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.”

Famously described as a tower defence game put in reverse, Anomaly Warzone Earth (or AWE for short) aims to please RTS fans with great strategic components and a beautiful world. Not many RTS games are even available on XBLA arcade so AWE is treading on new waters. Will it sink or swim?

AWE introduced me to something I have never quite experiences. A tower defence game…in reverse. That’s not something I’m used to all. You are Commander Fourteen. Despite your hilarious call sign, you are a commander who is in charge of managing and protecting your units from alien forces that have started to invade earth. The aliens have landed and it’s up to you to find out what they’re up to and to potentially blow shit up. From the first cutscene you get introduced to something that’s not exactly common in arcade games. Decent voice acting. Your general and team-mates all don British accents and the voice actors did their work quite well indeed. Some dialogue is said with a comedy focus and sometimes your general makes a bad pun that just adds to the hilarity. It’s all a great addition to the game and one not many RTS games have.

The gameplay mechanics are interesting and fresh. You basically need to make units and guide them through the war-torn world one enemy at a time and you do that by making a predetermined route that all your units follow in a straight line. Your convoy won’t stop at all and just keeps on moving, killing anything that comes in its way. It all sounds pretty basic, but the main attraction to this is that you have to command the Commander (LOL Punny) to use one of 4 different skills along the route. These skills are repair, decoy, smoke screen and airstrike. You pick these skills up randomly across the battlefield or when you kill certain enemies. When a skill is deployed, it makes a circle that affects all units in its area. This adds a massive strategic element to the game and helps you make certain decisions throughout the levels.

Your survival is dependent on the correct implementation of those 4 skills. If you use them carelessly or not in the right circumstances, then you might as well be kissing your shiny ass goodbye. The game does switch things around a bit and forces you to make certain changes on the fly to your route. This keeps you on your toes and ready for anything.

AWE pretty much surprised me with the level of detail it had in the various cities you fight in. All the buildings and enemies are expertly crafted and have a graphical quality that can even match some retail games. This adds to the overall experience of the whole thing and makes you more immersed in the happenings of this game.

They implemented an ingenious tool that allows you to fast forward time while your convoy is moving and makes the game much more smooth and fast-paced. It’s not without its issues, however. The units you have are not that varied and you can do only so much with the ones you have. There’s also the issue of repetitiveness that’s involved because you essentially do the same thing over and over, but there’s at least some form of variation to it all with the game presenting  you with a specific challenge or objective.

AWE is an excellent RTS game to have in your library and one you won’t soon regret. With extra challenges and a sizeable campaign mode, it will surely entertain your mind for a long while.

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.

I have this unspoken love for the Fable franchise. While the games are not that great, they still have some sort of charm and flair. It’s a nice game to play when you have some time to kill and the misplaced adult humor has always had me intrigued, since I first played the franchise. They are not great games, but they do have their own level of special, and I like that.

Enter Fable Heroes.

Let me start by saying that I’ve had high hopes for this game. I really wanted it to succeed in the arcade marketplace, where it would then introduce me to some more of that quirky Fable goodness. It did exactly that. In the opposite form. In Heroes, you play as puppets which are characters from the Fable franchise. The game has you hit shit until they die and get gold. I just described the extremely deep goal that this game presents you.

There is no storyline at all, even in the slightest. While this isn’t such a bad thing, because beat ‘em ups don’t really need storylines as they are fun to play, Fable Heroes completely messes up in the fun department. The combat is excruciatingly repetitive with nothing to separate it from the other, huge, host of beat ‘em ups.

You use the X-button to hit shit. That’s about all there is. There is a flurry attack, but it takes about 2 seconds to charge and in that time you’re being raped in the nostrils by Hollow Men. And when the flurry attack actually hits, it does little-to-nothing in terms of damage. There is an area attack available, but you lose one heart every time you use it. Please explain to me why that’s a good idea? Couldn’t there be a stamina bar somewhere, or some variation of, limiting you from just using area attacks? Nothing at all? Just make an attack that can potentially kill you? I don’t even…

Your ultimate goal in Fable Heroes is to get as much gold as you possibly can, so that you can transfer it into Fable: The Journey — which isn’t releasing at any point of time in the near future. If you play this game for weeks on end (I seriously commend you if you manage that) then you can be an instant billionaire by the time you actually get The Journey.

The only good thing about this game is the characters and locations that are taken from the Fable franchise. You play in all the memorable levels from past Fable games and use the puppets of all the memorable characters, and that’s about the extent of it. The puppets aren’t necessarily well designed, and look kind of stinted when you’re in actual combat.

One of, if not the most annoying thing about the entire game is the absolutely idiotic camera. Sometimes it does its job and puts you into a top down perspective of the field, as per the usual beat ‘em up formula, but it sometimes goes south. Literally south. It goes into the side of all the action and makes the enemies and your puppets extremely difficult to differentiate. I frequently got lost in the immense orgy of enemies and gold coins. Due to that, I didn’t have the slightest clue as to what I was hitting.

The AI is that of the Herp-a-Durr variant, and it does exactly the opposite of what it’s supposed to be doing. When there is a boss fight, the load of idiots just stand there in front of the massive boss and get insta-owned. They don’t dodge or use their attacks correctly, they just stand there bashing cluelessly and dying more frequently than they’re supposed to. If you want to torture yourself and play this game, then I highly recommend playing with some real-life players. I swear even Jimmy the Resident Retard can pull off a better job than those AI idiots.

The way you level up, is, after every “mission” you get a set number of dice-rolls dependent on the number of coins you managed to allocate throughout the level. You then roll the dice, land on a skill-specific square and choose one of three options. These options are what you will buy with your gold. It’s somewhat unique, but it’s not really all that great or revolutionary.

You do get a host of power-ups in the levels, and they come in the form of lucky-packet chests. Some are completely useless and some are maybe a bit useful. There are no exciting powers and you sometimes question whether or not you actually want a power-up. They range from making your puppet bigger or smaller, super speed, some coins and even a chest that attacks you. The most useful of the lot is super speed which has actual practicality to it.

Please, in the name of all that’s holy and Gordon Freeman, please don’t get this game. I beg of you. There is nothing great about. Nothing unique and nothing exciting. I’ve promised myself that I will say these words when I get to review a bad game. Fable Heroes is a load of steaming, stinking, rancid piss.

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.

Remember when that domain name avengersbattleforearth.com appeared and linked Ubisoft to a potential game to tie-in to the movie? Well, it turns out that Ubisoft and Marvel are in fact teaming (Dynamic Duo?) to produce an Avengers game in which Earth’s mightiest heroes will battle against the evil forces of the Skrulls but the game won’t be based on the awesome movie that we all got to see a week before those Yanks. Although the Tratari were basically Skrulls but couldn’t be called that because of the unique way in which Marvel licenses its IP’s.

According to the Washington Post of all places, the game will be based on the Secret Invasion storyline from the comics and will feature over 20 playable characters from the Marvel universe.

And now for the deal breaker. The game is being developed for Wii U and Kinect. Yeah, all hope is lost. We thought it might at least be a fun little title but that’s probably not gonna happen. Maybe they’ll draw inspiration from the first-person Avengers game that got cancelled?

There’s no release date yet for Battle for Earth but chances are we’ll see more of it at E3 next month. This’ll probably be a terrible game but who’d you like to see make it into that final 20-odd characters anyway?

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?

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.

Following the success of its predecessor, Trials Evolution set out to prove something. That it can be bigger, faster and more extreme. Quite the tall order for a simple arcade game. Did it succeed or did it fall face first into a ramp (like I always do).

Actually, it pulled it off beautifully. Everything is bigger and better in this sequel, when compared to Trails HD. In fact, it borders on epic. In Trials HD you were constricted to a single warehouse packed with various forms of obstacles. Trials Evolution went quite a few leaps forward by making the tracks more expansive by using forests, entire cities, rocky mountains and even a Limbo themed track. All are beautifully crafted and are quite a sight to look at. There was the odd texture not loading, however, and this often distracts you from the beauty of it all.

Trials HD was infamous for its ungodly difficult tracks and Trials Evolution is no different. The beginning levels are all easily pulled off with no faults, but then it gets brutal. It goes out of its way to annihilate you with constant crashes, making you feel worthless. It’s almost like that kind chubby girl who treated you to a nice dinner and made good conversation, before proceeding to drug you and whip out a strap-on dildo (not speaking from personal experience, I swear *shiver*).

But it gets easier once you learn the track and how to use the bikes to their full potential. There are a multitude of tracks available in the singleplayer mode, with some of them having their own custom made theme and unique characteristics. The game teaches you how to play by making you achieve licenses, which ranges from D to A. The difficulty of the tricks increase accordingly. It helps make new-comers feel welcome without eliminating the challenge the game puts forward.

The game uses a medal scoring system with Gold being the best. In order to achieve Gold you need to complete the track in the set amount of time, where you’re allowed little to no faults. It is challenging to say the least and only the most practiced players will be able to achieve the coveted Gold medal, especially on the Hard and Extreme tracks.

There are skill games available and they come in various spices of wacky or challenging. It’s not only bike games, however, as you get to play other forms of games too, like rolling a ball along platforms. It gives a nice distraction from the singleplayer game, and offers you the chance compete with the people on your friendslist.

The jewel of Trials Evolution lies in its custom tracks that are made from users. The game gives you tons of editing tools to fully craft your favourite scenes, be it a gigantic penis or a model of your entire city. You also get the Pro editing tools where you can actually toy with the game’s programming, to make your own little game. With all these tools available, the Trials community got straight to work, and boy, did they do an excellent job.

There are hordes of creative tracks available on offer, and some are just absolutely brilliant. I was playing Takeshi’s Castle in all its glory (and difficulty), where after that I was playing Angry Birds with a biker. There was also a Portal 2 stage that actually made use of custom Portals and set-pieces from the game. You can also create your own mini-game using the editor. For example, I played a Space Invaders game that looked almost identical to the original. The possibilities are quite indeed endless and more and more tracks keep popping up. You will never be in short supply of fun tracks to play. They take mere seconds to download, so you can stock up on quite the sizeable track collection in no time at all.

Something new to the franchise is the multiplayer mode. You still have the ghosts of the people on your friends list haunting you while you’re playing a track, but now you can also take them on face-to-face in two game modes: Supercross and Trials. Trials is just the usual tracks that can be played, where the fastest to do it, with the least amount of faults wins. Supercross is basically racing your bikes from one point to the other in the fastest way possible. Both modes are great fun with friends and you would soon be cursing yourself for doing a faceplant in the first 2 seconds of the race.

For every race you complete, and medal you earn, you earn money to buy various parts for your bike and clothes for your biker. While these are not essential, it does give you the freedom to make your suicidal rider unique to the other insurmountable horde of riders. There aren’t a lot of options, but just enough to make the best of it by using different colours.

Trials Evolution isn’t without its issues, however. Sometimes the physics don’t respond as they intended, which then in turn causes you to crash and waste your chance at getting a Gold medal. It can become rather frustrating at times to know that you crashed, but it wasn’t at all your fault. Often when you restart a track the textures don’t load properly at all, and when you’re going fast it doesn’t load either. It’s not gamebreaking, but it’s quite the nuisance.

And then the soundtrack.. Oh no RedLynx what were you thinking? The first thing you hear when starting the game is a bad rap in the form of the Trials song. It’s bad and makes me want to kill myself. Then the game suddenly turns into a hormonal teenager. One time it’s a techno beat, then it’s a rock song then out of the blue comes a screamo-emo metal song. It’s just all over the place and starts to grate a little later on.

Besides some stupid music choices, Trials Evolution is a brilliant game. It does so many things right and with the wealth of custom tracks you will never be bored with it. If you have an Xbox then why don’t you have it already?

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.

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.

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.”

Before I start let me just say that this is the most disturbing game I have ever played. Behind its cartoony posterior and fun controls, it’s really kind of psychotic. I mean, blobs of goo smiling at you before their rather spectacular and violent means of suicide. That right there is creepy.

Let’s get on with the review shall we?

The Splatters is a puzzle physics game where the objective is simple: Explode your suicidal heroes and let their goo drip onto bombs of their respective colours in the most spectacular and imaginative way possible. The controls are easy enough to pick up and play straight away, but you do get stunt abilities such as changing trajectory mid-jump, launching yourself like a torpedo and even reversing the entire field. All of these have strategic significance and you need to utilize them all in order to get all the bombs and pass the levels.

The game uses stars as its scoring system with 3 stars being the best. It takes a keen eye and good skill to achieve the coveted 3 stars and it doesn’t make it easy to do so. You need to up your multiplier by using stunts in quick succession and creative ways to explode all the bombs. The bombs are sometimes difficult to notice because a single one is very small and often you miss it and have to do the round over again.

The game starts out simple enough with only easy puzzles and tutorial missions, but then it gets hard. Very hard. The game stays true to the “easy to play, difficult to master” mantra with puzzles that seem impossible, but are doable if you use your stunts and blobs wisely. There are 3 modes available to play with their own objectives. Maximum combo, normal play and skill shots where you have to use the correct stunts at the correct time. All amount to quite a sizeable game with lots of levels to complete and attempt to achieve 3 stars.

The Splatters is immensely addictive once you get into it. I plunged into a 3 hour straight session because I couldn’t put it down. I just wanted to unlock more levels and achieve the highest score. It is a casual game at its core and it’s great for a quick distraction, but it gets challenging at times and requires quite a bit of effort to truly play right and have fun.

The graphics are that of a cartoony art style mostly found in casual games like Angry Birds. It also adds to the said psychotic undertones, but that’s just me. The level designs could have been done better though and it looks a bit “tacked on” in places. The music is an adequate ambience of relaxing jives that make you look forward to blowing those little bastards up and laughing at their blood dripping on balls that explode

Have I mentioned this game is psychotic?

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 The Witcher 2 first released, it fell into a niche that was at the time rather unfilled, except perhaps by Demon Souls for PS3. It was a game that was not only pure in its RPG elements but brutal in its difficulty, refusing to hold your hand and at times even throwing you straight into the deep end while watching you hopelessly attempt to keep from drowning until you inevitably do, then reload your game with superior knowledge so that next time you might fare better.

It was a game that held nothing back and right from the get-go, would either make or break the player, setting them up for the challenges ahead and showing them what real RPGs can do, or watching them walk away with their tails between their legs.

Fast forward a year and The Witcher 2 is still highly rated as an RPG, having won many awards for both its amazing graphics on PC and its pure RPG structure. But the plan was never to stop simply at a PC exclusive and as such, CD Projekt RED have now released what they’re calling the Enhanced Edition, packed with all the free DLC packs and other additions that were released over the past year to PC gamers, as well as various new additions and changes, for Xbox 360. PC gamers rejoice, for if you already own The Witcher 2, you may download an Enhanced Edition patch (it’s 11GBs) to acquire all of these new additions and changes for yourself, free of charge. Bless CD Projekt RED, those Polish beauties.

The only remaining question then, is does The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360 do the job that the former PC exclusive did, just about a year ago?

But first, let’s talk about the various aspects of the game. After all, we didn’t exactly do a review on The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings when it released on PC last year, so there might well be a few who are a bit shaky on the details. Good thing you all have me to tell you about it.

The first and most obvious feature of The Witcher 2 is that it contains probably the most mature and adult-oriented storyline of any game, ever. No, we’re not joking around here. It’s got political intrigue, racial tension and sexual encounters all over the place and apart from the latter with regards to horny teenagers and tissues, most of these would fly right over the heads of those not abundantly prepared for it.

The story revolves primarily around Geralt of Rivia, a witcher living in Temeria who has suffered memory loss after quite literally dying and being brought back to life. A witcher is a mutant, in the canon, a human usually, who has trained their body to the extremes and dabbled in various toxic potions and magic such that their bodies become mutated, giving them cat-eyes and removing the pigment from their hair, but granting them extra strength, intelligence and agility in order for them to fight the beasts that other races cannot. It’s for this reason that the last few remaining witchers ply their trade as bounty hunters, killing monsters for orens — the game’s gold-coin-based currency.

Geralt himself starts off the game in the employ of his majesty King Foltest, along with Geralt’s girlfriend Triss Merigold who serves as royal advisor, but is also a kick-ass mage who is your companion (and fuck-buddy) throughout the game, or at least those parts where she’s actually useful (with clothes on). Foltest seeks to quell a rebellion and retrieve his illegitimate children (they call them bastards) and with the help of Geralt and the Temerian army, successfully does so before taking a knife to the neck at the hands of an assassin, another witcher to whom Geralt was once acquainted but since losing his memory, cannot remember.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately depending on who you are and how much of the game you want to play, Geralt is framed for the murder and held for regicide by Vernon Roche, leader of the Blue Stripes; basically the king’s secret service of agents. Eventually however, with a combination of Geralt’s recollection of the events leading up to Foltest’s murder and his mentioning of Iorveth, of the Scoia’tel — literally ‘Squirrels’, a radical group of elves dedicated to fighting humans, in order to stop oppression — whom Roche particularly detests, the duo spring a daring escape from prison and Geralt sets out with Triss and Roche in tow, to clear his name and bring the real killer to justice.

What follows is an amazing tale of discovery, adventure (of the carnal kind, as well) and inevitably justice. Perhaps even some vengeance or redemption depending on how you play out the story.

It’s important to note that as an RPG, The Witcher 2 does exactly that: it places you in the role of Geralt of Rivia and lets you play the game. To that extent, you will make decisions, complete quests and build your character exactly the way you feel you should and the game does nothing to promote a particular style or direction. If you want to ignore a burning orphanage with children still inside while helping an old lady to cross the street, that’s your prerogative. While there are ‘moral choices’ of some sort, there is no ‘morality scale’ that measures how evil or good you are, allowing you to pick and choose as you desire. It’s quite an interesting way of allowing a player to discover who they truly are, without any sort of meter to measure how much of a nice guy they are, or what have you. The only incentive to making a certain decision would of course be the loot you could acquire by making it, and that decision could be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or somewhere in between.

As an example of this, you could opt to bait two soldiers who tortured the patients at an insane asylum by leading them to a ghost who seeks to kill them in order to find peace, or you could warn the soldiers of the ghost’s intentions and head in and kill the ghost yourself. Which is ‘good’ choice again?

The quests in The Witcher 2 all deserve some acclaim for this as even the lowest-level fetch-quest turns into a learning experience, an engrossing adventure that has you spending far more time on it than you would in other RPGs. Exploration is encouraged as a result, where you find yourself exploring and re-exploring areas of the game world, just in case you missed something the first, second, third or fourth time. And it never gets old.

Each chapter in the game then changes the game-world, mixing things up for the player even further. What’s really interesting in The Witcher 2 is that depending on your choices in the first chapter, the next two play out entirely differently. And by entirely, I mean the second chapter will be based in a whole new side of an area depending on your choices in the first chapter. Instant replayability? Check.

The Witcher 2 was always a beautiful game on PC and it delights me to no extent that even on console, somehow, the game still looks gorgeous. One might easily call it the Xbox 360′s new most graphically superior game. And it really is. Compelling proof that a game can be both beautiful and engaging. The engine that CD Projekt RED are using is something for the history books.

It really helps the atmosphere of the game when you can place a player in a forest teaming with undergrowth, flora, fauna, and make it so believable that they forget they’re actually in a game and this forest doesn’t really exist. At least, until something attacks them and kills them forcing a reload. Engrossing is an understatement, in this game. Even on console, I find myself walking through areas with wide-eyed-wonder at the graphical splendour on show.

The greatest irony then, and perhaps even more of a plus based on what I’ve already said, is that you will actually find yourself spending half your play-time in the menus.

Remember, this is an RPG and as such there is typically an inventory of items that you’ve collected, either through looting, purchasing, crafting (through the use of diagrams) or as rewards for quest completion, so you’re always managing that inventory and making sure you don’t become over-encumbered, which would severely limit your combat capability. The usual map screen also features, showing you important quests and the area you are currently in, although for the life of me I could never quite read it correctly.

Furthermore, there’s the obligatory character screen which contains various sub-menus but most notably your skill trees, of which there are three major variants (salute), namely Mutant, Combat and Magic. With Mutant, you acquire skills that involve the creation and use of bombs, traps and most notably potions. Potions in The Witcher 2 cannot be consumed in combat and must therefore be consumed, typically before combat begins, which adds to the preemptive nature of most combat scenarios. Each consumed potion adds to your toxicity level, meaning too many will kill you. However, if you take a potion and become ‘poisoned’ meaning your toxicity level is above zero, you could gain certain bonuses to your character’s abilities. The Combat skill tree provides bonuses to your combat abilities, as if that needs saying, while the Magic skill tree provides bonuses to your Signs, which are basically spells in the game. More on this in a bit. The final skill on each tree is, let’s call it a super skill, each unlocking a special ability that effectively rewards you for investing many points into that particular tree. The way the game is structured, at best you can max out one skill tree and have a few points in the others. Further replayability. Check.

Probably the biggest addition to the game’s typical RPG menus is that of the Journal, which you will spend hours and hours reading through. Trust me, even the most illiterate action-nut — who saw the box and thought “hurr durr new God of War game lol” or something — is going to find themselves paging through the journal as not only is it intriguing as fuck, but it’s also entirely necessary in order for you to progress with certain quests. Seriously. It’s not about being babied around, or not being smart enough to figure things out on your own. You need to read the fucking journal. There is simply no other way for you to progress with certain quests. A huge boon then that it’s as interesting as it is. The quests themselves contain notes and text in a style of narration, as if told many years later by a character you will familiarise yourself with over the course of the game.

There are various sections to the journal apart from the list of quests, most notably the locations and characters menus. There is also one for the monsters you will encounter in battle throughout the game. As you play, you will come across various books with information on monsters as well as characters, locations and a whole load of other things. It is in your best interest to read these books as the ones with monster information in particular, are essential to your ability to kill those monsters. For each monster, your knowledge level determines how much of damage you do against them, how much of damage they do to you, and most importantly; how exactly you can kill them. Because some monsters are not straight-forward slice-and-dice variants. Some have ridiculous weaknesses that could turn a twenty-minute fight into a thirty-second lol-fest. Others are completely immune to certain things. Reading your journal is key.

Coming back to that preemptive nature of the game’s combat, most battles are handled best through preparation. If you are attempting to complete a certain quest that requires combat, let’s say defending an NPC from an army of attacking wraiths, it is in your best interest to first read up on wraiths and discover their weaknesses, prepare traps and bombs that wraiths are weak to, lay those traps and equip the necessary bombs, coat your weapons in something that does extra damage to wraiths, consume potions that will enhance your abilities and finally, save your game just in case you fail and have to do all of that again. This is why preparation is essential; because if you don’t prepare for a battle, you make the game exponentially more difficult for yourself and at times borderline impossible. No, Dark Souls players, do not go “Challenge Accepted!” because trust me, you know nothing of difficulty compared to this game on the aptly named Dark difficulty. These monsters will laugh at you. Prepare for fights and suddenly you have a fighting chance. See what I did there?

Combat in the game is handled in a far more streamlined manner to the first Witcher title, which contained three combat styles that required manually switching between them in order to effectively fight. Cumbersome and tedious, so this time they’ve allowed for just two styles, each mapped to a separate button. Basically the light and heavy attack you know from most other games, Geralt has a speed style and a power style. Some enemies completely shrug off one of those styles, forcing you to attack with the other… you would know this if you read the fucking journal.

To go with this, Geralt has two sword slots; one for a regular sword for attacking humans and one for a silver sword (usually called a Witcher’s sword) for attacking monsters. Each sword could in theory attack anything, but you would do reduced damage if you used the incorrect sword. I try not to question the logic there. Some of these weapons — as well as armour — contain upgrade slots which you can fill with runes that provide minor upgrades such as a slight vitality (health) increase or a bonus to damage.

Spells are another huge point of the game. Whereas in the first game you had to learn each spell as you progressed, in The Witcher 2 you start out with all but one of your spells unlocked. Actually, they’re called Signs here, so let’s get that right. See, this is basically CD Projekt RED throwing you a bone, since the effective use of Signs drastically increases your chances of survival. The final Sign is unlocked upon acquiring the final skill in the Magic tree. Each Sign has a different use; one is basically a force-push — Fus Ro Dah before it was a thing — while another sets traps on the ground and another creates a protective sheathe to block damage. Each Sign can be upgraded for even more devastating effects.

Casting Signs uses up Vigour, which is kind of a mix-up of Stamina and Mana from most other games. You also use Vigour when you block and counter-attack, the latter of which must first be unlocked. Vigour, of course, regenerates over time, assuming no Signs are currently active. You can increase your Vigour by investing points into the relevant skills in whatever skill tree you opt to pursue. You can also increase your Vitality (health) in this way.

One thing I really liked about the combat in The Witcher 2 is that unlike many other RPGs where there’s a certain stigma around the combat system, either it’s clumsy and nonsensical or just doesn’t work, or on the other end of the scale it’s too action-y and therefore loses the entire point of RPG gameplay (I’m sure in your head you’re already thinking up examples of each), The Witcher 2 gets it so right. The action is frantic and fun, but in order to survive you still have to prepare, bringing the RPG elements right into the core and nailing it home nicely. It’s a game where you can have fun battling things, if you put in the necessary work before-hand. Rewarding? Check.

Now, I understand that in the crossover from PC exclusive to console iteration, there will be certain differences that arise as a result of the ridiculous gap between the technology of modern PCs and the Xbox 360, but I still feel it necessary to dedicate a bit of this review to noting the differences between the versions because, quite honestly, the differences I found are just… weird. If you don’t care for these differences then by all means, skip ahead.

The first difference that would probably be on everyone’s mind is that of the game’s graphics. They’re actually surprisingly on par, in most places, however you ought not to expect the crisp texture clarity or post-processing available on modern-day PCs and that sexy Ubersampling feature is all but a myth on the Xbox 360 version. I’d still rate this game as easily the best-looking I’ve ever seen on console.

The next difference is that of the menus. For whatever reason, there is no seamless transition between them as with pretty much any other game ever. Instead, changing from one menu to another fades the screen to black for a second. Why is this a thing? It’s annoying to say the least, especially considering how much of time you actually spend in the menus.

For no apparent reason whatsoever, the control scheme has been changed up. See, I played The Witcher 2 on PC with a controller, for the most part — the keyboard controls were kinda clumsy — and as an example, the speed style (or light attack) was assigned to X, however on the Xbox 360 version it’s assigned to A. It’s a somewhat jaunting experience, having to re-accustom yourself with controls you were once all too familiar with. Imagine reloading your weapon in Gears of War 3 with LB instead of RB? It’s just… wrong.

There are more loading screens now, an obvious difference I guess, based on extremely inferior console technology. That the game manages to still be somewhat seamless is truly a feat. However it still manages to distort some audio and I noticed some terrible normalisation in places, where Geralt and everything around him would be a certain volume and a specific NPC he interacts with would be double that volume, and of rather horrendous quality. Thankfully this isn’t a constant appearance but during long story segments it can rear its ugly head a few too many times.

Finally, again for reasons I cannot fathom, the difficulty has been scaled for the console version, such that playing on Normal is the equivalent of playing most games on normal, more or less. Gone is the tough-as-steel-nails, you won’t survive, sort of structure to things on even the easiest difficulty. This time around, Casual really is for casuals. I’m not sure if it’s across both platforms that this change has occurred or whether CD Projekt RED thinks console players not worthy enough for the PC’s version of Normal difficulty. Hell, even Dark difficulty seems easier than it did on PC, but not by too much. It’s still going to pwn you, but this time it at least gives you some breathing space and some ice for your battered head, instead of leaving you for dead.

In all these changes are non-consequential for most but could still affect the experience, even if you haven’t actually played the PC version before, especially that egregious fade-to-black that the menus do. Some other issues I found with the game involved the usual RPG story of glitchy characters whose hair would fade into their faces while limbs faded into their surroundings, or who would move about erratically while requiring you to follow them. Then there’s the confusing mini-map which contains various icons I still don’t quite understand.

Protip: Play this game with your manual out. You’ll probably need it at some point.

That’s about it, really. I didn’t have any other issues with the game and found it to be quite the unforgettable experience, both on PC and Xbox 360. If these issues I’ve mentioned are enough of a bother for you then by all means, use the rating I’ve given the game but if you don’t care for them and consider an RPG something to be judged purely on its story, characters and combat then go right ahead and bump that rating up to Perfect.

The Witcher 2 is, once again, an RPG experience like no other — except for itself — and in a year that contains such games as Mass Effect 3, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Skyrim (okay it’s a fiscal year or something), it stands right up there and holds its own. If you want a sci-fi experience then without doubt you’re going to try that BioWare game but if you’re up for something more fantastical, more Tolkien-esque, then you can do no better than The Witcher 2.

If you don’t buy it because of what an amazing game it is, what an engrossing story it has, what interesting characters it boasts and what fulfilling combat is features, then by all means; buy it for the gratuitous amounts of sex it throws at you.

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?

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.

Forza 4 will be getting severeal more cars to add to its burgeoning list of automobiles when Microsoft releases the Top Gear Car pack. It’ll set you back a good 560 MS Points (R60.10) but you’ll get your money’s worth with a selection of new cars to race around in.

• 2012 Hennessey Venom GT – The Venom GT is ambition personified. Designed to beat the Bugatti Veyron’s 0-200 mph time, the car is defined by pure, unadulterated power. The result is impressive-the Venom reaches 0-200 mph in less time than it takes your average car to reach 0-60 mph.
• 1977 AMC Pacer X – Wayne and Garth never had it so good. With classic 70s style and a 232-cubic-inch, 3.8 liter, inline six, the Pacer X was modest on power, but its legacy lives on today. Take it for a ride in “Forza Motorsport 4,” preferably with “Bohemian Rhapsody” cranked nice and loud.
• 2011 Ford Transite SuperSportVan – The SuperSportVan is the latest creation in the long-standing series of Ford-built custom fans, which dates back to 1971. Designed to prove that Ford engineers know how to have fun, this version is a one-off design shown at a 2011 UK commercial vehicle show.
• 2012 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon – The 2012 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is by far the most comfortable and amenity-loaded Wrangler ever. It’s grittier too, with 40 percent more horsepower than older models, making this Jeep just as comfortable on the track as it is on the trails.
• 1966 Lotus Cortina – One of the first “race on Sunday, commute on Monday” factory cars, the Lotus Cortina built its reputation both on the tarmac and in folks’ daily lives. Packing 115-horsepower and weighing just over a ton, the Cortina can carry four people in relative comfort, but it’s most happy when being revved high and thrown into a corner with full gusto.
• 1992 Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 – The turbo-charged Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 is a treasured piece of JDM history. The VR-4 was sold in limited numbers and its four-wheel drive, four-wheel-steering handling highlights technology that caters to a driving experience matched only by much more expensive sedans.
• 2012 Smart ForTwo – The uncontested winner of the “easy to park” award, the Smart ForTwo is the first micro car to be introduced in the U.S. At just 106-inches long, the ForTwo is by far the smallest production car ever made. It’s a practical, urban errand runner whose looks will always spark a conversation.
• 1990 Subaru Legacy RS – Putting aside its smaller, quirkier wagons and sedans, Subaru brought new game to dealerships in 1990 with the Legacy RS. More substantial in nearly every respect, the Legacy RS Turbo was the most powerful Subaru model available and still enjoys a strong following among Subie enthusiasts.
• 2012 Chrysler 300 SRT8 – Packing a huge HEMI under its hood that makes for more than 450 horsepower, the Chrysler 300 SRT8 packs a potent combination of power and sophistication. The 300 will hit 0-60 in under five seconds and will nail the quarter mile in less than 13 seconds. It might not be what you expect from a Chrysler these days… and that’s precisely the point.
• 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII – Hand-crafted beauty and grin-widening performance define the 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII. With a 147-horsepower, six-cylinder overhead valve engine, the Healey–or “Squealy” as it was often called–delivers an exhilarating open-air ride and grippy cornering

Meanwhile, a new Forza, titled Forza: Horizon, is in development but not by Turn 10. Instead, it is being worked on by former DiRT, PGR and Split/Second devs.

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?

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.

I meant it. Namco Bandai Partners released a new trailer for Dragon Ball Z For Kinect, and it doesn’t look anything like your childhood fantasy come true. In fact, it’s scary.

What do you think? So bad it’s good, or just painful to watch and not at all as you imagined it to be?

Dragon Ball Z For Kinect is a first-person fighting game. It will be releasing this October.

Watch at your own risk, because the famous word “Saiyan” is actually mispronounced at the end.

That’s how bad it is. No lies.

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.

Fez finally released on Friday after some years in development and you’ll hear soon enough how much Alessandro wishes he could have a threesome with it and Rayman Origins but everyone else hasn’t exactly had a great experience with the game. There have been reports of gamebreaking glitches and some cases where the game simply won’t run.

It’s a poor showing from developer Polytron who worked on this game for so many years and got people so excited to finally play the game. Luckily a patch is in the works but there’s no word on when it will land.

In the interim, anyone having technical difficulties should e-mail  support@fezgame.com with details. Above is a video showing the first few minutes of gameplay in case you haven’t seen Fez yet or don’t know what all the fuss is about.