Dragon’s Lair to arrive in May, with Kinect support

Microsoft's announced that the Xbox Live port of Dragon’s Lair is due out on May 18. Announced back in March, the game will feature Kinect support, as can be seen in a trailer here.

Update: God of War multiplayer confirmed

The rumorang was true once more; God of War: Ascension is to have a multiplayer component.
The details will be revealed during a live broadcast in abuot an hour and a half, at 8 AM PDT. For now, here’s this bit from game director Todd Papy: “We wouldn’t do multiplayer in God of War unless we knew we could do it right. That’s why I’m extremely excited to finally be able to talk publicly about it and share all the gory details with you live. I even have some exclusive gameplay footage to share with you, so be sure to tune in to see it all live.”
8AM, PDT. Here.
Update: A presser that’s arrived promised the mode to “combine the brutal gameplay and large-scale battles that God of War is known for.”
The multiplayer mode allows players to compete both online and off. The whole thing is based on the single-player campaign and supports up to eight players and a number of different modes.
Warriors can align themselves with the likes of Zeus, Ares, Poseidon and Hades to gain special abilities, armor and weaponry, which can be customized.

A few screenshots came as well:



And some video:

Angry Birds creators exit Rovio, found Boomlagoon

Two Angry Birds creators, lead server architect Antti Stén and lead artist Tuomas Erikoinen — or Mr. Plan and Mr. Action as they refer to themselves — have left Rovio to start a business of their own, in the hopes of coming up with something as giant as the phenomenon they leave behind.
“If we play our cards right, we just might end up with the next Angry Birds,” Stén’s told Venture Beat.
The new company is called Boomlagoon. Yet to raise any money, it’s just Stén (chief executive) and Erikoinen (chief creative officer) for now, though they are looking for investors.
As for what they’ll be making; nothing has been announced yet, but expect to see “convivial and intriguing” games on both mobile and web.
“We know a thing or two about successful games and high volumes, and we’ll use this knowledge to spawn something very cool and new.”

Top 10 video games of 2011

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard)
Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft Entertainment)
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Softworks)

Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts)

Madden NFL 12 (Electronic Arts)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard)
Batman: Arkham City (Warner Bros. Interactive)
Gears of War 3 (Microsoft)
Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft Entertainment)
Assassin's Creed: Revelations (Ubisoft Entertainment)

Best Buy Closing 50 Stores and Begins Hunt for New CEO
Best Buy is closing 50 U.S. stores by the end of 2012 and is on the hunt for a new CEO. The retail chain store already closed two stores this year (one in Kansas City, Mo., and one in Scottsdale, Ariz.), and it notified five Twin Cities stores and one San Antonio store that they will close later this year. On Saturday, it confirmed the identity of the remaining store locations that will close later this year, most of which will permanently close by May 12.
The Best Buy Board of Directors also announced it has launched the process of searching for a new CEO and said it could take six to nine months to complete. When Best Buy announced the resignation of Brian Dunn as chief executive officer and director on April 10, the company said "there were no disagreements between Mr. Dunn and the company on any matter relating to operations, financial controls, policies or procedures. There was mutual agreement that it was time for new leadership to address the challenges that face the company."
But the Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter," said the board was exploring whether Dunn had misused company assets in the course of an alleged relationship with a female subordinate.
The board named director Mike Mikan interim CEO. He introduced himself in a message on Wednesday and said he was very pleased with the priorities the company had established including "improving the customer and employee experiences, re-energizing the store portfolio, reducing costs and driving our global growth strategies (Connections, Services, e-commerce and China)."
The company said it was closing the 50 stores as part of an initiative to "increase points of presence, while decreasing overall square footage."
It will remodel some key stores with a new "Connected Store" format and will build additional Best Buy Mobile small format stores throughout the U.S. The company said it would continue to share details of such actions as the year progresses. "We are committed to making it easier for customers to shop with us, whenever and wherever they want."
A list of the store closures follows.

Locations of 2012 U.S. Best Buy store closings
Store Name	Address	City	State
Casa Grande	1004 N Promenade Pwy	Casa Grande	AZ
Lake Pleasant	10134 W Happy Valley Rd	Peoria	AZ
East Palo Alto	1751 E Bayshore Rd	East Palo Alto	CA
Westwood	10861 Weyburn Ave	Los Angeles	CA
Manteca	934 Perimeter Dr	Manteca	CA
Moreno Valley East	27220 Eucalyptus	Moreno Valley	CA
Ontario	4120 E 4th St	Ontario	CA
Pittsburg	4405 Century Blvd	Pittsburg	CA
Jamboree	2857 Park Ave	Tustin	CA
Arapahoe & Parker	15800 E Briarwood Cir	Aurora	CO
The Forum	9370 Dynasty Dr	Fort Myers	FL
Oldsmar	11655 W Hillsborough Ave	Tampa	FL
Fayetteville	128 Pavilion Pkwy	Fayetteville	GA
Loganville	4014 Atlanta Hwy	Loganville	GA
Addison	1038 N Rohlwing Rd	Addison	IL
87th & Dan Ryan	8900 S Lafayette Ave	Chicago	IL
Deerfield	200 S Waukegan Rd	Deerfield	IL
Matteson	4707 Lincoln Mall Dr	Matteson	IL
Mundelein	1100 N Rt 83	Mundelein	IL
West Dundee	979 W Main St	West Dundee	IL
Speedway	10500 Parallel Pkwy	Kansas City	KS
Back Bay	360 Newbury St	Boston	MA
Wareham	2421 Cranberry Hwy	Wareham	MA
Inner Harbor	600 E Pratt St	Baltimore	MD
Hunt Valley	118 Shawan Rd	Hunt Valley	MD
Biddeford	405 Mariner Way	Biddeford	ME
*Brooklyn Center	5925 Earle Brown Dr	Brooklyn Center	MN
*Edina	3200 Southdale Cir	Edina	MN
*Hutchinson	1350 Hwy 15 S	Hutchinson	MN
*Lakeville	18350 Orchard Trl	Lakeville	MN
Rochester South	4540 Maine Ave Se	Rochester	MN
*Rogers	20870 Rogers Dr	Rogers	MN
Ellisville	15678 Manchester Rd	Ellisville	MO
Monroe	3151 W Highway 74	Monroe	NC
Rocky Mount	1100 N Wesleyan Blvd	Rocky Mount	NC
Millard	12210 K Plz	Omaha	NE
East River Plaza	517 E 117th St	New York	NY
Steelyard Commons	3506 Steelyard Dr	Cleveland	OH
Salem Mall	5031 Salem Ave	Dayton	OH
Caguas	Las Americas Expry PR52 Zafiro	Caguas	PR
Middletown	890 W Main Rd	Middletown	RI
Hickory Hollow	5255 Hickory Hollow Pkwy	Antioch	TN
Techridge	12901 North I-35	Austin	TX
*Woodlake Parkway	6218 Woodglen	San Antonio	TX
Landmark Mall	5901 Stevenson Ave	Alexandria	VA
Cosner's Corner	9745 Jefferson Davis Hwy	Fredericksburg	VA
East Richmond	4410 S Laburnum Ave	Richmond	VA
Mill Plain	16611 Se Mill Plain Blvd	Vancouver	WA
* indicates stores notified March 29, 2012 of closure plans Note: Two stores in Kansas City, MO (Metro North) and Scottsdale, AZ (Shea) permanently closed in February 2012.

Monks get the spotlight in Diablo III trailer

Time to take a quick peek at the Monk class in Diablo III. They apparently like to follow the will of their 1001 gods, even in death. Guess the gods want much dungeon-raiding to be carried out, then.

And the next James Bond game is…

Activision has announced a brand new James Bond game for PS3 and 360, 007 Legends, celebrating 50 years of Bond films.
It’s neither a third GoldenEye remake nor a new 007 story, rather a sort of ‘best of’ that ties together the plots of six of the historic franchises’ greatest films and allows us to play key scenes in each. One such plot will be the upcoming Skyfall, the 23rd film in the franchise due out later this year.

The rest haven’t been announced, and we don’t know if this means that Daniel Craig will assume the role of James Bond across all of these stories like he did in GoldenEye. All we know is that if you take out Lazenby, there’ll be hell to pay.
The Mi6 Ops introduced in last year’s GoldenEye: Reloaded will return too, as does developer Eurocom. Multiplayer is also in, with four-player split-screen and online modes taking content from the series’ deep catalog. Let’s hope for maps in Blofeld’s hollow-volcano and the chance to control giant space laser beams, then.
No date beyond “fall” yet but look for one at E3, perhaps.

Free Apps

Sony shows off free Vita apps

Three new apps are heading to Sony’s PS Vita.

The PlayStation Blog recently detailed these new additions to the system, revealing them to be Paint Park, Treasure Park and Wake-Up Club.
Out now is Paint Park, an app that lets you paints and sketch using the system’s touchscreen. Vita’s camera can be used to draw over pictures and there’s even a five-player mulitplayer mode to put artistic skills to the test.
Treasure Park and Wake-Up Club are to be released soon. Treasure Park uses near (the Vita’s location-based app) to get players to search for puzzles from friends, while the Wake-Up club allows you to sync the system’s alarm with other people’s alarms so that you can wake-up at the same time. We’ll admit that last one sounds a little odd.
The good bit is that these apps are all free.  Now, how about some more games for our happy little systems, Sony?

Diablo III beta closes May 1

Alas, dungeon crawlers of Diablo III, all good things must come to an end—for a little while at least. Blizzard has announced that they will be shutting down all beta servers for their upcoming action-RPG in about two weeks, on Tuesday, May 1.
No need to worry though, as the game is set to launch just a couple weeks later, on May 15. Until then, rest your carpal tunnel-riddled wrists while Blizzard prepares their servers; it should be worth the wait.

UK industry suffers in March

Given the issues with Game Group, it should come as no surprise that business in the UK games industry was down in March.

As MCV reports, 2.6 million games were sold during last month. That’s down 34 percent year-over-year, from 4.1 million in March 2011. £67.7 million, down by 33.5% for March 2011. Q1 sales were down 30% in comparison to Q1 2011.
Just looking at recent UK charts listings shows that EA had an iron grip on March sales with big releases like Mass Effect 3 (the month’s biggest selling title), SSX and FIFA Street.
Game Group, the country’s leading specialist high-street retailer went into administration towards the end of the month. The company had to close a range of stores, which undoubtedly had its hand in these figures. Now that the retailer has been bought up things will hopefully be back on track in April.

Sony to up its game, confirms job cuts

Sony CEO and former PlayStation man Kaz Hirai has revealed plans to lead the company out of its recently financial issues and back into profitability, highlighting gaming as a key component.

A company press release revealed the current plan of action, VG247 reports.

“Sony is positioning digital imaging, game and mobile as the three main focus areas of its electronics business and plans to concentrate investment and technology development resources in these areas,” it read.

“By growing these three businesses, Sony aims to generate approximately 70% of total sales and 85% of operating income for the entire electronics business from these categories by FY14.”
PS3, PSN and PS Vita were said to be pivotal to this plan.
“The Company also aims to increase sales by enriching its catalog of downloadable game titles and subscription services available through the PSN platform, and also by expanding the lineup of PlayStation Suite compatible devices and content.
“Sony will target game business sales of one trillion yen and operating income margin of 8% by FY14.”
Sadly though, this restructuring will result in roughly 10,000 job cuts this year as rumored.
What the future holds for a more game-focused Sony we don’t know but hopefully it bodes well for the PS4/Orbis.

God of War IV getting announced next week?

PlayStation’s official Facebook page is teasing a mighty big reveal for next Thursday.

An image at the top of the page displays the message “Will vengeance bring redemption?” complete with the date 04.19.12.

That’s all the clues we’ve been given but it might be more than enough. The PlayStation-exclusive God of War series has always carried a heavy theme of vengeance in its plots. In the conclusion to the main trilogy, God of War III, protagonist Kratos finally got the revenge he had long sought, bringing about some heavy consequences along with it.

Redemption, then, would likely be a key theme for God of War IV which is being heavily rumored right now. We could be wrong of course, but it sure does look that way, doesn’t it?

Max Payne coming to iOS, Android devices

Bringing heavy-hitting games (both classic and new) to mobile devices such as iOS and Android phones is becoming common practice today. The latest doing this is Rockstar Games, which intends to bring the “full classic Max Payne PC experience” to iOS devices next week, on April 12th. Max Payne Mobile, which will boast “HD graphics, high-resolution textures, Social Club connectivity and user-customizable controls,” will be available on numerous (but yet to be detailed) Android devices two weeks later, on the 26th, as well.

As for the iOS devices that’ll support the game, these include: iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S and the original iPad, iPad 2 and the new iPad. So, pretty much, all of them.

Free GOG backups for all PC copies of The Witcher 2

Another one of the announcements made by CD Projekt at its Spring conference yesterday was a free backup copy of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings for PC all users, no matter when or where you bought it, digital or otherwise.

Once people buy a game, they shouldn’t have to buy it again, the developer reasoned.
The backup copy will be the most complete digital version, too. Not to mention the free content and updates that make up the upcoming PC version of the Enhanced Edition, due out digitally on the 17th, alongside the Xbox 360 version’s retail release.

New Uncharted 3 maps next week

Naughty Dog are bringing about a new map pack for Uncharted 3 next Tuesday; the Drake’s Deception map pack will add all-new locations to the game’s multiplayer, based off of the latest adventure in the blockbuster franchise.
Four maps will be included. There’s Graveyard, Old Quater, London Streets and Oasis settings, based off of the campaign’s various settings. The dynamic events that the multiplayer pitched itself on this time around will also return, with boats showing up to gun players down, or supply planes that drop crates out of the sky.
The DLC goes free to anyone with the Fortune Hunter’s Club membership, and $9.99 otherwise. The club’s offerings actually come to a close on April 17, but the Dogs have promised more U3 DLC will appear afterwards.

Ms. Splosion Man coming to PC, mobile

Ms. Splosion Man is making the jump (or rather, splosion) over to PC and mobile platforms soon, developer Twisted Pixel has announced.
A long list of new platforms have been added to the XBLA hit, including Steam, Games for Windows LIVE, Windows Phone 7, iPad and iPhone. Iron Galaxy, Fire Hose and Panic Button studios have been
recruited to help port the game over.

The PC versions holds true to the original with 50 single player levels, 50 co-op levels for up to four players locally or online, ghost replays, achievements, unlockables like ‘2 Girls 1 Controller Mode’, and more. The mobile versions are promised to be more unique, with exclusive modes and controls.

These new versions will release this Summer.

Borderlands 2 — 5+ minutes of gameplay

Nearly six minutes of straight up Borderlands 2 gameplay? Yes.

Way of the Samurai 4 heading to US PS3s

Xseed has confirmed via the PlayStation Blog that it’s bringing Way of the Samurai 4 over to North America as a PS3 exclusive.

The fourth entry in the cult series sets an interesting scene; picturing a Japan on the brink of globalization as the country opens its borders to the British. Players can either join forces with the anti-foreign resistance or fight against it. Either or that or hang somewhere in the middle, trying to stop the conflict.

The usual distractions will be in place too: casinos, customization and side quests will all feature as normal.
A release date and pricing aren’t available right now, but it’s always good to see the series head over to a less familiar audience.

Next PlayStation, Xbox to share graphics card?

Rumors of both Project Durango (next Xbox) and Orbis (next PlayStation) are swirling around at the moment, and IGN has come up with some more specifics on the graphic’s card for Sony’s next effort.

The site cites various anonymous sources in saying that the new machine packs AMD’s A8-3850 APU and the Radeon HD 7670 GPU. The proposed DirectX 11-enabled card clocked to 1GHz with up to 1GB of dedicated VRAM is a “re-branded” version of the HD 6670 with identical specifications. The HD 6670 is what’s being used in the new Xbox, apparently.

iOS apps raking in the cash over Android

A fresh set of stats from CCS Insights and Distimo (via) has indicated that apps on iOS are currently making more revenue than that of Android. Looking at the 200 highest-grossing apps only, the iPhone app store makes some $3.34 million a day, while its iPad counterpart makes $2.04 million. Despite a 31 percent growth in January, Android apps only reached $679,000 per day. That’s less than 13% of the iOS total revenue.
Over 60 percent of the iOS revenue was generated through in-app purchases in January. In February that rose to 73 percent, or 79 percent for just iPhone apps. February saw a 27 percent drop in total iOS revenues, largely thought to be because of the anticipation of the new iPad.

WW2, Japan, and Egypt “most boring” potential settings for Assassin’s Creed — Ubisoft

As you should know by now, Assassin’s Creed III will be set in the time of the American Revolution, spanning  many of the North American colonies during the 18th century. According to the hotly-anticipated title’s creative director, however, this location may have been chosen because some of the other options presented to them were, well, boring.

Speaking to OXM about other possible settings for ACIII, Ubisoft’s Alex Hutchinson said, “People on the internet suggest the most boring settings. The three most wanted are WWII, feudal Japan and Egypt. They’re kind of the three worst settings for an AC game.” Hutchinson didn’t elaborate much beyond this general dismissal.
So what places would Ubisoft be willing to set future Assassin’s Creed games, then? According to Hutchinson, players may be slitting throats in India if he and ACIII lead writer Corey May get their way. “[May] really wants to do India. I would too. I’d really love to do the Raj.”
Personally, I’ll still be advocating for future Assassin’s Creed games to take place during the prehistoric era, because, as we all know, everything is better with dinosaurs.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution has a date with Mac

Mac users are getting one of 2011′s best games at the end of this month, as Feral Interactive has announced that Deus Ex: Human Revolution is coming to the system on April 27.

This is the Ultimate Edition of the game, adding the Explosive Mission and Tactical Enhancement packs as well as The Missing Link expansion DLC that followed shortly after the original game’s release.

It’ll go for $49.99 in the US and £34.99 in the UK, available from digital stores like the Mac App Store or Feral Interactive’s own service.

Looking to get it? Then you’ll need a 2.0GHz Intel Mac with at least 4GB RAM, 20GB Hard Drive space, 256MB+ graphics card, and Mac OS X 10.7.3 or later. The following graphics cards are not supported: ATI X1xxx series, ATI HD2xxx series, NVIDIA 9400, NVIDIA 7xxx series, NVIDIA 320M, Intel HD3000 and Intel GMA series.

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Horror genre has to get over “shoddy gameplay” – Silent Hill developer

Silent Hill: Downpour developer Vatra games has spoken out about the future of the horror genre in gaming, targeting poor gameplay and visuals as faults that have to go.
The team’s Tomm Hulett reasoned as much to MCV Pacific (via), saying: “I think the genre was lucky, to an extent, when it started out. A lot of horror elements ‘clicked’ such as clunky combat, confusing cameras, and so on.

“However, shoddy gameplay can’t be a feature forever, and so everyone fixed the combat – resulting in action games with creepier monsters. If horror games are going to be ‘scary’ in the future, it’s going to take careful game design to do it.”

Downpour released a few weeks ago to a lukewarm reception. That hasn’t phased Hulett’s design philosophies, though. “While many other games have gone the route of more action oriented game design, attempting to appeal to more mainstream audiences, we’ve taken a very careful approach to the pacing of Downpour to make sure it maintains that original ‘slow-burn’ and keeping the player off guard with less predictability,” he said.

Scary games are hard to pull off, but Hulett hopes they’re coming back in a big way.

“If you have tense, frightening gameplay happening naturally, and then some carefully orchestrated designed-scares, you would have a very memorable horror game,” he said.

“Hopefully that’s the direction the genre is headed.”
We’ll join him in those hopes; scary games are too few and far between these days.

Wii is Epic Mickey 2′s lead platform, HD versions not just “up-rezzed”

Epic Mickey 2 lead designer Warren Spector has revealed that the Wii is still the lead platform for the upcoming sequel, but the PC, PS3 and 360 versions won’t just be “up-rezzed” ports, instead using new assets.

The game is being developed by Junction Point on the Wii and Blitz games on 360 and PS3. Spector reasoned to Eurogamer that this would allow his team to focus on the Wii version while the other versions could also get full attention.

“One of the goals for the first game was to make a Wii game that had even other developers saying, ‘Holy cow! I didn’t know you could do that on a Wii.’ And so, at the end of the day, we decided we wanted to make the same game for all three platforms,” Spector said.
“And because we have Wii tech and Wii expertise and because we needed to build next-gen tech, which we didn’t have, we prototyped, essentially, on the Wii. And the next-gen versions are running about a month behind everything. Just recently, everything caught up, so now we’re running in lock step, making them simultaneous.
“If we come up with something in tuning the game at Junction Point on the Wii version we think will benefit the 360 and PS3 version, that gets integrated into the 360 and PS3 version. If the guys at Blitz working on the next-gen platforms come up with something that will benefit, it comes back the other way.”
In this sense, Spector suggested that the Wii is the real lead platform: ”I guess you could say the Wii is the lead platform, because we’re driving the creative on all three platforms. But really, it’s been a two-way street. They’re both feeding into each other,” he said.
“The power of the next-gen platforms allows us to do cool shader effects, higher resolution graphics, and more and better visual effects. It is the same game across all platforms, but graphically, the assets are not shared. We created all new assets for both next-gen platforms, so it isn’t just up-rezzed stuff.”
Of course, there’s also a 3DS Epic Mickey game inbound which is reportedly nothing like its console counterparts.

Ezio DLC, more headed to Final Fantasy XIII-2

Commander Shepard’s armor not doing it for you, Final Fantasy XIII-2 players? Maybe this’ll help.

Noel is about to get ahold of Ezio’s iconic garments from the Assassin’s Creed series. Sera of course won’t be left in the cold; she’s getting an “Exposure and Defense” outfit designed by AKB48 member Yuko Oshima.

They won’t be all dressed up with nowhere to go, either; Gilgamesh has been announced as the next Coliseum monster.

No dates for the contents yet though.

Kinect “the future of interactive storytelling” — BioWare

Following Mass Effect 3, BioWare can’t get enough of Kinect. To a point even where the sci-fi franchise’s executive producer Casey Hudson finds it to be “the future of interactive storytelling.” That’s some mighty high praise.

He’s explained to OXM: “It feels like the future of interactive storytelling. You’re just talking to a character, and you’re going deeper into their conversation, asking them questions and telling them things and after it’s over you pick up the controller, and it’s a cold piece of plastic, and you think ‘this is the old way, and what I was doing was the future’.”
It’s one thing to give squad commands by voice, but the real deal comes from the conversation system; “It’s very fortunate how it works with the existing system, which is that we have paraphrases. Speak those paraphrases, and they trigger that line.
“Once you start doing that, you realise you’re using different mental pathways to interact with the game. You’re not pressing buttons to talk, you’re talking to talk. And it makes conversation totally different, especially because the Kinect can isolate room noise really well.
“You don’t have to project out to your TV in any way. You can speak quietly in a conversational tone. And it hears you, and then you’re having this amazingly realistic conversation with a character.”
So, Hudson and co are quite fond of the Microsoft device. All eyes are on the company this week for quite a different reason though. Have your fingers crossed all nice and tight?

What are Halo Infinity and Spartan Ops?

Two Halo-related domain names have been bought up this week; MarkMonitor has purchased “HaloInfinity.co.uk”, “HaloInfinityMultiplayer.co.uk” and “SpartanOps.org”.
As OXM reports, Microsoft has used MarkMonitor to buy domain names before.  So what leaves the ‘what?’ question, then. Surely it’s all related to the upcoming Halo 4.
Well, Infinity was the name of a human starship in Halo: Grasslands, a novel that takes place after the events of Halo 3. Perhaps that has something to do with it, or perhaps this is an evolution of the Halo Waypoint service. Spartan Ops? Well, Rain’s guess: “My money’s on Spartan Ops being COD’s Spec Ops rip off.”
We wouldn’t say no to that.

Ubisoft reveals Ghost Recon’s Facebook, iOS debut

Ubisoft has announced Ghost Recon: Commander to compliment this year’s release of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

Commander isn’t a console-bound spin-off, though. Instead its the series’ first Facebook and iOS game, designed as a companion to Future Soldier. Playing Commander will unlock items in Future Soldier and vice versa, much like we’ve seen with the Assassin’s Creed franchise recently.

As VP of digital Chris Early explained to Pocket Gamer: “It’s not just a one-time item unlock. The more you play each of those games, the more benefit you create in terms of the other gameplay experience. So, by playing Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, you’ll be able to unlock characters you can use in the Facebook game, plus currency, experience points, items etc that you can use in the social and mobile game.

“And – conversely – by playing the social and mobile game, if you’re playing at work at lunch, or in a break, you’re continuing the character progression. You’ll unlock items and experience points bonus and currency in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.”
How you’ll actually play Commander is unclear, though given the format it’s unlikely to be a hardcore TPS. Perhaps instead it will be like the franchises’ 3DS offering, Shadow Wars.

Ex-Lionhead staff defend Fable: The Journey

Lionhead’s Fable: The Journey is looking to be one of the more hardcore-focused Kinect titles released on Xbox 360, but not all gamers are happy with the motion-controlled switch in the latest edition of the series.
Ex-staff from the team have now stepped in to defend the title, which now finds itself without studio figurehead Peter Molyneux. Simon and Dene Carter, who recently left the studio to form indie dev Another Place have come to the game’s aid.
“It’s unfair that game’s getting a lot of stick,” Simon Carter said. “It looks great. What they’re trying to do, by marrying core gaming with Kinect, is obviously tricky. It’s a difficult control mechanism to get into core gaming. I think they’re doing a great job.”

“Why there can’t be room for a Kinect side spin-off of the Fable franchise I don’t know,” Dene Carter added. “That seems a bit odd. I can’t think of any good reason why that would not work. If this was a Mario thing for example, if this was a Mario shooter based on the Wii controller, nobody would go, ‘That’s a terrible thing. That should never have happened. That’s a betrayal blah blah blah vitriol vitriol.’

“But strangely enough Fable seems to be treated very differently from that. We all know it’s a franchise. We all know it’s a brand. The fact somebody wants to do something a bit different with that brand while we’re waiting for the next big game, that doesn’t seem like something people should get too angry about. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.”
Seems simple enough.
“If they were talking about the core franchise, I would have an awful lot of time for that. It’s more the fact that they’re complaining about a different team doing something different based on the franchise. If it was called Black & White shooter I don’t think we’d have had the same level.”
Simon added: “When Mario Kart came out, nobody was going, what?! There’s no jumping! That’s not the next Mario game! What are you talking about Miyamoto! I hate you! I’m going to burn your house down and kill your children!”
The Journey doesn’t have a release date right now, despite being revealed all the way back at E3 last year.

Killer is Dead coming from Suda, Lollipop Chainsaw dev

Grasshopper Manufacture Goichi Suda’s next is Killer is Dead, Famitsu has revealed, but while the name may suggest it, it is not a Killer 7 sequel.

It could be the next best thing though, as it’s said to mix its gameplay with that of No More Heroes.

Kadokawa Games, the studio behind Lollipop Chainsaw, is developing in conjuction with Grasshopper.

The game turns the player into a condemned man after an assassin. Some early leaks, as reported by Siliconera, say it’ll have a ‘dark side of James Bond’ kind of a vibe with “Bond Girls” present as well.
Killer is Dead is targeting 2013. It’ll ship for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Aion Euro F2P move attracts 750,000

Aion‘s European free-to-play conversion is a success. A month after the move, the game has seen over 750,000 new accounts, with around 20,000 added daily.
Furthermore, the number of daily active users has increased fivefold.
“With only four weeks of running time, AION has seamlessly added itself to the Gameforge portfolio, alongside other internationally successful titles such as Metin 2 and Ikariam.
“With the successful launch of the AAA title AION, Gameforge has heralded the start of a new era for its free-to-play sector”, Gameforge CEO Alexander Rösner says of the accomplishment, promising further triple-A additions in the coming months.
But back to Aion; players now have the 3.0 update to look forward to, which, next to other goods, will offer an increased level cap, new mounts, and new regions and instances.

Minecraft man unveils space sim 0x10c

Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson has revealed his next. Unusually named 0x10c, the space game is still “extremely early” in development, the game’s official site says, though it is known that there will probably be a monthly fee for those wanting to join the Multiverse. The reasoning is explained: “we are going to emulate all computers and physics even when players aren’t logged in.”

Solo play will just have a one time fee.

Following the model that made Minecraft so successful, the game will be released early, allowing the community to have a say and shape the direction of development.

More details available on the official site here.

Pokemon Conquest heading to US

Some surprising (and awesome) news from Pokemon camp today; DS strategy crossover Pokemon Conquest is heading to the US.

This is the previously Japan-only mash up between everyone’s favorite pocket monsters and the Nobunaga’s Ambition franchise, which is a relatively unknown franchise in these parts.

The strategy RPG plays out through six-on-six battles, utilizing the classic Pokemon strengths/weakness systems, and looks a little along the lines of something like Disgaea, or Final Fantasy Tactics. There will be a total of 17 kingdoms to battle in, each one coming with its own general and powerful Pokemon companion.

It hits the US on June 18.