Bluehole is looking to add some new people to its team to work on a sequel to its MMO TERA, according to a new report.

Korean news site ThisIsGame is reporting that the developer is currently hiring for a sequel and is looking to fill several positions, including server programmers, UI designers and artists.

MMO Culture also believes that this will be a fully fledged sequel to TERA. However, at no point do any of the job listings mention TERA 2, so take this with a pinch of salt for now.

YouTube user “devsain” has posted up a new video which is a best of entry in his Battlefield 3 Shenanigans series, featuring several crazy conversations, impromptu explosions, and my personal favorite, talking tanks.

So if you’re sitting around at work bored then how about you take a few minutes out to watch the video below.

Critically acclaimed shooter Bioshock Infinite has managed to sell over 3.5 million copies since it was released back in March.

The actual total is around 3.7 million which helped the game to become the top-selling console title in March, according to Take-Two. The company also stated that it has seen ”solid demand” for the game’s DLC season pass, which includes access to three upcoming DLC add-ons for the game.

Bioshock Infinite is currently the highest rated game of the year on Metacritic with an average score of 94/100.

Square Enix has gone a little detail crazy today and released a ton of new information on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn‘s monsters, primals, and locations. As well as offering up a new batch of screenshots.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is set to be released this summer for PC and PlayStation 3, with the game’s third beta test scheduled to begin June 3. You can check out all the details below (via Gematsu):

Monsters

Chimera: The origins of this nightmarish combination of lion, goat, and dragon have been furiously debated. Some deem the creature a cruel jest of the gods, while others believe it the twisted creation of forbidden sorcery.

Torama: These predatory quadrupeds are feared for their unrivaled savagery. In the same manner as its close cousin, the coeurl, the torama subdues its prey by unleashing electrical shocks from the two whip-like appendages that frame its fang-lined jaws.

Golem: Golems are magical constructs of clay or stone that have been imbued with temporary life. Ancient tomes claim that the creation of these beings is only possible when the laws of nature are weakened by the chaotic influence of an umbral calamity.

Dullahan: While commonly considered to be a variety of ancient golem, the exact nature of these hulking suits of animated armor is unknown. One theory suggests that they once clad men, and that the original wearer’s soul lingered on after death, doomed to spend the afterlife in a prison of steel.

Mandragonra: The enigmatic mandragora were first observed in the aftermath of the Seventh Umbral Era. It is not known whence they came, or if they even existed prior to the Calamity. There are those who insist that the diminutive seedkin are sentient, but further research is required to confirm such speculation.

Wyvern: The wyvern is a sinuous scalekin that cuts swiftly through the air on large, membranous wings. A less-imposing relative of dragons, wyverns often serve as frontline troops in the endless assault on the fortifications of Ishgard.

Ziz: The beautiful, vibrant coloration of this scalekin’s feathers are a natural indication of its venomous nature. Infamous for supplementing physical attacks with poisonous breaths, it is also capable of impressive bursts of speed, owing to its muscular legs and the purchase afforded by its sharp talons.

Cyclops: The Cyclopes dwell in the western parts of Abalathia’s Spine, and are immediately recognizable by the single eye that dominates their broad faces. Though thickly muscled and possessed of prodigious strength, these dim-witted creatures are often enslaved and used as shock troops by the more cunning beast tribes.

Primals and Beastmen

Ifrit: Ifrit, the incarnation of fire and fury, is worshipped by the lizard-like Amalj’aa tribe. Even amongst the primals, Ifrit is highly given to savagery, his temper quick to erupt in a conflagration of death. His breath ignites the very air, his claws melt the strongest steel, and his twisted horns scorch the heavens. Those who would face him must be prepared to withstand the fires of hell.

The Amalj’aa: The hulking Amalj’aa are a race of nomadic beastmen who inhabit the grasslands of Paglth’an, where they subsist by hunting the native wildlife. These worshippers of the primal Ifrit believe that the region of Thanalan has been purified by sacred flame. In their efforts to reclaim this holy land, Amalj’aa warriors have clashed time and again with the forces of the sultanate of Ul’dah.

Ramuh: Lightning given sage form, Ramuh is venerated by the sylphs. Though depicted in legend as a wise and benevolent elder who harbors ancient secrets, Ramuh is a merciless arbiter of those who would defile the sacred depths of the forest, striking down interlopers with fulminating bolts of lightning.

The Sylphs: A diminutive people who dwell deep within the Black Shroud, sylphs resemble delicate dolls wrapped in vibrant leaves. By and large, these woodland folk hold favorable relations with other races, and have become an almost common sight since a trade in crystals was established. The Garlean invasion of the Black Shroud, however, has quickly soured the sylphs’ view of outsiders.

Garuda: The queen of storms, Garuda is the chosen primal of the Ixal. Though elegant of form and graceful in motion, the capricious and ruthless nature of this bloodthirsty being engenders mindless terror even amongst her devoted worshippers. Her wrath often erupts without warning, and descends upon her victims with unbridled fury.

The Ixal: This aggressive mountain tribe claims the wind-blasted canyons of Xelphatol as their domain. Though their race has long since lost the capability for flight, the feathered beastmen are fervently proud of their vestigial wings. The Ixal stage frequent raids into the Black Shroud, and fell trees to offer in worship to their patron deity, the primal Garuda. Such behavior, however, leads to violent confrontations with the people of Gridania.

Titan: Titan is the indomitable will of the earth made manifest, beloved of the kobold clans. Compassionate and gentle, Titan is as a father to his tunnel-dwelling worshippers. But woe betide those fool enough to provoke this colossus─for when his anger is waked, the very earth trembles and heaves under the unstoppable fury of his mountainous bulk.

The Kobolds: The kobolds are a race of mole-like creatures who have excavated a warren of tunnels beneath O’Ghomoro, a mighty peak rising in northern Vylbrand. Believing the ores of the earth to be a gift of the primal Titan, these subterranean beastmen seek to divine their deity’s teachings through the arts of alchemy and metallurgy. Despite forging a peace agreement with Limsa Lominsa, recent conflicts over mineral deposits have led to a resurgence of hostilities.

Leviathan: Lord of all waters, revered by the ocean-dwelling Sahagin. Lurking in the lightless depths, Leviathan devours all that crosses his path. In ages past, seafaring folk believed that tidal waves were a sign of the great serpent’s wrath, and they sought to appease him with living sacrifices.

The Sahagin: This aquatic race of beastmen reside in a city built at the bottom of the Indigo Deep. Known for attacking ocean-faring ships and dragging sailors screaming into the murky depths, the Sahagin are often the subject of angry and fearful curses on the streets of Limsa Lominsa. Since the advent of the Seventh Umbral Era, these hostile denizens of the sea have taken to seizing territory along the Vylbrand coastline in order to establish new spawning grounds.

Bahamut: Held in duress for aeons within the lesser moon, Dalamud, the elder primal Bahamut broke free of his captivity when the celestial body was wrested from the heavens to descend upon the Battle of Carteneau.

Once freed, the terrible being wrought fiery destruction across the length and breadth of Eorzea, his devastating rampage marking the beginning the Seventh Umbral Era. In the midst of the chaos, however, Bahamut was enveloped in a blinding white light and abruptly disappeared from the skies. None claim to have seen the primal in the five years since.

Odin: A fell knight clad all in black, Odin roams paths long forgotten beneath the canopy of the Black Shroud. There are none now alive who know the truth of when or by whom this elder primal was first summoned into the world. Ever vigilant as he sits astride his mighty steed, Sleipnir, it is said that Odin is drivenly solely by the desire to do battle with worthy foes.

Locations

Limas Lominsa: On the southern coast of the island of Vylbrand, under the shadow of ancient cliffs worn by the relentless onslaught of the Rhotano Sea, lies the marine city-state of Limsa Lominsa.

Said to be blessed by the goddess of navigation, Llymlaen, the city is spread out over countless tiny islands, each connected by sturdy bridges of iron and wood construction, earning her the name the “Navigator’s Veil” from traveling bards who have witnessed the city’s beauty from afar.

Limsa Lominsa is a traditional thalassocracy, with power lying in the hands of the ruling party and its leader, the Admiral. Its economy is driven by shipbuilding, fishing, and blacksmithing, but the majority of wealth comes from the lucrative shipping industry.

To maintain the safety of its maritime routes, the city employs a formidable navy known as the Knights of the Barracuda. However, even in the waters nearby the city, pirate bands run rampant, reaving and pillaging.

Ul’dah: The bustling commercial hub of Ul’dah sits amid the desolate desert landscape of southern Aldenard. The city is organized strategically around the dome-shaped citadel at its center. Its towering fortifications and protective outer walls are visible for malms in all directions, and serve as a stark deterrent to would-be besiegers.

Visitors from every corner of Eorzea come to Ul’dah to partake of the city’s famed recreation, most notably the fighting arenas and gambling halls. Ul’dahn culture is known for its affluence, and the wealth of the nation comes in large part from its abundant mineral resources and prestigious clothcrafting industry.

Historically, it is the sultan who claims sovereignty over Ul’dah, but true power is wielded by the Syndicate, an elite group of six of the most influential and richest members of society. Nald’thal is the patron deity of the city, and two great halls devoted to his two aspects can be found in the eastern and western sections of the city.

Gridania: In the eastern reaches of the Aldenard landmass, home to vast, dense woodlands and coursing rivers, lies the forest nation of Gridania. The cityscape is a mosaic of labyrinthine waterways and great wooden structures, so gracefully constructed they seem a part of the surrounding environment.

The Gridanian emphasis on natural harmony has led to its preeminence among Eorzea’s city-states in trades such as forestry, agriculture, carpentry, and leatherworking. Gridania is also home to the Wood Wailers, a militant band of polearm-wielding sentries charged with the protection of their homeland.

The favored goddess of the citizenry is Nophica, the Matron, but great faith is also placed in the wisdom of the Seedseers—young oracles who guide the nation based on the will of the forest’s elementals.

Capcom has announced that Ace Attorney 5 will be coming to North America and Europe as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 5 – Dual Destinies.

The game will be released digitally via the 3DS eShop this fall, according to Capcom. You can check out an English trailer below.

Treyarch has revealed that yet another double XP weekend is heading to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, except this time it’s double weapon XP on offer.

A new in-game message has revealed that starting this Friday, May 17 players can enjoy double weapon XP all weekend. The message reads (via MP1st):

“Don’t even think about resting those thumbs, because Double Weapon XP weekend is coming this Friday, May 17, starting at 10am/PDT and running though Monday, May 20 at 10am/PDT.”

Via: MP1st

Microsoft is busy constructing a venue for its highly anticipated Next Xbox reveal which is happening on May 21.

Aaron Greenberg, chief of staff for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business, and Larry Hryb, director of programming forXbox Live, tweeted pictures of the construction.

Microsoft will reveal its next generation console at an event on May 21 at its Redmond, Washington headquarters.

The house that Xbox built is underway, hopefully we get better weather by the 21st. #XboxReveal sdrv.ms/100FGzK

— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) May 13, 2013

Had a quick lunch with @thevowel then we went to check construction on the #XboxReveal venue twitpic.com/cqd3d3

— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) May 13, 2013

Take-Two has announced the official release date of the latest entry in the WWE franchise, WWE 2K14.

The announcement was made during the firm’s Q4 fiscal 2013 financial results, where the company promised the game would feature Yuke’s “signature gameplay” and “2K’s commitment to authenticity.”

The game will be available from October 29 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Take-Two acquired the franchise from THQ after it went bankrupt earlier this year.

Meltdown London will be offering people a chance to enjoy a nice cold beer while watching livestreams of professional gaming events when it opens in the U.K.’s capital next month.

The venue will stream gaming events and serve alcohol seven days a week once it opens on June 1. It will be the third Meltdown bar to open in Europe, with venues in Paris and Berlin currently.

The company also offers several gaming-themed cocktails such as Blue Flame, Blanka, Force Field, and Dark Ritual. There’s an opening night party on June 1 if you fancy checking it out.

Rockstar has released four new pieces of artwork for Grand Theft Auto V featuring the game’s three main protagonists, Michael, Franklin, and Trevor.

The developer notes that the artwork was featured in the most recent character trailer for the game. You can them out below or head over to Rockstar’s website for full 1080p wallpaper versions.

If you’ve got a few spare minutes then why not take a look at the latest three trailers for the game here. Grand Theft Auto V is set to release September 17 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Fans have been requesting warp cores since Star Trek Online first launched and now they are finally going to get their wish.

Cryptic has announced that the game’s Legacy of Romulus expansion will add a warp core to every ship that a player owns. The core will be a standard issue design which is in line with you rank. Players can purchase new warp cores from the cash shop or with in-game currency.

Of course a new ship feature means several changes will be occurring in the game so you should probably head over to the developer blog about this new addition and read up on the details.