Peter Von Buskirk has been trying to change the way gamers aim at stuff since 2005 with his trackball controller concept, the latest version of which is currently attempting to raise $125,000 on Kickstarter.

The device's core concept of taking a PlayStation-esque controller and replacing the right analog stick with a trackball has remained unchanged over the years. In a previous life, the controller was a PlayStation 2 peripheral known as the Reflex Control, but despite a strong presence at several E3s a 2007 pre-order initiative was unable to secure enough orders for the controller to be put into production.

"I have always speculated that it was due to limited public awareness or a skeptical attitude toward a then-unusual pre-sale site," Von Buskirk told Joystiq. "Maybe if Kickstarter has existed then, it would have succeeded. You never know."

Nowadays, the patent-pending prototype is a PC-only controller. Raised funds will be spent on engineering upgrades, creating a tool required for the controller's molded plastic bits, component acquisition and manufacturing, assembly and shipping costs. Check out the pitch above, as well as a video of the controller being used to play Diablo 3 after the break.

[Thanks, T.J!]

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THQ sent us this Darksiders 2 live-action trailer, which does indeed feature Scottish actor James "Lord Mormont, Commander of the Night's Watch" Cosmo. He also plays a role in the game as Death's guide.

The pre-order bonuses for Darksiders 2 have also been laid out: Putting down money ahead of time for the Limited Edition will earn you a Season Pass, with two pieces of DLC content for free, as well as a new set of in-game armor.

The first piece of DLC is called "Argul's Tomb" and is scheduled to hit a month after the game's release on August 14, and both bits of DLC will include "significant new single player content" to play through. Anyone who preorders the game on THQ's official website will get one more armor and weapon set called the Maker's Armor.

Remember Spy Party, that sniper vs. spy game Chris Hecker made and showed off at our E3 meetup last year? The game, originally designed as the ultimate test of deep gaming skill, is getting a spotlight on one of the biggest competitive gaming stages as the Indie Showcase title at EVO 2012.

That means Spy Party will be playable at the event in Las Vegas in two weeks, and Hecker says he's hoping to have the demos hooked up to the Internet, letting attendees play some of the top players online. 50 beta invites are also being given away right now, so head over and sign up if you're interested. Spy Party was designed to test and highlight extreme player skill, so it's awesome to see it get placed in an event that brings in skilled gamers from all over the world.

'Silver Lining' is a column from freelancer Taylor Cocke dedicated to highlighting moments of real potential in less than perfect games. This week he examines the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
Oh, Sonic, where did you go wrong? Sega's iconic mascot has become a bit of a running joke in recent years, and for good reason. His games haven't been very good. The best I can say about any of them is that about half of the levels are good in any given release. Sonic Unleashed was only enjoyable during the non-werehog parts, Sonic Generations was fun during the old school sections, and even Sonic Colors had more than its fair share of clunky, slow levels that broke up any ability for me to fully enjoy it. The further Sega seems to stray from the formula of the original Sonic games, the worse things seem to get.

One would think that would mean that the two episodes of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 would be pretty good, then. After all, they're ostensibly the most faithful reproductions of the classic 16-bit platformer. Sonic doesn't talk, he's lacking all the incredibly stupid friends that have cropped up over the years, and he's running through a variety of stages so he can beat up on Robotnik at the end. Right down to the order of the worlds, they're essentially recreations. So why aren't they as celebrated as Sonic's original adventures?

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The second content dump for Modern Warfare 3 has escaped its timed exclusivity cage on Xbox Live. Content Collection #2, a smattering of two Face Off maps, one multiplayer map, plus two Spec-Ops missions, is now available for download on PS3 and PC.

Call of Duty Elite premium members on PS3 will find they already have this content unlocked on their respective platforms; everyone else will have to fork over $14.99.

David Perry's cloud-based gaming middleware company Gaikai could soon be courting buyers, according to a report at Fortune. The company has supposedly hired bankers in order to prepare for the transaction and purportedly anticipates that its market value will ring up somewhere around $500 million or higher, according to Fortune's sources.

Unlike OnLive, Gaikai provides no consumer-facing gaming service itself, but instead provides the technology required for other companies like Samsung, LG and Facebook. Gaikai's official stance on the situation is that it does not comment on rumors; a statement likely prepared by a super-cluster of servers before it was streamed to our inboxes.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP just made the trip to Japan, with a version localized by 8-4 released on the App Store this week. You can actually try it yourself by downloading the latest update and setting your phone's language to Japanese, if you'd like to hear Suda 51 as Logfella or have less of an idea what's going on.

Concurrent with the localized game, Superbrothers released a remix album of Jim Guthrie's Sworcery soundtrack called "The Scythian Steppes," featuring remixes of the music by prominent Japanese composers like Akira Yamaoka, Michiru Yamane, and Baiyon.

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Those without the requisite hardware to run Quantum Conundrum on the PC will have to wait until July. Quantum Conundrum will come to PSN on July 10 for $14.99, and XBLA on July 11 for 1200 MS Points ($15).

If you prefer to pick up Quantum Conundrum through Steam, it's now available on the PC for $14.99. Putting down $19.99 for a Steam pass will also earn you the soundtrack and two future DLC puzzle packs.

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The entire Deus Ex series is 75 percent off on Steam through June 25, as individual titles or as a package deal. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Augmented Edition) is $7.50, and the original Deus Ex Game of the Year edition and Invisible War each run $2.50.

Grab all of these, plus The Missing Link DLC, Tactical Enhancement Pack and Explosive Mission Pack DLCs for Human Revolution for $15 in the collection sale.

Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition is set to hit Steam on August 24, but before you ready your deathbed, make sure you actually can expire. Steam lists the following PC requirements for Prepare to Die Edition:

OS: Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, or newer
Processor: 2.6 GHz Dual-Core
Memory: 1 GB (XP), 2GB (Vista/7)
Hard Disk Space: 4 GB
Video Card: 512 MB RAM, ATI Radeon 4850 or higher, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or higher
DirectX®: 9.0c
Sound: Direct Sound Compatible

Steam also says "multiplayer requires microphone headset support," but that isn't true, Namco Bandai tells Eurogamer. Prepare to Die Edition will not support in-game chat at all, it turns out.

The PC version comes with a new expansion, Artorias of the Abyss, which features an untold chapter in the world of Lordran. The expansion will be sold as DLC for PS3 and Xbox 360 versions this winter.

A lot of things have changed since the original X-COM was released in 1994. Strategy games have gotten much grander, with higher production values and streamlined mechanics. Now, XCOM: Enemy Unknown has to tow the line between modern sensibilities and the expectations of series fans. We've already talked about our experience with the game at E3, but I caught up with Firaxis producer Garth DeAngelis to learn more about the differences between the original X-COM and it's upcoming revival. Specifically, I want to know what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what is entirely new.

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Back in February, Airtight Games creative director Kim Swift told us that she wanted Quantum Conundrum to play like a Saturday-morning cartoon – lighthearted with a slapstick edge, similar to Looney Tunes or Cartoon Network programming. This may be why I found it so unnerving that Quantum Conundrum reminded me more of Fight Club than any kid-friendly cartoons.

The standard-edition DVD of 2002's Fight Club has a looping menu that plays a round of light, elevator-style percussion music while the screen flickers invitingly on the Play button; this lasts just long enough to lull the passive listener into a false sense of tranquility, before it smashes into a measure of jarring electrical guitar and pulsating images for a few terrible seconds. Then the screen clears, and the torture repeats.

One night in my wayward youth, I fell asleep watching this Fight Club DVD. For hours after the movie had finished and returned to the menu, I would be jolted awake just enough to know nothing about what was going on, only to immediately fall back asleep once the soothing interlude picked up again. For hours. It was disorienting, sinister and, looking back on it, kind of hilarious.

Quantum Conundrum's soundtrack may be similar to Fight Club's menu screen's, but the game itself rides those same waves of frustration, persistence and disjointed comedy – the game is lovely, but the story is jarring. Some of its story elements are almost funny, some of the narrative almost make sense, all of it almost reaches a realm of lucid clarity. And yes, it does this for hours.

Quantum Conundrum (6/21/12)

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"People don't sit around at Valve and say 'We're educating.' They are educating the player. But it's just good game design," Valve Software's director of education programs Leslie Redd told me in an interview yesterday afternoon. She and her coworker, Valve's Yasser Malaika, were on stage earlier in the day during New York City's annual Games for Change Festival presenting Valve's latest and boldest education initiative: Steam for Schools.

The program offers educators a modified version of Steam that puts control in the hands of teachers – and offers students a chance to snag a free, unmodified version of Portal 2 and its puzzle maker. Teachers are able to add "lessons" as they see fit, created in Portal 2's puzzle maker – several of which are already available.

It's a first for Valve, and really for any game developer operating today. Thankfully for those of us who love Valve for its video games, not much (if anything) is changing in Valve's approach to game design. "Having a fun game is so connected to learning and mastery and agency and social dynamics. You can't really design a good game without really considering all those things and putting in the effort to understand how your customers respond to those things. And it feels like that process has a lot of value, more than the product," Malaika said.

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Home doesn't take more than an hour or two to complete – and you'll have to do so in one sitting, as there is no save system – but that doesn't mean it won't have a lasting effect. As a horror-themed adventure game, the simple, pixelated 2D presentation belies Home's ability to disquiet and unsettle. It serves as a great reminder of what older games once taught us: With a little bit of coaxing, imagination can take you a long way.

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THQ vice president, corporate controller and chief accounting officer Teri Manby officially resigned on June 14, but is scheduled to remain at the company until July 6 to help with the transition, an SEC filing reveals.

Rose Cunningham, current senior director of financial reporting, has been promoted to vice president, corporate controller, and chief financial officer Paul Pucino will take over as chief accounting officer.

Among its ongoing financial troubles, THQ yesterday announced it would cancel a standalone expansion for Saints Row: The Third, a move expected to cost the company $20 million in revenue for its fiscal year.

A quirky addition to Diablo 3's patch 1.0.3 is the purchase of a digital copy of the game will restrict players to the Starter Edition for "the first 72 hours (sometimes less)." This means legitimate customers can only play Act 1 up to the Skeleton King, are capped at level 13 and can only interact with other Starter Edition players.

We could easily speculate why Blizzard would put such precautions in place, but it doesn't ease our concerns about hostile actions against legitimate customers. Oh, also, given the wording on the post, this is a feature, not a bug.

Take this to mean if you're looking to impulsively marathon Diablo 3 over some upcoming free time, you'll need to pick up the game from retail or overnight a boxed copy.

Good news for PC players looking forward to Dishonored, as the multiplatform game will have a separate interface on PC. "Our background is very PC for sure," Arkane Studios designer Raphaël Colantonio told PC Gamer. While Dishonored will be gracing consoles, he assured fans that, "yes, the PC has its own different interface."

We don't yet know exactly how the interface will differ from its console counterparts, but its mere existence should be a relief to PC players.

A Google cache of the site finalfantasyviipc.com shows evidence of a plan for an updated PC release, with achievements, cloud saves (appropriate!) and a "character booster" that lets players increase HP, MP, and money "with the simple click of a button, leaving you to enjoy your adventure." Final Fantasy VII first came to PC on disc in 1998.

A whois search of that domain reveals it to be owned by Square Enix – registered, in fact, under CEO Yoichi Wada's name.

Square Enix hasn't officially announced the new version yet, so we don't know when this is due, but the cached page prices it at £7.99 / €9.99 (about $12.50).

[Thanks, Phoenixumn!]

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 26. Operation Savage begins at 6 p.m. PST on Friday, June 22, and ends at 4 a.m. PST on Monday, June 25.