Dealspwn

Quite a personal little public service announcement, this. Thatgamecompany's latest and greatest is finally available today here in the UK, and all of you PS3 owners out there should go and buy it...and then tell us what you thought.

If you're tired of faceless shooters, if you're despairing at the thought of hacking your way through swarms of minions, if you're bored of beating things up, this might just be the antidote.

It's a sunny day, let some sunshine into your gaming life with Journey, and then please, please, let us know what you make of it. We'd love to hear about it.

Here's what we said in our Journey review:

"Like the finest feel-good films, or those books you read again and again until the title on the spine is illegible from creasing, Journey is a game that exhibits pure joy. It plays with it, subverts it, threatens to take it away at times, but the end result is something inherently euphoric, deeply personal and, dare I say, even a little bit spiritual as well."

Your turn.

Airtight Games' Kim Swift, she of Portal fame, has praised Square Enix for being wonderfully supportive of her new project, Quantum Conundrum.

Power to the people! The Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter campaign has closed, having raised $3,336,371 at the time of writing, over eight times the original goal of $400,000.

Thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen has spoken about how "lucky" he and his team were to land a contract on PSN, ascribing Journey's critical success to a mixture of timing, people growing tired of traditional forms of gaming, and a greater appreciation and affinity for development, which comes with time.

Mass Effect's project lead, Casey Hudson, has defended the rather controversial endings to Mass Effect 3, saying that he didn't want the story to be forgettable or "throwaway". Hudson said that the "mystery" was planned, allowing for further discussion after the game had been completed.

Well, we knew it was coming. Brian Fargo and co. have launched a crowd-funding campaign to try and help get a sequel to Wasteland up and running.

InXile are looking for a total of $900,000 by April14th, with the total just short of $150,000 at the time of writing. The actual target is $1 million, but Brian Fargo has said he'll pitch in the last $100,000 if the campaign hits $900k. If the bank balance overflows, however, there are also a few details on how the extra funds will be incorporated into development, with further levels, more expansive content, and Mac support all on the list.

MotorStorm RC is one of the best titles on the Vita, hands down, and at under a fiver it's an absolute steal. And it's about to get better.

Tomorrow will see the launch of the Pro-Am Festival DLC - the first slice of additional content for Evolution's micro racer. Available to download for PlayStation 3 & PlayStation Vita from the PlayStation Store tomorrow, it'll cost £2.49/€2.99, and will be playable across both PS3 and Vita.

Is the Galaxy still not quite as Ready as you'd like? We'll here comes another slice of Mass Effect software to help get those fleets in order. Anyone would think EA are trying to getting the word out about a new game of theirs.

Phil Harrison, who resigned as head of Sony Worldwide Studios in 2008, will be joining Microsoft's leadership team to oversee the company's European Game Studios.

Reported early, originally by GI.biz, Microsoft have now formally announced the appointment. Harrison will form part of the Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB) leadership team as corporate vice president "with an emphasis on growing the division's European business".

David Jaffe isn't exactly a man lacking in opinions. The latest subject of his ire seems to be our industry's incessant concern with next-generation material. Citing inflated budgets and the cyclical nature of it all, the Eat Sleep Play creator, who'll be leaving said company at the end of this month, says he's seen it all before.

Pre-Order Benefits Detailed

ArenaNet has announced when players will be able to pre-order a digital copy of their upcoming MMORPG Guild Wars 2, as well as revealing that all pre-orders, regardless of the edition, will provide guaranteed access to the upcoming beta weekend events along with a 3 day head-start before the official launch.

Further Retail Woes As GAME Loses More Upcoming Titles

It has been revealed that last week Webb Group Limited, the owners of retail chain Choices UK, have entered administration at a time when retail gaming specialist GAME continues to experience stocking issues with future titles.

EA head honcho John Riccitiello has suggested that the disappearance of "a major European retail partner" wouldn't impact hugely on EA as "other retailers will absorb the business".

Speaking at a Wedbush Morgan technology investors event last week, EA's CEO didn't name the GAME Group explicitly, but he didn't really have to. His responses to questions regarding "a UK retailer in distress" were telling enough, suggesting that the loss of said retailer would amount to little more than a "very temporary dislocation" for EA.

Crytek's GM of games, Nick Button-Brown, has teased that the company will be announcing a "spectacular" new game in April, adding that he thinks it's "the best of that kind of project we've ever done."

Acknowledging Crytek's recent involvement with smaller, mobile titles and the free-to-play market, Button-Brown also stressed that Crytek were still committed to big-budget development as well.

...In Their Thousands

Mass Effect 3 is this week's chart topper after a thoroughly successful launch, and absolutely deserves to be there. However, gamers are up in arms about the ending (for reasons that I won't post here for fear of spoilers) - and are taking to the BioWare forums in droves to petition for a re-write. At the time of writing, over 25,000 gamers have added their names to the cause, citing numerous complaints about linearity, tone and plot holes.

Have you completed Mass Effect 3 yet? If so, we'd love to hear what you made of the ending (please try to keep spoilers to a minumum or discuss it here)... and whether you feel that BioWare owes fans a do-over. Matt is currently working on our full review, and we're going to discuss the issue in this week's PWNcast.

X360A has received an unverified scoop from a Microsoft source regarding their achievement policy for Xbox Live Arcade games. Traditionally, XBLA titles have had a Gamerscore cap of 200, but this may be set to double to 400 according to the report. The maximum number of achievements per game would also increase from 20 to 30.

DLC packs may also receive a more generous achievement/gamerscore allowance. According to the report, the current total limit of 250 extra gamerscore is set to increase to 800, allowing developers to offer more arbitrary numerical rewards post-release.

If true, this new policy is set to come into effect from June 1st. Many gamers won't care one way or the other, but achievement hunters are bound to be excited by the news.

Steve Beinner, Xbox director for global marketing, has suggested that the return of Master Chief will see the Halo franchise return to the top of the pile, competing with the biggest games around, such as GTA and Call of Duty.

Super Mario 3D Land director Koichi Hayashida has suggested that hardware changes, and the unique capabilities for which new tech allows, are what help to drive forward existing IPs such as Mario. Hayashida suggested that generational steps allowed developers to explore new combinations of familiar mechanics with "something special" made possible by new hardware.

Journey is brilliant. Absolutely stunning, and everyone who owns a PS3 should buy it when it comes out this Wednesday (tomorrow if you live in the States). Feast your eyes on the gorgeous visuals, read our Journey review, and you can also hear Carl and I gush further about its loveliness on PWNCAST Episode 5. Make sure you book a couple of hours off this week to play it through.

Then come back and tell us what you think. We'd love to get your feedback on this one!

• What: Choplifter HD
• Where: Origin
• Current Price: £3.24
• RRP: £6.99

Origin are making a big play for attractive deals today, and this inexpensive download title has been reduced to under half price -  allowing you to save over £3 compared to Steam. This unapologetically action-packed, retro shooter is retro-hard but great fun if you approach it with the right mindset, providing tough yet rewarding whirlybird thrills.

It's worth noting that Origin's deal is much cheaper than the SEN and XBLA downloads too, making this the cheapest price on the market. It also registers on Steam (thanks, Jaffo).