Gamer

Diablo III, one of the most anticipated role playing games in recent years, has just received its fifth and latest character class in the form of the Demon Hunter.

Diablo III will be the next generation iteration in the very successful Diablo role playing franchise, and was officially confirmed back in 2008.

Since then, we saw four character classes revealed, in the form of the Barbarian, the Witch Doctor, the Wizard and the Monk, as well as different features like the artisan non playable characters, which will craft different things for the player.

Now, the fifth and last class has been revealed at BlizzCon this past weekend: the Demon Hunter.

Basically, the Demon Hunter will fill in the role played by the Rogue in the original Diablo and the Amazon and Assassin from Diablo II and its expansion, Lord of Destruction.

The main features of the class include dual wielding crossbows, throwing knives, grenades and bows, all of which hint at the big focus on projectile weapons for this character class.

Unlike the Barbarian however, the Demon Hunter will be able to combine its weapons with magic spells, that will further augment the power of the projectiles and add different bonuses to its attacks.

Among the spells included for the new Diablo III class we have the Fan of Knives, the Molten Arrow, the Grenade, the Bola and the Entangling Shot.

Blizzard, following tradition, released a cinematic trailer detailing the class, showing how it appeals to those that aren’t too fond of going right into combat, like Barbarian, nor on relying only on magic, like the Wizard.

As revealed earlier today, Diablo III will be getting a beta stage, which might be offered to all players around the world, like the one done for StarCraft II earlier this year.

Even if all of the character classes were revealed for Diablo III and that the game is halfway done, Blizzard, its developer and publisher, still hasn’t revealed a concrete release date, so fans still need to wait for quite some time until the company is confident enough to set a date.

At the official BlizzCon event Jay Wilson, who is the game director working on the upcoming Diablo III, has talked about the work his team is doing on the new hack and slash title, saying that the game is “way over half-way done.”

Wilson was speaking at the Diablo III and World of Warcraft press conference, saying that “We’re not really close until you’re playing it” but has refused to officially talk about a launch window for the game, which some have been expecting to arrive this year.

Still there are signs that Blizzard is making progress when it comes to Diablo III with a beta stage aimed at the friends and family of the developers officially announced.

If this stage goes well then Blizzard could then move on to a closed beta period and then to an open one, during which interested fans could have a chance to experience what the game has to offer while also delivering some feedback about the features of the new game.

Considering that slow pace of Blizzard development and the impact that betas could have we will probably get an official launch date for Diablo III at the BlizzCon that takes place next year.

Jay Wilson has said that the game is currently not feature complete but that there’s a lot of content that the team has created and is proud of.

Section of Diablo III has been playable for some time and I personally got some time with it at the Gamescom event in August.

The game seems instantly familiar to all those who have played the first or second installment in the series and the action is as smooth and engaging as ever.

The five classes for the game have been confirmed as being: the Barbarian, the Witch Doctor, the Wizard, the Monk and the Demon Hunter.

Gamers, prepare. There are some very cool game titles coming. Here is a list of coolest and most anticipated games which will be releasing in year 2011.

1. BRINK

An upcoming first-person shooter video game postponed two times and now expected to release in the first quarter of 2011. It offers team-based multiplayer missions with authored narratives, persistent player characters and an approachable nature. Brink story plot description is the battle of two sides Resistance and Security, in the utopian city called The Ark, a floating city surrounded by the waters of a flooded Earth. The Ark was designed as a prototype of environment friendly city, with renewable assets and no contamination, sizable to support 5,000 residents. However, due to many refugees entering the city from other parts of the world, its population has grown ten times greater, due to not enough resources resulting in the city being on the verge of a civil war.

Custom characters can be produced with equipment bought with experience points earned by completing missions successfully. Special visual feature of Splash Damage’s SMART abbreviation of Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain also included which is helpful for a player to tackle and handle the complex environmental situation by analyzing their location. Four types of characters are placed in the team, in order to complete task successfully. First one is soldier always fight on front line. The Soldier can resupply ammo and carries high explosives to destroy main targets. The second one is of Engineer which is equipped for fixing things. Engineers can buff their teammates’ weapons and can also place steeples at strategic locations. The third one, Medic, primarily heals downed teammates, though they also buff their allies’ health. The final one, the Operative, deals mostly behind enemy lines, hacking objectives and performing acts of sabotage. Operatives can interview downed opponents to provide information about enemy positions or cover up themselves and operate as one of the opponent.

2. METAL GEAR SOLID: RISING

Metal Gear Solid: Rising is an upcoming action video game in the Metal Gear series. Rising is an interrelated set of the events between Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. However producer notes that development is focused less on stealth and more on sword fighting action, giving players the opportunity to engage enemies in direct battle if they wish. Players will still have a degree of freedom to play the game as a stealth title, though the stealth elements will highlight considerable speed and alertness of Raiden.

Main feature for the game is titled zan-datsu which involves cutting through enemies and “taking” parts from the bodies of dismembered cyborgs and robots. Things which can be taken include life, energy, parts, ammunition, items, and occasionally information.”Cutting” involves complicated sword tactics that lets players engage in third person warfare combat, as well as precisely slash enemies and objects “at will” along a geometrical plane using a “free slicing” mode. Virtually any object in the game can be cut, including vehicles and enemies, though elements of the environment were intentionally limited to structures such as pillars and walls to better facilitate game play. The free slicing mode is similar to other aiming modes in previous versions, but produces a special targeting reticule in the form of a transparent blue plane which can be rotated and moved, tracing orange lines across the surfaces of objects to indicate exactly where they will be cut.

3. BULLETSTORM

Bulletstormis the first person Shooter video game. The game is currently expected to release on 2^nd February 2011. Bulletstorm’s theme plot is in futuristic place where an alliance is being sheltered by an elite band of private army called Dead Echo.

When Dead Echo members Grayson Hunt and Ishi Sato discover that they had been working on the wrong side, they deceive their force commander and end up being expelled to the edges of the galaxy. Players take the role of Grayson Hunt a few years after he has been departed, who has since become a drunken space pirate. After getting involved in an interstellar crash landing, he is reunited with his old pal Sato. The two of them come about to know that they are surrounded by hordes of mutants and meat devouring gangs in a deserted paradise. Lot of armory and weapon store full of diversity is there for Players comprises of amazing combat moves. Bulletstorm also consists of a variety of unique skill shots which create high levels of hysterical game play. The skill shot game play system rewards the player for creating and stirring mayhem in the most creative way possible. The more exclusive the skill shot, the more points players will get to make advancement in their character.

4. CRYSIS 2

Crysis 2 is an upcoming first person shooter video game going to release in March 2011. It is the continuation to the video game Crysis and its corresponding game, Crysis Warhead.

Crysis 2 story begins after the three years of its last version game Crysis, 2023 in to the New York City, which has since been evacuated due to alien invasion. Similar to its predecessor, Crysis 2 will provide freedom to customize weaponry and abilities. Crytek wanted to avoid making another game set in a jungle environment, as were Far Cry and Crysis. New York City has been dubbed an urban jungle. The urban atmosphere offers more options in how to progress and plan attacks. Players will be able to follow the map between floors and buildings. Delta Force operator mode Alcatraz is also introduced the new successor of Nomad, from the first game. The central character steals the Nanosuit 2 from the Crynet Systems. As a consequence, Crynet Systems start a manhunt for the player. The Nanosuit 2 gives players more freedom in their options of how to tackle situations on the battlefield. The aliens have also undergone major redesigning, transforming the floating warriors from the first game into the even more lethal, armored bipedal weaponry that follow the devastation of New York. Crytek have stated their intention to beat the original game graphically and have noted that combat in the game will be “terribly” awesome.

5. BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY

ArkhamCity, like its previous version, is an action video game going to release in the third quarter of 2011. All of the tactics and characteristics provided in the last version of the game will be present a t the start of Arkham City, with introducing improved or new features.

At least two new features have been revealed: smoke bombs which Batman can use to sneak away in confusion, and a broadcast tracer device to locate signals and track them to their sources. The game also includes some new elements; the use of Batman’s “Detective Mode”, which highlights elements such as enemy skeletons and clues on screen that is used to perform analysis at crime scenes, such as detecting the sniper round origin. The player also has access to a criminal record that tracks the major villains across the city that is used within Detective Mode and the forensic puzzles. In addition to the primary mission, the game will also have secondary missions which will feature a number of key characters and their stories within the city. At other times, Batman may be forced to fight through inmates using an improved version of the combat system from predecessor, allowing for multiple simultaneous counters, reactions to thrown objects. Movement about the city is made difficult due to the formation of gangs and territory between rival villains, such as Two Face and the Joker that causes in fighting that Batman needs to avoid.

6. DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION

Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be the third action RPG game in the Deus Ex series for Windows PC and expected to release in February 2010. Story begins 25 years before Deus Ex during the year 2027. Expansions of nanotechnology have yet to be developed and biomechanical expansions are the current state of the art.

Key character named Adam Jensen is a security officer with Sarif Industries a main company that involves in these expansions extraordinarily. After he witnesses a chilling attack on his company which leaves him horribly injured and forced to undergo augmentation to survive, the conspiracy begins. The visuals are a combination of cyberpunk and Renaissance aesthetics, resulting in a futuristic-looking exaggerated world. While playing game player have to go through 5 metropolises, including Detroit, Shanghai and Montreal. Moreover, the hero will have his own apartment where he may store his secrets and gathered some information. Human Revolution is the key element in the game which is categorized into four types: Combat, Stealth, Technology and Social. Using social skills, social augmentations, and stealth a player is able to play through the whole game killing only the bosses. Every enemy gang will have a specialized squad boss who will direct the team’s actions. If the boss is killed, the squad falls into panic. Weapons will fire separate ammunition types instead of depleting a unified pool. Weapon upgrading is also available according to the scenario and situation.

7. THE WITCHER 2: ASSASSINS OF KINGS

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is an upcoming adventure action video game sequel to The Witcher, scheduled to be release in the first quarter of 2011.The first gameplay video was shown to the audience; footage showed the different ways were used to complete the same level. Various levels and features were also unveiled in the footage. It has also been rumored that the game has sixteen different endings. The Witcher 2 story theme begins after the events which were took place in the first part; king’s daughter has been fell prey to evil curse of magic. Geralt agree to serve the King Foltest of Temeria to examine her. But in The Witcher 2, Geralt the story theme is different. Two scoundrels are introduced and Geralt has to fight with them with swords. First one is a strange man named as the Kingslayer and the second one is, a horrible elf secret agent called Iorveth.

8. STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC

SWTOR is an upcoming Star Wars universe based PC game specially targeting the multi player gaming field. The game is currently scheduled for a first or second quarter of 2011 to release. The SWTOR story begins with shortly after the establishment of a fragile peace between the re-emergent Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, 300 years after the events of the SWTOR games and more than 3,500 years before the events in the Star Wars films. The Jedi are held responsible for the success of the Sith during the devastating 28 Year long Great Galactic war which lead to the Treaty of Coruscant prior to the Cold war and thus choose to relocate from Coruscant to Tython, where the Jedi order had been initially founded, to seek guidance from the Force. The Sith control Korriban, where they’ve re-established a Sith Academy.The game begins as new conflicts arise. There will be a range of playable races for the player to choose from. So far confirmed are Chiss, Human, Miraluka, Mirialan, Rattataki, Sith Pureblood, Twi’lek and Zabrak. Although Humans can pick any class available, other races have been restricted to only few classes.

9. DUKE NUKEM FOREVER

Duke Nukem Forever is an forthcoming first-person shooter video game for the Windows PC, and a sequel to the game Duke Nukem 3D, initially Duke Nukem Forever team encountered lot of troubles as they have to encountered, repetitively announcing and deferring release dates. On September 2010, after a long time, Duke Nukem Forever was officially reported by 2K Games to be in development at Gearbox Software, with an expected release date of 2011. Story is about the Responding to instructions of Duke Chief to Hoover dam in an EDF Drop Ship to examine a wormhole in the sky which is considered to be a gateway from the Alien planet. The Dam top is overrun with Alien forces so Duke is dropped off nearby and must drive his monster truck with a mounted missile launcher to make his way to the to the Dam. Enemies attacking power contains Attack ships, Alien drop ships, Pig-cops, Assault troopers and commanders, Recon bikes and many more.

10. DRAGON AGE II

Dragon Age II is the upcoming video game sequel to the Dragon Age and expected to be release in March 2011. Key character will remain same in the game unlike its previous version while the gender and class can be amended.

Key character named Hawke, is a migrant who rises to power. Dragon Age II is set in the same locations and situations as Dragon Age: Origins. Dragon Age II centers around the main character named Hawke, known to be a survivor from the affliction and the Champion of Kirkwall, who rises to power throughout the story. The story covers a decade throughout the game. Other characters are Bethany: Hawke’s sister and a mage, Carver: Hawke’s brother and a warrior, Cassandra: A Chantry Seeker who is interested in Hawke, Varric: A dwarf who acts as a narrator, Flemeth: The notorious Witch of the Wilds that can be found in Dragon Age: Origins. She is the mother of Morrigan, Wesley: An injured Templar that Hawke encounters while fleeing Lothering, Aveline: Wesley’s wife. A gigantic creatures having massive structure, huge four legs known as Strider. They are harmful to other living beings because of their deadly venomous ability.

11. TEST DRIVE UNLIMITED 2

Test Drive Unlimited 2 is going to release in first quarter of 2011 as per schedule. Upcoming racing video game and will be the sequel to Test Drive Unlimited. Test Drive Unlimited 2 includes some amazing characteristics like dynamic weather effects, day and night cycles, and vehicle damage.

One player takes the control of vehicle while the other player reads the map through SUVs and a co-op game mode. Player has to go through up to all 60 levels by gaining points in order to finish it. Points can be scored by 4 ways Competition (racing, completing challenges), Social (making friends in the game, race against other people, joining clubs), Discovery (discover all roads, take photographs of specific locations, find all car wrecks), Collection (buy cars, houses, furniture, clothing). Also by performing stunts, drifting while turns and dodging player can earn some extra money. Player can also change their physical appearance dress and hair colors etc. The game location consists of two islands Ibiza and Oahu and both islands models are close to the real structure by using satellite data. New vehicle classes are included, such as SUVs for off-roading. Not all vehicles are obtainable however; clubs can get exclusive club cars when reaching high ranks. These exclusive vehicles, such as the McLaren MP4-12C, Gumpert Apollo, Aston Martin One-77 and James Bond’s very own Aston Martin DBS can be driven by any member of the car club and not by players from other clubs. The original game sported motorcycles that were quite hard to control.

12. DIABLO III

Diablo III is a horror action based game going to release in 2011, including the hack and slash and “dungeon roaming” genres, presently in creation as the third installment of Blizzard’s Diablo franchise. Story begins when this world was saved twenty years prior by a handful of unnamed heroes in Diablo II. Warriors that survived the assault of the armies of the Burning Hells have gone mad from their ordeals and it is up to a new generation of heroes to face the forces of evil threatening the world of Sanctuary. Diablo’s world map is composed primarily of two main continents with several small islands in the Northwest region. Diablo III theme is same as that of its last version Diablo II. The proprietary engine will incorporate Havoc physics and feature destructible environments with an in-game damage effect. Enemies will utilize the 3D environment as well, in ways such as crawling up the side of a wall from the depths into the combat area. Every creature model will have around 35 unique death animations. Blizzard’s Battle.net service is available for multiplayer game mode. Diablo III also involves some new features which were originally designed for StarCraft II.

13. GTA 5

GTA series which is famous for its action, adventure, driving, and occasional role-playing, stealth and racing elements is planning to come up with its new installment in the series – Grand Theft Auto 5. GTA 5 is expected to be released by the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011. The game is expected to stay on top of the charts throughout 2011.

14. HITMAN 5

Hitman 5 is to be released by the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011, taking agent 47 in whole new direction. Also news came via page 17 of an Edios report claiming that the new Hitman 5 is in development. Hitman 5 is the fifth installment in the Hitman game series. It has been confirmed by the IO Community Manager that the game will not follow a story based on the movie.

15. MASS EFFECT 3

According to the project director Casey Hudson Mass Effect 3 is in its early stages of development. However, it has been confirmed that game is to be announced by late 2011. Casey Hudson latest interview with MTV revealed certain details about the upcoming Mass effect 3. The game is supposed to have an epic conclusion, which is overwhelming. Hudson also told MTV that there are about 1000 variables that are already lined up for variations in the new chapter. After quantifying the variables in the story line, Hudson has exaggerated the pre release hype for the game. Putting a huge divergence in the final chapter of trilogy would be a remarkable thing to do, from which we can sense more twist in the upcoming game.

So far revealed, the game is expected to have Richer RPG features, more combat options and more complex enemies. The developers seriously need to work at RPG features and combats as they weren’t very appealing in the ME2. We can expect that ME3 to be an excellent role playing experience, something that was quite missing in the Mass Effect 2.

16. MAX PAYNE 3

Rock star games, which are famous for the max Payne, midnight club and grand theft auto are going to release Max Payne 3 in 2011. The game is sequel to Max Payne a shooter video game which was released in the year 2001. A reason of fame for this game is the bullet time mode where the bullet time is slowed down to such an extent that it could be seen with naked eye.

Max Payne 3 begins with a new chapter of Max Payne, a New York City police officer who is now 12 years older and he has left NYPD, the guy is shown in new attire where he is bald and he has grown beard. The game will be plotted in Brazil where Max is working for a private security company.

17. RAGE

This game looks like a horror movie. If you like horror movies, then I bet you can’t wait for this game. Til then, pump your adrenalin with some Unreal Tournament (and the latest Puppet Master: Axes of Evil).

The story goes like this: an asteroid hits the planet (or, in other words, the apocalypse already happened). Now you’re playing in a post-apocalyptic world. And yeah, you’re one of those important guys who was created to re-build and bring peace to the entire planet.

18. PORTAL 2

You’ll have to use your brain in this one (which isn’t very bad after all!). This game was supposed to come out in 2010 but Valve decided to delay it for 2011. Unfortunately, we still don’t know the exact release date. As you can see from the pictures, you’ll be that guy with the portal gun who will try to solve various mysteries and puzzles through the game. As you go, you’ll face the strange laws of gravity in the world (and maybe learn some new things about physics) and learn how to use your gun in creative ways.

19. MORTAL KOMBAT 9

Mortal Kombat is without a doubt one of the best fighting games. This game is 2.5D (2D game play BUT 3D graphics). The creators will try to resemble the time of the first 3 series of Mortal Kombat. What’s new, however, is the locations and some of the characters.

The story is to take place during the time of first three games: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat 3. However, the events of the games are said to take place in a different scenario because of Raiden’s knowledge of the future. Mortal Kombat is the first M-rated Mortal Kombat game to be developed for the seventh generation of consoles.

20. DRIVER: SAN FRANCISCO

Time for something exciting, something that will pump your adrenalin…cops…yes…and a car…let’s just hope it’s DirectX 11 and has a killer graphic.

The game takes place a few months after the events of Driv3r. It is revealed that both John Tanner and Charles Jericho survived the shootout in Istanbul. However, in the game’s trailer, it is revealed that Jericho is escaping the San Francisco police in a hijacked police truck, causing havoc on the Golden Gate Bridge. After being hit head-on by Jericho, Tanner is taken to a hospital and left into a coma. The game will take place in Tanner’s coma dream. Some other strange additions are the inability to get out of the car and the low number of frames-per-second.

A brand new Naruto and Bleach game coming out. It’s actually not an official game, it’s fan made and it’s called Small Small Ninja! The game features some of your favorite characters from both the world of Naruto and the world of Bleach, but in chibi-fashion.

Created by a Chinese company called DREAM², Small Small Ninja is an online game for the PC and seems like an action/fighter. It seems very exciting and something that has definitley caught interest! In large font, the official web site of the game had 9/25 plastered on it. This is probably date when Small Small Ninja is supposed to open to the public.

While it is owned by a Chinese company, the web site is in Japanese. If you can get access or have access to this game, let us know what it’s really about and how it is!

Teiyu Goto, a Sony engineer who had much freedom to design the original PlayStation as well as its controllers, actually explains that the PlayStation’s iconic button shapes weren’t just arbitrarily picked – they actually mean something.

Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols, and I came up with the triangle-circle-X-square combination immediately afterward. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color. The triangle  refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one’s head or direction and made it green. Square  refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle  and cross  represent ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that’s what I wanted.

Teiyu Goto

What’s also interesting, in the interview translated by 1up, is that the designer had to fight upper management, who wanted to keep the controller more similar-looking to the Super Nintendo one. Goto preferred the PlayStation controller we now know – the one with the handles – and won in the end. It’s pretty nice that I now know who to pinpoint my anger towards for the fact that Sony still has the same basic controller design, a decade and a half later, when Microsoft’s Xbox 360 controller is much more comfortable. [1up]

And here is a funny gag, see how Xbox 360 got its name:

We all waited for more than a decade on “StarCraft 2,” and now that the first installment, “Wings of Liberty” has been released, people are already clamoring for more. Blizzard had previously announced that “StarCraft 2″ would be released across three separate games, starting with the Terran-centric “Wings of Liberty,” followed by the Zerg-centric “Heart of the Swarm,” and culminating with the Protoss-centric “Legacy of the Void.”

Rob Pardo, the Executive Vice President of Game Design at Blizzard answered a few questions about what can we expect from “Heart of the Swarm” and when can we expect it…

What Works for Terrans Doesn’t Work For Everyone

Those who played “Wings of Liberty” are familiar with the single-player’s campaign structure. Pardo explained that it would be tough to make that structure work with the game’s other races. “Playing Jim Raynor, who’s this mercenary, living on this battle cruiser, and has a whole big crew and things like that…that makes a lot of sense for a Terran-based campaign. It’s hard to imagine doing a Zerg-based campaign the same way or, for that matter, doing a Protoss one.”

“We’re going to do some things that are pretty different,” Pardo continued, “based on the races themselves. We really want to make each racial experience feel true to the race and feel interesting, so I think there will be some similar stuff and some stuff that really diverges to make sense for the race.” He went on to say that players can still expect a branching mission structure in the single-player campaign.

Are They Sequels? Or Expansion Packs?

Blizzard views each of the “StarCraft 2″ games as a very separate entity, with the single-player seeing the bulk of the new content in each release. “From a single-player point of view, they’re going to kind of feel like sequels. It’s going to be a pretty meaningful amount of content.”

And what about multiplayer?

“Multiplayer is going to be more like an expansion set sort of vibe. We’re not going to ship all brand new races. There will definitely be additions to multiplayer, but that’s going to feel like an expansion set.” Pardo went on to compare the amount of new multiplayer content to what was added for multiplayer in “StarCraft: Brood War.”

Progress Update On “Heart of the Swarm”

“Now that we’ve shipped “Wings of Liberty”, we’re just now getting serious about breaking ground on “Heart of the Swarm”. We always have a lot of ideas and there’s been some design work on it, but hardcore art and programming is just now starting to begin. It’s too early to estimate, but as soon as we can get them out there, we’d love to.”

Based on that information, it seems like a 2011 release of “Heart of the Swarm” is probably too aggressive, especially when “Diablo 3″ is likely to release next year.

Starcraft is back and it’s as better as it was ten years. It’s a fun, technically solid game with great music and solid visuals. There’s a decent 20 hours of solid gameplay in the single-player alone – pretty much all of it enjoyable – and there’s probably enough hours of fun in the multiplayer to last you, oh, let’s say 12 years.

There are two ways of looking at the story of Starcraft 2. A minority will ignore it wholesale, focusing on the multiplayer matches and on getting as good as possible on a tactical level. Another minority will only actually play the new real time strategy title in order to get to the cutscenes and to the character development, in order to see how Jim Raynor deals with his demons and whether the Queen of Blades, formerly the red haired Terran Ghost Sarah Kerrigan, still has any humanity left deep inside her soul. The first game managed to create some strong characters even if it painted with a very broad brush and a lot of people still care and want answers. Most gamers will take the story as it is, marveling at the way Blizzard managed to get various interesting elements from a variety of sources and welt them together in a coherent universe.

As the game starts Jim Raynor is still fighting the Terran Dominion when an old friend show up and the Zerg start coming out of their holes and assault settlements. The main forces of the Terrans pull back to the core worlds as, like in the first game, only militia and rebels are left to fight the rapidly evolving aliens. Zeratul makes a quick appearance and sets up a plot which, in predictable manner, will only be fully explained once Heart of the Swarm, the game built around the Zerg, and the Protoss narrative are launched, presumably in about two years. The feeling one gets is that something is missing, even if the single player is as long as it was in the original and the universe and supporting cast are better developed.

In some ways the gameplay of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty is as old school as possible. If you own Starcraft 1, it will all be very, very familiar. The rules haven’t changed, and many of the units haven’t really changed either. There are resources, two of them as in the original, that need to be gathered with the classic MCV units. There are buildings that need to be erected in order to get production capabilities, support military population and research upgrades for the units. There are military units, each with advantages and clear witnesses, that need to be assembled into a coherent force in order to defeat Protoss and Zerg forces. There are support troops that can enhance the abilities of the strike forces. Superior, balanced firepower has a tendency of winning the day. There are few surprises here and anyone who played a strategy title in the last ten years probably has an good idea what to do with Starcraft 2 from the minute the game is launched.

The three core races play very similarly to their original counterparts, with many of the same strengths and weaknesses. Each race has had some core weakness shored up – the Terrans have more viable early-game strength, the Zerg have been given some late-game surprise-you’re-boned tools and early game resilience, and the Protoss have been given a bit more mobility. In practice, though, they all have roughly the same strengths and weaknesses as they did before: Terrans are awesome at range, but get on top of them, and they fold quickly; Zerg trade quantity for quality; Protoss trade quality for quantitiy. None of this has really changed, and after you’ve adjusted to the new unit balances, the game will feel eerily familiar.

Blizzard throws in some twists but they are mostly on the periphery of the experience. The hub area of the Hyperion battlecruiser, looking much better than it did in the original game, contains four areas that have characters the player can talk to, objects that have a small backstory and two new ways to research upgrades for the forces the player controls. In the Armory area a Scottish sounding engineer who could just as well be named Scotty or be a dwarf allows the player to use money gained from missions to buy new abilities for both units and buildings, enabling a small amount of customization of a force that makes each campaign play through more unique to the player. In the Laboratory area research points obtained during missions for either the Protoss and the Zerg allow more powerful upgrades to be applied. It creates a rather weird situation where the way the Terrans developed is handled in three different areas of the game requiring changing quite a few screens to get everything done.

In addition to research and story related talk the various Hyperion areas allow the player to hire mercenaries, which are slightly upgraded forces that can be called down once a timer runs down, and to see his results in previous missions and even replay them. It’s all pretty and engaging but it does not alter the experience of playing the real time strategy element of Starcraft II, where quite a few missions are pretty much remakes of missions from the original game with small twists thrown in.

The single player element is complement by a Challenges system, with Blizzard saying that it is designed to prepare those who are focused on the single player missions for the way other gamer play online. The good things about the system is that it allows players to experience all the three sides and that it teaches them to think fast, adapt their strategy and micro manage their forces in the heat of battle. It’s unlikely that the Challenges will turn a single player focused gamer into a multiplayer fanatic but their inclusion, complete with achievements and replayability element, means that there’s more to enjoy in the single player section of Starcraft 2 than he narrative.

Starcraft 2 looks good but some players might be disappointed by how the perspectives work. The colors are impressive, bright and powerful even on the most desolate of planets. Even the Zerg units look like there are fun to create and use, despite their obvious evil nature. The game needs quite a bit of power to run everything on the highest settings but there’s definite beauty in the Starcraft II.

Blizzard is also very careful with the handling of details. The Terrans might be a bit too macho for some but every unit portrait is beautifully created and animated, every movement is fluid and natural. The designs of the buildings are pretty similar to those in the original strategy title but there are flourishes and add ons that really feel like a coherent universe.

One problem is the size of the user interface. It’s much too big for modern games, obscuring too much of the map, especially the areas to the center and the right that show the possible orders and the unit name and characteristics. The level of zoom is also a bit weird. I understand that Blizzard wants to keep the player close to action and so limits the level of outward zoom but I would have expected to be able to go lower, closer to the troops to see how Zerg and Protoss fall under the mighty weapons of the Terrans.

The music is, with the exception of the credit sequence music, very good. The music for the Terrans has always been my favorite – a wandering mix of musical genres, going from rock to country to mild bluegrass influences to orchestral and then back around, somehow always smooth and natural. It’s a great soundtrack to mine and massacre to, especially between the fights themselves.

The multiplayer is basically what was available during phase 2 of the beta test and is a fairly balanced initial offering. It should have something for everyone ranging from 1v1 ladder play all the way to comp stomps and custom games. It remains to be seen if the meta-game will continue to evolve in a major way prior to the expansions, but I’m hopeful that new maps and more players will lead to some interesting builds and strategies in the short-term.

While the game itself is incredibly polished, both on and offline, Battle.net 2.0 is still very much a work-in-progress. There are some issues that remain–lack of chat rooms, custom map publishing limitations–but Blizzard is hopefully working to solve these in due time.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty isn’t perfect, but it’s damn close. The campaign is engrossing and varied, while the multiplayer component will be played for years to come. The upcoming expansions will help refresh the game when they are finally released and should bring major changes to the competitive scene. Battle.net 2.0 stands out as the game’s low-point, but should only annoy the die-hards. For most players, it functions well enough and allows them to get in and play some games. And as their track record shows, Blizzard tends to support its games for an extremely long time.

The upcoming sequel to last month’s blissfully funny downloadable title sees everyone’s favorite Hero to the Downtrodden DeathSpank on his quest to find the “six mystical thongs”, which will be (no joke) the key to bringing balance to the universe.

“Bigger, longer, harder.” Those are the words that Director of Game Development Vlad Ceraldi said drove the team at Hothead Games into creating DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue. It will have more loot, more enemies, more locations, more guns. And believe it or not, it’s out in less than a month.

Yes indeed, EA and Hothead have announced that Thongs of Virtue will be out on PlayStation Network on September 21st for $14.99 while the Xbox Live Arcade version will be released the following day for 1,200 Microsoft Points, just nine weeks after the release of the first DeathSpank. The PC version is still at the hypothetical phase, depending on the demand of the market.

Also, according to franchise producer Hamish Millar, even though DeathSpank creator Ron Gilbert recently left Hothead, he was just as involved with the direction of Thongs of Virtue as he was with the first game, so hopefully the greatest item descriptions in videogame history will stay intact and you can expect the same style of humor.

Online cooperative multiplayer will not be included in this release, but the local mode that is present will have a new character, a ninja called Steve.

Although there have been a lot of additions, the most significant one goes “boom” — guns. In DeathSpank the only ranged weapons you could equip were a crossbow or a magic spell, but now you’ll be able to mow people down from afar with your sweet gun before getting in close to finish them off with a melee weapon.

Hothead has worked on improving the variety of quests, environments, enemies and loot drops for Thongs of Virtue. Millar noted that fetch quests will still be a major component of the title, but there will be a lot more of the puzzle-centric quests that were lightly sprinkled throughout the first title. Millar also explained that there will be numerous bosses, all sporting a different colored thong and that the mystery behind the power of DeathSpank’s own purple thong will be revealed.

Diablo III is a dark fantasy/horror-themed action role-playing game, with elements of the hack and slash and “dungeon roaming” genres, currently in development as the third installment of Blizzard’s Diablo franchise.

The game takes place in Sanctuary, the dark fantasy world of the Diablo series. This world was saved twenty years prior by a handful of unnamed heroes in Diablo II. Warriors that survived the onslaught of the armies of the Burning Hells have gone mad from their ordeals and it is up to a new generation of heroes to face the forces of evil threatening the world of Sanctuary. Players will have the opportunity to explore familiar settings such as Tristram.

The only confirmed NPC is Deckard Cain, who has appeared in both of the previous games. Cain’s journal on the official site brings the player up to speed on the events of the first two games. Diablo’s world map is composed primarily of two main continents with several small islands in the Northwest region.