Dead Space 3 Release Date Announced

EA has announced that Dead Space 3 will come out for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Europe on February 8th and in the US on February 5th.Visceral also took to the stage at EA's press conference to reveal that weapons crafting, one of the most requested features, will appear in the franchise's third installment. Isaac will scavenge for materials and be able to make new instruments of death at workbenches. Imagine a rivet chain-gun combined with a grenade launcher or a plasma gun combined with a scope. All the better to kill necromorphs with.

Visceral is even asking fans of the series to get creative, and enter their own combinations in its 'Tools of Terror' competition at www.deadspace.com. The winner will not only see their weapon in the final game but also their likeness as a non-playable character. EA has also announced that the Dead Space 3: Limited Edition will give players access to two bundles. Each contains an "advanced suit" and a "devastating new weapon". The "First Contact" Bundle contains EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity), which was built by SCAF as they began to make contact with 'foreign entities'. According to the press release, "it sports a flamboyant golden finish to provide protection from long-term space exposure and thick armour for… unspecified reasons." The bundle will also contain the Negotiator weapon; originally a scientific the Negotiator boats a Tesla Beam "capable of bursting a man-sized organism into several pieces with a single shot." The "Witness the Truth" Bundle includes the eponymous Witness suit, designed for the SCAF deep dig team stationed on the ice planet. It will also include the Evangeliser weapon, which "sports a souped-up AL-2g assault rifle on the top with an Emerson 2100 "Big Boy" tactical shotgun on the bottom". Both the suit and weapon are covered in same strange markings which adorned the SCAF deep dig when they emerged from the icy depths of Tau Volantis. Both of these weapons will serve as "initial blueprints for the millions of permutations" possible in Dead Space 3.

Game Details

Dead Space 3

Published by: Electronic Arts

Developed by: Visceral Games

Genre: Third-Person Action

Release Date:

United States: February 5, 2013

Australia: February 15, 2013

UK: February 8, 2013

RP-M+ for Rating Pending, Targeting a Rating of Mature or Above

Also Available On: PS3, Xbox 360

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Counter-Strike Global Offensive review (PSN): Striking the right chord

Release Date: August 22
Platforms available on: 360, PS3, PC
Developer: Hidden Path
Publisher: Valve
Genre: First-person shooter

Valve's Counter-Strike has ruled the roost in the tactical shooter field since the concept was derived from Half-Life more than a decade ago, but it's never translated particularly well to home consoles. Much has changed since the days of the original Xbox, and the studio has applied what it has learned in that time to make the Counter-Strike title console gamers always dreamed of.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive marks the biggest leap forward for the series since Counter-Strike: Source overhauled the formula in 2004. It will feel like a change of pace to many PlayStation 3 owners, particularly those who popped their first-person shooter cherry with the likes of Call of Duty.

There are no kill streaks, respawns, or regenerative health bars to be found here. In some ways, the game feels heavily streamlined, but true depth lies in the rich, strategic gameplay and delicate balance at its core.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive peddles the same basic concept as the original, pitting a team of terrorists against counter-terrorists in hostage or bomb disposal situations. Teams secure victory by either eliminating the opposition, or satisfying mission objectives, such as detonating a bomb for the terrorists, or liberating the hostages if you are one of the good guys.

Matches take place over a series of rounds, and once a player perishes, they must wait until the next round before they can play again. Completing objectives and racking up kills earns you money, which can be spent on weapons and armour ahead of each round. All players start out on an equal footing, packing only a handgun and knife at the start of a game.

Having said that, first timers certainly won't feel like things are equal. The Counter-Strike series is backed by one of the most dedicated communities around, so newbies are in for a rough ride. A handy weapons tutorial is available to bring players up to speed on the basics, but plenty of practise in the offline bots mode is recommended before jumping into a game.

Counter-Strike Global Offensive has been built from the ground up, but the underlying principles haven't changed since day one, handing series veterans a greater advantage than usual. Two new modes of play - Arms Race and Demolition - bend the rules slightly by rewarding players with new weapons for meeting certain conditions. These come loaded with some new maps, but players are limited the same ones as before in the core modes. Perhaps Valve is withholding them for future DLC? It's a game built with the fanbase firmly in mind. Anyone familiar with Counter-Strike will know that it's all about strategy. Every bullet you fire must be carefully measured, as landing that headshot could be the difference between felling your opponent and being nailed to the wall by a volley of return fire.

Teamwork is equally imperative, whether covering one of your advancing squadmates as they diffuse a bomb or deriving strength from numbers. It's a game that rewards time invested in a more meaningful way than dishing out bigger weapons and stat enhancements. The more you play, the more you'll become accustomed to the kind of tactical manoeuvres that are effective, making for a more gratifying experience. Naturally, Valve and developer Hidden Path have given the game a facelift befitting of the current generation. It's Counter-Strike at its most polished, but the new aesthetics don't impact on the mechanics at its heart. This is still the game players fell in love with all those years ago, even if the layout of some of the classic maps has been tweaked somewhat. The developers haven't attempted to reinvent the wheel here, but some of the subtle refinements improve the experience dramatically. The matchmaking system has been finetuned in a way that's mutually beneficial to veterans and and newcomers alike, and the way the game has been optimised for home consoles without dilution will surely please the diehards.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive plays perfectly well with the PlayStation controller. PS Move is supported, and while it works well, its adoption only makes an already unforgiving game all the more challenging. For those raised on the PC iterations, the thought of playing with anything other than keyboard and mouse is nothing short of blasphemy, so it's a good job these inputs are available to PS3 players. It's a swings and roundabouts situation in the sense that the definitive control method very much depends on how you are used to tackling first-person shooters. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive neither deviates from or significantly alters the principles the series is built upon, making it a fan-pleasing edition to the fold. Valve and Hidden Path have optimised the formula for the console generation without alienating its core fanbase, and that is an achievement for which they should be applauded.

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"Angry Birds," "Angry Birds Space" Coming to Windows 8

             Rovio's popular games "Angry Birds" and "Angry Birds Space" will be available for Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 when the OS ships on Oct. 26.
The games will be available through the Games app in Windows 8, and also through the Windows Store, Microsoft said in a Windows Team blog entry.
Halfbrick Studios' "Fruit Ninja" is another popular game that will be available at the time of the Windows 8 release. Microsoft's blog has a full list of the games that will be available for Windows 8. Some of the games also work on the Xbox console. Of the 40 games, 29 are from Microsoft Studios.
The company did not say if the games would work on Windows RT, which is for tablets and PCs running on ARM processors. Microsoft is also pushing for the development of Web-based HTML5 games, which will take advantage of graphics processors inside computers.
"Amazing Alex," also from Rovio, is not on the list. It is available on Apple's iOS and Google's Android OSes.

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'PES 2013' preview: A true title contender

PES has endured its fair share of misfortune in recent years, so it's oddly fitting that 2013 may prove to be the year its luck changes. With PES 2013, Konami is ringing in the changes in a bid to knock FIFA off the top of the virtual video game league.

This year's installment introduces new ways to dribble, shoot, pass and defend, improvements that make for a much more fluid game. Big changes have also been made to the AI, while Player ID ensures that top footballers are more realistically represented in the game.

We spent some time with the new PES, hitting the training ground and playing a few warm-up matches and tournaments ahead of this autumn's release.

Ringing in the changes

Like a football team preparing for a brand new season, the PES 2013 experience begins on the training ground. Although visually similar to previous releases, there's a real sense of change, with tens of new techniques, tricks and skills to master.

Long passes zip across the field, replacing floating balls of old; the slightly shuffled dribbling of PES 2012 is no more, making way for faster, smoother ball control. Techniques such as sideways dribbling make it easier to hold the ball up, while quick-footed switches give your attacker a better chance of bypassing an oncoming defender.

Undoubtedly some of the biggest improvements have been made to the shooting, increasing the required level of accuracy, but offering a plethora of new ways to hit the perfect shot. Holding one of the trigger buttons brings up a handy manual directional arrow, holding another sees you nutmeg the keeper, while tapping the shot button for a second time before making contact lets the attacker unleash an absolute screamer.

PES 2013 releases this October for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, PS2, PSP, Nintendo 3DS and Wii.

source - digitalspy  

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PlanetSide 2 - Death is No Excuse Trailer

Sony Online Entertainment and Blur Studios have put together a new CGI trailer for the upcoming MMOFPS ‘PlaneSide 2′. The trailer was debuted at ChinaJoy 2012 but you can watch it below.

 

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Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (Upcoming Game)

Master Chief returns in Halo 4, part of a new trilogy in the colossal Halo universe.
Set almost five years after the events of Halo 3, Halo 4 takes the series in a new direction and sets the stage for an epic new sci-fi saga, in which the Master Chief returns to confront his destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe. Halo 4 also introduces a new multiplayer offering, called Halo Infinity Multiplayer, that builds off of the Halo franchise's rich multiplayer history. The hub of the Halo 4 multiplayer experience is the UNSC Infinity – the largest starship in the UNSC fleet that serves as the center of your Spartan career. Here you’ll build your custom Spartan-IV supersoldier, and progress your multiplayer career across all Halo 4 competitive and cooperative game modes.

Release Date: November 6, 2012

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

Developer: 343 Industrie

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Official Full-length Trailer 

source - ign

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Ridge Racer Unbounded review: A series reboot that's slow off the grid

By Ben Griffin for CVG UK

Ridge Racer and developers Bugbear are a perfect match. They're both behind a tradition of racers that don't quite hit their mark. Bugbear's FlatOut chipped a glass ceiling that Burnout 3 was busy smashing to bits, and Ridge Racer is a much-loved series that, arguably, now belongs to a different time.
This Year One revision attempts to shake things up but, in truth, the combination of developer and series makes for an uninspired mix. There are Split Second-style roadside detonations (here more fuel truck than multi-storey building), slow-mo takedown events ? la Hot Pursuit (cars flip and fly, but weightlessness renders them more like crisp packets), and - just to remind you you're playing Ridge Racer - drift events.
It certainly doesn't look like Ridge Racer, though. Attempts at modernising a series predominantly at home on green valley-set motorways that tear through waterfalls and under swooping helicopters are refreshing, but Bugbear didn't need to ditch the iconography entirely. The action is now set in a urban sprawl called Shatter Bay, a dense megapolis low on space and high on muscle cars.
It's large enough to make a varied setting, but it doesn't achieve it. You'll race through industrial areas and speed downtown, and then through an industrial area, and then downtown again. Different time periods and weather effects are something, at least, and the gritty concrete-meets-neon aesthetic looks good in places, but it's nowhere near Forza, Burnout Paradise, or Dirt. Shiny and angular sports cars only have exterior and hood cams, and look positively flimsy compared with other racers' more robust rides. And at night, everything is orange. Everything.

So, the setting falls flat. Worse, however, is the speed. In a cardinal sin for an arcade racer, Unbounded is slow. Something's wrong when instead of gripping your controller with white-knuckle glee, veering away from incoming traffic and using every available second to plan and battle and correct approaching angles, you're looking at your watch while a corner listlessly coasts into view. Your internal monologue is less, "Omg omg omg" and more, "I supposed I should start turning left in a bit". You feel like you're waiting for the game to catch up to you. In a racer, it should be the other way around.



View the original article here

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Jet Set Radio Coming to iOS and Android Devices

We already knew that Jet Set Radio was getting an HD release for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC download but now Sega have announced that there will also be versions for the iPad, iPhone and Android devices.


“Jet Set Radio for iOS and Android includes the same slick gameplay, genre-blending soundtrack, and pioneering art style as the other versions alongside new features like OpenFeint and Retina display support and the awesome ability to use pictures taken with your phone or tablet’s camera as in-game graffiti! Traverse Shibuya terminal on the train, silence the Love Shockers on your lunch break, blast through Benten-cho while boarding a bus and upload achievements to Facebook while riding a ferry; Jet Set Radio will be a dream come true for portable gamers everywhere!” Sega said in a press release today.
Are you as excited as I am for a re-release of Jet Set Radio? Now, if only they would give us the exact release date. Check out the mobile version gallery below:


View the original article here

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Amazing Spider-man review: Spidey's best yet - but Batman can rest easy

By Ben Griffin for CVG UK
Every superhero has a power that developers need to nail. For Green Lantern it's the ability to construct literally anything imaginable - understandably, this is hard, and that's why there are no good Green Lantern games.

For Superman it's being an invincible ultra-being who's also morally perfect - again, developers struggle with that one. Batman needs to be vulnerable in light and powerful in darkness - a hard task, but one Rocksteady were more than up to in Arkham's Asylum and City. The lesson? Nail the power and you nail the game.
With The Amazing Spider-Man, Beenox have been wrapping their minds around the concept for the better part of two years - double that of their previous games Web of Shadows and Shattered Dimensions. And it shows. What's the first thing gamers do when a new Spider-Man game drops? They head to New York's tallest building, drink in the skyline, then jump right off. That's what being Spider-Man's about, and getting it right is imperative.
And Beenox fundamentally have. Web-swinging's been built from the ground up, a close third-person camera used to eye-watering effect as it blurs and shakes behind. You all but need goggles to keep out the bug splats. It's a more cinematic experience making last-gen's Spider-Man 2 franchise-high feel coldly detached by comparison.
Like Treyarch's 2004 gem, webs stick to buildings rather than vague spots in the sky. You'll hold the right trigger to swing automatically, and though it feels a little hands-off in comparison, skill comes from rhythmically releasing the button to swing at different heights, speeds and angles.
It's wildly balletic but still follows physics; find yourself without anything to swing on and you won't swing. That's where Web Rushing comes in, and the new technique revolutionises the wall-crawler's moves. Hold RB/R1 to momentarily freeze time, pick a spot on the scenery, then release.
When time starts you'll get there in the most extravagant way possible - across hoods of cars, over radio masts and around flag poles. You can pick objects in the immediate area, or distant shapes down long avenues to which you'll automatically chain together movie-quality moves to reach.

 Again, some might accuse it of wrestling control from the player, but for those lacking the reaction times of a superhero it's essential in communicating superhuman speed and agility. It's impossible to be Spider-Man in realtime; Web Rushing's the workaround.
View the original article here

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Assassin's Creed lll (Upcoming Game)

  Set against the backdrop of the American Revolution in the late 18th century, Assassin's Creed III introduces a new hero, Ratohnhaké:ton, of Native American and English heritage. Adopting the name Connor, he becomes the new voice for justice in the ancient war between the Assassins and Templars. Players become an Assassin in the war for liberty against ruthless tyranny in the most stylized and fluid combat experiences in the franchise to date. Assassin's Creed III spans the Revolutionary War, taking gamers from the vibrant, untamed frontier to bustling colonial towns and the intense, chaotic battlefields where George Washington's Continental Army clashed with the imposing British Army.

Assassin's Creed III, Release date - October 30, 2012

Genre: Action

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developers: Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Annecy

Watch Trailer

source - ign

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New Game: The Secret World

                                           A massively multiplayer online role–playing game, The Secret World takes place on our earth, in our times, and yet is a tale of mythology and ancient mysteries. For there really is a world within ours, a secret world, where magic exists, monsters roam and ancient forces are fighting for the dominance of earth. It is a world of legendary stories, ageless conflicts and powerful cabals. In this world, even modern cities hide secrets. In this world, players can take part in the greatest conspiracies of our age, and battle the forces of darkness across the world and throughout time.

source - ign

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New Hitman: Absolution

                                     The original assassin has returned in HITMAN ABSOLUTION, taking the player on a very different and personal journey. Showcasing IO Interactive’s new proprietary Glacier 2™ technology. HITMAN ABSOLUTION combines the much loved classic gameplay with completely new and exciting features for the Hitman franchise.

The developers have confirmed that Absolution will be aimed at a wider audience than earlier. It will be easier to play and more accessible, but still retain a very strong, hardcore side as well.. It has been set for a 20 November 2012 release.

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