Lords Of The Fallen Dated For 2014

CI Games (formerly known as City Interactive) have bagged themselves a next-generation RPG, helmed by one of The Witcher 2's key personnel. Lords Of The Fallen promises a "demanding and strategic" experience when it releases next year on PC, PS4 and whatever Microsoft plans to announce next Tuesday.

GUILD-02, the second season of left-field downloadable 3DS games from LEVEL-5 and legendary Japanese developers, kicks off today with the release of Starship Damrey. This atmospheric title brings survival horror to the eShop, plunging players into a nightmarish abandoned vessel with no memories and an "inconceivable truth" to discover.

"Better Conditions Are Earned"

Metro: Last Light creative director Andrew Prokhorov has spoken out to confirm that 4A Games suffered through truly appalling working conditions in their Kiev studio, following a sensational report from ex-THQ CEO Jason Rubin. However, instead of attacking his employers, the zen developer simply suggests that sub-zero temperatures and power outages are just a part of the job, and consumers shouldn't cut them any slack.

Though nowhere near as epic as our recent Dealspwn playthrough (honest), Fuse's official launch trailer makes a decent fist of showing off the alien tech-powered weaponry and cooperative combat that Insomniac's upcoming shooter promises to bring to the table.

Fuse releases on May 31st in Europe. If you enjoyed the trailer, a short Fuse demo is available on PSN and Xbox Live.

A new (and breathtakingly short) teaser trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins pits the Caped Crusader against deadly assassin Deathstroke. Don't go in expecting any gameplay, but if you're hungry for a few seconds of slick CG brawling, we've BatEmbedded it after the break.

Batman: Arkham Origins is out on October 25th, developed by Warner Bros. Montreal.

Every great vampire hunter needs a place to kick back and unwind, far from the trials and tribulations of battling gothic horrors beyond mortal imaginings. In The Incredible Adventures Of Van Helsing, players will have access to the Hunter's Lair: a convenient hub for item stashing, quests, NPC interactions and even some tower defence mini-games from time to time. It's all in the latest trailer, which we've included after the break.

Neocore's isometric action-RPG is scheduled for a Steam release on May 22nd. We'll aim to provide a full review nearer the time.

Diablo III is celebrating its first birthday, so it's only fitting that Blizzard are handing out party bags in the form of a free buff. Players who log in between now and May 21st will receive a 25% boost to Magic Find and +EXP, which should reward veterans and perhaps convince a few lapsed fans to rejoin the fray.

More details are available on Battle.net.

Avalanche Studios piqued our interest with some tantalising screenshots over the last few months, which many of us assumed to be in-development shots of Just Cause 3. However, it transpires that they were actually from an entirely new steampunk sandbox game that has now been shelved indefinitely.

(But Your Guess Is As Good As Ours)

Sony Japan Studio has released a reveal trailer for a mysterious new project, currently known only as 'Panopticon.' Featuring some futuristic cities, enormous Sci-Fi cyborg beasties, hacking and a cadre of gunslinging protagonists, we could well be on course for a cooperative action-RPG in the vein of Monster Hunter or perhaps a Science Fiction JPRG or shooter setting. We reckon that the art style would be a good fit for Vita, but this is just supposition based on a notably gameplay-free video.

To say that details are "thin on the ground" would be a monstrous understatement, but Sony will apparently make everything clear on May 21st. Perhaps they're attempting to steal some of Microsoft's next-gen thunder? Either way, let us know what you make of the trailer after the break.

Just a quickie: the iPad version of Frozen Synapse is out now, allowing players to access the tense turn-based battles while out and about (or lounging idly in front of The Apprentice). Full cross-compatibility with the PC version means that games can be continued across both platforms, including the full singleplayer campaign and every multiplayer gametype.

Considering that we handed out a perfect score in our Frozen Synapse review, this is probably worth checking out if you've got a fiver to spare. As far as I know, an Android tablet version is planned - release date TBA.

Sanctum 2 launched yesterday on Steam and XBLA, and the launch trailer makes a convincing case for checking out the trial. Like its predecessor, Sanctum 2 is an FPS/Tower Defence hybrid that rewards tactics as well as twitchy reflexes, but contains "more characters, more enemies, more bosses, more levels, more weapons and more towers."

We've got the new video and a feature list after the break.

4A Faced Power Outages, Below-Freezing Temperatures & More

Ex-THQ boss Jason Rubin claims that 4A Games created Metro: Last Light in utterly abysmal working conditions, and on a shoestring budget to boot. It's possible that the freezing, cramped and dank Kiev studio actually provided inspiration for Metro 2033's bleaker moments...

It's an odd little tale. Patrice Désilets leaves Ubisoft to develop new game at THQ Montreal. THQ goes under and Ubisoft buys his studio. Désilets gets fired from Ubisoft, project ends up shelved "indefinitely."

Which leaves the mysterious 1666 up the proverbial creek without a director, and perhaps put on hold to stop the IP rights from reverting back to its creator.

"We've Listened To The Feedback"

EA seems to be making some promising noises after its change in management, not least of which a pledge to abandon those staggeringly-annoying Online Passes in future games.

About time too, really.

Arcade space sim Strike Suit Zero will soon support the Oculus Rift VR headset, as evidenced by a new developer diary from Born Ready Games. It's probably difficult to convey the peripheral vision-filling, stomach-churning, inner ear-shredding experience in a browser window, but if you're interested, we've got it after the break.

Kickstarter backers will get the Oculus Rift functionality for free when it rolls out via automatic update later this year.

System Shock 2 | Steam | £4.89 (save £2.10)
Halloween Special: Top Ten Scariest Games

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Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Review

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Pay $5 (£3.27) for the lot, including some OSTs and mystery games, or a handful for a sample platter.

Platforms: PS3 | Xbox 360 | PC (version tested)

Developer: Gearbox Software

Publisher: 2K Games

Of all the enemies we've faced in Pandora's dangerous wastes, the Psycho is easily the most famous. Gracing both games' box art and constantly burbling all manner of vaguely threatening nonsense, these depraved lunatics charge into combat with no self-preservation whatsoever, gleefully bringing sharpened sticks to a gunfight and setting themselves on fire at the slightest provocation. They've certainly got a bit of a reputation for brainlessness, but you can't argue with the results.

However, after getting hands-on with Borderlands 2's latest vault hunter, it appears that we've grossly underestimated their intelligence. Krieg The Psycho may look every inch the tactless goon, brandishing an enormous chain axe and continually bellowing all manner of insane epithets at the top of his lungs, but he's an advanced character designed for Borderlands veterans looking for a nuanced and surprisingly tactical gameplay experience.

In essence, Krieg boils down to one simple rule. To defeat your enemies, you'll need to hurt them as much as possible... and go out of your way to hurt yourself in imaginative and masochistic ways. Before tactically - and voluntarily - setting yourself on fire.

Science and art collide when making videogames, and Watch_Dogs will need to lock both down in order to fulfil its ambitious remit. Creating a living, breathing, simulated city full of believable people is no mean feat, especially when it's home to versatile mechanics and sophisticated AI designed to react realistically to everyday situations. Not to mention a vengeful hacker who can cause massive devastation with a single tap of a touchscreen.

So after interviewing Lead Game Designer Danny Belanger, I naturally jumped at the chance to talk to cinematic animation lead Lars Bonde about the artistic challenges Watch_Dogs poses, motion capture, his influences and what the next generation promises beyond shinier graphics.

That said, we're not above talking about Drive, guns and car chases either...

Jonathan Lester (Dealspwn): Thanks for talking to us, Lars. Watch_Dogs must pose a massive challenge compared to other games. To my knowledge, no-one's ever had to animate someone getting splashed by a taxi before, discovering that their bank account has been hacked and his wife's leaving with the kids. That must be fun for you as cinematic animation lead!

Lars Bonde (Ubisoft): The challenge has been fun! Partially because, a lot of times in games, there are so many restrictions in terms of technology and how far you can go. But Ubisoft have been really great in saying, “you know what? Go as far as you can and then whatever you can do, we can always scale things down.” Everything has been built in layers. The AI programmer Eric [Baillargeon] has really provided a lot of those opportunities for us.

We've done a lot of motion capture, shot a lot of data, have a lot of actors and we work really closely with them on what we can do. When the car runs by [in the rain], someone has to be splashed. Yes, we're not putting water in the motion capture studio and spraying it up on them, but we have all kinds of other artefacts we can use like foam or whatever. We make sure that we have a little projector or a cannon that can blow it up on them and they can react to it. We can have something race by them so they can react to it as if it's a car.