Black Ops II’s campaign takes place in two eras: the 1980′s and a second Cold War in the near future of 2025. Also Alex Mason, protagonist from the first Black Ops returns, bringing his son David Mason into the storyline.

Sit back and enjoy the trailer and check out those horses. Those poor horses.

One thing is for sure, Treyarch have certainly decided to shake things up in the Call of Duty universe.

Apparently a prequel, God of War: Ascension has yet to be officially announced by Sony, however the teaser trailer above and placeholder cover art look awfully authentic. Expect more information to trickle out in the coming days.

“It’s not a revolution, it’s an evolution of the past Halo scores” says Davidge. As you can hear for yourself in the video, the music is noticeably different from the works of Marty O’Donnell but still has that mixture of traditional orchestration mixed with an electronic edge.

I can’t wait to hear it in action later this year.

During their Captivate event in Italy, Capcom unveiled a new trailer for Resident Evil 6 along with a new release date. Originally slated for a November 20 release, RE6 has been moved up nearly two months and will arrive on October 2, 2012.

Check out the latest trailer above for footage of the game along with the reveal of an intriguing new character.

After several weeks of outcry from a portion of Mass Effect 3 fans disappointed with the game’s ending, Bioware have announced an attempt to make things right with the release of free DLC titled “Extended Cut” due this Summer. According to Bioware’s press release, Extended Cut will add “additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes” to give “further clarity to the ending of Mass Effect 3 ” and provide “deeper insights into how their personal journey concludes”.

No word on what specifically is included in the Extended Cut DLC and how much content it adds to the ending of Mass Effect 3, but hopefully this will satiate the disgruntled fans and give them the closure they need.

The Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut DLC will arrive sometime this Summer for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Going by the working title ‘Warhouse’, the map takes place on a mining ship that is symmetrical in shape and designed primarily for Slayer gametypes according to 343′s latest Halo Bulletin:

Because Warhouse is a symmetrical map, our greatest challenge was making sure players know where they are at any given point, and yet having it make sense as an inspiring visual story. There are lots of complex mirrored paths which could be overwhelming, so we had to develop landmarks and key features to give players a sense of unique position.

Adding another layer of complexity to situational awareness was the fact that this map is made entirely of man-made surfaces, with no terrain. Answers came in the form of symmetrical design elements that fit within each side’s geometry and convince players that each side is visually very different.

We wanted this playspace to be similar competition-wise to older symmetrical maps in previous Halos, so we sought influence from those, and also from the industrial close-quarters combat in more recent games. There are many paths from the center room, allowing you to surprise opponents from unexpected directions and separate them from their comrades. There are also numerous over-and-under pathways that can be used to sneak up behind opponents who are holding their ground. Since this map is symmetrical, one team doesn’t have an advantage over the other based on where they spawn or what part of the map they control.

The multiplayer online battle arena game known as Awesomenauts will make it’s long-awaited arrival on consoles beginning May 1 for PSN in North America and May 2 for XBLA and PSN everywhere else. This means you have one short month to stretch and warm-up your fingers before the MOBA chaos ensues. Ronimo Games have stated that Awesomenauts will be priced at $10 for both PSN and XBLA, which is awesomely affordable quite frankly.

Note: If you’re making the trip to PAX East next week, head over to booth 754 and try out the game early.

Transformers fans will get to experience the final days of Cybertron beginning August 28 when Transformers: Fall of Cybertron releases for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Fall of Cybertron is currently being developed by High Moon Studios, makers of the excellent War for Cybertron (2010), and will feature numerous improvements to both the single-player and multiplayer elements of the game.

Plus you can play as Grimlock.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing developer Lesta Studio about the just released Time Machine: Rogue Pilot (PS3 and PC). You may also know them from several notable PC real-time strategy games like Pacific Storm and Reign: Conflict of Nations.

Questions are answered by Lesta Studio’s Lucy Khatajaeva, International Affairs Manager, and Andrey Oleynik, Time Machine: Rogue Pilot’s Lead Programmer.

Why did you choose to bring Time Machine: Rogue Pilot to the PS3?

Lucy: I believe we need to reveal some background to explain the project’s development. If we go back to 2007, we’ll see Lesta Studio’s first casual game, Time Machine: Evolution. It was a PC only match3 game and it did quite well for our first casual experience. Sometime after its launch we realized that our tiles repainting mechanics was perfect for consoles. We had no experience with console titles, so we did some research and decided that our first console game will be developed for PS3. And as far as we had the team and the idea and some sketches, we decided to go for Time Machine: Rogue Pilot.

What was your inspiration for including the time machine storyline?

Andrey: In Time Machine: Evolution players were supposed to pick up materials to build houses in each epoch. It appeared to be rather boring and confusing for players, so in Time Machine: Rogue Pilot we decided to try hidden object missions. Then someone just said “Hey, let’s destroy the anachronisms instead of collecting things”, and that idea actually formed the whole plot.

Lucy: Actually, we’ve had much more ideas that we were going to implement in the storyline, but unfortunately we had to give them up due to the limited resources – the project was more of an experiment, and its team was really small – quite for a while we’ve had one or two guys working on the game simultaneously.

I read that the character model for Ilona was based on someone from the studio. Is this true, and if so how did that happen?

Lucy: Yes, actually it is true. The main character – Ilona – is the project’s Lead Artist Yana. This also comes from the TM:Evolution, Yana was the reference for Ilona there as well. However, Yana’s look changed a lot by the time we started TM:Rogue Pilot development, so did Ilona.

Were there any challenges you faced while bringing the game to the PS3?

Andrey: Time Machine: Rogue Pilot is our first PS3 title, and so the whole project was quite a challenge.

Lucy: If going into details, one of the biggest challenges was quality assurance. We haven’t had our internal QA department when we started the development, and we had to establish it in very short terms. This led to a number of serious issues and delayed the title’s launch, but in the end we got an experienced and professional QA department that we’re actually proud of.

Andrey: Another challenge we faced was implementing the animated backgrounds. It may not be the first thing you notice in the game, but these backgrounds influence the overall impression of the game quite a lot, so we fought for them. And we succeeded:) Besides, we’ve had to face some issues with title’s optimization. You know, it’s really hard to get 60 fps in Full HD, and not so many developers manage to reach it. But we actually did it, which was our internal achievement.

Do you have any gameplay tips for new players?

Andrey: The gameplay is rather easy actually – repaint the tiles to form lines of 3+ tiles of the same color, collect the gems to fuel up your Time Machine, spot the mistakes in hidden object levels and have fun! However, we have some special features that make the gameplay really awesome. For example, the mood-o-meter. It’s the feature we’re really proud of. To activate the superbonus that destroys like half of the tiles on the screen, you need to play really fast and use as many bonuses as possible. The game is really stunning when you play like that.

The music in the game is very good, who composed it?

Lucy: Thank you for the compliment! Actually, the music was composed in-house. We have our internal sound-recording studio and a sound manager/composer, who works on all ambients, sound effects and music for all our projects. And not for the games only, but also for our video production department’s projects as well. These include movies, TV series, TV commercials, trailers, and many others.

Any plans to bring Time Machine: Rogue Pilot to other platforms like the PS Vita, iOS, Xbox 360, etc.

Andrey: Actually we have already launched Time Machine: Rogue Pilot on PC. As for the other platforms, we’re currently evaluating the opportunities. If we decide to bring this game to other platforms, we would probably go for iPad.

What is the game development scene like in Russia?

Andrey: You might be surprised, but the games development industry is rapidly developing in Russia. It is a well known fact that most of the hit casual games come from Russia and CIS, and right now we’ve got quite a lot of really good studios here that make really good games.

Lucy: The industry is very interesting, but we also have some local issues to deal with. For example, the laws in the IT are sometimes rather obscure. Still, to my mind, the biggest issue is that the western companies are not comfortable with investing in Russia. But things are changing, the world knows great games from local companies, and they know these games are not made by some vodka-drinking-bears, so I’m sure in the coming years we’ll see a remarkable growth of top-ranking titles developed in Russia. Lesta Studio will see to it:)

For those unfamiliar, describe Lesta Studio and its history.

Lucy: Well, Lesta Studio was founded back in 1991 as a video production company. We’ve been working on video production and development, computer animation, special audio and video effects, and so on. In 2002 we entered games industry with The Entente WWI Battlefields – our experimental strategy game, and it was quite a success. So we established a games development department, that’s been rapidly growing ever since.

Andrey: We released dozens of games, in different genres and for different platforms, including the award-winning and best of E3 nominee Pacific Storm. Somewhere in the end of 2006 we established a casual games department as a part of games development team, and these guys have already launched 6 casual games, including Time Machine: Rogue Pilot and its recent hit Nightmare Realm. So, right now games development is our priority area, but we still have the video guys that work really hard and do a great job!

Where does Lesta Studio go from here? What are your next projects?

Lucy: Well, right now our biggest in-development project is World of Battleships – MMO Action game we’re working on in close cooperation with Wargaming.Net. Navy is one of our main interests – our CEO is a former sailor, and our city – St. Petersburg – is a port. The sea has always been an important part of our lives here. So this is something we’re really excited about! Besides, our casual games department is working on a couple of unannounced projects, and as a casual gamer myself I can already tell these are going to be hits.

The sultry ass-kicker Bayonetta will be making a cameo as a playable character in the upcoming online beat ‘em up Anarchy Reigns, according to Japanese magazine Famitsu. Since Bayonetta is an IP owned by Platinum Games, developer of both titles, this doesn’t come as a total shock. Bayonetta will be available as a pre-order bonus in Japan when the game releases there this July (under the name Max Anarchy). No word yet on a North America or European release date.

Bayonetta will be joining Jack Cayman from Platinum’s MadWorld, who will be appearing as a playable character in Anarchy Reigns as well.

Now we just need that Bayonetta sequel we’ve been asking for.