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Here's what you'll be doing in the Uncharted 3 beta

by JC Fletcher (2 minutes ago)

All you probably need to know about the Uncharted 3 beta is that it's more Uncharted -- and therefore you want it right the hell now. Thinking about it that way, the article full of details posted by IGN is extraneous. But on the other hand, new info!

The beta includes two multiplayer maps: Chateau and the Airstrip (described here), both with "dynamic events" occurring during play, like planes flying in. Players can choose from nine modes including Team Deathmatch, 3-Team Deathmatch, Team Objective, Free For All, Plunder, High Stakes, and three unrevealed co-op modes that IGN mercilessly teased for a later reveal. Players will choose either a Drake/Sully/"treasure hunter" Hero team or a bad-guy team made up of customizable pirates.

Four of the new "Power Play" events will also feature in the beta. These one-minute events change the rules (like "marking" one person on the winning team to be worth three points) to turn the game around at critical moments.

Check IGN for the full rundown of beta components. The beta launches officially on July 4, but will be accessible early, on June 28, for Infamous 2 owners and PlayStation Plus members. Which, thanks to one of Sony's acts of contrition, will be everybody! As long as the store is back up by then, that is. The beta is set to end July 13.

Source: IGN

Brink's first free DLC detailed, stats site going live tomorrow

by Ben Gilbert (33 minutes ago)

After announcing earlier this month that a free content pack would arrive for Ark dwellers at some point in June, Bethesda has detailed the "Agents of Change" DLC that's coming to Brink in the near future. Two new maps, five new abilities, and a handful of weapon attachments and character outfits comprise the pack, which has yet to be given a solid release date.

If that weren't enough to get you parkour-shooting once again, the game's statistics site will go live tomorrow for Xbox 360 and PS3 players, while the PC version will arrive "very soon." And hey, a title update went live late last week that supposedly helps with the crippling lag people have encountered when taking the game online, so there's that! Head past the break for the entire list of free stuff coming in the "Agents of Change" DLC.

Source: Bethesda

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SSX motion comic features Elise Riggs, typo

by Alexander Sliwinski (1 hour ago)

EA's first motion comic to feature characters from the upcoming SSX reboot is all about Elise Riggs ... and a jarring typo at :21. Maybe it's an ARG? Combine the typos to reveal something about the game? Yeah, let's go with that. ... continue reading.

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Dead or Alive Dimensions review: Comedy masterpiece theatre

by JC Fletcher (1 hour ago)

Team Ninja does not make life easy for game reviewers. Dead or Alive Dimensions, a sort of anthology volume combining all four Dead or Alive fighting games on 3DS, is clearly a great translation of the series to a portable format, beautiful to look at, and also more accessible than any DOA game to date.

It's also marred by some terrible decisions, mostly around the presentation and the structure. As I played, it kind of felt like everything awesome about DOA Dimensions had been intentionally paired with a huge mistake. However, after a period of deep reflection and soul-searching, I came to the conclusion that the awesome parts are sufficiently awesome to outweigh most of the janky stuff, and a lot of the janky stuff turns out to be super hilarious anyway.

Besides, the technical criteria for a successful DOA game are if the female characters' pendulous chests display soothing, hypnotic waves, and occasionally people get knocked off of waterfalls, and in both categories this game passes with flying colors. Colors flying right off of a waterfall.

Gallery: Dead or Alive Dimensions (5/29/11)

Vita.SCEdev.net website spurs more speculation

by Ben Gilbert (2 hours ago)

As we all know, one website name is more than enough to confirm the rumored final name of the temporarily named NGP as "PlayStation Vita." Okay, okay, we may be getting ahead of ourselves a bit, but it is certainly interesting that Sony's developer sites contain a curious subdomain: Vita.SCEdev.net.

So, why does Sony have a developer subdomain with the word "Vita" involved? Your guess is as good as ours. We do know that the site scedev.net is most certainly registered to Sony's UK branch, and a handful of other subdomains tied to Sony gaming products also work (PSP, NGP, and PS3, for instance), while random words only elicit a "page not found" error. As per usual, we've contacted Sony for comment, and are more than happy to hear from you internet supersleuths who see something in this that we don't.

[Image credit: GamesPundit]

Via: Twitter
Source: vita.scedev.net

Secret World dev diary talks story, context

by Jef Reahard (2 hours ago)

Sleuthing for more story-centric info regarding Funcom's upcoming horror-conspiracy MMORPG? Look no further than The Secret World's latest video dev diary featuring commentary from designers Ragnar Tornquist and Joel Bylos as well as lead writer Dag Scheve.

The trio highlights The Secret World's use of the real world as both location and character, with Bylos calling it "the greatest resource of all." The video shows a few new clips courtesy of the game's cinematics, but Tornquist is quick to point out that cinematics don't tell the whole tale when it comes to The Secret World's narrative. In spite of the fact that every character in the game is motion-captured and fully voiced, the story is "embedded into the world. You have to look for it, you have to search for it. The story is exploration and the story is discovery," Tornquist explains.

Funcom also seeks to challenge gamers in ways that depart from the traditional MMORPG paradigm, and Bylos says that "we're not just asking them to click a mouse button over and over again, but to think about what they do." Put on your thinking caps and click past the cut for the full video.

PSA: Purported new Inafune RPG is just Neptunia

by Ben Gilbert (2 hours ago)

Last week, a report from business journal Bloomberg featured an interview with Mega Man creator/ex-Capcom creative lead Keiji Inafune, covering a variety of topics. As has become par for the course since Inafune left the Japanese publishing giant, he spoke to the divide between creative and management in game development, and how he believes it can be amended. He also spoke to the challenges he faced at his old employer, echoing sentiments from earlier this month.

And while all of that is certainly interesting, one particular line in the piece stood out to our news-hungry eyes: "Inafune said he plans to release a social game title for Japanese market as early as this month, and a role-playing title for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 in August." We knew about the social game, but a role-playing game for PS3, you say?

As it turns out, the game in question isn't one that Inafune's studio, Comcept, is developing, but rather a game that Inafune himself is starring in. You guessed it: Hyperdimension Neptunia mk-II. You know, the game where Inafune's a weapon? That game.

We reached out to the folks at Bloomberg, who clarified that, yes, the game in question isn't an unannounced PlayStation 3 RPG, as much as it is an already announced, Compile Heart-developed Japan-only RPG with Inafune as a laser-vomiting special weapon. On the one hand, we're a bit disappointed that Inafune's not crafting a secret PS3 RPG, but on the other hand we got to use that amazing header image again. You win some, you lose some.

Microsoft trademarks three 'Fusion' titles

by JC Fletcher (3 hours ago)

"Fusion: Genesis" was among the mysterious Xbox games rated in Australia and Brazil, the latter country specifying it as an XBLA title. A series of US trademarks found by Zunited reveals that whatever Fusion: Genesis is, it's probably part of a series.

In addition to trademarking "Fusion Genesis" (serial number 85277651, searchable here), Microsoft has filed trademarks for "Fusion Vault" (number 85277645) and "Fusion Sentient" (number 85277650), all specified as " Entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game."

The three trademarks point either to some new "Fusion" series of XBLA games, or a single "Fusion" game with three potential titles that Microsoft had yet to decide on.

Source: Zunited

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BioWare teases Dragon Age artwork, says improvements must be made in future installments

by Griffin McElroy (3 hours ago)

In a recent post on the official BioWare forums, Dragon Age 2 lead designer Mike Laidlaw addressed some of fans' concerns with the Kirkwall-stuck sequel. After naming some of these issues -- such as "level re-use, the implementation