Last week Naughty Dog revealed details on the game, where this time round they’ve released images.

The game is said to entail a young girl named Ellie who is being helped by a violent brutal killer and thug called Joel. It’s obviously playing on the premise that although people do bad they do have good in them.

Ellie is a non-playable little girl who is working with Joel to avoid the military.

I loved the original Shank, which was released little over two years ago on XBLA and PSN. Despite the repetative combat and extremely easy co-op, the game showed promise, and the fantastic 2D art style and flow of motion really did make Shank’s first journey so memorable. Fix the combat, take out co-op and add a ridiculous Survival Mode, and you’ll have Shank 2, a sequel I have been eagerly looking forward to.

If you still have no clue what Shank is all about, just check out the launch trailer above. There tons of blood and heads rolling, and the fantastc art style still seems to be intact. And if you like what you see, head over to XBLA, PSN or Steam, as the game is now available for download.

It’s barely been out for a week and already we’re seeing DLC for Konami’s NeverDead, the game where you are an immortal man (juxtaposition aside) with the ability to detach and use his limbs as weapons, among other things.

Konami announced plans to release the first DLC for the game on February 21st, with a new character named Nikki Summerfield being available to play in NeverDead’s online cooperative challenges, as well as two new costumes for aforementioned protagonist Bryce Boltzmann.

The Asylum level of the game will be expanded with three new challenges. The first of these is “Egg Hunt,” which tasks you searching the environment for hidden collectables (something us achievement whores know all about) and returning them to designated score zones. There is a “Fragile Alliance” mode that makes players race through a series of checkpoints. Finally, “Onslaught” has the player unlocking Asylum in sections by defeating the enemies in each of these areas.

There is no word on a price point for this DLC, although with only a few additions and not much else you shouldn’t expect to pay much.

Release day DLC continues to be a developer favourite, with many recent games offering DLC before the game itself has reached the street date. It’s a decent system, definitely one that could work, but the way it is used right now requires some fixing unfortunately.

Release day DLC should be more for early access rather than gating day-one purchasers who show loyalty to a brand.

What are your thoughts on NeverDead and release day DLC?

ModNation Racers was not too long ago, and that was basically LittleBigPlanet’s equivalent of Mario Kart or Crash Team Racing (so many good memories), except it apparently wasn’t. To all of us that’s what it was with it’s visual style and character designs but now it has been rumoured that we’re actually going to get something called LittleBigPlanet Karting, because the name obviously makes all the difference.

Retailer Future Shop tweeted something it wasn’t supposed to when it posted pics of LBP Karting, which is apparently being showcased at this year’s Destination PlayStation in the US. The title is supposedly in development for the PS3 and being undertaken by United Front Games who just happened to have made ModNation as well.

I’m thinking it might just be exactly the same game but with a different label. There is talk of a Move-compatible wheel as well — which ModNation didn’t have.

In all honesty, looking at the recovered images as posted by Future Shop, LBP Karting has a visual style that’s much closer to the actual games, and has proper Sackboys which is really all that matters.

Gotham City Impostors is due to arrive on Xbox LIVE Arcade today, but downloadable content for the game has already been released and is available for download off the Games Marketplace.

What’s newsworthy about this?

Well, what if we told you that there are over a hundred unique DLC items to peruse through and purchase at your leisure? All character customisation pieces, meaning they’re entirely superficial and offer no imbalance to gameplay.

The pricing is a bit wayward and ranges from 80 to 320 Magical Sexy Points, but according to Monolith, all of these costume pieces are unlockable for free in the game itself. You’d obviously have to be willing to do whatever the game asks of you in order to unlock it that way, which means that most of this DLC is just for those who want early access.

What isn’t clear however, is whether purchasing the character costume out of game affects the relevant requisites to unlock it in the game itself, meaning that if you bought it through the Marketplace it would effectively remove the prerequisite in-game which means less actual ‘game’ to play. We’re going to assume however that the relevant prerequisite (possibly a game mission?) still exists but with no reward unlocked at the end because you kinda sorta already have it because you’re an impatient gamer with Microsoft Points to throw away.

Will you be giving the game a try?

Every now and then we come across the most utterly retarded games. Games which shouldn’t be games. Like, I understand the concept of simulation, but I also understand the concept of fun. Games are fun, and we hear that they are meant to be fun time and time again.

Now, I’m not knocking these games down — too much — I’m just genuinely curious as to why the hell these are actually made. Once we emerge ourselves in the list, there’s no turning back. I’m somewhat sure that you’ll be surprised as to what the gaming world actually includes. Also, once you go any further there’s no holds barred. Language doesn’t count.

Games are games and games are fun. Games can be educational, when used at school for maths, and stuff like that. Or when children need to have their hearing tested, and the teacher presses the red button which powers the red light, causing the children to go fucking insane with joy when they get it right. It’s a fun game which gives awesome insight into a child’s life-long problems.

Then, following that, I get that you might want to learn how to do your, or any other, job through a game. People sometimes learn how to drive through Need for Speed — and crap like that. Or so I hear. But is that honestly the best way to go about it? No.

Let’s jump into this list, shall we?
 

Utility Vehicle Simulator

Start with simple vans as you dash around the city earning a living. As your business grows so do your opportunities with the purchase of ever more specialist vehicles.

There’s a possibility that you’d want to learn that growth comes with opportunities. Kids these days honestly need that information for when they grow up. But, you know what else? They also need to know that trees need cutting in the park, or “street lights have broken down in the shopping centre”. I’m not entirely sure what the latter problem means, but I’ve heard that your hydraulic “perform” is at hand.

Not only does the game’s write-up make no fucking sense, but the neither does the game.

Luckily though, when cleaning drains doesn’t tickle your fancy, you’ll be challenged with keeping a “skilled eye on your finances”, and avoiding traffic offences.

Police Force

Police Force offers the opportunity to experience law enforcement like never before! Battle on the front line of crime as you take command of the policing for a thriving German city. Emergency calls come thick and fast, dynamically generated to put your organisational skills to the test. Perform uniform patrols to keep the city safe, in a huge open world, complete with night and day scenarios and changing weather.

EXPERIENCE LAW ENFORCEMENT LIKE NEVER BEFORE! With changing weather. Sounds like a winner, doesn’t it?

Well, I hope your PC is kitted out for this because the game’s recommended statistics include a dual-core 2ghz processor, 2gb of RAM and a videocard with 512mb of RAM.

Think about this, you need a dual-core processor to run around the fucking city and “deal with serious accidents”, “set up radar speed traps” — presumably to fuck your friend in Utility Vehicle Simulator with fines — and hunt for car thieves. There’s even a chance you’ll deal with murder.

Then, once you’re done catching murderers and saving hostages, you’ll need to keep public order. Because apparently people riot for no fucking reason whatsoever.

Riveting stuff.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, you’re kitted with the latest modern equipment, including handcuffs. Handcuffs are modern.

But, don’t mind me. In this Simulator, success is rewarded with promotion! It seems as if there’s the lesson in this 5gb police game after all.

Underground Mining Simulator

Descend into the depths with the ultimate career challenge as you take on the role of a miner in Underground Mining Simulator

Dare I even continue?

Let’s do it.

You want to be a miner, you’ve always wanted this. Your career as a successful burger-boy at McDonalds isn’t fulfilling enough, so you venture down this path.

In this game you will “explore coal, iron, salt and gold mines as you strive to extract your precious pickings.” Expect to use dynamite and drills. Guess what, we can use guns and fucking hand-grenades in Call of Duty.

Surely that’s more fulfilling than digging holes? In a fucking mine.

Delivery Truck Simulator

Turn the starter key on your own delivery business with Delivery Truck Simulator. Carry your cargo of parcels and packages across the city as you strive to become king of the couriers.

As your business expands, so will your fleet with the option to purchase from a selection of even larger vehicles, culminating in your own small truck, each realised in full 3D complete with a fully drivable cab view.

Holy cow balls! It’s in 3D with a complete fully drivable cab view. Turning the starter key is probably the most erotic thing you’ll ever do in your life. Or maybe it will be the second most erotic thing, after delivering parcels and packages across the city — all so that you can become the king of couriers.

But please, don’t try this if you’re stupid. Because unless you have a head for business the game states that you won’t make money. As, “only skilled drivers with a head for business will prevail and be punctual with their parcels, turning packages into profit!”

Well that sucks. Because half the userbase is now fucked.

Street Cleaning Simulator

Brush off the dirt and make a clean sweep as you embark on a career to become an accomplished street cleaner. Use your highly detailed sweeping machines to roam the city in search of muck. As your experience grows so will the tasks you have to deal with! Get swept up into fighting the flotsam and jetsam of city life with Street Cleaning Simulator!

Embark on a career to become an accomplished street cleaner. Just read that again. Because words cannot describe the thrill going through your face at the moment.

Apparently “you’ll be operating on busy streets so you’ll have to use your driving skills to avoid pedestrians and other road users.”

Now correct me if I’m wrong, won’t the only fun thing to do in the game be driving over pedestrians? And if you do, you can clean the mess. Why search for a mess when you can make mess. In my infinite years of wisdom, I’ve always had loads more fun breaking and messing things up than cleaning up. Not once have I ever said “Fuck yes! Cleaning time!”.

Surgery Simulator

Alright. Fair enough, you’d like to cut people open and make a human centipede. But, listen here, don’t you come fucking near me after playing this game. You’re not a nurse, nevermind a surgeon.

Lives are in your hands as you take on the role of a top surgeon at a busy city hospital. With eight authentically recreated surgical procedures in your repertoire, your skills are much in demand.

You will need to keep your brain as sharp as your scalpel as you operate on fractures, remove an inflamed appendix or tonsils, treat infected gall bladders, attend to varicose veins, repair hernias, restore vision in cataract procedures and deal with the injuries of a road traffic accident.

Actually, if you come near me with a scalpel after you play this game, you’ll lose one to all of your teeth after an array of kicks to the mouth. Or, your brain will be sharp because of the scalpel.

Oh wait, sorry. The site gives a disclaimer. I should be alright.

This product is a computer game and not for training or tuition purposes!!! The product is NOT suitable for conveying specialist knowledge in medicine or surgery. All operations shown are simplified considerably and only represented in excerpts. It is not possible to prepare yourself in any way for medical operations using this software or gain knowledge and skills that could be implemented in reality. We cannot accept ANY RESPONSIBILITY for the correctness of the operation procedures and information shown.

The problem is, how fucking stupid do you need to be to actually think that you’re a surgeon after this? If I made this game I’d also disclaimer the crap out of it so that retards don’t try and operate on their mother’s gall bladder.

Forklift Truck Simulator

Get behind the controls of a forklift truck in this highly detailed original simulator.

Your aim is to master the demanding range of tasks facing a forklift truck driver in every day scenarios. Load and unload Lorries and train carriages within a given time schedule or store goods in huge warehouses!

I can only say that whoever pays R300 to play and own this game is fucking special, and they need to be shot in the face. More than once.

The Conclusion

Yeah, I’m somewhat cynical. Also, I’m somewhat right at the same time. These are a few games we found online. A few games which should never have been developed. I think the only thing worse than these games is the fact that someone actually makes these games.

And, for the record, these aren’t the only great titles out there. There’s more, but they could possibly pass my test of “what the fuck were they thinking?”.

During the DICE 2012 convention in Las Vegas, Bethesda’s creative director Todd Howard showed off a kind of “highlight reel” containing the many, many ideas that he and his team have put together regarding DLC and updates for the latest Elder Scrolls entry, Skyrim.

The ideas have spawned out of a creative experiment called Games Jam, which was initiated by Howard and aimed to create ideas that could be used in Bethesda’s RPG epic. The company wide jam lasted for just a week, and some of the ideas that were stormed are shown below. Howard did stress that these were simply ideas, and that he has “no idea if they will be released as DLC,” adding, “maybe. we don’t know”.

The ideas shown included:

Spears
Kill cams for magic
Water arrows
Giant mud crabs
Paralysis runes
Seasonal foliage
Speedy water currents
Dragon mounts
Dark dungeons
Adoption of children
Advanced home building
Epic new mounts
Fast travel portals
Kinect dragon shouts
Enhanced water visuals
Ice and fire arrows
Lycanthrope perk tree
Vampire imp minions
Goblins

While more news will only be known after his speech at the convention, some of those ideas are extremely exciting. Dragon Mounts immediatly catches my eye, and I’m sure mages everywhere will appreciate the slow motion love. But while we’re all waiting for that, why not grab a Portal Power Core in Whiterun? You know you want to.

We’ve been hearing chatter about another major God of War title ever since God of War 3 released, but more so in recent weeks. If a retailer called Future Shop is to be believed then a proper reveal may be imminent at this year’s Destination PlayStation held in Arizona.

For those who don’t know, Destination PlayStation is an invitation-only event where Sony showcases some of its upcoming titles.

Now the spark for this rumour is weak but probably more substantial than the crap we’re expected to chew down about next-gen consoles. When asked on Twitter about the possibility of God of War 4 “as a final maybe?!,” the retailer replied cryptically with “Great Question. (;”.

It’s pretty much nothing, but I certainly wouldn’t mind more God of War. There have been strengthening rumours of a new God of War releasing alongside Syphon Filter IV, where it could even feature some form of co-op. Future Shop has also leaked that Sleeping Dogs is in fact Square Enix’s reboot of True Crime: Hong Kong and that BioShock: Infinite will have 3D support. Moral of the story: these guys can’t keep a secret.

It was previously announced that Square Enix has revealed Sleeping Dogs, a brand new game acquired from Activision. Sleeping Dogs is said to throw players into the world of an undercover cop called Wei Shen, who is tasked with taking down the Hong Kong Triads — one of the most feared organisations.

Wei Shen has the job of eliminating the gang from the inside, therefore he’ll act like a gang member. Meaning, you’ll be a gang member. But, that’s where things go south, as Wei Shen doubts his loyalty and motives as he is sucked into the organisation.

Expect shooting, driving and close combat fighting with “one of the best melee combat systems”.

“From the moment you pick up the controller and experience the blend of driving, close combat and shooting you know you’re playing something fresh and a bit special,” said Lee Singleton, General Manager of Square Enix London Studios.

“Sleeping Dogs has one of the best melee combat systems out there – it’s super brutal with devastating takedown moves, and when added to UFG’s proven heritage in driving games, a first class story and the vibrant backdrop of the Hong Kong underworld we get a fiery recipe with fun written all over it,” he added.

Expect action on every street corner, harbour dock or city skyscraper. There’s a chance for a fire-fight to break out at any minute, or even a street race. Following that, the combat system allows for true Hong Kong martial art fights with cinematic action.

Sleeping Dogs is an openworld action cop drama which will release later this year on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

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.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, from Electronic Arts, will offer you the opportunity to follow Tiger Woods from when he was a child. You will have the ability to play out his entire career in the upcoming golf title. Barred the sex scandal, of course.

The new mode is called Legacy mode, and it will start with Tiger Woods at the age of two.

Following this, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 will offer the Masters Tournament, Kinect integration for Xbox 360 and Move integration for PlayStation 3. There will also be Total Swing Control which has been ‘revolutionised’ for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13.

According to the press release: “Golfers will take full control over their swing with all-new tempo, swing plane and shot power controls along with an adjustable shot setup, allowing players to address the ball in a number of ways creating tens of millions possible shots with just one club.”

Expect 21 different courses when the game is released on 30 March for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

About Kinect for PGA Tour 13: This will be the first-ever sports simulation for the Kinect for Xbox 360, tracking full body movements to create the most advanced virtual golf swing to date. Controller-free and voice-enabled controls provides for a unique, never-before-seen sports gaming experience.

About Move for PGA Tour 13: Improve your game with the true-to-life golf swing created for the PlayStation Move. Fans will once again be able to experience the authentic golf swing created by the PlayStation Move, allowing golfers to emulate their swing style as they drive the ball down the fairway or sink a 30-foot putt.

It’s been a really, really shit week for David Jaffe, designer on the new Twisted Metal. First comes the really shocking news of him leaving the studio he helped build, Eat Sleep Play. It was unexpected, and isn’t leaving a good taste in gamers mouths about the upcoming Twisted Metal reboot. Then, he’s goes and shoves his foot in his mouth in a recent interview with Gametrailers.

While promoting his latest project, David Jaffe made a different type of news. While speaking about the game’s multiplayer mode, Jaffe suggested that male players should use, or misuse, their gaming prowess in order to gain oral sex from their female partners.

At around 4:15 in the interview above, Jaffe states:

“I tell you why, Twisted Metal, February 14th — Valentine’s Day — it’s a great, great romantic gift, if you have a lady friend and she really wants to know the best game ever, and she will give you a fucking blowjob, if you play this game. If you let her win Twisted Metal split screen, she will suck your dick.”

Wow, ok, if there ever was a sexist comment, that would certainly be it. As expected, there was an outcry, and Jaffe was very quick to take to Twitter in order to save his image.

Uhm, on the whole GT BJ thing, if I may: I like vulgar but the way that was edited came off more vulgar than even I like. There actually was some context to that conversation as I recall but the edit only showed the last part of a bigger discussion. Granted, the overall discussion was still intentionally juvenile and over the top but w/that as context- especially given the entire REST of the GT piece had NO indication the interview was gonna go vulgar, at least I think you’d see more where it was coming from.

Again, as I said earlier: it WAS meant to be stupid and childish but it was edited so as to cut off the lead off where we are talking about Valentine’s Day and sex and stuff and then we transition to the BJ part. Again, nothing suave about it but it makes more sense if UC whole bit. That said:I see NOTHING misogynistic about what I said. Crude and vulgar? You bet! And unintentionally so when out of context. BUT what is misogynistic about what I said? That’s just crazy! Never said ‘buy this product and A girl will suck your dick’. I said ‘YOUR GIRLFRIEND’ would…and in context of the conversation, I would have just as easily said to a woman ‘buy this product and your man will please you orally’. Again, vulgar and dumb? Sure. Nothing sexist about it tho.

No1 died sure, but I personally find it hurtful to be called a misogynist. I have 2 daughters and I’m a big fan of women. Many of my very best friends are women and I respect women. The idea that being crude and vulgar=misogynistic to some folks bugs the fuck outta me (but also indicates they are probably super pussy whipped PC types who God know I dunno why I give a shit about their judgement of me anyway)…so yeah, I really should not be upset :). Problem solved! :)

Now, I’m sure I’m supposed to write something here about how this is a completely sexist comment, and how women make up a huge percentage of gamers, as well as stating that girlfriends simply don’t sit around and hand out sexual favours for “beating” their boyfriend at a game. David Jaffe, you’ve earned a massive facepalm. Enjoy the rest of your week.

For Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning to have a sequel, something has to happen. According to Todd McFarlane — the creator of Spawn comics and the lead artist on Reckoning — players needs to promote the game to increase sales to open up the possibility of a sequel.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning releases this Friday for South Africa and Europe. For 38 Studios, it’s a new IP and they’d really like the game to do well, and if it does do well, they’ll make another one.

During an interview with Gamasutra about Reckoning, Todd McFarlane noted that: “There are some surprises in it. If we delivered enough of them, maybe they’ll phone up their buddy and go, ‘Hey, Fred, I just played this game and you’ve got to see it. It’s kind of cool, man.’

“If we can get that word of mouth going, then there’s a big potential for us to succeed and maybe have a sequel come out someday.”

This is McFarlane’s first game, and he found the experience enlightening and enjoyable. And he found that everyone who plays RPGs is important. No-one is better than another.

“If you ask ten different RPG players why they play those games, you will invariably get ten different answers,” he said.

“How do you develop for that? The only way to do that is to treat each one of those areas equally and with the same preciousness as you would any other area. You can’t pick favorites. You literally have to become a communist developer, treating them all as equals.”

At the moment Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is available in the United States. It is averaging review scores of around 80-88%. As for sales in South Africa, the game seems to be sold out at Kalahari.com, for PC.

February 8th: the day that Sony will change the PlayStation Network. Update version 4.10 is on the way and it will offer slight, yet drastic changes.

According to Sony there’s a Terms of Service change, as well as the renaming of PSN accounts to Sony Entertainment Network accounts — or SEN accounts for short.

“Please note that this change is one in name only and will not change the PSN that you know and love,” said Sony on the Official PlayStation blog.

“You’ll still play games online, still have access to the latest downloadable games and add-ons, and still experience a wide variety of movies, sports and music across PSN.”

Following this, v4.10 brings an enhanced PS3 internet browser with “improved display speed”. In other words, eGamer.co.za on your PS3 will look and load a bit better.

Remember, it’s just a name change. Just the name. Just that. Alright?

The current Mass Effect story arc ends with numero trios but that doesn’t rule out the possibility of other stories being crafted from Mass Effect’s vast universe.

Speaking in the latest issue of PSM3, BioWare producer Casey Hudson spoke about his feelings regarding the trilogy coming to an end as well as the future of the series. Hudson is “sure” there’ll be more ME and doesn’t think he’ll be all teary-eyed when Mass Effect 3 releases on March 9.

“We’re probably too busy to feel sad it’s over right now,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll be sad. We’re not done yet, and I don’t know what the final experience will be, but I’m pretty sure Mass Effect 3 is the best in the series.

“We had ambitious goals, but to make a whole series that spans recessions, BioWare’s independence, different publishers… Well, we did it in the end.”

So what happens after March 9, then? “We don’t know exactly, but there will be more Mass Effect for Mass Effect fans, I’m sure.”

Earlier this week series fans were urged to keep their ME 3 saves so I’m guessing BioWare almost definitely has at least one more game in the pipeline.

Japan is… certainly a strange place, to the rest of the world.

You’ve seen the many memes and random pictures on various sites dedicated to funnies, with all the stereotyping and replacing phonetic “L” sounds with “R” sounds and vice versa. And stuff.

We know of their fetish for things like tentacles, robots, animated pornography and making meals out of their pets.

Not willing to buck the trend of doing strange things then, Japan will be the only place in the world where Suda51′s upcoming Lollipop Chainsaw will be censored. Because tentacle-hentai.

Actually it’s more like a Limited Edition. There, anyway.

See, the regular Japanese version of the game will tone down the game’s violence and gore, earning it a CERO D rating. This translates to 17+ more or less. The second version of the game will have no censoring and be a premium version (the worldwide release, basically) with a CERO Z rating. That’s your typical Adults Only version of the game.

The CERO system is explained in great detail here, for those interested in discovering more about it while avoiding Googling and stumbling upon more tentacles while at work or something.

The Japanese version of the game is inherently unique in that it contains vocal options in both English and Japanese, offering up a very anime-like experience to your play-style if you don’t mind the censorship in place.

Suda51′s last title was Shadows of the Damned, a game that I thoroughly enjoyed when I reviewed it last year. It was a crime that it wasn’t more successful in the public eye. But, marketing eh?

If Lollipop Chainsaw for all its weird and quirky traits is anything as fun as Shadows of the Damned, this could well be one of the sleeper hits of the year. Failing that, you get to chainsaw loads of zombies with a sexy cheerleader. Never a bad thing, right?

In this week’s What Makes A Gamer we look at the infinitely extending and eternally occurring phenomenon known as ‘rage quitting’. Rage quitting has never been precisely defined, and we’ll see if we can come to common ground with it here.

The first step I took in trying to define rage quitting was to use Google because as we all know Google is the most reliable source of information available to the human race. I then clicked on a Wikipedia link titled “Computer rage” and was jetted off to an even more reliable Wiki page explaining what exactly computer rage is. The article states:

“Computer rage is a heightened physiological response with associated feelings of anger and frustration resulting from using a computer or other complex electronic device. It may result in the physical assault of the computer or similar item, possibly leading to the device incurring more damage than it had before”.

This broad definition doesn’t apply to the specificity of rage quitting but does encompass some of the involvement necessary for the action of ‘rage quitting’. The finer points of the definition manifest with verbal abuse, physical abuse towards a peripheral such as whacking your keyboard, controller against a wall or kicking your chair. In the online realm, players flame other players shouting over voice chats, and sending rude messages.

Finally we come to the only mention of rage quitting precisely in the article. Rage Quitting is defined as, “exiting a game prematurely out of anger”. But rage quitting is more complex than one measly line of text. It is normally confounded by the type of game being played, the players themselves and the context of what has caused the rage-induced quitting in the first place. A gamer can fail to achieve an objective in a game, get repeatedly killed in an FPS, forget to save before a big boss getting smashed to oblivion in the process and even have their game bug out inducing the rage quit procedure.

So now I’ll attempt to sum up the experience of rage quitting as best I can. Things are about to get ugly. Say, have you ever had that experience whilst playing an RPG after grinding your character for a good few hours only to find out in the middle of a battle that you’re character has levelled up the wrong skills? Meaning that your character is utterly useless in the context of the boss fight. I reckon that we’ve all had that happen to us (unless you’re an uber killing machine like Dean or an inter-dimensional cyborg like Tim, yes he is the terminator).

You feel the rage slowly build within you like an ‘agro’ monster waiting to be released. The rage leaks out of your body consuming your mouth as you repeatedly utter “fuck, Fuck, FUCK!”, and then once you’ve been ‘caned’ by the aforementioned boss guys, or some 14 year old, you kick the controller and quit the game without the slightest concern for the well being of your console or PC. They you my brother (or sister) are experiencing the rage quit in all it’s ‘agro’ glory.

This is the experience that I suspect many gamers who’ve played Dark Souls endured. A game which is designed to make you rage quit is indication enough of the epidemic that is rage quitting. I think that on the flipside rage quitting is okay within a single player game, but when you’re playing a multiplayer game particularly of the FPS variety it gives an aura of bad sportsmanship (which nearly everyone is online). But that is to say that most of the reasons for rage quitting are normally due to the screams of 14 year olds on XBOX live attacking you with insults as they murder your face at COD. However, that is to be expected since they don’t know what sex is and obviously don’t have a girlfriend so they get their jollies off pestering players who just want to have fun.

Yet the rage is easily culpable in the situation because it’s so easy to fall prey to it. There’s a reason why many of the Jedi in Star Wars became Sith it’s because they weren’t leet enough to stick to the Jedi Code like a hardcore gamer, and essentially rage quit the light side. Although, Jedi’s and hardcore gamers can also be prudes and of the ‘arschloch’ persuasion and are like the disciples of the rage quitting universe. Count Dooku was just mad at Yoda because he had douchey Jedi name and rage quitted the light side of the force. But Jedi, who are also hardcore gamers, are also butthurt because they can’t get any booty calls for religious reasons, as one’s force purity is stained by the throes of passion. Essentially, when it comes to rage quitting everyone is guilty of it. If you aren’t than you are a cyborg from the future, astalavista baby.

Imagine if you could rage quit real things in life. Your girlfriend’s getting on your case; you just rage quit. Boss giving you problems and you rage quit. Playing too much LoL (League of Legends) in a Korean internet café; you rage quit. Well, that’s suicide. I guess then that rage quitting wouldn’t help in real life. We have emo kids for that. Obviously because losing the game in real life and a videogame are two totally different things.

If you just read that previous line you might be rageful, if not carry on your way in ignorant bliss. If you did ‘get’ it you might as well rage quit. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a part of every gamer’s nature, and therefore if you rage quit — you’re a gamer. So, just go with it.

What happens when you bring Portal 2 (eGamer’s Game of the Year) and Skyrim (Pretty much everyone else’s GOTY) together? Possibly the greatest mod ever to grace this earth. In order to celebrate the launch of the Skyrim Creation Kit on Steam yesterday, Valve and Bethesda cooked up a neat little mod that is sure to make your adventure in Skyrim a lot more “SPAAAAAAACE” filled.

Remeber that Core in Portal that was obsessed with space? Well, he’s now your latest buddy during your dragon slaying escapades, blurting out space related comments at any moment. It’s useless, but extremely entertaining at the same time, and easily one of the best mods you’ll ever download for Skyrim.

To celebrate the opening of the Steam Workshop for Skyrim, Valve and Bethesda have teamed up to bring you the Portal 2 Space Core mod, which will let the aggressively space-centric little robot tag along on your adventures in Tamriel.

Also, since Skyrim was the only major release of 2011 without Nolan North in it, you should consider this mod a patch to fix that problem. You can now feel free to include Skyrim in the “Nolan North” section of your video game library, which is to say, your video game library.

What’s even better is that the Steam Workshop now automates your mods for Skyrim, making this a must for any Skyrim gamer on PC. Maybe this will make me enjoy Skyrim more.

Yesterday we told you about Tim Schafer’s thoughts on the aversion that publishers have towards new IPs and in it, I mentioned a sequel to Psychonauts instead of a brand new IP.

Funny story…

After airing those thoughts, Schafer proceeded to confess that no matter how many times he’s tried to pitch a sequel to the critically acclaimed wonder-game, he hasn’t found anybody brave enough to be willing to make it.

“I mean I get a lot of, on Twitter or whatever, daily questions about Psychonauts 2,” he said. “And I would love to do Psychonauts 2, I’ve actually pitched that to publishers several times and no-one has taken the bait so far.”

He went on to say that such a project would require several million dollars from… someone.

Minecraft developer and esoteric Twitter celebrity Notch to the rescue!

“Let’s make Psychonauts 2 happen.”

That was his response on Twitter.

Notch of course is rolling in money after the immense success of Minecraft, so this could indeed be possible and a huge and admirable step forward to a gaming industry where major publishers are not a monopoly for game production and so don’t get to call all the shots. Fuck Online Passes…

Schafer has yet to respond via Twitter, however it’s pretty clear that with someone as keen as Notch where it just might happen, he ought to pick up the phone by now.

I have to admit that Notch isn’t my favourite person because while he does have achievements to his name, I feel he is very over-rated as a person and his words are taken as gospel over Twitter, whereas far more respectable, likeable and accomplished developers — like Casey Hudson and Patrice Desilets — aren’t quite as adored. But if he is serious about a sequel and this actually happens, consider him redeemed entirely in my books. And I mean that.

Have you played Psychonauts? If not, go right now to GoG or Steam or whatever, and download the game. Do it. Have you done it yet? What are you waiting for?

You’re welcome.

Features removed, game redesigns, release date unconfirmed and the hunger for Diablo 3 grows. Diablo 3 may come out tomorrow, ok probably not, though we might only see it at the dawn of 2013. Luckily, and for all those loot heads out there, those who need an isometric RPG this year, we’ve compiled a list of five games to compete with Diablo 3. Some of these games are relatively light on detail and we’ll give you a video of each to accommodate any info we have. We can’t be sure any of these games will release before Diablo 3, but we’re hoping their developers have stepped up their game in order to compete with Diablo 3. So without further delay, here’s that list — across five pages.

Name: Torchlight 2
Genre: Isometric, Action RPG
Multiplayer: Yes
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360
Developers: Runic Games
Publishers: Perfect World
Release Date: Early 2012 (Pending Confirmation)
Preview: Torchlight 2

Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer, one of the lead designers on Diablo 2 and now assisting on Torchlight 2, along with lead developer Travis Baldree are confident Torchlight 2 will be an indie AAA. Runic Games are not only planning to improve every aspect of Torchlight’s gameplay, as we’ve already talked about in the lengthier preview, but plans to improve on the original’s sales figures; which hit the millions. Furthermore, and with a modestly cheap price, mod support and a multiplayer component over and above the original game’s single player only experience; Runic Games are staring Diablo 3 straight in the eyes and aren’t budging.

Torchlight 2 has a lot of content and sports a very refined and much improved Diablo 2 style of play. And with diverse classes, pet and fishing mechanics returning and a whole bucket load of other nifty little extras; Torchlight 2 is looking to put up a serious fight.

Next entry on the next page.

Remember Hawken, the crazy mech-combat title which shocked the world last year? Well, according to Adhesive Games, the title will be free on 12 December, 2012. And, if you cannot wait until then, sign up for the beta.

The game is impressive, and it offers multiplayer combat in mechs. Think Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. It’ll be fun.

Hawken is confirmed to be multiplayer only as Adhesive said: “Just know that we’ve taken fan suggestions to heart and are working to make Hawken a deeper experience (but still MP only ).”

Expect to play Hawken on PC.

Rockstar San Diego, the firm behind Red Dead Redemption, is currently hiring for a new open world project. The studio revealed jobs listings for a Tools Programmer, Network Programmer and Gameplay Programmer.

According to the listing, Rockstar is looking for “a networking programmer who specializes in the synchronization of the wide range of gameplay mechanics found in a Rockstar open world game” as well as a gameplay programmer who is “ready for the challenges posed by large scale open worlds with complex AI and physics.”

There’s a chance that this could be another version of Red Dead Redemption, or perhaps a brand new IP with multiplayer. Generally Rockstar games do rock, therefore this is something we should keep an eye out for.

And it’s obvious that a few people would love another Red Dead Redemption.

Last month, there was a stack of next-gen rumours that flew about regarding the next Xbox, but none were more frightening than the one that suggested that the Xbox 720 would ban the use of used games. Gamers resented the rumour, but it seems that the Saints Row: The Third designer Jameson Durall has come out in support of the rumoured system.

In a blog post on #AltDevBlogADay

“Personally I think this would be a fantastic change for our business. Even though the consumers would be up in arms about it at first, they will grow to understand why and that it won’t kill them.”

“The system is already there for Microsoft. All they’d have to do is use the DLC and codes model they have to tie a game to your Xbox live account. Each retail disc would likely need that unique key somewhere in the code so the account would be able to link it properly. Ideally it would tie a full version to the console it is registered on so family members can play even if the main account isn’t signed in.”

So, wait, that would mean you wouldn’t even be able to lend games from friends anymore. Durall has a solution for this as well:

“Microsoft could implement something similar to what Amazon is doing with their Kindle Books lending policy.”

“I could see Microsoft implementing their own rental service which would maybe give them a code that activates the game for X days and they are charged a small amount. This could work when you borrow the disc from someone or even with digital download of the full version. It would also send a percentage of the rental to the Developer with each rental, likely improving the overall revenue we would receive from it.”

This, for consumers as a whole, is a really, really bad idea. Online passes may have been a way for developers to continue making money through second-hand sales, but a full out ban of second-hand games use on consoles seems a bit extreme. Are second-hand sales hurting the industry that badly, that developers would resort to supporting such rash solutions.

Ken Levine, the master behind BioShock has stated that the story behind Infinite is even a secret to his own team. And it’s all because he likes to enjoy the reactions from people when they hear the full story.

When speaking to PSM3 Magazine, Ken Levine noted that “I want to preserve [it] and observe [the team], so I can see their reactions. Keeping people virgins to that content is really important because you never get that reaction from someone a second time.”

Although it might sound intriguing that everything is a mystery, it’s apparently not the most popular move: “I think (it’s) a frustration on the team here. I don’t want them to know the game story, and they want a document from me that tells them the whole game story.

“I’m not going to do that. That’s not the way we present stuff to the gamer. We don’t ship a document. The story is only relevant in terms of how you present it, not the details of what it is.

“I don’t want to send out a document which is the game story, because to me that’s not the game story – that’s an outline or a blueprint for us to build the game story from.”

Does this make you any more excited for BioShock Infinite?

This is sort of a two part question, really. The gadget is either overrated or it’s underutilised — or both, maybe. Beside that though, there’s an abundance of gadgets (and devices) out there which we simply don’t need. Some are for the PC and some are for consoles — and you’re allowed to choose which ones you hate and don’t need.

For me, though, I find a CD-Rom/DVD-Rom (whatever-fucking-ROM) completely pointless. I haven’t had any thing to read discs on my PC for a good two years, maybe more. It’s completely unneeded and it actually just uses power which can be filtered to another device. In essence, I trick my mind to believe that I can now buy a smaller power-supply because I don’t have a useless device. Cheap, right?

I don’t do stiffy/floppy drives either. The only readable is the USB slot — which is absolutely great. Everything should be USB, if you ask me. It’s smaller, easier to use and better to carry.

When I do need a disc drive, however, I have a portable disc drive which — guess what — plugs into the USB slot. And this is only used when Windows needs to be installed. Games, I download via Steam and Origin. I prefer digital copies merely because discs don’t last and will probably get lost. Steam keeps all my games stored on my account, too.

Before you scream that a disc drive isn’t a gadget, the way I use it — it is a gadget. A completely useless gadget which people stick round discs into to play music, look at photos and pirate stuff.

Oh, and did I tell you — the best part about no DVD-Rom is — I never have to write a single disc for any person, ever.

What’s super useless to you? Let us know.

You’d probably like to say ‘yes’ because this would enable you to take solace in the fact that when the zombie apocalypse dawns, you will have the keen senses to distinguish friend from foe and avoid becoming a walking lunch cart. Apparently it’s harder than it sounds, as the Taiwanese recently found out.

There’s an internet cafe in New Taipei City, Taiwan, that is frequented almost exclusively by gamers who will spend hours on end there, immersed in WoW or StarCraft or whatever RTS and/or MMORPG takes their fancy. That’s all fine and dandy but you’d think they might notice a dead guy in the vicinity.

Chen Rong-yu, 23, died on Thursday 2 February after a 23 hour League of Legends marathon session which is believed to have inadvertently been the cause of death. This is due to a heart condition which Rong-yu had that was aggravated by fatigue, lack of movement and low temperatures in the internet cafe and finally resulted in cardiac arrest.

Not for want of sounding callous but this is nothing new, we hear of (Asian) gamers dying all the time as a result of these marathon sessions. The shocking part is that Chen Rong-yu was deceased for a full 9 hours before any of the 30 people around him even began to realise that he wasn’t just asleep. It’s apparently common for players to take naps regularly so no one thought anything of it.

I was actually driving when I heard this on the radio and zoned out in a moment of utter disgust after hearing this because of the ramifications. It shows that these people were so engrossed in whatever they were playing that they didn’t realise a man had died. Surely a normal human being would notice if someone was having a heart attack at the next work station.

My heart actually goes out to Chen’s family for what they must have gone through given the circumstances and the fact that they hadn’t seen or heard from him for more than a day. It really is unfathomable that something like this could have happened. I know someone has died and this may be very insensitive but the only way to really sum up all the elements of this bizarre story is with this:

Word on the street is that the developers of recent hit racing title Driver: San Francisco might be working on a new game designed for Kinect.

This is according to a LinkedIn profile belonging to one Joss Scouler, the ‘Art Lead at Ubisoft Reflections’.

Ubisoft Reflections are of course the folks who — finally — created a successful Driver game with some pretty interesting game mechanics and a decent amount of entertainment to boot.

Scouler’s catalogue of published titles includes an entry that is listed as ‘Confidential for now (X360 Kinect)’. No further information on that title is provided.

Speculation is rampant that it is actually a Rayman / Raving Rabbids title, but that is pure guess-work at its best and it could well be a possible Driver title for the Kinect crowd.

Wouldn’t you say it’s about time the Kinect got a game that was worth playing with the motion-sensing technology? Who knows, maybe Ubisoft Reflections might be the team to bring that to us.

What would you like to see on Kinect from the developer?

The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s latest project, wasn’t the first new title that Naughty Dog started working on after Uncharted 2. After the completion of Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog split into two teams, with the intention of creating a new game. This game was originally meant to be the much sought after Jak and Daxter sequel, but the team ran into trouble when attempting to bring the duo back.

The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann spoke to Game Informer about the canceled project:

“We dug around trying to find the core of Jak and Daxter. Who are the characters? We had to reboot it essentially. Every time we got excited about an idea we’d take a step back and look at it and be like ‘It’s not Jak and Daxter, are we just slapping the name on it for marketing reasons?’”

“It started feeling like a compromise. The more we tried to make Jak and Daxter like we wanted to, it didn’t feel like things were matching up. We have folders and folders filled with scrapped ideas.”

Studio co-founder Evan Wells also spoke about the prospect of a new Jak and Daxter, and told fans not too worry too much, as a new title is bound to come out eventually.

“All the ideas just started to feel like they were going so far away from what made Jak and Daxter Jak and Daxter. Even though we wanted to give fans another Jak and Daxter, we felt we weren’t going to give them the game that they wanted, and that we would end up either limiting the direction that the company had this passion for while simultaneously not creating the game that fans wanted. We just realized we were going to just do everybody a disservice.”

“Never say never. It could happen. Naughty Dog’s got a long history and I think it’s got a long future so to say we’ll never go back is kind of crazy but right now we’ve got [The Last of Us] that we’re definitely going to be supporting. I guess there’s a possibility that the Uncharted team could move on to Jak and Daxter. It’s still up in the air, but I wouldn’t think that’s going to happen, because I think we’d run into all of the same problems with that team that we did with this team.”

While this is sad news for Jak fans, it is good to see that Naughty Dog realised that their new Jak and Daxter project wasn’t working and decided not to “sell out” and let the name carry a bad game. That is a mark of a quality developer, and should be an example that other studios should follow.

You know Tim Schafer, right?

Double Fine founder, creator a great many cult classics including Grim Fandango, Full Throttle and Psychonauts? Also worked on a recent game featuring Jack Black called Brutal Legend? Heard of any of those?

The man has made some great games even if none of them were marketing spectacles, but his opinions are definitely worth some weight in the games industry nonetheless.

This time he’s spoken on his opinion that publishers aren’t willing to invest in new intellectual properties, something his studio does pretty much exclusively.

“Publishers often don’t want to release anything new, I mean they’re scared of new IP, and Double Fine specialises in new IP,” he commented. “That’s always been our challenge, is getting a publisher to invest millions of dollars in something brand new like Brutal Legend.”

The aforementioned was in fact his last foray into the world of big budget game development, with Schafer opting to focus on creating smaller digitally distributed titles instead.

Costume Quest and Iron Brigade are two such titles that have been well-received using this strategy. The next title, Double Fine Action Theater, will be a fully Kinect-compatible title published by Microsoft Games Studios.

Schafer explains that this model has publishers far more willing to explore new properties.

“It has helped to have games that are smaller, like digital download games are smaller so the budgets are smaller, like Happy Action Theater. The whole reason it got made was that I was asking for very little money to get it made,” he said.

“And once it proved the power of it, money was invested in it, but the original thing that we were asking for was very small.”

Fair enough mister Schafer, but could you please maybe consider a Grim Fandago for the current generation? What about a sequel to Psychonauts? Please?

Remember the Humble Bundle, it’s a great way to buy some enjoyable indie games and contribute to the developers as well as a chosen charity, well now there’s the ‘Indie Gala’.

The Indie Gala is quite similar and really only differs in two distinct ways. Firstly, the bundles include music albums that closely link to the games being offered and secondly, that there is a limited amount available rather than a time with which to make a purchase.

So with relatively cheap prices, a good cause and still over 37000 bundles left, make your purchase today. And if you’re not sure about the titles available check out the site, there are a few combinations to choose from and they’re all pretty awesome.

Krater — a game developed by Fatshark — is a post-apocalyptpic title based in Sweden. It involves real-time strategy (RTS) styling with role-playing game (RPG) components.

In essence, it’s an RTS looking RPG which offers single and multiplayer missions. There’s customizable characters, equipment and crafting which offers a unique chance for players to stand out amongst each other.

Krater’s story is simple: the world is riddled by a series of nuclear attacks. Because of this, a powerful weapon was launched from a military compound, thus creating a massive crater in the Earth’s surface. Inside the hole, a hidden oasis of clean water and fresh soil was found. Basically, a chance for a new life.

It’s called Paradise Valley, and Krater takes place in this valley.

Expect a launch later this year for Steam, on PC.

Later this month, the Jak and Daxter HD Collection will hit shelves, bringing 3 of the biggest PS2 games into the world of HD. I for one cannot wait, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who really only wants Jak 2 and 3. Well, for those of you who like downloading your games, you’ll be able to choose exactly which Jak and Daxter adventures you want to purchase in HD.

According to the PlayStation Blog, the Collection will be available both at retail and digitally. Better yet, each game can be purchased individually on the PlayStation Store, though it remains to be seen how much each game will cost on its own.

This is similar to what Sony did with the Sly Collection, although the digital versions of that title took over a year to become available. Thankfully, the Jak and Daxter Collection should be online by the time it reaches your local gaming store.

So, who’s excited to see Dark Jak again?

Scared of blood? Close your eye-holes now. This trailer is all about killing in The Darkness 2. Well, this is 30 seconds of killing — there’s hours of fun to be had in the full game.

And, on that note, the full game is out this Friday for Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3.

Fan favourites that no one will remember when something better comes alo…ooohh look! Something shiny.

We have all started to use the word memorable to mean fun or enjoyable. I’ve been slapped by a woman before and it was neither fun nor enjoyable but it was pretty memorable.

This is the distinction I’m making. Memorable does not mean good or fun, it doesn’t even mean intense or shocking. It’s far more personal than that. What is memorable to one person might be completely forgettable to another.

What we find memorable is what touches us. Something about the world, story or gameplay somehow becomes linked with powerful emotion. Certain songs remind me of ex-girlfriends, some books are so vivid in my memory I still can’t believe they aren’t real, and some games I will remember forever.

Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. The first is a masterpiece, the second is arguable the first game to ever seriously grab you by the scrotum and pull you on a wild globe-trotting adventure so spectacular you’re left almost feeling sexually satisfied, but what about the third? Releasing to positive but not spectacular reviews, why do I lump that piece of coal in with those other gems? It’s personal. The game lets you choose which of the two brothers to play as and their interactions and dynamic were so similar to my own relationship with my brother that I genuinely loved the characters. I will remember them forever and I cannot defend the game as anything more than good. Memorable is personal.

Last week I wrote an article on 5 Games We’ll Remember In 20 Years. Those were the select few games from the last year or so that gave experiences that lead to a profound feeling of inner growth. They all had those “OMG!!” moments but what made them special was what you got left with afterwards.

The games on this list are the one night stands. Fun, special, one hell of a good time, and they make you smile when you think about them but I won’t remember them when their sequels release or bigger things come along.

I’m not speaking about recollection. Any normal person who has their morning coffee without whisky and leaves cocaine on toast only for special occasions will hopefully be able to recollect most of the good games they’ve played. They should even have some fond memories and when the ice caps melt, our grandchildren are plentiful and Half Life 3 is a folk legend, we should still be able to do a healthy bit of reminiscing while sitting in a nuclear-powered rocking chair, but they won’t make us fall silent. In our private moments we won’t suddenly remember them and get a warm sensation in our bellies.

5 games from the last 24 months that took the world by storm but that I won’t remember come the sunshine. These games burn bright and fiercely but when I put the down the controller, once the initial awe and excitement has died down, I’m left satisfied but I’m not in love.
 
 

5. Call of Duty. Anything After 4.

This may seem obvious but it’s being said anyway. This is the epitome of what I’m talking about here. Fun, well made and maybe even awe-inspiring, until the sequel comes along. These games are fast food, cheap wine and the easy, drunk chick at the party.

There’s fun to be had and lots of it too, but these game won’t stick with me. I barely understand their stories and the action starts to meld together into one big ‘splosion of Scottish, bearded, magnificent mustached, action.

I’ll probably continue to play them every year. The same way I’ll watch the new Transformers movies.

Pretty things and things that go boom.

Not everything has to be profound and that’s completely fine.

I love Blue Mountain State – who doesn’t?
 
 

4. Batman: Arkham City

Yes, I know – this was an outstanding game. Certainly the best Batman experience you can have short of actually eating gravel and becoming Batman.

Fluid, well designed combat, fun gadgets and even a memorable story.

Nothing new enough.

After Arkham Asylum swept me off my feet Arkham City was going to have to work really hard to impress me. It did to an extent but the problems start right at the conceptual level.

Arkham Asylum but bigger and more open world. If the game wasn’t so big and fleshed out this could have passed for an expansion.

As it stands, I remember the feeling I got when I first ran around feeling like Batman – in Arkham Asylum. Now I have a lot of fun but this just feels like an expanded game without any serious innovation or hooks to make me remember Arkham City over Asylum.

Rocksteady are talented developers and I’m excited for whatever they do next.

I’ll remember the first time I silently took out a room of thugs using my bad-assery. It was in Arkham Asylum.
 
 

3. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

I know I’m not alone here. In fact my distinguished colleague wrote an entire article on why the Assassin’s Creed franchise has become that weird slightly over 40 woman at the teenage party.

In fact I’m going to quote him directly and link to his article because there is nothing left to say that he hasn’t already said.

Firstly, and amongst the biggest issues with the game, is that it showed me how exhausted the gameplay was. With barely anything worth writing home about added to the game, and an identical formula to its predecessors, Revelations couldn’t bring back the excitement of past games. Variety was a lot less, and things like the renovating system and slow pace often made playing it a serious chore. The game relied heavily on its previous successes, and failed to really build from its predecessors in any significant way.

Azhar’s Full Article. Go read it and then send a letter to Ubisoft.
 
 
Find the next two entries on the following page.

Skyrim fans on PC, are you ready for the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Creation Kit’s release this week?

Bethesda’s marketing boss Pete Hines has confirmed that the content creation tool is “on track” for release, and teased at a “special surprise” in store for fans.

“For our Skyrim PC fans, the Creation Kit is on track for release on Tuesday. And, we also have a special surprise with it,” he tweeted.

DLC? Here’s hoping.

The Skyrim Creation Kit will also allow users to upload, download and install mods, along with actually creating them. This means no longer having to manually install and uninstall between each patch, although the smarter gamers have already discovered the joys of the Nexus Mod Manager and so don’t really need the functionality anyway.

Regardless, this one’s official so just go with it okay?

There’s still no word on modding for the console versions so it could be assumed that that fish is entirely dead in the water, but hey you never know.

It’s about time we heard word of some DLC to extend playtime with the game, so there might still be hope for getting our console modding on.

Until then, happy modding on PC.

Late last week Sony did a little bit of maintanence on PSN, leading to a little bit of downtime last Friday. And, in typical Sony fashion, they’ve gone and made things worse before they make it better. Ever since the update, European PSN users (most of us) have been complaining about not being able to access content from the PSN Store that they have purchased.

While North American users seem to be unaffected (since everyone loves them and not us), a number of users from Britain, Australia and continental Europe have encountered this problem when trying to download or re-download content they have paid for.

Those affected are getting an error report labelled “80023102″, which helpfully informs them “No content was found”.A moderator on Sony’s official forums wrote earlier today that “I’m being told that the cause of the problem has been identified, but a resolution has yet to become available.”

Has this issue affected you yet? Do you even purchase anything off the PSN Store. Let us know your thoughts below.

Ask any gamer. Any real gamer.

Wait, why does that sound like Dominic Toretto from The Fast & The Furious.

Ask any gamer if they would willingly let go of their saves for a game and watch their reaction as they attempt to contemplate the action of deleting something so precious, even when the saves themselves hold little value moving forward.

Gamers will have entire hard drives filled with game saves and not much else.

Along came BioWare with their games that actually gave storing saves a purpose and asked gamers to import saves into their sequels in order to “continue the story” with various tie-ins affecting sequels depending on the imported save.

Never was this more apparent than with the second Mass Effect title, which made you feel like you were actually playing a role in a game, thanks to that save-importing system.

With the upcoming threequel, it would seem as though a bunch of saves that have survived through two prior titles and one more would go to waste after such a long lifespan, much to the dismay of many.

But BioWare aren’t so sure about that.

Mike Gamble has said that players should probably hold onto their Mass Effect 3 saves upon completing the game because you never know what may happen in future.

“Obviously I can’t say anything, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

I’ll have that.

BioWare have of course previously stated that the future of the Mass Effect series beyond Mass Effect 3 is still to be decided but they are not short on ideas.

We already know that the trilogy only really follows Shepard anyway, so there isn’t really anything to stop, say, a Mass Effect spin-off with Garrus as the main character. Did I just make your day?

This week we published 74 articles, and it’s entirely possible that you missed something which you would have wanted to read. Because of this, we’ll round up a few of the interesting news articles, alongside exclusives, features, columns, previews and reviews.

Columns

• Experience Points: What Would Be The Skyrim Killer? Part 1
• Looking Back At January
• A Gamer’s Perspective — The Disappearance Of Cheats
• Tody’s Take: Assassin’s Creed Seriously Needs To Step Up

Previews

• Preview: Twisted Metal
• Preview: Asura’s Wrath

Reviews

• Indie Review: SOL Exodus
• Indie Review: The Cat That Got The Milk

Exclusives

• What Do You Do When Your Console Or PC Breaks?
• Match The Song To A Game — Never Stop Believing
• eGamer Is Now Three Years Old
• Top 5 Facebook Moments Of The Week | 29 Jan – 4 Feb
• Comments Of The Week | 29 Jan – 4 Feb

Features

• 5 Games We’ll Remember In 20 Years
• February 2012′s Game Releases
• What We Want From Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Interesting News

• Black Mesa Is Still Alive
• Fallout Fantasy
• This Is What Happens In A 1000 Player FPS Match
• Racial Slur Invades Minecraft
• Do You Want Fries With That Hidden-Blade?
• Sony’s PlayStation Boss In France Comments On The Next Console’s Timing
• 38 Studios: Think Of Kingdoms Of Amalur Online Pass As ‘Day One DLC’
• The Last Of Us Gameplay Details Land

 
 
Article Of The Week: 5 Games We’ll Remember In 20 Years
Competition: Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning On PC, PS3 And Xbox 360

Comments Of the Week is back, and it has been revamped. The previous edition where we simply spoke about comments is out. This time round, we’re going to label you. Basically, we’ve come up with a few titles to hand out each week.

This week, we’re only using comments on articles published between 29 January and 4 February.

In the future we’ll add actual comments to the mix as well. Let this be the introduction to a new system.

Without wasting time, here’s the list of labels and what they mean. The meaning should help you attain the title you want.

• Hulk Smash — You won’t like me when I’m angry! Always posts rage comments.
• TRoLoLoL — Everything is a joke.
• The Fanboy — BioWare is MINE!
• Consolefag — PC Sucks, etc.
• PCbitch — PC is legacy. PC is the best.
• The Elitist — I’m better than all of you. Don’t type to me in that tone of voice.
• The Spammer — Cannot. Help. Myself. Must. Comment.
• Gandalf — Loves long walks on the beach and philosophy. Also, types long comments.
• Most Valued Commenter (MVC) — Everyone takes interest in what you have to say.
• The Parasite — It’s everywhere!
• The Hater — Nothing is good enough!
• Mr/Mrs Likable — Most Liked Comments

There’s a great chance that we’ll add more as we go. Perhaps you have some ideas of labels we should add. Let us know in the comments.

Every week we’ll leave one title out. It’ll be your job to suggest a winner in the comments.

On the next page, you’ll be able to find the winners.

We’ve been digging through all the Facebook content for the last week, 29 January to 4 February, and we’d like to talk about the memories made. We chose five interactions, from you and us, which we thought were quite cool. Then there’s two bonus entries.

While most of you might have seen these, perhaps you don’t use Facebook as actively as others. And this is your chance to get in on the action, although it’s a late.

You’ll notice that this week is filled with a lot of Caveshen. Post your pictures on our Facebook Wall and who knows, it might land up here.
 
 

5 — Kingdoms Of Cavie Reckoning

This was posted by Constant Duncan. It’s a ‘shop of Caveshen being an Amalur warrior. Notice the work on the title, on the top.

Link to thread.
 

4 — BioWare And Cavie Changing The World

The original image was posted by Kyle Shcultz where we took it upon ourselves to made it a Cavism. And Kyle thought of us when he saw the picture, so that’s quite cool.

Link to thread.
 

3 — Back To The Cavie

This was edited and posted by Anthony. Good old Anthony who does a bit of freelance work for eGamer in the United Kingdom. And yeah, that’s what happens when you go to the future — you turn into a Cavie.

Link to thread.

Hit up the next page for the last two entries.

The PlayStation Network will cease to exist on 8 February, 2012. In it’s place will be something new. Something called “Sony Entertainment Network” or “SEN” for short.

Actually, the PSN as we know it won’t cease to exist, and SEN isn’t new. It’s just a name change, that’s all.

Because it’s just a change of name, the PSN account you currently use will continue to exist with the same username and password. All your Trophies will be there too.

Don’t stress about it. The biggest change will be adapting your mind to say SEN instead of PSN.

Here’s the email sent to users on the network:

“On February 8, 2012, “PlayStation®Network accounts” will be renamed “Sony Entertainment Network accounts” or “SEN accounts”. This change will take effect at the same time as upcoming PlayStation®3 and PlayStation®Vita* system software updates. After you update the system software on your PS3™ or PS Vita , you will notice that “PlayStation®Network accounts” have been renamed “Sony Entertainment Network accounts”. This change will not affect the naming of “PlayStation®Network accounts” when viewed on a PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system. *PlayStation®Vita will launch from 22nd February, 2012.

This account change is a change in name only. You do not have to do anything and your username and password will not change.

This transition is based on Sony’s goal to enhance its unique digital entertainment offering. As a series of these activities Sony started last September, PlayStation®Network will be aligned with “Sony Entertainment Network”. This helps us get closer to our goal of establishing a global comprehensive network platform of services across games, movies, music and more, all accessible from one convenient account.

Your Sony Entertainment Network account also enables use of Sony’s non-game services such as Music Unlimited, Video Store of PlayStation®Store and PlayMemories Online (previously called Personal Space) across a variety of network-connected devices.

Thank you for your continued loyalty and support during this transition

For FAQs and more detail on this change please visit http://eu.playstation.com/support or http://en.support.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/

Sincerely,

The Sony Entertainment Network Team”

In 2009, eGamer started out with its first look and its first few articles. Being backed on nothing but passion the site grew from strength to strength, day-over-day. Today, February 4th, eGamer is three years old.

Earlier in the week I spoke about the site in a column, therefore I’m not going to reiterate points here.

What I would like to do, however, is thank each and every one of you for the support. To all the people who followed us from 2009, to everyone who started following us this week. It doesn’t matter if you’re a veteran or a n00b — we sincerely appreciate your love.

Our community has grown substantially over the past six months and interaction has become great. We love talking to you guys — and girls — in the comments and on Facebook and Twitter. Nothing is more exciting than your input, and to be honest, it really motivates us.

From here on out, we hope to get to know you better — and for you to know us better. After all, we wouldn’t be here without you.

Thank you for everything!

Have you been following Ghost Recon Future Soldier? Are you relatively excited about the game? Well, if you’ve said no to either of the two questions, then you seriously need to watch the trailer.

Future Soldier looks great, and not in a Call of Duty way. The game has all the stealth you’d ever want, in the day time, as well as new features to look into buildings and stuff like that. It’s really high-tech and tactical, it seems.

According to Ubisoft: “Ghost Recon Future Soldier will feature intense next-gen warfare action, prototype high-tech weaponry, and state-of-the-art single-player and multiplayer modes.”

The game will be out in May on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

No, this is not your daily report on how the seasons are staying the same this year. If you do not understand the whole “Winter Is Coming” thing, then you obviously haven’t watched one of the best series ever created. Game of Thrones may have been a huge success on TV, but its first entry into the gaming realm, Game of Thrones: Genesis, didn’t do as well.

Thankfully, we’re getting a proper Game of Thrones title. Not some half-assed, shitty RTS game, but a title into a genre that perfectly suits this series. Publishers Atlus have announced that the Game of Thrones RPG, developed by Cyanide Studios, will be hitting stores in May.

More specifically, May 15th. Mark that date, especially if you’re a fan of the series. The Game of Thrones RPG will be released for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Valve has announced planned updates for Team Fortress 2 for this year. The successful free-to-play game by Valve will see another Saxxy Wards ceremony and a Steam Workshop blog.

Following that, there will be a “Meet The” short for the Pyro as well as “something brand new”. The “something brand new” will be for the game, however it hasn’t been revealed just yet. But, we do know that the “new” isn’t a hat, or a map, or anything like that.

Just in case you haven’t seen the sort of gameplay to expect from Final Fantasy Versus XIII

This is not a wish list and this isn’t a list of features or mechanics we hope to see in Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Instead, this is a look at a couple of the features we are almost certain about the game, features we want done right. I like Final Fantasy XIII and know I’ll enjoy XIII-2 just as much, if not more. However, I think Versus XIII is something new, something different and a chance for Square Enix to evolve the entirety of the JRPG genre. So for that sake, and for the sake of Final Fantasy XIV, which will happen, we want Versus XIII to do well so that it excites that fire back in Square Enix. We want it to affect how Final Fantasy XIV is done and perhaps make Square Enix enough coin to fund remakes of Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX. I’m a long time fan and veteran of Final Fantasy and will be taking experience from previous titles and applying that to the features of Versus XIII.

1) Final Fantasy has always had some sort of statistic based level up system with which to improve characters. Final Fantasy XIII’s for example had a crystarium system, which while working well enough, never had much depth to it. That’s why we want a more complex, or at least a more in depth, level up and equipment system from Versus XIII. More than that though, it shouldn’t be overly convoluted and instead must be simple to learn but difficult to master. However, and even if it’s done right, the most important thing we’re looking for is a diversity of approaches and paths to level up. While it may seem it a bit silly to ask for the ability to separate your characters from your friends in a single player JRPG, despite everyone experiencing the exact same story, we still think it necessary. Previous Final Fantasy games were more replayable and gave a meaning to grinding because you could develop your own characters; independently catering to the strategies you have in mind. Final Fantasy XIII removed a lot of that by forcing everyone to take the same level up path. If Versus XII makes good on this and this alone, I know it’ll be a much better game for it.

2) A well designed level up system is all well and good but has no real point without a great battle mechanic to accompany it. Versus XIII is taking a more real time approach to battles, not dissimilar from Final Fantasy XII’s system. As such, we immediately know that for a magic system to work, it’s going to need some definite balancing. The reason is Final Fantasy XII, as real time as it was, eliminated almost any need for magic by making it slow and limiting in effectiveness. This time we want it relative from start to finish. Each character is also promised to have unique traits and abilities like (of who seems to be the main character) Nocturnis who is able to equip all weapon types. Or another character, as seen in the gameplay video, is able to aim with his weapon allowing for more precise and so I would assume critical hits. The final thing I would argue for is that the summon system be made more versatile and above all remain useful. That’s right, there is a summon system and I can’t wait to see if you get to directly control the each individual summon. Just make sure they don’t get too weak by the end of the game like you have done in other Final Fantasy games Square Enix.

3) Versus XIII has promised and shown a far more realistic atmosphere, set of characters and environments than ever done before. Above all else, the game seems a whole lot darker than we’ve been used to. That’s great and I love the experimentation with new plot styles and tones of story but Square Enix needs to keep it in check throughout. Like all JRPG’s, there will be some influence from anime and manga, this being the case, I don’t want Versus XIII to make the same mistake as many manga and anime series do; that is to be too dark too much of the time. At the end of the day, Final Fantasy is about overcoming an evil or obstacle and improving in the end. So keep this in mind Square Enix. Also, and knowing Final Fantasy has a habit of revealing weird and unrelated bosses near the end, please don’t just reveal some weird omniscient being at the end of the game; keep us guessing but not at the expense of story. Final Fantasy IX for example was very well done and sported a great story but the last boss had almost no relation to the game.

4) Joy of joys, a traversable map and airships are back, reminiscent of games before FFX; let’s hope they do it correctly. Just in case, we want areas not pertaining to the main story and that, like above, link to side missions and stories. Large open maps are great and providing vehicles to traverse them is a great sign of their size and hopefully scope as well as detail.

5) This final feature hasn’t been confirmed but we’re implying it from what we’ve seen. We want more choice, more options. I realise that JRPG’s and western RPG’s are a different breed and I want it to remain that way. I don’t believe that all RPG’s should be like Mass Effect and being told a story rather than shaping it has its appeal; I love Final Fantasy for being a story book. That doesn’t mean that we don’t want more to the world, more side stories and chances for the inquisitive player to learn more about their characters. Reward the extra effort and time spent by giving those players who have invested some love into the game. I don’t just mean bonus summons and ultimate weapons, although I sorely missed that from Final Fantasy XIII. I just want the kind of effort put into the gameplay and main story to be put into side stories. It’s the small things.

At the end of the day, and judging by the videos and screenshots we’ve seen, Final Fantasy Versus XIII is going to be one hell of a game. I just hope it does more than that, that it evolves and moves the JRPG genre onto a new level. I love western RPG’s but sometimes you just gotta give those JRPG’s some love

I have this one friend. His name is Justin, and he loves this band called Journey. More specifically, the song above, which he constantly plays over and over again. I always mock him about his one poor choice in music, but secretly, I actually love this song.

It’s got a vibe that just makes you want to do something. I can’t really describe what though, because I don’t fully understand it myself. It’s just got a special blend of 80′s music genius, and we want you to match it to a game this week.

Which game deserves some Journey love? Which title, from any day or age, needs this nugget of 80′s brilliance? Let us know your thoughts below, and please, listen to the song twice. You’ll thank me afterwards.

In a financials call regarding Grand Theft Auto V, Take-Two assured investors that the development is “making great progress.”

Many analysts are expecting the next game in Rockstar’s infamous series to release within Take-Two’s upcoming financial year — ending March 31, 2013 — but Take-Two has not addressed a release window just yet.

If said analysts are correct however, it would mean that GTA V would release during what is an increasingly crowded release schedule for the publisher.

So perhaps it’s a little iffy, but one can hope right?

That said, the important words to take from Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick are: “Grand Theft Auto V is making great progress.”

He went on to say that the game “promises to continue Rockstar’s incredible track record of delighting fans by raising the bar in interactive entertainment.”

Take that with a pinch of salt since this is of course a call to investors, so they would need to be sold on that in which they chug their money.

Still, it’s a pleasant reminder that GTA V is in fact coming, and we needn’t wait too long before it arrives.

The question is: Are you looking forward to a more serious GTA V or would you prefer a return to the GTA III roots of the modern series?

You know what I haven’t used in ages? Apart from the common sense to choose opening sentences that don’t contain innuendos regarding my sexual activity, that is. Ahem. Moving swiftly onwards, then, to what I was actually referring to — cheat codes. Think about it for a second — how long has it been since you saw, let alone used a cheat for a game that wasn’t from the Saints Row or GTA series? My guess would be quite a while.

I suppose I’m one of the last people out there to be consciously noticing the absence of cheats from games in my day-to-day life of gaming, but upon reflection I really start to appreciate just how absent cheats are from the games of today, and how large a facet of gaming cheats were in the formative years of my gaming career. It really is nothing short of impossible to look back on those days of Gameboy Colours, Socket 478 Pentium PCs and Playstation 2 at friends’ houses without stirring up memories like precariously balancing weighty objects on my ‘Shift’ and ‘F4′ keys in Zoo Tycoon and returning hours later to find myself rolling in enough cashola to use to turn my entire plot into a giant, acquatic, Shark vs Orca deathmatch arena, religiously spamming the gold cheat in Age of Mythology in order to raise a nation consisting entirely of minotaurs, or simply entering a convoluted combination of arrows and shapes into the pause menu of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 so that I could fly. These memories signify the moments and experiences which shaped my passion for gaming, and as you can certainly gather, cheats played a very large role in them.

It wasn’t and isn’t just me, either — I think it is pretty safe to say that cheats played a prominent role in gaming culture as a whole. Nerds the world over flocked to new magazines for their features on the newest cheats for their favourite games, cheats were the first thing you looked for when you bought a new game and I’m pretty confident that the presence of a particularly awesome cheat was often the motivating factor in a game purchase. There is next to no comparison between the situation of a few years ago which I just described and the status quo, however. You’d be hard pressed to find a game (exclusive of Saints Row, of course — we’ll get to that in a bit) that has cheats at all, let alone a magazine or online feature detailing various cheat codes. Cheats seem to have all but disappeared overnight, with what seems to be virtually no outcry from the general gaming community; the question I aim to answer in this column is that of why both of these things — the disappearance and the lack of outcry — have happened.

We shan’t get too ahead of ourselves, though — we are only five hundred words in — and so before we go about answering these questions, let’s take a brief look at the history and context of cheats in general.

Fun fact: The first cheat codes were actually used by play testers of games, to allow them to make the games as demanding as they could be for the system they were using. It was far easier for them to play test and find bugs when they weren’t limited by the conventional constraints of the games in question. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before consumers found out about these, and this, combined with the fact that many gamers were altering binary values and other important-sounding things like those to create their own cheats, resulted in developers deliberately adding cheats for consumer use.

As I’m sure we all know, cheats ranged from your run-of-the-mill God Mode and Bottomless Clip to the slightly more wacky alternative skins, bonus levels, and so on and so forth which could be unlocked through entering certain codes. My personal favourite was playing as Boba Fett in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater; that jet pack got me not only through the dark days, but some mother-trucking insane combos.

Anecdotes of awesomeness aside, the question remains: Why, when developers were willingly adding cheats to games (and didn’t really seem to have a problem with it, either) would there be such a sudden shift away from cheats?

As with most of my topics, the answer will consist of more than one paragraph. The first reason we should consider, though, is that we’ve seen the gaming industry mature from one based largely on less serious, arcade-style games to one based very much on games which try to deal with serious issues, try to be more emotionally engaging with the player and seem to, on the whole, take themselves more seriously as well. I actually think that it is really awesome that we’ve reached a point in the gaming industry where developers are able to take a stand and say, “We’re proud of the work we’ve put in and what we’ve created; we want this to be an experience that immerses and connects with the player. We love fun as much as the next guy, but we don’t want aspects like cheats to ruin the atmosphere we’re trying to create.” Developers, it would seem, are taking the burden upon themselves more and more to create an entertaining experience, and as such want to be recognised for what they do. That, to me, sounds like something that can only benefit the gaming industry.

There is another, quite easily overlooked reason, however, which I think also aids us in answering the question of why gamers don’t have an issue with the removal of cheats from games. This is simply that many things, specifically unlockables, which were made available by cheats are still available in the game; you just have to do something for it, first. Complete a set challenge, achieve ‘x’ amount of headshots or finish a race in a set time and you get a reward for it — the same sort of reward you would have once simply entered a succession of characters to attain. Making unlockables attainable through challenges instead of cheat codes benefits both the developers and the consumers, in my book, so I’m certainly in support of this shift.

Producers are benefited because they have the ability to market their product as a more worthwhile or complete package — not only do you get an amazingly immersive storyline, but there are over 200 rabbit’s tails to collect, and when you get them all you get a special move called the ‘Chicken Dance’ which knocks all of your enemies out and triples your score multiplier. Or something. Whatever reward they choose, it all acts as more bait which they can tout to entice gamers into buying their product.

Consumers benefit because there is a far greater accomplishment associated with completing a challenge than with simply entering a code — if you unlock that Spiderman skin now, it is because you earned it, not because you read about it in a magazine. That makes the game a lot more rewarding and thus, a lot more enjoyable. And I’m a huge fan of enjoyable games.

Given this last reason — that of how unlockables are still available, and are, in fact, more rewarding once attained — it becomes a lot easier to see why the downfall of cheats hasn’t really been mourned.

Unless I missed a pretty big memo somewhere along the line, that is.

Having said all of this, though, I can’t help but feel that an ‘unlimited mana’ cheat can’t have done too much harm in Skyrim. Granted, there is probably a mod for that, but hey — I’m lazy.

Sad news from THQ has revealed that Metro: Last Light, the sequel to Metro 2033, has been delayed.

Metro: Last Light was originally scheduled for a third-quarter release this year, however it’s not ready yet. During an investor meeting, THQ noted that 4A Games said that they would need a little bit of time to polish the title.

Following this, THQ CEO Brian Farrell said that the company will focus heavily on the new title. According to Farrell, when Last Light is ready for release, THQ will double the original title’s marketing budget.

Metro 2033, from 2010, was widely popular despite being quite unknown. And THQ realised this too late.

With the news of doubling the marketing budget, as well as releasing three years after, 4A Games could be creating something really great. And with the change of name to Last Light, there’s a chance that it might not even be a follow-on from 2033.

Finally, Metro: Last Light will be delayed until 2013 where it will be polished and, hopefully, ready to play.