Developer Team Ninja is impressed with the Wii U. The company said that though the hardware is constantly changing, the console is a joy to work with and has a lot to offer.

"Nintendo asked us what we would want from the hardware. And when we gave them our feedback, we could see that they really listened and made changes,” one of the bigwigs at the studio said. “The hardware is currently changing constantly. What we saw last E3 is not a reflection of everything this console is able to offer. We have been trying the development kits and some of its new characteristics will improve its possibilities. It isn't something like Kinect or similar accessories, it's something different.”

The Wii U is due out later this year.
 

Fans of the popular platformer, LittleBigPlanet, have created more than 6 million levels since the game’s launch. The title lets users build their own stages with a complex level editor, and even though it’s been a while since the release of the last game, people are far from tiring of the series.

“6 Million levels!” the developer tweeted recently.” A Year ago this week we launched LBP2, since then you guys have made 2.5m levels - you are amazing! <3."

Rumour has it that LBP 3 is in development, though nothing has been confirmed by the developer.
 

A bug which was discovered in Mario Kart 7, which allows gamers to bypass a large part of a certain track, won’t be fixed, Nintendo announced recently.

"We are aware that it is possible to navigate a certain part of the track in Wuhu Island in a way that allows a large part of the course to be bypassed," the company said. "There are no plans to update the game to remove this shortcut as doing so would create an unfair advantage for the users of the original release of the game. Rest assured your comments have been added to our records for Mario Kart 7."

Apparently, the bug still puts everyone on an equal footing (if they know about it), so it’s not seen as a priority.

Sony is claiming that it is not even contemplating a future beyond the PS3 – at least not yet.

“I don't think we're contemplating talking about anything to do with future console iterations at this point,” the president of SCE told reporters. "But one thing I always point to is that, somewhat in contrast to our major competitors, we have, particularly with PS2, managed the length of the lifecycle and ensured its profitability for our publishing partners for a much longer lifecycle than has been true of the competition.”

While Sony has been adamant it won’t release a console until at least 2014, it is now widely accepted that it is already developing the PlayStation 4 – and definitely talking about it, at least internally.

Most analysts expect a reveal in 2012, followed by a 2013 release.

Microsoft has announced that its Kinect device will hit PCs on 1 February. The gadget, which launched last year for the Xbox 360, has been massively successful for the company, and has found uses far beyond gaming in fields as diverse as medicine and engineering.

The device sold 10 million units in its first weeks of release, making it the fastest-selling gadget of all time. Microsoft has plans to further expand the device’s feature set to make it into a fully-fledge controller for every aspect of the living room and beyond.

The announcement was made at the CES expo in Las Vegas.
 

The PlayStation Vita has sold 500 000 units since its launch in Japan last month. While this is certainly a respectable figure, it is way short of expectations. Most of those units were sold in the first week after release, and demand has since plummeted.

The PSP, in contrast sold more than twice as many units, shifting a total of 1.6 million consoles over the same period of time.

Despite pressures from all corners, Sony has refused to drop the price of the embattled Vita.
 

The manager of Tetris, the original puzzle game, has said that Angry Birds is nothing but a passing fad. While he acknowledges the success the game has had – and even says it is quite fun – he does not see it having such a wide-reaching impact on the industry as Tetris has had.

"Angry Birds is cute and everybody plays it for a while but they get burned out and move on and they will play another game," he said of the game. "Any time you have a character like an Angry Birds character, the games that have those as their central theme, they become popular and then they go away. Tetris has outlasted so many of those games, we've been around for 25 years. Again I like to compare it to a sport, in the beginning it's an activity, like golf was an activity, then it became a sport. I think once people have played it more than 20 or 25 years you can say it's here to stay, it's a sport, it's no longer a fad."

In other news, Angry birds was downloaded 6.5 million times on Christmas day alone.

 

Electronic Arts has slammed the Australian government's decision to ban the release of its upcoming game, Syndicate.

"It's regrettable that government policy in Australia is denying adults the right to play Syndicate," the company said in a statement. "The game will not be available in Australia despite its enthusiastic response from fans."

"We were encouraged by the government's recent agreement to adopt an 18+ age rating for games. We urge policy makers to take swift action to implement an updated policy that reflects today's market and gives its millions of adult consumers the right to make their own content choices."

Australia has a long history of banning games, and the government has remained firm on its stance to continue the practice in regard to games it deems inappropriate.

Square Enix has announced that Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance will hit Western shores in 2012. The game is being developed for the 3DS, and there was some doubt as to whether it would get a release in the West. However, Square Enix has assured fans that it will indeed make the transition.

"With the tenth anniversary of the series on the horizon, the current Kingdom Hearts saga is approaching its climactic conclusion," the game's director said of the title. "The story of this game will serve as the opening chapter of the final conflict, and, as always, will be full of surprises. In order to best implement this element of surprise and discover new realms of possibility, we have chosen Nintendo 3DS as our platform."

No exact release date has been confirmed.

Sony has already planned out the release catalogue for the PS Vita through to the end of 2013, it has been revealed. The console, which launched in Japan at the end of

December, has been relatively successful so far, and Sony plans to keep it that way.

"Generally we look three years ahead when we work on games," one studio boss with knowledge of the strategy said recently. "We have a fairly firm plan right up to 2013 but, because PS Vita gives us the opportunity to work on smaller titles like Escape Plan and Sound Shapes, I'm certain we will end up working on more games than we even know about at this moment."

Many of the games being worked on have yet to be announced, according to various internet reports. Sony apparently plans to announced new games every few months to keep interest in the console fresh.
 

Though the launch of the PlayStation Vita has been relatively smooth and successful, there have been numerous reports of consoles freezing and malfunctioning.

Sony has said it is aware of the issues, and is working on a plan to fix every bug that has cropped up during launch.

The company did not, however, say how many people are experiencing these problems – which included the screen freezing up during gameplay.
 

Bioware has warned new players of its popular MMO, The Old Republic, not to join the most popular servers, as they are already experiencing extremely high volumes and long queues.

Instead, the studio has asked gamers to join servers that have more free space.

Here's what they said:

As many of you know, we're experiencing high load and corresponding queues on some servers. This is to be expected during launch, as a high number of people want to play the game, and for long stretches at a time.

We're monitoring all of our servers around the clock, and we're raising server population caps where required. However, to ensure our long-term goals of server stability and healthy populations, we do not want to raise population caps too rapidly. We want incoming players to populate lower population servers. At the same time, higher population servers will not be 'locked' because we want to allow people to join a server to play with their friends if they wish to.

With this in mind, we wanted to notify everyone of some consistently high population servers. These servers are closing in on their absolute population cap (the maximum amount of players who can be on the server at any given time) and will likely have a queue to enter even at off-peak play times.

We strongly advise you to not create new characters on these servers, unless you are prepared to queue to play.

US-based servers
The Harbinger - US West Coast - PvE
The Swiftsure - US West Coast - PvP
The Fatman - US East Coast - PvP
EU-based servers
Bloodworthy - EU English - PvP
Frostclaw - EU English - PvE
Legions of Lettow - EU English - PvP
The Red Eclipse - EU English - PvE
Tomb of Freedom Nadd - EU English - PvP
Darth Revan's Mask - EU German - PvP
Darth Traya - EU German - PvP
Jar'Kai Sword - EU German - PvP
Hrakert Rift - EU French - PvP

Many of you who are already playing on these servers are asking for solutions, and we understand your frustration. At this time we can only ask for your patience. Population caps are being gradually raised on these servers, but raising them too fast will create an influx of new players and perpetuate the problem. We do not expect the queues to alleviate on these servers for the foreseeable future. If you do not want to queue, you should consider playing on another server, many of which have very low or no queues.

Character transfer is a common request for these servers. The ability to transfer your characters is being worked on, but there is no ETA on when it will be available.

Finally, we are also aware of the issues some have experienced where they have been disconnected during a queue due to internet issues, and had to restart their queue once more. This is a high priority for our server team and we'll be deploying a fix as soon as possible.

Hideo Kojima, the legendary game designer behind the Metal Gear Solid series, has said that he wants to make Zone of the Enders 3, but that he simply doesn’t have the time or manpower at present to do so.

"We want to make that game as well, the only thing is that we don't have staff who are able to work on that game," Kojima said recently.

"We have an environment where we could work on it using the Fox Engine. If we had staff available to work on that game, we would like to."

Kojima is currently busy working on a number of Metal Gear projects, and it remains unclear when exactly he will have to make Zone of the Enders 3.

The studio behind the S.T.A.L.K.E.R franchise is facing closure, according to internet reports. The company was busy working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2, but it seems as if the game – due in 2012 – will now not be completed, unless it is bought by another developer,

"We will do our best to continue," the studio said on its Twitter account. "However, at this moment, nothing is certain."

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R games received good reviews and boasted solid sales, but long development times have cut into the developer’s budget in a big way.
 

THQ has fired 30 people after the launch of its uDraw device tanked. The peripheral allows console gamers to draw on a tablet-like gadget, but demand for the device has been slim.

"Due to weaker than expected sales of the uDraw Game Tablet, we are taking a difficult but important step to reduce the number of employees that supported this brand," THQ said of the move.

“30 people will be leaving the company and business unit leader Martin Good will also be leaving to pursue new opportunities outside the company. This action will allow us to reduce costs, increase efficiency and increase the focus of our organisation."

Analysts blame strong tablets sales for the failure of the uDraw

Richard Garriott has admitted that Tabula Rasa, the failed MMO he headed, was in many ways a mistake. The game was originally intended to be much different than the eventual product, but those initial ideas were abandoned two years into production.

“After two years of trying we eventually abandoned the idea of trying to create a global intellectual property and decided to turn back on something we ourselves would make for ourselves,” Garriott said of the venture.

"But what it meant was that we were then two years out of position. And whenever you start a game that is two years out of position, you're basically already up a creek, if you know what I mean. Because what the company is not going to do is forgive the two years and forgive the millions of dollars that have already been spent. You basically are two years late and what's taking you so long - let's get the game out.”

Tabula Rasa closed last year after only a very short run. Garriott is reportedly working on a few projects, including some social media games.

The creator behind Ico and The Last Guardian, Fumito Ueda, has left Sony after many years at the company.

The legendary designer is busy finishing The Last Guardian – which is way overdue – and has said he will definitely see the project through. However, the game still apparently faces quite a few difficulties.

"It's been very difficult in terms of seeing the progress: not as fast as we'd been hoping for, and the team has been under big pressure," he said of the project recently.

The game is due out in 2012, and Ueda has not said what is plans are after The Last Guardian ships.

Zelda games will be using motion control from here on out, the series’ developer said recently. Skyward Sword, the most recent addition to the franchise, uses motion control, and has received universally positive reviews.

"I honestly think we cannot go back to button controls now," the game’s producer said of the use of motion control. "So, I think that these controls will be used in future Zelda titles, too."

Though details of the next sequel have not been confirmed, it is widely expected to be in development.

Modern Warfare 3 has racked up $1 Billion in sales, it has emerged. This is a truly astonishing statistic, and Activision reacted accordingly.

“Engagement of our Call of Duty audience continues to rise around the world,” Activision’s CEO said of the news. "Call of Duty as an entertainment franchise has made an indelible mark on popular culture and its broad and continued success is further validation that audiences increasingly value interactive experiences over passive experiences."

The game sold 6.5 million copies on its first day, and is expected to sell more than 20 million copies by some analysts.

Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, has shot down reports that he is retiring. Over recent days there have been quite a few rumours that he is looking at leaving Nintendo, but he categorically denied that today.

However, he admitted that the company must have a plan for the day that he does eventually leave.

“We have to construct the structure so that the organisation... can make it without me,” he said. "I should also admit that it might be better without me; I mean that a different approach and different talent might emerge, though I shouldn't dwell on this because then the article might indeed say 'Mr. Miyamoto is thinking about retiring,' because that is not the case."

Richard Garriott, the legendary game designer behind the Ultima series, has said that he believes a sequel to Ultima Online is still possible, despite falling out with Electronic Arts some time ago (EA owns the rights to the franchise).

“I would love to have access to the Ultima property,” he told Eurogamer. “We've had discussions at very high levels with Electronic Arts about access to the property. We're in discussions with Electronic Arts even now about a possible marketing and distribution relationships and things of this nature. I have a great fondness for Electronic Arts - I still think they're one of the best, most powerful and competent sales and marketing and distribution companies in the business."

The original Ultima Online is still going strong more than a decade after its initial release.

Bethesda recently addressed the issue of multiplayer for its Skyrim game, saying that it’s not impossible, but also not likely.

"You can never say never to anything like that," one of the developers said of the idea. "But it's not what our focus is. This type of game is where our hearts are, what we get excited about, and that's what we want to focus on. We don't want to lose that focus and we never want to sacrifice anything in the single player game just to have it be multi player."

Skyrim was released on 11 November, and has racked up huge sales alongside rave reviews.
 

Rumours are going around that a new sequel to the Batman franchise is in the works. Batman: Arkham World was teased at the VGA awards by an animated Joker, who accepted the award for the best character.

He had a script for Arkham World, which he tossed away before saying “Oops, spoilers!”

This has been treated as a joke by most journalists, but Rocksteady Studios has not issued an official denial.
 

The iPad 2 might not even be a year old yet, but Apple is apparently preparing for the release of the iPad 3. The device will, according to internet reports, hit stores within the next 3-4 months.

Apple has not commented, but analysts have long expected a sequel to the tremendously popular iPad 2 to be released.
 

The new update for Battlefield 3 is available now, and as promised it is absolutely enormous. Clocking in at more than 2GB, the patch fixes dozens of bug and addresses tons of other issues.

Here’s the full (and very long) list of changes:

Single Player Changes
• Added missing blood effect on kill shot
• Fixed a crash that could happen during level load in SP
• Fixed issue with game crashing during intro cut scene of Campaign mission "Thunder Run"
• Fixed a crash that could happen when shutting down levels
• Fixed crash on last mission that could occur after the player is killed by the first enemy in the train
• When a user got killed, after respawning, he heard sounds that remained as if bullets still were passing around him
• Fixed glitch in melee showing your equipped gun instead of the knife
• Fixed issues with texture streaming. Prioritizing of textures close to the user has become better, resulting in more detailed textures
• Improved mesh streaming conditions to avoid situations with risk of corruptions and crashes
• Fix blend into vehicle problem when entering a vehicle in the Campaign
• Fixed issue where disconnecting a controller during the Gamer Profile sign out animation would cause the game to soft lock
• Removed the hint "Shoot out the lights." during SP mission Nightshift
• Fixed issue with last mission not listed in REPLAY MISSIONS list
• Fixed issue on the SP mission Night Shift where three of the marines that repel down from the Osprey at the start of the level have PLR models instead of the right marine models
• Has been made harder to fail missions due to zero tolerance friendly fire
• Fixed MG nest objective on Operation Guillotine
• Fix for music climax on mission "Fear No Evil"
• Fixed issues that occurred if user were backtracking after fight at elevator on SP mission "Comrades"
• Adding a back button to SP campaign select difficulty screen
• Removed slomo from jump into train on SP mission "The Great Destroyer"
• Fixed glitches in subway Quick Time Events in mission "The Great Destroyer"
• Increased quality of the loading screen images
• Fixed glitch that made it possible to reach Solomon train QTE with the wrong weapon equipped in mission "Semper Fidelis"
• Fixed final sound fade out on SP mission "Thunder Run"
• Removed sound fade on convoy ride in mission "Operation Guillotine"
• Fixed squad mates coming through wall after intro on SP mission "Operation Guillotine"
• SP mission, "The Great Destroyer": moved Campaign Cleared achievement until after the Dima outro
• Fixed soldiers inside of terrain at start of level in "OPERATION GUILLOTINE"
• SP mission, "The Great Destroyer": Fixed streaming issue which could lead to out of memory when streaming in Subway ride
• Improved music and music fade on tank encounter in mission "Operation Guillotine"
• Sound on Operation Guillotine: Fixed trading floor crash camera shake and rumble
• Fade later when driving in to tunnel on "OPERATION GUILLOTINE"
• Hide cross hair during Solomon intro & climb out scene on "Operation Swordbreaker"
• Fixes on "OPERATION SWORDBREAKER": Skip VO urging the player to move forward if the player has already moved. Fixed VO playing from the wrong world position
• Fixed crosshair being back on staging area in "OPERATION SWORD BREAKER"
• Fixes on "THUNDER RUN": Less delay after MICLIC scene. Friendly tanks start driving up to you sooner and are more likely to teleport into position. Enemies now spawn in front of you & to the right, instead of behind the approaching friendly tanks
• Fixed Squad mates goes through the ground in front of the house before throwing in grenades in "OPERATION GUILLOTINE"
• Fixed issue with player not being able to cross the plank as soon as its down on ground on mission "Operation Swordbreaker"
• Fixed sliding into cut scene on roof top on mission "Operation Swordbreaker"
• Tweaked difficulty levels in Single Player
• Fixed a hang in terrain streaming, causing the user to get stuck on black screen under special circumstances in Singleplayer
• Fixes in Night Shift: New save point after wave 2 in mall. Fixed bug where wave 3 was considered done way before all enemies were killed, causing a possible difficulty spike
• Added tutorial for firing Stinger on "ROCK AND A HARD PLACE" copied from "OPERATION GUILLOTINE"
• Delayed "The Professional" achievement/trophy to not pop up in the middle of the scene
• Fixed issue on The Great Destroyer where you could equip a gun before entering the train
Multiplayer changes
• Significant squad user interface changes detailed here
• Added round duration and ticket summary at EOR
• Advanced squad polish - should be more intuitive
• Added back EOR sound for SQDM and TDM
• Fixed sound for when climbing ladders
• Fixed and issue with some first person weapon sounds
• Fixed a swim sound loop error
• You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it
• Spawn protection now should work in Conquest. You should no longer spawn on points too close to enemies
• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM and SQDM
• Fix for missing input restriction during intro movie, causing players to potentially fall and die while watching movie if moving controller (or having a controller with a bad stick zone).
• Combat areas on Kharg Rush tweaked in order to disallow defenders to access the carrier ship after 1st base is taken and being able to enter the AA gun
• Fixed a problem with revived players not being able to get suppressed
• Fixed a problem with the camera when being revived in COOP
• Spotting VO now plays when spotting from MAV/EOD
• End of round now has round statistics like Team tickets and Round time display
• Fixed several issues regarding the kill card. It was showing wrong weapons used for the kill
• Fixed that sometimes you would be stuck on a black screen when kicked from server
• Fixed so when a team captures two flags at the same time, the UI could show wrong owner of the flag
• Fixed a problem where the capture progress bar was showed as friendly when the enemy was capturing
• Fixed a problem with the bipod deploy sound
• Fixed a problem that you could be spawned in with no weapons after being killed while using the EOD bot
• Fixed problems with health bars not displaying health properly when using EOD bots
• Fixed a problem with flickering name tags
• Fixed a problem where friendlies could damage friendly helicopters
• Fixed a problem where you could get stuck in the co-op menu when attempting to join the session twice
• You should now be able to spot explosives
• You should no longer spawn in home base if your selected spawn point is dis ]]> Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:42:26 +0100 http://www.gamesworldsa.com/index.php?section=pre&id=1606 New Battlefield Update Is Huge http://www.gamesworldsa.com/index.php?section=pre&id=1605

Epic bigwig Cliff Bleszinski has said he plans to create more Gears of War games, but that we might have to wait for the Xbox 720 for the next title.

"We could be faced with the console transition at some point,” he said recently. “We would certainly love to make more experiences in the Gears universe. If we get around to it, I want to make sure we switch it up sufficiently so it still feels like Gears DNA, but it feels fresh and new."

He also spoke of a possible reboot of the Unreal franchise, which Epic recently admitted has been neglected in recent years.
 

The sequel to the surprise hit, Darksiders, will hit stores in the summer of 2012, the game’s developer recently confirmed. The title will be available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, and will also hit the Wii U at some point.

In fact, it is expected to be a launch title for the Wii U, which Nintendo has said will be released sometime in the second half of 2012.
 

Nintendo has announced the release schedule for the 3DS and DS for early next year. Dozens of titles will hit stores, with several big names headlining the schedule.

Here’s a full list of what’s in store for fans of Nintendo’s handheld consoles:

Nintendo 3DS
• Resident Evil Revelations (Capcom) - 27th January 2012
• Nintendo 3DS Circle Pad Pro - 27th January 2012
• CRUSH 3D (Sega) - January 2012
• 3D Game Collection (Mastertronic) - January 2012
• VVVVVV (Nicalis) - January 2012
• Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Sega) - February 2012
• One Piece Unlimited Cruise Special (Namco Bandai) - 10th February 2012
• SpeedThru: Potzol's Puzzle (Nintendo) - February 2012
• Kid Icarus: Uprising (Nintendo) - March 2012
• Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D (Konami) - Winter
• Pac-Man Party 3D (Namco Bandai) - Q1 2012
• Ben 10 Galactic Racing (Namco Bandai) - Q1 2012
• Tekken 3D Prime Edition (Namco Bandai) - Q1 2012
• Crash Time 4 (PQube) - Q1 2012
• 3D Classics: Kid Icarus (Nintendo) - Q1 2012
• Colors! 3D (Collecting Smiles) - Q1 2012
• Dillon's Rolling Western (Nintendo) - Q1 2012
• Fun! Fun! Minigolf Touch! (Shin'en Multimedia) - Q1 2012
• Mutant Mudds (Renegade Kid) - Q1 2012
• Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure (Sega) - Early 2012
• Mario Tennis (Nintendo) - 2012
• Luigi's Mansion 2 (Nintendo) - 2012
• Professor Layton 5 (Nintendo) - 2012

Nintendo DS
• Antipole (Saturnine Games) - 5th January 2012
• Doodle Fit (Gamelion Studios)- January 2012
• Hidden Object Show (Intenium Console GmbH) - January 2012 (Benelux)
• Inazuma Eleven 2 Firestorm (Nintendo) - Q1 2012
• Inazuma Eleven 2 Blizzard (Nintendo) - Q1 2012
• Amoebattle (Grab) - Q1 2012
• Flip the Core (Engine Software) - Q1 2012
• Victorius: Hollywood Arts Debut (Namco Bandai) - Q1 2012

Wii
• Boom Street (Nintendo/Square Enix) - 6th January 2012
• The Last Story (Nintendo) - 24th February 2012
• Mario Party 9 (Nintendo) - March 2012
• PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond (Nintendo) - March 2012
• Winter Sports 2012 (PQube) - Q1 2012
• We Sing Pop (Nordic Games Publishing AB) - Q1 2012
• We Sing 80's (Nordic Games Publishing AB) - Q2 2012
• La-Mulana (Nicalis) - Q1 2012
• Pandora's Tower (Nintendo) - Q2 2012
• Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise (Nintendo) - 2012

Naughty Dog, the developer behind the Uncharted series, is keen on continuing its production of games that have a strong story. According to the studio’s creative director, their upcoming title, The Last Of Us, will also feature a strong narrative element.

"We try so hard at Naughty Dog to push things," told Eurogamer recently. "And then games come out that are fun and exciting and get visceral things right, but to read in reviews that they have an amazing story is disheartening to us because we work so hard at it.”

"As critics we need to raise the bar, otherwise no-one's going to change. We're going to keep pushing ourselves, and kill ourselves to make this story happen - but hope that by doing it, the rest of the industry is going to take notice and try to do the same thing."

Uncharted was released a few months ago to rave reviews and huge sales.
 

A huge patch for Payday: The Heist has been release, which addresses several bugs in the game, and also adds some new functionality.

Here are the full details”
PAYDAY Xmas achievement!
Find a Christmas present on any of the levels in multiplayer - take it and you will be given a Santa mask! Plus you will get the chance to be surprised later on...

Big features:
Player drop-in ability in load-out and in-game!
You can now join an ongoing game! You will no longer be locked out of games just because they have already started or because you dropped out during play. Just rejoin and continue collecting those precious dollars and gems!

These are the rules: Players who are downed or in custody and drop out only to rejoin the same game will respawn in custody. Drop-in is disabled during the "point of no return" phase of the heist, as well as on the end screen.

Heavily improved fighting and acting by team AI and enemies

New features and fixes include:
- New events and enemy tactics on all levels
- Team and enemies now pick better cover and firing positions, and use more intelligent firing lanes for suppression and sniping
- Enemies now master additional acrobatic moves (such as dashes and slides) and they can fire at you while doing them!
- More cover moves for team AI and enemies
- Enemy AI move in tighter formations and coordinate better
- Team AI now keeps up with human players much better
- Smoother turn and aim on team AI, and reduced animation glitches on movements
- Better looking weapon recoils on team and enemies
- AI teammates now pick weapons that better suit the current combat situation
- Combat will now be more mid ranged and not run-in gun battles
- Team AI no longer has "ants in the pants" (they don't move around so much) when there are no enemies around

Advanced GFX settings menu (AG menu)
Custom visual settings and optimizations, including:
- Texture resolution setting "low" to "high"
- Texture filtering "off" and up to x16
- V-synch on/off
- AA on/off
- Light streaks on/off
- Animation level-of-detail setting for better performance
- More suitable default resolutions to fit laptops etc.
- AlienwareFX on/off (for Alienware computers)
- Added eight color grade filters (inspired by a range of heist and action movies)
"Payday +"
"Dinero"
"In Traffic"
"Bastard"
"BHD"
"Xgen Brown"
"Future of Gaming"
"The Matrices"

New masks:
To celebrate that yet another bunch of military shooters was released recently, we've added four new masks to Payday!

Improved network code"
Disclaimer: We did not fix the Internet. Please talk to Al Gore about that.
We've added a red toothbrush to Panic Room, and we've made sure this one's worth the hullabaloo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT1HShMInUs&feature=youtu.be

Additional features and fixes:
Slaughterhouse and Diamond Heist are now available in the Normal difficulty setting
Single Player has improved scenario and difficulty balancing
Added more money bundles to First World Bank
The legendary über killer sniper removed from Heat Street
Teammate "mugshot" icons (lower left corner of the screen) now flash to indicate who is talking over

VOIP
You can now see the cash value of the "near completion challenges" in the TAB menu
Fix to better hear team AI voices
Fixes for random crashes
Fixed the drill that kept resetting to full time for some people
Fixes for fake lobby appearing
Changed [Enter] to $Continue; to fix binding of enter to block the final stats screen.
More camera impacts on explosions
All weapons now have alert ranges, unique for each weapon
Chains is no longer replaced by Wolf on rare trade occasions
Bain will now correctly call the equipment "saws" (not "drills") in Panic Room

Mega Man is headed to the iPhone and iPad, it has been confirmed. An exact release date isn’t known, but the little blue man will definitely make his mobile debut sometime in the next few months.

Several Mega Man projects have been cancelled since the game’s creator left Capcom, but the publisher has always maintained that it wants to keep the series alive. Whether this is what they meant, or whether it is just the start, remains to be seen.

The game should be pretty interesting with a touch screen, that’s for sure.

A new DLC pack for Duke Nukem Forever has been unveiled. The shooter, which was very poorly received by critics, sold well nevertheless, and the developer is keen to keep the brand going.

The DLC will be entitled “The Doctor Who Clones me,” and will feature largely single player content. However there will be a few mew multiplayer maps as well.
Here are some details on those maps:

SKY HIGH: The alien-infested corporate offices of Pooty, Inc. near the center of Las Vegas. This map includes three indoor floors taken over by the aliens and two rooftops, jump pads, stairwells, and building-to-building combat.

COMMAND: EDF command center with an imprisoned BattleLord at its core! A two-level map featuring winding stairs, straightaway corridors, and jump pads.

DROP ZONE: Rooftop of Duke's Lady Killer Casino featuring indoor and outdoor combat and stairwells for platforming, an EDF dropship on landing pad, and a bottomless pit.

BIOHAZARD: Fight in the Breston Plant Nuclear Power facilities and compete across multiple floors in locker rooms, restrooms with showers, control rooms, and the nuclear waste storage room.

The long-awaited sequel to the classic Half-Life 2 is in development, if internet reports are to be believed. A voice actor has claimed that he recorded lines for the new title, which has yet to be confirmed by Valve in any capacity.

However, there is some doubt as to whether this is actually Half-Life 3, or just Half-Life 2: Episode 3, which has been in development for just a little less than forever.

Valve, as always, did not comment on the rumours.
 

Details about the sequel to the popular Dead Rising 2 have made their way online. Nothing is official, but it seems as if the new game will take place in the fictional city of Los Peridos in California.

The “story” will see a mechanic, provisionally named Rick, and a group of fellow survivors trying to escape the infected city by repairing a plane to fly away in.

It’s been known for a while that another title for the popular franchise was in the works, but this is the first time we’ve gotten wind of any kind of concrete details. The game will likely be released sometime next year.
 

Square Enix has released the classic RPG, Chrono Trigger, for iOS devices. The RPG is widely regarded as being one of the best ever made, and fans have long been clamouring for a mobile version of the NES title.

The game apparently sticks pretty closely to its roots, with a few changes aimed at modernizing it. These include updated graphics and optimized controls.

The game is available for $9.99 on iTunes.