I've played very few side-scrolling shooters, I've mostly just watched them being played by others, others who are good at managing the chaotic mess of bullets, lasers or rockets that cover the screen, so when I say Sine Mora makes that inexperience okay I hope you understand just how impressive that is. Sure, if you are one of the many who are excellent at side-scrolling shooters, hard ones, like the mind boggling Ikaruga, then you should not be dissuaded. Sine Mora has a single mode for those who are inexperienced, but for those that are experienced they have quite a lot of content specifically targeting that crowd. There is a lot to enjoy in Sine Mora for all kinds of gamers, which I will explain in detail throughout this review. First, I will give a quick overview and then onto the review.

Hey everyone, thanks to the kind folks at Paradox Interactive and Danny Green we have two Steam keys for Gettysburg: Armored Warfare to giveaway, head down to the third paragraph for details on the giveaway, everything else before that is about the current state of the game. I am still working on a review of the game, but I have put up two gameplay videos that show off a large portion of the game. If you want some specific details about the game and what it is about take a look at my post about Gettysburg from Monday, otherwise let me warn about the game's many problems at the moment. For one, it is quite buggy, servers, gameplay, everything. Secondly, the gameplay isn't all that fun at the moment, sure you can enjoy blowing up some people from a Zepellin in 64 player deathmatch, but as one of those soldiers on the ground it sure doesn't feel all that good. Movement is sluggish, frame rate is all over the place for many people (it's pretty good for me though), there are quite a few disconnect problems on the servers, the 2 vs 2 RTS mode just started working today, the A.I. is pretty awful at times, the map is fairly ugly and overall the game is a bit of a mess, but there is good news for those willing to stick with it.

I've only written about Max Payne 3 once here, in an overview from last November, but I am a huge fan of the original two games and I am hoping that the third is a worthy successor. It is being developed by Rockstar, just like the first two games (for consoles), and they just revealed the release date of May 18th. It will also be coming out for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. They have shown off a good chunk of the game before, mostly mechanics and singleplayer, but today they put out part one of a multiplayer gameplay video. Take a look and as soon as more parts are will revealed I will update this post or make a new one altogether. If you would to read more about the game check out their main website or my previously mentioned post.
Main Website: http://www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne3/

Good Old Games.com is a website that sells fantastic classic's like Baldur's Gate, Arcanum, Crusader, Ultima, Castles and pretty much any old game you can think of. They are also owned by CD Projekt Red, the folks who developed The Witcher 2 and are known for their excellent customer service, free content updates and DRM-free games. They often sell these games pretty cheap and are generally loved by those who have ever dealt with the website, but they did not sell new games until now. They changed their whole model in the last couple days, now officially becoming GOG.com, no longer Good Old Games. No longer do they just specifically sell old games, now they are looking to be a competitor with other major digital distributors. Legend of Grimrock, which I just wrote about, is their first new game that they are highlighting, plus they are bringing in some slightly new games already like Machinarium, Trine, The Whispered World, Spacechem and the fantastic, and free, Treasure Adventure Game.

I know I wrote about Legend of Grimrock earlier this month, talking about how the game is going to release in April and why it looks like a great game, but now they have everything set down solidly and a new trailer to show off the game. Most importantly I would like to bring to your attention the new release date of April 11th. You may also pre-order the game now directly through the developer, Almost Human Games, or through newly renovated GoG.com, also Steam will have the game on April 11th. For pre-ordering you get a whole bunch of goodies, like a decreased price $12 instead of $15, a game manual, a Legend of Grimrock world map, Grimrock theme music, a custom made grid,  wallpapers, art and a team photo. Sounds pretty nice to me, especially the whole cheaper price and presents. Now for a little overview, with the new information about the game, before I show off the pre-order trailer.

Every month I do reviews for iPhone, last month we I covered Trenches II, Ticket to Ride and Oh! Edo Towns. You can find those all here if you want to check those out, or just search for iPhone in our search bar to find the majority of my iPhone reviews. This month it looks to be RPG month for the iPhone, seeing as how all of my reviews have at least rpg elements and some huge releases came out in March, like Chaos Rings 2. This month I am going to review Battleloot, Rune Raiders and Adventure Bar.

Many people claim Dragon's Dogma to be a major competitor for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and they aren't necessarily wrong. Both games are open world RPGs with giants, dragons and huge enemies, but that's actually about all they have in common. Dragon's Dogma is third person and it is party based, to the point where you actively have to rely on your party members to get through the game. It also has a little bit of Dark Souls mixed in when it comes to darkness. This is a game that gets really dark, disturbingly dark, and like Dark Souls not knowing what is waiting in the darkness will and can kill you, but Dragon's Dogma doesn't have anyt harsh death repercussions like Dark Souls. It is a game that could turn out to be buggy with unpleasant gameplay, but it also has the possibility to be one of the best open world RPG's in years. It doesn't come out till May 22 on Xbox 360 and PS3, but there are a couple of fantastic videos of the game and a good deal of information. Read on to see what makes Dragon's Dogma such a promising game.

Gettysburg: Armored Warfare had a questionable release date and model for quite some time, but now it has all been revealed along with the release date. It will be coming out tomorrow on Steam and other digital distribution services, like Gamersgate, for PC only. For a while they kept hinting that it might be free to play, but now it has come out with a $10 price tag. Feel free to check out my previous post on the game if you want more information on it, but here is a basic list of what will be in the game, also a quick overview, plus at the end I have some news about the first mod for the game.

I have written about Faster Than Light many times over the last month, but I promise this will be a short one. If you do not know much about the game check out any of these three previous posts.
Gameplay Update: https://violentgamerreviews.com/2012/03/faster-than-light-update.html
Demo Impressions: https://violentgamerreviews.com/2012/03/faster-than-light-demo-impressions.html
Kickstarter Info: https://violentgamerreviews.com/2012/02/faster-than-light-kickstarter.html

The developers recently announced that the game will be coming to Steam and if you happen to be in the beta that will be using Steam's beta system as well. They also recently put up a newer gameplay video that shows off some new ship types and new features that they have been working on. Take a look and I hope your excited for the summer release, estimated to be in August, of FTL. Thanks for reading.

-Written by Sean Cargle

Salem is a game all about making a life in 17th Century New England. Players will craft, farm and build in a persistent open world where everyone is taking on the role of courageous colonists. This is not going to be a game for the casual. There will be open pvp, with repercussions, and permadeath (if you die your permanently dead). There will be civilized safe areas in the game where players will start building, but the farther they move away from that the more rewards can be found and the more danger they will be in. The world is inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe, among others who they contribute to the Gothic look of the game. The main point of the game is to take you, the colonist, and throw you out into a frontier and let you survive, thrive or die. It has some really fantastic ideas, like player driven justice, and complete player freedom.

Salem is being developed by Seatribe and published by the well known Paradox Interactive. It will be for PC and Linux and it is going to be free to play. Before I go on any further let me get straight to my original point of the post, other than overview. Salem is taking beta sign-up's, not sure how much longer, and all you need to do is head over to the their website and enter your name and email, so get on it and head on over there. The beta will be starting in April and they have a referral system set-up to ensure you beta access if you get three other players to sign up.  Now if you wish to read further I have several videos, some with gameplay, that describe the game a bit more thoroughly, seeing as to how they are the only source of information for Salem.

When I first saw that Defenders of Ardania was nearing release I started looking into to it to see what it was all about and to see if I wanted to try to review it. The idea of a tower defense game in the Majesty universe that is also an offensive tower defense game was very intriguing, plus it had numerous multiplayer modes. Paradox Interactive was kind enough to let me have a review copy for Xbox Live Arcade and I've been working through it for a little over a week. My enthusiasm and excitement for Defenders of Ardania was fairly diminished by half way through the moderately lengthy campaign, but the game did not turn out to be as awful as many other reviewers have claimed it to be. Now for a quick overview before I delve headfirst into the review.

Recently Overhaul Games announced that they will be releasing enchanted versions of Baldur's Gate I & II, both of which with expansions. They will not be overhauling the games, but merely making improvements to the Infinity Engine and other aspects of the games. They just announced yesterday that they will be making an iPad version of the game on top of the PC version.



Is that my beloved Baldur's Gate on a touchscreen? Yup and it looks just like the original game. All versions of the Enhanced Edition will have the previously mentioned improvements and they will also have new content, like a new adventure and party member. The iPad version will be coming out this Summer sometime and you can read more about the PC version on my original post, or on the main website if you would like, but information is still a bit scarce. Will update more on Baldur's Gate when they release more information about it. Thanks for reading.
Baldur's Gate iPad Post

-Written by Sean Cargle

There hasn't been a ton of news on Assassin's Creed III since it was revealed not too long ago, but today some new in-game screenshots have popped up, which are still pretty rare at this point, and show off some different areas of the game. This post is only to show off the new screenshots, if you want to look at information about the game then check out my First Details article from early this month. All of these screenshots are from Neogaf, which is was also the same place that originally released the first information and screenshots for AC III. Enjoy and be back shortly with some more news.



I don't want to overload the front page, so read on for the other five screenshots.

Once Terraria was on the tip of everyone's tongue and then one day it all ended, no more updates, no more news, no more Terraria. If you do not know the wonderful open world side scrolling Terraria then I refer you to my review from May of last year.  Starbound is often said to be the successor to Terraria, which isn't correct at all. The team at Starbound, Chucklefish, is rather large and only one of the developers is from Terraria, furthermore the gameplay and design of Starbound is immensely different. If you are looking for another game like Terraria you may find Starbound to fill that void, but expect something more akin to a grand space adventure than a tromp through dungeons, caves, jungles and hell. Before I go into the nitty gritty details of what Starbound is let me just say that is a new game and it is set for a Summer 2012 release, but they may push it back a bit if they want more time to smooth out the game.



Read on for a look at some gameplay and a great deal of info.

It has been known for quite sometime that Telltale Games was making The Walking Dead video game. Telltale Games is know for making adventure games, like Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space, Jurassic Park and Back to the Future. For better or worse The Walking Dead is going to be a point and click adventure game that relies on quick time events and exploration. It does look to have some conversation depth, seeing as to how each conversation with another character gives you multiple options, but a lot of people are immediately upset that it is going to be a FPS or some other type of game. Many are justifiably worried that it will be another poorly designed game that overly relies on quick time events like Jurassic Park, but the newest trailer and gameplay give me some mixed feelings.

 I've written fairly often about the upcoming Fall of the Samurai standalone expansion for Total War: Shogun 2 and now they have released all of their developers diaries for the game, which show off quite a bit of gameplay and explain just how different this game will be compared to Shogun 2. If you want to read a overview of the game, feel free to check out my previous post from November, but here is a brief one. Fall of the Samurai takes place in 19th Century Japan when technology is on the rise and tradition is being trampled. The Samurai still fight to preserve the ways of old, while foreign powers vie for opportunities to influence Japanese cultures.

The game represents these changes in many ways, you will have to deal with foreign influence and you will also have to deal with new technology strategically and economically. There are a massive amount of new units in the game, a updated campaign map, an improved multiplayer conquest mode, and changes to nearly every aspect of the game. One of the big changes is railroads, which make it so you can transport armies across Japan very easily and quickly. Another big change has to do with navies and how they will play a more active role, especially since you can now bombard towns with your ships. You can also expect to see rifle infantry, early machine guns, early howitzers and a lot of military technology that you will be familiar with if you played Empire Total War. The videos explain a lot, so I will let them do the talking for me. The videos are actually part of a three part developer diary, but the first part is fairly old and is in at least two of my other posts about the expansion.

The Secret World is an upcoming MMO that is going to be released on June 19th. It is based in a world that is full of monsters, secrets and organizations. Much of the world/stories are based on H.P. Lovecraft's stories, which you may know for his god creations like Cthulu, Dagon or Hastor. The gameplay looks to do some new things for a MMO, but unfortunately it still doesn't seem to stray to far from the normal conventions and is going to have a hard time fighting Guild Wars 2 which is rumored to come out this Summer as well. I haven't followed the game all that much, but recently I came across some of the gameplay they were showing off for GDC. originally it was on IGN, but now it is on Youtube and available to all. The video shows off a boss fight, some exploration, some story conversations, the class system and a few other things. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Main Website: http://www.thesecretworld.com/

You may also know The Banner Saga under a different name, Stoic, but it is a new game that is being made by several former Bioware developers with considerable experience. It is a strategy rpg with a Nordic theme that is an adventure mini-series about vikings. Since the The Banner Saga website emerged a couple weeks ago, if not a month ago, I had been watching it and waiting for news, but I did not expect them to start a Kickstarter. The developers are focusing on mature gamers, thank god, and they are designing it for those who appreciate art, story and strategy. Before I go into any amount of detail of the game I must immediately show the first trailer that they made for the game.

That is right, this is the second Humble Bundle that focuses on games for Android phones/gaming devices. Just like the previous one all of these games are also available on PC, Linux and Mac, so if you get it for "Android" you are also getting it for all of those. This Humble Bundle is exactly like the rest, meaning it's pay what you want and all the money goes to charity (Child's Play) or the developers, which you of course have control of. This time around we have Canabalt, Avadon: The Black Fortress, Cogs, Zen Bound 2 and Swords & Soldiers. You may proceed straight to the Humble Bundle page to check it out, or you may read on for a short summary and a video of each of the five games. I should note that Swords & Soldiers is only available if you pay more than the average and at the current moment that means paying more than $5.82.

Faster Than Light is a game I am very fond of. I wrote about it initially when they started their Kickstarter and then I played the demo and wrote some lengthy impressions.If you missed either of those posts here let me just say that it is a rogue-like in a space that has you focus on your crew and one versus one ship combat, the game has quite a lot of depth and focus's on random encounters throughout a large galaxy. The Kickstarter for Faster Than Light has gone absolutely through the roof; they have received infinitely more funding than  their goal. They had originally set their goal to be $10,000 and the Kickstarter, which is still running, has hit $110,000. They are going to spend a bunch of that money on new ships and new content in general for the game. It's pretty amazing how successful a Kickstarter can be, especially when similar things have happened recently with several other Kickstarter projects for PC games (Wasteland 2/Double Fine Adventure).

Fans of Wing Commander or Freespace 2 should immediately take note of Wing Commander Saga (WCS), it is a free standalone PC game that uses the Freespace 2 engine to re-imagine a new Wing Commander. The developers have been making WCS for a very long time and they have created something massive. They have created the Wing Commander universe and filled it to the brim with content. If you've played any of the Wing Commander games you should feel right at home in this universe, especially since the story starts before Wing Commander 3 and is very impressive sounding. Before I go through what will be included in their upcoming release, The Darkest Dawn, I want to say this game will be released on March 22nd, three days from now, and will be entirely free and entirely standalone, meaning you don't need to own any particular game or software in order to play it. Read on for a full list of features, gameplay videos and more. First off, take a look at the new release trailer.

Do you miss old school Japanese role-playing games, especially the kind that gave you a depth of classes to work with and actually added interesting features like strategy or management of some kind? Well Americana Dawn is PC a game that is trying to do some interesting things and it is partially inspired by one of my all time favorite series, Suikoden. Don't know Suikoden? Well thankfully I have a review of Suikoden 2 floating around the website. Americana Dawn will use a similar dueling system to that of the Suikoden series and will also have some kind of large scale war system. It is about a spirit that has taken the form of a human in Colonial America. You place this spirit, a Keeper, who takes the name Alfred and gets involved in the revolutionary war. There is a lot more to the story than that and the game will focus on historical events, allowing you to read and learn about them while also experiencing them. All of this will be done with a JRPG arty style that should be familiar and attractive to those who grew up playing RPG's. You will be able to choose from a wide array of classes, most of which can be seen on here, and they will also be based on real military ranks and positions. Read on for the Kickstarter video, which includes a good deal of gameplay, and some more info.

-->
-->

I should say a new awesome trailer, but it just won't fit up there. Torn Banner Studios has let PC Gamer have release an exclusive video in a short article where they talk about how Chivalry's objective based gameplay will be quite different than anything you have played. I know I've talked about it before myself when I first did a overview of the game, but there will be multiple tiers of objectives and they will be tangible for the time period. For instance you may have to lower a draw bridge, or move in siege towers and then you may have to capture the courtyard, or open an inner gate for the castle's keep, all leading to a final objective. They did a similar objective based system in the mod that started it at all, Age of Chivalry, but now they are uses big resources on it, plus they are now using a better, stronger and prettier engine. Well, that was unexpected. I intended to embed the video into this article, but it absolutely will not work, apologies. Will post it into here as soon as I can, but for now take a look at the trailer at PC Gamer, which I have linked to all over this article, but if you can't see hyperlinks for some reason here is a direct link: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/14/chivalry-medieval-warfare-trailer/

Trine 2 was a exciting, challenging and gorgeous game and Frozenbyte Entertainment has been hinting at a new DLC or expansion since GDC. Now we have the first information and video about the upcoming unnamed expansion. First and foremost, if you don't know of Trine 2 I whole heartily recommend checking out my Trine 2 review for the PC version, it is one of my favorite side scrolling puzzle/platformers. More details for the Trine 2 expansion will be coming sometime in the next couple of months, before Spring ends, but for now we know that it will include a new six level campaign, new enemies and new skills. Furthermore the new skills will transfer over into the original campaign and can be used there.  The environment will also be entirely new, which you can tell from the video. No pricing news yet, or release date, but knowing Frozenbyte I can't imagine the expansion being very pricey at all, especially since the original game isn't all that pricey itself. Without further ado take a look at the first trailer for the expansion and I will certainly keep you all updated. Thanks for reading.

To celebrate the release of Dungeon Defenders on Mac tomorrow there is a big new DLC and also a free weekend on Steam. The free weekend will go from today, Thursday the 15th, until 1 p.m. on Sunday the 18th. While this is going the game and all DLC, except for the Lost Eternia Shards DLC, will be 50% off. Now for all the information on the Mac release before I go into the new DLC and updates. If you own the game already on PC you can pick it up for Mac for free, plus all DLC you own will transfer over, otherwise the game will be regular $15, that is except for this weekend. There is also a upcoming patch that will have cross platforming between Mac and PC. If you want you can help beta test the Mac version tonight, but you need to own the PC version to participate in that. Now onto other news.


Console Patch News
Console fans have been clamoring for a patch or DLC for a very long time, but Trendy Entertainment has had trouble getting those updates onto PS3 and Xbox 360. Now there is some good news, they plan to release a console patch and the Lost Eternia Shards DLC on April 10th for PS3 and April 11th for Xbox 360. They say that the long wait is due to troublesome console submissions processes that make any update or DLC need a great deal of approval. Now onto the new DLC.

Have you ever thought that killing moves or kill cams in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim were poorly implemented? Well Bethesda Softworks must have heard fans on that one because this new patch is focused around that. There will now be kill cams for melee, ranged and magic, with that there are new animations as well. There are other parts of this update as well, like bug fixes and some new features, but first off take a look at the short video they put together to show off the new kill moves and kill cam.

Yesterday you may have seen a large portion of the online gaming community pondering what the cryptic code and countdown on Baldursgate.com was, it turns out it was indeed what many fans had hoped for, Enhanced Editions of Baldur's Gate 1 & 2.What does will the Enhanced Edition actually contain, new content? Unlikely, most likely graphical and interface updates, but all there is in terms of information is this, "Overhaul Games has assembled a talented team of artists, programmers and designers to enhance this timeless classic. To remain true to the spirit of the game, the team includes original Baldur’s Gate developers. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition™ and Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition™ will feature a re-forged version of the Infinity Engine with a variety of modern improvements. " I'm sure we can speculate plenty on what that all means, but for now we will have to wait until more information is released.

If you happen to not know anything about the Baldur's Gate series then I suggest you check out my Baldur's Gate II review that I added to the Classic Corner some time ago. I have contacted Overhaul Games to see what information I can may be able to get. Thanks for reading and I hope you are excited for the return of some of the best RPG's that exist. Coming up next is some news on Skyrim and Dungeon Defenders.
Baldur's Gate Main Website: http://www.baldursgate.com

-Written by Sean Cargle

Riding on top of sands of gold with an anonymous individual by side, experiencing what I experience and seeing what I see. That's what Journey is about. You can take the journey by yourself, but no matter what you will see others, you must decide whether or not to begin a cooperative effort or move on by yourself. To take the journey by yourself is still meaningful, but if you find a like minded friend then the experience is all the greater. In this game you take a journey towards a great mountain as a unidentified humanoid being. The entire game is about continually heading towards that mountain, but you also learn about your people and what happened to the empty ruins that you will pass through. Much like ThatGameCompany's previous games, Journey has ideals that it wishes to share with you, which you learn through the main story, but you also may find through hidden murals scattered throughout each area. One thing is for certain, Journey is gorgeous and especially so for a downloadable game that is less a gigabyte.

It has been a very long time since the last SSX game has graced the gaming world, now with the new SSX we have once again returned to the unrealistic mountainsides full of of overly comic snowboarders that take snowboarding to its most extreme. If that all sounds bad to you then you should probably step away now, because if you are looking for a realistic snowboarding game that focuses on real physics, life-like snow, ice storms and unexplored regions then this is not your game. If you've played the original SSX games then you shouldn't be surprised by it's defining characteristics and the game does use all it's over the top gameplay to overall betterment of the series. It definitely isn't a perfect experience, but it is clearly a positive one.

Anyone who would possibly be reading anything on our website has played a Fallout game, whether it's the old classics or the newer editions made by Bethesda Softworks, and Wasteland was what inspired that series and many other open world party based games. It came out in 1988, which would have made me about two years old, and it was one of the first games to feature an open world where you control a party of characters and you are given many choices about how to interact with everything. It was post apocalyptic, turn based and it was one of the first games to have a persistent world. Wasteland is clearly a piece of gaming history and it is something that fans have clamored for a true sequel to for twenty years.


I am too young to have played Wasteland, nor did I ever own a Commodore 64 or Apple II, but I've played every single Fallout game and countless games that were inspired by it. All that background info leads me to this: Brian Fargo, one of the original four developers from Wasteland, and InXile Entertainment have started a Kickstarter Project for Wasteland 2 today. Brian Fargo will be leading  the project with several others from Interplay, the company that developed Wasteland, Baldurs Gate, Kingpin, Icewind Dale II, Freespace 2 and many other classics. They are looking to raise $900,000 in funding for the game, which is considerably small for a game these days, but they are relying on their fans to support them and so far it seems to be working. The project started today and they already have $300,000 of the $900,000 backed. Read on for more and the hilarious Kickstarter video for Wasteland 2.

 *Update 3/15*- In 48 hours this Kickstarter has been 100% funded, but do feel free to continue to pledge. If they hit 1.5 million then they will release the game on Linux and Mac as well, plus they will also make a larger world.

You may recall when I posted about the three upcoming Battlefield 3 expansions less than a week ago, here, and now they have the first trailer for the first of three expansions, Close Quarters. It is set to come out this June and it is going to be all about closed indoor maps that feature intense infantry only combat. When I first heard about this expansion I was really worried they were going to make the kind of infantry maps that support a Call of Duty style of gameplay and unfortunately the new gameplay trailer seems to support that idea. It looks like I'll be holding out until the Armored Kill expansion next fall. Nevertheless, check out this trailer and let me know what you think.

Dishonored is an upcoming sci-fi game all about assassinating people and choices. You play a supernatural assassin who is a royal protector to the empress, but the game starts out with you getting falsely accused of her murder. The whole game is about clearing your name and apparently one of the chief ways of doing that is assassinating those who set you up. It is first person and everything takes place within the steampunk city of Dunwall. You have abilities like teleport, double jump, possession and more that you use to help you get past enemies and get revenge. It is being developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. There hadn't been a lot shown of the game until recently, but now Gamespot has snagged themselves a developer interview of sorts in which two of the developers go through many aspects of the game and a bit of gameplay is shown. Check that out below.

It's been quite some time since I've written anything about ARMA 2, the gritty modern military FPS that attempts to take a realistic approach to the genre, and I have mentioned Invasion 1944 before, but now they have released their huge 2.6 Patch after a year of working on the mod. If you can't guess from the mod's name Invasion 1944 is a World War II total conversion for ARMA 2. I had previously placed a very early version of the mod back when I used to play ARMA 2 frequently and it was a very rough modification, but even then they had a vast amount of content done and had fully functional German and American armies. If you love WWII games and have been looking for one to fill that void then Invasion 1944 looks to have the means to accommodate you. Previously they had tanks, half-tracks, trucks, cars, air, infantry and a few maps all fleshed out for the game and now they have added so much more, most of which seems to be Winter themed. Read on for a list of all the new content and a release trailer.

If you were paying attention to the events (our previous article) following the release of Mass Effect 3, you know that there is some controversy behind the DLC content 'From Ashes' which features a Prothean character that joins your squad and at least 5% of game content.  Back in February someone had made the mistake and released the DLC early on XBLA.  This raised some attention because the game had not even been released yet.  This started an online uproar of fans calling foul play on Bioware for having completed content not on the final disc.  A viral video was also released showing that the 'From Ashes' DLC is actually on the Mass Effect 3 disc and can be accessed by changing a line of code.

It is a sad day when one must defend a game against unflattering remarks merely because of misconceptions and pre-conceived notions of quality. I have continually seen people complain about I Am Alive's quality, gameplay and length, but almost always they are comparing I Am Alive to full priced large budget games. There is some validity to many of the complaints about this game, sadly enough, but there are also overlooked positives. If you do not know of I Am Alive let me give you a brief overview. It is a story driven survival game with a lot of focus on climbing and supplies. The climbing is very similar to what you might seen in an Uncharted game, except the environment doesn't react to your climbing, I.E. no pipes falling or breaking because of your weight when grasping it to climb, and you have stamina when you climb, meaning you have to be pretty quick about it. The world you are traveling through is a post apocalyptic urban wasteland with few survivors and you control a man in search of his family. I will go into other details later, but now for full some impressions of the game based upon the demo, which is available on XBLA and it will be available on PSN at a later date.

\

Gettysburg: Armored Warfare will now be the third game to officially use Steam Workshop for it's modding needs. If you do not know the game here is a quick overview, if you want a more substantial overview check out the link above; it is a 64 player RTS/FPS hybrid that mixes those two genre's in some very interesting ways. It also is very interesting because of it's theme, Civil War with futuristic technology like gatling guns, zeppelins, tanks and more. You will have fully customizable armies that you can use in fairly normal RTS game modes like deathmatch and control zones. It is all being made by Radioactive Software, which consisted of only one developer last time I checked, Danny Green, and  it is for PC specifically. It is also being published by Paradox Interactive, whom you may know for Crusader Kings, Sengoku, A Game of Dwarves or many  others games. Amazingly enough Gettysburg looks pretty decent graphically and is only going to cost $10, or it will be Free to Play, there is conflicting information about that. Now onto what I came here to talk about, Steam Workshop.

Tribes Ascend does contain a bit of what made Tribes 2 a great team based FPS, but it has new changes and a faster pace than before. They have been running a closed beta for quite some time and now they have opened it up to anyone. I've played it a bit and find it to not really be my thing, but I do appreciate some of the things that they left in to make it feel more like the previous games, like vehicles, repairing, generators and jet packing. . The game itself will be coming out on April 12th and will be free to play. Check out the trailer and head on over to the website blow to join in on the beta. They've released a trailer to highlight the release of the open beta and yes the trailer is a parody of the Dead Island trailer. 
Beta Page: https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/#
FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/tribesascend?sk=wall

Not even a screenshot of Sins of a Dark Age has been shown off before, now Ironclad Games has put up an interview with Gamespot from GDC that shows off a chunk of early gameplay from the game. It certainly does confirm upon my earlier rants that the game is a lot like League of Legends or DOTA 2, but it absolutely does have it's own unique gameplay that makes it a bit different. If you know nothing of the game, take a look at my overview that goes over some general information about the game. Ironclad Games are the same developers that made Sins of a Solar Empire, but with Sins of a Dark Age they are going for a vastly different type of game. One important thing from the new video is that the game will be going into beta this summer, but they haven't announced how to get into that just yet. Without further ado, take a look at the video and check out their website for more information.
Main Website: http://www.sinsofadarkage.com/home

It has been quite some time since Space Pirates & Zombies has done a large update, sure there has been a lot of fixes, but not all that much new content since the game released back in August of 2011. Now we have all kinds of new content on the way that is focused on Bounty Hunters, it is all set to hit on on March 19th. If you are unfamiliar with this enjoyable tactical space rpg, then I suggest you take a look at my hands on impressions from last September.  Now, let's go through the list of new content and not waste one second longer, but before that, take a look at the new ships that will be coming in the update.



Read on for the a list of all the info about the Bounty Hunter faction, plus some new content in general.

Fans of Battlefield 3 have something to look forward to as Summer nears. These three aren't merely DLC, but they are being toted as expansion packs. Each expansion pack has a theme, the newest of which being all about close quarters. There is very little information on them, but all of them are introducing new maps, new assignments and new weapons. They all look to be about the same size as the Back to Karkand pack and look to contain the same type of content. For certain they will all contain the same high level of destructible environments that the Back to Karkand pack showed off. Now onto the details for each pack.


Battlefield 3: Close Quarters
-Coming June 2012
-It will focus on infantry combat in indoor environments.
*Reminds me of Metro, and I hate Metro, but hopefully they will learn from that and make good infantry based maps.

Battlefield 3: Armored Kill
-Coming Fall 2012
-New tanks, new ATV's, mobile artillery and other new vehicles. They will contain this all within the largest map that Battlefield has ever seen.
*Sounds much more promising than close quarters, mainly to see that map and what mobile artillery will be.

Battlefield 3: Endgame
-No details on this one at all yet, merely that they are making it after the other two.

On top of these there is a Spring update on the way, which looks to be a fairly big patch and at some point there will also be a new server system that let's players on consoles rent dedicated servers. Read more about that here. The whole post may be found on this Battlefield Blog post. I will update more on all this when some significant information surfaces. Thanks for reading, up next is a huge Space Pirates and Zombies update and I Am Alive XBLA impressions.

-Written by Sean Cargle

There are many rogue-like RPGs roaming the world of pc gaming, but few are as well put together or as graphically pleasing as DoomRL is. This game has been around for quite some time, but up until February 28th the game used ASCII graphics. It still had plenty of depth, random environments, challenging enemies and interesting things to find, but it was hard to control and hard to see what you were doing unless you were very familiar with that old graphic style. Take a look at how the game looks now that the graphical release has been released and how it looked before. Also, with the graphical update the interface has been upgraded and the game now has mouse support.

The new Infinity Blade by Epic Games isn't going to be like the previous two. It still uses the same world and similar graphics, but now it is going to be a top down dungeon crawler called Infinity Blade Dungeons. It will still be for the iOS and iPad, but now you will playing an apprentice weapon smith who serves the Master of the Forge, a name you should be familiar with if you've played Infinity Blade 2. You will be on a quest to forge the legendary Infinity Blade. If you are unfamiliar with the series I suggest you take a look at my review of Infinity Blade 2. There is almost zero information about gameplay for Dungeons, but it will have a great deal of exploration and weapon smithing. It's really interesting to see them take the Infinity Blade universe and make an entirely different type of game with it. Check out the first reveal trailer to see how it looks and plays. At some point they are bound to update their website for it with some more information. Thanks for reading.
Main Website: http://infinitybladegame.com/dungeons/

Before I head out I must share this. Thirty minutes of gameplay was released onto the internet today for the futuristic FPS MMO Planetside 2. Never before has actual gameplay been shown off, merely teasers trailers and orchestrated pieces, but now you can take a real look at the game and see if how it's coming along. There is a lot of aerial combat in this, but the last two videos focus on ground combat. Check them all out! I will be back later, but today in general will be a light day for me since it is the last week of the quarter, finals and all, but nevertheless I will return. Thanks to RPS for the heads up.


(If you are on the front page read on to see the other three videos, cut it so it doesn't destroy the front page.)

I wanted to call this post Heroes & Generals goes Free 2 Play, but that's not the only news I have on the game today. If you don't recall my one previous post about Heroes & Generals, back when it first showed up on the PC Indie game scene, let me give a quick overview of what this game is about. It is a World War II first person shooter, which I'm sure plenty of people are tired of, but this game does some interesting things that few other games have tried. Reto-Moto wants to make this a large scale World War II FPS, with tanks, airplanes, objectives, supply, reinforcements and a persistent campaign map. With that in mind I must say that game is entirely multiplayer and it uses a campaign map that let's Generals, players, move around strategic resources and look at the game kind of like a real time strategy, while at the same time other players will be down there on that map fighting it out. The game is currently in alpha and they just released a new video highlighting some of their new improvements, maps, animations and more. Take a look and keep in mind that they still have quite a bit to go.

I'm not quite sure what to praise first, maybe the spot on sound effects or music, or maybe the very enjoyable gameplay that mixes the ideals of rogue-like games with space ship management and combat, either way I cannot wait for it's release this summer. Do you enjoy old rogue-like rpg's that give you random adventures that are likely to end in failure? Well the developers for Faster Than Light took those principles and then mixed it with the idea of piloting your own space ship in a universe filled danger. You control a single space ship as you move your way through sectors of the galaxy and you have to carefully manage your valuable crew, fuel, munitions and upgrades. Every time you jump your ship to a new area there is a random encounter, which can be anything from a pirate assault to a friendly outpost. You spend the game being chased by rebels and moving further and further away from them, while simultaneously upgrading your ship, buying new weapons, buying drone systems and more. It is a small indie game, but even at it's current build it's already very fun. Check out this gameplay video I put together and read on for information on the demo and the game.

For the length of GDC, this week, you can play the Desktop Dungeons beta free. If you have no idea what Desktop Dungeons is, shame on you, but it is rogue-like rpg that you can play on any computer since it run's off of the browser. In the game you develop a town and conquer dungeons. It is a game of calculation, skill and luck, for each dungeon is random, but based on a theme. I've been playing the game since last August and I've enjoyed it quite a bit, despite the balance issues that seem to arise from every patch. Unlocking new classes, shops and items is a really nice addition on top of the dungeon crawling gameplay. If you would like to further information on the game I refer you to my last impressions article, here, but that is not what this post is about. This post is about you all, anyone, playing the game right now and playing it for free. If you have any inclination to rogue-like games or hardcore rpg's I do recommend trying it. It's been in creation for quite a long time and there is a lot to find and enjoy. Check out this video if you want to get a quick idea of what the game is like.

Last post of the night, most likely. Halo 4 is going to be coming out this holiday season and for the first time 343 Industries, the new developers for Halo, are showing off the game. I am highly skeptical that they can do better than Bungie, but it's still far too early to say. This video does actually show off some gameplay, thank god for that, but I'm very unsure of what to make of it. For now merely take a look and let me know what you think of a Halo game without Bungie behind it.

This game doesn't have a name, but it will be a Hardcore Tactical Shooter for PC, which is a slightly open ended genre. Mainly because some people will say that genre refers to games like the first Rainbow Six Games or the Swat Series, or on the other end there are people who consider modern games like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 to be a Hardcore Tactical Shooter. People will think what they think, but Christian Allen wants to make a real Hardcore Tactical Shooter, the kind the really focuses on the lethality of weapons and non-linear close quarter environments. Allen is a developer who worked on the majority of the Ghost Recon/Rainbow Six games and recently was a design director for Halo: Reach. He left all that to make Serellan LLC, a small indie company that wants to make real tactical shooters, the kind that fans of the original Rainbow Six Games would be proud of.  Take a look at the Kickstarter video.

I'm pretty sure no one cares about From Dust at this point, especially after Ubisoft botched the PC release so badly and then continued to cause problems for players when they took down their online services not too long ago, but now you can ignore all that Ubisoft integration and play the game directly off of Google Chrome. I'm not too sure how it will run or play on Chrome, but I've played other games on there and it was very solid. I personally really enjoyed From Dust, whether it was the way in which it made you solve puzzles by shaping the world or because of how satisfying it was to watch how the world reacts to your touch, but back then I gave it a 9 out of 10. The game will likely still be around $15, though one should hope it would be less now that it's been out for a little more than a year, but if you have any reservations do check out my review. Here is the trailer for the Chrome release, that is all.

It's been a while since I've wrote about the party based first person dungeon crawler Legend of Grimrock, but now it is nearing its release of April 2012. It is a game full of puzzles, real time combat, traps and a design style that builds off the great old pc dungeon crawlers. It is coming out Windows first and it will be followed by a Mac and iOS release. One of the most challenging aspects of the game designs must have been the combat, do they keep it turn based like PC classics? or do they try real time and attempt to create something more progressive? Well they chose to take the real time approach and the combat looks to be fast and challenging, yet still familiar enough for fans of the genre. One of the other things that this game does new for the genre is it's 3d environment. Enemies are full 3d, as is the dungeon that you roam. It all has a great look to it that makes you feel like the game belongs in 2012. Check out the latest trailer and see how the game is turning out.

We are a little over two months into the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic and from reading all the SWTOR forums, this update may very well be what keeps players sticking around or what makes players freeze their accounts.  Now, this isn't to say that SWTOR is in any way a bad game (Review coming soon), but the lack of end game content is losing a lot of players interest.  Sure the store is amazing, and yes there are a lot of different characters you can make, but once you hit 50, your only options are PvP and running Flashpoints/Operations.  For the more hardcore mmo players, this may not be enough for them to pay the $14.99 monthly fee.  Me personally, I have been a huge advocate for the game, I try to spread as much good word as I can, but I can also understand the frustration among players that hit the 50 cap.

With that said, I think Bioware knows how close they are to losing players if content is not released.  They have made numerous attempts to promise players that they are working hard to bring new content.  Even releasing weekly Q&A forums with developers to answer players questions about changes to come.  Now, they have not released any official patch notes but they have answered questions about what can be expected in the new patch.  I wanted to make a list of what we will possibly see in the new patch from the Q&A forums, but also make a wishlist of what we want to see come out in the game. Read on for all of that and a video of the 1.2 Patch.

I've written about King Arthur's Gold numerous times, it is a game I am quite fond of with all of it's options for creativity and mayhem, all within the guise of a 2d medieval warfare game. I've never thrown them my wallet and gone with the paid version, but I've had plenty of enjoyable times playing the free version. Up until recently when the game officially released it's huge 2.0 update, which you can read about here along with some more general information about the game, there was almost no content for people who had paid for the game, but with the 2.0 update they added customization to each class in the game. Now they have released the Zombie Fortress, which sounds wonderful. Their simple and jokingly brief instructions are build a fort and watch out for zombies, however it's more complicated than that and in good ways.