Sony has announced that the upcoming PS3 title, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, will also be heading to PlayStation Vita. It will be released at the same time, which is the third or fourth quarter of 2012.

The game will feature cross-play functionality, which means that you’ll be able to save on your PS3 and go portable with your Vita, picking up where you left off.

Check out the trailer and screens for the Vita version.

FIFA’s line producer David Rutter recently spoke with CVG in a FIFA 13 interview, revealing a number of interesting things about the franchise from the developers’ point of view.

Rutter explained that despite the massive success FIFA enjoys on an annual basis, the development team EA Canada remains fully aware of the dangers of complacency, and as such a watchful eye is always kept on Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series. Rutter said that the reason for the team’s vigilance is down to the fact that they are “hugely critical” of themselves.

“We are hugely critical of ourselves to the extent where we get in trouble for it when we’re doing presentations,” he admitted. “I know Andrew [Wilson] and before him Peter Moore would always say, ‘don’t be so hard on yourselves, you’ve got to tell some good news too.’

“So today I did the good news; ‘fantastic reviews, amazing sales, everyone loves our game’ and then Aaron steps up and goes, ‘this is rubbish, this is rubbish…’ It’s just the way we are. We don’t have a great deal of time in the year to make the game and we don’t have a great deal of time in the year either to celebrate what we just did.”

Rutter reasoned that being located in Canada keeps the team a safe distance from all the hype, excitement and popularity that could potentially encourage complacency.

“I think actually being in Canada is a bit of an advantage as well because we’re away from all the, ‘woohoo! Look how amazing we are!’ We don’t see the shops with tonnes of FIFA copies in them, or see the launch or hear about it on the news. We’re far enough away that we’re this little isolated pod of negative nerds all working on FIFA.”

So in other words, Canada is uncool?

Rutter also revealed that despite the fact that FIFA has performed significantly better than PES in terms of sales performance in recent years, the development team always considers its rival to be a threat.

“There are other things out there,” he said. “We’re still worried about what Konami is going to do with Pro Evolution Soccer and naturally they’re our closest sports competitor.”

Name: DiRT: Showdown
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Genre: Racing
Developer: Codemasters Southam
Publisher: Codemasters Racing
Worldwide Release Date: 25-29 May 2012
Local (SA) Release Date: 25 May 2012 (expected)
Expected Prices: PC – R361, PS3 – R499, 360 – R499

Slip, slide, bash, drift, ref, and doughnuts. Welcome to the world of the DiRT franchise. It’s all about rally cars covered in everything that’s an energy drink symbol and names of shoes. Adrenaline is always pumping through your veins as you drift around a corner that’s right next to a steep mountain with nothing in the way. Bring on DiRT: Showdown, the next instalment of the successful arcade rally games made by Codemasters.

The DiRT series has always been known for its style and Showdown will be no different. You can compete in various new modes that aim to emphasise the game’s no-holds-barred style of play. All-new to the series is Demolition mode where you get thrown into an arena to bash and destroy your opponent’s cars in the most stylish and brutal ways imaginable, all in the hopes of being the best and achieving that rush of adrenaline. Demolition will truly push Codemaster’s damage engine to its limit.

Players can also expect to race against numerous opponents in new courses filled with shortcuts, ramps and various forms of obstacles that they can blast through using nitrous and skill. Expect to fly and drift through many famous locations such as Tokyo, London, Miami, San Francisco and more.

Hooligan events are a new way of showing off your stylish prowess by driving in massive stunt parks filled with ramps, trick locations and lots and lots of dirt to spin around in all in the name of pleasing the crowd and becoming a legend amongst racers. All of these modes help you to reach the coveted Showdown finals in which you race against your rivals in a vibrant and colourful festival atmosphere.

There are 50 events available across 4 championships. Each event has its own challenges and even weather. Players will slip and slide in snow, ice, rain, sun and night that are all beautifully crafted by the game’s engine and will react in their own unique way. Snow will be slippery and floodlights will light up the competition when it’s night time. All coming together to make a unique and thrilling experience.

Showdown will have a huge focus on multiplayer. From 8-player online matches to local splitscreen races it will cater to your every social need. Also integrated is a YouTube feature where you can upload your replays straight to YouTube within the game itself. There also Showdown Challenges available where you can battle your online and offline friends.

Expect a huge host of licensed and bespoke cars that will make full use of the EGO game engine to deliver spectacular driving stunts and beautiful damage physics. Strap in and enjoy the ride with DiRT Showdown.

Gifwil. Probably not that catchy, I’d say. So for future reference I’ll just abbreviate “Games for Windows Live” as “Gwaffle” for no apparent reason. It’s like waffle.

Anyway, Rockstar has confirmed via Twitter that the PC version of Max Payne 3 will not support Gwaffle.

The tweet simply stated: “No, Max Payne 3 for PC will not use Games for Windows Live.”

This isn’t a first for Rockstar, as the PC version of LA Noire, which released at the end of last year, also didn’t use it.

Max Payne 3 will be out on May 18 for PS3 and Xbox 360, and the PC version will be out on June 1. It won’t have Gwaffle.

Gwaffle. Gwaffle. Gwaffle.

Square Enix has revealed that the highly anticipated Hitman: Absolution will be released on November 20 this year, while the mini game and pre-order bonus Hitman: Sniper Challenge will be made available from May 15.

Interestingly, this announcement has come right after retailer speculation suggested that the game would be out in September.

The release date confirmation came with the official announcement of Sniper Challenge, which will be a standalone experience that is exclusive to those who pre-order the game.

“Agent 47 is the best in the business so it seemed appropriate to create the best pre-order reward possible for our fans,” said Jon Brooke, brand director of the Hitman franchise. “Hitman: Sniper Challenge is a way of thanking customers and giving them a taste of Agent 47′s skills from the moment they pre-order the game.”

Sniper Challenge will be unlocked on PSN and Xbox Live on May 15, but only on August 1 for Steam.

This has just made my entire gaming year. I can’t wait!

It’s an action-adventure title from Capcom and it has dragons in it, what more would you want to know about Dragon’s Dogma? Okay, a lot more actually so here’s our preview of it. Today, we’ve got the launch trailer for the game. It’s filled with plenty of action, giants, an ‘evil-eye’ and a giant flying chicken!

It also showcases a bit of the Ur-Dragon, an “asynchronous, ongoing online encounter” in which players take on the dragon and their combined efforts work towards the worldwide goal of slaying the beast.

Dragon’s Dogma is out for PS3 and Xbox 360 on may 25.

Unfortunately, fans are still waiting, seemingly endlessly, for a Hitman: Absolution release date to be announced.

Now, it look as though various online retailers decided to take it upon themselves to provide a release date for the game, pointing towards the month of September.

Retailers Zavvi and HotUKDeals have stuck a plausible September 17 release date onto the game, while ShopTo have it listed for September 24.

Hopefully this proves to be legit. Let’s pray we get a response from Square Enix and IO Interactive soon.

Gosh but I seem to be doing an awful lot of Assassin’s Creed III news lately, maybe it’s because the game is starting to take the shape of something that’s not utter shit or maybe it’s just because fate seeing as how my head will be shaved if AC III can match the splendour and fresh experience that AC II offered.

AGB has found some artwork which displays the pre-order trinkets available for those who purchase through Gamestop or Best Buy. Why do we care here on the Southern tip? Well because chances are that our trusty BT and other local retailers will offer some variation of thase bonuses for pre-ordering with them.

Gamestop is offering the Lost Mayan Ruins solo mission and Sawtooth Cutlass. Presumably, there are other similar weapons available in game. With regard to the Mayan Ruins, that sounds like it could be AC III’s version of the Assassin’s Tombs from AC II and will likely provide solid platforming sequences. Also, I hope this mission isn’t anything too significant since it does involve the Mayans and the overarching plot of AC does hinge on that whole 2012 apocalypse deal.

Best Buy offers the Ghost of War solo mission and Pontiac’s War Club which is basically a really cool stick with spikes on the end.

AC III is due out on PS3, PC and Xbox 360 in October so there’s plenty of time to get your pre-orders in. What are your thoughts on these here bonuses and the fact that the Mayans are definitely factored into Assassin’s Creed’s story somehow?

LightBox Interactive has announced that all future DLC map packs for the PS3 exclusive multiplayer shooter, Starhawk, will be completely free. This is being done to avoid player division according to studio president Dylan Jobe.

“Whenever we release a map pack you won’t have to pay a friggin’ dime,” revealed Jobe.

“Madness!”, you may think, but there’s a reason behind it. “We really didn’t like how in Warhawk when we released a new map pack, it forced these divisions on our players,” explained Jobe. “And after we released three expansions, our player community was pretty fractured.”

Jobe also revealed a teaser image for Starhawk’s next map pack, which shows off the planet Cypress.

He commented that the map is “a lush, swampy world that’s home to an abandoned research facility that many years ago was responsible for researching the mysteries of Rift Energy.”

It’s something that we have in common with the US and many other parts of the world: a history of slavery. We can all agree that it’s the fault of the British that the concept of slavery existed in the first place so there’s a reason to bomb that puny island but I digress. Assassin’s Creed III will take place in the colonial era of the United States and certainly long before Honest Abe and his anti-slavery notions.

So, mere days after telling us that we’ll see the more boisterous, philanderers side of Ben Franklin in AC III, Ubisoft is laying down some more history on us with the announcement that the game will also deal with the issue of slavery to some degree.

Assassin’s Creed 3writer Matt Rurnerhas told OPM UK: “It’s something we’ve been very aware of. Everybody had slaves at that point; the first groups who rallied around emancipation didn’t come around until 1787 – largely driven by Benjamin Franklin funnily enough. That was very much after our game and slavery was maintained in culture.”

Of course, the story is supposed to revolve around the period manifestation of Templars vs Assassins but Ubisoft doesn’t want to take the easy route and avoid the issue of slavery altogether. Instead, they look to be tackling it head-on.

“We feel that kind of a subject deserves a certain amount attention because it’s so serious and it needs to be treated with utmost respect,” said Rurnerhas. “We’re definitely not going to shy away from it in terms of not showing it.

“We’re going to focus on telling it like it was, we’re going to show what was there and what people did in that time but we want to be careful with how that’s covered and how much of it is there. It’s an important topic. We won’t be afraid to show that it’s there but we’re not going make it the focus of our game.”

So our new protagonist Connor is not only a half-English half-Native American but he also has powerful friends such as Ben Franklin and he’s tied to the slaves somehow. And the you have Desmond Miles who is podgy looks like Adam Sandler and who’s greatest achievement is being the descendant of all these cool assassins.

Seriously though, Ubisoft loves their historical accuracy when it comes to AC, specifically in recreating the atmosphere and feel of the era. Perhaps colonial USA wouldn’t be the same without a focus on slavery but Ubisoft has definitely chosen to cover the issue and make it a part of the game. Is this a rehash of BioWare’s decision to make Shepard canonically gay or is Ubisoft doing something truly worthwhile and meaningful here?

BioShock: Infinite, Halo 4, Borderlands 2 and Resident Evil 6 to name but a few; these are the games we know, we’re excited for and that makes each day of varsity, school or work worth drudging through. That being the case, there are always other interesting or worth-knowing-about games that (for one reason or another) seem to go mostly unnoticed until someone makes a little list like… well a list this. One game is almost certainly due in 2013 and another is more a truly amazing indie game than a AAA title, but all are worth knowing about.

Spec Ops: The Line

Spec Ops: The Line (or ‘The Line’ for the sake of convenience) is a primarily third-person shooter with emphasis on squad-based tactics. You, as the player, control one Captain Martin Walker (no relation to our favourite Texan Ranger I’m afraid) who is accompanied by a Delta Force team assigned to rescue an Army Colonel who remained behind in Dubai during some incident.

The Line makes use of a rather interesting and relatively unique dynamic terrain, that being the natural sandstorms of Dubai, in order to provide a dynamic terrain that changes and reacts during gameplay. The game also promises random sandstorm occurrences at varying levels of intensity. I know I’m looking forward to seeing more from this sandy tactical shooter.

Quantum Conundrum

Everyone knows the lyrics to the original Portal’s outro song; every gamer takes every opportunity to say the “cake is a lie” at any baking goods reference; and all nerds alike go nuts for anything Portal like. What I find strange then is how little hype or fanfare there is around Quantum Conundrum. It’s probably because there are no Valve logos to be seen, which makes sense I suppose.

What Quantum Conundrum is, is Kim Swift’s (one of the key brains behind Portal who did not remain at Valve) take on alternate dimensions and puzzle goodness. And as for the important similarities between Quantum Conundrum and Portal, well there are also as many key differences; there is much more character and narrative for one. Quantum Conundrum places you in the role of a nephew looking for his eccentric uncle and inventor extraordinaire named Professor Fitz Quadwrangle. It’s an FPS centric Portal-like puzzle game that makes use of different dimensions, each with their own unique matter and physics properties; dimensions you need to make use of. It’s got a fluffy dimension, how could you not want to play it?

Hawken

Hawken is quite simply the best looking, most awesome mech game I have seen in my life; which is a surprise when you consider how relatively small the development team behind this indie title is. It’s high octane; adheres to a fast pace though realistic feel; and maintains both action and strategic elements alike. Take that and wrap it up in the gorgeous visuals it packs and you have an insane multiplayer mech shooter worth your interest.

Command & Conquer: Generals 2

BioWare are trying something completely new here, something completely alien to them (see the word play). I know I for one am excited at the prospect of a new Generals game. So when one of the best design and development studios around takes an RTS epic like the Command and Conquer series and uses the monster Frostbite 2 engine to power the beast; well I get a little giggly.

It promises a return to the Command and Conquer staples; a dark and gritty story that takes place after the events of the original C&C Generals; and one new unnamed faction (it’ll probably be the Reapers). Let’s just hope it restores the faith in the franchise that so many fans lost after Red Alert 3 and Command and Conquer 4.

Sins Of A Solar Empire Rebellion

As far as I’m concerned, Sins of a Solar is the interstellar strategic king. It’s got immense depth, variety and strategic nuance but is relatively easy to learn and challenging to master. There is a lot to learn and with the new standalone expansion ‘Rebellion’, there are two unique factions (loyal and rebellious) and all the associated layers strategy introduced for each race.

So with effectively 6 factions and all the new content introduced through previous expansions, like the starbases, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion aims to push the strategic boundaries even further. This in addition to the visual tweaks, upgrades and an emphasis on using Steam makes Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion the de facto standard sci-fi RTS.

In Conclusion:

All of these games have definite promise; one or two show the potential for greatness even. The point is, these are the games I’m looking forward to, I’m awaiting with starry eyes and anticipation; so I share these with you, go forth and spread the message of their existence.

There’s a big Hitman Absolution announcement coming on May 10 but what could it be?

The news was conveyed via a poster which appeared on the game’s Facebook page and  depicts Agent 47 standing atop a building with a sniper rifle in hand. Could this mean that 47 killed Kennedy from a skyscraper two miles away? Is that the big twist in Absolution or maybe 47 is Batman and that’s why he’s on the rooftop?

Whatever the news is, it better be worth advertising it with a poster. Hitman Absolution will be out later this year on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Feel free to let your inner conspiracy theorist run wild with just what IO Interactive is planning to announce.

If you want to be technical, amongst the first things we heard about FIFA 13 was that the players would look more realistic, which is great news.

Now, at a recent London showcase, the game’s producer David Rutter spilled the beans on five major improvements that FIFA 13 will bring to the series. It’s not entirely clear whether they’re the only five, but it sounds like the gameplay will undergo significant change.

The changes are listed and detailed below.

First Touch Control
One of the first things to do at FIFA 13 was to implement a more realistic ball control. Now it will be more difficult to control a receiving ball with your player. It all depends on the strength, the speed, the ball height and the technical skills of your player to achieve the control of the ball and run with it.

Player Impact
Another feature that got improved is the player impact engine. There will be no more unrealistic animations in the players challenges!The engine has been optimized and new a set of impact values ​​has been added at the hip and the upper body area.

Complete Dribble
In FIFA 12 you could dribble just by changing direction,in FIFA 13 this won’t be possible anymore!

Tactical Free-Kicks
The free-kicks got a new free kick system. Up to three players can now gather around the ball and make fun of the opponent’s defense and goalie. You can now feint a direct shot and adjust it to a player who comes off the wall. Also the defense set pieces have been improved to go with the new free kick system. For example, you can make a defensive team with more players into the wall and send out a player to block the ball.

Attacking AI
The offensive Artificial Intelligence got a huge improvement. The CPU-controlled players got better running routes and better guessing options of where you pass the ball. Also the strikers are smarter and move with the offside line of your defenders, waiting to receive the ball and run with it towards your goal post.

David Rutter also revealed that FIFA 13 will bring in new features and upgrades such as new passing types, new shot rotation moves and new goalkeeper animations. Furthermore, the cheering and celebration animations have been adjusted to fit the current day football atmosphere. FIFA 13 will also work towards improving referees.

Sounds interesting.

We’ve seen plenty of screenshots and we’ve seen a cinematic or two but what everyone has desperately been waiting for to pass judgement on Assassin’s Creed III is a good look at some gameplay. Ubisoft has promised a lot but then so do presidential candidates and it definitely didn’t help Mr Sarkozy at all. No, we need to see the game in action to decide whether this one has a chance of succeeding or will just drown in the series’ own stagnant pool of redundancy.

What you see above is merely a brief teaser to the actual gameplay video which Ubisoft wants you to work for, the pigs. Basically, someone didn’t show the entire Ubisoft staff enough love and now they feel neglected so it’s up to you to go here and make them feel important or at the very least validated by liking the page and then sharing, posting or tweeting about it.

Do it now, for those morbidly depressed souls at Ubisoft, every share and tweet makes them feel more human! Once the grand total number of tweets, shares and posts hits 1,776,000 not only will the Ubisoft team be all sunshine and rainbows but you’ll even get the full AC III gameplay trailer as a reward.

Do what you must for the greater good.

Crytek’s Rasmus Højengaard has stepped up to reassure PC gamers that their version of Crysis 3 will include PC-specific graphics features.

Højengaard, when speaking to Spong, joked a little about Crysis’s PC journey, while talking up Crysis 3′s graphics.

“PC players, fundamentally only want Crysis to be on PC, right? And, you know, that’s kind of understandable when you consider how the original game – and even Crytek itself – started out,” he said.

“But, we’re definitely pushing this game a lot from a visual standpoint, and for sure there’s going to be visual goodies in it that you can only get if you have a super-high-end PC.

“At the same time, we want to ensure if you don’t have a super-high-end PC, the game will still look amazing. On top of that, we want to make sure the experience is not different from platform to platform.”

He didn’t specify what the unique graphical features for the PC version would be.

When it was revealed that several key historical figures such as George Washington and specifically Ben Franklin people immediately thought back to previous Assassin’s Creed games with their portrayal of Machiavelli, the Ottomans and specifically Da Vinci. You can see where this is going, right?

Everyone figured that our protagonist, Connor, would pop in to Ben’s workshop from time to time to upgrade his weapons or something but that won’t be the case. Mr Franklin will not be your glorified inventor but will instead use the game to display his little-known philanderous nature.

the game will somehow find a way to work in Franklin’s “love of women” according to the game’s creative producer Alex Hutchinson via Penny Arcade Report.

We all know about uncle Benjy and the post office and electricity and all that but he was also fond of writing what some might term softcore adult novels. Yeah, Ben was  a horny bastard who often wrote about his sexual escapades with his mistresses.

You don’t get that kind of information on the History Channel. In addition to Franklin’s sexcapades, it was also revealed that the goal with AC III is to not just have some historical figures but to make every single target a person who existed in reality.

Fuck, this game sounds like it is going to be amazing. Farewell oh luscious head of hair.

The newest issue of Game Informer features an interview with Final Fantasy Versus XIII director, Tetsuya Nomura, in which he discusses the latest Kingdom Hearts title for the Nintendo 3DS. Inevitably, questions about the state of Final Fantasy Versus XIII were raised.

The game was announced almost six years ago, and there’s still not much out on it at the moment. Maybe it’s trying to be the next Duke Nukem Forever.

Either way, Nomura had the following to say when asked about Versus XIII and if we’ll be hearing about it soon:

“We would like to ask for your patience on an official announcement for this title. It always takes time when tackling the challenge of doing something completely new, but we are doing our best to bring information to the fans as quickly as we can.

“Your patience is greatly appreciated.”

And the clock is still ticking.

I guess now we know why the world will end this year.

Amazon has revealed that day one pre-orders for Call of Duty: Black Ops II are not only ten times the pre-order numbers for the original Black Ops, but also 30 percent higher than Modern Warfare 3′s pre-order count.

Previously, it was Modern Warfare 3 that set the Amazon record for the most pre-ordered game of all-time. More than that, Modern Warfare 3 is among the top 20 pre-orders of all time for Amazon, and that’s not just among games. Now, it looks like Black Ops 2 might top that.

Have you seen the game’s first trailer? I will admit it’s hard to recognise Call of Duty in there, but gameplay will tell the full story. Apart from looking forward to the single-player, as I quite enjoyed the campaign in the original Black Ops, I’m not too excited for this.

Talk is cheap but not so much really when you’ve got really awesome looking gameplay clips to go with it. United Front Games has released a video in which they discuss the level editor in LittleBigPlanet Karting as well as the driving mechanics. There’s also a little bit said about bridging the gap between traditional LBP and a karting game and how that actually allowed the game to have elements and gameplay that you’d never expect to see in a racer.

You’ll see basically just how amazing this game looks while also getting an inside look into how United Front worked to make this a truly unique karting experience. You’ll also glimpse rocket-powered boxing gloves as vehicles at some point. Does it get any better than rocket-powered boxing gloves?

LittleBigPlanet Karting is out in October for PS3 and may eventually find its way onto Vita. Strong with this one the force is.

Hi-Rez, the developers of Tribes: Ascend, has confirmed that there are currently no plans to bring their game to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Todd Harris, the studio head, recently speaking with Gamasutra, revealed that despite the developer toying with the idea bringing the game to consoles, its business model took away hopes of a port.

“We do not have any plans for Tribes on console at this time,” said Harris. “The way it went is that we wanted to do the free-to-play model, and there wasn’t a clear path to that on consoles early on. Based on that, we optimized the game around the strengths of the PC, and specifically a keyboard and mouse control.”

“Once we decided it’d only be on the PC, we optimized around speed, a quick turn radius, and PC game controls. We’re still interested in free-to-play on consoles, but at this point, we have nothing specific to Tribes on console.”

Tribes is a free-to-player FPS that launched on PC just last month, gaining widespread critical acclaim and acquiring over 800,000 registered accounts.

“It’s really our belief that for an online multiplayer game, particularly, free-to-play is the best model for gamers and for studios.”

Ubisoft has let out a bunch of new concept art for the original Assassin’s Creed, dating back to November 2004, and showing off some of the early ideas the team had and played around with when inventing the franchise.

The art was produced by Khai Nguyen, and some of the more interesting images reveal that the team thought about co-op, a female assassin and a spin-off to Prince of Persia. The Assassin’s Creed Facebook page details a number of these images and tells us of their significance.

You can check out the full gallery below, and if you’re interested to find out more about some of the images be sure to head over to the game’s Facebook page.

When LittleBigPlanet Karting first surfaced it was inevitable that people would wonder what the difference would be between it and ModNation Racers since the games share a developer but then we saw the trailer for the game and sceptics weer silenced by the cutesy awesomeness.

Turns out though that the two games will have some commonalities. Racing in both games is the same in terms of the way the karts handle and the feel of driving. At least, that’s according to a preview on Shack News.

“Racing is identical across both games,” it says, “from the sense of speed, to car handling, to drifting. Replace the Mods with Sackboys, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect.”

LBP Karting will however offer a much greater, much deeper customisation system true to the other games in the series and will utilise the signature Popit system that makes modding so effortless. Besides crafting your own tracks, karts and characters, LBPK will also let players take a stab at creating their own custom weapons.

“If you don’t like the weapons that ship with the game, you can alter them. You can alter their behavior, their look, the frequency of those weapons,” design director William Ho told Shack. “You can even make your own entirely custom weapons using the objects that we ship with the game.”

As an added bonus, even the AI can be tweaked if you’re not happy with it.

Call me a fanboy but this game simply sounds amazing but then it is LittleBigPlanet is it not?

David Jaffe, the charismatic game director of the original God of War, recently offered his thoughts on developer SCE Santa Monica Studios’ decision to bring multiplayer to the series for the first time with the newly announced God of War: Ascension. It’s a bold move, but only time will tell if it pays off.

Jaffe, when speaking about his general thoughts on the multiplayer, said: “I think the MP they showed for GOW looks fun. IDig putting class based FPS team design in a brawler. If it wrx it’ll play fresh. I get some peeps upset IF MP comes@expense of SP, but there’s no evidence of that so not sure why some peeps whining about it.”

When asked if he feels that budgets or effort for the single-player will be compromised by the inclusion of multiplayer, Jaffe responded by saying:

“Not saying UR wrong but a) no evidence of that at all and b) sad state of the industry(and the medium?) to assume more money to throw at a game is what makes it better.

“I’d rather have a 5 hour GOW that chose 5 hours because it allowed the game to stay fresh and be filled with meaningful storytelling-thru-gameplay moments than have a 12 hour game that is a simply filled with set piece after set piece. Would RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK or THE DARK KNIGHT be better with a longer running time or more pages? Would Tetris be better with five extra shapes?”

Jaffe also took the opportunity to issue a response to critics, saying:

“If the new GOW has a meh campaign there will- and should be- much anger. My point is: have faith in the team at least enough to give them the benefit of doubt until y’all see/play some SP. Dont you think this team has earned that?

“If a game let’s you down in anyway- and Lord knows the last TM let some folks down:(- the game makers deserve to be judged and their decisions scrutinized. But if a team feels they CAN do amazing MP and SP (aka Goldeneye, Modern Warfare) who cares if the motivation behind adding SP or MP was a business motivation The fact the game exists AT ALL is in large part a biz motivation.

“I’m not saying gamers should not be skeptical and not look4best deals4their hard earned cash. Just suggesting folks give it a chance before they jump all over one of the most talented teams in the ENTIRE GAME BIZ. Seems pretty arrogant/snobby 4gamers to act as if such a talented team- that has delivered4so long- hasn’t thought it thru. If they have not, read some reviews and then skip the game. But until that happens, I say they’ve earned our faith.”

If you haven’t already, take a look at the first gameplay footage for the game’s multiplayer.

We usually applaud FIFA as a series for always trying something different each year in a bid to improve itself. meanwhile, Pro Evolution Soccer has just spent the past few years advancing itself to narrow that gap with FIFA and make itself more appealing to players. It’s no surprise then that PES 2013 is loaded with lots of new features.

Konami has slated the game for its usual September/October release with the publisher’s Digital Entertainment president Tomoyuki Tsuboi saying that the game has been shaped “in part, by the vocal PES community”, and went on to say that he’s “excited to take Pro Evolution Soccer back to its roots, which is all about freedom and control”.

The key features of PES 2013 are to be FullControl, Player ID and ProActive AI. Some of the new features are already found in FIFA while others are just the sort of thing you’d expect from PES. The new game seems to be getting its own version of Precision Dribbling and the Impact Engine along with boosted player AI.

Behold, the official list of features straight from Konami themselves:

The first element, FullControl (PES FC), offers a level of control that has never before been used in a soccer game. The features of PES FC include:

• Total Freedom of Control: Pro Evolution Soccer introduced the concept of freedom of movement. The new ‘PES FC’ in Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 goes further with total freedom over ball control.
• Dynamic First Touch: Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 introduces subtle ways to receive the ball, from traps to gently lifting it past an attacker to run on to or a variety of other moves. First Touch is everything, and players can trap the ball using the R2 button, killing the speed of a well-hit pass and bringing it instantly under control, or using the momentum of the pass to turn a defender.
• Full Manual Shooting and Full Manual Passing: Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 offers fully manual passing and, for the first time ever, manual shooting, allowing users to determine the height and power of each. Long, low passes can be sent skimming across the pitch. While shooting, the user has total control over where the shot is placed. Skill and precision are needed to master these, but passes can be made into open areas, allowing lone strikers to thrive, while offering an unrivalled variety in ways to score.
• Dribbling: The speed with which a player moves with the ball has been slowed in line with real matches, but using R2 allows players to add various styles to their close control. Players can vary the speed of their dribbling and cushion the ball as they move freely within a 360-degree circle. The new system allows players to knock a ball past a player and collect it, nutmeg them, or hold up play by shielding the ball as teammates find space and make runs.
• Full Manual One-Two: Active one-two passes can be made, with the second player being moved in any direction, facilitating various tactical movements.
• Response Defending: Countering the attacking options the new dribbling system offers, is a beautifully-balanced defense system. Players can use R2 and X to slow an attack, with a double-tap of the X button prompting a perfectly-timed challenge. Full 360-degree control means that players can check runs and steal the ball from a parallel position, while the individuality element will see world renowned defenders using aerial dominance of physicality to win the ball.
• Goalkeepers: Even the game’s keepers benefit from more control. Their distribution is more precise thanks to the addition of a power gauge when they throw the ball, creating opportunities for new, quicker counter attacks.

The second key element of Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 is the Player ID, which focuses on the individual characteristics and movements that each player boasts. The components of the Player ID include:

• Player Individuality: The very best players in Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 will be instantly recognizable via signature attributes, skills and tricks that bring them to life. The way they run, turn, trap and move the ball, shape to shoot, and even celebrate will be noticeably different during play.
• Individuality to Goalkeepers: Goalkeeping has been totally invigorated via new animations and play styles. New varieties of saves and reactions have been added to ensure the game’s keepers are in line with the efforts of real shot stoppers. This level of realism also extends to the game’s top-rated goalkeepers, with their moves to close attacks down, fling themselves to tip a shot past the post, and in-goal acrobatics benefiting from all new animations and AI.

The third element is the ProActive AI, which unites the control and realism, with players that will respond and find space as befits those at the top of their games.

• Balance of Play: The development team has worked closely with the Pro Evolution Soccer fan base to eradicate any illogical elements to the way players move and run in Pro Evolution Soccer 2013, with the ‘ProActive AI’ system enhancing the speed and balance, resulting in a more realistic game experience.
• Enhanced Goalkeepers: Improvements to the goalkeepers was voted the key advancement football fans wanted to see in Pro Evolution Soccer 2013, and the team has worked hard with real life goalkeepers to ensure the AI decision process has been vastly improved. Keepers now respond with better reactions, clear their lines more effectively, and push the ball safely out of play rather than into dangerous areas.
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 will also boast better connectivity and atmosphere. The popular myPES application will extend the connectivity and communication between Facebook-using PES fans, while the game’s audio effects are being tied closer to the on-field action to provide the kind of buzz seen at top-tier matches, with crowds growing in excitement as their team starts to exert pressure.

The focus is clearly on offering a greater level of control than ever before while also making it worth the while with some improved player AI. There also seems to be a focus on giving players a more unique, individual experience which should be interesting.

2012 looks to be Man City’s year to overthrow United, is it PES’s turn to do the same and topple FIFA? Probably not (personally) but it’ll likely be closer than ever.

Activision’s official Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 website has gone live, and it’s confirmed new information for those interested in this title. I will resist the urge to use a troll face.

The site confirms Black Ops 2′s official box art, as well as that, as expected, the game will be out on November 13 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

The pre-order page reveals: “Pushing the boundaries of what fans have come to expect from the record-setting entertainment franchise, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 propels players into a near future, 21st Century Cold War, where technology and weapons have converged to create a new generation of warfare.”

And that’s all folks.

It’s not long now until Ghost Recon: Future Soldier releases and some of you will surely be enjoying the beta but for those of you that aren’t, we have a preview that’ll make you feel better (probably not). Ubisoft has released a new trailer for the online shooter, this one detailing the Specialist class.

The Specialist is described as “a master in electronic warfare equipped with Blackout, an energy boost which renders the enemy useless and disoriented as well as A.E.G.I.S which creates an impenetrable shield upon yourself and your surrounding teammates. His job? To tilt the tides of battle.”

Don’t you just wanna be a Specialist so bad right now?

Sony has released the first God of War: Ascension gameplay details ahead of the live web stream happening later this afternoon, which will officially showcase the game.

It was confirmed by USA Today that the game, currently in development over at Sony Santa Monica Studios, will introduce multiplayer to the series for the very first time.

“Playable by up to eight players, the game’s multiplayer version lets two teams compete, domination style, against each other, but then must ultimately defeat a large God of War-worthy boss for victory,” USA Today explains.

“In the level shown, a gigantic one-cyclops Polythemus pounded and railed over the multileveled map. The camera zoomed in on individual visceral battles. In one, two warriors who look like cousins of Kratos disembowel an enemy and his innards flow out. Later, one combatant cleaves an opponent in half from head to thorax.

“Eventually, the dominating team turns their attention to the Cyclops, attach some chains to restrain it and one leaps to put out its eye. ‘The whole idea behind it is that we want to bring the big moments to multiplayer,’ Papy said after the demonstration.”

The game will be released exclusively on PS3 in Spring 2013. An exact date hasn’t been confirmed.

The lid’s been blown on Sony’s Super Smash Bros. knock-off and while it may be too early to tell whether this is a quirky cash-in or a champion, we can at least inform you with some basic details.

The game is under development at SuperBot Entertainment with a little input being given from Sony Santa Monica (God of War).  You may not have heard of SuperBot but t’s staff seems up to the challenge, comprising people who have worked on UFC and Mortal Kombat. It is also worth mentioning that the name is absolutely ridiculous and Sony could’ve done themselves a big favour by simply calling it Title Fight which was one of the considered names.

At present, there are six confirmed characters namely Fat Princess, Parappa the Rapper, Kratos, Sly Cooper, Sweet Tooth and Colonel Radec. Expect to see others such as Solid Snake, Nathan Drake, Cole McGrath and more though.

There will likely be a variety of stages with the design for each drawing inspiration from two games – one for the background, the other for the foreground. Currently, we only know of four stages along with their respective influences:

• Metropolis (Ratchet & Clank / God of War)
• Sandover Village (Jak & Daxter / Hot Shots Golf)
• Hades (God of War / Patapon)
• Dreamscape (LittleBigPlanet / Buzz)

Each character will also have Super Attacks which are comparable to Ultras or Supers from Street Fighter, as their special meter fills the attack becomes more potent.

That’s all for now but perhaps you’d like to watch the debut trailer and have a look-see at what this title is all about?

She may not be making an appearance in the upcoming movie (which will be awesome) but Black Cat will definitely be making an appearance in the tie-in video game from Spidey’s new developer of choice, Beenox.

This is the studio’s third stab at a Spider-Man game and it looks like they might make some headway towards a good game this time around. At the very least, they seem to understand the basic underpinnings of Black Cat’s character i.e. the cleavage needs to be disproportionate on an anime level and it needs to be sufficiently visible. Even if those glasses don’t really work. There are even some screens for you to oggle over. Enjoy and that goes double for you, kluchy.

The Amazing Spider-Man will be out on 3DS, DS, PS3, Move, Wii, and Xbox 360 in late June with time to spare before the movie releases.

Dishonored is a first-person steampunk stealth/action title about a disgraced assassin named Corvo who is trying to clear his name. He has BioShock-esque abilities and the penchant for free-running often associated with Assassin’s Creed.It’s also spelled in American which sucks.

The game is in development at Arkane Studios which has some pedigree amongst its staff.  You’ve got Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith, Half-Life 2 art director Viktor Antonov and then there’s Raphael Colantonio who was lead designer on Arx Fatalis and also said some things about the scope of choice players will have in-game and just what the impact of that will be on the world around you (courtesy of OPM).

He said: “To us, player choice, the choice in a video game in general is what makes the experience unique to each player, and it’s what makes a big difference between a movie and a game, so as many choices as you can make a second the more interesting for us it is.

“Not only can you play either stealthily or more brutally, you’re going to play a combination of that, we believe. At every instance you have this feeling that you can improvise and make plans and if things go wrong then you have to use some creativity to get out of the situation.”

Seems pretty awesome right? If no, then I suggest you go watch the debut trailer.

The latest weapons trailer for Max Payne 3 shows off the 1911 semi-automatic pistol, and just like the previous trailers it’s really short. But I guess all you really need to see, as the game draws closer to its May 18 release date, is some old school action. And Mr Payne sure does love his pistols.

Check it out above.

According to the creative directors of Dishonored, who recently had a chat with VG247, the game will have enough content to allow players to shape their own unique experiences based on how they choose to play it.

Raf Colantonio, the co-creative director, told Sam Clay at a viewing event last week for the game that even though the main storyline will remain identical for all players, the “minute-to-minute story” promises to provide something different for each player, depending on how they play.

“I think every playthrough will be a little different, yes,” said Colantonio.

“It’s not that every playthrough will have a different story, it’s that every playthrough will have its own minute-to-minute story. The overarching story is gonna be kind of the same for everybody: the different endings and different flavours now and then.

“What matters again is as a player, I feel like I own the experience. I feel like, ‘wow, the system responded to what I wanted to do and it was kinda cool’.”

Colantonio’s partner in creative crime, Harvey Smith, known around the industry for his work on Deus Ex and Thief, made similar statements.

“Different people are gonna purchase the game different ways,” said Smith.

“Some people are just gonna race and bash their way through. And that works, that’s fine. And other people are going to take their time, play creatively and experiment like that. And we’re okay with both approaches.”

Dishonored will release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 somewhere in 2012, but since the date hasn’t even been narrowed down yet, my guess is that it will be delayed to early 2013.

Be sure to watch the exciting debut cinematic trailer if you haven’t already.

Konami has announced it is currently working on patches for both Silent Hill: Downpour and the Silent Hill HD Collection on Xbox and PS3. No release date was given.

“Understanding the issues some users are experiencing, development teams are currently creating online patches for both games, which will fix the frame rate issues, the audio-synching in Silent Hill HD Collection, and the Auto-Save issues in Silent Hill Downpour,” said Konami.

While there isn’t an exact date yet, the developer did say that the patches will arrive “in the coming weeks”.

Crytek recently chatted with Gamerzines, revealing its ambition to create “the best-looking game that’s ever been made” with Crysis 3, and the studio believes that it’s “well on the way” to achieving that goal.

Talk about setting the bar high. Although colour me skeptical of Crysis 3′s gameplay after Crysis 2.

“It’s really important for us to underline that [Crysis 3] is not only about the technology, but about the setting and the mood,” said Rasmus Højengaard, Crytek’s creative director.

“The thing is, the quality of the artwork here is not so much about the tech as the quality of the actual art, and that’s really good because it’s easier to translate onto lesser-powerful hardware platforms. The difficult thing to translate is the tech, and we want to make sure that not only do we push the technology, we also the push the quality of the artwork, the mood and the sense of a living breathing environment.

“The visuals need to be amazing even if they don’t have the tech,” he continued. “We’re just going for making the best looking game that’s ever been made, basically, and I think we’re well on the way.”

Once again Crytek will be using its own in-house engine, the CryEngine, to power the game, as it did with the previous games in the series. According to the developer, Crysis 3 is being developed utilising an ‘enhanced’ version of CryEngine 3.

However, the tricky part is that the industry expects spring 2013 to be when the next-generation consoles will be revealed, and it then becomes questionable whether Crysis 3 may be overshadowed by the revelation of next-gen technology. But Højengaard is confident that this won’t be an issue.

“God of War [2] had big success doing this where it launched late in the console cycle,” he continued.

“I think if a game is amazing enough and if there’s no availability of other consoles, then people will buy it anyway. Whether it’s going to be a swansong or a benchmark of what was possible on those consoles, we can’t really tell until we’re at that point. If it becomes that, that’s great!”

Højengaard believes that Crytek’s confidence in its technology is so high that the studio has developed “almost arrogant perceptions to game design,” demonstrating this by adding random items into its game worlds hoping that players “might see it”.

“We had all these random animals walking around [in Crysis 1] and all that kind of stuff. That kind of headspace where you have almost arrogant perceptions to game design: ‘I’m going to put a frog here just because you might see it’. We now have little critters jumping around Manhattan [in Crysis 3].”

That last part is pretty cool. I remember getting eaten by a shark in the original Crysis because I swam out too far and too deep. It was scary as hell but pretty awesome. I didn’t find anything enjoyable like that in Crysis 2, so I really hope Crysis 3 brings back the magic from the original game, in all areas.

Be sure to check out the debut gameplay trailer if you haven’t already.

Pro Evolution games of the past 2 or 3 years were pretty Messi-centric with PES 2011 just going crazy and slapping his face and likeness everywhere they could. Much like EA Sports just did with FIFA Street. Anyway, Cristiano Ronaldo is now the face of PES and so now all trailers and screenshots are so obsessed with him that you’d swear the developers were a bunch of swooning girls who’d be willing to rock up at a Real Madrid match holding a sign for him that says: “We have good ball skills too.” I swear to God that happened in real life, cross my heart, hope Azhar dies (hehe).

Anyway, here’s the latest CR7 oggle-fest complete with screenshots to oggle even more.

At this juncture I would like to kindly request that all Barca fans suck it while also leaving you with this fun fact: Alessandro has the same fishing rod as Cristiano Ronaldo seeing as how all Portuguese fish. Fun fact #2: Alessandro and Ronaldo hail from the same town which is to Portugal what Ventersdorp is to South Africa.

Rockstar has confirmed that the Xbox 360 version of upcoming Max Payne 3 will be on two separate discs.

This news was confirmed when Redbox, a US rental service, revealed that Max Payne 3 will be on two discs with the first containing half of the single player and the full multiplayer. At a later stage Rockstar verified the information from Redbox as true through a Tweet.

“Redbox only ever rent out one disc, for any multi-disc game,” it said. “Max is on 2 discs for 360, so Redbox will be renting disc 1 which contains half of the single player story and the full multiplayer game.”

Multiple discs is not a new concept to the Xbox 360, but personally I feel for them in this case because I’d hate to swap discs in a single-player experience. Personally, I wouldn’t mind one disc for single-player and one for multiplayer, but Max Payne 3′s method is a bit unfortunate.

Max Payne 3 will be released on May 18 for PS3 and Xbox 360, and on June 1 for PC.

Here we have yet another short teaser trailer for Prototype 2, just as it’s about to release for PS3 and Xbox 360. The PC version is sadly only arriving on July 30.

You know what to do if Prototype 2 is on your wishlist and you need more reasons to get it.

Keep an eye out for our review in the near future.

Well that’s an inspiring attitude from Mikael Nermark, the president and CEO of Starbreeze Studios.

Nermark, recently speaking with Joystiq, said that despite being proud of Starbreeze’s work on sci-fi shooter Syndicate, he feels fans’ expectations were too high.

However, in the end the firm was “happy” with the direction they took and how it turned out.

“Syndicate comes with a lot of expectations,” he said. “Such a great brand, such a great franchise. I don’t think we could’ve ever lived up to some people’s expectations.

“I love the original. When I got into the industry way back, RTS and that kind of game were my kind of game. But you always wanna add your touch to it, you wanna make it your game even though it’s built on a great franchise.

“So I think that’s hard. Overall, we’re happy.”

Not a great excuse considering the game was turned into a generic shooter in order to appeal to the masses. For me it was fun at times, but quite forgettable really, and mediocre overall.

Last week Friday, I had the awesome opportunity to get my hands on Sleeping Dogs, a game that started out as a sequel to the famed but flawed True Crime series. Thankfully Sleeping Dogs is not another True Crime game, a fact that was repeated numerous times, but something I only believed after getting my hands on this title. Sleeping Dogs is not another True Crime; In fact, it’s looking a lot better than most sandbox games being released lately. With a new unique setting, some really brutal fighting, a story with homage to classic Hong Kong crime stories and more, Sleeping Dogs quite took my attention and grabbed it hard.

Let’s get the formalities out of the way first. Sleeping Dogs is centered on undercover cop Wei Shen, who has infiltrated the deadly Triads in Hong Kong in order to try and bring them down from the inside. If you’ve ever seen a Police Cop drama and a Kung Fu film and wondered what they’d be like together, you’d get Sleeping Dogs. The story looks like it’s dripping with a Chinese “Departed” type plot, which is not really a bad thing when you think about it. The game is set in a highly detailed, living, breathing realization of modern day Hong Kong, giving New York a rest for the time being. The result is a game that looks and feels a lot like GTA in a Chinese setting, but Sleeping Dogs borrows more than a few elements from other massive titles, and blends them together in interesting ways. Fighting from Arkham City, driving from Need for Speed, over the top antics from Just Cause and the general structure from GTA means that Sleeping Dogs is almost immediately recognizable, just in different colours.

The demo began with a enjoyable chase scene through the alleyways that litter the streets of Hong Kong. It’s amazing just how alive the entire city feels, with citizens going about their daily duties while you walk through the crowded markets. I even had one NPC offer my character some cheap goods. Having just visited Hong Kong recently, I could easily see the amount of work that was put in to give this setting an authentic feeling. I began chasing down my target through the crowds; hopping over fences, climbing vending machines and occasionally bringing down some poor bystanders with a flying kick to the head. Hey, you’re a cop, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. Eventually you reach a conveniently placed group of baddies, all ready to beat your face in. It’s a good thing then that Wei Shen seems to have spent a few years with Bruce Wayne, learning how to fight like Batman; those poor henchmen didn’t stand a chance. Sleeping Dogs’ fighting system borrows its elements from one of the most robust systems out there, namely the “Freeflow” combat mechanic from Batman: Arkham Asylum/City. You use one button to attack, another to block and a third to grab. The action is not quite as fluent as in the Batman titles, but counters and blocks are just as easy to pull off. Grab an enemy and you can sprint with him towards any glowing objects around you, initiating some brutally violent finishing moves. It’s all sorts of bloody fun, without the cape but with a lot more blood.

Sleeping Dogs is brutal. From devastatingly violent finishing moves, such as smashing heads into fan blades, burning them on stoves or shoving them in between a car door, blood is everywhere. The narrative seems to carry on this violent nature, with a cutscene from near the end of the narrative showing Wei Shen being tortured by other Triad members. Being hit in the face with a hammer, followed by a power drill to the knee (yes, I know), just goes to show that you shouldn’t mess with the Triads. However, where the brutality in the fighting sequences may seem a bit out of place, the violent nature fits right in. It’s a story about gangsters with a lot of money; people who would do anything to protect their business ventures. This type of stuff happens in the dark corners of our society, so it’s quite interesting to see it so graphically portrayed in this title. It feels real and gritty, and I loved every second of it.

Since this is a sandbox title, a lot of attention must go to vehicles. Sleeping Dogs boasts around 80 different vehicles, all taking cues from real-life cars and brands. Just like with the Grand Theft Auto franchise, vehicles aren’t licensed, but you can almost tell what each vehicle was designed after. However, unlike GTA, driving is being handled by some real professionals in Sleeping Dogs. Developers who have previously worked on Need for Speed titles were given the reigns when dealing with driving, and having done my fair share in game, I can honestly say you can feel it. Cars handle and react extremely well to your inputs, aside from a few hilarious bugs that cropped up in the beta code. A lot of care was taken with driving in this title, and it’s nice to see that it wasn’t sloppily handled. Vehicular combat also makes a strong appearance, differing from most when it comes down to the execution. Instead of just trying to line up shots while going at 120 on a motorcycle, Sleeping Dogs puts you into “slow motion” when you want to take out other enemy vehicles. Shoot out tires, take out the driver, or jump straight on the boot of an enemy vehicle. It’s over the top, unrealistic fun, much like everything in Just Cause.

Borrowing a bit from Max Payne, but staying true to some old True Crime mechanics, Sleeping Dogs does have its fair share of slow motion moments when it comes to gunplay. However, even this feature has its own rules attached to it. Instead of having a dedicated “focus” meter, Sleeping Dogs initiates the mode when it thinks you need it. Vaulting over cover or switching from cover to cover while shooting will initiate some slow motion, allowing you to pop some heads in spectacular fashion. There weren’t many guns on show, and gunplay as a whole didn’t really stand out. It functions the way it should, but that’s about it.

Other than that, Sleeping Dogs offers side missions, as every sandbox game should, but we weren’t really allowed to dive into those fully. Visuals have a bit of a unique flair to them, but there was nothing really special or outstanding to note. This is still beta code, so a lot can be improved from now until release. Counters need to be a touch more responsive, melee fighting could be tweaked to feel smoother, and those odd visual slowdowns will probably be mended. Sleeping Dogs isn’t looking to be ground breaking, or a spiritual successor to the failed True Crime franchise. Instead, it looks to me as if this title is the first step in the right direction for a franchise that could really build into something special. Taking features from other games isn’t hard, but making them fit into a completely new setting does take a lot of dedication. I’m happy to say that I was previously wrong about Sleeping Dogs, and after getting to spend some time with it, I was left pleasantly surprised. If you’re a fan of anything to do with sandbox titles, or if you haven’t had a good dose of GTA style fun lately, then keep your eyes on Sleeping Dogs.

Thanks to Megarom for the invitation, as well as Samsung, Tritton and Xbox South Africa for supplying all the awesome hardware.

There’s nothing quite like a good, long laugh to start a blue Monday off with, and I have Activision to thank for that.

Adding more fuel to one of my favourite rage topics, Activision’s Social Media Manager, Dan Amrich, recently responded to a number of negative comments made on the PlayStation Blog regarding the Call of Duty franchise.

In response to one such comment slating Call of Duty for being the same thing every year, Amrich stated:

“That said, if you do not feel Call of Duty is worth your time or money, I totally respect that. A lot of other people (myself included) enjoy playing the game and feel the maps are worth their asking price. But we all make different decisions, because there are a lot of different kinds of gamers out there.”

“I don’t think the games are copy/pasted every year either, but maybe it’s all in what you are looking for in a game.

Amrich also had this to say to a commenter complaining that the sequel to Modern Warfare 3 would just be the same thing again.

“You don’t have to like what CoD is every year, but to say now “it’s going to be the same thing” seems pretty unfair. Better to wait and see what’s on tap before you make up your mind. If MW2 was all you needed, that’s fine too.”

Oh come now, Activision. We’re all grown-ups here.

Do not adjust your TV set, although you probably should because this is a website. You’re not experiencing lag or bad connection, this Max Payne 3 TV ad is just in love with bullet time. In fact the whole thing is just in slow-mo so if you sped it up, it would look normal.

Anyway, this is supposed to get you amped for the game and inspire you to go out and get it or pre-order it so y’know get excited or just do something, anything. Max Payne 3 is out on May 15 except for PC which only gets the game in June 1.

The PS3 and Xbox 360 multiplayer beta for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier released yesterday and having seen it in action already on PC, it looks pretty good but what good is it releasing something without accompanying trailers, right?

There are two trailers, the first walks you through the equipment you’ll use in-game and the two opposing factions. The second (below) details the two maps available in the beta as well as the various modes on offer.

The beta will run until May 2 with the game releasing for consoles on May 25 and June 15 for PC.

If you’ve played past Hitman titles, or at least Blood Money then you’ll be familiar with the little mechanic whereby you see the front page of a local newspaper with a story about the death of your latest target. It was a nice little touch and it seems to be making a return in Hitman: Absolution.

A mock-up of the front page of a South Dakota local newspaper has been released and while it doesn’t detail any exploits by a mysterious assassins, it bears the same style as those newspapers in previous games and mostly talks about an industrialist who will likely end up being a target of 47′s.

Agent 47 is no stranger to travel though and regularly went cross-country to perform a job. Get a closer look at the image below and keep an eye out for more Hitman news. The game is out for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC later this year.

Do you know what is one of the best things about Spec Ops: The Line besides the unique setting, focus on moral ambiguity and use of sand as a bespoke gameplay mechanic? The fact that it is a game set in the Middle east where the main enemy is not Arab or some form of terrorist in the traditional sense of the word. Instead it’s The Exiles versus The Damned.

What’s interesting about the online is that it’s being called a sandbox multiplayer not because of a vast free-roaming environment but as a result of numerous boxes of sand littering the map which you can dump on unwitting enemies.

It looks good and the rest of the game looks even better. Spec Ops is out for PS3 and Xbox 360 on June 29.

Bethesda has stepped up to confirm that Prey 2 has not been cancelled, plugging previous rumours suggesting that it had been. However, the bad news is that the game has been delayed, and won’t release in 2012 due to it not meeting Bethesda’s “quality standards”.

There you have it, the shooter is still in the works over at Human Head Studios.

“Development of Prey 2 has not been cancelled but the game will not be released in 2012 as planned,” Bethesda confirmed in a statement to VG247.

“The delay is due to the fact that game development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year, and the game does not currently meet our quality standards. Prey 2 has shown great promise and we regret disappointing our fans. We have made a substantial investment in game development to deliver the experience fans want.

“We are determined only to release the AAA game that fans rightfully expect, and are unwilling to compromise our quality standards to meet a release schedule.”

Prey 2 was officially revealed last year March for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. After that, the game was pretty much in the dark, but shown to the press behind closed doors on a number of occasions. It proceeded to make more significant appearances at Bethesda’s pre-E3 event in Utah last year April, as well as featured at the E3 press conference, QuakeCon and gamescom. On top of that, it was publicly shown off at PAX Prime and the Eurogamer Expo.

Now that Prey 2 is off the cards for 2012, it’s clear that Bethesda will be narrowing its focus on Skyrim’s DLC and Dishonored, the newly announced stealth action game for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Or to be more specific, Dishonored is a first-person open world Neo-Victorian action adventure stealth action video game. Got it?

In case you missed it, earlier today we saw the announcement of God of War: Ascension, the sequel to God of War III and prequel to the franchise’s story.

However, word is that despite Ascension being a prequel to the original God of War, there’s nothing to say that Sony won’t revisit the story after the events of God of War III.

Todd Papy, the game director, speaking on Twitter, suggested that it will be addressed in time, and fans will have to exercise patience in the meantime.

“We will talk about that soon,” he responded when asked why Ascension does not pick up where God of War III left off. “You’ll just need to have some patience with us,” he said with a winking emoticon.

Papy also confirmed that the leak earlier today wasn’t an intentional move by Sony.

“It was a leak,” he explained, “but you have to roll with it.” Apparently the reveal wasn’t meant to happen until the afternoon, but Amazon’s mistake forced Sony to officially reveal it through Blog posts and raise the curtain earlier than planned.

God of War: Ascension is scheduled to release exclusively on PS3 in late 2013.

Admit it, doesn’t a part of you die inside every time you hear this statement from developers nowadays?

Not to mention that I recall this very thing being said about Crysis 2 during its development, but such is life.

Anyway, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli has revealed through Twitter that Crysis 3 “will push the 360, PS3 to its limits, ahead of Crysis 2, but Crysis 3 PC will be clearly ahead!”

I hope so, because that didn’t seem to be the case with Crysis 2. Either way, let’s wait to see the first game footage due out today. It’s probably a cinematic trailer.

Rockstar and Marvel are teaming up to bring you a 3-part Max Payne comic series which will be out in “the next few weeks.” Even original Max Payne developer, Remedy is somewhat involved with the studio’s Sam lake being  part of the creative team.

As Marvel explains: “Written by Dan Houser and Remedy’s Sam Lake, and featuring cover art from Greg Horn and pencils/inks by Fernando Blanco, this original Max Payne 3 comic series will delve into Max’s troubled past – exploring the events that occurred in and around both Max Payne and Max Payne 2, leading up to Max Payne 3 while also shedding new light on Max’s early years.”

The comics will be released as digital graphic novels and also be printed in limited editions. The first issues will be launched as a free digital comic on the official Max Payne site in “the next few weeks” and has been titled “After the Fall.” It’s safe to assume that the comic will thus fill in some of the blanks between Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne and Max Payne 3.

The game itself is out on May 18 for consoles while PC boys will have to wait until June 1.

It’s been a few years since we last saw Max Payne and since then a lot has happened in his life, not least of which was a terrible movie and a portrayal by Mark Wahlberg who will go down as the only action hero who favours a side-parting. Besides that, our mentally tormented hero has left New York and taken to the warmer climes of Sao Paulo where he works private security. When me first meet Max in the new game, he’s protecting a wealthy family and as luck would have it, they’re being attacked by a gang just as the game opens, don’t you hate it when that happens?

Title: Max Payne 3
Developer: Rockstar Vancouver
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Players: 1 – 16
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Expected Price: R605 (PS3, Xbox 360), R325 (PC)
Release Date: May 18 (PS3, Xbox 360), June 1 (PC)

It’s been 9 years since we last saw our favourite pill-popping hero with psychological issues and I’m not talking about Gregory House, I’m speaking of course about Max Payne. The guy who hurts so much, he’s made it his last name. Max Payne 3 will follow on in much the same vein as the previous 2 with Max on a mission of sorts as he deals with his own issues and demons while popping pills, delivering intelligent dialogue and jumping through the air in slow-mo a lot. What won’t be the same is the developer, old developer Remedy is out in favour of Rockstar Vancouver. Presumably because Remedy is so in love with all things Alan Wake right now.

Anyway, it’s not like there are any hard feelings between the two and Remedy has actually been keeping tabs on the game’s progress with their latest statement giving Max Payne 3 a resounding thumbs up. Remedy CEO, Matias Myllyrinne had this to say:

“It’s f***ing brilliant. I’ve had a chance to play it and we’ve worked with Rockstar a little bit – obviously, they’re doing the heavy lifting. They’re doing the development. But they wanted our input on a couple of occasions and we’ve had loads of our people, our core group, who worked on the first two games, give input and it’s awesome.”

However, fear not because Rockstar has kept the formula pretty much stock albeit with a bit of modernisation and interim character development. What they’ve done is age Max Payne the way you would a cow’s ass to get prime-grade lazy aged steak. He’s older, rougher, podgier and balder. There’s also a beard that totally makes him look like Walt from Breaking Bad. Max has also become somewhat consumed by his own demons and seems to have taken up alcoholism which should go great with his pre-existing addiction to pain pills (Panado or Myprodol, depending on how hardcore you are). Expect this internal struggle to be a feature of the game’s narrative as with the previous two games.

All the gameplay that you’ll remember is returning including the series’ hallowed and treasured bullet-time. Max Payne 3 is best described as a cover-based third-person shooter and will have a variety of guns on offer so you know what to expect there. Fully destructible environments will also be a new feature that is, in part, thanks to the new and improved Euphoria engine which when combined with full motion capture of the characters allows for more realistic interactions with the environment as well as other characters.

As you will see from some of the screenshots down below, Max hasn’t left NYC behind entirely in this new game. What you’ll also notice is that he’s slimmer, has a full head of hair and is clean shaven in the New York shots so it’s safe to assume that we’ll play through the streets of NY during flashbacks as Max tries to reconcile his past or simply bury it and the fact that he’s loaded up on booze and meds can’t possibly lessen the chances of hallucination-type daydreams.

The signature comic-style panels will make a return albeit with a bit of a facelift but the game will also have what it claims to be seamless blending between cutscenes and gameplay as demonstrated in the video below. Judge for yourself but I think it looks pretty good and flows nicely.

What might not please series fans is the fact that MP3 has lost that noir atmosphere that the old games had, opting more for a more typically Rockstar third-person action title with some fancy mechanics and a solid narrative. It surely won’t be bad but don’t expect it to feel like your old Max Payne games. It still use many of the same gameplay elements and structures and remains linear but it won’t be quite the same.

Rockstar has gone to great lengths to recreate not necessarily the city of Sao Paulo but rather the atmosphere and feel of the city. Specifically the way its law enforcement and criminals operate. A team from Rockstar actually went down to the Brazilian city to pound the pavement with local cops and local gang members/criminals. The city will also have a number of varied and diverse sections which you play through from the squalor of the favelas to more traditional slums and ghettos, the urban city centre etc.

Big news though is the addition of some real online multiplayer because what’s better than getting a headshot in awesomely slow-mo bullet-time? It will come in two flavours, namely Gang wars and Payne Killer.

In Gang Wars players will find themselves as part of one of the factions from the main campaign  facing off against a warring faction. They are essentially story-based team deathmatches with branching storylines which depend on the outcome of each match.

Payne Killer may sound like the title one of the most fun games you can ever play but it is in fact Max Payne 3′s co-op mode featuring our hero Max and his compadre Raul Passos. To make it through co-op, Rockstar claims players will need a mixture of teamwork, good use of bullet-time, a combination of the two players signature weapons and lots and lotsa pills, or at least that’s what Max needs to get through anything.

You can also create a crew (aka clan) which opens you up to a slightly different multiplayer experience and thanks to Rockstar Social Club, you can use this clan in any Rockstar game post-Max Payne 3. The way it works is that in addition to your normal multiplayer bits and pieces, you now get PvP vendettas and crew feuds. A PvP vendetta is initiated when someone kills you more than twice after which they will appear on the map as a black cross and you will be awarded bonus XP for dropping them in cold blood. Crew feuds are a little more spontaneous. If you see two or more members of a feuding crew, the game will enter ‘skirmish’ mode where the first team/crew/clan to 10 kills walks away the winner.

It’s one of those systems that sounds like it has great potential but really needs to be put in practise before we can see how it fares and that certainly won’t happen with the lack of a Max Payne 3 demo. On a related note, the new crew system is rather cool because while you can’t carry XP over between games, feuds do carry over so you can have cross-title feuds or inter-dimensional gang warfare as I like to call it.

So, to recap. New developer, new setting but with bits of the old in there too. Podgier, balder, more bearded protagonist who still loves his meds but loves the bottle just as much these days. Lots of shooting, lots of slow-motion flying through the air, a Brazilian partner and there’s now multiplayer with cross-title clans. Did I mention Max Payne is losing it a little and is a little unhinged?

Max Payne 3 may not be the exact threequel fans have been looking for but it certainly doesn’t look like a slouch and Rockstar rarely puts a foot wrong, they even made table-tennis an enjoyable gaming experience and on the Wii no less. The game still retains the series’ signature characteristics just with a slightly different filter over it all. Here’s hoping Max Payne 3 isn’t one we’ll want to forget with the help of prescription drugs.

Yesterday, Crysis 3 got its official announcement, and if you were a bit jelly about the fact that there was no game footage to be seen, then be at peace that you’ll only need to wait until this coming Thursday to see it in action.

According to Geoff Keighley, Crysis 3 will be featured in this week’s GT.TV, where we’ll get our first glimpse of the game.

Keighley said briefly via a Twitter post: “EA and Crytek have announced Crysis 3 for 2013. First glimpse at footage coming Thursday on Spike.”

There you have it. All we have to do is wait for Thursday and pray that this game doesn’t look anything like Crysis 2, but more like the original.