It's LucasArts Week on Steam

Fire up Steam today and you'll see an offer for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Ultimate Sith Edition for $7.50 . That sounds about right for that game - while you do get to run around as a lightsaber-wielding, Force Lightning-throwing C-3PO, you also have to endure a bajillion quicktime events and loading screens just to get to the pause menu.

get to run around as a lightsaber-wielding, Force Lightning-throwing C-3PO, you also have to endure a bajillion quicktime events and loading screens just to get to the pause menu. (And then there's the matter of the gargantuan 25GB install - have fun with that download.) There's a promise of a new deal every day this week, and most of the Star Wars back catalog can be had for a mere $50.

I'd love to see the Monkey Island Special Edition remakes go on sale sometime this week. That's not to say that $20 is too much to pay for the best of Guybrush Threepwood, but a knocking a few bucks off that price would make me feel like a mighty pirate pillaging booty.

Now you can pay £32 to unlock everything in Battlefield 3

The huge 1.5GB Battlefield 3 PC patch has arrived, bringing tons of balance changes, bug fixes and new, paid-for "shortcut boxes." These will let players pay to get hold of unlocks like weapons, attachments and vehicle add-ons without having to level up.

According to the Battlefield blog, the bundles are supposed to be available on Origin now, though they don't seem to on there yet here in the UK. When the collection does go live, it'll include a Kit Shortcut bundle that "immediately unlocks all items unique to the four playable classes," a Vehicle Shortcut Bundle that unlocks all items for all vehicles, and the "Ultimate Bundle" which unlocks "all items from all other available shortcut packs," which is basically everything.

Each class kit can be unlocked separately, as well. The Battlefield sitehas a rundown of the prices for each kit. A class kit costs £5.49 / $6.99, the Ultimate bundle costs £31.99 / $39.99, eight pounds less than the full game.

There's plenty of good stuff in the patch notes, including improved minimaps, cleaner vaulting, faster movement from prone to standing, vehicle horns and dozens and dozens of tweaks to weapon balance, but it's overshadowed somewhat by these shortcut kits, which will be infuriating to players who have put in the many hours needed to unlock that gear.

Of course, new players who haven't played many games won't have a clue how to use some of Battlefield 3's more complex gadgets, so these microtransactions probably won't upset the balance of the game too much. But still, grrrr. What do you think?

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Disney and EA teaming up to make use of the Star Wars licence

Things got a little scary after Disney bought out LucasFilm last year, acquiring the rights to all of LucasArts' games before shutting down the studio for good.

for good. What would become of classics like Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, and Knights of the Old Republic? Well, we've got our first development—the House of Mouse has signed a deal with EAto develop and publish games based on the Star Wars licence.

EA intends to build Star Wars games for "all interactive platforms and the most popular game genres." According to EA Labels President Frank Gibeau, powerhouse studios DICE and Visceral will be joining BioWare in their work on the franchise. "The new experiences we create may borrow from films," he says, "but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay."

This comes as good news, kind of, to those who worried about Disney's focus on mobile gaming (one such worrier being Ron Gilbert, Monkey Island creator, himself). With three of the world's top studios named, we can be fairly certain that their talent will be working on some pretty large-scale games, and we might even see something equaling the greatness of 2003's Knights of the Old Republic.

BioWare's latest, however, wasn't exactly an instant success—Star Wars: The Old Republic adopted a free-to-play modelnot even a year after its release. I do wonder if there's a bit of fatigue around the franchise—is there a limit to the number of Star Wars games we can play before wookies and ewoks become tiresome?

Unfortunately, there's no word on what Disney will be doing with other licences such as Monkey Island, so we'll have to be content with this Star Wars news for now.

PopCap killing off Baking Life, not offering refunds or exchanges for customers' money

Probably not, but that's not the point.

Are you one of thedaily users who enjoy creating recipes, baking goods, hiring your friends, and serving customers each day?

Probably not, but that's not the point. PopCap are closing down Baking Lifeat the end of January, and any "Zip Cash" bought with real-life money will be erased from existence.

I've never baked a virtual cake via the Baking Life app, but that PopCap aren't offering any exchange or refund option sets an ugly precedent for the value of microtransactions and gamer's rights. As pointed out in the screenshot below, PopCap seem keen to redirect players to alternative Facebook titles, but don't seem so keen on converting player's funds.

Those 100,000 daily players seems like a lot, especially when the most popular game on Steam right now is Counter-Strike, with 56, 776 active users. But when you compare those figures to the 8.6 million players who log into Cityvilleevery day, you begin to understand the monstrous scale of Facebook gaming.

There's also a huge cost involved in running these games, from operating the game's servers to providing customer support. But that's very little comfort to gamers whose money is about to vanish.

I visited the Baking Life Terms and Conditionspage for clarity. Handily, the relevant parts were capitalised:

"ZIPZAPPLAY RESERVES THE RIGHT TO DETERMINE IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION THE PAYMENT METHODS WHICH MAY BE USED BY YOU TO PURCHASE VIRTUAL ITEMS AND VIRTUAL CURRENCY, AND HOW, WHEN AND FOR WHAT PRODUCTS OR SERVICES VIRTUAL ITEMS AND VIRTUAL CURRENCY MAY BE REDEEMED. IN ADDITION, ZIPZAPPLAY MAY MODIFY, ELIMINATE OR DISCONTINUE VIRTUAL ITEMS, VIRTUAL CURRENCY OR OTHER BAKING LIFE APP SPECIAL FEATURES ENTIRELY AS IT SEES FIT."

EA's general terms and conditionsreads similarly, abeit a bit less shouty:

"We do not guarantee that any Content or Entitlement will be available at all times, in all countries and/or geographic locations, or at any given time or that we will continue to offer particular Content or Entitlements for any particular length of time. We reserve the right to change and update Content and Entitlements without notice to you. Once you have redeemed your Entitlements, that content is not returnable, exchangeable, or refundable for other Entitlements or for cash, or other goods or services."

It's worth noting that other game's terms and conditions have the same clause, including League of Legend's Terms of Use, but this is the first time we've heard of a company using these condiitions to delete player's money. PopCap were bought by EAlate last year.

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Disney closes LucasArts, holds onto affected licenses

Disney sent a tremor through the Force today with the announcement that it's closing developer LucasArts and halting all projects.

Game Informerreports the entertainment giant is shifting the company it bought last year "from internal development to a licensing model" as well as laying off the majority of its staff.

Though LucasArts' more recent releases flagged in quality due to shaky leadership, the studio is best remembered in PC gaming circles by its fantastic '90s adventure lineup and early '00s Star Wars greats. It's easy to rattle off some of its bests: Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dark Forces, Battlefront, and plenty more. And though Disney still keeps ownership of those and the rest of LucasArts' remaining properties, it's unknown how the House of Mouse plans to license them.

Only a Sith deals in absolutes, after all, and we still have a possibility of seeing a different developer take up the mantle of LucasArts' legacy.

Diablo 3 beta preview

This preview originally appeared in PC Gamer UK issue 231.

A few months ago I was at Blizzard headquarters, where I found out that Diablo III will let players buy and sell items for real cash, forbids mods, and will only be playable online. The news was pretty bad, bad, and very bad respectively. And yet I ended up leaving the building more excited about the game than I ever have been – because I played it.

For most, I think these bizarre rules will end up as an inconvenience. But Diablo III is a game worth being inconvenienced for. It remains a brisk and kill-happy action RPG, but the classes are now powerful and exciting in a way that they simply haven't been before, and how you set about developing them has been altered in an extraordinary way.

What's gone is actually one of my most distinctive memories of Diablo II: the agony of deciding where to spend a newly gleaned skill point. Skill points are now a thing of the past. Rather than developing one particular configuration of a class over dozens of hours, Diablo III lets you try out every possible build of that class at every level.

Each time you level up, you get a new skill for your class. But you can't equip them all at once: you start with two skill slots, which steadily expand to six by level 24. At any time, you can choose which skills to fit into those slots. These are then the ones that you can make use of in battle, via the mouse buttons or hotkeys.

Because there's no cost for changing which skills you put in these slots, you're free to try out every possible configuration. You never commit to anything: if you reach level 60 focusing your Witch Doctor purely on curses and poisons, you can switch over to an all-pets build and be just as good with it as if you'd been using it all along.

You no longer upgrade skills by pumping extra points into them. Instead, each skill can be fitted with one Runestone, and each type of Runestone has a different effect on each skill. I still haven't had a chance to try this myself: the build I played, the beta, is part of the opening chapter, before you find any of these. But lead designer Jay Wilson showed me how the Wizard, usually a long-range class, could be turned into an unstoppable melee monster by subverting six different skills with various Runestones.

Skill Runestones may end up being one choice you do commit to, in a way. The idea Blizzard are now toying with is that when you put one into a skill, it will become 'attuned' to that skill. You can still remove it freely at any time, but the Runestone won't work in any other skills. That way, you can't try every possibility as soon as you find one Runestone, but you can always go back to a combination you tried and liked.

The beta takes you from the start of the game to about level nine: a quest through the rebuilt town of Tristram, the surrounding fields, and the randomly generated depths of the town's cathedral – Diablo III is set in a far fantasy world where having a cathedral does not qualify you as a city. Tristram has been rebuilt from the ruin it was in Diablo II, only to be hit by a meteor that immediately starts bringing the dead back to life. Return from the dead once, shame on you. Return from the dead three times, shame on the anti-cremation lobbyists.

When I played it through as the Monk, it was with a Witch Doctor friend. The Monk is a martial artist, and mystic forces enhance his blows. My favourite skill was Deadly Reach: a three-hit combo in which every jab and swipe is extended with a magical shockwave that lets you hit a whole line of enemies in front of you. It added a level of smallscale tactics to every fight that I got hooked on: filtering enemies into queues, blinding them with an area of effect spell to keep them still, then shredding them with the vicious snapping of my skinny limbs.

Once I had three slots, a teleport and a heal skill, I shelved the blinding one to take both. I'd zap in to the fray, punch spikes of damage through the fleshy throngs of undead, then zap out to my Witch Doctor accomplice and heal us both. The Monk doesn't feel like any class I've played in Diablo before – not even the, er, Monk (in Hellfire, the expansion for the original). He's ferociously fast, and his moves chain in sequences rather than simply repeating, giving them a sense of flow.

Some skills even twist that rhythm to add strategy: the first blow of The Way of a Hundred Fists lets you leap into a group of enemies, the next hits them rapidly, and the final one creates an actual explosion – before looping back to the leap attack. Later on, the Monk can cast huge glyphs on the ground that bounce enemies out of their radius, and prevent them from entering again – much like the Protoss Forcefields in StarCraft II.

While I was punching through three zombies at once, my Witch Doctor friend was spitting poison from a blow dart and summoning undead dogs, frogs and spiders. He also used Grasping Dead, a spell that makes zombie arms rise from the ground to injure and slow enemies, and I'd then make use of my roundhouse kick to knock them right back into it when they escaped.

When I tried the Witch Doctor for myself, I really liked his devious style. He has to hang back while his hideous creatures go to work, and cast curses and area effect spells to swing the battle in their favour. He only dips into the fray to pick off priority targets such as bosses: like most classes, he can use lots of different weapon types, and the damage he can do is significant.

The Witch Doctor's best skill in the early levels: he summons a tiny Fetish Shaman who wanders around turning random enemies into chickens.

I also played the beta through as a Wizard, in co-op with a Demon Hunter. The slot system was relevant almost immediately: pretty soon I unlocked the Diamond Armour skill, which makes you invulnerable for a time. You'll always want to try a new skill when you get it, but in my case Diamond Armour didn't last long enough to be of use to me. If I'd been struggling with this section, it would have been worth a slot to get me out of a scrape: you can no longer spam potions to survive in Diablo III. Later, as the game hopefully gets tougher, it's the kind of skill I might want to slot back in. New situations and other new skills often make a discarded one useful once again.

Instead I focused on damage and crowd control. I'd run into large groups of enemies, cast Frost Nova to freeze them solid, then hit them with the shotgun-like Charged Bolt spell while my Demon Hunter friend helped out by pelting them from a distance. It was incredibly satisfying. The Wizard flings her spells like they're physical objects – most setups I tried involved crackling electricity pouring out of her.

Dishonored - Creative Kills trailer

Dishonored has been making it known that the way it will be played is completely up to the player. The small "sandbox" style levels and plethora of abilities, weapons, and gadgets lend themselves to experimentation. Combining these abilities, weapons and gadgets allow players to come up some creative ways of taking down guards - with some of those being absolutely brutal. Watch the latest Dishonored trailer below as it shows off the more creative ways to kill. A lot of those ways involve a whole lot of rats. Dishonored will hit stores on October 9 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Topics Action Dishonored Dishonored We recommend By Zergnet Load Comments

Obsidian pitching Star Wars RPG set between episodes III and IV

“I would say it's within the top three pitches we've ever come up with,” Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart told RPS , describing Obsidian's pitch for a new Star Wars game set between the end of the recent trilogy and the start of A New Hope.

"We think that timeframe is super interesting," he added. "It's the fall of the Republic, the extermination of the Jedi, it's Obi-Wan going off and making sure Luke is OK. You have the Sith, but you have the extermination of all Force users except for very, very few. So it was an interesting time to set a game, and you know, Chris Avellone came up with a really cool story.”

Urquhart described how Obsidian condensed their ideas into a pithy eight page pitch and almost lured Lucasarts in. "We sold it off to LucasArts and got a call back later that day. They were like, 'This seems really cool. We want to talk to you guys, like, tomorrow about it.'”

But it's Disney's decision to make these days. "We haven't [talked with Disney yet]. We're kind of waiting for the smoke to clear. But that's one of my next big things to do. To kind of go over there and [get the ball rolling again].”

A lot happens between films three and four. The Jedi fled Sith kill squads, the Empire strengthened their grip on the Galaxy, and Luke Skywalker learned how to walk and talk without pooing and vomiting indiscriminately. I wonder which aspects of that era Obsidian will focus on?

CCP talk long-term success: "We're trying to make a game to achieve a different purpose"

CCP senior producer, John Lander, might be one of the newest additions to the EVE Online development team, but he's already got real insight into why the space MMO is still so popular.

CCP senior producer, John Lander, might be one of the newest additions to the EVE Online development team, but he's already got real insight into why the space MMO is still so popular. Remember, EVE Online has been alive for over nine years, and subscriber numbers have never dropped. Jon says that CCP's motivations might be different than those of other MMO developers who might target new subscribers more aggressively.

By contrast, CCP differentiate themselves before you've even signed up, warning new players that: "The learning curve is steep. The bar to excel is high."

"We're trying to build this virtual world," says Jon. "And the virtual world has meaning for the people who are in it... we're not trying to achieve super subscriber numbers or whatever. Don't get me wrong, that obviously translates into money, which enables us to do this: this grand vision, this grand design that we're playing at."

Dishonored gameplay walkthrough - Take a stealthy or violent approach

Dishonored boasts the ability for the player to choose exactly how their assassinations are accomplished. Be a ghost-in-the-shadows without catching the notice of any of the guards or combine your supernatural powers to brutally dismember any opposition. The choice between the two or any option in between is yours. Catch a glipse of both ends of the spectrum where the developers walk through the Golden

GameFly End of the World sale chops 75 percent off XCOM, Witcher 2, others

When facing the end of time as we know it through a cataclysmic prophecy, it's time for a sale to mark history's end with a bang.

When facing the end of time as we know it through a cataclysmic prophecy, it's time for a sale to mark history's end with a bang. To wit, GameFly's End of the Worldevent nixes 75 percent off select titles for the next 12 days, providing valuable buys such as a $15/£9 Witcher 2, a $25/£15.50 XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and $12.50/£8 for The Walking Dead, among others.

More games will appear throughout the sale's duration, but current offerings include Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for $2.50/£1.60, Batman: Arkham Asylum for $10/£6, and Crysis for $7.50/£4.70.

If you haven't yet taken shelter in your fallout bunkercheered at the increasing arrival of awesome holiday sales, Origin's Green Mondaysale are still around for just one more day with 40 percent off on tons of noteworthy titles such as Battlefield 3 ($24/£15), Crusader Kings II ($24/£15), and The Sims 3 ($18/£11). Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a couple of asteroid-repelling planks to board up.

EVE Online TV series and Dark Horse comic to be based on players' true stories

After a decade of space simulation, EVE Online's giant server has seen some dramatic shenanigans.

After a decade of space simulation, EVE Online's giant server has seen some dramatic shenanigans. Players have committed murder, espionage, treason, theft, and fraud, and fleet after fleet of internet spaceships have been spectacularly blown to bits in massive wars. EVE's story is written by player actions, and is now literally being written by players on EVE's True Storiessubmission site, which CCP announced today will be used for a Dark Horse comic book and eventual TV series to be directed by Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur.

Player story submissions will first inspire the 64-page comic to be released this winter. "EVE: True Stories" will include four stories written and illustrated by four different author and artist pairs brought together by Dark Horse Comics. The digital edition will be available free.

Regarding the TV series, CCP is still in early development, but we know Baltasar Kormákur, whose recent filmsinclude 2 Guns, The Deep, and Contraband, is on board to direct.

Earlier today I briefly chatted with CCP VP of Business Development Thor Gunnarsson to extract a few more details about how the developer plans to fictionalize true stories from a fictional universe—not easily, one expects.

PC Gamer: This announcement really highlights what you have here—EVE is a sort of story-generation machine.

Thor Gunnarsson: Hilmar [CEO of CCP] often calls it an infinity storytelling machine, and it is exactly that. There are endless events and shenanigans and just epic drama in EVE, and now beginning to happen in Dust. It's inspirational to us, as developers. We think we can really amplify and augment these stories hopefully to millions of viewers and readers.

Do you have a favorite story?

It has to be Murder Incorporated, right? And of course The Great War—the first few months of EVE Online, with the Russians fighting the Scandinavians, with the Americans running logistics from the north, pretending to be peaceful industrialists, and then being interdicted by the French corporations to cut the supply lines. These are the stories; they're just epic. You could create an entire TV series just from three months of activity.

Do you foresee working the metagame into these stories somehow? Part of their novelty comes from the context, who the players are, but in the fiction of a TV show or comic book, it seems you'd have a hard time expressing that.

That's right, of course, we're telling a story set 20,000 years in the future, so there's always this element of maintaining the fourth wall. You probably are unlikely to see a project from us where suddenly the fourth wall breaks and you see that this is actually a guy sitting in a basement in Wisconsin somewhere playing a video game. It's a science fiction universe, so we can't take events verbatim as they happened, but we take the story lines—perhaps the character or the traits of a character—and represent those in a fictionalized treatment.

Will you use players' in-game characters as reference for actors?

That's a great idea.

It would be great, I'm sure, for some of these players to see their characters acted on screen.

And then of course the fidelity of the character creator in EVE, and what we'll be doing with Dust over the years. It'd be an awesome thing to do.

How far are you in talks for the show? Have you started work on a pilot?

We're basically in what's called development. So we're working with Baltasar and his writer team, who are very talented and have done a raft of TV series over the years, and some great drama. We've actually been working with them on the storylines, concepts, and stage setting for what we'll ultimately bring to television. But we're not talking now about any timelines or giving any indication of exactly when this might be coming.

HBO shows were referenced in the press session, and it seems like a natural fit. Will a pitch go there?

Possibly. HBO is doing awesome work, and we're hugely respectful of what they have done as a cable network. In many ways as a company that runs a premium subscription service called EVE Online, as a business guy, I of course pattern match to what HBO have done incredibly successfully, which is create something people really want to be a part of. They're willing to invest their attention and money to what these guys are doing.

There's some pattern match there, but again, we're not discussing any detail, potential networks, or ways in which we will bring this to viewers.

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E3 2011: Best PC games of the show so far

The turnstiles of E3 2011 have just opened as I write this, but a torrent of trailers and breaking news has already hit, thanks to yesterday's run of conferences from Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft.

The turnstiles of E3 2011 have just opened as I write this, but a torrent of trailers and breaking news has already hit, thanks to yesterday's run of conferences from Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft. Here's your quick guide to the hottest PC videos and announcements of the show so far.

Bioshock Infinite

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The E3 2011 trailer for Bioshock Infinite gives us our first proper taste of how free-roaming and vertigo-inducing combat will be in the floating city of Columbia. The sense of speed and peril associated with using the skyhook to surf the city's golden rails is astonishing. Add to that some death defying leaps, gorgeous environments and a monstrous shotgun and you have one of the most exciting trailers of the show so far.

Battlefield 3

The stand-out moments of the EA conference provided us with eight minutes of in-game single player action. Where the Call of Duty demonstration showed a bombastic but all too familiar linear action sequence, Battlefield 3 gave us a vast, roaming tank battle that showcased the startling power of the Frostbite 2 engine. The engine itself got its own impressive video, and we also got a brief look at the Operation Metro multiplayer map. To top it all, a release date of October 25 was announced, along with news that there will be a beta in September.

Tomb Raider

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The E3 2011 trailer above gave us our first look at the new Lara Croft. She may be younger, but she already seems more human than the backflipping, dual-pistol wielding tiger slayer we're used to in the old games. The start of the game was also demoed live on stageat the Microsoft press conference, a spark of excitement in an otherwise lacklustre showing from Microsoft.

Far Cry 3

Yesterday Ubisoft announced the existence of Far Cry 3, and provided a generous dose of in-game footageto prove that the game is well in development. Graham got to see the game and talk to the developers, you can read all about that in his Far Cry 3 preview. It's a game that plans to combine the open world style of Far Cry 2 with the original game's luscious jungle locales.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

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For all the obvious problems with CG trailers, mainly the fact that they have little to do with the game they're promoting, sometimes they're too spectacular to ignore. Bioware matched last year's tremendous cinematic with the latest one above. Can someone please pay them to re-make Episodes 1 to 3?

We'll get to see much more of The Old Republic on the show floor. Bioware confirmed at the EA conference that they'll be showing raids for the first time.

Hitman Absolution

Before any of the conferences started, IO Interactive bundled Tim onto a helicopter and flew him to a secret cinema location to listen to some opera music and get a good look at Hitman: Absolution. You can read his preview impressions for more information on the exciting assassin sim. IO also released a brutal teaser trailer.

From Dust

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This enigmatic god game has been in the works for years, and we're hoping to get a proper look at it over the next few days. Until then, we've only got the haunting trailer above to go on.

That's not all, of course. We've also seen some new footage of Mass Effect 3. We expect to see much more of that very soon. Graham is seeing Skyrim right now, but if you're really eager to see some dragons in action, check out GT's E3 2011 Skyrim demo, and Tom's frame-by-frame breakdown of that demo.

That's all for now. Stay tuned to our E3 2011 Day Two Liveblogto stay at the bleeding edge of every new PC announcement and trailer. Don't forget to leave a comment, and let us know what you've enjoyed the most from the show so far, and what you're looking forward to. After all, E3 2011 has only just started. The best is yet to come

Why EVE Online is the best hangover game and the upcoming hazing of DUST players

A lot of information came out at last week's FanFest convention about EVE Online and it's console shooter cousin, DUST 514.

A lot of information came out at last week's FanFest convention about EVE Online and it's console shooter cousin, DUST 514. We sat down with EVE Online's lead game designer, Kristoffer Touborg, to get the backstory on how these design choices were made and why they won't stop EVE players from griefing the "dustbunnies" playing DUST 514.

Marriage is exciting and EVE Online is the best hangover game

Touborg: EVE Online is a big social game. I think trying to reinvent the wheel is sometimes a little bit crazy, but I really love to take mundane things—once you've put them into a game environment, for some reason, they become fun. Like hauling minerals across EVE: it's viciously boring, but people still spend eight hours a day doing something [in real life] and then they go haul minerals in EVE.

I met a truck driver who did this. He drove a truck in real life, and when he got home he drove a space truck. There's so many real things that we think of as mundane, but they become great game features. One thing that we'll never put in, probably, but I love the idea, is marriage. Not because of the whole love and kissing thing, but because EVE is so much about trust. If you could marry two characters, they'd have shared inventory and shared bank accounts and all that stuff. There's all these dynamics that come out of sharing. Something as mundane as having shared credit cards, in EVE, becomes a feature. It doesn't have to be like the biggest dragon you could ever find. Just take something from real life that might be slightly boring and put it in a different environment, and just watch what happens.

PCG: So what's appealing about mining for hours? Is it the fact that they could be ambushed at any time, or do they genuinely just like the boring?

KT: Part of it, I think, is that people like boring. Or, well, maybe low effort, maybe low risk stuff. I used to do some of the really boring stuff just because you know that at the end of the road there's some reward. Trading, for example, is relatively low risk, but you make the money and it feels good. Seeing your bank account go up.

I think that not every game was meant to be Counter-Strike. Not everything has to be twitch action-based, super-intense, in-the-zone, adrenaline rush 24/7. Everybody complains about mining, but I think it's the finest hangover feature you could ever do. I'd just switch the miner on, I'd watch sports on Sunday and be hungover and eat pizza. I think that's great. Not everything has to be super wild.

Merging DUST and EVE into a single game

KT: The other thing is, and this makes me kind of sad because I like the idea of the entire universe—the parallel I usually draw is the old western movies, where you'd have the cowboy walking down the street, and none of the houses were actually real. They were just painted boards held up, [the crew] had just constructed these fake towns. I always hate that in MMOs: if there's a mountain and you can't climb it.

That's the entirety of EVE that I love. But we're kind of going away from that, with Dust for example. On the other hand, I think that what I really want might not be the best solution either. I think the idea of having an IP where you can make a game and then tie it into a main game is probably a better solution than what I really want, because I'd love to have the entire thing where you can land wherever you want on any planet and get outside, maybe dig a hole or build a house... That would be my ideal. But on the other hand, that might not actually be a good idea.

PC: Was having everything inside of one game ever seriously considered?

KT: Yeah. That was the direction that we took up until about four months ago. EVE just keeps expanding, bigger and bigger, more and more. But now, of course, we have the Dust approach, which is basically, make a game and tie it into EVE. Which I think, functionally, makes much more sense. I think that's much more clever.

When companies branch out, I think betting on big-name IPs for the sake of their name has backfired horribly for a lot of companies. If you look at some of the MMOs that have come out with big titles, like they bought some movie IP or something, they've just really done poorly, because at the end of the day they just painted a game differently. I think the idea of leveraging your IP into a single game, I think that's much more attractive.

I've become, at age 29, a massive tabletop gamer. For some reason, painting little miniatures was completely unappealing to me when I was 14, but this year I've, like... "This is so awesome!" And Games Workshop have, in my opinion, the most amazing game universe, but they've gone for this approach of... There's the books, there's the game, and all these different parts of the web, where everything ties into this center point in effect.

If we're talking about innovative business and stuff like that, I think that if Dust goes well and we can pull this off, this is what a lot of companies will start doing. It works, I think it's a cool approach. Being able to just cut something off that's not working is awesome. I like this approach. As I said, I have this romantic picture of being able to influence anything anywhere, but on the other hand, it might be a really dumb approach in practical terms.

EVE players planning to haze DUST players

PCG: I talked with a several EVE players at Fanfest who're planning to grief Dust players. Will you stop that when that starts happening?

KT: No, not really... That's just EVE. People can f*** with each other. That's what they've been doing now for nine years.

PCG: That's the funny thing about it. They're not planning this because they're upset that Dust is coming out or hate it, it's just... "Welcome to the club. This is what we do."

KT: I'm not too worried about it. That's just EVE. Just them playing EVE.

Limited scope = limited fun, at first

PCG: So at the start, the integration of EVE and Dust is going to be pretty limited, geographically, within the galaxy. Do you think it's going to be interesting for EVE corps before it goes to null-sec space?

KT: Um...maybe not. But maybe that's alright. Maybe this is where people get used to it. People come in and see that they're not going to turn the world upside down. But they will be useful, and getting people to use it might be good. The relationship between EVE and Dust won't be built in a day. Going about it slowly, I think, is the right approach. Start in faction warfare, having the faction warfare people say, "Hey, these guys are really useful to us," and letting that spread out might be really good. It's not going to start with a bang, but that's probably also a good idea, really.

Tomb Raider Creator: Immersion Is Everything

Star Wars: The Old Republic space combat trailer

Check out this space combat trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic:
If their weird embed code doesn't work, go look at the trailer here .

. I'd forgotten what that blaster noise does to the hairs on the back of my neck.

EVE Online players will watch their DUST 514 minions deathmatch in arenas, place bets on their lives

In EVE Online's lore, our characters are immortal.

In EVE Online's lore, our characters are immortal. For all intents and purposes, we are gods that rule our universe. Console players who enter our domain when DUST 514 launches later this year have good reason to fear their space-dwelling overlords: we will make them fight, and die, for our amusement.

At CCP's closing presentation for Fanfest, Executive Producer Brandon Laurino revealed that they will add Gladiator Arena to DUST 514 in its first expansion. Set to release 2013, it will support game modes "like capture-the-flag, solo deathmatch, and custom matches."

But the best part is that EVE players will be able to watch these deathmatches take place and place bets on the outcome. No official word on how that'll work, but I imagine us capsuleers sitting in posh lounges, enjoying fine foods and drinks while casually giving thumbs-down when the Dust-bunnies (as EVE players here so affectionately refer to DUST players) beg us for aid.

GamesRadar's E3 2012 Important Stuff Awards

We recommend By Zergnet

The Best Characters Of Injustice

Injustice: Gods Among Us offers fighting fans a wide variety
of heroes and villains to choose from, but some of DC's famous characters are
just better equipped for a butt-kicking than others.

Injustice: Gods Among Us offers fighting fans a wide variety
of heroes and villains to choose from, but some of DC's famous characters are
just better equipped for a butt-kicking than others. To find out which superpowered
contestants players should select, I asked GI's Andrew Reiner and Mike
Futter to share with me who they think are the best fighters of Injustice, so
that I can employ my own super-helpful
brandof professional
analysisto their choices. As a bonus, I extend a little of my analysis to
Reiner and Mike, highlighting why I think they really made the choices they
did. Turns out my help was desperately needed.

Mike's Dumb Picks:

Green Arrow
Why Mike Likes Him: Mike says Green Arrow's strength lies in – surprise –
his arrows. The masked archer can shoot three different types of projectiles:
ice arrows that freeze enemies in their place, electric arrows that stun and
damage enemies, and fire arrows that deal massive damage. Green Arrow also has a
"keep away" ability, which allows him to jump backwards and shoot an arrow at
the ground to keep enemies at bay. Mike can characterize that as an ability all
he wants, but I'm guessing it's just his excuse for being a bad shot.
Why Mike Really Likes
Him: I think Mike just really likes Robinhood, since that's clearly what DC
was going for when it designed Green Arrow. Well, that or some kind of rejected
fifth Ninja Turtle. Either way, I'm guessing Mike dressed as either the Green
Arrow or Robinhood for Halloween sometime in his past. Fess up, Mike!
Official Rating: Like
Robinhood, only he doesn't help poor people

Lex Luthor
Why Mike Likes Him: At
first I thought Mike was crazy for picking Superman's bald-headed nemesis –
until I learned he's wearing some kind of cheap supersuit. Mike says Luthor's
Warsuit slows the villain down considerably, but it packs a mean punch and
provides the player with decent ranged attacks. Luthor also has a powerful
super move that lets him call down a laser attack from an orbiting satellite,
which he then turns into a ball of energy and blasts his opponent with – creating an explosion visible from space. How is that even fair?
Why Mike Really Likes
Him: Well, aside from the fact that Luthor sounds ridiculously overpowered,
I'm guessing Mike likes him because he secretly dreams of taking over the world.
In fact, I have it on good authority that he's building his own supersuit in
his garage.
Official Rating: Cheap
but effective

DeathStroke
Why Mike Likes Him: Deathstroke's
arsenal of weapons provides players with a healthy assortment of both short-
and long-range attacks, and his speed makes him a force to be reckoned with.
DeathStroke's super move riddles his opponent with bullets and sword slashes,
while his character ability makes his bullets temporarily unblockable, forcing
opponents to move in close to disrupt the gunfire.
Why Mike Really Likes
Him: Arrows, lasers, bullets – I'm starting to notice a pattern here. It
sounds like Mike prefers ranged projectile attacks that keep his opponents at a
distance. It seems to me like our new news editor may have commitment issues, keeping
the people he cares about the most at arm's length. Is this why Mike works
remotely from New Jersey? We may never know...
Official Rating: Very
helpful from a psychoanalysis standpoint

The Flash
Why Mike Likes Him: The
Flash's move set is built around his incredible speed, which allows him to
string together lightning-fast combos. While not a good long-range fighter, The
Flash has the ability to slow down time to dodge enemy attacks and perform
extra-powerful combos. The Flash can also build up a super punch by running
around the entire world before striking his opponent, which sounds like a huge
waste of energy if you ask me.
Why Mike Really Likes
Him: At first I thought the close-range nature of The Flash's fighting
style contradicted my theory of Mike having commitment issues – until I
realized the connection. The Flash is really good at running – which I assume includes running away from things . Case closed.
Official Rating: What
are you running from, Barry?

Coming Up Next: I carefully analyze Reiner's picks while trying not to
get fired...

EVE Online players will watch their DUST 514 minions deathmatch in arenas, place bets on their lives

In EVE Online's lore, our characters are immortal.

In EVE Online's lore, our characters are immortal. For all intents and purposes, we are gods that rule our universe. Console players who enter our domain when DUST 514 launches later this year have good reason to fear their space-dwelling overlords: we will make them fight, and die, for our amusement.

At CCP's closing presentation for Fanfest, Executive Producer Brandon Laurino revealed that they will add Gladiator Arena to DUST 514 in its first expansion. Set to release 2013, it will support game modes "like capture-the-flag, solo deathmatch, and custom matches."

But the best part is that EVE players will be able to watch these deathmatches take place and place bets on the outcome. No official word on how that'll work, but I imagine us capsuleers sitting in posh lounges, enjoying fine foods and drinks while casually giving thumbs-down when the Dust-bunnies (as EVE players here so affectionately refer to DUST players) beg us for aid.

...

Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Giant bugs and robots Skull-caving action Varied multiplayer Cons Stop talking! More bugs! Handful of slow areas Button command issues Go to page: Page 1 Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 The skin-cracking January weather may be inhospitable to most humans, but it makes for the perfect battleground scenario. Trapped on an isolated planet, it's you against an endless army

The Just Cause 3 Team's Favorite Mods And Videos

Game developers make games and then consumers play them, but this transaction isn’t a one way street.

Game developers make games and then consumers play them, but this transaction isn’t a one way street. These days, game developers often fall in love with videos and mods for their own games that were created by the fans themselves. Gamers are beginning to entertain their entertainers. Over the years, the Just Cause series has developed a sizable and passionate fan base that has helped contribute to this wealth of fan content, so we chatted with the Avalanche team and they gave us a hit list of some of their favorite mods and YouTube clips.

Superman Flying Mod Version 4
There are few dreams as visceral as the ability to soar through the air. With this classic Just Cause 2 mod, I spent hours exploring the world at different speeds, dodging trees as I shot low through the valleys then calmly taking in the beautiful vistas high above the mountains. The epic scale of Just Cause 2 combined with the amazing draw distances, mix in the ability to fly? You get pure gaming joy! – Roland Lesterlin, Game Director

ZXZ's Blackmarket Mod
Working on a game allows you to use various debug menu tools while in development, like being able to spawn anything you need to test. This modessentially makes instant spawning available in the retail version of the game. I spent quite a bit of time spawning vehicles, explosives, weapons, and other objects in the game, then basically blew them up in ridiculous ways. I also loved that there were no cutscenes, so I was able to scratch my impatient, "but I want it right now!" itch. – Roland Lesterlin, Game Director

Infinite Grapple and Superman Mods
I was a big fan of Just Cause before joining Avalanche Studios, and spent hundreds of hours on the first two titles. My experience with the series itself has been my primary source of inspiration, and when I started working on Just Cause 3, I set my mission on overcoming the limits of its predecessors. In some cases, breaking those limits was as easy as changing a number in code, as for the maximum amount of tethers Rico could use. In this specific case, we knew that was a good choice thanks to the success of the Infinite Grapple Mod and the praise it was gathering on forums – as if we had a sort of free pre-playtest encouraging the direction we were taking. In other cases, a convergence of different factors hinted at possibilities worth exploring, as with the Wingsuit: the success and huge following that Jeb Corlissgained with his videos was a clear sign that flying men were here to stay, and that was a perfect fantasy for a videoludic rendition; and again, the fun we had with the Superman mod encouraged us to further push in that direction. Last but not least, the whole team are big fans of action cinema; hopefully you will spot homages to different directors and action sagas as you play Just Cause 3. – Francesco Antolini, Principal Designer

“Rodriguez. Rico Rodriguez.”
It's a remarkably short clip, but I always loved the "Just Cause 2 - Rodriguez. Rico, Rodriguez" YouTube video. In it, mookalokka does a mini-homage to one of my favorite action sequences in any James Bond film: in GoldenEye, Bond uses a motorcycle to chase after a small, unoccupied prop plane as it rumbles down a runway. He barely catches up to the plane as they both hurtle off the cliff at the end of the runway. Then, in a quick sequence, he jumps off his motorcycle, lands on the plane, gets inside, and is able to pull it out of its nose dive just in time. Perfect.

This is my favorite kind of machinima: the kind that's totally in-game, totally emergent, and totally unedited (I assume). It reminds me how important it is to create mechanics and content that are flexible, interact with each other in interesting ways, and, quite frankly, stay out the player's way. As for this specific clip: a way back, I wrote a mission pitch that had incorporated this exact sequence. That mission has since been scrapped. Partly because, well, turning it into a scripted sequence sort of misses the point about why the clip is so darn cool. – Joe Ishikura, Senior System Designer

The Freeroam Construction Sandbox Server/The Whale Vehicle Mod
The whale vehicle mod is just one example of the craziness that Jman100's Freeroam Construction Sandbox Server offers. It is truly awesome! You need to see it to believe it, really, so I won’t say too much, but I’d thoroughly recommend giving it a try, or checking out this video of it in action. – Hamish Young, Senior Vehicle Designer

JC2-MP
Of course we couldn’t discuss our favorite mods for Just Cause 2 without mentioning the biggest and most ambitious mod of them all. I don't think any of us ever imagined that someone would make a multiplayer mod of Just Cause 2while we were developing the game. I certainly didn't. But it's both amazing and humbling that people from our community spent so much time and effort on it. Taking on such a huge project is just crazy – almost as crazy as the gameplay in the mod! The popularity of the mod speaks for itself – it helped bring Just Cause 2 to new audiences, and helped keep our community thriving years beyond the initial launch. – Per Hugoson, Principal Programmer

Nerd³ Plays... Just Cause 2
The amount of support our community gave us through the sheer weight of YouTube uploads from Just Cause 2 kind of blew us away, really. Of all of the videos, “Nerd³ Plays... Just Cause 2” is probably the one we go back to the most. Something of a love letter to the game (it was posted on Valentine’s Day back in 2012), the sheer joy of the video is just so infectious – it puts a smile on your face and makes you want to dive back in and discover Panau all over again. Above all else, games should be fun, and watching this video is always a great reminder of how much fun Just Cause can be. – The Square Enix team

For more details on Avalanche's upcoming open world title be sure to check out our
cover hub, which is filled with exclusive content such as hands-on impressions and a video tour of the studio.

EVE Online's keynote: A recap in their own words

Fanfest is less of a convention and more like a giant, booze-fueled family reunion.

Fanfest is less of a convention and more like a giant, booze-fueled family reunion. Devs and players hang out together all week long to laugh about the stupid things that happened in their EVE family this past year, argue about the way things should be done, and play a ton of games.

And at this family reunion, nothing's more anticipated than the big EVE keynote, where the developers reveal their plans for the entire year. But like most family reunions, it's ten times too long for anyone outside the family. So, for you outsiders or on-and-off EVErs, here's a quick rundown of the big changes you should care about.

Incarna was a failure

"We released a beautiful room--a beautiful room with beautiful people in it, and expensive monocles--and we had the audacity to call it Incarna." There was a lot of audience interaction during the show, and Hilmar Pétursson took the time to respond to people calling out questions after he summarize the Incarna launch like that. And then he showed pictures of his son and daughter to everyone's applause. I'm not joking! And i bet you thought I was stretching with my "family reunion" metaphor.

Crucible was a success, but future expansions won't directly mimic it

Pétursson told the crowd that Crucible was created by the EVE team on its own "while CCP sorted its own things out," referring to the fallout and soul-searching after the company was forced to lay off 20% of its employees.

Lead Game Designer Kristoffer Touborg agreed with the audience's sentiment that Crucible worked, but didn't want all expansions to be exactly like it. "[Crucible] was little things for a time when we needed little things," he explained, referring to the expansion's focus on bug-fixing and feature-improving rather than introducing a huge new gameplay element. He emphasized the need for future expansions to focus on bigger elements, however, by reminding the audience that "some of the small things that were broken also have bigger parts that are broken."

EVE Online is about spaceships

This has been iterated so many times at Fanfest this year, it might as well be appended on as a subtitle. Senior Producer Jon Lander said it best at the keynote: "If we ever do anything in addition to [spaceship combat] in EVE, it will be in addition to, not instead of]."

Players like Caldari missiles

There were many outburts of applause, boos, and general taunts during the keynote, but the only instance of a full-room standing ovation was when Creative Director Torfi Frans played a video showing off the upcoming Caldari missiles in action. I'm pretty sure that the guy at the end of my row was crying (out of happiness).

EVE will be everywhere

CCP wants more than your PC. Technical Producer Andie Nordgren and Web Architect Anne Walsh outlined all the efforts the company has put into expanding their back-end to support loads of new ways to interact with EVE Online. In short: their API now supports read/write, instead of just displaying static information, and they plan to use it to let you play at least parts of EVE in your browser, on your mobile phones--everywhere.

CCP loves you and doesn't want you to stab them

Technically, Touborg only said that they plan to expand EVE/DUST interactions "in an awesome way that you guys won't stab us for." But I think its safe to assume they don't want you to stab them for any reason.

Time Dilation has solved the lag problem

For those that haven't played since Crucible released last year, Time Dilation is a new feature added that intentionally slows the game down when thousands of players clash in a fight, to allow the server to keep up with all the input at a pace that's fair for everyone. Senior Programmer Brian Bossé confirmed that it has eliminated the problem of having "actions queued that cannot be processed." He also revealed that before the feature was implemented, they could have a max of 600 players fighting before performance dipped to unacceptable levels. Now that number is 2000. Their next goal is to improve server technology further (they already reduced CPU load per player by 50%) to make time dilation required less often.

They've got a lot of features coming in 2012

Here's the shortened list, highlighting the changes that you'll likely care about:

Redoing the War Declaration system to eliminate need for loopholes and support mercenary contracts, about which Touborg warns, "You can't trust mercs in EVE, but you can at least send someone money and hope they'll help you." Improvements to Faction Warfare to add meaning to territory warfare, increased rewards for fighting, and collective rewards to purchase for Alliances. Ship balancing, and new module types. They want every player to own a starbase, and have it scale in size and scope based on how hardcore they are. Casual players who only play once a week will have tiny captain's quarters; the most elite will have a giant Death Star covered in guns that can terrorize systems. Touborg has a vision for groups of players falling down on a ring of asteroids around a planet, searching and stripping it of moon minerals. Avatars will have more serious gameplay, and more mechanics that actually interact with and impact the space game, according to Frans. Characters of mixed heritage, causing one player to shout "Blasphemy!" from the audience. New shaders for Amarr ships. Once all the ships have V3 shaders, they'll be able to update ship lighting on the fly, to relfect explosions, missiles launching and bounce light from planets.

Comixology Unlimited – Is It Worth It?

Comixology Unlimited was an inevitability.

Comixology Unlimited was an inevitability. The writing has been on the wall for some time. Movies and TV programming are already in full swing with on-demand services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. And Marvel has pioneered the approach in the comic sphere with its successful Marvel Unlimited service, which offers thousands of comics from the company’s backlog.

Comixology Unlmited is the logical next step in comic consumption for at least some, offering a cheap alternative for a select type of comic reader. It won’t be for everyone, but the range of available titles will be a big selling point for many. We took the new service for a spin. Here are the big things you need to know to decide if it’s for you.

Price and Availability

Comixology Unlimited requires an existing Comixology account, but you can also use your Amazon login to set up your account, and all your Amazon payment info is already present without any fuss. Visit Comixology’s website, and the Unlimited button is going to be easy to find, especially right now as the platform is launching.

Comixology offers a 30-day free trial of the service, and the online storefront wastes no time in getting you in the door with a quick checkout option. However, be aware that you’re signing up for the full subscription with that simple transaction, and the monthly fee will begin charging after your trial is complete. Here’s a link to their cancellation pageif you ever need it.

For various reasons I’ll outline below, I think the $5.99 a month asking price is more than fair given the breadth of options on offer. The comic book scene has struggled in recent years with escalating prices on single issues, whether you buy in print or in a digital format. Many standard-size comics now cost $3.99, and larger or special edition issues happily push up to $6 or more. While Comixology Unlimited doesn’t give you long-term ownership or collectability of any comics, it does offer the chance to read a broad swath of some of the best stuff on the market, albeit with a delay after initial release.

When you visit Comixology, included titles are now marked with the Unlimited banner

Comic Choice

For many readers, (myself included) the first question that comes to mind is: What comics can I access through the subscription?

You’ll notice two major absences almost immediately. Neither DC or Marvel are contributing titles for Comixology Unlimited. If your primary area of comic interest is the major superhero books, this service is going to let you down.

However, any devoted comics reader today will tell you that the established superheroes that have been around for decades are far from the only fun characters and stories to follow in the scene. Comixology Unlimited draws in support from most of the other major comic book publishers, including Image, IDW, Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, Boom!, Oni Press, Archie Comics, and Valiant Entertainment.

That means that you can look forward to checking out big titles like Saga, The Walking Dead, Scott Pilgrim, and Locke & Key, as well as ongoing storylines like those unfolding in the various Transformers comics, Star Trek, Savage Dragon, or manga like Attack on Titan.

A closer look reveals a more nuanced picture. Many titles, including many of the comics listed above, provide access to the first volume or the first few volumes of a major series, but not the rest of the storyline. In fact, the majority of titles I pulled up in the Comixology app stopped short of providing access to the full story and series. As such, for many readers, Comixology Unlimited will be a great way to try out a given story, but as of now, won’t allow you to read the full collection of many works. To complete a story, in many instances, you’ll still be looking at buying the rest of the run.

That’s a striking contrast to the Marvel Unlimited program, in which full runs of older series are often provided, even if you still don't own any of the books. However, don’t forget: Marvel Unlimited is only one publisher’s work, and it costs more at approximately $9.99 a month, depending on the subscription offer you choose.

It’s also worth noting that, like with Netflix, Comixology says that the titles on offer through Comixology Unlimited will change with time.

You can still buy a given comic to own it forever, but Unlimited-enabled titles let you borrow instead

Readability

Comixology Unlimited uses the same application and tech that drives its excellent direct-sales program. Whether you’ve used Comixology before or not, the process is straightforward. Well-organized digital pages for each series allow you to “Borrow” any book with the Unlimited tag, and you’re immediately ready to start reading. Most readers will prefer a tablet for ease of reading, but smaller phone screens are also an option, or you can read comics directly in your browser on your PC, if that’s your preference.

Like all Comixology books, Unlimited-enabled books offer great readability, and smart layout. You can examine full pages (or where appropriate, full two-page spreads) to get the full picture of the artists’ intent for viewing, but you can also double tap on a panel to zoom in close to read in true sequential structure.

After completing a read-through, if the next title is available to borrow through Unlimited, you can keep humming through the story. If it’s not, you’ll need to go back and buy the next volume through the normal Comixology purchase channel.

Worth It?

The short-term answer is a resounding yes. The free 30-day trial is a generous path to try out a huge number of great comics. Even veteran readers are sure to find some new gems if they dig deep. You can’t beat the price during that initial trial, and cancellation (if you remember to do it) is straightforward and painless. However, I suspect many will be willing to continue the $5.99 monthly fee as new titles get added, and given the ease of the reading experience, I can understand why.

The longer term answer of whether Comixology Unlimited is worth it is more complicated. Without full runs of many of its best comics, you’re still looking at spending a lot of money to finish out storylines after beginning to read them on the Unlimited program. And while neither Amazon or Comixology have made any indication of a looming price change, it’s important to note that Amazon Prime saw a significant price hike in 2014 as it added services and became more popular. Here’s hoping that Comixology Unlimited will keep its price in check to remain competitive.

Some readers may balk at the very nature of reading comics digitally, and prefer to stick the long-established tradition of print books. It’s difficult to argue against that option on a basic level – it’s a lot of fun to have the collectability of a print comic, and the joy of turning pages and seeing the format as it was originally intended is hard to beat.

However, as many collectors have discovered in recent years, storage space is a notable issue for many comic lovers. Programs like Marvel Unlimited and Comixology Unlimited also dramatically cut the financial cost of being involved in the comics hobby, but come with the pain of not being able to stay immediately up to date with your favorite series.

Ultimately, though I wish for more complete series options, I applaud the initial launch of Comixology Unlimited, if only for the ways it can act as a gateway for new readers, as well as a conduit for more established readers to discover new titles at low money risk.

Have you tried Comixology Unlimited yet? Share your experiences, as well as your favorite titles that are available through the service, in the comments below.

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Engaging Mitama system adds another layer of strategy Online cooperative play is a boon Solid addictive combat Cons Repetitive missions and objectives Copycat Monster Hunter elements Underwhelming graphics An expansive world rife with monsters and the humans who slay them. A long but satisfying grind. Larger-than-life boss battles that endeavor to test your

Release dates for Inferno and EVE Online's other major updates in 2012

This afternoon at Fanfest's hugely anticipated EVE Online keynote, Senior Producer Jon Lander revealed their plan to update EVE Online throughout 2012, complete with release dates for each element.

The plans include the usual two expansions, along with a few new additions to their annual update plans.

This schedule doesn't go into detail about the content in each update. To see a more detailed breakdown of the content CCP has planned for 2012, see our keynote summary. It also doesn't include the myriad of small updates CCP makes to the game non-stop.

April 24: One month from now, CCP will release a major update that's meant to be a pre-cursor to the Inferno expansion. It won't just be fluff either: Lander promised that it will have "real meaningful content" to prepare players for the expansion.

April: A big player gathering will be held in the UK.

May 1: Players in the UK will be able to pay in pounds, at £9.99/month. That's about 11 Euros, compared to the only price available to them currently of of 15 Euros.

May 22: The next major expansion, Inferno will be released.

June 30, July 7: Qualifiers for the 10th Alliance PvP Tournament

July 14, July: 21: Finals for the 10th Alliance PvP Tournament

August: 1.5, the major patch between expansions will be released

September: Point patch release

November: The next expansion after Inferno will be released. There are no details or even a code name for this expansion yet.

Ensemble Veteran Shelley Working On The Settlers 7 For Ubisoft

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Variety of weapons and tactics Gorgeous visuals Interesting plot twists Cons Crouch and sprint controls Repetitive puzzles Occasionally awkward communication from AI teammates Few titles have managed to harness the full power of the PS Vita better than Sony's Killzone: Mercenary . There’s nothing small-time about it; the superb visuals, tremendous sound, multi

Diablo III senior producer leaves Blizzard

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros It's really pretty Staggeringly huge enemies Some great co-op ideas Cons Concentrates on co-op at the expense of the solo player Can be a slog at times Bland story and characters Go to page: Page 1 Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Lost Planet 2 is a Big Dumb Action Game, with a major focus on multiplayer co-op. If it had been released in the ‘80s it would be Contra. If

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Tons of options for character customization Enjoyable multiplayer Throwbacks to the original Ragnarok for old fans Cons Stagnate gameplay Repetitive levels Missions that offer little reward or sense of accomplishment Ragnarok Odyssey Ace isn’t that bad, really. Odd way to launch into a review, but it’s worth noting since the Ragnarok franchise has never been

Max Payne 3 developer Rockstar Vancouver closing its doors

Report: EA looking to branch Dead Space out into other genres

Rumors are that Electronic Arts is looking to expand Dead Space beyond the claustrophobic survival-horror of its first three outings, reports Kotaku . An “insider” within EA says new management within the company, having considered axing the cult series, will now be going ahead with Dead Space 3 – but that once that game's done, plans are afoot to develop the property beyond its signature third-person

Interview: Trion CEO - Rift Launch To Go Well, Games To Be Revolutionized

Worlds Adrift is a physics-based multiplayer game from the I Am Bread studio

Bossa Studios, the team behind Surgeon Simulator and, more recently (and weirdly), I Am Bread , has announced a new project entitled Worlds Adrift.

, has announced a new project entitled Worlds Adrift. It's a physics-based multiplayer adventure that will apparently feature great wooden airships that occasionally crash into each other.

"We love physics in our games. Physics is what makes Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread tick," the studio explained on YouTube. "No two game sessions are alike, because a lot of weird and interesting stuff can happen, so gameplay possibilities about."

What will set World Adrift apart, apparently, is its multiplayer focus. Bossa's "Gamer-in-Chief" Henrique Olifiers didn't dig into it very deeply and pointed out that "everything is very rough around the edges [and] the art is all placeholder," but the trailer shows several players swinging around a rocky world, then assembling and riding, and swinging from, on a large airship. The implication would seem to be that the game's physics will enable the open-ended creation and use of unique, and impressively large-scale, objects

Interestingly, despite the announcement, it doesn't sound as though Bossa is fully and completely committed to the game. "We are very eager to hear what you think about our ideas, feedback for the game, and your ideas as well," Olifiers said. "Honestly, we want to know if you think it is worth [it] for us to continue working on this game or not." That's a tough call, given that there's really not much to go on, but if you want to throw some thoughts their way, you may do so at worldsadrift.com.

New DmC trailer is every bit as camp, violent and beautifully ridiculous as Devil May Cry should be

HE PUTS HIS PANTS ON IN MID-AIR IN SLOW-MOTION AND THEN FINISHES GETTING DRESSED WHILE KILLING A BUNCH OF DEMONS WHILE HUNGOVER WHILE STILL FINDING TIME FOR VISUAL PENIS INNUENDO! Seriously people, how much more Devil May Cry do you want it? Everything in this trailer screams "Yes sir, this is authentic Devil May Cry". Honestly, I could dye my own hair a different colour tomorrow, but it wouldn't make

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Absolutely gorgeous evolving next-gen environments Redview is replete with both AI and real-life rivals Some of the slickest controls this side of a Burnout game Cons The few reasons youre given to upgrade your car Impact damage is dealt haphazardly Need for Speed is what I like to call EA’s most well known “hot-potato” franchise. Every few years it jumps to

Upcoming MMO Chronicles of Elyria promises a fully-destructible world with non-repeating quests

Chronicles of Elyria, an in-the-works MMO that's currently closing out the last couple of days of a successful Kickstarter campaign , sounds very ambitious.

, sounds very ambitious. It promises “a closed economy, finite resources, non-repeatable quests, and a fully destructible environment,” populated by characters who will actually age and die over lifetimes spanning ten to 14 months of real-world time. It sounds genuinely interesting, and also incredibly difficult to pull off, especially for a start-up studio.

But today's announcement of a partnership between developer Soulbound Studiosand technology company Improbablealso gives me some degree of hope that it might work out. Improbable is the company behind SpatialOS, “a distributed operating system that enables developers to create simulations inhabited by millions of complex entities, and allows game worlds and other simulated environments to run seamlessly on thousands of servers in the cloud.” Using that to underpin the game means Soulbound can focus entirely on the core game, rather than having to create and support “core server features” itself.

“People have been asking us how we plan to get a hundred thousand players spread across the largest geographic area in a video game to date. This is it!” Soulbound CEO Jeromy Walsh said. “With the help of SpatialOS, we can do it faster than most people think possible, and with a smaller team.”

What keeps that from being the usual eye-glazing PR-speak is that two other fairly high-profile projects using Improbable's technology are already underway, and their creators are similarly enthusiastic. Bossa Studios is making use of it in Worlds Adrift, which is starting to look really good, and DayZ creator Dean Hall is doing the same with his new project, Ion. Neither of those games have been released yet, but what we've seen of them so far lends credence to the suggestion that Soulbound at least has a shot.

The Chronicles of Elyria Kickstarter is already a success, with more than $1.2 million pledged on a $900,000 goal. That's enough to hit one stretch goal and, with just a hair under two days remaining in the campaign, put a couple others within reach. It was also recently given the Greenlight on Steam. Find out more at chroniclesofelyria.com.

Unboxing The Newest Sora (Halloween Town) Kingdom Hearts Figure By Play Arts

Two Kingdom Hearts figures are releasing at the end of month, most notably a new Halloween Town version of Sora from Kingdom Hearts II.

Two Kingdom Hearts figures are releasing at the end of month, most notably a new Halloween Town version of Sora from Kingdom Hearts II. We unbox it to see it in action.

As a big Kingdom Hearts fan, I owned a previous Halloween Town iteration of Sora, so I thought it'd be fun to compare the two in the video below. Watch Kyle Hilliard and I size it up to other Play Arts figures, look at the different keyblades, and play around with the new Sora figure.

For those wondering, the dimensions are appropriately W 4” x D 3” x H 8.3, and this adorable collectible releases on March 28.

If you're a collector, this seems like a figure you'll want on your shelf, so be sure to pre-orderit before it's too late.

The other new figure releasing is Riku, which we'll have more on next week.

Criterion down to 15 employees as it pursues non-racing project

Burnout and Need for Speed studio Criterion is down to just 15 employees, but that's just the way its creative director likes it. Alex Ward clarified the studio's status in a series of tweets over the weekend, revealing that more than 60 employees split off earlier this year to continue work on the Need for Speed franchise as Criterion pursues a non-racing project . Most of Criterion was working with

Worlds Adrift developer reveals new gameplay footage

Bossa Studios has released a brief bit of new gameplay footage taken from Worlds Adrift, the physics-based multiplayer game it announced late last year .

. It's still quite rough, as you'd expect at this early stage, but surprisingly beautiful too, and Bossa sounds far more deeply committed to the project now than it did back in December.

The video focuses primarily on the "atmosphere" in Worlds Adrift, generated by its distinctive visual style, soft dynamic lighting, and impressive-looking day/night cycle, and the multitool used to perform tasks including harvesting, repairing, and most crafting. It also shows off the craftable crossbow, which fires projectiles that behave like "real," physics-based objects.

Bossa's previous projects include Surgeon Simulator 2013and I Am Bread, which may not make it the most obvious candidate for developing this kind of game. What makes the prospect both plausible and intriguing is its partnership with Improbable, a privately-funded technology company that seeks to "enable new experiences by unlocking the power of distributed, real-time, persistent simulations."

In an interview last year with GamesIndustry, CEO Herman Narula said Improbable "can take an online game, make it much cheaper, much better, open to a lot more users, and offer a whole new kind of experience." He described Bossa, its first game development partner, as "phenomenally talented," adding, "The only thing holding back [its] big ambition is technology. We're hoping we can solve that problem for them and just get out of their way and let them build the incredible game they want to build."

As a fully physics-based, open-world multiplayer game with extensive harvesting and crafting, Worlds Adrift is most definitely ambitious. But while the studio sounded somewhat iffy on the project when it was first revealed, asking followers to tell it "if you think it is worth [it] for us to continue working on this game or not," it now appears fully committed: There's now a Worlds Adrift YouTube channel, although Bossa hasn't yet moved any videos to it, and a " feedback wall" where fans can offer ideas and vote on development priorities.

New Nintendo 3DS review

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Need for Speed's new home is Ghost Games

Ghost Games is taking over the Need for Speed franchise just a year after Criterion took stewardship of EA's flagship racer. The new Swedish developer told VideoGamer that the franchise needs the consistency of a single, dedicated team to stay ahead of the competition. "It cannot go from black to white between Black Box and Criterion, and that's why we're now thinking about the brand as Ghost owns

Dean Hall's next game is Ion, an "emergent narrative MMO"

DayZ creator Dean Hall has been workingwith technology company Improbable on a new game. At Microsoft's E3 press conference today, he revealed that Ion is an "emergent narrative massively-multiplayer online game"—well, that's not unexpected from Hall.

"Players will build, live in and inevitably die in huge floating galactic constructions as humanity makes its first steps colonizing the universe," according to the trailer description. "Technology from Improbable allows ION to have a massive interconnected universe with fully simulated environments such as power grids, air pressure and heat; all to help stave off the unending vacuum of space."

When talking about a game is more fun than the game itself

"Ugh, this Blood-Starved Beast can go right to hell." That was the entire body of an email I sent to a group of friends. We're all tackling Bloodborne at various speeds, and discussing our thoughts, our successes, and our failures with each other as we play. In response to my frustration, someone replied to my email and told me about a spot on the ground that will let you summon an NPC to help draw

Need for Speed: Rivals is part racer, part team-deathmatch

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Digital Storm crams a 10-core CPU and GTX 1080 inside an all-in-one

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Killing zombies is uncomplicated fun Fixes so many of Dead Rising's problems Feels next-gen in scope Cons Way too many fetch quests Characters more gross than endearing Lacking in personality Some recent zombie games have successfully told stories with emotional weight. The Walking Dead and The Last of Us come immediately to mind. But as I crafted my electrified

Angry Birds , iPhone FarmVille Among Webby Award Nominees

Digital Storm unveils small form-factor Eclipse, starting at $699

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Sony launching free-to-play Killzone 3 multiplayer

Need for Speed: Rivals is a chase that never ends

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Digital Storm announces liquid cooled, 4K ready Bolt II Steam Machine

In ancient times, before the rise of E3 (1995), the Consumer Electronic Show used to be the place to learn about new games and hardware, but it hasn't been as relevant to PC gamers in many years.

In ancient times, before the rise of E3 (1995), the Consumer Electronic Show used to be the place to learn about new games and hardware, but it hasn't been as relevant to PC gamers in many years. CES 2014, however, bucks the trend. Not only is Oculus VR showing off the latest version its Oculus Riftvirtual reality goggles at the show, with the impending retail release of Valve's SteamOS, a bunch of third-party computer hardware manufactures are revealing their own Steam Machines.

One of the higher-end of these systems that we've seen so far is Digital Storm's Bolt II, the first small form factor Steam Machine "hybrid" gaming PC, which the company announced today. It's main claim to fame is that it's the first liquid cooled Steam Machine, and that it will feature both SteamOS and Windows. So it'll work for both desktop and living-room setups, and it will be able to play any game you can't stream or run natively on SteamOS.

“We (Digital Storm) are not looking to compete with console pricing,” Digital Storm's Director of Product Development Rajeev Kuruppu said in a statement, explaining that the product is aimed at the high end of the market, specifically targeting consumers looking for a PC capable of playing any game on a 4K display. He's not kidding, as the Bolt II comes in at a cool $1,900.

Digital Storm will offer four different customizable configurations of the Bolt IIat the end of January. They'll all be entirely upgradeable, so you can do your best to try (and fail) to compete with the all powerful Large Pixel Collider.

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Interresting premise Best looking in-game Spider-Man costume to date Fun dialogue between Spideys Cons Boring level design Lame enemies Fails to live up to potential For years there have been good to great Spider-Man games that were based on sources diverse as movies, TV shows, and alternate universe comics. Still, over the last few years it seems like Spidey

Need For Speed: The Rivals shows off Speedlist, return of Ferrari 458

Electronic Arts has shown off new features of Need For Speed Rivals at Gamescom in Cologne. The game will feature the return of car customisation (back by popular demand), with millions of decal combinations available. Also making a return to the series is the Ferrari 458 Spider, back after a seven-year absence from the series. The game will feature three Police modes: Patrol, Enforcer and 'undercover

Digital Storm's sub-zero system revealed

I'm not hugely familiar with US system builder Digital Storm , since they don't have an outlet on this side of the Atlantic, but the 'boutique' PC maker has just added an impressive looking new case to its line up that rather makes me wish they did.

It uses the first case that the company has designed itself, apparently, something which is almost unheard of for an independent shop, certainly since Alienwareand VoodooPC were bought out by Delland HPrespectively. The 'Aventum', as Digital Storm's new range is known, may not have the catchiest name and it certainly has a bleeding eye price, but it's intriguing, nonetheless.

At first glance, the Aventum looks a bit mundane. A straightforward silver tower without much in the way of distinguishing features. What's interesting about it, however, is the inclusion of a liquid cooling system with a Peltier-style heat exchanger in the base supplied by Cryo-TEC. Apparently this is able to drop the temperature of the coolant to below zero, thanks to three 420mm radiators.

More intriguing yet, however, is the internal design. It's chambered around components in order to prevent heat from escaping around the case, using a modular technique similar to cases from the likes of Thermaltake. The clever thing, though, is that the motherboard is flipped upside down to the norm. This puts the hottest components, the GPUs, at the top of the main chamber, thus stopping the heat they generate getting drawn over the CPU, power regulators and other temperature sensitive gubbins.

By the looks of it, it'll do a fine job of keeping things cool by itself, but the case is also filled with sensors and comes with Windows software for managing fan speeds in 13 locations manually too.

There's four different versions of the Aventum available, starting with one equipped with an Intel Core i7 2700K and GeForce GTX 680 and scaling up to a dual Xeon workstation with 680s in triple SLI mode.

The only downside? Prices start at $3,859 and go up in increments of more than $1,000 for each model. One can dream.

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Interresting premise Best looking in-game Spider-Man costume to date Fun dialogue between Spideys Cons Boring level design Lame enemies Fails to live up to potential For years there have been good to great Spider-Man games that were based on sources diverse as movies, TV shows, and alternate universe comics. Still, over the last few years it seems like Spidey

Atari To Divest Champions Online Developer Cryptic Studios

Congratulations to Stephanie Estby, our big Digital Storm/Valve giveaway winner!

Random.org's random number generator has smiled upon Stephanie Estby of Oregon, AKA Props.

Random.org's random number generator has smiled upon Stephanie Estby of Oregon, AKA Props. Angel on Steam. She's been picked as the winner of this dazzling $3,700 Black Ops Hailstorm Edition PCfrom Digital Stormand a magical Steam code that unlocks every existing Valve game, plus every Valve game Valve will ever release . Congratulations Steph!

This great PC couldn't have gone to a more worthy gamer. “I've been a PC gamer since before PC games had graphics,” Steph says. “I've been gaming on PC since Zork, way back in the DOS computing days, and I remember how amazed I was when I could play Dig Dug on my Franklin Ace. Playing video games is my number-one hobby, and I'm fully planning on gaming until I die. I think it'll be awesome to someday be able to say 'you just got your butt kicked by a granny' followed by an aged cackle.”

She's not kidding: her Steam statsshow 108 hours of in-game time in the past two weeks, with the main culprits being Just Cause 2 and Team Fortress 2. Her lifetime TF2 play time? A staggering 1,803.4 hours!

This liquid-cooled, six-core 3.2GHz Core i7-970 CPU, 12GB RAM, and GeForce GTX 590 (with 120GB Corsair Series 3 SSD and 2TB hard drive) will replace her aging 2.6GHz Phenom II X4, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD 4890 and 500GB hard drive. “I remember using PC Gamer to help spec it out, and it's been a great machine up until lately,” Steph recalls. “It's had to endure thousands of hours of gaming and, as a result, it's definitely approaching the end of its days. A number of my USB ports have been going out and I think my graphics card has been, too.”

Somehow she's also managed to work in some studying time, and is coming out of school and into a tough job market that would've made a new PC tough to come by. “I've been on Pell Grants and student loans for the last few years, so I have quite the tuition bill racked up,” she says. “I'll be still paying down my loans for a good while as opposed to computer shopping. Now I don't have to worry about my computer dying for a good while! :)”

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Undeniably charming Satisfies compulsive tendencies Creates a unique world for the eyes and ears Cons Too damn easy Doesn't explore potential of coloring puzzles Gets a bit repetitive after a while The original de Blob was enough of a hit on the Wii that it has now officially jumped to Xbox 360, PS3, and DS (although that will be a different review). So now

Need for Speed: Rivals blends solo and competitive play in All-Drive

During EA's press conference this morning, Need for Speed: Rivals got quite a bit of screen time. Amongst more footage of beautifully rendered sports cars, a major feature was shown off: All-Drive. Though Rivals will be playable offline, the online world of All-Drive will bring together racers in a completely organic way. To demonstrate this concept, EA showed off two player perspectives: one driver

Hard Stuff: Digital Storm xm15 review

For those of us whose pockets don't bleed money, laptops priced around $1,000 are far more practical, such as the Digital Storm xm15.

For those of us whose pockets don't bleed money, laptops priced around $1,000 are far more practical, such as the Digital Storm xm15. Of course, you should expect some sacrifices for the lower price. For one, its budget-minded Nvidia GT 540M can't handle most games at the xm15's native res of 1920x1080 with high settings and antialiasing turned up. The xm15 squeaked out 17fps in STALKER: Call of Pripyat, and absolutely tanked in Metro 2033, with a slide show-like 8fps. You'll need to bump down all your in-game resolutions to 1280x720 for decent framerates—which really sucks, especially on an 15.6” screen. And strangely, the xm15's battery taps out in just under an hour for gaming (compared to the typical 1.5 hours from similar laptops).

That said, the xm15's chassis is light and compact, as is its power brick; you'll have no trouble packing it all away in a shoulder bag or backpack. The glossy, graphite-colored lid is gorgeous, although it tends to collect fingerprints. The brushed aluminum on the keyboard tray is wonderful to rest your palms on, and the shallow keyboard is just the right amount of springy when typing. The track pad is smooth as silk, and its buttons depress deep and satisfyingly. For the tragically accident-prone, the xm15 includes a standard three-year limited warranty and lifetime free tech support (and even a 30-day money-back return policy, should your significant other decide that the thousand-buck cost would better be spent on your mortgage). If you crave portability over power, the xm15 is a worthy rig.

SPEC ◆ Price $1,050 ◆ CPU Core i7 2720QM 2.2GHz ◆ RAM 6GB DDR3 1600MHz ◆ GPU Nvidia GT 540M ◆ Storage Seagate 500GB 7200RPM ◆ OS Win 7 Home Premium 64 ◆ Link www.digitalstormonline.com ◆ Category Mid