It’s always tough to accurately portray a warzone. You don’t want to be insensitive but show too little and it may as well be Cold War propaganda but show too much and things very easily become ridiculous and that’s when you start to lose the player. The development team for Spec Ops: The Line has been constantly aware of this according to senior designer Shaun Frison when he recently spoke to RPS.

Frison says that the team has navigated the narrow line between “messed up” and “gore porn” in order to capture horrors of war as best they could although it’s very difficult to keep the scale from tipping to God of War levels of gratuitous violence.

“I think it’s a really fine line,” said Frison. “It’s something that we have really struggled a lot with while making the game. How do you show how messed up all of this is and then moving into gore porn or gun porn. I think there’s less risk of that 20 years ago because people hadn’t gotten so used to it, but it’s become such a huge part of gaming, that it’s fun to make somebody’s body explode.

“It’s difficult to say, ‘This is happening because this is what happens in war,’ rather than, ‘This is happening because it’s fucking awesome.’”

Spec Ops is set in the ruined remains of Dubai following a killer sandstorm and ever since the game resurfaced last year, it has been looking more like a survival horror with clear similarities to Apocalypse Now although Heart of Darkness has also been cited as a source of inspiration. In addition to managing the gore, it’s been tough to set just the right tone and atmosphere for the game.

“We have you joyfully bombing the hell out of people, which gives a sense of power, but then you have to go down and walk through the aftermath of what you actually did, so you get both sides. The fun side and then the regret of what you did. I think the fact that it felt fun makes the impact that much worse.”

Check out the interview up top. Unfortunately, as awesome as Spec Ops looks, it’s been pushed back from it’s April/May release to the first half of publisher Take Two’s fiscal 2013 so that’s any time between April and October effectively. It’ll eventually release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Here, have some screenshots if you really want to see more. Oh and those sacks next to Frison in the interview are filled with PoW’s (Potatoes of War).

Fortunately, this doesn’t affects us here in South Africa. Capcom has confirmed that the European release date for Asura’s Wrath has been delayed by two weeks.

Capcom confirmed to MCV that the game will now release on PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 9 in the UK. However, it will be out in South Africa on the 24th of February.

We’re not quite sure what the reasons for the delay are, but we did hear about pre-order bonuses for the game, which include the Devastator and Infinity DLC packs. These two packs together add four new game modes. Perhaps even UK retailer problems.

Don’t be afraid, we’ll be alright.

Be sure to read our preview on the game if you haven’t already.

The sixth entry in the Yakuza franchise, Yakuza: Dead Souls, has been given a release date by SEGA, so if you’re looking forward to this PlayStation 3 exclusive title then you’d better mark March 16 on your calender.

If you’ve been an early follower of this title then you’d most probably know it by its Japanese name, Yakuza: Of The End. While the game may have released last year in Japan, it was confirmed back in October that it would be making its way to North America and Europe in March of 2012, renamed Yakuza: Dead Souls. Now we have the exact date.

The zombie action title sees the series’ main protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu, and other playable characters fighting against the undead in Kamurocho.

Fighting games and I have a real love-hate relationship. I really enjoy them; right up until a friend comes over, hits the gamepad with their face and ends up winning matches. The other possibility is I practice, unlock every character and refine my skills, only for the game to then become less enjoyable with friends because I can just cream them. There are exceptions to this however, take Mortal Kombat for example, it’s not only fun to master but easy to enjoy and all my friends actually bought it. So Soul Calibur 5, is it any good? Well I should say so, it may be my first real experience with the Soul Calibur series but I know the genre well and it was definitely better than I expected.

Let’s start with the story, well Soul Calibur 5 definitely takes its story quite seriously, more serious than most in fact. Soul Calibur 5, in true fighting game style, leaves little to be desired and despite trying hard is quite cheesy. It’s called 1607 A.D., taking place 17 years after Soul Calibur IV and revolves around a young Patroklos searching for revenge and the two swords Soul Calibur and Soul Edge. Without giving too much away it is rather predictable and not exactly award winning but that really doesn’t matter does it. The story pushes you forward and keeps combat from being nothing but match after match, occasionally letting you duke it out against adversaries you otherwise wouldn’t get to fight. It is interesting at times and despite its flaws, much more enjoyable than many of the dry story modes served up with most fighting games.

Apart from the story mode, there’s all the sorts of offline modes you’d expect; arcade mode, versus mode, a quick battle mode, a training mode and a legendary souls mode. Legendary souls mode is for the more hardcore player and offers a more difficult arcade mode. Quick battle mode presents you with 4 custom characters (I’ll get to that in a minute) to which you can either challenge or swap out for 4 more characters to challenge. Each battle earns you titles, experience to level up and occasionally a fighting style. Of course there’s an online mode and contains all the features you’d expect from a current-gen fighting game; ranked matches, unranked matches and a rather interesting mode called global colesseo. Global colosseo mode places all players who join into a sort of randomly generated tournament where you move up as you win matches, leading to the two best players to duke it out in the finals. I did try this mode and it was very enjoyable but be warned, there are some insane players coming off of previous Soul Calibur games.

The result of playing online with little to no experience.

Character creation, told you I’d get to it, is back and far more creative and approachable than in Soul Calibur IV; and even more so as you unlock items by levelling up your rank. In character creation you are allowed to customise almost every aspect of what your character wears and what colour or pattern that item should have. This aesthetic skin is placed over the fighting style of a chosen character within the game and makes for a great way to individualise yourself from everyone else who chose the same character. Speaking of characters, there are a few new and many old faces to pit against each other. Of course guest character Ezio from Assassin’s Creed is present and has quite a unique fighting style to match his personality and well… career. It’s one of the larger rosters in the series and maintains a balance of unique fighters who each makes use of a very specialised fighting style. I’m surprised they wrung so much balance out of a weapon system that would seem to make combat quite chaotic.

Gameplay is where Soul Calibur has seen its biggest changes and quite a large change to what was considered the staple mechanics of the Soul Calibur series. Critical finishes and its accompanying soul gauge have been removed so there are no more instant kill opportunities in Soul Calibur V. Armour remains destructible but there is no longer a meter to gauge how destroyed a piece of armour is; the only sign your armour is wearing down is when it shatters off of your character should they take too many heavy blows. Additionally, and to allow for a set of super moves, rather than instant kills, there is a new super gauge that as it fills allows you to use ‘brave’ and ‘critical’ edge attacks that deal heavy damage. They work well enough and seem to balance out the style of combat the character uses; so some more damaging but harder to get in and this will correspond with the tank like character Nightmare. 8-Way-Run (I’m sure they could’ve thought of a better name) allows characters to easily side step their adversary with a quick double-tap of either up or down; something that is crucial in this game as blocking is nowhere near as effective as avoiding an attack all together. I should say that this aspect of combat is rather balanced and means that you can either block, a far easier move to execute, but leaves you open to grabs and other moves. Or you can dodge, which is harder to do as the opponent may read your manoeuvre, opening you to attack but also allowing for retaliation if done right. The final mechanic is called ‘just guard’ and if done correctly results in a ‘perfect’ guard, allowing for a considerably shorter time required countering the opponent. All in all the combat is quite balanced and seems to favour all styles of combat while not making any specific character overbalanced or open to exploit. There are a few characters who are still able to spam a move and create annoying situations though I am yet to play a fighting game where that isn’t the case to some extent.

Yoshimitsu using a critical edge.

Speaking of gameplay, the A.I can be quite brutal at times, something you’d expect from a fighting game, but can also be a bit dim-witted at the easier settings. That’s easy to get around and a quick change of the difficulty will fetch a more suited experience. There is one strange occurrence however, and seems to occur in modes like quick battle where different levels of character difficulty are meshed into one mode. What seems to happen is you’ll choose an adversary who seems relatively easy for the first round and about half way into another round when all of a sudden their difficulty kicks up 10 levels and you get creamed. The other aspect of A.I that might frustrate those new to the series, and without at least some modest level of skill, you might find the last stages of story mode to be surprisingly difficult when all previous matches were far less challenging. None of these A.I faults are game wrecking but can be annoying at times.

The one clear improvement over any other iteration in the series is obviously visuals. Soul Calibur V is a very pretty fighter and makes every effort to squeeze all the detail it can into its characters and levels. To work wonders with the visuals is a fitting and enjoyable sound track as well as smooth framerates, something vital to any tournament level fighter. Soul Calibur V is definitely one of the better looking fighters and makes up for what it lacks in some of the characters voices.

Soul Calibur is an enjoyable game, a great online fighter and will look good for a time to come. Its gameplay isn’t exactly new and employs many of the same characters the series has carried over since the first iteration. It’s definitely an evolution of the series rather than a revolution and despite being the same Soul Calibur we’ve come to expect, it does it rather well. The few hiccups it has are easily outweighed by its strengths and while it may not be my favourite fighter ever, it is far from my least.

According to a tweet by Future Shop Gamer, who attended the Destination PlayStation event, Square Enix has lifted the lid on Sleeping Dogs, a new game due to release in August for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

If you’re a little in the dark about this, then let’s backtrack to just about over two weeks ago, when Square Enix filed a trademark for the title “Sleeping Dogs” and we were speculating that it had to do with a new Kane & Lynch game. Turns out, that’s not what it is. Fortunately.

Back to the present, Future Shop also put out an image for the game, which has quite a resemblance to True Crime: Hong Kong. If you’re unsure of the significance in this, well, it’s the game Square Enix took control over after Activision left it about halfway into its development.

Sleeping Dogs is currently in development by United Front Games, with Square Enix London Studios acting as supervisors. The latter would be the same office that saw to Batman: Arkham Asylum and Just Cause 2.

Due to the fact that Square Enix didn’t buy the rights to the IP, the game had to be renamed from True Crime: Hong Kong before it sees the light of day.

“When we first saw and got our hands on the game we fell in love with it,” said Lee Singleton, Square Enix London Studios’ general manager, last year.

“When we met the team at United Front Games it was a done deal in our eyes – we instantly recognised the huge potential in the game and the team.

“UFG is an incredibly talented team, who have individually worked on some of the biggest games in our industry, and this talent shines through from the moment you walk in the door.

“It’s one of those games where you don’t want to put the controller down; it’s what we call ‘sticky’.”

Then all the way back in February of 2011, Activision Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg said the following about the project after it was cancelled:

“Even our most optimistic internal projections show that continued investment was not going to lead to a title at, or near, the top of the competitive open world genre.

“In an industry where only the best games in each category are flourishing, to be blunt, it just wasn’t going to be good enough.”

It will be very interesting to see the outcome of this now, all things considered.

A new trailer for I Am Alive has been released, and it focuses entirely on the importance of climbing in the game. It’s only about a minute in length, so don’t expect to see a whole lot.

In fact this trailer doesn’t really make the game look all that interesting. Not like the last one, which was pretty awesome. Still, it’s cool to see more of this exciting downloadable game.

I Am Alive will be out on Xbox Live on March 7, with a PlayStation Network date still to be announced.

The last we saw of The Amazing Spider-Man was a screenshot that had a similar visual style to Mirror’s Edge, mostly with the city’s white and blue colour scheme.

Now, The Amazing Spider-Man’s lead designer revealed some new details to fans on the game’s official Facebook page. First on the list was a confirmation of the game’s return to its open world setting, despite the fact that the announcement trailer already made it pretty clear.

The developer said: “Our game brings back free-roaming in Manhattan, where you guys will be able to swing around and discover a variety of side missions, challenges and mini-games in addition to the main storyline.”

And when asked about any new Spidey abilities, the developer touched on one of the game’s new mechanics called “Web Rush”.

“We introduce an all-new gameplay mechanic called the Web Rush, which gives players real-time navigational and combat choices,” they said. “Web Rush can be triggered on the fly, at any moment and immediately presents you with a variety of situational choices, letting you pull off Spidey’s signature moves like never before.”

I guess all we can do is wait for more gameplay footage.

Okay, they’re actually just plain gorgeous but I needed a desert hook. Spec Ops was believed to have been KIA until it emerged from the depths towards the end of 2011 and is now looking very promising indeed.

The game has changed its colours somewhat and looks to be tending towards a survival horror rather than the all-out action title it was revealed as back in 2009. The game is set in a desolate and ruined Dubai with sand playing a key role in gameplay. Get a look at the latest gameplay here and if you’re not satisfied, get a load of some more.

The game is sizing up to be very different from other entries in the third-person shooter genre, especially given the relatively humdrum military background of the characters, and should be a unique experience at the very least.

As it is, Spec Ops: The Line is looking fantastic and seems to still be on course for its release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime in May.

Naughty Dog’s all new game, The Last of Us, is definitely in the spotlight right now, and practically everyone interested is dying to see some actual gameplay footage.

It also doesn’t help that we’re getting so little details about the game. We saw the debut trailer at the 2011 VGAs, heard a description from the developers regarding the lead protagonist, and received a few gameplay details just a few days ago. That about sums it all up.

And now we’re getting tiny tidbits of information again.

This time it’s from a poster on NeoGAF, who has read the latest issue of Game Informer and taken the liberty of putting it all online.

Firstly, according to the posted details from the mag, Ellie is a 14 year old orphan living in a military quarantine zone. She has only ever known the apocalyptic world seen in the debut trailer, the one destroyed by a fungal outbreak. As a result, she is fascinated by past relics such as books and CDs.

Joel on the other hand, is roughly in his late 40s and is actually a weapons and drugs smuggler, which explains his dark character. He moves his cargo in and out of military-guarded checkpoints.

The fungal outbreak, or infection, that has decayed humanity is apparently able to be transferred through the air. However, for that to happen it needs a high concentration of the infected spores in a small area. The military keep watch at their checkpoints and any people showing signs of being infected are immediately executed. But the interesting part is that according to the information, you’ll be up against humans more frequently than the infected, as humans are the focus.

Personally, what I liked to hear is that Naughty Dog is crafting a self-contained plot for the game, so by the end of it there won’t be any loose ends. A complete game is always good.

The game begins with Joel trying to smuggle Ellie out of a safe zone, because he promised a dying friend that he’d get her to safety. Interestingly enough, their relationship was compared to Hollywood movies like True Grit and Road to Perdition. As you’d expect, things don’t quite work out for Joel, and the two of them end up being hunted by the military.

With its graphics, The Last of Us is apparently inspired by something called “Ruin Porn”, which is a kind of photography that involves capturing images of ruins overgrown by nature. The AI will be very involved, and a lot of work is going into it, especially Ellie’s AI. The AI will use something called a “balance of power” system, where enemies will remain in cover and try to flank you if you’re armed with a gun, but if you’re only equipped with a melee weapon then they will rush you and attempt to overwhelm you. Enemies will also react to what happens around them. They will anger if their friends die, issue warnings when in danger, and get frightened if they’re in trouble. Ellie can help out in combat, such as by throwing a brick to stun enemies and allow Joel to get up close.

The action in the game will be heavily centered around melee combat. Environmental objects like bricks and planks of wood can be used to fight enemies. Guns will be included, but ammo will be rare. However, what’s really interesting is that enemies will often be killed from a single bullet. There will also be platforming and puzzle solving sections in the game, which will involve both the main characters.

There will be health packs in the game, but it takes time to use them, so bullets are lethal to players as well, and avoiding direct confrontation is encouraged.

The game is both very violent and vulgar. There will be tons of swearing, which I’m not too thrilled about personally, as well as gory action. It was said, however, that over time Ellie’s combat proficiency will increase, but Naughty Dog hasn’t given any details about that yet.

Regarding an online mode, the game’s director, Bruce Straley, revealed that the game is “going to have some sort of online component” and said: “we’re working on a bunch of ideas, but we haven’t nailed anything down. We definitely know it’s going to be awesome.”

It’s definitely a lot to digest, but all it does for me personally is make me all the more excited to see gameplay footage. The Last Of Us will be out only on PS3 at the end of this year, or early next year.

Kazunori Yamauchi, the famous creator of the Gran Turismo series, has revealed to fans that another update is coming to GT5, and it’s just around the corner.

Yamauchi made the announcement on his Twitter page, confirming that the update will launch on February 7, which is tomorrow. However, the man didn’t give any details about the patch itself, so we don’t really know what’s coming.

Despite my personal feelings about Gran Turismo 5, I have to give the developers credit for keeping it updated for so long, and showing dedication to bettering the experience.

Let’s hope it keeps improving.

You’ll have to decide for yourself whether there are any real spoilers in the list of Achievements for Mass Effect 3 but here it is for all you Trophy mongers and Achievement whores. We don’t know about you but this list will definitely give Cavie many sleepless nights and a lot of trouble come March 9.

There’s a total of 50 Achievements with a combined total of 1000 MS Points. Get a good look at the list over at Xbox360Achievements.

Naughty Dog’s latest project is The Last of Us, an action title with more than a hint of I Am Legend to it. Check out the debut trailer here, to see what I’m on about. So yesterday we found that this new game really looks to be something entirely different from anything Naughty Dog has done before given that the protagonist is best described as a violent thug, brutal killer and torturer.

Anyway, some new details have dropped for the game and you may want to listen up. Players follow Joel and Ellie as they navigate their own version of post-apocalyptica while scavenging supplies and melee weapons which will break after repeated use. There are boom sticks as well for those who want to hunt for ammo too.

According to Game Informer, Ellie will be a non-playable companion so there goes any hope of co-op. What is mentioned though is that she “managed to keep up, yet stay out of the way.” Now that is something.

Below you’ll see some screenshots, those are apparently in-game not fancy CGI like the trailer.

The Last of Us is scheduled for release in early 2013 and should be something special.

If Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is anything as good as it’s shaping up to be then anyone who picks it up is likely to spend the next few months with it but if you’re a speed freak, you could be over it in just over a week or 200 hours if that’s a better number for you.

That’s a lot of time to spend with any game and it’s got the lead designer from 38 Studios worried that they might have just overdone things a bit. Ideally, the bigger the RPG the better because that’s just how it is with these things but there’s a point where effort turns to overkill. Speaking to Strategy Informer at a recent EA event, lead designer Ian Frazier said that even the QC people who have been testing the game for months now are clocking in at around 8 days to get through all that is KoA: Reckoning.

“That means easy difficulty, skip all cut scenes and dialogue, sprint everywhere that’s sprintable, fast travel everywhere you can, don’t do any combat you don’t need to do… that all took around 200 hours, and that was a speed run.”

The main quest only sets you back between 30 – 40 hours so you’d expect to be getting a great deal of bang for your buck and then some but just hold onto your vale-finding socks because Amalur might not have the steam to keep you going for those 200 hours.

“I think in terms of a selling point – bang for your buck – I think it’s great. It should be on the back of the box. But as a developer I have to look at it and think “did we overdo this?” I really don’t know.”

With any luck, these worries are unfounded but you’ll just have to see for yourself when Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning comes your way next week on PS3, PC and Xbox 360.

This is interesting news because Naughty Dog seems to be going in a completely different direction than Uncharted, where the protagonist was an adventure hero.

The Last Of Us protagonist, Joel, may in fact be a very bad person. Definitely not your typical good guy hero.

A recent Naughty Dog video that shows off some mo-cap footage also includes some descriptive narration about Joel. The narration is actually from the game’s other lead character, young Ellie, and it reads as follows:

“He’s been called a violent thug, a brutal killer and a torturer. Me? He’s just Joel to me. Back in his day you weren’t afraid of being hunted by other people, and it wasn’t normal for a girl to scavenging the dead and you sure as hell didn’t have to worry about them.”

Personally, this makes the game much more interesting to me.

Furthermore, Joel’s voice actor, Troy Baker, spoke in an interview about the assumed relationship between Joel and Ellie in the game, saying:

“I think what I’ve seen over the last few days, as we’ve been teasing this, is that people think they know what the game is about. People think they know who Joel and Ellie is, and the relationship between the characters. It’s fun to watch from this side because I don’t think anyone really knows.”

The Last of Us is a PS3 exclusive title, but it hasn’t been given a specific release date yet, and right now it looks likely to release at the end of this year or in early 2013.

Be sure to check out the game’s debut cinematic trailer if you haven’t already.

Bethesda has released update 1.4 for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and you can download it through Steam.

The patch will introduce various general performance enhancements, and also contain the usual bug fixes and quest tweaks. Also keep in mind that Bethesda said last month that this update will address the lag issue on the PlayStation 3 version of the game, which is great.

The full list of changes is down below.

General

• Skyrim launcher support for Steam Workshop*
• General optimizations for memory and performance
• Optimized bookshelf script in player-owned houses that would occasionally cause active scripts to lag and also cause an increase to saved games filesize (PS3)
• Improved compiler optimization settings
• Memory optimizations related to scripting
• Fixed crashes related to pathing and AI
• Fixed crash in Haemar’s Shame if player had already completed “A Daedra’s Best Friend”
• Fixed rare crash with loading saved games
• Fixed issue with accented characters not displaying properly at the end of a line
• Fixed issue where quests would incorrectly progress after reloading a save
• Fixed issues with placing and removing books from bookshelves in the player’s home
• Fixed issue where weapon racks and plaques would not work correctly in player’s house if player immediately visits their house before purchasing any furnishing.
• Fixed issue where the player house in Windhelm would not clean up properly
• Fixed crash related to giant attacks and absorb spells
• Fixed issue with ash piles not cleaning up properly
• Fixed occasional issue where overwriting an existing save would fail
• Fixed memory crash with container menu
• Fixed infinite loop with bookshelves
• Fixed issue where traps in Shalidor’s Maze would not work properly in French, German, Spanish and Italian versions
• Fixed issue where transforming back to human from werewolf would occasionally fail
• Bows and daggers will display properly when placed on weapon racks

Quests

• The Unusual Gem inside the Thalmor Embassy is now accessible after finishing “Diplomatic Immunity”
• In “Breaching Security”, the quest token is no longer required to receive a fortune reading from Olava the Feeble
• Fixed issue where Galmar would not complete Joining the Stormcloaks properly if “Season Unending” was an active quest
• Fixed issue where starting “Season Unending” after finishing “Joining the Stormcloaks” would prevent “The Jagged Crown” from starting properly.
• Fixed issue progressing through “Message to Whiterun” while “Season Unending” was still open would block progression for both quests.
• In “Arniel’s Endeavor”, fixed issue where a quest journal would trigger multiple times
• In “Forbidden Legend”, the amulet fragment can no longer disappear after player leaves a dungeon without taking it
• Fixed rare issue in “Forbidden Legend” where killing Mikrul Gauldurson while sneaking would make his corpse unaccessible
• In “The White Phial”, the phial can no longer disappear if player leaves dungeon without taking it
• “The White Phial” will now start properly if player already has a briar heart in their inventory
• Player can no longer get stuck in Misty Grove after completing “A Night to Remember”
• Fixed issue where leaving Riften during “A Chance Arrangement” would prevent quest from progressing
• In “Darkness Returns”, a door in Twilight Sepulcher will properly open if the player leaves the dungeon for an extended period of time before completing the quest
• In “Revealing the Unseen”, if the player leaves the Oculory for an extended period of time after placing the focusing crystal and returns, the quest will proceed correctly
• “Onmund’s Request” will now start properly if player has already found Enthir’s staff before receiving this quest
• Fixed instance where Tonilia would stop buying stolen items and also would not give Guild Leader Armor
• “Repairing the Phial” will start properly if player already has unmelting snow or mammoth tusk in their inventory
• Finding Pantea’s Flute before speaking with Pantea no longer prevents her quest from updating
• In “The Break of Dawn”, fixed rare instance where a quest object would spawn incorrectly on the Katariah during Hail Sithis
• Fixed rare issue in “The Mind of Madness” where player is unable to equip the Wabbajack
• Fixed issue in “Pieces of the Past” where Mehrunes Dagon’s Razor will not trigger properly if player leaves the cell for extended period of time before activating it
• “Blood’s Honor” will start properly if you visited and completed Driftshade and an extended period of time passes before starting the quest.
• Fixed rare issue where “Dampened Spirits” would not start properly
• Fixed issue where killing guards in Cidhna Mine would block progression for “No One Escapes Cidhna Mine”
• Fixed numerous issues with “Blood on the Ice” not triggering properly
• In “Blood on the Ice”, Calixto can now be killed if player owns a house in Windhelm
• In “The Cure for Madness”, killing Cicero then resurrecting him no longer impedes quest progress
• Fixed rare issue in “To Kill an Empire” where an NPC would fail to die properly
• Clearing Knifepoint Ridge before starting “Boethiah’s Champion” no longer prevents quest from starting.

The launch trailer for Big Huge Games’ highly anticipated action RPG, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, has recently been released by EA and 38 Studios.

If you’re interested, you can check it out above. As for the actual game, it will be released on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox360 on February 10 in Europe and here in South Africa.

Be sure to read up on our hands-on preview of the game if you aren’t too sure what this game is about. On the other hand, if you’re eagerly anticipating it, you can try your luck in our competition and stand a chance of winning it on the platform of your choice. The competition ends on February 8.

The PC version of Prototype 2 has been frustratingly delayed by a full three months and, to make matters worse, no specific reasons have been given whatsoever.

Gamers looking forward to Radical Entertainment’s Protoype 2 on PS3 or Xbox360 will get to see it release on April 27, 2012, but unfortunately PC gamers will have to wait until July 24, which is very disheartening.

The developers made this announcement on their Facebook page, literally giving no reasons at all for the delay. The post reads as follows:

“Hey all, we just wanted to let you know that the PC version of PROTOTYPE 2 is unfortunately going to be delayed until July 24th. Radical Entertainment has always been extremely dedicated to all our fans, and we just wanted to make sure you heard the news from us FIRST. We’ll share more details with you soon.”

I guess we all know the reason is probably piracy. I mean the game is being published by Activision after all. But that doesn’t really make the pill any easier to swallow.

Square Enix has very recently unveiled the launch trailer for Final Fantasy XIII-2, which released yesterday in North America, and is due to arrive on February 3 in Europe and here in South Africa.

The trailer isn’t that long and doesn’t show much, but it’s flashy and has pretty cool music, so I guess it’s worth taking a look at if you’re looking forward to the game. Check it out up top.

There are pre-order bonuses and then there’s Radical Entertainment’s idea of a pre-order bonus. Those who put their name down for Prototype 2 before the game releases will get what’s called the Radnet Edition at no extra cost. It’s a growing trend amongst developers and publishers but usually amounts to little more than an extra weapon or multiplayer skin and occasionally even an artbook. However, this one’s a bit different.

Those who get it will get a one-time use code that opens them up to 55 pieces of varied additional content. These range from bonus mutations and challenges, to Avatar items (Xbox 360)/ animated themes (PS3) and behind-the-scenes videos and more. The additional content will be doled out over 7 weeks from April 24 when the game releases to June 7. There will also be weekly themed rewards which can be won by achieving a bronze medal or higher and a minimum threshold score in that week’s challenges; those who participate in every week’s challenges will win what Activision has dubbed “the ultimate shape-shifting prize,” which will be unveiled in March.

Read up on the Radnet Edition here or just watch the trailer up top. Prototype 2 is out for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on April 24. This may go down as one of the better pre-order bonuses, just maybe.

There have been five main games so far in the Twisted Metal series, of course not counting the two spin-offs in 2001 and 2002, with the most recent title being 2008′s Twisted Metal: Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition, which was a PlayStation 2 port of the 2005 PSP title Twisted Metal: Head On. All titles considered, that makes Twisted Metal (2012) the eighth entry in the franchise, and marks the series’ first appearance on next-gen consoles. So, what exactly are we in for? Let’s take a look.

Name: Twisted Metal
Genre: Action, Vehicle Combat
Players: 1
Multiplayer: Offline and online split-screen (4 players), Competitive (16 players)
Platforms: PS3 Exclusive
Developers: Eat Sleep Play
Publishers: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release Date: 14 February 2012 (NA), 17 February 2012 (EU, SA)

The game was originally meant to release in October 2011, but was delayed to February 14, 2012 so that it could receive more polish and be “the best Twisted Metal game ever made”, according to developer Eat Sleep Play co-founder David Jaffe. This will be the series’ first appearance on next-gen consoles after all, and fans have huge expectations of it. According to Jaffe, when it comes to story the game will stick to its original concept, where players will compete in Calypso’s Twisted Metal Tournament in order to win and earn their prize. You’ll get to choose which character you want to play the story mode with and, while there won’t be many choices, the available characters will have the option of faction gameplay online. The characters that will be included are Sweet Tooth (The Clowns), Dollface (The Dolls), Mr. Grimm (The Skulls) and the Preacher (The Holy Men), and these make up four factions in the game. Each character can use any vehicle, and each of them will have three different endings to their storylines depending on action taken in the game and the difficulty setting.

However, Twisted Metal’s main attraction is most definitely not the single-player component, as its always been heavily focused on its crazy multiplayer. It’s all about over-the-top vehicle combat, and the game aims to outdo everything the series has done in the past. With regards to content, in addition to the single-player modes, you’ll be able to play split-screen both offline and online with up to 4 players, as well as head into competitive multiplayer with up to 16 players through PlayStation Network. With a variety of game modes including series’ classics as well as completely new ones, and the promise of being able to unleash massive amounts of destruction in brand new, never before seen Twisted levels, this looks to be gearing up to be a winner, and an early triumph for the PlayStation 3 this year.

Twisted Metal isn’t just about whacky fun though, as it’s actually also a strategic game. And there are plenty of new features on offer that look set to evolve the game’s scope beyond its predecessors and change the way it’s played. For starters, there will be over a dozen Twisted vehicles to choose from, and each of them will come equipped with kick-ass weapons to brutally and tactically take apart your enemies, as well as two special abilities unique to each vehicle. While the game will feature many returning vehicles from previous titles, there will also be a lot of new ones to choose from, such as the Death Warrant, which is a 2005-2009 Ford Mustang, the Road Boat, which is an armored 60′s Cadillac sedan, the Vermin, which is a rodent catcher van, and some other fun cars like the Juggernaut, Kamikaze and Meat Wagon. On top of this, the game will feature aerial combat, which is significant because flight is actually a first for the series. Examples of this would be in some of the game’s new vehicles, like the Talon, which is a helicopter equipped with a minigun turret, and a custom chopper dubbed the Reaper. Oh, and don’t worry, Motorbikes are still here, so there’s lots to smile about.

The staple gameplay has players speed around in vehicles, armed to the teeth with explosive weaponry, attempting to obliterate their enemies. However, variety is key to the experience, and it won’t only come from the environments, weapons and vehicles, but also from the various game modes, which offer some exciting twists. You’ll get your standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes, and then you’ll also get modes like Race, where players must get to checkpoints as fast as they can, Endurance, in which players must survive against respawning enemies until death, Team Hunted, where a player on each team is chosen as the Hunted and will be a target to everyone on the opposing team, and Last Man Standing, where each player has a specific amount of lives and the last surviving player is deemed the winner. There’s also a new online game mode called Nuke Mode, in which each faction has a giant airborne statue that the opposing team must try to destroy. It’s rather interesting because in order to destroy the statues, players must kidnap the enemy team’s leader, and sacrifice that player to a missile launcher to launch a nuke. The player who conducted the sacrifice must control the nuclear missile and guide it to the opposing team’s statue in the air. To win, this process has to be completed three times.

In the game each faction will have different campaigns. But it’s not something to jump for joy over really, because players will basically just get different mix ups of missions depending on their choice of faction. For example, the clowns may start off the game with a deathmatch, while the skulls could have an endurance challenge in the first level. However, it’s been said that each faction will have their own things to do in their story, in order to avoid repetitiveness. If you’re one for achievements or generally just a proud individual, you may be happy to know that each level in the game will have three collectable medals, namely bronze, silver, and gold, as you’d expect. There is solid incentive to earn these medals though, as they will lead to unlocks such as skins, side arms, and even secret characters. On that note, as was seen in the Comic-Con presentation by director David Jaffe and producer Scott Campbell, the game will have a custom paint shop to change the appearance of your vehicles.

When it comes to firepower, players will have a complete and creative arsenal of weapons at their disposal, ranging from missiles and miniguns to giant magnets, Napalm, bombs and – no jokes – flying mascots. New weapons added to the game include the Sniper Rifle and Shotgun, which will be able to do high damage to enemy players if aimed at their vehicle’s windshield. In the game you’ll have access to primary weapons and side-arms. The former are in limited supply, while the latter don’t run out of ammo, but have various pros and cons depending on your choice of weapon in this category. You’ll get to choose side-arms like the Mounted Gun, Submachine Gun, 12 Ga. Shotgun, Rockets, Magnum Revolver or Laser Pistol. Additionally, as previously mentioned, vehicles will also have innate abilities, like perks, as well as advanced attacks and special abilities, such as EMP missiles, shields, mines, rear fire, jump, transformations and more. There’s definitely no shortage of variety in this regard. And the cherry on top is that the game’s levels are fully destructible, allowing players to alter the battlefield.

From what I’ve seen so far, there’s a healthy variety in the game’s stages. For some examples, there’s the Blackrock Stadium, which is an arena, based on a level from Twisted Metal 2, that features lava pits and an overhead track. Then there’s Metro Square, which is a Christmas-themed town square that features Times Square and the Museum of Natural History as landmarks. A nostalgic battleground would be the Los Angeles Skyline, as it combines Twisted Metal rooftop levels from the early games in the series. Then there’s Sunsprings, California, which features as a suburban town that has places like a school, a movie theater and a downtown area to wreak havoc in. Other confirmed maps include Diesel City, Watkyn’s Harbor, Diablo Pass and the classic Adventure Park, which features interactive environments and open design. The game certainly has plenty of diversity when it comes to its maps.

Extra information that may prove useful to you would be that the game will unfortunately make use of the infamous online pass system for access to its mutliplayer features, so without that you’d be missing out on what the experience is all about. On a lighter note, those who pre-order the Limited Edition of Twisted Metal will receive a voucher to download Twisted Metal: Black for free from PlayStation Network. So basically, buy it new and early for the highest reward. Still, I have to say that the more I see this game the more awesome it looks, and it’s really tempting to pre-order it, especially since you can get it brand new for a pleasantly surprising R400, which is an excellent price.

Twisted Metal is shaping up to be a fantastic start to the PlayStation 3′s exclusive line-up. It has great potential, looks hellishly fun and comes with a very reasonable asking price. If you’re in search of something whacky, exciting and multiplayer-focused, then this could turn out to be exactly what you’re looking for. The game will be released exclusively on PlayStation 3 on February 14 in North America, and on February 17 in Europe and here in South Africa. Let’s hope it seriously kicks ass.

Warner Bros. Interactive has announced the opening of the public beta for the PS3 and Xbox360 versions of Gotham City Imposters, which is a Batman-themed multiplayer FPS for those who don’t know.

However, despite entering open beta, access codes for the game are still limited, so if you’re interested and you own an Xbox360 you should go over to the game’s official site and register to stand a chance of winning a code.

On the other hand, if you’re a PS3 gamer, you can enjoy the fact that there are no keys for this version, so you can go over to the PlayStation Store and download it now. Although you might need an American account set up for that.

The last bit of important information we heard about this game was its delay from January to February, so let’s hope that extra time and the beta bodes well for the game.

If you haven’t watched the trailer for Resident Evil 6, do it now. Back already? Okay, cool. So if the trailer has your keen to slice up a bunch of nasties then read on because you’ll be able to do just that sooner than you might think.

Those who purchase Dragon’s Dogma when it releases in May will be rewarded with a free demo of RE 6. Capcom has said that the game will come packaged with a redeemable token which allows players to download the demo early.

Those who don’t like fiery lizards will have to wait until July 3 if you own an Xbox or September 5 if you own a PS3. There’s been no communication as to why the PS3 demo releases so much later but that’s still around two months before the game actually releases in November so it’s not too bad.

Dragon’s Dogma is due on PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 22. While you  mull over whether to get this game or not, let me help you with some RE 6 screenshots and a Dragon’s Dogma trailer.

As mentioned in yesterday’s article, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will come with an online pass that will reward players who purchase the game with the House of Valor faction quest, which includes seven missions.

Those who choose to get it secondhand will have to buy this content, and this aspect of the game has been subject to criticism from the gaming community due to the single-player nature of the game. After all, gamers are more accustomed to online passes restricting multiplayer features, and not tampering with single-player content.

However, 38 Studios boss Curt Schilling has defended the decision for the online pass, writing on the game’s official forums that the quest itself is just day-one downloadable content that serves to reward those who purchase the game.

“DAY 1 DLC, to be extremely and VIVIDLY clear, is FREE, 100% totally FREE, to anyone that buys a new copy of Reckoning, ANYONE,” Schilling wrote. “If you don’t buy new games you buy them used, and in that case you will have to pay for the Day 1 free DLC content the new copy buyers got for free. It’s clear the intent right? To promote early adopters and MUCH MORE IMPORTANT TO ME, REWARD fans and gamers who commit to us with their time and money when it benefits the company.”

Schilling then went on to talk about how profit leads to the development of future games, and that things like online passes are a stepping stone to that.

“That’s just how business works. We MUST make a profit to become what we want to become,” Schilling wrote. “THE ONLY way we do that is to make games you CANNOT WAIT TO BUY! If we do that, and you do that, we want to reward you with some cool free stuff as a thank you. You can TOTALLY disagree with this and I am sure many do, so we’ll agree to disagree. This is not 38 trying to take more of your money, or EA in this case, this is us REWARDING people for HELPING US! If you disagree due to methodology, ok, but that is our intent.”

Well, what do you think about that?

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will release here on February 10 on PC, PS3 and Xbox360.

A new Hero’s Guide trailer for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has been released, showing off more of the large open world. It’s pretty intriguing to watch if you’re looking forward to this game.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will release on PC, PS3 and Xbox360 on February 10 in Europe and South Africa. While it may be a highly anticipated title, it has been met with a little bit of controversy recently, because of the somewhat buggy demo and the news that the game will have an online pass for the unique Mass Effect armour as well as an entire quest-line that contains seven missions.

Time will tell how this game performs, but for now be sure to read up on our hands-on preview if you haven’t already. You can also enter our competition to stand a chance of winning the game.

EA has earmarked its FIFA Street reboot for a March 16 release on PS3 and Xbox 360 and I’m frankly excited because the game looks honestly good. It will use FIFA 12′s respective engines, feature more OTT skills than ever before and allow players to select their favourite clubs for five-a-side football. Can you imagine the intensity of a five-a-side Classico with no ref to whine to?

The game will also feature something called Street Network. It will be a lot like NFS’s Autolog but with balls instead of gearsticks. I’m not exactly sure why I said that, must be the heat.

Anyway, there’s a new trailer, watch it.

Capcom is at last looking set to give us some details on Dragon’s Dogma, which is a high-budget action RPG that hasn’t really seen much sunlight since its announcement last year. In fact, it wouldn’t really be a far-fetched statement to say that no one really knows what this game is about due to all the secrecy.

Either way, Capcom Unity has promised “a plethora of very exciting new details” from this coming Tuesday onwards, with the main attraction being a complete story trailer that will be posted on the game’s Facebook page. To hype up the trailer, Capcom has released a tiny teaser for the full trailer. Trailerception? Or something equally lame. The teaser barely shows anything though.

Dragon’s Dogma will release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox360 on May 1 in Europe and South Africa. The game will be out in March though in North America.

Pretty much the entire world was disgusted by the vulgarity of the advertisement for SoulCalibur V which gained it the title of BoobCalibur, even Lady Gaga was offended. Well, developer Namco Bandai has done some soul-searching and it would appear that they’ve learnt their lesson.

No more boobs-in-your face ads, no sir. Instead you’ll now get a faceful of ass. God, that sounded disgustingly perverse. In fact, this ad makes the previous one look tasteful and subtle.

Above the be-thonged behind, it reads, “The series’ greatest masterpiece” in Japanese. It gets worse though, much worse. There’s some really bad wordplay in the text with the Japanese word for “series” (シレーズ). The first two letters “shiri” (シリ) have dots over them; “shiri” can mean “butt” in Japanese. But wait, there’s more – “masterpiece” is “kessaku” (“傑作” or “けっさく”) in Japanese, and “ketsu” (“尻” or “けつ”) can mean “butt” in Japanese.

If you haven’t caught on by now, they’re basically calling their game a “mASSterpiece”. The ad appeared in Japanese tabloid, Nikkan Sports. It’s basically like the Daily Voice down here in CT and relishes the chance to put something like this on its pages.

In case you weren’t already made sick by this deadful attempt at advertising, here’s what it looks like a bit further down:

This is disgusting, sexist and I’m actually offended by it. Let us know what you think. In the mean time, you stay classy, Namco.

I’d make a hentai fetish joke right about now regarding the aforementioned tentacles and blood/gore but that would offend Cavie, who is an avid fan of such things, and I just ate so I’ll leave it to you people in the comments.

Anyways, there’s a new trailer for The Darkness II and it’s full of the gory dismemberment we’ve come to relish. It’s only 30 seconds but it is sweet.

The Darkness II will be tearing up a PC, PS3 or Xbox 360 near you on February 10.

Well, can you really blame her with a name like that? Crystal Dynamics has made the decision to not bring its Tomb Raider reboot to Nintendo’s new console.

In a recent FAQ on the game, the developer stated that the reason for this is that development on Tomb Raider started long before the Wii U was announced in addition to the fact that the a Wii version would be built differently.

“At this time no,” Global Brand Director Karl Stewart said when asked if Tomb Raider was coming to Wii U. “When we started developing the game we made a conscious decision that it was all about building the game for a platform and making sure the game was specific to that platform.

“Given that we’ve been working on the game quite a while before Wii U was announced I think it would not be right to try and port it across. If we started building a game for the Wii U we would build it very differently and we would build it with unique functionality.”

Tomb raider is set to release later this year for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and while we may not have a specific date, we know that whatever that day may be, it’ll be global.

So there’s now a launch trailer for The Darkness II and it’s all pretty and CG. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice trailer but what caught me out is the background music provided by Nine Inch Nails. Specifically Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails since moments before watching the trailer I was listening to his version of Immigrant Song used in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It’s a great track from an excellent soundtrack from a very good movie.

Anyway, I’m babbling so watch the trailer while I get myself checked for rabies. Normal service will resume shortly.

The Darkness II is out in all its gloom on February 10 for PS3, PC and Xbox 360.

No, we’re not talking about that period of time between each Assassin’s Creed game when Ezio has a pose off with his reflection, we’re talking fisticuffs. Well the answer, courtesy of Captain Obvious, is of course Ezio.

So what we actually have is a trailer for Boob, er… I mean SoulCalibur V which showcases Ezio as the guest character in the game. Besides bashing his own brains in, he also tussles with Nightmare, Raphael, Viola, Mitsurugi, and Hilde.

His fighting style is a little different to what you’re used to seeing and blue-lightning will occasionally appear around him but remain calm and look at some of the cool moves players will be able to pull off with him.

That said, the game itself doesn’t look too bad and there aren’t nearly as many genetically-enhanced boobs being shoved in your face as you’d think (or want, if you’re into that sort of thing). Although Namco might have had the good sense to leave that aspect of the game out of the media for now.

Like it or not, SoulCalibur V is out on February 3 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

The boss of Twisted Metal developers Eat Sleep Play, David Jaffe, has confirmed that the PS3 exclusive title will get a demo and a patch on day one.

Jaffe, speaking in his latest video blog, assured gamers that the patch will just be something small, and will serve to tweak a few issues regarding balance.

If you know Jaffe, you’d know that he isn’t a big fan of patches, but knows that sometimes they are important.

“I’ve gone on record: I hate patches. But that said – they’re important in some cases,” said Jaffe.

“Once you go gold, you have a couple of weeks to really play the game, and me and the QA guys, we’re just like, ‘You know, this seems a little unbalanced. It would be really cool if this weapon did a little less damage.’ It takes a lot of time to suss those things out.”

Later on in his blog he added that, depending on how successful the game is, there exists the possibility of bringing out a more substantial update in the future.

“You start downloading a huge, memory-intensive level and it starts to feel like, ‘I just bought this, I just wanna play,’” he commented.

“If the game is successful enough we’d love to do future tweaks and adjustments to the game, and some of those hopefully will be level-based. Those might be a little longer.”

Twisted Metal will be released exclusively on PS3 on February 17 in Europe and South Africa.

If you had to dig inside the head of your typical Sega fanboy and remove every memory of Sonic in all of the games that were released featuring the speedy blue hedgehog, you would get something of a better idea of exactly what Sonic Generations is attempting to achieve.

The game is more of a celebration than anything, of the last twenty years of Sonic games — at least, the good ones — but with a fresh high-definition coat of paint slapped on. It is an amalgamation of the core concepts of both the 2D-platformer worlds of the classic games, and the 3D-platformer worlds of later entries into the series.

This game is basically a mash-up of all things Sonic, and as such is a must-buy for every fan of the Sonic series who ever dared to appreciate blazing rapidly through levels as a little blue, humanoid animal.

But what about the rest of the world?

As with most of the recent entries in the Sonic series of games, Sonic Generations does in fact have some story behind it; Sonic is cheerfully celebrating his birthday with friends but it all goes to shit as an inter-dimensional rift opens up and swallows everything whole. Sonic later awakens missing his friends and must seek them out by racing through and restoring various familiar levels that featured in previous titles.

That’s not all though and as an added twist, the inter-dimensional rift happened to also swallow a different version of Sonic, effectively meaning that there are two versions of the blue hedgehog from, let’s call them parallel universes, that must seek out their friends and then save them from the clutches of– we’ll get to that in a bit.

The two Sonic characters, Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic as they’re known in the game, have very distinct play styles that both centre around excessive speed, but diversify in execution.

Classic Sonic keeps things traditionally 2D with all levels strictly side-scrolling, and pretty much as you would remember them from way back when, be it the enemies, the rings, the powerups or the methods of navigation. It’s all very much an ode to the old. For some reason this Sonic is also shorter, slightly lighter, and for the most part a mute.

Modern Sonic is stylistically similar to recent entries in the Sonic series in that his levels are 3D for the most part with you running ‘into the camera’ as it were, but there are also parts where you end up side-scrolling through the level as well. Definitely the more interesting of the two even if a bit more frustrating to play, Modern Sonic’s levels will go from 3D to 2D and back again, with the lock-on controls and jump pads that you know from the modern forays. Modern Sonic is also taller, a darker shade of blue, and able to communicate with actual speech.

The game world consists of what could only be described as an extra-dimensional limbo of sorts where various levels from the previous Sonic games are featured as areas that must be restored, first by travelling through and completing the initial stage — basically the level in its entirety — and then through various challenges that range from using one of Sonic’s powers to achieving a certain goal within some time limit.

Completing each of the initial stages will save one of your friends and unlock the challenges for that area. Upon completing one of those challenges, a key will be unlocked for you to collect. For every three keys you collect, you unlock a story-related boss fight that unlocks new stages for you, and the cycle repeats.

There are also various miscellaneous boss battles not related to the game’s story that you may play through.

Since there are two Sonics this time around, each stage has two Acts associated with it, forcing you to switch between Sonics in order to clear every challenge for that stage. While this does mean that you would effectively have to complete each challenge twice, the actual challenges for each Sonic differ in their execution and the levels themselves are varied enough that you end up actually looking forward to doing so in any case.

Apart from that, there is a tonne of unlocks available for either version of Sonic that includes but is not limited to artwork, music and various power-ups, some that allow you to call in friends to help you out in stages.

There is a lot of ‘game’ to be found in this game, and a fan of Sonic series would be quite at home with this title. For the rest of us, it would depend on how much you enjoy arcade-like platformers.

Don’t get me wrong when I call it arcade-like. There are many, many hours to be lost in this game, completing all the challenges and unlocking everything, but Sonic Generations is most certainly not going to win any awards for story-telling or cinematics. I mean, inter-dimensional rifts that bring together two different kinds of Sonic that must then work together to save both dimensions from an evil time and space traversing enemy that threatens to destroy all of space-time? It’s almost laughable.

See, this is basically Sega finally keeling over and giving in to the rage from Sonic fanboys who have longed for a return to the ways of the classic games in the series, but at the same time offering up a means of showing said fanboys that the classic can be mixed with the modern in a way that works for all.

Whether they actually managed to achieve that depends on how much of a fanboy you are, but all for intents and purposes it certainly seems as though they have, with seamless integration of both perspectives in all the modern stages, and enough of the classic stages to keep the rest happy anyway.

The game also looks great. As it should, being a title released for the current generation of consoles. Be it the classic or modern levels, everything looks pretty and aesthetically delightful, with crisp textures and excellent character animation abound. The contrast between the classic and modern versions of each character and level is also a neat touch that really shows off the polish of the game.

The music is suitable to the arcade nature of the game, with many tracks being very upbeat and ‘happy’ for lack of a better word. It’s a Sonic title, so you expect as much.

There is an online component of the game, but it is limited to ranked scoreboards and speed-runs, and as such it still keeps things strictly singleplayer but allows you to compete with friends for times as well.

Sega have really pulled no punches with this game, and offered up a title that really cannot fail at pleasing everyone. It’s not the perfect Sonic game by any means, but it’s pretty much the best of the series for a very long time.

It’s equal parts challenging as it is entertaining, and a proper throwback to the days of old where running through Green Hill was all you needed to enjoy yourself. Sonic has finally got a game that everyone should play. And it’s about damn time.

Twisted Metal director David Jaffe has recently said that he didn’t want PlayStation 3 exclusive Twisted Metal to be a part of the Online Pass system, but unfortunately it looks like he won’t be getting what he wants in this regard.

The game’s QA lead, Justin Trease, recently confirmed this news to the press at CES, revealing that the game will utilise the Online Pass system. As you know this system is in place to fight against the secondhand market, as it forces players buying used copies of games to purchase a code to enable access to multiplayer features, which hurts the idea of buying games for more affordable prices.

Jaffe suggests that while the online pass system is “probably good business” for Sony, the publishers of the game, it can also very well be counter-productive when it comes to earning gamers’ trust.

“It’s not my call,” Jaffe admitted, “and I’d totally understand if Sony as a company said ‘Look, this is a mandate that permeates all of our titles. We’re not making selective choices.’”

Guess you’ll have to be buying this one new, since multiplayer is what Twisted Metal is all about.

Crystal Dynamics global brand manager Karl Stewart has added a little more meat to the skeletal details we currently have regarding the studio’s Tomb Raider reboot.

Speaking in a recent Q & A on the Eidos forums, Stewart spoke of the developer’s plans to release some behind-the scenes dev diaries. However, details are still scant since the developers “want to give it away right now.”

What Stewart could reveal was a little bit here and there about the game’s combat system which is said to have “a variety of different play paths and playstyles,” which include the various melee, stealth and ranged options in solving the mystery of the island that Lara Croft finds herself stranded on.

“There is a core discovery to be made, and that core discovery will unlock the mystery of the entire island and answer a lot of questions,” he said. “There are items and artifacts that you have to pick up and find around the island, but everything points to this big discovery.”

Interestingly, one of the weapons which has Stewart excited is the bow which Lara will use to hunt in the game.

There will also be “plenty of people on the island” which should provide some diversity to your experiences with NPC’s but don’t expect an island romance anytime soon.

“I’ve read and fed into the script now on many, many occasions, and I can tell you that there is no love interest in this game,” he said. “She is trying to survive. She is busy. Surviving the situation is all she can cope with right now; surviving a relationship would be a bit tough.

“In one of the next releases we could possibly see this ‘more human Lara’ meet someone, but that is way over the horizon.”

There will also be a greater degree of realism with limitations being put on Lara’s movements. For example, players will be unable to “jump off the side of a cliff and hook onto the side at random” in order to free climb.

“The real world doesn’t work like that,” said Stewart. “Like real life you can’t just walk up to a cliff and assume you can climb it. It may be too steep, or too rocky, or jagged. But then there will be other areas perfect for climbing. It will feel organic and natural. The path won’t be screaming at you – no white ledges.”

Though sceptical at first, I’ve really warmed up to this version of Tomb raider and it looks like it could be a great game. E3 should have some great stuff on show as far as Tomb Raider is concerned. Beyond that, the game is scheduled to release towards the end of 2012 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Vigil Games’ general manager David Adams recently talked about Darksiders II, particularly the weapons that will be made available to the player. Now the new protagonist, Death, may feature a scythe as his weapon of choice, but he will have plenty of other options as well.

“He’ll pretty much use any weapon that’s made available,” Adams said.

“You can get big axes, you can get crazy cool claws, big iron fists – he’ll even shoot guns. He’ll use anything.”

It seems like combat variety must have been a priority for the game, as even Death’s primary weapon will be flexible.

“Death’s primary weapon is a scythe – it’s kind of a unique one, it’s sort of a multi-purpose, Swiss Army scythe,” Adams added.

“He can use it with two different blades, he can attach it together to form the more traditional reaper scythe, he can use it as a pole arm.”

“His weapon is more Interesting [than War's],” director Marvin Donald said. “He can dual wield or use a single heavy weapon, depending on your play style.”

Death’s combat style will also be very different to War from the first game.

“Death is the most-feared – he’s one of the oldest horsemen in the fiction. They look at him as a big brother,” Adams continued.

“He’s feared just because when he really gets down to business, he is the death dealer. That’s his trade. That’s his business. He takes people down.”

Darksiders II is scheduled to release in June on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox360, while a Wii U version is also in development, but details are thin on that one.

With Yesterday’s delay of Max Payne 3 to May 2012, doubt was cast over the release date of GTA V. It’s unlikely that Rockstar would release two heavyweight titles within a six month period so the earliest we can expect to see the next GTA is around Christmas this year.

However, in the 12 month period starting April 1, publisher Take-Two expects to release Max Payne 3, BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2, Spec Ops: The Line, XCOM and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It’s unclear whether the company would like to add another big title to that burgeoning list but it certainly wouldn’t hurt the bottom-line.

National Alliance Capital Markets analyst Mike Hickey told Game Informer: “It seems unlikely that Rockstar Games would launch both Max Payne 3 and GTA 5 in the month on May. Therefore, we have shifted our original expectation for GTA V to launch in May 2012, into the Company’s 2013 fiscal second-half operating period.

“We remain confident GTA V will ship in calendar year ’12, based on an assumption that Rockstar is using a sub 12 month marketing window for GTA V and the company’s fiscal 2013 performance guidance, which would suggest the game’s release.”

EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich said: “[Take-Two] are still saying they will achieve $2.00 earnings per share in fiscal 2013, so Grand Theft Auto V has to come out by March 2013.”

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter commented: “Although GTA V may still launch in FY:13, predicting the actual release date is difficult due to a crowded pipeline.

“I don’t know if [Max Payne's delay] means a full year gap, but very likely six months. Too bad, as I think Grand Theft Auto V would benefit from giving Call of Duty some breathing room.”

Judging by Max Payne 3′s delay, Take-Two’s crowded fiscal 2013 and Rockstar’s recent obsession with the month of May, there’s really only one deduction to come to here.

Hitman: Absolution’s lead producer, Hakan Abrak, was recently asked what IO Interactive wanted to achieve with the highly anticipated sequel, and in the short interview he highlighted improved AI among other things.

“We’ve been developing this game for a long time, and it’s very much linked to the technology, especially creating more complex, more believable artificial intelligence,” Abrak told the US PS Blog.

“Early on, we knew we couldn’t achieve our ambitions with the older Glacier 1 engine, so we decided to create Glacier 2. It’s a huge challenge to create new game technology, but it brought a lot of benefits.”

Hitman: Absolution will provide the player with the freedom to be a silent assassin or deranged mass murderer, and Abrak touched briefly on the experience you’ll have depending on your choice.

“Voyeurism has always been a key storytelling focus in Hitman, and we still have a lot of these small stories peppered throughout the game. It’s where a lot of the replayability comes in, actually,” the producer noted.

“If you go into the game guns blazing, you’ll get a unique experience…but if you’re stealthy and explore more thoroughly, you’ll learn a lot more about the world and characters by overhearing conversations and the like.”

Regarding stealth, in addition to the new Instinct ability and upgraded disguise system, IO has also brought in a warning system to alert the player when they’re being noticed.

“When you’re making a stealth game, it’s important to find new ways to build tension. We built a lot of prototypes for Hitman: Absolution, and we learned that creating a ‘Giger counter’ effect was a very effective way to communicate that the player is about to get spotted — you’d better move,” Abrak said.

“In earlier games, it could be frustrating because you didn’t know when an enemy was about to spot you. And that ‘Giger counter’ effect has the bonus effect of making you squirm when you play, it builds more tension. I find myself saying ‘ooh! ooh! ooh!’ when I’m sneaking around.”

Hitman: Absolution is expected to release somewhere in 2012 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox360.

So the demo for The Darkness II goes live on January 25 but what if you don’t want to wait that long or can’t be bothered to download it? That’s what gameplay videos are for, my friends.

Behold, the demo in its 27 minute entirety split over two videos. There’s more tentacle action than in Cavie’s favourite hentai and enough violence and gore to make Tarantino a happy panda. There’s even a little imp-like Darkling that helps you out along with the compulsion to feed on your enemies’ hearts.

It looks pretty damn cool from what you see in the demo but I really hope the kill animations become more varied and the controls aren’t as clunky and erratic as they look. That said the visual style is very intriguing and grows on you by around minute 18.

The Darkness II is out in full for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on February 10.

Electronic Arts has announced that a co-op demo for upcoming Starbreeze-developed first person shooter, Syndicate, will be released at the end of this month.

The demo will be released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, and will allow for up to four players to team up through one of the game’s nine co-op levels.

Syndicate will be released on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox360 on February 21 in the US, and on February 24 in the UK and here in South Africa.

Take a look at the trailer above.

Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced that the highly anticipated PlayStation 3 exclusive, Starhawk, will be released on May 8 in North America. We’re still awaiting confirmation on the UK release date, as it’s relevant to us here in South Africa. Hopefully it shouldn’t be too far off.

This news was brought to us alongside the recent launch of the game’s public beta, which will first only be available to PlayStation Plus subscribers. However, over the next month, it will open up to other PSN members in stages. To announce the beta, a new lengthy trailer was released for the game which gives you a full introduction of the game and what to expect, and it’s pretty awesome.

The beta will offer the following:

• Classic Arcade Flight-Mode: Private Beta players asked for it and we’re happy to include the classic arcade flight from Warhawk.
• Host Migration: When the host leaves the game, the hosting duties transfer to another player and gameplay will continue, provided the option is checked.
• Language Support: European and Japanese languages are included. Korea, China, Latin America and Brazil will be in English…but these will include the appropriate languages for the full game.
• Skills: Players will be able to collect unique Skills to use in gameplay based on their performance. Playstation Network Friend Integration: Friends status, messages, and friend requests.
• Bug Fixes: Lots and lots of bugs have been addressed.

Check out the trailer above.

Boy is that one loaded headline. Yes, Remedy is pleased with Rockstar’s handling of its IP and yes, said game has been delayed. Max Payne 3 was originally scheduled for a March release but has now been pushed back to May. The console version of the game will now only reach our shores by May 18 and PC gamers have to wait until June 1 to get their hands on it.

The reason for this delay? Rockstar wants to “ensure that Max Payne 3 delivers the highest quality.” That’s what they all say but it could just be that publisher Take-Two loves the month of May and releasing games during its seemingly favourite month. First it was Red Dead Redemption, then L.A. Noire and now Max Payne 3.

It doesn’t make any business sense to delay MP3 though, because Take-Two is now expected to report a net loss for 2012.

“We do not take changes to our release schedule lightly, and this short delay will ensure that Max Payne 3 delivers the highest quality, groundbreaking entertainment experience that is expected from our Company,” said Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two.

“Max Payne 3 promises to be one of our most exciting releases to date, and we are confident that consumers will once again be amazed by Rockstar’s ability to take interactive entertainment to another level.

“With Max Payne 3 now slated for May, our robust lineup of upcoming releases for fiscal 2013 is even stronger, including BioShock Infinite, Borderlands 2, Spec Ops: The Line, XCOM, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and other titles yet to be announced for release that year.

“Fiscal 2013 is poised to be one of our best years ever, with anticipated substantial revenue growth and Non-GAAP Net Income of over $2.00 per share. We are well positioned to deliver growth and profitability over the long term.”

I’d cry tears of joy if Take-Two really is forsaking fiscal common sense in favour of putting out a better game.

Amidst all of this, original series developer Remedy, that has since gone on to create Xbox 360 hit Alan Wake, is well-pleased with Rockstar’s handiwork.Despite developing the first two games, Remedy had absolutely nothing to do with Max Payne 3.

“We absolutely love what they’ve done and couldn’t be more proud of where the series is headed,” said Remedy’s “Oskari ‘Ozz’ Hakkinen to Kotaku.

“I mean, they don’t really make shitty games, do they? It’s as if the Rockstar logo has become this, ‘Seal of quality’,” he added.

It’s great that Remedy is in full support of what Rockstar has done with Max Payne 3 but I’m still not sold on it even though Rockstar, as Hakkinen said, rarely turns out a bad game these days.

The Armored Core series may have been on hiatus for the last five years, but it will be making its return this coming March with Armored Core V, and developers From Software has confirmed that a demo will be made available.

It was confirmed by the developers that the demo will launch on January 19 on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, but gamers will only be able to download it up until January 23, which is a pretty short window. The demo will feature both online and offline play, but the servers for online multiplayer will only go live on January 21.

Keep in mind, however, that those dates are for the Japanese version of the demo. We’re still waiting for confirmation on the local versions. However, it would be wise to have a Japanese account ready if you can’t wait.

As for the demo content, offline play will allow players to go through some tutorial and story missions, and will also let them create and join teams. On the other hand, online will deliver ‘team area battles’, mech creation which includes over 70 parts, the ‘mercenary system’ and various other features.

It was confirmed last week by Namco Bandai that Armored Core V will be releasing on PS3 and Xbox360 on March 20 in the US, and on March 23 in the UK and South Africa.

BioWare has revealed some of its major plans for the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it turns out that the developers have been planning for not just the immediate future, but for way beyond that as well.

Firstly, regarding the upcoming big update 2, game director James Ohlwn said: “Game Update 2 is much bigger in scope [than Game Update 1].

“It’s further out from launch, so we can have much more of the team focussed on it. There’s Part 2 of Rise of the Rakghouls, a brand new planet called Denova which has an 8-16 man Operation and a new Warzone. So that’s three big pieces of content.

“We might also be able to get some new space game missions into it. In addition to that we have single player content that you’ll be able to go through as well.”

Furthermore, BioWare said that it has teams working on bringing in the Legacy system of alt management, guilds, and PvP gameplay.

It isn’t just the next update that’s exciting though, as Ohlen revealed that BioWare isn’t thinking only for the short term – or small in any way.

“We have people working on content that won’t be showing up in the game until 2013,” he said.

“We have writers already finishing off content for that, so I can already play through stuff from 2013 content – just not with voiceovers.

“We’re planning really far ahead, and we have to do that because our content is more complex than your typical MMO content. It requires voiceovers, cinematics and all that.”

That’s quite impressive actually, and hopefully all BioWare’s plans for the game turn out successfully.

Welcome to the second edition of our “What Happened To” feature, in which we analyse games that have undergone drastic change, or have had a complex development period that our readers may not be fully sure about. The first feature covered Hitman: Absolution, and it also serves to inform you all about the reasons for the change as well as tell you about the new game. Right, let’s go!

The story of Metal Gear Solid: Rising, now called Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, is perhaps one of the most interesting ones in recent times. It’s the story of how a game first emerged looking like one of the most exciting games some of us have seen in years, to turning into something that gave us mixed reactions and we’re not too sure about. But of course, we give everything a chance and will wait until the game releases to judge properly, but it’s still upsetting considering what we saw in the beginning.

Where It All Began

The game was first hinted at during Hideo Kojima’s keynote presentation at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco back in 2009, and it was during a lengthy presentation that covered the entire development process of the Metal Gear franchise right up to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, but at the end there was a reveal for the future. The final mission title was “The Next MGS” and featured MGS4′s Cyborg Raiden standing next to the title. But that’s not when we first saw it.

Gamers got their first ever teaser for Metal Gear Solid: Rising at E3 2009, where it was officially announced to the public at the Microsoft Press Conference. The legendary series’ director Hideo Kojima revealed it himself, and the game was originally only announced for Xbox360 before it was later confirmed for both PC and PlayStation 3, marking the first fully multi-platform Metal Gear Solid game in the series’ history. According to the “Kojima Productions Report” podcast that surfaced at the time, the game was going to use a brand new engine instead of the one seen in MGS4, and it was also announced that Hideo Kojima would not have a big involvement with the game because he wanted to give the new bloods at the studio a chance, as well as focus 100% of his attention on the PSP’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker project. You can take a look at the game’s first teaser trailer down below.

Fans were very excited to see actual gameplay of Metal Gear Solid: Rising, because before the game was teased at E3 of 2009, it was hyped up on Kojima Productions’ website, and gamers took particular notice of the traditional MGS tagline of “Tactical Espionage Action” being replaced with “Lightning Bolt Action,” which was seen as a play on the fact that Raiden’s name means “thunder and lightning” in Japanese. However after E3 2009, the game pretty much disappeared, and it wasn’t until E3 of 2010, the next year, that we heard about it again, and this time it came packed with an exciting full reveal.

Again during Microsoft’s press conference at E3 2010 on June 14, Hideo Kojima made an appearance to introduce the game as well as Rising’s original lead designer, Mineshi Kimura, who unveiled the first ever trailer for the game that featured a cutscene as well as actual gameplay footage that caused MGS fans to lose their minds from the awesomeness on display. It was in this trailer that we were first introduced to the game’s zan-datsu concept, which means “cut and take” roughly translated.

Check out the fantastic trailer.

Shortly after, details exploded. First up were some great screenshots taken from the E3 trailer, and a few days later we got our hands on the first details for the game, which informed us that the game would be an interquel taking place somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The story would follow Raiden’s journey and explain how he became the cyborg ninja we saw and loved in MGS4.  We were also told that the game aimed to raise Raiden’s popularity, and would feature a new type of predator stealth for the series titled “hunting stealth”, and focus heavily on the player’s freedom to “cut at will” with Raiden’s blade during combat.

We then found out that the game wouldn’t feature many returning characters, as the developers wanted “newcomers to the game to come in and play freely without needing to know and understand the background of the whole Metal Gear Solid universe.” The game was further hyped by lead designer Mineshi Kimura, who said that the game’s stealth elements would focus on Raiden’s heightened speed and agility, as the player would hunt their targets and be able to move like he did in the MGS4 trailers. The game would show “the stealth of the sword, and the strength of not even losing to the gun, and the fear and power you have with this blade.” Excitement was on the rise, excuse the pun, when the game’s producer, Shigenobu Matsuyama, told us that a “no-kill completion” could be achieved.

Later in the year at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, we were treated to the “Free Cutting” trailer that showed off the game’s slicing mechanics. Here, Sony announced that the PlayStation 3 version of the game would be playable in 3D, which was exciting for fans. After that, the game completely dropped off the radar until January 2011 where we got some concept art, and November 2011 where we discovered, shortly before Rising was set to appear at 2011′s Spike VGAs, that the game’s producer had been replaced. Yuji Korekado was now at the helm, taking over from Shigenobu Matsuyama.

Finally, before we learned that Rising was in fact no more, we heard our last of it in November 2011, when we were informed that Hideo Kojima would be talking about Rising and Metal Gear Solid 5 in the next issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine. We didn’t know what to expect, but it was certainly exciting. Sadly, that was last we heard of Metal Gear Solid: Rising before the great change.

Why The Change?

The word is that Kojima Productions were struggling when it came to development of the game. Even though the team had thought out stories and scenarios for the game, the studio was allegedly finding it difficult to design Rising around the cutting concept. Perhaps there were many more reasons than that, but it came as devastating news to fans, including myself, when we learned that the project had been somewhat quietly cancelled late in 2010, baffling us since we had still been hearing about it here and there last year. However, we finally started learning the truth. Word is that Kojima had considered moving the project to developers abroad, but in the end he felt that a Japanese developer would be better suited to produce a ninja action game. We discovered that in early 2011, Kojima approached the president and CEO of Platinum Games, Tatsuya Minami, and spoke to him about restarting the cancelled Rising project with them. In case you’re wondering, Platinum Games are the guys who developed Bayonetta and Vanquish, which were both fast-paced, awesome action games.

Platinum must have been intrigued by the concept of Rising, because they accepted the project and took over development with Atsushi Inaba as the producer. The entire game was reworked from scratch, and would now use Platinum Games’ own engine. While the gameplay would be developed by them, Kojima Productions would be handling the game’s cutscenes and story elements. The story had been completely revised so that it now takes place after Metal Gear Solid 4 in order to reflect the new development style. This meant that Rising was no longer an interquel, and neither was it canon to the MGS story. It was now a spin-off project, and was no longer part of the main MGS series.

At the Spike Video Game Awards in December 2011, we finally learned that Metal Gear Solid: Rising was no more, and the game was now Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. We got to see the first gameplay footage of it, and reactions to it were extremely mixed, because the game was entirely different, and had even changed genres, as it was now a hack and slash game. On top of that, it seemed to resemble some wild anime when it came to style, and had become fully action orientated and, well, cheesy. Check out the trailer below, and see for yourself how much Rising changed.

Well, what do you think?

Whatever our opinions towards it now may be, the fact remains that it is what it is, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Personally I’m sad to see what was originally an extremely awesome and interesting concept turn into something like this, but I can’t deny that Platinum Games have delivered the goods with Bayonetta and Vanquish, so perhaps we’re in for another great experience.

Time will tell, that’s for sure, but for now let’s end this off by talking about what we actually know about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. In all honesty, it’s not a whole lot, but that’s understandable considering that the game was only officially unveiled early last month. Let’s take a look.

What Do We Know?

For starters, around the time of the unveiling, in December’s Official PlayStation Magazine UK, Kojima revealed that Metal Gear Solid: Rising was “moving forward”, and that it was still significantly different other games in the series. But he assured fans that he still had an element of control over the project and would not let it stray too far away from the series’ roots. He said that “If somebody thinks ‘I love Snake’ and just really wants traditional stealth gameplay and that experience, then it may be hard to get into Rising, but for people who are more open and willing to try new things, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

It was revealed that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance would be releasing in 2012 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox360, but unfortunately it was confirmed that there will be no PC version of the game. Hideo Kojima is now the executive producer of the project, and will be overseeing the game’s story and world. The trailer confirmed that the character of Raiden will once again be voiced by Quinton Flynn, who featured in previous MGS games. There was speculation that Bayonetta’s director Hideki Kamiya would be involved in the project, but he himself confirmed that he wasn’t part of the game’s development. The reasons for the game’s new title were also explained, and we were told that the change was made in order to reflect that the game isn’t part of the main series. Kojima confirmed that Revengeance will run at 60 frames per second, which was apparently a requirement he personally requested to Platinum Games. Finally, producer Atsushi Inaba stated that the PlayStation 3 would be the lead platform for the game, and this decision was made due to performance issues of Bayonetta on Sony’s console.

It may come of interest to you that Inaba acknowledged the mixed reactions to the unveiling of Revengeance, and used Twitter to address fans’ concern over the project. He said that even though he is aware of the mixed reactions, he hopes gamers will spot “a glimpse of the future” in the game’s first trailer. The producer also promised that its “love and respect will shine through” Revengeance.

Let’s conclude this long article with some information about the game from the development team.

The official story description for the game reads as follows:

The main character, Raiden, was once feared as the child soldier “Jack the Ripper” on the front lines of the First Liberian Civil War. Now, his combat mastery is channeled through a cyborg body as the strikes from his high-frequency blade slice even massive assault drones in two.

Raiden is contracted for VIP protection, military training and other duties by PMSCs (Private Military and Security Companies) in a developing country piecing itself back together after a bloody civil war. Little does he know that the stage is set for a clash with an enigmatic force of countless cyborgs. Reborn at the hands of PlatinumGames, METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE pits cyborg against cyborg in battle that blazes past every human limit!

And here is a extract from the game’s official website, briefly elaborating on the development process:

METAL GEAR SOLID: RISING was a spin-off intended to feature the actions and transformation of Raiden, one of METAL GEAR SOLID 2: SONS OF LIBERTY’s main characters, in the lead-up to METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS. However, after PlatinumGames came on board, the story was changed to take place several years after METAL GEAR SOLID 4 to give them more of an opportunity to show off what they can bring to the series. Cyborgs are spreading at a rapid pace in the game’s world, resulting in earth-shattering superhuman action at every turn! The original aim for a combination of stealth and action has also been enhanced, for a more aggressive new focus on pure, exhilarating action.

Naturally, Kojima Productions is still overseeing the game’s story and its world, and is also providing visual direction to ensure METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE retains the characteristic look of the METAL GEAR series. Though its exact identity is a step apart from the METAL GEAR SOLID games, the blood of the series still flows within this new METAL GEAR. Kojima Productions and PlatinumGames: Two world-class powerhouses among Japanese studios join forces to bring you METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE .

Lastly, an interview titled “The Truth Behind Rising” was released, with its aim being to allow fans to “get the facts straight from Hideo Kojima as well as PlatinumGames and Kojima Productions members! The truth that has been under wraps for so long is finally revealed!” Check it out below.

That wraps up the story of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Personally, I’m a bit sad to see what happened to the original concept of this game, because I definitely took interest to the unique and exciting premise, but I guess I can’t pass judgement at this point in time, and should perhaps give Platinum Games some more credit since they recently brought us Bayonetta and Vanquish.

We’ll be watching this one closely in the future, so stay tuned for what’s to come.

Remember that Dark Souls petition which requested that publisher Namco Bandai release a PC version of the highly popular RPG? Oh how we gamers love petitions.

A Namco Bandai forum administrator had something to say about the petition after it attracted nearly 66,000 in a single week. They’d be foolish not to take notice of this since the petition currently has over 76,000 signatures.

The forum admin said: “I honestly wasn’t expecting such a massive support. My boss(es) even came to talk to me about this, after it explodes all around the world. If you wanted to have the attention of Namco Bandai Games, now you have it.

“The future is in your hands, and I hope you will keep supporting this. I make a personal objective to make sure every relevant people in Namco Bandai Games is in touch with this formidable effort.

“Great Thanks!”

It’s great to see a petition for an awesome cause actually get noticed and supported. Personally, I’d be overjoyed to see Dark Souls on PC, so hopefully we’ll hear more about this soon.

BioWare has said that Commander Shepard will be a far more human character in Mass Effect 3 with the writing taking us deeper into who Shepard is and what’s going on with him on an emotional level.

Mass Effect 3 lead writer Mac Walters said in the latest issue of BioWare Pulse (check it out above) that the team wanted to take “that next step” with the storytelling in ME3 to further immerse the player and improve the game.

“One of the things we wanted to do in Mass Effect 3 was deepen Shepard as a character, so you really get to express what your Shepard is feeling and going through, throughout the war,” said Mac Walters, lead writer on the Mass Effect franchise.

“We wanted to take that next step with the story telling. Yeah, it’s a war, yeah it’s got giant robots we get to shoot in the face, but there is a human side to the story. You are role-playing, and you are role-playing as a human. Why shouldn’t that human have an emotional component throughout the game?”

Obviously with this being the third in the series, Mass Effect 3 is bigger than its predecessors and Walters says that the writing reflects that.

“The emotion, and depth of writing that we have in there, has also gone up another level,” he continued. “When a video game can make you feel something but also be fun and entertaining, then I think we’ve done our jobs.”

Mass Effect 3 is out in March and should be amazing by all indications.

Konami has determined that March is going to be the month for all things Silent Hill, so if you’re a fan of the franchise then you better start saving up for this one.

It was confirmed by Konami that the announcement regarding the release dates of Silent Hill titles would be made later this week, and now it’s here. First up is the Silent Hill HD Collection, which will be out on March 6 for PS3 and Xbox360, and features Silent Hill 2 and 3 remastered with HD visuals and new voice work.

Scheduled for March 13 is the highly anticipated, newest entry in the franchise, Silent Hill: Downpour, which will be out on PS3 and Xbox360. Finally, the PlayStation Vita exclusive spin-off title, Silent Hill: Book of Memories, will be out on March 27, so there’s definitely something here for everyone.

Consider that date for Downpour marked down on our calenders.

Namco Bandai has announced a firm release date for the From Software-developed title, Armored Core V.

The game will be released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox360 on March 20 in North America and on March 23 in Europe and South Africa. There are some pre-order bonuses for the game through places like Gamestop, but we’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out what pre-order bonuses will be available for us here from our local retailers.

The game will focus more on its roots, revisiting the style seen in the original PlayStation games, so perhaps this could be the game the franchise needs to return to glory.

In former Hitman games, there was the right way to do things and the wrong way. The right way was silent, efficient and left virtually no trace of you being there. The wrong way was typically the option that had your evading gunfire or ultimately dying from said gunfire.

Basically, if you wanted to do it right, you had to go in stealthy but that’s changing in Hitman: Absolution. If you want to be more Timothy Olyphant than Mr 47 then IO Interactive is just fine with that.

What you have to remember is that 47 is no longer doing hired hits in Absolution, he’s on his own mission and is subsequently free to tackle it however you choose. This means that players get to decide how to progress through the game by choosing between stealth or action modes.

“First and foremost, what we’re trying to convey is that Hitman is still very much about stealth,” the game’s lead producer Hakan Abrak told Joystiq. “If you liked that in the earlier installments, you’re definitely going to get that here.

“But we also want to present compelling action, if you’re that type of player.

“In earlier installments, if you went into action, every enemy would come after you – you felt like a failure, like you had done something wrong. We really wanted to do that differently here, so if you play action, we think it should be a compelling experience and we think we’ve achieved that. If you want to switch between stealth and action, you should have the freedom to do so.”

The feeling of the game will change when you perform various actions by triggering a more “dramatic and suspenseful experience” regardless of how you’ve been playing up till that point. In essence, you could still get that action hero feeling by doing something gung-ho even if you’ve been playing the entire game on tippy toes. This allows you to see your playstyle is “reflected in how the game presents the world” to you.

“If you go in guns blazing, we know how many NPCs will go into combat mode or send out hunting parties for you, if you run away,” producer Tore Blystad told RPS. “The music will listen to all these things and give you a dramatic and suspenseful experience regardless of how you want to play the game.

“You can seamlessly go back and forth between all these different states. And this is how to show off without trying it out and seeing how my play style is reflected in how the game presents the world to me. This is the biggest challenge we’ve had, to feel linear but not be linear.”

Fear not though amidst all this talk of action because Absolution will stay true to the series’ stealth roots. The name of the game here is accessibility so that those who can’t appreciate a stealth game and just want to whip their gun out every 10 seconds will have something to enjoy. It’s not a bad thing, I just hope that IO hasn’t sacrificed some great content in favour of making the game more accessible because the best stealth scenarios are not always the best action settings. Mind you, Deus Ex did a damn good job of balancing the potential for those both stealth and action in its level design.

Hitman: Absolution is due out later this year for PS3, PC and Xbox 360. What will you be going for when it lands, stealth or action? Did I mention there’s a handful of crispy fresh screenshots below?