Sony launched No Man's Land today, a freemium shooter for PlayStation Home ... yes, you read that last part correctly. The premise? Shoot other people in a post-apocalyptic America. Beyond that, it's a 4v4 cover-based shooter with team deathmatch and scavenger modes, the latter requiring players to collect salvage and bring it back to base (capture the flag with multiple flags).

No Man's Land makes of use your Home avatar, strapping guns and armor over your virtual likeness. The armor can also be worn outside of the game in the Home space. No Man's Land is available now through PlayStation Home, and you can learn more about it by visiting the PlayStation Blog.

This weekend's Mass Effect 3 multiplayer event is Operation Savage, running June 22-24. The Allied goal is to eliminate 7 million trooper-level enemies, including Cerberus Assault Troopers, Husks, Cannibals and Geth Troopers. The squad goal is "extraction on any difficulty with the squad using a mix of krogan, vorcha, or batarian classes."

For an Allied success, all players will receive a Victory Pack, and squad success will see each group win a Commendation Pack, each to be handed out the evening of Tuesday, June 25. Operation Savage begins at 6 p.m. PST on Friday, June 22, and ends at 4 a.m. PST on Monday, June 24.

Though Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli thinks highly of the Wii U, he doesn't seem to believe the German developer has "a business case" that "justifies" developing a game for the system. Yerli adds, however, that Crytek's impressive engine (powering Crysis 3 next) has already been licensed for a Wii U project.

"It doesn't mean that CryEngine 3 doesn't run on Wii U – it actually runs beautifully," Yerli told CVG. "In fact, there actually is a game in development from a respected developer that we will be announcing. I've seen the game running and it looks really great."

As for the prowess of the tech powering Nintendo's next console, Yerli thinks it's "minimum as powerful as Xbox 360."

Robot Entertainment's semi-genocidal sequel, Orcs Must Die! 2, will launch on July 30, a blog post on Robot Entertainment's site reads.

The anticipated follow-up to last year's tower defense success adds a full co-op campaign and plenty of more unlockables into the Spellbook. And if you played the previous game on the PC, purchasing the sequel will net you exclusive in-game content.

This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer.
It's always Nintendo, isn't it? When E3 rolls around, they're the ones who always seem to have me waiting on pins and needles for an RPG announcement, whether it's Dragon Quest, Xenoblade Chronicles, or in this year's case, Fire Emblem. Only Nintendo seems to be able to do this to me anymore. More than ever, it's Nintendo of America that holds the keys to the most compelling RPGs on the market today.

There are exceptions, of course. I really enjoyed what I played of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (it looks like the next Dragon Quest VIII to me), and I would love it if Inazuma Eleven were brought over to North America. Square Enix, for all the attention they have been lauding on shooters of late, is another major player. Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts number among the few franchises that still have the power to turn heads at home and abroad.

But Nintendo's influence runs much deeper, to the point that they can have an impact on games that they aren't working on directly. Consider, for example, the Nintendo 3DS is rapidly becoming the de facto platform of choice for JRPG development. The shift began when Capcom threw in their lot with Monster Hunter 4, and it's continued apace ever since. That Shin Megami Tensei 4 – a very rare numbered sequel in the long-running series – will be released on the Nintendo 3DS speaks volumes on how Atlus feels about the platform's long-term prospects.

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The release window for Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice 3 has been tricky to nail down. First, it was due on July 10 on PC and Xbox Live Indie Games, and then PA boldly moved the date forward to June 25, with mobile versions to follow.

Now, due to the late discovery of a bug (the game crashes if you remove a memory unit from an old Xbox while saving to it), the XBLIG release has been delayed. "We can't resubmit for another seven days, so we (and you, if you want to play it on there) are in kind of a holding pattern," Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins said.

The PC version will still be released on June 25.

[Thanks, Tim.]

Master Chief is getting a cool deluxe figurine set from McFarlane Toys featuring everyone's favorite interstellar peace-keeper in a UNSC cryotube. The set includes a posable Master Chief, the cryotube (complete with realistic frost detail) and a pistol, and will be available in August.

McFarlane is also developing figurines of Master Chief, an Elite Zealot, a Storm Grunt, a Spartan Warrior, Cortana, a Spartan Soldier and two new enemies, the Crawler and the Watcher.

The cryogenic Master Chief appears to be extremely similar to the initial prototype McFarlane showed off in February, which means we still wonder how he goes about turning his head between Madonna's cast-off shoulder pads. At least his all-essential forearms are protected.

Now before you get all upset, relax – the president is a zombie and totally deserves that bullet between the eyes in the above gameplay clip for Resident Evil 6, the first of two videos that highlight the entirety of Leon's portion of the Resident Evil 6 E3 demo.

If the idea of posthumous presidential assassination makes you cringe, hop past the break to see Leon shooting less prestigious zombies.

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Crytek won't be making a traditional retail TimeSplitters title, according to Cevat Yerli, the company's CEO (not a huge surprise, really). In an interview with VideoGamer, Yerli said he wished the company could develop it, saying, "I love the idea, I love the brand, I love everything – but the publishers don't." He added that he doesn't "want to spend [Crytek's] money on the project in a retail business."

It sounds dour to be sure, but Yerli quickly turned the tables, saying that TimeSplitters could be resurrected as a free-to-play title. Crytek recently made some waves announcing that it would be moving entirely toward a free-to-play business model after the launch of Crysis 3. The transition will be supported entirely by GFACE, Crytek's own game-streaming service.

Regarding the possibility of a new TimeSplitters on GFACE, Yerli was pretty clear: "I love the picture of a Timesplitters running on GFACE."

When a TimeSplitters sequel was referred to as gaming's Bigfoot – its Yeti, if you will – Yerli noted that "if we get enough fans, being loud enough," then "the Yeti can come back, on GFACE."

The nominees of the E3 2012 Game Critics Awards have been announced. Nominees for best of show include Dishonored, Halo 4, The Last of Us, Tomb Raider and Assassin's Creed 3. The games to receive the most nominations overall were Halo 4, The Last of Us and Dishonored, which each racked up four nominations. Meanwhile, the publisher to walk away with the most nominations was Sony Computer Entertainment at 12 nods, with Microsoft, Nintendo and EA tied in second place with eight each.

The nominees were voted on by various publications across print and the web, including our personal favorite: Joystiq. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, June 26.

You can see a full breakdown of nominations – sorted by category, genre and platform – on the Game Critics Awards website. Take in some more detailed stats – including platform and publisher nominations, and the number of nominations per game – right here.

Metal Gear Solid 5 is definitely a thing and is set to use Kojima Productions' new Fox Engine, Hideo Kojima told French games magazine IG, CVG reports. Kojima sneaked in a few gameplay and story details as well:

"About Metal Gear Solid 5, I can tell you two things," Kojima said. "There will be much question of infiltration, espionage, and convincing people to give you 'a favor' like in the last Metal Gear Solid.

"I liked the idea of social interactions in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but we will see. And if I say more, the female ninja public relations officer, who is behind the door, I will be carved up into pieces."

Kojima also cleared up any remaining confusion (not related to grammar) about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and its place in the Solid franchise: "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance never claimed to be a Metal Gear Solid," he said. "This is not a game about our beloved Solid Snake. It is a spinoff that tries something different. We have not yet finished with Solid Snake, despite the fact that I wanted to let him die at the end of Guns of the Patriots."

Now that's tough love.

Valve is adding new tournament-focused features to the DOTA 2 beta, intended to make the game more attractive and user-friendly for competitive players (and open up a new source of revenue from spectators).

In addition to improved support for teams, including additional stats, team matchmaking, and logos, the new update adds a "Tournament View" feature that allows fans to pay to watch current and past tournaments from within the game. "For the tournaments you've purchased," the Dota Team explains, "you'll find a complete breakdown of the tournament's matches, and be able to quickly jump in and watch them in your game client (whether it's a live match, or a replay)."

DOTA 2 is now officially the weirdest free-to-play game ever. It's free to play, but you can buy into the beta before launch, and you can now pay to watch other people play it.

Yuke's recently obtained the Lingerie Football League license to develop a video game based on the "aggressive yet sexy" sport. The studio developed the WWE series as well as the UFC Undisputed series, so it is experienced with scantily clad individuals in video games.

The LFL is a league of under-dressed women playing 7-on-7 indoor American football, with 12 teams and 14 more to come in the next four seasons. The sport is often criticized for its portrayal of female athletes, as women wear little more than protective pads on the field.

Yuke's has not announced information on which platforms it is developing the game for. We're hoping there's no mention of "jiggle physics" in future updates.

As substantial as last year's improvements were in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012, one thing was still lacking: manual mana tapping. It's one of several key improvements made in Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, this year's iteration of what has become an annualized franchise for Wizards of the Coast and developer Stainless Games.

But that's not the only change this year: there is a new subset of challenges and encounters to conquer across the campaign, and a whole new game mode called Planechaser, a new free-for-all mode that replaces 2012's Archenemy mode.

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A new "Game Industry Promotion Act" going into effect in South Korea on July 1 will make it illegal for an online service to ask someone under 18 to verify the account with their real name or age.

In response, Sony is taking down the PlayStation Store in that region, pending compliance with the law. Sony hopes to resume PSN service sometime this year. Online multiplayer will continue to be available through PSN, and the PlayStation Store will remain open for PSP and PS Vita users.

This decision seems to have been a sudden one for Sony – it announced a sale on 2K games through PSN the same day, just before announcing the closure of the store.

As a bonus to returning Magic: The Gathering players, a free deck key will be granted in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013. I discovered this when first booting up my review copy from Microsoft, discovering a message of thanks for my continuing patronage.

You can use the key to unlock a full deck right away, including all of its 30 unlockable cards, or you can turn all of your cards in one particular deck into foils.

"Steam for Schools" is Valve's next push into edutainment. This summer, educators can apply for beta inclusion in the program, which includes a "limited version of Steam" featuring Portal 2, the game's level editor, and its workshop for hosting and organizing user-created levels. This new version of Steam will be free for educators (in and out of beta), and will give educators administrator access – meaning that kids cannot share levels.

"We have a limited version of Steam, which is called 'Steam for Schools.' And what we're doing is asking for teachers, after school programs, organizations – anywhere where there's a student relationship, which includes homeschooling – for them to submit a form to be part of it. It's still in beta," Valve's Leslie Redd told attendees of today's Games for Change festival in New York City. The initiative is a continuation of what Valve head Gabe Newell spoke about during his keynote at last year's Games for Change event, where he professed 'no difference' between education and entertainment approaches.

The Washington-based company intends on opening up that level of access in the future, but Redd said that "children need that walled garden." In the future, Valve intends to allow more openness.

Valve isn't receiving any outside funding or grants for the program. "Valve is a commercially successful company," Redd explained with a smile. Of course, facilitating a massive education program for free is pretty great public relations. Other publishers aren't involved just yet, but Redd said there've been some initial talks.

For more information, Valve's "Teach with Portals" website is now open and will expand in the coming months as the beta extends across the summer (hey, that starts today!).

Your first chance to check out XSEED's localized version of the RPG Unchained Blades will be very soon – and on PSP. The PSP version of FuRyu's RPG, created by Lunar and Grandia vets, will be released on PSN June 26, for $29.99. XSEED was unable to confirm whether the game would be Vita-compatible, or available through the Vita store, at launch – a reminder that the Vita's PSP compatibility is not 100% for some reason, and not even all of the Vita-compatible PSP games are available through the Vita's PlayStation Store.

The 3DS version, announced concurrently, is due sometime later in 2012, also as a download.

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