Batman: Arkham City features a new voice for Harley Quinn, Batman: Arkham City PC News

Even before we played Batman: Arkham Asylum, the developer had us on its good side just by filling the game’s voice cast with regulars from Batman: The Animated Series. Mark Hamill was the Joker, Kevin Conroy played Batman, and Arleen Sorkin reprised the role she created, Harley Quinn. We had assumed Arleen would be returning in Arkham City along with the confirmed Conroy and Hamill, but developer Rosksteady has revealed the part has been recast, with the role going to voiceover vet Tara Strong,

Above: Skip to 1:09 and you’ll hear Tara Strong doing the voice

From the clip above it seems like Strong is sticking pretty close to Sorkin’s version, so much so that we didn’t even notice it was a different actress in that trailer until today. And Strong is a very accomplished actress, appearing in piles of cartoons and games, including Rikku in Final Fantasy X/X-2, Talwyn in the Ratchet series, and Rachel in Ninja Gaiden. This marks the first time Sorkin has been replaced, with Arleen supplying Harley’s voice most recently in January’s DC Universe Online.

Above: Here's Sorkin as Quinn in Asylum

We’re sad to see Arleen Sorkin leave the role, as writer Paul Dini even created the part with Arleen in mind. Harley was a breakout star on The Animated Series, quickly going from the relatively small part of Joker’s henchgirl to starring in multiple episodes. Ultimately she became so popular that she joined the official comic book universe, a rare feat for animated characters. Watch the below vid with some of her best moments in case you doubt Arleen’s chops:

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Microsoft offers students free 360s with Windows 7 PCs, PC PC News

If you were one of the biggest manufacturers of gaming hardware in the world, and your rival was recovering from a spell of terrible luck, how might you consider capitalizing on the situation? If you're Microsoft, you could tacitly advance the notion that your hardware's so damn ubiquitous that the would-be learners of the next generation don't even have to pay for it.

The dream of a 'Box in every home continues with the announcement that students who(se parents) spend more than $700 on a Windows 7 PC will be eligible for a free 4GB Xbox 360. Those worried that their student experience might involve immersion in new ideas or the opportunity to go outside and physically meet new people can dodge both bullets in one fell swoop by following the steps detailed on theWindows Team Blog.

Above: A player takes a reluctant break from Team Fortress 2 for some obligation of some sort 

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Rapture-proof your iPhone with a chic Pip-Boy 3000 case, Fallout: New Vegas PC News

This Pip-Boy 3000 iPhone case may not actually help you in a real life battle against a Deathclaw, but it can locate and call the nearest hospital if and when the fight goes down. Judging by the quality, it could also fetch a few bottle caps on eBay - assuming you can convince its creator to sell you one in the first place.

The replica Pip-Boy 3000 was constructed by Dale Chance, with Geiger counter sound effects and Pip-Boy programs supplied by the Apple App Store. Chance has crafted other items from the Fallout world including Nuka-Cola and Sunset Sarsaparilla caps and badges, an AEP7 Laser Pistol and 'That Gun'. These are all shown in detail on his Etsy shop, The Chance Emporium, where it appears he's already started selling replicas of his replicas to artsy Fallout fans.

On the page describing his newest Pip-Boy 3000 creation, he writes:“This is sure to make your time in the wastelands that much easier, and face it, no one else will look quite as suave as you would, with this on your arm.”

The man has a point. With this and a few Sarsaparilla bottle caps (guaranteed to add +1 charisma), the cosplay ladies won't stand a chance. And with the whole rapture thing on the way...

{Source: Deviant Art– Chanced1 via Gamma Squad}

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Slow news day leads to Portal 2 adoption“controversy”, Portal 2 PC News

A mildly derisive segment of the script for Portal 2 is at the center of a media firestorm that looks to dominate news cycles in the Charlotte, NC area for the foreseeable future. The game, which features the player character being gently chided by the game's villains for being adopted, has reporters straining their“concerned and outraged” voices as they report on the inappropriateness of antagonists holding moderately contentious views.

“If you're an adopted parent, it's literally the worst thing you could have possibly heard,” says a visibly mildly-perturbed Neil Stapel, Charlotte resident. Stapel, who was playing the game with his adopted Chinese daughter when the Steven Merchant character called the protagonist“Fatty fatty no parents,” says his daughter still likes the game and is, um,“pretending” not to have been affected by the remarks.

Two things come across in this report: that Neil Stapel is, kidding aside, a stand-up guy who loves his daughter very much and is doing a great job of raising her honestly and responsibly (if imparting a dangerous tendency to misuse the word“literally”); and that wow, there is nothing going on in North Carolina this week.

“We did contact Sony... they told us to contact Valve, who actually created the game. We've not heard back from them,” concludes the report:“They're obviously passing the buck.” We're now abandoning serious journalism for another year, because WBTV Charlotte has that Pulitzer in the bag.

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'Films as Cartridges' image collection is obvious, charming, PC PC News

Few will observethis collectionof Atari-era game carts based on contemporary films and think,"what a novel idea!"(or worse,"JJ Abrams is going to get so sued!"). If it's contemporary and popular, it's inevitable that it'll get the"what if it were old?"treatment. However, as obvious jokes go, you can't fault these sleeves' fantastic attention to detail.

Graphic pranksters Penny Design– whose previous work includesthis similarly affectionate90s re-imagining of Angry Birds– put together these mockups for a series of pixel-age licenses of modern movies and TV shows, and the little touches really help them stand out from the crowd. Dig the ex-rental sticker on Tokyo Drift, or the“Merry Christmas '78” note on The Dark Knight.

See the whole sethere. Which ones do you like best?

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The Witcher 2 features snarky Assassin's Creed tie-in, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings PC News

Games developers can be pretty catty. There's a long-standing tradition of bitching at the competition in-game: think Duke Nukem's“Doomed Space Marine” or the directive in GTA 3 to kill the“strangely animated” protagonist of Driver. The Witcher 2 submits its application to the Mean Girls' club via a fairly open swipe at the reigning king of story-based period adventure, poorly hidden about 30 mins in.

As you can see, CD Projekt's throwdown proceeds thusly: Geralt wanders past a church featuring the requisite tall steeply bit and spies a familiar figure, sprawled dead in a pile of hay– the obvious consequences of a failed Leap of Faith. Oh, snap!

Questions raised by the diss are, of course, numerous. If your series features elemental genies and great big glowing magical spells and what-all, can you really afford to get snippy about a game mechanic like“the law of gravity”? Is a four-year-old game openly acknowledged as a bit disappointing really the ripest target for a takedown? What, is The Witcher 3 going to be slamming on Rise of the Robots?

Anyway, not like this isn't a neat wee aside. What do you think? What's your favorite in-game swipe at another title?

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Ubisoft Motion Pictures prepping 3D Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon films, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood PC News

Ezio Auditore, Sam Fisher and The Ghosts are about to go Hollywood. This weekend, Ubisoft Motion Pictures confirmed plans to break into the movie biz with 3D films based on the Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell franchises.

The movies are the first projects to be green lit by Ubisoft's newly formed film and TV branch in Paris. They are being developed with consultation from Ubisoft's gaming wing in an effort to stay true to their video game roots.

"Our strategy is not to diversify but to bolster the appeal of our franchises,"said the studio's senior VP of international marketing and distribution Jean de Rivieres, noting,"That's why we want to make sure our films will reflect the brands accurately and consolidate our fan base while expanding beyond the games' primary target audience."

This June, Rivieres will be heading stateside with Ubisoft Motion Pictures boss Jean-Julien Baronnet and senior VP of production and development Didier Lupfer to discuss the projects with US studios, screenwriters and agents.

"We want to keep ownership, retain control over the film content, and we're open to work with studios on the development of our projects, and eventually collaborate on the pre-casting, pre-budget and script,"said Baronnet.

Rivieres added that at least one of the scripts should be ready by the end of 2011.

{Source: Variety}

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Want to name your game? There's a site for that, PC PC News

Up-and-coming would-be Miyamotos stuck for the title that'll leap from store shelves and into players' hearts could do far worse than to peep the Video Game Name Generator. The basic tool's been kicking around in one form or another for a while, but the ever-growing site has just launched a new page boasting an HTML5 front-end and easy Twitter access for game-naming inspiration on the go.

With all the technological mastery available to today's superstar developers, it's a sad fact that game-naming hasn't really advanced a bit since the 8-bit days– with many otherwise fine efforts boasting titles that sound, frankly, like word-mashups significantly less inspired than the output of this humble automated tool. Dragon Age? Advanced Warfighter?? Come on. Are you going to sit there and argue that you wouldn't pre-order My Little Indian Terror or Miracle Hobo Joe, like, yesterday?

Whether matching randomly-generated titles to existing games or trying to imagine what nonexistent titles might play like, the Generator is good for literally minutes of fun! What miracles of nonexistent nomenclature have you come up with?

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Witcher 2 sparks debate over mandatory ratings, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings PC News

Good Old Games may have inadvertently kicked off a ratings revolution when it made changes to its online location controls that effectively allows an untamed version of Witcher 2 to bypass Australia's strict censorship rules.

Taking the incident as a sign of things to come, UK's Video Standards Council, is now saying there may soon come a day when mandatory ratings are no longer effective. Assuming that day hasn't already arrived.

In its interview with Edge Online, the non-profit video and video game monitoring group said the advance of global online distribution channels has made it a challenge for individual countries to regulate incoming content, despite their best efforts, saying,“The more benign censorship/ratings organizations will probably move away from the mandatory model and replace it with an advisory systems which puts the onus on consumers to make informed buying decisions through the provision of detailed consumer information."

Recently, GOG made location-specific IP tracking voluntary on its online ordering site, thereby allowing gamers to be less-than-honest about their home country in order to circumvent censorship restrictions. In a follow-up interview with GOG's head of PR& marketing Trevor Longino, he said such workarounds were par for the course in a global market, stating:

"The flat nature of the Internet means that it is virtually impossible to censor information by domestic region...I don't think it's a question of 'are digital distribution systems circumventing domestic censorship,' but rather, 'does the internet allow people to circumvent domestic censorship?' The answer to that is an unequivocal yes, and as quickly as governments can come up with new ways to enforce censorship, free-thinkers will circumvent them."

Still, despite his further sentiments that consumers should have the final say as to the content they're allowed to consume, Longino said GOG does not outright support the kind of abuse its website update allows. Furthermore, he said countries had every right to form their own rules as long as said rules are enforced responsibly and in accordance with public opinion.

“What one country considers crucial, others may thinks is trivial. Neither country is right, of course, and each is entitled to its own way of doing things,” he said, adding,“If a country feels that a censorship agency is important for its people, then there's no reason why they shouldn't have one, even if it makes things inconvenient for those of us who don't live there. If enough people decide that needs to change, then it's an outdated concept for them.”

This is exactly the question VSC is now posing to countries like Australia; that is, do mandatory ratings still work? Either way, it stated there still exists a place for ratings in some capacity, adding:

"We believe {local certification bodies} remain very relevant even in this age of global distribution. As stated previously, it may be that the nature of censorship and ratings will change to a more advisory-centered system, but ratings systems continue to provide consumers - particularly parents of children - with very useful content information which we know they find very helpful indeed. We believe the public tends to trust the judgement and advice of the more independent, established and respected ratings organisations and will continue to do so."

One has to wonder if any form of censorship is effective when consumers now have the resources to experience pretty much anything they want. Is it time to re-open the censorship debate, or has current technology already rendered the issue moot?

{Source: Edge Online}

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Modern Warfare 3 officially confirmed with trailer (UPDATED with two more trailers), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 PC News

What a day, huh? We began with the giant leak ofvery credible rumors surrounding the unannounced third game in the Modern Warfare series. Representatives for Call of Duty’s publisher Activision were quiet for most of the day, but it looks like they decided that if it was front page news anyway, they may as well announce Modern Warfare 3 now instead of waiting any longer. So here’s the official reveal trailer:

This trailer at least confirms the reports of the game’s story taking place in America, New York City to be exact. Whether the rest of it turns out to be true, including a planned November 8 release date, remains to be seen. But at least we can start our weekend safe in the knowledge that a sequel really is being made to one of the best-selling games of all time. Guess we better start the line at Gamestop tonight.

UPDATE:Activision kept the hits coming with two more trailers featuring a couple additional battlegrounds, Germany and England.

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The Witcher 2: GOG update bypasses censored Australia version, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings PC News

There will be blood in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, the follow up to developer CD Projekt’s RPG adaptation of the fantasy series by Andrzej Sapkowski. But more importantly, The Witcher 2 will have sex– so much sex that CD Projekt opted to tone down the mature content in the Australia version of the title to avoid an outright ban. However, a recent change to the privacy policy of digital distribution service Good Old Games (GOG) will allow anyone in Australia (or the rest of the world) to pre-order or purchase the uncensored version.

Previously, customers purchasing a game on GOG.com would have their region automatically determined by the website based on the user’s IP address. So, if your IP address says you live in Australia, you’d be stuck with the censored version of The Witcher 2.

Above: GOG changed its privacy policy just before the release of The Witcher 2. Sex scenes for everyone!

An announcement on GOG.com explains why customers suffer when digital distribution services use geo IP to set their region.“For example, customers may be travelling when they want to purchase or download a game from GOG.com. In this case, automatic IP address capture might change the price or the content of the game they’re ordering (such as the default language of the installer). Further, geo IP data collection is not always right. IP addresses are not a perfect or unique identifier of location, and can report the incorrect region of users, particularly ones who are not using standard Internet connections.”

GOG also stresses the importance of honoring its users’ privacy.“Effective privacy protections for our users means that any data that we don’t need to collect, we shouldn’t,” reads the announcement.

Seeing as how The Witcher 2’s gameplay emphasizes the importance of choice, it seems fitting that GOG has seen fit to give its customers the ability to choose their region if they pre-order or purchase any titles. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is set to release on May 17.

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Skyrim interview: You ask, Bethesda answers, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC News

Want to know more about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? Join the club. Better yet, visit Bethesda’s official Elder Scrolls forums where the developer is hosting its first fan interview for the latest installment in the epic, open-world RPG series.

So, if you’ve got any burning questions for the folks at Bethesda Game Studios who are developing the game, visit the forums and ask your question. You never know, it may get answered! And if you feel intimidated by the extra hardcore questions posed by the sorts of fans who’ve finished every Elder Scrolls game in history no less than five times, you can never go wrong with a lighthearted query. Take user Swarley Swazenoskie, for example, who asks,“Will there be dragons?”

Our favorite fan question so far:"Will there be dragons?"

Above: A gameplay trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. You should definitely watch it. If you’ve already seen it, we suggest that you watch it again anyway. It certainly can’t hurt

Answers to fan questions will be posted in the coming weeks on Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls forums as well as on the official Bethesda blog.

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Mass Effect 3: Beautiful new screens show intense combat, dramatic staring, Shepard's big butt, Mass Effect 3 PC News

Mass Effect 3 then. Exciting? Yes. Pretty? Definitely. We know that latter point as fact because of this fat slab of new screens that have appeared from Russian site Igromania. Showing off some tight close-quarters combat, they also feature some beautiful environments and the mandatory dramatic, reflective staring required for the third part of any epic trilogy.

Oh, and a bad dude gets Shepard's butt shoved right in his face.

Happy with these?

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Super Meat Boy level editor released, Super Meat Boy PC News

Super Meat Boy: 307 stages of meticulously-crafted old-school platforming, where the challenges appear nigh-impossible, but are built so you feel really, really good when you beat 'em. Hell no, son! This is the internet, where if we don't have the opportunity to mod something until it's absolutely, 100% player-proof, we're going back to I Want To Be The Guy! Well, relax, because with the newly-released official SMB level editor, now anyone can turn Team Meat's creation from“challenging” to“you have to be shitting me.”

The editor, which is free with the game's latest Steam update, is automatically added to Steam's Tools menu. Team Meat's blog contains some basic tips for using the program, together with words of gratitude for the fans who hung out for the addition and a less-than-charitable pro tip–“{don't} update your game, burn in hell”– for anyone who bemoaned the wait with ungrateful hate-mail. Well, if you're between building a free toy for PC players and porting your signature title to Mac (currently in development,“done when it's done”), it's understandable you might not have all the time in the world for haters.

Will you be building new levels for Super Meat Boy? How impossible will they be, exactly?

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Portal 2: LEGO ATLAS and P-Body ready for testing, Portal 2 PC News

Cool stuff alert! Check out these LEGO versions of ATLAS and P-Body from Portal 2. The attention to detail is impressive and these miniatures look like they’re ready to replace inferior LEGO humans for testing in a LEGO Aperture Science test chamber for the good of science.

The photos come from Flickr user Legohaulic. These ATLAS and P-Body figures aren’t the only impressive pieces created by Legohaulic. If you’ve got a moment, we highly recommend that you check out his photostream on Flickr for more cool stuff. In particular, we’re big fans of his life-sized recreation of the ARC gun from District 9 below.

Since it’s clear that we’ve still got Portal 2 on the brain, be sure to visit GamesRadar this weekend. We’ll be giving away a TON of cool Portal 2 stuff from our friends at ThinkGeek.

{Source: via Reddit}

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New Tomb Raider movie gets Iron Man writers. Olivia Wilde denies rumors that she’s the next Lara Croft , PC PC News

It's a fact so obvious it barely needs repeating that not all videogames make for good movies. InFamous' Brian Flemming, for instance, just this week stated that a screen adaptation of his open-ended, good-or-evil title is“infinitely far away.” However one property with proven screen chops– even if one out of two ain't great– is Tomb Raider, whose 2013-scheduled reboot just picked up two of Hollywood's hottest writers.

Screenwriter Mark Fergus and possible Megaman boss Hawk Ostby's previous work together includes the original Iron Man and the inventive thriller Children of Men, whose script earned them an Oscar nomination. They've just been added to the credits for the new Lara film, with producers GK Films modestly announcing their ambition to bring Croft to“her place alongside Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor in the pantheon of great female action heroes.”

Above: Iron Man writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby say"Yes"to the new Tomb Raider film. Actress Olivia Wilde says"No."

Above: Actress Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy, Cowboys& Aliens) denied rumors that she’ll be playing Lara Croft in the 2013 reboot

Meanwhile Olivia Wilde, who worked with Fergus/Ostby on their new Cowboys and Aliens, tactfully denied rumors she was a frontrunner for the role of young Lara even while sticking her hand up for the role:“As far as I know right now, I'm not playing Lara Croft. That would be so awesome.” The movie, much like Crystal Dynamics' upcoming restart of the game franchise, is said to focus on Lara's youth and origins as a raider of tombs. Who'd you like to see in the lead?

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Bethesda confirms 3 new DLC packs for Fallout: New Vegas , Fallout: New Vegas PC News

Bethesda has confirmed the arrival of three new DLC packs for Fallout: New Vegas, as well as its affinity for naming post-apocalyptic adventures after depressing country songs.

Entitled Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road, the New Vegas add-ons will arrive in May, June and July respectively, and will release simultaneously on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC via Steam and Direct2Drive.

The first pack, Honest Hearts,  tells the harrowing tale of a wastelander forced to navigate the wilds of Utah's Zion National Park after their expedition party is ransacked by tribal raiders. To survive, players will be required to pick sides in a brewing conflict between aforementioned tribesman, a New Canaanite missionary and the so-called Burned Man. It's out on May 17.

Old World Blue appears to offer something of a twist to the“go to this desolate settlement, kill this destitute enemy” formula in that players will assume the role of a mangled human test subject seeking revenge on the scientists responsible for his/her monstrous condition. It will have players digging around the Big Empty (aka more sun-baked Nevada desert) in search of technology that will enable them to achieve said vengeance or join teams to take down a bigger enemy. Wait, can't we do both? I'm doing both. That'll teach you, science.

Lonesome Hearts is the last of the announced DLC, and looks to tie up some loose ends when it is released in July. In it, players are contacted by Ulysses, the Mohave courier who originally turned down the job to deliver the Platinum Chip at the onset of Fallout: New Vegas; a device which is revealed to be central to the entire New Vegas story. Offering truth in exchange for help on one last job, Ulysses sends players on a mission into an environmentally ravaged part of Nevada called the Divide. Bethesda has not confirmed if players will be entering the Divide as a brand new character, or if Lonesome Hearts is intended as an extension to the main story.

All combined, the DLC aims to flesh out the Fallout: New Vegas mythos, as well as answer any lingering questions. Assuming you had any lingering questions. This isn't exactly Lost we're dealing with.

Each pack will be available for $9.99 / 800 Microsoft Points apiece.

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EA franchises get Simpsons treatment, The Sims 3 PC News

Wolfenstein 3D may have re-invigorated an unknown 8-bit franchise and introduced the world to the concept of"a shooting game, in the first person;"but while paving the road for Doom, Halo and Modern Warfare is well and good, the title was, until recently, lacking in the one area universally recognized as the sign of having Made It in the world of entertainment. We're speaking, of course, of having an officially-sanctioned Simpsons parody drawn of you; but thanks to newly-released concept art from EA's 2007 Simpsons Game, the title is among those finally receiving this ultimate honor.

EA concept artist Joe Spiotto, a pop-culture prankster who dreams upBattlestar Galactica concept albumsandwoefully nonexistent Nintendo gamesin his spare time, recently discovereda stack of artworkhe drew for in-jokey titles to feature within EA's Groening license.

“I'm not sure if these even made it into the game,” Spiotto writes. Working later on The Sims 3, he found that the team hadn't approved his image for that franchise. His Dead Space pic, meanwhile, was the result of moving from The Simpsons straight onto that then-young title. Spiotto cranked out the poster, he says, in homage to what he"knew was going to be a great classic."

And thus it was that Wolfenstein, The Sims, Half-Life, Mutant League Football and Dead Space joined the likes of Ricky Gervais, Flight of the Conchords and George Bush Sr in yellow immortality.Which one'syour favorite?

{Via:GameSetWatch}

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Have a gander at the new Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation maps, Call of Duty: Black Ops PC News

The most important thing headed your way in the Escaltion map pack DLC on May 3rd? Color! Or at least a couple that don’t stand on the tired shoulders of brown, grey and green. My interest in all things CoD has waned a bit, and I think a large part of that is due to each entry in the series looking damn near identical to the last regardless of location or era. But not the Escalation DLC, no sir!

Featuring four new maps (Hotel, Zoo, Stockpile and Convoy), plus an all new Zombie venture called Call of the Dead, Escalation looks to be bringing a little vibrancy back to franchise in a way that makes the whole shebang seem a lot more alive in a way that hasn’t caught my eye since CoD 4.

Stockpile and Convoy veer a bit more traditional, but Hotel boasts a pastel Cuban resort with all the garish visual panache of a Tony Clifton tuxedo. However, my favorite of the bunch would have to be the map that takes place in a post-apocalyptic Soviet beast sanctuary complete with derelict monorail perches perfect for sniping. What can I say? I’m a sucker for the inherent creepiness of abandoned amusement parks.

Not much is said about the new Zombie map, but the Treyarch fellas will offer a dickload of potentially useful tips and tricks in the vid above, so long as you can just stay your hand from bashing Activision in the comments for just one goddamned second! Escalation hits May 3rd, my darlings. A $15 price tag and 360 exclusivity are safe bet.

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New study prompts media to blame videogames for obesity epidemic, PC PC News

Videogames will turn you into a hopeless glutton, according to a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition - or at least that's what the media seems to be implying. As usual, the media's interpretation doesn't quite match the study.

“When we play video games, yes, we burn few calories, but we also eat more,” says kinesiologist Dr. Jean-Philippe Chaput, lead author of the study. Chaput recruited 22 young men and divided them into two groups. One would play games for an hour, while the control subjects would sit in a chair doing nothing for an hour. Afterwards, the subjects ate pasta. Those who played games ate on average 80 calories more. Blood tests indicated that hunger levels couldn't account for the excess consumption. Surveys the men filled out indicated that gamers ate on average 163 calories in excess of resting usage.

The researchers hypothesize that mental strain from playing videogames urges players to reach for comfort food high in fat and sugar. However, the actual conclusion in the study's abstract is far more conservative,“A single session of video game play in healthy male adolescents is associated with an increased food intake, regardless of appetite sensations.”

The conclusion as written in the study is hard to argue with. It's well documented that games (or any other cognitively taxing or exciting activity) cause all kinds of changes in the brain and body. The study itself notes,“Heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, sympathetic tone, and mental workload were significantly higher during the video game play condition than during the resting condition.”

The dubious science begins when the National Post uses the study to argue that video games cause weight gain. While the gaming group ate on average 80 calories a day more than the control group, there was no follow up later in the day or week to see if the excess calories were made up by a later calorie deficit.

While the study showed that gamers consume 163 calories a day in excess of their resting metabolic rate, there's no mention in the study as to whether these gamers were more or less active than the control group. It's possible that the gamers were actually more active than their non-videogame playing counterparts. According to a 2008 study, gamers are more likely to play sports, go out with friends, or even go on a date. The study did not show that gamers actually weighed more than the control group.

The body uses more energy while playing games for an hour than resting for an hour. However, gamers in the study ate an excess of calories well beyond the difference between resting and playing games. Whatever happens in the brain while playing games, it stimulates appetite. What's not clear is whether other sedentary activities would have the same effect. It's possible that watching a horror movie, reading a tense scene in a book, studying hard, or playing a board game could have similar effects.

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5 reasons to hate Portal, Portal 2 PC News

I’m sorry! It’s the

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First Portal 2 DLC announced, will be free, Portal 2 PC News

Boo-hoooo, Portal 2 is too short. Well guess what, punks? Valve is releasing free DLC this summer, that's what. Just go ahead and ignore that '5 reasons to hate' article...

The first Portal 2 DLC will feature"new test chambers for players, leaderboards, challenge mode for single and multiplayer modes, and more,"and will be released free for all platforms. No specific release date has been set, but Valve says that the DLC is"in development"and targeted for this summer.

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Driver: San Francisco has a new release date and a new trailer to go with it, Driver: San Francisco PC News

Close to a year ago Driver: San Francisco was just a rumored reinvention of the classic car series. People have been awaiting this reboot from new series publisher Ubisoft ever since, and at last Ubi not only detailed the game’s story in this new trailer, but finally gave a date for the title…

We’ll at long last get our hands on the wheel August 30 in the states, while our friends across the pond get it September 2. Will this reignite love for the crime and cars series, or has time passed this franchise by? I guess we know when we’ll find out.

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Portal 2 turret plushie is all heart, zero bullets, Portal 2 PC News

Portal 2's turrets are so gosh darn charming, it's easy to forget that their main function is to straight up murder your ass with cold, remorseless efficiency. Sadly, it's this one small detail that makes them all but impossible to market in the real world, but one Canadian tinkerer has created the next best thing in an death-free, interactive turret plushie.

Named Trudi, the prototype toy was created by an amateur engineer named Jonathan M. Guberman with design and sewing assistance from Toronto artistLeigh Nunan. As demonstrated onGuberman's blog, Trudi is equipped with motion, lift and tilt sensors, giving it - sorry, 'her' - the ability to react to movements and the presence of others with authentic Portal quotes.

Want one? Tough. Though Guberman is forthcoming with the do-it-yourself assembly instructions, he has no current plans to market Trudi, writing,“As much as we’d love to make you one or sell you a kit, the last time I suggested doing something like that I was very quickly dissuaded. So, if anyone from Valve sees this and wants to talk about giving us permission, or at least turning a blind eye, please get in touch!”

In what will surely end in tragedy and/or blinding awesomeness, Guberman said a fellow engineer with the experimental design groupSite 3is working on a fully functional, life-sized Portal turret replica complete with moving parts, real sounds and the ability to fire projectiles. Harmless projectiles, of course.

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CoD: Black Ops Escalation DLC features 'Call of the Dead,' starring Romero, Trejo, Gellar, and more, Call of Duty: Black Ops PC News

The upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 'Escalation' DLC will feature a new mode called (and why hasn't this been used before?) 'Call of the Dead.' That muchwe knew, but now we have a trailer which reveals that - wait, what? - Danny Trejo? Sarah Michelle Gellar? Robert"Freddy Kreuger"Englund? Michael Rooker (Merle in AMC's The Walking Dead)? George Romero?! How many non-questions can we ask?! How you do this, Treyarch?

"This is Treyarch's tribute to the legendary George Romero, who truly defined the zombie genre and whose incredible work has been such an inspiration to our team."said Black Ops director Dave Anthony."It was an absolute honor to work with such an amazing and talented cast whose passion and energy brought their characters instantly to life. Fans are going to love this."

While the Romero throwback zombie theme isn't new, it's hard to get enough of, and

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Hitman 5 will probably be titled Hitman: Absolution, Hitman 5 PC News

It's been a long wait for Hitman fans, but it looks like Hitman 5 may be announced soon. A European trademark filing for Hitman: Absolution under video games and software by Square Enix hints at the possible name of the game. Unless there are two Hitman games currently in development, Absolution is probably the subtitle for the next game in the series.

Hitman 5 was first hinted at in 2007, but the game wasn't confirmed to be in development until 2009. A Hitman-themed ARG on the IO forums ended with a teaser image for the game (see above). Between the filing and the ARG, it seems likely that we'll learn more about the game by E3 at the latest.

Source: Silicon Era

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Videogame retailers finish first in FTC's undercover study, PC PC News

The Federal Trade Commission has deemed videogame retailers to the most adept at keeping mature rated content out of the hands of minors.

The findings come from a recent undercover shopper study conducted by the FTC which showed only 13% of minors were allowed to purchase M-rated content; that is, games the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has classified as being suitable for players aged 17 and up. To put that in perspective, 33% of the secret shopping minors were granted access to R-rated movies, 38% were able to rent an R-rated DVD, and a whopping 68% successfully bought a music CD slapped with a parental advisory warning label.

"We are extremely pleased to see the Federal Trade Commission confirm not only that the video game industry continues to have the highest rate of enforcement at retail, but that it continues to climb higher than before,"said ESRB president Patricia Vance."The strong support that the ESRB ratings have enjoyed from retailers is crucial, underscoring their firm commitment to selling video games responsibly."

Of the retailers tested, Gamestop is reported to have performed the best, allowing only 8% of the minors access to the good stuff– er, M-rated games. Target and K-Mart followed closely behind at 9% and 10%, respectively.

Quick, someone call Fox News - they're totally going to want to run with this!

{Source:USA Today}

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New Duke Nukem Forever trailer is full of everything that makes Duke the man, Duke Nukem Forever PC News

As hard as it is to believe, Duke Nukem Forever will be on store shelves in a matter of weeks. Soon the cigar-chomping, film-quoting tough guy will forcibly enter all our systems, as the age of Duke begins again, or at least that’s what his publisher hopes. Don’t believe it’s actually going to come out? Will this new extended and uncut version of DNF’s TV ad convince you?

A truncated version of this trailer will premier tonight on the season finale of show Archer on cable channel FX, but we got our hands on the complete version a little early. After such a long ride, it’s hard to believe that Duke is close to coming, so close that a publisher would actually pay for a televised commercial for it. It simply must be ready this time right? Right?

By the way, if you aren’t watching Archer you are stupid. It's seriously one of the funniest shows on TV with one of the best voice casts a cartoon has ever had. Just watch the below trailer to get a small taste:

Where were we? Oh right Duke. Yeah, that new trailer is pretty nice too.

Um… the end?

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New Max Payne 3 screenshots feature Payne before and after hair, Max Payne 3 PC News

I love Max Payne (platonically), but I'm still not sure I love his new, old bald dude persona. Today, Rockstar released a new batch of screens from EDGE's cover story, and while bald Payne makes several appearances, so does a much more Payne-like Payne. Perhaps the game includes flashbacks, or just a significant amount of time progression. Or maybe bald Payne is his long-lost brother (one can hope). I should probably just read the EDGE feature, but until then,

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Mystery of Valve's bald mascot revealed (mostly), Portal 2 PC News

Valve is a studio rich with secrets, but one of the longest enduring mysteries has been the identities of the two dudes with red hardware sticking out of their heads in the opening credits of every game. Thankfully, one fan saw fit to ask the developer straight up for an answer, and though the names remain lost to time, we now at least know how Valve found its mascots.

In response to an email inquiry from Reddit user vism, Valve's Ray Ueno said that he was part of the original 1995 team who developed the off-beat visuals, recalling:

"Interesting that you should ask about the bald guy. Back then, the casting agencies we were using to find models only had 'supermodel'-type talent. We kept requesting 'heavy-set', 'normal' models, and they kept sending us 'beautiful', 'thin', 'perfect' headshots to review. So, we finally asked them to just go out on the street and pull 'everyday Joes' who were more 'interesting', 'common', and for the bald guy, 'kinda big, heavy-set, and bald.'"

As Ueno remembers it, the search required Valve staffers to hit the streets of Seattle and take photos of the specific type of bald people they were after. Eventually, they found the perfect specimen and invited him to the studio to shoot the iconic image that now graces Valve's opening screen. Ueno noted the same process was used to put together the second shot of a guy with a valve protruding from his eye, rounding out the studio's 'Open Your Mind. Open Your Eyes' brand campaign.

Thinking back on the model's actual identities, Ueno admits,“It's been very long since we did that work, so we don't know who the models were. And the fact that they weren't professional models would make it very difficult to find them - if not impossible for the bald guy (not facing camera).”

We may never know specific names, but at least we have a spiffy piece of videogame history to tell over a few drinks.

{Source: Kotaku}

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Alice: Madness Returns to include a console port of the original Alice, Alice: Madness Returns PC News

Here's some good news for those late to the tea party. Alice: Madness Returns will include a download code for a console port of the original American McGee's Alice. Released for the PC in 2000, the original Alice was a 3rd person action game with a heavy emphasis on platforming, and has built a substantial cult following over the years. Recently McGee has said that demand for the game has continued unabated for most of the past decade, even in Japan. The version included with Madness Returns will be the first console port of the game.

EA, which is publishing Madness Returns, has made next-gen ports of classic games a staple in their special editions and pre-order bonuses. Dead Space: Extraction, originally a Wii game, was included in the limited edition PS3 version of Dead Space 2, and 2001’s Medal of Honor: Frontline was included in the PS3 version of 2010's Medal of Honor. It's currently unclear if the original Alice will also be available as a downloadable game separate from Madness Returns.

Source: CVG

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Telltale announces Law&Order: LA series, Law& Order: LA PC News

Telltale is unstoppable: Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Walking Dead, and now, Law& Order. The company announced its partnership with NBC Universal and a new series of episodic adventure games based off of the newest Law& Order spinoff, Law& Order: Los Angeles.

Due out later this year, Telltale promises the game will include both investigation sections and courtroom scenes like the original TV show. The company'srecent track record with adaptations gives both adventure game fans and viewers of the TV show reason to be excited. Let’s just hope it turns out better than thelast TV show that Telltale adapted.

Source: Joystiq

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Half-Life reveal teased in Valve's Portal ARG? Clues to appear in The Orange Box? Here's the pant-wetting evidence, Half-Life 2: Episode Two PC News

Could it be? Could it really be? Yes. Yes it could. Sit yourselves down people, and regulate your breathing, because it looks like Valve's epic Portal 2 ARG could be about to drop the motherlode.

That motherlode? Half-Life.

Yeah. Half-Life. Finally, blessedly, mercifully, after our years of frustration and faith, it looks like sweet, sweet Half-Life might be set for its next reveal. My feelings? Incandescent, explosive joy, obviously, and also a hint of smugness, because I called this one in an excitable semi-drunken tweet to Tyler Wilde the other night. What was my (non-booze-related) reasoning for that tweet, and what is the evidence backing up this latest potential development? Well...

First up, the latest edition of the unofficial Steamcast podcast featured an unexpected morse code message. The hosts claim to have had no knowledge of it previous of the podcast's release (Are they hoaxing? Are they in cahoots with Valve? Either is possible, but the optimistic side of me swings towards the latter), and a quick translation of the message revealed the following non-beepy human words:

"It’s not over. The others have been compromised"

More Aperture Science game-infestation to come? More revelations? A bigger, second wave of the ARG about to fire up?It's entirely possible. But there's something even better.

The Portal 2 ARG site has recieved a message from Valve, in the form of an Aperture Science internal memo:

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Bethesda against adding multiplayer to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim , The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim PC News

Judging by the early buzz, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's massive world seems like a natural home for an online multiplayer mode. But while Bethesda admits adding such a feature to the upcoming open world fantasy game is entirely possible, the studio is dead set against doing so, believing it would ultimately weaken the core single player experience.

"Certainly we could do multiplayer. Unquestionably. It's not a thing we're technically incapable of figuring out,” said Bethesda's marketing boss Pete Hines in an interview with Edge magazine, continuing,“But when we draw up the list of things we'd like to have cut or change in order to support that feature, what we end up with is unpalatable. It'd make a lesser version of the game. And there is no doubt on the dev side that that is the case."

Hines said he's opposed to including multiplayer functionality simply so Bethesda can say it is keeping up with online trends. Nonetheless, he understands the desire amongst fans to see the franchise expand beyond its single player trappings, noting,“It's not wrong or unreasonable for people to want to experience a game with their friends, or want to do things with folks online. There's nothing wrong with that at all. What we've tried to do is help people understand that in game development, it's all about trade-offs. One of our mantras here is that you can do anything - you just can't do everything.”

Arguments against the so-called act of 'shoe-horning' multiplayer modes into predominantly single player games have popped up a lot recently. In hisinterview with Edgelast week, Gearbox's Randy Pitchford took a dig at games like Dead Space 2 which, in his opinion, sacrificed the creative integrity of the product by implementing multiplayer modes simply to sell more units, explaining,“When you boil it down to that, you take the ability to make good decisions out of the picture. And the reason they do it is because they notice that the biggest blockbusters offer a little bit for every kind of consumer. You have people that want co-op and competitive, and players who want to immerse themselves in deep fiction. But the concept has to speak to that automatically; it can’t be forced. That’s the problem.”

Rocksteady has also said it will besticking to single playerfor its highly anticipated sequel, Batman: Arkham City, as spending any amount of time on a multiplayer component would take away from the studio's main focus.

"It might not be the fashionable choice, it might not get us an extra tick on the box, but we are convinced, and we hope that gamers will agree when they get to play the finished game, that we have made the right decision,"noted Rocksteady Game Director, Sefton Hill.

Bethesda's reluctance to hop on the multiplayer bandwagon is understandable, though adding the option to bring friends along for the adventure could be a natural evolution for the series rather than an 'extra tick on the box'. Or could it? Are you content to enjoy Skyrim alone, or would you like to see Bethesda branch out?

{Source:CVG}

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2011 Canadian Videogame Award finalists announced, PC PC News

One misconception about Canadians is that we spend our lives obsessing over hockey, guzzling superior beer and adding extra vowels to our words. This is simply not true– we do all that,

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Portal 2 will release early with enough indie game love, Portal 2 PC News

Rumors that the completion of the Portal 2 ARG would result in an early release of Portal 2 on Steam were half right. The game isn't available just yet, but after GLaDOS' countdown completed,a new page appearedwhich indicates that more Potato Sack players are needed to generate the"computing power required for launch."

Very clever, Valve. At least it's not as if contributing to the early launch is so bad, given that it involves playing some great indie titles, like Bit.Trip Beat, Audiosurf, and Super Meat Boy.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops PC mod tools coming this May, Call of Duty: Black Ops PC News

Treyarch has announced that it is readying the release of a Call of Duty: Black Ops PC mod tool kit for sometime this May, making good on its pre-release promise to give the non-console crowd the means by which to play god on the battelfield. Well, sort of.

The message wasrelayed in a tweetyesterday evening by 'pcdev', and was confirmed in a re-tweet by Treyarch's community managerJosh Olinearlier today. No details have yet been given as to what powers the mod tools will afford, but the studio indicated last year that it would not necessarily be a free-for-all creation kit, saying,"We do not know yet to what extent you will be able to mod the game. There are some purely technical issues related to engine and internal tool enhancements that do not easily fit the modtools paradigm."

Treyarch has been tinkering with the mod tool kit since the game's development, but put the release on the backburner to focus on polishing (read: bug fixing) the game itself.

The studio also recently announced Call of Duty: Black Ops' next map pack, Escalation, will bearriving for Xbox 360on May 3rd.

{Source:Eurogamer}

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New Humble Indie Bundle goes on sale for charity, Trine PC News

It’s gaming for a cause. The latest edition of The Humble Indie Bundle is on sale now. The new Humble Frozenbyte Bundle contains Trine, Shadowgrounds, and Shadowgrounds: Survivor.  Buyers will also receive Jack the Claw and Splot. Both Jack the Claw and Splot are in development and will be made available once they are completed.

Above: The Humble Frozenbyte Bundle trailer

Above: You should donate at least one dollar. Anything less would be an insult. Also, this image pops up if you try to lowball the cause

The games are DRM free, work on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and proceeds go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play. Buyers can set their own price, and even determine how much money goes to developers and how much money goes to charity. While it’s possible to pay as little as a dollar for the bundle, the top contributor has paid $1,500. That donation comes from the game streaming service, OnLive. At the time of writing, the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle has raised a total of $419,062.30. Unfortunately, despite the likeable pay-what-you-want pricing scheme and feel good philosophy of the project, there were still those who chose to pirate the first Indie Bundle. For shame.

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See Chell's acrobatic badassery in the new Portal 2 'Long Fall Boot' trailer, Portal 2 PC News

Valve (in conjunction with Aperture, of course), has released the final Portal 2"product"trailer. The new promotional spot introduces Aperture's one-of-a-kind"Long Fall Boot,"with a fantastic clip of Chell getting acrobatic with her new Moon Shoes. The clip is, as usual, narrated by Aperture founder Cave Johnson, voiced by J.K. Simmons.

Valve's redesign of Chell is more apparent than ever here - while she still acts as a vessel for the player, she seems to be expressing far more resolve than her original lab rat persona. More resolve, and more badassery. Next Tuesday can't come soon enough. Well, unless you messed with the earth's rotation to make it come sooner, because that'd probably end up killing us all. That would be too soon.

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Gold farming could help poor countries , PC PC News

Gold farming and trade of in-game MMO items is a $3 billion industry, according to a new World Bank study. That wealth is produced by 100,000 people, mostly in China and Vietnam. The study also claimed that gold farming, which accounts for 75% of all virtual goods sold, and item selling could help improve conditions in poor countries.

While $3 billion isn’t much in the grand scheme of the global economy, the payment structure of most virtual item farms is surprisingly equitable to the individual farmers. In a typical transaction cited by the study, over 95% of the cash reaches the country where farming is occurring; 45% of that reaches the individual farm and 23% of each dollar sold reaches the individual farmer who collected the item or gold. Compare that to the $70 billion-a-year coffee industry, which only sends back $5.5 billion annually to the countries that farm the beans, and an ever smaller amount reaching individual farms and farmers.

30% of the gold farming is being done by humans working in shifts and manually controlling a character, while 50% come from bots. Stolen and hacked accounts make up the remaining 20%. The study only takes into account the kinds of transactions done through third party suppliers and farmers, not micro-transactions built into games.

{Source: infoDev via BBC}

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PopCap Games gets 'edgy' with new label, 4th&Battery, PC PC News

PopCap Games has created a label dedicated to producing bite-sized games with a little more teeth. Called 4th& Battery, the new division will give PopCap developers the freedom to tinker with edgier, more adult games which would otherwise sully PopCap Games' good name.

Revealed today, the studio will launch in fine fashion with a game about a homicidal flying horse who enjoys killing birds and pushing his friends into meat grinders, appropriately entitled Unpleasant Horse. Crank up the volume to get the most out of its trailer:

Above: Not Bejeweled

"4th& Battery is a pressure valve intended to keep our heads from exploding,"explained PopCap's executive VP of studios, Ed Allard.

"The PopCap brand has become closely associated with ultra-high quality, polish and attention to detail— which is a great thing. But our standard game development process is therefore long and involved, and doesn’t really accommodate all of the creativity pumping through our collective veins. 4th& Battery gives us a way to quickly try really strange or marginal ideas, and to give our designers a safe area to hone their chops."

That's understandable. After years of working on games like Zuma, Bookworm Adventures, and Peggle, one is bound to get an itch for a bit of the old ultra-violence; at least, more than somePlants vs Zombiescan provide. Understanding this, the higher-ups at PopCap Games will stay at arms length from 4th& Battery, allowing its staff free reign over their quirky pet projects without having to worry about things like production schedules, corporate visions or even if they will sell.

"It’s kind of the videogame equivalent of B-sides or short films,"explained Jason Kapalka, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at PopCap, adding,"Expect weirdness."

4th& Battery will produce a handful of games per year for PC and iOS devices. Unpleasant Horse will be available in the App Store for free later this month.

{Source:4th& Battery}

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Gunshine.net closed beta key giveaway, Gunshine.net PC News

GamesRadar’s beta key bonanza continues. This week, we have keys to get you into the closed beta for Gunshine.net, a surprisingly fun urban dungeon crawler. Don’t be too quick to dismiss this one. The browser based game offers a most acceptable RPG/action affair for those looking to kill some time.

Set in Dawnbreak City, a manmade island run by an evil mega corporation, Gunshine starts off a little slow with a prison break and series of simple quests that double as a tutorial. But as you keep picking up quests and start developing your character the game quickly picks up.

Gunshine may be more about gangs and guns on the island dystopia, but cleaning up the streets with your own brand of shotgun justice feels more like a cross between Diablo and Syndicate. Early quests are well designed with a surprising level of polish for a browser based game. It looks like there’s also nice mix of singleplayer quests and more challenging encounters that require you to team up with friends.

That being said, Gunshine will be a free-to-play game when it launches– and with that comes micro-transactions. It didn’t take more than a few hours in the beta to come across a treasure box promising rare items. The catch is that it would’ve cost us some Diamonds to open it– and filling your pockets with Diamonds will cost you some real money once the game goes live.

Above: Gunshine.net will work the social media angle with Facebook connect. Feel free to friend me (Tyler Nagata) on Facebook. You can hire my hunter to help you shoot stuff

Gunshine also seems to block off certain events and areas from players based on your character’s credibility stat, which can be raised by hiring NPC mercenaries, wearing special gear, or by using the game’s Facebook connect feature to get your friends playing and added to your in-game list of Gunshine gangsters who’ll vouch for you. If you’re friends are online, you can group up and tackle bosses and more difficult challenges in real time. Or, if your Facebook friends are offline, you can still invite their characters along for a fight and just let the AI simulate their play style.

It’s too soon to tell whether or not Gunshine’s micro-transactions will be a deal breaker. We also haven’t had much of a chance to check out Gunshine’s social media suaveness with its option to bring along bot versions of your Facebook friends. But it’s not too soon to try Gunshine.net right now for some free fun as you quest for XP and loot.

Above: A trailer for Gunshine.net

To its credit, Gunshine is also incredibly quick to set up. It doesn’t require a client download or any plug-ins and will pop up in a new browser window as soon as you start playing. So if you’re reading this, you’ll be all set to start playing in just a few minutes after you get your key. Speaking of which…

How to get your Gunshine.net closed beta key

1. Login towww.gamesradar.com. If you’re not already a member, click here to register. It only takes a moment.

2. Head to our Gunshine.net closed beta key page to get your code.

3. Make a note of your code and follow the instructions to register for the game and download the client.

4. Enjoy!

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