Yesterday Zen Studios announced Castle Storm and released a ton of screenshots, plus a first trailer. It is a downloadable title that will be coming out on Xbox Live and other digital platforms sometime in 2012. At first the game looks to be similar to strategy games like Swords & Soldiers HD, Legendary Wars or Army of Ages. It is essentially a side scrolling tower defense, but it has resource management and real time strategy elements. Everything is set in a medieval world where you fend of your enemies with a projectile based archery system. One of the most distinguishing features is the castle construction system. Never have I seen custom castle construction in a similar type of game. You castle will determine what kind of troops and defenses you have. They show that off a little bit in their first trailer, so before I say anything else take a look at that.

I used to be able to cover the majority of the indie bundles for PC or Mac, but nowadays there are just so many bundles like the IndieRoyale Bundle, which just released a new one, or the Indie Gala Bundle, but yesterday The Humble Bundle came out with a truly impressive offering. Their new bundle has already made over 1.3 million dollars and sold over 180,000 bundles. All of this is result of the stellar games included in this bundle that is made up of: Bastion, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Psychonauts, Limbo and Superbrothers : Sword & Sworcery EP. Bastion is the game that you only get if you pay more than the average of $7.42 (at the time of this post), but the rest are included no matter how much you pay. I do believe this is the first indie bundle, of any kind, that is full of excellent and popular games. As always The Humble Bundle lets you pay what you want and choose where your money is distributed. So if you wish to give all of your money to The Childs Play Charity then you may easily do so. If you wish head on over there right now, but if you want to hear a little about each game keep on reading.

The first DLC for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is all about vampires! Weird? Definitely, but will it turn out to be good? If it takes the route of Shivering Isles or Knights of the Nine it has a good chance. It is coming out later this summer for 1600 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360 and $15 on PC, except..PC doesn't get it at the same time at the Xbox 360 version, sorry. Microsoft has a timed exclusive on Dawnguard, so we will be seeing it released thirty days later on PS3 and PC. They put up the very first trailer for the game today and there are definitely some interesting things in here. They seem to imply that you will become evil if you are a vampire and that you will be able to turn into something that can fly, but who knows for sure until they give more details about it next week during E3. Check out the trailer! For more information on Skryim or the Elder Scrolls universe keep your eyes on Bethblog.com.

Yesterday we got a teaser image for CD Projekt Red's new game and we learned that it will be a sci-fi game of some kind and today they held a conference that officially announced the game. It does not have a name and for now they are merely calling it their "Cyberpunk Title". The game is based on the Cyberpunk Pen & Paper RPG system created by Mike Pondsmith. This series has been around since 1988 and has garnered over five million fans around the globe. Pondsmith was at the conference and endorsed the game publicly and said that he believes that CD Projekt Red is the right company to deliver a digital version of his game. Now onto the tiny bit of information about the game itself. Also, here is the second image for the game.

I am a sucker for World War II aerial combat games, games like IL-2 Sturmovik or others that feature the option for aerial combat like Invasion 1944 or Battlefield 1942, so when I got an email about the upcoming XBLA, PC and PSN game Dogfight 1942 today I had to go exploring the depths of the internet to find out all I could on this game. Unlike IL-2 Sturmovik Dogfight 1942, which was previously known as Combat Wings, does not take the realistic or war simulation approach to aerial combat. Instead we have a game that is designed to be an accessible arcade based aerial combat game that has three different modes, user friendly controls and twenty different planes to experience.

CD Projekt Red, the developers behind the successful The Witcher series, have a big announcement coming tomorrow. Everyone thought they would be announcing The Witcher 3 or something related to the series, but today they put up a teaser image and it is definitely not going to be related to that series. We won't know exactly what the game is until tomorrow, but take a look at this image and start speculating.

I never thought I would see a horror adventure game that puts you in the first person perspective of a two year old baby, but Among The Sleep has done just that. You play as a child who ventures out into his home after being put to bed and you find mysterious events occurring. The game starts in your house as you wander downstairs, but the world of Among The Sleep is far more fantastical than a simple house. You adventure out into mystical forests as you see the world through the mind of two year old, a mind filled with limitless possibilities. There isn't a ton of information on the game yet, but read on for a bit of information on the developers and to see the first trailer for the Among The Sleep.

I've been meaning to write about the Amazon Mayhem Video Game Sale for a week, but it's been a busy week and I hope I am forgiven. The Mayhem Sale is a huge video game sale that Amazon is doing for PC games. It's been running since May 17th and they have been adding new games every day. All of these games are digital downloads, one way or another, and are on sale for up to 80%. The sale started out with smaller and older titles, but now they have very recent titles like Kingdom of Amalur, Mass Effect 3 and the MMO Tera. The sale ends on May 29th and I will be doing a list of some of the best sales on here, but there are about a hundred games on sale in total. Look here for the full list of sales. Let's take a look at the best Amazon has to offer and a few words about each game.

I reviewed this delightful and very challenging World War II strategy back in December. When I reviewed it I saw people asking about the possibility of a demo or an enhanced multiplayer, but there was no sign of either of those things coming at out then. It's been quite some time since then and a demo just came out for PC and Mac, while the developers at 2x2 Games are also working on making multiplayer easier to use and just generally better. Head on over to the Unity of Command website to check the demo, but here is a quick overview for anyone who doesn't want to check out the review.

I loved the original Red Orchestra for its slow paced pro-realism World War II multiplayer combat that featured infantry, vehicles and tanks. When I saw that Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad was on the horizon I was incredibly excited and pre-ordered the game so I could get into the beta. After some time of playing that I realized that it was not a whole like the original Red Orchestra and had a very different feel, one that didn't make me want to play for hours on end. I reviewed Red Orchestra 2 back in March and lengthily talked about everything that did and didn't work in the game. At that point it had been out for quite some time and I didn't think Tripwire Interactive was going to address any of the issues I had with the game or the valid problems many other people also brought up, but I was wrong.

Yesterday Tripwire announced that they are releasing a Red Orchestra 2 Game of the Year Edition and that it will include a massive amount of changes. Most importantly for people who haven't played Red Orchestra 2 is the free weekend that just started on Steam for RO2, which lasts until Sunday May 27th. Plus if you would like to purchase the game it is 75% off until Sunday as well. Check out a trailer for the Game of the Year Edition, but for anyone who used to play Red Orchestra 2 keep reading and see what major changes they have made to gameplay.

Not too long ago they added new kill cams, kinect support for the Xbox 360 version of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and a whole ton of fixes for the game in general, seen here, but now they are coming out with a new patch that will be adding Mounted Combat and a whole ton of general fixes/changes. The 1.6 patch is currently not out yet, but like most of their patches you can opt-in to the beta version of Skyrim and try it out before it is officially released. Of course you can only try the beta if you are playing the game on Steam for PC. The patch will be coming to all versions of the game and seemingly at the same time.

They seem to be dead. If you have to been to any gaming website today you have likely already seen this announcement. 38 Studios and Big Huge Games are the folks that made Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning, the single player RPG that came out last February to moderate success, but apparently it wasn't successful enough. About a week ago there was a lot of news about how the 38 Studios couldn't pay for the loan they got for Kingdom of Amalur from Rhode Island. They were trying to convincing the state of Rhode Island that they still have enough going for them to pay off that loan, probably speaking of Project Copernicus, but there was a press conference in Rhode Island today and they said they didn't believe that 38 Studios would be able to pay off those loans. Today 38 Studios revealed that they have had to implement company wide lay offs and now everyone from 38 Studios and their subsidiary Big Huge Games are out of work.

All of this information comes from other gaming websites and even I am relaying information from Rock Paper Shotgun and they relayed some of their information Gamasutra. It's sad to see this all go so poorly for Big Huge Games, especially since Kingdom of Amalur was by no means a terrible game. According to a Rhode Island Governor they would have needed to sell three million copies of Kingdom of Amalur to pay off the loan and they definitely did not do that. It's a bit ironic that I was writing about Project Copernicus less than a week ago and I thought that it looked to have better chances of success than the Elder Scrolls MMO, but now that is gone with the rest. I hope most of those developers find new homes quickly among other studios and if you want to check out more look at the links above or below. Thanks for reading.


Sources:
Gamasutra Post
Rock Paper Shotgun Post 

-Written by Sean Cargle

I don't know why Creative Assembly decided to call their map editor TEd, but they did and we must live with that. Yesterday on May 23rd they released TEd for free for Total War: Shogun 2 and Fall of the Samurai Expansion. With this tool, which you download from the tools section of Steam (if you own either of those games), you can create your own battlefields for singleplayer or multiplayer, but you cannot use them for the campaign. The most useful thing about this editor, other than the people who just want to create their own maps for fun, is that it should help modders quite a bit. All of the Total War games are notoriously difficult to mod, but even with those difficulties some glorious modifications have been created, like Third Age Total War, and now it should be less tricky to create custom maps for modifications.

Back in April Reto-Moto announced that the World War II Free to Play First Person Shooter Heroes & Generals was nearing beta. I was already lucky enough to to be part of the game's closed alpha at that point, but once the game hit closed beta they started to invite many new players. I have played Heroes & Generals many times throughout March, April and May and it is shaping up to be a very interesting and exciting game. If you are worried about the F2P aspect of Heroes & Generals don't be, it is very complementary and by no means give any players an competitive edge if they are willing to spend a lot of money, instead it allows you to highly customize your units quicker than one might if they are earn money through normal moneys. If you haven't read about it before let me give an overview of Heroes & Generals, plus the new info, a new trailer and some impressions of the game.

I've never written about Air Mech, but I should have, especially since I love real time strategy games for PC. Air Mech takes some of the micromanagement out of your hands as you set your troops in defense, support or offensive modes. You still build a lot, but in each game you have troops that automatically spawn from your main base and attack the closest base automatically (similar to DOTA or LoL). Additionally you may build various types of troops from any base you own, all of which have a specific requirement and cannot be built indefinitely. You control everything from your Mech, which can take the form of a jet or a ground Mech. Both forms are quite powerful, but they cannot take too many hits and you have to orchestrate your attack with other units in order to be successful. When you are jet (or helicopter) form you can pick up any of your units and set them into the automated modes I previously mentioned. Air Mech is designed for multiplayer, co-op or PvP, but you can also play the game solo against computer opponents. Before I go into any more details about the game take a look at some gameplay.

On May 24th iPhone/iPad gamers can expect to see a new update for Infinity Blade 2. Not too long ago they released Clash Mob, a mode of sorts that has everyone collectively battle a single boss and work down its health as a collective. Once that boss was defeated everyone who participated in injuring it received rewards. It was an interesting mode that gave everyone to work on together. Feel free to check that out here, but this update has nothing to do with Clash Mob. The Vault of Tears update is the largest update Epic Games has done for Infinity Blade 2 and it adds quite a bit to the game. One of the first and most insignificant things it adds has to do with integrating Facebook/Twitter with the Clash Mob mode. You can have friends and family help you in-game when they like or re-tweet battle calls. I don't know what those are, nor do I know how that works, especially since it doesn't say, but I don't believe anyone reading this cares the slightest about that kind of thing. What fans of Infinity Blade may care about is that The Vault of Tears adds a whole bunch of single player content. Recognize this area?

Last week Naughty Dog released a cinematic in-game trailer for The Last of Us. It didn't actually contain any gameplay, but it was using the game's engine, which is now evident by a slew of new screenshots that they have released. The screenshots show a little bit of combat, but they mostly show the ruined overgrown city as Ellie and Joel move through it. It all looks absolutely stunning. They will be showing off a lot more at E3, but for now all we know is that the Last of Us has a 2012 release date. There are about a dozen or so new screenshots, so check them all out below. I really don't' want to murder your bandwidth so just click on one screenshot and you can easily view all of them in full resolution. 

SPOILER ALERT: The following article contains MAJOR spoilers for Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and the “Requiem of the Goddess” DLC.  If you are interested in finding out the story elements yourself, please play all of these first.  I will also mention that there is a secret ending you can obtain by beating “Requiem of the Goddess” twice, which is also discussed in detail in this article.

The Kingdom of Amalur MMO is called Project Copernicus and today they released their first video for it. It isn't exactly gameplay, but it is showing off the world in-game. There has been very little information about the game, especially since the developer 38 Studios has been having some serious financial problems. They also recently pulled out of E3 and said that it's not ready to show off yet. Project Copernicus looks to be based in the world of Amalur, but everything else about it has not yet been revealed. You can find plenty of information about Amalur here, but for now all we have is this first video, so take a look. Will be back once more is revealed on this. *5/23 Three screenshots revealed, look after video*

Fray's slogan is simultaneous squad tactics, which represents the vaguely X-Com style gameplay. In Fray you control a squad of futuristic soldiers, which can be made up of six different classes, and it is turn based, but it does not use old school turn based mechanics. If you have played Frozen Synapse you can immediately relate it to that, because both games use a turn based system in which each players turn takes place simultaneously. Each squad will only let you use four soldiers, of the six classes, and you have to use each soldier with tactics in mind. Each class has different abilities, armor, weapons and weaknesses. Each turn has two phases: the definition phase ,where you set everything into motion, and the resolution phase, where you see everything take place in real time. Fray is for PC and Mac and it is just entering beta. It is definitely a fast turn based game that may entice people who don't wanna go through something as slow as Jagged Alliance, Silent Storm or X-Com. Before I talk about it anymore take a look at this gameplay video form the alpha to see how the game looks.

It's not too rare to see a modification turn into a stand alone release, but CryZone: Sector 23 is a bit of surprise since they just released a beta of it back in January. If you cannot tell from the name CryZone is a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. modification for Crysis 2, well it was one. A couple of days ago they announced on IndieDB that it is no longer a modification and they are changing CryZone into a stand alone Indie game using CryEngine 3. There is no mention of whether that means the game is now for profit or still a free fan project. They have already been working on this engine for a while and have a few screenshots to show. Read on for more info and a few screenshots of the new engine.

I've never written about DUST 514 here, likely because I thought that the games premise was far too ambitious to actually be fun or exciting, especially since it's free to play, but CCP Games is starting to make me reconsider. DUST 514 is a F2P First Person Shooter that takes place in the universe of Eve, the space MMO. It is set to come out only on PS3, oddly enough, and it will have some interactions between the people playing Eve Online and DUST 514. Specifically Eve Online players will be able to do planetary bombardments on locations that players in DUST 514 will be battling over. The Eve universe will be interconnected in a way that each game can affect the other game and it will be very interesting to see how that works out. Before I talk about it anymore, or the beta, check out this video from the Keynote presentation that CCP did back in March. It is from the Eve Online Fanfest 2012. Skip to 20 minutes in to see orbital bombardment from the view of each respective game.

About ten days ago Sidequest Studios announced Rainbow Moon, a strategy rpg exclusively for PS3. Today they gave an introduction video to IGN and a couple of days ago they sent us forty-five new screenshots. There isn't a ton of info on the game yet, but check out my first post on it to see a few details and a gameplay video. I'm pretty unsure about the game, in general, it could turn out to be a gem or a mess. Take a look at this introduction video and then prepare for a huge amount of screenshots.

A week ago I started playing a truly addicting and unique modification for ARMA 2 called DayZ, which is currently exploding in popularity at the moment. ARMA 2 is a realistic war shooter that gives players the freedom of to explore and edit a massive map filled with cities, forests, mountains and army bases. It is a really enjoyable game if you are into realistic shooters, but it has a clunky UI, poor optimization, stiff animations and a ton of bugs. Most of these things are still present in the DayZ mod, but it is such a unique and exciting mod that they are worth dealing with. DayZ is a realistic survival zombie mod, which keeps the mechanics from ARMA 2 while making the map of Chernarus into something much different. In this world you don't have to worry about enemy soldiers, or tanks rolling over the hills, or the sounds of jets flying over ahead, instead you have to worry about food, water, ammo, other players and zombies. DayZ is currently in alpha, but it's already hugely popular and has pushed ARMA 2 to the top of Steam sales for the week. Read on for a tale of zombies, bandits and temporary friendships.

Nothing much has been shown of Naughty Dog's upcoming post apocalyptic game, that is nothing much other than the first teaser trailer that came out during the Video Game Awards, but today IGN was given a new trailer called The Truck Ambush. It isn't gameplay, unfortunately, just a cinematic trailer, but it is using the in-game engine. No one is quite sure if The Last of Us will be a zombie filled post apocalyptic game or something else entirely, but there are hostile humans and some mutated humans that look quite a bit like some type of fungus zombie. I would probably be a little worried about this game if it wasn't being developed by Naughty Dog, who you may know for the Uncharted series or Crash Bandicoot. Without further ado check out the trailer and let me know what you think. All I can say is I can't wait to see some gameplay.
Main Website: http://thelastofus.com/

Diablo 3 comes out tonight and everyone seems to love engaging in Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2 comparisons, ultimately choosing one of them only and condemning the other. After playing the multiplayer only Torchlight 2 beta extensively and the Diablo 3 beta I can safely say that both games are good for the genre. I will make a few statements about Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2 later, but not until I have showed you what kind of game Torchlight 2 is and what makes it a enjoyable Action RPG.


The Torchlight 2 beta has been running for about a week now and it is available to anyone who has a Runic Games account. Find more on how to get into the beta here. The beta let you play as all four classes: Bezerker, Embermage, Engineer and Outlander. The Engineer was who I spent the majority of my time playing and it is essentially the tank class, but you also have support abilities like spider mines, healing bots and walking turrets. Each class has multiple tech trees, each with a focus on a particular aspect. The Engineer has a tree for 2h handed melee weapons and melee in general, one for bots and cannons, and one for shields. The only class you might not be able to discern what kind of class they are from their name is the Outlander. The Outlander is what you would call the nimble class, which is often a thief, rogue or assassin, except the Outlander is a mix of quick ranged combat, guns, and magical abilities. All of the classes have some interesting abilities and are quite useful in every situation. I like the classes and they all feel pretty good, especially since they make it hard to specialize just in one skill tree when there are so many tempting skills. It is quite nice to run into another player of the same class and not feel like they are just a copy of your character.

I used to play the space MMO Eve Online and I enjoyed aspects of it, but I never got into the crazy player versus player combat or slow paced gameplay. Last time I played they had just come out with the controversial avatar update that allowed you to create a character with a new and impressive character creator, but it was controversial because it also added in cosmetic clothing for your character and it cost absolutely absurd amounts of money, real money. Now there is an upcoming free expansion that once again updates that character creator and so much more. Inferno improves on so many aspects of the game that it's impressive. It also adds new features like the Mercenary Marketplace, War Declaration System and Kill Reports. Read on as I go through every part of the new expansion.

Anyone out there play Uncharted 3 multiplayer still? Some people certainly do, but personally I could never get that wrapped into the game's multiplayer even though I really enjoyed it. Well good news for anyone still playing Uncharted 3 multiplayer. There is a new patch coming, which wouldn't be a big deal on it's own, but this patch contains a new elimination mode, the lab and of course fixes/tweaks. So other than that they have added advanced settings, which let you change respawn time, select the health multiplier, pick a weapon mode, select specific kickbacks and more. The other big feature is the lab. The lab is from Uncharted 2 and it is a game mode that is created by the developers, a mode that will change every so often. The lab isn't just one game mode though, it is a playlist of modes. The first list will focus on T-Bolt and Pistole only maps.

I know all of this isn't a huge deal to anyone not playing Uncharted 3, but it's good to see that they are still supporting the game with more than just tweaks and fixes. If your like me and you like the game, but never got all that into multiplayer then this is the kind of thing that may draw you in and get you try it out. The multiplayer for Uncharted 3 was originally not too balanced and missing some features that the Uncharted 2 multplayer had, but they have patched the game a ton since its release and it may now be worth another shot. The 1.11 patch doesn't come out till the end of May, but you feel free to check out all the information below. Plus there is a short video describing some of the games new features. Thanks for checking it out.
Playstation Blog Post

It's still alive! That's the big news. Black Mesa Source is a complete modification that is recreating Half Life 1 in the Half Life 2 source engine. The developers have been working on this mod since 2005, often with a dozen or so people working on the mod. Back in 2008 they released a trailer that looked fantastic and showed an expected release date of 2009. They didn't release Black Mesa Source in 2009 and since then most people assumed that mod had died, especially since news and updates for it ended sometime in 2009. Nathan Grayson Rock Paper Shotgun did an interview with the project lead of Black Mesa Source, Carlos Montero, earlier this week and he explained what has happened since then. Most importantly he explained that they are still working on the mod and they are hoping to have something out for it in the near future. Before I go over some of the really interesting parts of that interview let me show you the trailer that got everyone so hyped up for Black Mesa Source back in 2008.

Not too long ago they released the first Assassin's Creed III trailer, which was just a cinematic trailer and not all that exciting, but today Ubisoft has put up a two minute gameplay trailer. If you recall from my previous posts Assassin's Creed III is set during the revolutionary war and the gameplay trailer explains that everyone is your enemy in the game, not just the British like many originally thought. They also revealed that the main character is named Connor and the battle in the trailer is supposed to be the famous Battle of Bunker Hill. The trailer is almost entirely set in the wilderness, once again showing that the frontier is going to be a huge part of the game. The same goes for large scale line battles. The graphic engine still looks pretty great in motion. They are definitely better  graphics than the previous Assassin's Creed, but we won't be able to see how much of an improvement they are until we see how far the field of view will be and how many soldiers they will fit onto the screen without tanking the framerate, but I do love how gorgeous it looks in this trailer. Without further ado check out the newly released gameplay trailer.
Main Website: http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/ac3/en-US/index.aspx

First off what is up with all of these beta weekends? What happened to beta's running all week long or for a month? I miss those days. The Secret World MMORPG is doing their very first beta weekend for those who have pre-ordered the game, previously the beta was only open to those who had been selected from the sign ups. I probably wouldn't be writing about the beta if you had no chance of getting into it. If you head on over to Gamespot they are handing out beta keys as long as you have an account with them, which is free and easy to create. Of course you can also sign up normally and hope you get that random email that selects you for the normal beta that last longer than just the weekend. If you want to see thirty minutes of The Secret World in action check out this previous post. Read on for more info on the beta and what it will contain.

You all know Xenonauts right? If you don't you probably aren't fans of the classic turn based X-Com series. I'm willing to bet most people know of Firaxis's upcoming X-Com, especially since it is the first X-Com in a very long time that is attempting to stay true to most of the ideas of the original series, but Xenonauts has been in development for three years already and looks to be the truest sequel to X-Com that there may be for a long time. I'm not knocking on Firaxis's X-Com though. It has a lot of promise and is also focusing on utilizing the same ideas that made the X-Com series so popular, but it is has a different style and direction than Xenonauts. Xenonauts is nearly identical to the original X-Com's from fifteen years ago, except with newer graphics, mechanics and a revamped system. It is made by a small team out of London called Goldhawk Interactive. They are a team that has always received positive press coverage and support from their fans, but now they have started a Kickstarter in order to make the final push to release. Unlike most big games out there they are only asking for $50,000, half of which is already funded at the time of this post, but if you are fan of X-Com then Xenonauts is for you. I demand you check out this video, which explains quite a bit about the game and why it is already fantastic, plus it has gameplay in there. Read on for a bit on the demo and why they are doing a Kickstarter.

Sidequest Studios is making a PS3 strategy rpg exclusively for the PS3. It was announced some time ago with some basic details, but a few days ago they released their first gameplay video and new details. You may know Sidequest Studios for Soldner-X 1 and 2, but those are both side scrolling shooters while Rainbow Moon is an entirely new genre for them. Rainbow Moon involves exploration, character development and a turn based battle system. Battles take place on a grid map that looks very similar to old school turn based strategy games, the kind I personally love, and you control three party members as you battle many different types of enemies. Each character has skills and some basic commands, like attack, defend, use an item and escape. There are over 120 skills in the game and they are each suitable for different types of characters. All of this sounds pretty typical for a strategy rpg, which is fine, but then combine it with the large open world and it starts to look a little bit more interesting.

When people first saw Sniper Elite V2 they were excited by its impressive visuals, slick and brutal sniping system, seemingly open levels and multiple multiplayer modes. It was also coming out on consoles and PC. I was among the excited and after playing the game extensively, on PC, for a week I can safely declare its value and shortcomings. Sniper Elite V2 is the sequel to the lackluster Sniper Elite from 2005. Rebellion Developments, the original developers, remade the game into Sniper Elite V2. It is still based in World War II and even the story has a similar feel to it. This is mainly due to many of the locations being from the original game, like Brandenburg Gate (the first level in Sniper Elite V2), and because it takes place during the last days of World War II in Europe. Both games give the options to play as a stealthy commando or a gung-ho tommy gun wielding soldier, but they both have a definite lean towards action instead of stealth. Read on for a full review.

At the end of May, the 28th to be specific, Binding of Isaac will have a new DLC coming out. This DLC is called Wrath of the Lamb and it will contain a huge amount of new items, many new bosses, many new enemies, new music tracks, a new unlockable character, a final chapter, a new boss and new endings. Binding of Isaac is a PC/Mac rogue like dungeon shooter that is made by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl. Each level in the game is randomly generated and full of enemies to fight, items to find, upgrades to obtain and bosses to defeat. I've always found it a hard game to get into, but it is pretty enjoyable if you can get past the whole perma death thing and no save system. The Wrath of the Lamb will cost $3, while the game itself only costs $5, but it is almost doubling the game's content. This is the last DLC for Binding of Isaac since the developers are working on something new, something Super Meat Boy related. Check out the trailer for the DLC, but absolutely do not watch it if you are epileptic, seriously don't do it.
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/113200/
Some of this info is via IndieGames.com

Last time I wrote about the upcoming military simulation ARMA 3 by Bohemia Interactive was when they revealed one of the games two islands, Stratis Island. You can read about that here if you wish, but back then I didn't know that Stratis Island was far smaller the main island in the game. The main island is called Limnos and it is a much different type of island that Stratis. They describe Stratis Island as being rocky, small and hilly, while Limnos is of a different type, but they have not shown off Limnos at all yet or described anything about it.

The new video, which was put up yesterday by bodyboystance2, is a developer interview from Gamepage.cz (a Czech gaming website) that shows off under-water areas, Stratis Island and a tiny bit of infantry combat. The first minute of the video is older gameplay, but everything else is new and has commentary by the developers to explain what is going on the screen. I cannot wait for some bigger reveals, like some-thing from the game's campaign or showing off any of the new improvements to A.I., movement, combat or the editor, but for now we have this video. ARMA 3 certainly is going to be one of the best looking games out there and I'm already worrying about what I will need to upgrade to run it. Check out the video and thanks for checking it out.
Main Website: http://www.arma3.com/#homepage

I cannot contain myself. Company of Heroes is one of my favorite real time strategy games of all time. Company of Heroes made Relic the successful developer they have become. Before COH they had created the first Dawn of War games, based in the Warhammer 40k Universe, and the beloved Homeworld series, but COH was their first game hugely successful game and it was to be followed by the successful Dawn of War 2 series. Many have worried, justifiably, the Company of Heroes 2 had been cancelled since Relic is part of THQ and they have had some terrible financial problems in the last year, none of which had anything to do with Relic, but more the failure of other games and projects in their umbrella. PC Gamer announced today that they will have an exclusive reveal of Company of Heroes 2 in their upcoming June edition of their magazine, which will be out on May 9th in the UK and May 22nd in the US.


The only information given for COH 2 so far is that it is going to be focused on the Eastern Front of World War 2, Russians versus Germans. There will be a great deal of snow covered landscapes, an environment that did not exist in the first COH. There will be a new cover system and the game will be coming out in 2013. That's all the information available right now, but expect a lot more to role out once those issues of PC Gamer are released. For now all I have to say is do you think this is kinderparty? Be excited RTS fans!
PC Gamer Info on COH2

-Written by Sean Cargle

Last November when Mincraft officially released Mojang announced that the game will be eventually coming to Xbox Live Arcade as well. That time is nearly here, five days away from it's XBLA release, and they have detailed multiplayer and the game in general. If you've played Minecraft on PC you probably don't care at all, but the console port is looking pretty good. You can play Minecraft with up to eight players on console, with four on split screen if you wish, and it runs sixty frames per second when you play singleplayer, while it will be a little be less smooth with seven other players running around. The world is still huge and procedurally generated with villages, dungeons, monsters, sheep and all that good stuff, but its' not quite the same as the PC version.

I'm sure if you have been to any gaming sites today you have seen this news already, but if you haven't let me go over it with the little information I have available at my fingertips. Game Informer let the news slip about The Elder Scrolls Online by showing off their cover for their June 2012 issue. It is indeed a MMO set in the Elder Scrolls universe, something that has been rumored for quite a long time but not something many were willing to believe, especially since the series has been implicitly single player only. Once again they have an exclusive on  information, screenshots and more on The Elder Scrolls Online, just like they did with Assassin's Creed 3 not too long ago. If you take a look on the at the cover then you can see the outlines of Morrowind and Black Marsh, two areas that should be familiar to anyone who has played Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind or Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Bethesda Softworks announced that the game will be coming out sometime in 2013 for PC and Mac. Read on for a bit more on the game.

Featuring Dungeons Defenders, Containment: The Zombie Puzzler, Data Jammers: Fast Forward, Brainpipe - A Plunge to Unhumanity and Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space. I'll admit that I've never heard of sixty percent of those games, but we have continuously covered Dungeon Defenders and I am familiar with the fairly recent release of Containment: The Zombie Puzzler on Steam. Every month or so Indie Royale does a bundle and if you are unfamiliar with them they are not the same as many other Indie bundles. For Indie Royale you have to pay a minimum and none of the money goes to any kind of charity like the Humble Bundle, it instead goes all to the developers and website. They also usually have some kind of bonus for those who pay more than a specific amount and for this bundle that is $7. The current bundle price is at $5.07. 

So here are some quick overviews for each game. Dungeon Defenders is a multiplayer, co-op, based RPG that takes you through many various and gorgeous levels as you fight a large amount of fantasy based enemies. There are many classes and they all use a mix of tower defenses and abilities. Check out our review here. Containment: The Zombie Puzzler is well obviously a puzzle game about zombies. It is action based and does some interesting things with zombies, survivors and the puzzle genre. Take a look at this video of that in action. In Data Jammers: Fast Forward you are set on track that is continuously moving forward. It is a bit of action game in a retro-like environment, in which you travel along bit streams. Take a look at a short video of that here. Brainpipe - A Plunge to Unhumanity is an absolutely crazy game with a fitting name. It is a first person and you travel through a spiraling tunnel filled a hypnotic environment. Watch that in motion here. Lastly we have Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space. This is actually one of the most interesting game in the bundle since it is a science fiction adventure/strategy space again. It is a sequel to the game Strange Adventures and it is marketed as a game that can be completed in twenty minutes, but has the content to last much longer than that. Check out their website here. If you want to check everything out then head directly to the Indie Royale website to check out the May Hurray Bundle.  Thanks for checking it out.

-Written by Sean Cargle

I've heard one specific complaint about the wonderful digital distribution service Steam, a complaint about how Steam cannot let you remotely download. Many people have wished for the option to be able to download something in their Steam library without actually being at that computer, something that would be especially useful if you are at school or work all day and would like that new 15 gigabyte release to be done downloading by the time you get home. Valve has been listening and yesterday they opened up a beta to allow you to remotely manage your library. You basically go into the Steam website while you are logged into Steam on your desired computer and you can look at your list of games for your account. From this page you can check how far along an installation is or start some downloads. You can do this on PC & Mac. All you have to do is sign up for the beta and you will then have access. Take a look at the two links below to find all the information on it. I honestly thought we were years away from this kind of thing, but it's just one more feature that makes Steam the premier gaming platform/digital distribution service for PC & Mac gamers.
Beta Info: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2679418
A little bit of information on Remote Management and how it works


*Thanks to Rock Paper Shotgun for the heads up on this.
-Written by Sean Cargle

Read A Colonist's Tale Part 1 Here

Apparently we should add Gaslamp Games to the small list of developers who give out significant DLC for free. Yesterday they announced that sometime very soon Dungeons of Dredmor, the attractive and enjoyable PC rogue-like, will come out with a free DLC on Steam that will feature mod integration with Steam Workshop, four new skills, a new area called Bergstrom, new monsters and some unannounced additions. The pack is currently being called the You Have To Name The Expansion Pack DLC and it will be released as soon as they can get some testing done. Here is a screenshot below of one of the new items into the game, Minecarts, but if you want to check out the full post head on over to the Gaslamp Games page and check it out. Not much more to say about the DLC yet, but thanks for checking it out and I hope fans of the game are excited about it's release. The addition of Steam Workshop is a fantastic addition to any game, especially when you don't want to go searching the internet for mods.



-Written by Sean Cargle