So you’ve got a bit of a dilemma, the Mass Effect 3 demo comes out this coming Tuesday, but that also happens to be Valentines Day, and you’re sweetie may not be too keen on you skipping your scheduled dinner and viewing of The Vow to get a taste of the crew of The Normandy’s finale. What do you do?

If you’re a card carrying member of Facebook (and let’s be honest, who isn’t these days), you can head over to the Mass Effect 3 Facebook page and take part in a flash game — the result, early access to the Mass Effect 3 demo, like instant access.

So boom — you get your first taste of Mass Effect 3, and your girlfriend doesn’t miss out on her Channing Tatum flick. You’re welcome.

I’ve always had this theory. In the beginning of every year, there’s that strange lull until we get new quality games, and perhaps it’s a bit unfair, but those games set the tone for what the rest of the year will be like. Terrible games are relaesed first? Get ready for a dissapointing year, but if we get good quality games within the first major release week, then that’s a different story.

If The Darkness 2, the new shooter from 2K games is any indication — we’re about to have a great year. Now, don’t get me wrong — it’s not perfect, but it’s fun, over the top and gory fun layered on top of quality writing and fine tuned mechanics. The Darkness 2 sets 2012 off to the right path.

The Darkness 2 is of course a direct sequel to the 2007 shooter based off of the Top Cow comic book series of the same name created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl. If you haven’t experienced either here’s a bit of a primer; the titular Darkness is an ancient mystical force that allows the one who posseses it access to a mysterious dimension and control over the darkling creatures that reside there.

The Darkness has currently chosen low life gangster and hitman Jackie Estacado as its host, and he’s parlayed that into a full takeover of his mob family — but of course things aren’t that easy. The Darkness 2 starts off with an attack on Jackie and the mob family, and a mysterious man trying to control the Darkness.

So what does that mean for you? Mainly lots of killing, maiming and shooting — luckily it’s all done so well. You’ll start out just as you do with any other shooter, but when The Darkness starts to beg Jackie to let it out again, that’s when the game starts to retain an identity all its own. The Darkness portrays itself mostly as two giant snake like creatures that portrude from your back, and proceed to make your enemies lives a living hell. 2K and Digital Extremes has done a great job making the actual Darkness abilities make you feel like an unstoppable force, which goes a long way in making the game feel so incredibly rewarding.

Take one of the game’s earlier levels, which finds you traveling through a subway system battling a litteral army of thugs. Not only can you use your average guns to take them out, but The Darkness adds a slew of cool abilities to your repertoire. Slash at them violently, grab them, literally rip them apart, take objects as cover — you can even summon darkling creatures to attack your enemies, and apparently they speak with an English accent.

The Darkness 2 also features an RPG style leveling system which allows you to use dark essence from your downed enemies to make your Darkness abilities even more powerful. One of the first abilities you’ll unlock is key — the ability to eat the hearts of your downed enemies to regain health, but I found that if I wasn’t led to a powerup that I absolutley needed, I never really really found myself going out of my way to level up these abilities. The Darkness 2 often felt like it could be finsished without even touching some of these abilities.

Perhaps that’s the Darkness 2′s biggest downfall — there’s just not a ton of content here. The single player game can be finished in a matter of hours, and there’s not really any reason to jump back in after you’ve finished it. Strangely, the multiplayer suite from the first game has been scrapped, but there is a respectable co-op mode, still though, it could turn a lot of online gaming focused players off from an otherwise entertaining shooter.

The visuals of The Darkness 2 though are remarkably well done. Rather than go for a phot realistic look, the folks at 2K and Digital Extremes have gone a route that makes The Darkness 2 look like the living embodiment of a comic book. The environments are all created as you’d expect, and then given a cell shading-esque top layer, which works very well for a game of this style.

Blast Factor:The Darkness 2 might not be a perfect shooter, but it’s an absolute blast and a great start to 2012. It’s violent, fun and performs well in some of the most hectic situations — we just wish there was more of it. If you like shooter, pulp and gratious violence, do yourself a favor and unleash The Darkness.

The other day we told you about how Minecraft’s creator offered to fund Tim Schafer and Double Fine’s Psychonauts 2. Not to be outdone, the fine gaming folks of the internet have raised over $1 million dollars for a new title by the studio via Kickstarter.

Seriously.

The idea of a completely funded major adventure title completely funded by fan money is a pretty cool and revolutionary idea. Shafer also confirmed that a documentary about the game’s development is also under way.

A runor has been swirling around the internet over the last few weeks that Rocksteady Studios, the makers of both Batman: Arkham Asylum and it’s sequel Arkham City are hard at work on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.

They’re not.

Rocksteady head Sefton Hill told Kotaku that though the rumor was “amusing” they are not doing a turtles game.

Parents, pay attention. This is what your kids are going to be hounding you for later on this year.

Activision has announced the next line in it’s popular Skylander series of toys/video games — the Giant Skylanders. The new line features sixteen new figures, eight of which will be giant sized, along with a new game. Don’t worry — you won’t need to plop down money for a new Portal, the one you have will work just fine.

Check out the trailer below for your first look at the new figures.

The Salt Lake City Tribune is reporting that Eat Sleep Play co-founder and the man behind such mega hits as God of War and Twisted Metal, David Jaffe will be stepping down and leaving the company following next week’s release of Twisted Metal for the PS3.

The report suggests that Jaffe (UPDATE: jaffe has confirmed he will leave the company) will be staying around for the game’s release, along with a bit of testing and polish, and then will segway into a new position,and a brand new company, which will focus on “big next gen ideas.”

As for Eat Sleep Play, the studio will reportedly transition from console games like Twisted Metal to more casual iPhone and iPad games. “”It’s a platform that is in our pockets almost 24/7. It’s kind of the size and types of games we’re playing,” said other co-founder Scott Campbell to the Salt Lake Trib. “You can certainly reach a lot more people. That’s pretty exciting for us.”

The company has also confirmed that as a result of the move, that they will see a number of layoffs in the near future. Here’s hoping all of those folks land on their feet.

Tim Schafer and Double Fine’s Psychonauts could be the most under-appreciated game in history, so naturally fans are no clamoring for a sequel, but even the most passionate fan doesn’t seem to hold a candle to Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson, who is willing to at least partially fund a possible Psychonauts 2.

Apparently everything started when Schafer gave an interview to Digital Spy, saying that despite the studio’s switch to smaller, digital delivery games like Stacking, Costume Quest and Trenched The Iron Brigade, he would love to do a sequel to Psychonauts…if “a few million dollars would suddenly become available. That’s where Notch has seemingly stepped in. In a tweet directed directly to Schafer, the Minecraft creator said simply; “Let’s make Psychonauts 2 happen.” Notch later sent a follow-up tweet assuring Schafer, and the rest of his followers that he was in fact very serious about the proposition.

Trying…to…keep…fanboy urges…down…

So just what does Schafer think of all this? In typical Schafer fashion,  he played off the rumors to Kotaku. “”I just woke up, is something strange going on?” The developer did take to Twitter to comment on the rumors later in the day — sort of.

“Man, so many tweets,” Schafer tweeted. “I assume this is all people asking for codes toHappy Action Theater and Rise of the Martian Bear?”Oh wait,” he continued. “Hm. This is interesting.

Microsoft and Lucas Arts have announced that Star Wars Kinect, along with the special edition Star Wars Xbox 360 will release on April 3.

The console, along with the game were delayed late last year after the game received majorly negative critical reception. Here’s hoping it’s tuned up from our time with it at last year’s E3.

Depending on what kind of gamer you are, this may sting a bit. It turns out that before Naughty Dog began work on their upcoming end of the world action title, The Last of Us, they were well into development of Jak and Daxter 4, but scrapped plans when things started to feel forced.

“We dug around trying to find the core of Jak and Daxter,” The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann told Game Informer Magazine. “Who are the characters? We had to reboot it essentially. Every time we got excited about an idea we’d take a step back and look at it and be like ‘It’s not Jak and Daxter, are we just slapping the name on it for marketing reasons?’

Druckman went on to add that his computer is currently full of rejected ideas for Jak and Daxter 4.

“It started feeling like a compromise,” Druckmann added. “The more we tried to make Jak and Daxter like we wanted to, it didn’t feel like things were matching up. We have folders and folders filled with scrapped ideas.All the ideas just started to feel like they were going so far away from what made Jak and Daxter Jak and Daxter,” added Evan Wells, co founder of Naughty Dog. “Even though we wanted to give fans another Jak and Daxter, we felt we weren’t going to give them the game that they wanted, and that we would end up either limiting the direction that the company had this passion for while simultaneously not creating the game that fans wanted. We just realized we were going to just do everybody a disservice.”

So does that mean that the series is done?

“Never say never,” he said. “It could happen. Naughty Dog’s got a long history and I think it’s got a long future so to say we’ll never go back is kind of crazy but right now we’ve got The Last of Us that we’re definitely going to be supporting. I guess there’s a possibility that the Uncharted team could move on to Jak and Daxter. It’s still up in the air, but I wouldn’t think that’s going to happen, because I think we’d run into all of the same problems with that team that we did with this team.”

Those looking for some (semi) new Jak and Daxter action will want to pick up the HD collection, when it releases February 7. Check back later for our full review.

Former Infinity Ward members Jason West and Vince Zampella formed Respawn Entertainment back in 2010 after a nasty and very public split from Activision. Now, nearly two years later, all we’ve seen from the new company’s first game was a set of blurry images, and an announcement that the game would in fact be multiplatform, but we may finally be getting a possible release window.

According to a reportedly leaked  marketing EA calendar and posted by French site Hardgamers, the publisher expects the company’s first game to hit sometime in the year 2013.  EA hasn’t commented on the rumor, we’ve reached out them and Respawn, but don’t expect comment.

Throughout my years working in the game industry, I’ve come to know a few gaming testers. You know what they do? Work long hours on single sections of games to find even the smallest bugs in your favorite games. You know what they don’t do? Get cockroaches dumped over their heads. But eh — maybe Sony is changing their interviewing processes.  Check out the Tester: Season 3 when it premieres on all of your favorite PlayStation branded devices to see who does gross stuff the best to get a job testing games.

 http://youtu.be/413N_FTYWxI

When Alan Wake’s American Nightmare hits Xbox Live Arcade later this month as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Live House Party, you won’t be visiting the same old woodsy locations. Rather, the folks at Remedy have taken everyone’s favorite darkness fighting author and put him into a haunted desert location. Check out these new screen shots to see check out some of the game’s new locations, weapons and enemies.

It should come as no surprise to regular readers of Blast that I’m openly waiting with childish anticipation for Valve to even mention the words Half, Life and the number 3 in the same sentence, but they just don’t seem to be ready to spill the beans. When protests, mailings and sluething don’t work? What’s an anxious gamer to do? Well, apparently play the latest game in the series.

A group calling themselves “A Call for Communication” has organized a massive event, where over 30,000 people have pledged to sit down and play Half-Life 2 — all in an effort to get more communication from Valve. “We have decided to gain Valve’s attention by delivering a basic message: Your oldest and longest running fanbase would like better communication,” said one posting.

The event happens this Sunday from 11am-11:30Am PST. Now that’s my kind of protesting.

Here’s a cool video showing how Naughty Dog, the studio behind Uncharted made the debut trailer for their newly revealed PS3 survival game, The Last of Us.

The game is rumored to ship later this year. Fingers crossed.

It’s a bit fitting perhaps that Square Enix used a time travel-centric plot for Final Fantasy XIII-2, as the developers used the continuation tale to literally go back in time and correct what’s widely considered to be one of the worst entries in the long running RPG series. The original was too linear? FFXIII-2 features an impressive amount of wide-open, explorable areas. The original was too repetitive and dull? You’ll find some of the coolest monsters the series has ever seen and beating them will test you almost each time.Yes, this is what Final Fantasy XIII-2 should have been all along, but sadly, no Delorean, Tardis or Jules Verne inspired contraption could save it from becoming just another cliched (if not polished) Japanese RPG game.

The opening moments of XIII-2 set the stage for an epic story. Lightning, the heroin from the original Final Fantasy XIII is in Valhalla, a realm that exists outside of the constraints of time — locked in battle with called Caius. The battle gets you ready for what you think will be an epic confrontation — but you don’t get it, at least not at first. You see, you’re not playing as Lightning, and your main quest is not to defeat Caius — no your quest is completely different. For the majority of the game, you’ll control Noel and Serah, the sister of Lightning on a quest to find her sister before it’s too late. This is in stark contrast to the opening events of Final Fantasy XIII proper, which took an incredibly long amount of time to get you to the main quest.

The time bending story of Final Fantasy XIII-2 serves it’s purpose, but it’s all just too convenient, and Square Enix uses the plot device very liberally whenever it wants to do away with something from the original or something that they can’t wrap up. Stuck in a plot that doesn’t make sense to the rest of the game? Oh, don’t worry — it was a merely the result of a time paradox. Continuity screwed up in between in game elements? I get it, I really do — I want to forget that a lot of FFXIII happened, but it’s a little dishearteing when you’re engaging in one of the game’s longer quests only to be told at the end of it that the events didn’t really matter. I got to the point where I stopped caring about midway through the game. Expect to do the same.

It’s also a bit disheartening that in this, the game that Square is obviously trying to reconnect the series with its roots, have chosen to stick with the nonsense stories that the majority of the later games have used. There are so many moments where you’re going to groan in agony as the game tells another long winded monologue that you’re going to feel like you’ve heard before. Growing up, Final Fantasy was the gold standard of story telling, but it’s no where close right now. To make matters worse, the story is left open intentionally. FFXIII-3 anyone?

That’s not to say that the game doesn’t do anything right — in fact, it does a lot very well. One of the biggest complaints about Final Fantasy XIII was in just how linear the game was; in fact, a lot of people compared it to being fed down a series of tubes with one ending and one entrance. Thankfully, that’s all been changed for XIII-2, as the game features an impressive amount of open and explorable worlds. This plays a part in just about every aspect of FFXIII-2. The game becomes much more open ended and user driven, as you’ll be focusing on a number of different quests at once, but you’re sure to miss a few in the process, which is going to get a lot of people to jump back into the game again once the credits have rolled. FFXIII-2 feels more like the Final Fantasy we’ve fell in love with than any games in recent memory.

I found myself both hating and loving the game’s new, faster combat system all at the same time. Bosses in FFXIII-2 are impressive in both scale and design, and some of them are downright tough. The game seems to encourage trial and error and wants you to keep trying to come back with different strategies. The new Pokemon style monster collection system, which finds you being able to capture up to three wild monsters at a time, and use them in battle is a cool new addition, that fans are sure to love.

Visually, FFXIII-2 is pretty impressive, and at times — inspiring. The series is known for open, sprawling battles and landscapes, and XII-2 is not slouch in that category, but I found myself marveling more at the detail in some of the game’s smallest details. It’s in the ruffling of the Chocobo’s feathers, in the cool effects of your magic attacks. It drips with Final Fantasy charm, and it’s good to see after all of this time. Sadly, the voice acting is pretty unimpressive, and often comes off as overdone and hammy.

The Blast factor: With Final Fantasy XIII-2, Square Enix has carefully listened to fan criticisms of the original game and addressed them; delivering a fast, fun and open adventure that better fits to the classic Final Fantasy name. The sad part though is that it’s still exactly what you’d expect from your typical JRPG, and the developers don’t take any risks — something that the genre desperately needs at this point.

If there’s one thing Capcom loves..it’s crossovers, and this could be the strangest yet. Take a look at the trailer above, announcing some of the PS3′s exclusive content for the upcoming fighter Street Fighter X Tekken. Yep, that’s Pac-Man and the oddest choice of a Mega Man — the original box art Mega Man. Yup, the fat one.

During the build up to last year’s E3 in June, everyone wanted to know about the new Nintendo console. What would it do? What would it look like? What would it be called? Then we got our look at it. The Wii U.

Meh.

While the system itself was cool, if not gimmicky (read our hands on preview from the show here), but pretty much everything agreed that the name needed to be changed, and it looks like Nintendo may actually be looking at that possibility.

The rumor suggests that Nintendo is worried that the Wii U name would confuse potential customers in the same way that the 3DS did. Apparently some people weren’t sure just what the 3DS was. Word is we could get a new name by this year’s E3.

The often rumored but not yet confirmed next generation Xbox is being said to be more than six times more powerful than the Xbox 360 and reportedly will finally play Blurays — but that’s not the big news. According to a report on Kotaku, the new console could prohibit used games from being played on it.

Citing an unnamed source, the site doesn’t say how the proposed technology could be implemented, but does theorize that the most probable solution would be to link each copy of a specific game with a unique code (similar to the current online pass system), though that can easily be bypassed by keeping the console offline.  Taking such a strong stance on used game sales would make publishers, who see no revenue from second hand sales, but may not sit well with retailers like GameStop or consumers.

Another rumor suggests that the next Xbox console will ship with a brand new version of the Kinect peripheral, complete with an onboard processor.

There’s been no confirmation when we’ll see the new Xbox, but rumors suggest some sort of unveiling to happen during this year’s E3 in June.

Here’s your first look at MLB 12: The Show, courtesy of our friends over at IGN. Featuring new broadcast style presentation and move controls, MLB 12: The Show hits the PS3 on March 6.

For those of you who are on Call of Duty: Elite, your first care package arrives today in the form of the first map pack. Included in the pack are…you know what, just watch the video above, it includes Rob Riggle of the Daily Show.

A new report on Inside Mobile Apps reports that Microsoft may be looking to phase out its Microsoft Point system that it has used since the inception of the Xbox Live Marketplace in favor of real world money, a move that would effect not only Xbox Live, but the Zune Marketplace, and Windows Phone users as well.

Citing memos sent to company partners, the site claims that Microsoft has reportedly been warning said partners to get ready for the change by the end of 2012. Given the recent rash of Xbox Live Point thefts and phishing scams, one has to wonder whether security is a main reason for the possible change.

If you’re like us, you began to worry about the upcoming X-COM first person shooter when it was delayed; and then delayed again…for a year. Then things got bad when you heard that THQ would also be releasing a more traditional turn based game based on the franchise. Don’t worry, X-COM fans, we’re not alone, even the franchise creator Julian Gollop thinks things are looking fishy.

“When from out of the blue we heard that Firaxis are doing a turn-based version, it’s as if 2K are trying to cover all their bets,” Gallop said in a recent interview with Edge Magazine. Adding that most game companies view the turn based genre as one not worth their time,  Gallop questioned how much the new title will innovate.”I’m guessing it isn’t a hugely big-budget title, so I think they’ll be sticking to fairly safe ground. I don’t think there will be any technical innovations in their game engine,” he said. Gallop also offered some advice for the developers of the game…sort of, adding that it could use ”procedurally generated environments, a more sophisticated destruction model for the terrain,” and more advanced AI but “I suspect they’re probably not going down that route, judging by the screenshots.”

“I thought it was a great shame because it was going down the same route as some of the previous X-COM sequels, like Interceptor and Enforcer—in other words, going completely against turn-based combat,” he said. Those two games were critically panned for shallow gameplay and, in Interceptor‘s case, campy themes that marked a huge departure from the X-COM canon that has acquired such a devoted following.”

Blast was able to sit in on a closed door demonstration of X-COM during last year’s E3, and liked what we saw, but we didn’t play it, so who knows.

Lashing out in response to sharing service Megaupload being taken offline and its founder jailed, hacking activist group Anonymous took down websites for Universal Music and CBS.com. One rumor suggests that Xbox.com and Xbox Live could be next.

The group sent out a video earlier this week claiming that if the MegaUpload services were not restored within 72-hours, they would begin targeting such sites as Capital One, The United Nations, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. There are rumors that the video was merely an empty threat posted by either smaller members of the organization or someone not even affiliated with them.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Anonymous allegedly took down a gaming service. Though they denied any involvement, the group was credited with taking down the PlayStation Network, taking the service offline for 23-days in response to Sony taking legal action against a hacker who “jailbroke” his PS3 system.

It’s unclear whether the Xbox Network is a verified target of the group, or which of the services would be effected.

If a new posting on Xbox.com is to be believed, the newly announced Resident Evil 6 may be amping up its online suite to feature six player online co-op.

The listing, for whatever its worth also features a wrong release date (the game is confirmed to release on November 20 of this year) says that the game will feature 1-2 player offline co-op and 2-6 player online co-op. This wouldn’t be the first time the series would feature online co-op — the last game in the main series, Resident Evil 5 featured two player co-op while the upcoming Resident Evil: Raccoon City will feature four player co-op.

No word on whether the six player co-op will be story based or a new cooperative mode. We’ve reached out to Capcom for comment and will update this page if we hear back.

AbleGamers, the advocacy publication for disabled video game enthusiasts has named Star Wars: The Old Republic as its mainstream Game of the Year, meaning that it’s the most widely released title that is also widely accessible and accommodating for gamers with different needs to experience full gameplay.

The publication cited The Old Republic for ”many accessibility options such as full subtitles, queue-able actions, multiple action bars, area looting, auto looting, and built-in mouse sensitivity.”  The color-blind friendly mini map, and full keyboard and mouse functionality also received mentions.  Perhaps most interesting is what the publication calls the unintentional accessibility by the NPCs. ”These NPC characters which accompany the player through most of the game provide support to those who need it without forcing them to request help from other players,” AbleGamers wrote

Past honorees for the award include Forza Motorsport 3 and Dragon Age.

Valve is pretty well known for trolling its own fans, especially when it comes to the often rumored and long waited Half Life 3 or Half Life 2:Episode 3. Could this be the ultimate trolling?

Probably not.

Spotted on Reddit by Kotaku, this Onion Ring bears a design strikingly similar to the logo of Valve’s famed shooter. Is it some sort of sign that we’re finally getting Episode 3? Who knows, but I bet it’s delicious.

Get your clown masks ready and jump in your ice cream truck — Twisted Metal has gone gold and is ready for you to finally get your hands on it.

Twisted Metal releases exclusively for the PS3 on Valentines Day. Be sure to check back for Blast’s official review.

Hey, remember Freddy Prinze Jr.? He was that guy in that thing once. You know, that 90s teen movie.

Bioware and EA have announced that actor and screenwriter Freddy Prinze Jr. will be lending his voice to the newly announced James Vega in the upcoming Mass Effect 3.

The studio also announced that for the first time in the series, players will venture to Mars. It’s rumored that when players get to the red planet, they’ll be reunited with returning character Liara.

“Maybe there’s something there,” said Bioware lead writer Mac Walters when referring to Mars and the Prothean Archive. “The Protheans came very close to defeating the Reapers…unfortunately the Illusive Man [and] Cerberus are there ahead of you.”

It was also earlier in the week that a playable multiplayer and single player demo will hit Xbox Live and the Playstation Network on Valentines day, ahead of the game’s March 6 release date.

Bill Gates isn’t going to send you a large chunk of cash for forwarding you an e-mail, a Nigerian Prince doesn’t want to give you his inheritance and no, you’re not going to be one of the first to play a beta version of Halo 4. Sorry, those sign ups that are being e-mailed around are fake.

David Ellis of 343 Industries, the studio behind Halo 4 took to Twitter to warn that any site or e-mail offering access to a beta for game is not to be trusted.

Microsoft has yet to announce any Beta plans for Halo 4, but that’s not to say that there won’t be one. Both Halo 3 and Halo: Reach had betas,so the safe money is on an eventual beta, just don’t give your info to anyone just yet.

EA’s stock prices appear to be in a bit of trouble, and it’s reportedly due in large part to the performance of EA’s long anticipated MMORPG Star Wars: The Old republic.

The company’s shares fell almost 3% to $17.75 after stock analyst Todd Mitchell, working with  Brean Murray Carret & Co, released a briefing on the company’s performance, citing an unimpressive December 20 launch of the mega MMO. ”Initial sales appear to be below expectations, and casual observation of early play is causing us to rethink our assumptions,” Murray said in a note to his clients.

EA has announced that Klei’s Shank 2, the sequel to the highly acclaimed and stylish 2D side scrolling beat-em-up will release on PC and the PlayStation Network February 7 and will hit Xbox Live the next day.

Of course, we’ll have the full review for you here at Blast.

Ken Levine thinks you’re a pussy. Well…sort of. He thinks your games are too easy, and as a result, he’s giving Bioshock Infinite a much harder, much more unforgiving mode when it releases later this year.

1999 mode, named after a time when Levine says games were much more challenging and is designed to offer challenges to the players that the average campaign wouldn’t.

“We want to give our oldest and most committed fans an option to go back to our roots,” said Ken Levine, Creative Director of Irrational Games. “In 1999 Mode, gamers face more of the permanent consequences of their gameplay decisions. In BioShock Infinite, gamers will have to sweat out the results of their actions. In addition, 1999 Mode will demand that players pick specializations, and focus on them.”

So just how hard is 1999 mode? Players will have to take a more demanding look at things like in game choices, health and weaponry. Players will also not be able to respawn if they do not have sufficient resources to do so.

“I’m an old school gamer. We wanted to make sure we were taking into account the play styles of gamers like me,” Levine said. “So we went straight to the horse’s mouth by asking them, on our website, a series of questions about how they play our games. 94.6 percent of respondents indicated that upgrade choices enhanced their BioShock gameplay experience; however, 56.8 percent indicated that being required to make permanent decisions about their character would have made the game even better.”

THQ has announced that Bioshock Infinite will release sometime in the fiscal 2013, which kicks off this April.

It may not come as much of a surprise, but Capcom has confirmed that Resident Evil 6 is in development — and its scheduled to release this November.

The announcement came when a teaser countdown at NoHopeleft.com ran out, announcing the latest entry in the long running action/survival horror franchise.  The game casts players in the shoes of the franchises’ two biggest names – Leon Kennedy and Chris Redfield for the first time.

“Resident Evil 6 represents a giant stride forward in the evolution of the series,” commented Katsuhiko Ichii, Head of R&D and Global Marketing via official press release. “The development team, led by Hiroyuki Kobayashi, is working tirelessly to deliver the most impressive Resident Evil title ever both in terms of scope and production values. We are all genuinely excited by the title and cannot wait to share it with the world.”

Resident Evil 6 releases for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 20 and the PC soon after.

Microsoft is investigating reports that workers in a factory in China that manufactures Xbox 360 consoles have threatened mass suicide in the midst of a pay dispute. Reportedly, anywhere between 80-200 workers climbed to the top of a six story building and threatened to jump unless conditions were improved.

Though details have been scarce, FoxConn, the owner of the plant has confirmed that 150 workers were part of the protest, which started when the decision was made to transfer all employees to an alternate production line. Though talks have settled, 40 of those workers have resigned.

“Microsoft takes working conditions in the factories that manufacture its products very seriously,” read an official statement from Microsoft. “We are currently investigating the issue.”

Google and The Onlive company have jointly announced that all future Google TVs will feature access to the Onlive cloud gaming service.

Full playability of the Onlive service, which offers cloud based, streaming gaming with no downloads is coming soon to all versions of the popular TV service, but the viewer, which allows unlimited viewing of games being played on the service is available now.

Google has been rumored to be getting into the gaming industry for years, and this is the latest step towards what many believe will be a proper Google console. Google announced late last year that several third party developers were porting popular titles like Bastion and Mini Ninjas to the Google Chrome Web Broswer.

Sega has announced that its futuristic shooter Binary Domain won’t be making its scheduled late January release date. The game will now release on February 28 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Binary Domain takes players to the near future, where robots have become slaves to human kind, and rebel against their masters. It’s also not Terminator. Nope, definitely not Termiantor.

My dad loves football, but he finds football video games too complicated. I can’t really blame him either; I’ve tried to get him into Madden, but when you really break the 800 LB gorilla of a gaming franchise down, it’s tough to explain; even if it is second nature when playing. That’s exactly why NFL Blitz works so well — it’s America’s favorite game (Yeah, that’s right, I said it baseball) boiled down to its most basic elements.

Now, after years of being absent, the arcade style footballer returns; in all of its glory — well, sort of. It’s still just as frantic and fun as you remember, but it also comes during a turbulent time in the NFL, once that changes the very landscape and identity of what NFL Blitz is. Still, if you have even the slightest love for NFL Football, Blitz is a blast, especially played with friends.

If you’ve never played NFL Blitz, it’s basically a suped up version of Madden. The players are bigger and ripped with muscles and the plays more explosive. The game nixes strategy and philosophy for over-the-top action and adrenaline. In Blitz, there are no penalties, teams can catch on fire and it takes 30 yards for a first down rather than the standard ten yards.

The action in Blitz is fast, fun and in-your-face. It’s not uncommon to have score upwards of 30 points in the first quarter, and you’re bound to jump off your feet at least a few times. This is where Blitz excels, there’s never really a dull moment, and it gets even better when you’re playing against friends. This is the type of game that friendships are tested on, as it’s extremely fun to play against your friends in Blitz. Think throwing the game winning hail mary in Madden is fun? Imagine the thrill of doing it in Blitz, complete with players on fire and jumping clean over their opponents.

The most impressive aspect of Blitz is how much it retains the original arcade feel. Games are quick and easy for anyone to jump in and pick up and play. Perhaps more impressive, they’re also just as easy for anyone to win. It’s this accessibility that seems to be missing from most other current gen sports games. Blitz even features the old school Midway style codes to be entered at the versus screen for effects like different stadiums, characters and effects.

This isn’t however, the NFL Blitz of old, not completely anyways. The NFL is a much different league than we saw when the last entry in the series was released and that’s something that Blitz both falls victim to and benefits from at the same time. This season, the NFL has been tougher on late hits, and as a result, you won’t be able to stop your opponent’s touchdown celebration with a late, bone jarring hit. Sure, the hits in Blitz are ferocious enough, (come on, I delivered a piledriver to a Quarterback during a sack) but the late hits were a big part of the original games.

Aside from the Play Now option, you’re bound to get the majority of playtime from the game’s Blitz Gauntlet mode. Similar to modes found in games like NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat, you’ll face off with teams in a ladder format, with bosses mixed in. These bosses range from fictional characters (zombies) to team inspired creations (my Packers for instance had to face off with guys in overalls, Packer Jerseys and cheeseheads). These boss battles also feature powerups spread throughout the field, which makes them feel different than your standard games. There’s also a trading card game similar to that found in Madden, but I didn’t like it there and I don’t here either.

Tim Kitzrow from the original Blitz and NBA Jam games makes his return, and is just as entertaining as ever. Him and his announcing partner openly mock pop culture, including games, which includes Blitz. My favorite was when the two said that next year they’re going to audition for Madden because it pays more. Visually, NFL Blitz is on par with what you’d expect, though I was a bit disappointed at the lack of detail in some of the player’s faces. Sure, sometimes Aaron Rodgers looks like himself in the game, but others he just looks like another nameless, faceless NFL Quarterback.

The Blast Factor:NFL Blitz proves that arcade style sports gaming still has a place in modern gaming. It’s a blast to play, especially with other human players, and its accessibility makes it easy for just about anyone to jump in and play. . If you’ve got even the most slightest affinity for the sport or multiplayer gaming — you owe it to yourself to check out this modern day revival.

Look, I love Skyrim as much as the next guy, but there’s no denying it would be better with a bit of madness. In the above video, a modder replaced the dragon in the game with a weird half-dragon, half Macho Man Randy Savage creature. Yes, it’s as cool as it sounds, and its good to know that the former World Champion is gone but not forgotten.

The above photo is of an apparent promotional sign spotted at a Best Buy in Rochester, MN touting the highly anticipated release of Blizzard’s Diablo III on February 1 of this year. A matter of weeks.

Several readers have pointed out that the sign features misspellings (the game apparently comes out in Febuary and not February) and the font seems off, point to an apparent photoshop. However, Joystiq, the site which originally ran the photo has called the store in questioned and verified that yes — the display is up.

Best Buy’s website also lists the game as being available on February 1, though Blizzard has not commented or set a date for the game. We’ll update this page when we hear more.

It may not have been the best kept secret in the world, but Warner Bros has officially confirmed Lego Batman 2, and yes — it’ll feature some of DC’s other heroes.

Outed earlier last year by promotional materials, Lego Batman 2 will see the cubed, knight teaming up with The Man of Steel to stop the Joker and Lex Luthor from wrecking havoc in Gotham City. Other DC characters are expected to appear, Robin, Wonder Woman and The Green Lantern have already been confirmed.

The game is scheduled to be released this summer, let’s hope this is the Lego game we finally get online co-op in.