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Yerli: Interest in TimeSplitters 4 is 'not high enough'

Yerli Interest in TimeSplitters 4 is 'not high enough'
Founder and CEO of Crytek Cevat Yerli knows that a lot of people want to play a new TimeSplitters game – but "a lot" just isn't enough to get one made. At least, not yet.

"I tested through my official blog to see how big the TimeSplitters community is, and while the volume of responses was quite high, we feel it's not high enough yet," Yerli tells VG24/7. "That being said, it did indeed trigger a deeper evaluation of what we do with TimeSplitters, and I can only say this for now: We might have some surprises coming soon."

In April, Crytek officially rebuked rumors it was developing a new TimeSplitters. For now, Yerli and Crytek are focused on creating gaming's future in the form of social experiences, with Warface's Gface streaming system leading the charge. Perhaps the surprise for new TimeSplitters content will be the franchise-specific social network "Timeface," or maybe even "Splitleg."

Sacred Citadel beats 'em up on PSN, XBLA and PC in 2013


Remember Sacred 2: Fallen Angel? It was the last entry in the Sacred series of dungeon crawlers, that debuted back in 2008. The series is known for high, serious fantasy, but the latest title, Sacred Citadel, looks to be taking a different approach.

While there are still plenty of fantasy creatures in tow, the dungeon-crawling is taking a back seat to "b*tchin battles," "ridonkulous rides" and "crazy co-op." It looks, all in a ll, a bit more over-the-top than what Sacred players may be used to. Sacred Citadel is slated for release on PSN, XBLA and PC in 2013.

Have no fear if you're looking for something a little more traditional, however, as the Sacred Citadel website reveals that Sacred 3 is most certainly on the way, with the official Facebook page asking fans to "stay tuned."

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection goes downloadable in August

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection goes downloadable in August
Way back when the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection was first announced, downloadable versions of the games in the collection were also revealed. The uncharacteristically box-free versions of Konami's famous infiltration games will be released on PSN (for Vita and PS3) and XBLA starting August 21 in North America.

On that day, you'll be able to get Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 individually on either PS3 or Vita, or the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (containing both MGS2 and MGS3) as a Games on Demand release for Xbox 360.

The next week, on August 28, Peace Walker will be available on PS3 and Xbox 360. You'll also be able to get a bundle of all three games on PS3. No prices have been named for these digital releases.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's first taste of futuristic multiplayer


Treyarch released the first trailer for the multiplayer side of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Taking place in 2025, the multiplayer side of the game shows no shortage of doodads and whatchamacallits.

Microwave transmitters, drones and EMP grenades are just a few of the high-priced murder gadgets showcased in the trailer above. There's also a new Riot Shield that has a little window for you to shoot through. Technology!

Sound Shapes coalescing into an available game today

Image Sound Shapes will be released today on PS3 and Vita whenever PSN is updated. Soon, these soothing tones and beautiful landscapes will be something you can actually play. For now, they're a new trailer you can stare at. ... Continue Reading

LittleBigPlanet Karting starts its engines November 6


LittleBigPlanet Karting will have its vehicles cobbled together and ready to roll on Tuesday, November 6 in North America, Sony announced today. Of course, you'll be free to do your own cobbling after that.

To accompany this news, Sony sent out the new "Summer Sports" trailer, which is worth a watch for anyone carrying a torch for this game. Honestly, it just shows us what we're missing in the summer Olympics. Right now, the best Slap Judo athletes in the world are going untested.

LittleBigPlanet celebrates 7 million user levels with massive, manic infochart

LittleBigPlanet celebrates 7 million user leves with massive, manic infochart
Media Molecule has trumpeted a new milestone for its LittleBigPlanet community: seven million user levels created and submitted. At some time last night, the seven millionth user level was uploaded to the servers, spurring the creation of the busy infographic above. See it in its full glory here.

The celebratory image provides interesting context for the milestone, like how 200 new levels debut every hour. Did you know it would take Sackboy 21 years to run through every community level? Indeed, it's been a pretty eventful four years since the first LittleBigPlanet launched, and with the impending arrival of LittleBigPlanet Vita and LittleBigPlanet Karting on the PS3, Sony's newest (and most adorable) mascot shows no signs of slowing down.

Namco Bandai bringing Tank! Tank! Tank!, Star Trek to Gamescom

Namco Bandai bringing Tank! Tank! Tank!, Star Trek to Gamescom
Namco Bandai is jumping on the Germany train (rather than the "train to Germany" -- fare from Tokyo to Cologne would be insane) with its Gamescom 2012 lineup. Namco will be showing off its Wii U installment Tank! Tank! Tank! and will demo the Star Trek movie tie-in game in its very own seated theater at stand C11 in hall 9.

Namco will also have playable demos of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, One Piece Pirate Warriors, Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition, Tales of Graces F and Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.

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PS3-exclusive Assassin's Creed 3 DLC adds an hour of content

Packaging says PS3 Assassin's Creed 3 to have an hour of exclusive content
A tiny bit of light has been shed on the PS3-exclusive DLC for Assassin's Creed 3, according to box art posted on Amazon UK. According to said art, the PlayStation 3 version of Assassin's Creed 3 will include an additional hour of gameplay, which sounds like just about enough to encompass a meaty mission or two. Ubisoft has confirmed to Joystiq that this is indeed the DLC Sony announced during E3, and not additional content beyond what has already been revealed.

Sony and Assassin's Creed have something of a history when it comes to exclusive content, with the PS3 getting exclusive launch DLC for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and later hosting an exclusive beta for Assassin's Creed: Revelations.

PSA: Last day to get R-Type games on PSN

PSA Last day to get RType games on PSN
Today is the final day to snag R-Type Delta and R-Types from the US PSN store, where they are PS One Classics. All R-Type games are being removed from PSN, following a slew of similar delistings on the Japanese PlayStation Sore in August 2011 and R-Type's removal from the Wii Virtual Console in September 2011.

Developer Irem hasn't provided any reason for the delistings.

Now Playing: August 6-12, 2012

Now Playing August 612, 2012
Get pulled into battle this week with Persona 4: Arena...

Choose your platform to jump to a specific release list:

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Darksiders 2 New Game+ and arena mode 'The Crucible' revealed

Darksiders 2 arena mode 'The Crucible' revealed
"Continue your life after death," THQ has promised, with the reveal of an arena mode in Darksiders 2 from developer Vigil Games. Dubbed 'The Crucible' in the game, the mode pits the lovable goofball Death against wave after wave of incorrigible baddies.

After wrapping up five waves, players can take a prize or continue to fight for an additional five. The greater the wave, the greater the prize until the mode reaches its 100-wave ceiling. "Only the most skilled players will have what it takes to conquer all 100 waves and claim the greatest prizes," a THQ press release says, challenging our video game skills.

Your summer of Death-based fun doesn't end there, though, as Darksiders 2 will also feature a New Game+ mode, where players will retain all skills and equipment for subsequent playthroughs. See, death is a giver and a taker.

Silver Lining: Inversion and the fear of the great beyond

'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 Saber Interactive's Inversion. The following may contain story spoilers.

Inversion's opening sequence is rather affecting. Protagonist Davis Russel is tied to a pole as a monstrous Lutadore priest babbles on in a difficult to understand tone, preparing to sacrifice the former police officer. In his ostensibly final moments, he begins to remember how he got into the spot he's in. He's lost his family, his city, and soon, his life. It feels like a man reading his own suicide note – he's given up hope and is ready to die.

It certainly sets a tone for the rest of the game, which is mostly told as a flashback. Humanity has lost the war against the invading aliens. The people of Vanguard City have been broken down by the relentless invasion of the monstrous Lutadores. And, if the opening sequence establishes anything, it was a war that they were destined to lose. Davis is on a game-long search for his daughter, and the possibility of saving her seems to be the only thing keeping him going.

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Dishonored's chaos, morality and potentially over-powered hero

Dishonored's chaos, morality and potentially overpowered hero
Many elements of Dishonoredfrom its original setting and art style to the protagonist's arsenal of special powers – have made the game subject to a great deal of attention. But with great power comes a great fear: Will the game lack any sort of challenge? Where is the difficulty in being stealthy if you can teleport behind guards and stop time in order to get away?

"It was a hard paradox for us to get right in the game design," co-creative director Raphael Colantonio told Joystiq during QuakeCon 2012, "because we wanted to give you very strong powers, to make you really a badass, but at the same time we didn't want the game to be too easy. So it took awhile to get it right, and some of it is just obvious tuning. Every power has a duration, cost of mana, and some other tunable properties ... So even if your power is incredibly strong, you can mitigate it by saying 'Well, it only lasts three seconds.'"

Ricardo Bare, one of the leads behind Dishonored, echoed that sentiment. "We're always in a discussion about where the line is. Should we move it back a little bit toward constraining the player, or should we go ahead and let the player do this? And as much as possible we try to say 'yes' to the player and enable the cool combinations and powers that they put together."

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Scourge: Outbreak due in a 'couple' months on PSN, XBLA, Mac

Scourge Outbreak on PSN in 'a couple months'
A PlayStation Blog post provides us more representative images from Tragnarion's upcoming downloadable shooter Scourge: Outbreak, showing what appears to be actual gameplay beyond the environments and corpses originally shown.

Lead game designer Omar Salleh also provided additional detail about the unique storytelling mechanic, which presents a different aspect of the narrative through each playable character's flashbacks. "These memories are designed to fit together as a kind of jig-saw puzzle," he said, "so the best way to get the full picture is to discuss them with your buddies. Some show dubious details about yourself, while others cast doubt on your squad-mates. Who's the real enemy? What's going on? What did you see?"

Scourge: Outbreak is due to launch "in a couple of months' time," as a PS3 download, as well as on XBLA and Mac.

A game of murder in Arkane's Dishonored

What I learned from playing Arkane Studios' anxiously awaited Dishonored is that playing it like a standard action game isn't the best course of action. You may succeed, but you're more likely to fail or stumble disappointingly to the end of a mission – a far cry from those playing with patience and a plan.

The QuakeCon 2012 demo I played was from about halfway through Dishonored's campaign, a section taking place during a dinner party murder mystery. You are the murderer, tasked with assassinating a woman named Lady Boyle during a masquerade party taking place at her estate.

The catch is that there are three women who go by the name "Lady Boyle," and you're not sure which one is your target. All are masked and wearing different colored dresses. Which Lady Boyle you are sent to kill is randomized every time you play, so unless you plan on killing all three women, you're going to have to do some detective work.

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EA Season Ticket expands with 'over $100 of PDLC' for use in Ultimate Team mode

Nope, "PDLC" does not stand for "Penguin Downloadable Costumes," as much as we want it to. Unfortunately, in this instance, it stands for "paid downloadable content," and EA Sports' $25 "Season Ticket" is adding a smattering of said content to its value proposition in its coming line of annual sports games.

For instance, Madden 13 players are getting one legendary pack and 24 Pro Madden Packs, apparently, while NHL/FIFA fans are also getting 24 "Premium Gold Packs" for their Ultimate Team modes. Both Tiger Woods 14 and NCAA 14 are also putting their normally paid DLC into EA's Season Ticket program, though no details are given on what that content will be.

The usual other Season Ticket perks apply, such as three-day early access to digital versions of next year's sports title and a 20 percent discount on non-included DLC. And yes, you get to keep the smug sense of satisfaction you get from having a one-up on your Ultimate Team compatriots.

Sony introduces 'PlayStation Collections,' kicks it off with 'God of War Saga' and Infamous Collection [update]

Sony announced two new PS3 collections this morning as part of its "PlayStation Collections" initiative. First: God of War Saga, collecting all three console God of War games with the God of War Origins Collection (both PSP games) and "exclusive bonus content." What could that be? Also of note, the entire collection is "remastered for HD" and all games have trophy support. Guess that rumor was valid, eh?

Infamous is also getting a collection, which ... collects the first two Infamous titles, the PSN game Festival of Blood, and the ambiguously phrased "extra missions." There's also some other in-game content included ("additional character costumes, power ups and weapon styles").

The games "start at" $30, and the various content will also be available in an a la carte form via PSN (albeit without the swanky additional goods). The God of War Saga and Infamous Collection join Ratchet & Clank on the PlayStation Collections bus, and Sony promises "additional news in the coming weeks" on other franchises we might see end up getting the collection treatment. If we were betting men (and we are), we'd wager that said news will pop up next week during Gamescom 2012. Just a guess.

Update: Sony says God of War Saga and Infamous Collection will cost $39.99 apiece. Still a pretty good deal, even at $10 more than the Ratchet & Clank Collection.

PSA: Metal Gear Solid 4 Trophy patch available

PSA Metal Gear Solid 4 Trophy patch available
Metal Gear Solid 4, one of the best games of 2008, now has Trophy support. Just pop in the old disc and be prompted for an update – which we should all be used to with the PS3 by now.

The 516MB update adds 34 Trophies, which can be reviewed on the PlayStation Blog. Sony has also stated future retail versions of the game will offer native Trophy support out of the box, but no timeline was given about when those copies will hit. Now, let's go get our 45-minute cutscene on again!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]

Olympics games take gold and bronze for second week on UK charts

Official Olympics game takes gold on UK charts
The quality may be tin, but sales in the UK have been golden for London 2012: The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games. Olympic fever has been epidemic, as sales of the game were up 88 percent from the week prior. Mario & Sonic London 2012 Olympic Games also had a bump of 42 percent, placing it at bronze again, directly behind the Lego Dark Knight and friends.

The only new game this week was Risen 2: Dark Waters, which debuted in spot 14, far better than its predecessor's number 29 premiere in 2009. Sail past the break for the UK top ten.

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