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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don’t be afraid, we’ll be alright.

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

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

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

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

The result of playing online with little to no experience.

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

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

Yoshimitsu using a critical edge.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The full list of changes is down below.

General

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

Quests

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well, what do you think about that?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So Microsoft made a little 2 minute short to promote the release of Star Wars for Kinect and had the humility to call it “hilarious” themselves.

Judge for yourself whether this spoof of the iconic lightsaber duel between Vader and Obi Wan in Episode IV is any good. You may also recognise the dude in the bathrobe but I’m not saying who he is.

The game is set for an autumn release and will give you the power to “unleash your inner Jedi – with no controller in the way” across single and co-op, competitive and duel modes.

Doesn’t it just sound fantastic in every conceivable way?

I knew this day was coming.

I’ve been around long enough so it was just a matter of time, but finally I have something that allows me to rid myself of the reputation I’ve accrued, of being too soft on the games I review.

This then, is Blackwater.

They’re calling it an action FPS, designed for use with Microsoft’s motion-sensing Kinect technology.

What it actually is, however, is a steaming pile of turd.

Blackwater is an on-rails shooter that’s kind of like the Virtua Cop and Time Crisis games of old, but designed for Kinect so there is no fancy and cool-looking gun controller in your hand. You are the controller.

To that extent, the classification of the game as an action FPS is perhaps extremely suitable since this game will give you more of a workout than anything else. But you don’t want a workout, do you? You didn’t buy this game because you thought it was the new Zumba Fitness, you bought it because you wanted to kill things while pretending you have a gun in your hand.

Actually, that you bought it at all would make you something of an idiot or just a hopeless optimist at the very least.

The fact is, the lack of a controller means that most of the action feels about as contrived as it is, and all the game succeeds in doing is making you tired without really entertaining you, like something Zumba-esque would.

Don’t have a Kinect, or just don’t enjoy jumping around? No problem, the game supports a controller as well, but good luck hitting a thing with the shoddy control system that seems to almost punish you for not getting up and off your lazy ass to play the thing using motion controls.

I needn’t say this because the pictures are enough, but the game also looks atrocious. On-rails shooters have never broken records with graphical fidelity, but at the very least give us something that looks like it wasn’t made before Quake 2. The levels and textures are bland, uninspired and telling of a game that was made for the wrong reasons.

The game’s story tells of an elite group of mercenaries who call themselves Blackwater (a ‘private security’ group that actually does exist in real life — yes, this game is based on real-life mercs but that’s about the only cool thing you’ll find here) that are attempting to protect aid workers from a villainous warlord, or something like that…

To be honest, if you manage to follow the story at all then you deserve some kind of medal, or perhaps an Achievement, because for the life of me I tried but I couldn’t hear any of the dialogue thanks to the spoken audio being far softer than the rest of the game’s sounds, and the fact that each piece of story happens for five seconds at the start of each mission.

Missions themselves are spread out over stages, with multiple paths through each stage and pretty much nothing about the game changing throughout.

There are some collectibles to be found, if you’re into that kind of stuff.

To call this game bad would be an understatement.

It fails as any form of entertainment.

You won’t enjoy the gunplay because it’s contrived, lifeless and highly inaccurate on Kinect, and if you switch to a controller you might as well use your love handles to control your shots because that way you at least might accidentally hit something. You won’t enjoy the visuals because you saw them before in 1998 and most of it is brown and ugly anyway. You won’t enjoy the audio on offer because half the time there isn’t any, and when there is you’re too busy trying to hit something to concentrate on enjoying it. You won’t enjoy the story because there pretty much isn’t one that can be understood. And finally, the AI never does a thing other than standing and aiming at you. So no fulfillment there.

If you really must play this game, let it be because you’re tired of using things like Wii Fit and Zumba Fitness and want another way to work out, perhaps to the sounds of gunshots and explosions.

If I had to rate this game as a fitness title, I might have been a bit more lenient but nobody is going to look at the cover for this game and think: “Ooh, here’s a great way to shed a few kilograms.”

Nobody.

And that’s exactly who I would recommend this game for.

I get that it’s not a triple-A title, but really there are so many other games developed by entirely unknown studios, that are wholly better as an experience than this (I would know, because I’m playing a few of them right now), and actually cost a bit less to boot. This game wants to charge you close to triple-A prices for an abysmal experience, and that’s just not on.

Better on Kinect? Yeah, no.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But what about the rest of the world?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A few days ago we told you about Deadlight, the first title from Spanish indie developer Tequila Works. The game sounds like something worth paying attention to and if the screenshots are anything to go by, it also looks surprisingly high quality for an indie title which is in line with the A-list of developers that the studio has accumulated.

It might not be the gameplay that we’d all love to see but there is a teaser trailer out now for Deadlight and it definitely has me curious to see what this game is all about. Check it out.

Deadlight is due out on XBLA mid-2012.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tequila Works, what a name but then this is a Spanish indie developer from Madrid that we’re talking about.

Anyway, the studio was founded in late 2009 by Raúl Rubio Munárriz and Luz Sancho Rodríguez and the two have managed to amass what appears to be a rather talented team comprising people who have worked on such notable titles as Commandos, Motorstorm, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Diablo III, Heavy Rain and Overlord II. Assuming these weren’t the rejects that were responsible for those things that you didn’t like in any of these games then Tequila Works certainly has an A-grade group of people.

So why do we care? Well, we promised to cover more indie news this year and this game looks promising if the screens are anything to go on.

Titled Deadlight, the game follows a man named Randall Wayne as he grapples with having “no reason to exist” while trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic 1986 on the American west coast. The word is that the population has been wiped out by some sort of epidemic and surviving has become “much more than a daily routine.”

It sounds like most pitches for a post-apocalyptic game with more than a hint of I Am Legend and 28 Days Later but the screens are promising. Normally you have to take screens with a pinch of salt but these look pretty great for an indie game. Another interesting thing is that this isn’t a shooter or action game but is rather being billed as a puzzle platformer.

Deadlight is scheduled for release on XBLA this winter and should be pretty interesting by the sounds of things.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Take a look at the trailer above.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where It All Began

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

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

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

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

Check out the fantastic trailer.

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

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

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

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

Why The Change?

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

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

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

Well, what do you think?

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

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

What Do We Know?

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

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

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

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

The official story description for the game reads as follows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Great Thanks!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Consider that date for Downpour marked down on our calenders.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Geocaching is probably the closest any of us will ever get to an actual treasure hunt and with that in mind, Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics has come up with something truly awesome.

For the uninitiated, Geocaching is location-based treasure hunting in the real world using GPS co-ordinates and exploration. Crystal Dynamics is putting their own Lara Croft-esque spin on it.

“Through several initiatives over the coming year, Crystal Dynamics and Geocaching.com will team up to create a series of unique location-based adventures embodying the spirit of Tomb Raider and Lara Croft’s drive to become an explorer. To develop these adventures, Crystal Dynamics will use both the traditional Geocaching.com treasure hunting format as well as Groundspeak’s latest photo-based adventure project, Geocaching Challenges.”

There are no details beyond that so we’ll just have to wait and see what these challenges are all about. Tomb Raider is due out for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 late in 2012 so there should be plenty of time for treasure hunting.

Do you remember us reporting on Skyrim’s lag issue on the PlayStation 3, back in November of last year?

Well, many gamers are still having the same problem. Personally speaking, I don’t really have it since the last few patches and my playtime is sitting around sixty hours.

However, to those that unfortunately are suffering lag, there is some good news. This month, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be patched to version 1.4, and Bethesda has claimed that it will address the lag issue on the PS3.

A post on the Bethesda Blog Twitter account confirmed this, when the developers responded to a question, regarding the issue of the PS3′s Skyrim lag, with the following brief statement: “We’re addressing that in the 1.4 update planned for this month.”

Let’s hope that Bethesda has plugged this problem once and for all.

So Silent Hill: Downpour is looking to be all kinds of awesome and I’m pretty excited to get my hands on it despite not even being a fan of the series. The horror exploration should be everything we’re expecting it to be but what if you’re not as handy with a crowbar as you are with the puzzles?

Fear not, Vatra Games has that covered. Downpour will have two separate difficulty slider settings for puzzles and combat which is perfect if you have the cognitive skills of Stephen Hawking but the fighting ability of, well… the same guy. Or vice versa.

“A lot of people really like puzzles, and Silent Hill provides really cool puzzles, but they’re not good at fighting,” producer Tomm Hulett told Joystiq.

“So you can set fighting to easy, puzzles to hard, you’re good to go.”

Hulett also explained that players who set puzzle difficulty to hard will be more likely to chance upon hidden content as a result of fewer prompts and contextual clues. Finding these side-quests can prove to be invaluable as there’s a often a reward in it for the player.

“You’re just supposed to realize, ‘Hey I have this item, I don’t need this for the other thing I’m doing, what does this mean?’ And then you’ll find the note, and figure out the sidequest for yourself,” he said.

“It could be a cache of items, three health packs. That’s a big reward now,” the producer said.

“Or it could be a really good shotgun – you’ve never seen a shotgun in the game, and through a sidequest you find a shotgun.”

What about Downpour’s Otherworld? Well,you’re going to want all the help you can get since it will be very different to previous Otherworlds. Unlike in previous entries, Downpour’s Otherworld will be more unfamiliar rather than just a spookier version of the explored environment. This should make it that much more unsettling and probably a lot creepier.

“It’s not the same layout; it’s this weird, strange, nightmarish layout where you don’t know where you’re going next, you don’t know what’s around the next corner, Hulett said.

“Players will come to understand that they don’t know what’s going to happen and they have to react and escape. And that’s taking a type of horror, fear that’s been in the old games, but sort of enhancing and giving it a new twist. Even if you’ve played all the other games, these Otherworlds will feel different and scary and unusual and you’ll find things that you wouldn’t have expected to find.”

The new dynamic rain system will also make you fear the crack of thunder like an 18th Century witch.

“The onset of rain is sort of the signifier: I need to find a weapon, I need to find shelter. It provides a new sense of fear, but it fits in Silent Hill,” the producer added.

Silent Hill: Downpour was due for release on PS3 and Xbox 360 this March but Konami has other plans so all we can do now is hope the delay isn’t too long. So what are you, a thinker or a fighter? I’ve never actually met someone who was one or the other.

There are tales that speak of monsters and evil creatures in a land that is different from our own, a world where a simple venture outside could prove a dangerous and lethal activity. When your very way of life is in jeopardy as a result, it’s time to call in the professionals; the witchers.

Charged with the protection of humans, elves and dwarves, witchers are self-mutated humans who kill monsters for a price, effectively safeguarding and protecting towns and villages. However in recent times because of the downfall of their home, witchers have become glorified bounty hunters.

Geralt of Rivia is one of the last few remaining witchers in the fantasy land of Temeria. This is his story.

Name: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Genre: Role Playing Game
Players: 1
Multiplayer: None
Platforms: Xbox 360
Developers: CD Projekt RED
Publishers: Namco Bandai
Release Date: February 2012 (Pending confirmation)

I thought it would be apt to do a preview on The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, from here on sans extended title, since it is releasing for Xbox 360 next month and there have been enough significant changes from the original version that released on PC to justify getting excited over it.

With that taken care of, the next order of business is the sequel nature of the game. Like Mass Effect 2 on PS3, where the previous game in the series was entirely missing in action and so replaced by an interactive comic to fill in the blanks, the first game in the Witcher series has no console version but will not be accounted for in any way, shape or form. Unlike Mass Effect 2 on PS3 however, the first Witcher game is entirely irrelevant to the second.

The first Witcher bears resemblance to the sequel insofar as the world and lore upon which the games are based, the main character upon which the story is based and the genre upon which the series is based. So basically, only the good bits.

The Witcher 2 boasts an entirely new game engine that has only Battlefield 3 with its Frostbite 2 engine as competition, albeit for PC. It is the same engine that will be utilised in the console version, and judging from all that has been seen so far, they’ve shirked on very little to get it running at a playable rate. It’s truly something to look forward to, for Xbox 360 gamers who enjoy graphics and visuals on their now extremely dated hardware.

The game’s engine also allows for an entirely new and streamlined combat system that focuses more on the action elements of a game that is played from the third person perspective. No more of that tedious clicking at the right time so Geralt can do some dance on your screen, like in the first game (for those who’ve played it). This time around, Geralt is a right and proper warrior who, although still enjoys the odd barrel roll here and there, controls very much like an elite soldier with a sword. Two swords, actually.

All of that is good and well, but everyone knows that an RPG is all about the story that the game tells, and how immersive your experience will be once you give it a go.

Once again, you are Geralt of Rivia, a witcher who is under the employ of a king during a time of war between capitals in the fantasy land of Temeria. As a witcher, he is charged with protecting his employer from any and all monsters, creatures and even humans if they so dared to challenge him. To add to his troubles, Geralt is suffering from amnesia and has huge gaps in his memory that he and Triss Merigold, a red-headed mage whom he is in a relationship with, must fill.

Before he can do so, however, tragedy and controversy strikes as he is framed for the murder of the king he was charged to protect, effectively being labelled as not only a kingslayer, but an enemy of the state, together with his mage girlfriend. Held captive for the crime by Vernon Roche, the head of his Majesty’s secret service, Geralt eventually convinces his captor to free him so that together they may find the true kingslayer and bring him to justice, thereby clearing Geralt’s name.

What follows is a story of intrigue and politically charged controversy as Geralt’s endeavours find him in the company of rich and powerful parties; other kings of the land, sorcerers, mages, rebel leaders and other witchers.

To call the story of The Witcher 2 a compelling and fulfilling experience would be the understatement of the year, and this in a year when people are clamouring over the untimely demise of humanity amongst other things. It is mature beyond words, and there are adult themes in play that have truly set it apart from other games in the genre.

Last year, we gave the PC version of the game Best Story in our eGamer Awards, and it is exactly that story that has been carried through to the Xbox 360 version of the game.

Better yet, all of the updates that were brought to the PC version of the game will be carried through as well, so you can expect the slightly newer Dark difficulty as well as the tutorial sections and re-worked inventory system for easier navigation using your standard Xbox 360 controller.

The standard Xbox 360 controller in fact, is far more suited to the style of play that is on show in The Witcher 2. Geralt is quick, nimble and handles very much like a character from various other third person action titles that involve swordplay, but with a twist of RPG flair with potions, traps, skills and attribute points affecting the outcome of battles more so than simple combat acumen.

What’s even better is that because you’re playing on an Xbox 360, you finally get Achievements! Okay, I had to add that bit in, because it’s important to achievement whores like myself.

The Witcher 2 has sixteen different endings to the story, in total. Entire sequences of the game play out differently based on your choices prior to those points. The game reeks of replayability, especially when you factor in that as Geralt, you may opt to focus on either combat, powers or mutant abilities.

As well as warriors, witchers are able users of magic, and have their own set of powers and spells available to them. They also use two types of swords, one for human enemies and one for monsters. Finally, their many years of intense training have mutated and warped their bodies until their eyes turned wolf-like and in Geralt’s case, hair lost all colour. It’s for that reason that he is dubbed The White Wolf, by those who revere his name.

The final point that bears mention is that The Witcher 2 is a difficult game. Brutally so. Unlike many other RPGs where playing on the normal difficulty setting is enough for a game with some challenge but not that much, where you could get away with minor indulgence in the game’s other various means to damage, heal (potions, spells, traps, etc.) or otherwise, in The Witcher 2, if you don’t utilise every possible item in your inventory, you will fail miserably. Even on normal difficulty. It is tough as steel nails. Granted it’s no Dark Souls, but there are points where the games are on parallel in terms of difficulty.

So with all of that said, if you are a fan of intriguingly intricate, mature plotlines that branch out depending on your choices, with none of that morality garbage that plagues other RPGs, you really need to look out for this game. If you are a fan of games with tough but fair combat, where you need to explore every avenue of your character’s arsenal in order to emerge victorious, you really need to look out for this game. If you like digital renditions of sexual encounters with females, you really need to look out for this game. Are you excited yet?

Say what you want about Max Payne 3 (I know I have) but Rockstar still puts a fair amount of effort into their games and this one’s no different. You see, Rockstar actually went over to Brazil to do a bit of on-the-ground research for their upcoming game.

As you can imagine, Rockstar is being very modest about the effort they’re putting in and would much rather have gamers experience it rather than hear them drone on about it which is exactly why the studio is releasing a series of posts detailing the development of Max Payne 3 and the effort put in. Seriously though, the effort is cool and the posts are pretty good. No, really, I mean it.

In this first post you’ll get to read all about how Rockstar pounded the pavement with actual police and criminals in São Paulo, the setting of the new game. It’s a different setting to what we’re used to despite still being urban so it’s great that Rockstar has taken the time to try and capture its atmosphere and experience accurately.

I’ve been sceptical about Max Payne 3 since day one but I’m beginning to like it and playing through a favela district should lend itself to a fantastic experience.