For those of you who missed it, Bethesda unveiled The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's Collector's Edition at QuakeCon over the weekend alongside 30-minutes of leaked footage from the game, and now the publisher's UK arm has dished out details on the CE's release over here.
A retail price of £129.99 has been nailed down for the Collector's Edition, which is a touch on the pricey side considering what's on offer (statue, art book, and making-of DVD). When you weigh-up the fact that Batman: Arkham City's Collector's Edition is being priced at £69.99 and includes a Kotobukiya Batman statue, exclusive in-game items, the soundtrack and art book, you do have to ask where the further £60 is going with Skyrim.
No doubt Bethesda will be quick to point towards the quality of the art book and statue as reasons for the high price tag. Modelled directly from in-game digital files, the statue depicts the Skyrim dragon, Alduin The World Eater perched atop one of the game's many dragon walls and modelled in high-quality PVC. The art book, on the other hand, is a 200-page hardback with a foreword by Todd Howard, Skyrim's Director.
Bethesda's DVD documentary looks pretty handy too with plenty of exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. UK retailers, GAME and Gamestation are the only two participating stores for this Collector's Edition over here, and it's available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
The premium quality world map of Skyrim had already been announced as a pre-order incentive for the game, so if you're not too bothered by the art book, DVD and statue but definitely want to buy the game when it releases on November 11th, then a standard pre-order is the way to go.
EA Sports has spilt a bucket-load of FIFA announcements over at Gamescom this afternoon, including an all-new instalment in the FIFA Street series as well as a demo date and Ultimate Team details for FIFA 12.
If we’re being honest, we probably weren’t expecting much from the Driver franchise. With Driv3r sporting more bugs than your average rainforest and the follow-up, Parallel Lines, failing to deliver much more than an economy class GTA experience, no-one was really giving it much thought. When we made the leap to the current generation of consoles, we weren’t anxiously anticipating another instalment in a series already running on empty. And so, when the Driver San Francisco press releases began circulating, they were met with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for the announcement of a new National Lampoon’s film. 
r instance, rather than simply concentrating on your driving, why not make things a little difficult for your competitors? Perhaps you could take control of some oncoming traffic and try to take them out of the race, or maybe you could find yourself a whopping great truck and park it across the road, hit the rearview button and watch the carnage?
On the Xbox Live Arcade this week, EA and Criterion's 2006 title, Black has been reduced in price to 800 Microsoft Points. No doubt it's a price promotion by EA that's been strategically timed to hitch a ride with Codemasters' ramping-up of publicity for Bodycount, which is currently as ramped-up as it gets with the game preparing for launch at the start of next month. Both games share much of the same DNA, not only through a number of developers on Codemasters' Guildford-based team but in the game's overall design as well. Once again, the focus is on guns and destruction; on using destructible environments as a vehicle for gameplay. It was a highly innovative approach to FPS design in 2006 and, actually, it remains relatively underused in current-gen shooters today. 
cy – think of it like XP. As you progress in the campaign and collect more Intel, you'll open up the option to use various support actions which start with a timed period of invincibility and move up the tiers through explosive ammo, radar augmentations and, at the top-end of the scale, an airstrike. Roughly comparable to Call of Duty's perks, these abilities were consistent throughout the three levels of single-player and the Horde-style co-op mode we sampled. Although not quite as cathartic and rewarding as their CoD counterparts, they do at least offer an incentive to play the game as intended, with as much fiery destruction and explosive gumption as possible. But it's perhaps this destructible element of the game that underwhelmed us the most in what was, admittedly, a more broad than comprehensive sit-down with the code.
y wasn't quite as raucous and off-the-hook as what we'd anticipated given the Black lineage - other than a clever little cover system (half a press of the left-trigger peers down the barrel; a full press prompts an almost skittle-like 'lean' out of cover), Bodycount's core-combat felt a touch on the generic side. There really is a lot more to see of the game though, so we're reserving judgement for now and hoping for the best come review.
It's taken the internet a day or two (you're slipping, internet!), but the code that was posted on Deus Ex: Human Revolution's in-game main menu on Monday has finally been solved by some evidently rather clever people.
The slug slices tendon and sinew, plucking open his biceps like an overstrung ukelele. Clasping his inert, dangling limb, the wastelander slumps against a nearby wall, grimacing and howling as you close in. A crushing rifle blow to the cheek shatters his tawdry face-mask and sends him crashing down into the dust. Babbling with shock, he lurches onto his elbow and waves a shaky pistol towards you, loosing a few futile rounds before his skull comes apart at the muzzle of your shotgun.
you get your standard pistol, shotgun, assault and sniper-rifle variants – however, ammo types can be switched on the fly, allowing for easy access to more esoteric variations of each. Equipping Fat Boy rounds turns your pistol into a hefty magnum with brutal stopping power, while Killbursts contain “bullets within bullets within bullets”, letting you empty a whole clip into an unsuspecting mutant’s face in under a second (a couple of cranial Killbursts will even take down the be-tentacled, bile spitting Kraken you encounter later on). A crossbow facilitates stealthier tactics: using either standard or electrified bolts, you can sneak through enemy strong-holds picking off guards as you go, or whip out your Mind Control bolts and turn an innocent bandit into an improvised ambling explosive. There’s also a range of quick-use gadgets you can craft from the scattered detritus you find lying around, from sentry guns and healing bandages to a brutal three pronged metallic boomerang, perfect for the occasional impromptu decapitation.
ttack cycle compared to the range of behaviour exhibited by his standard foot soldiers. Some might also note the potential tension between id’s focus on visceral blasting - the linearity of the early combat sections - and the purportedly quasi-open-world structure that RAGE aspires to, but others would slap them for being pretentious and call it a clever balance of seemingly disparate gameplay ideals instead. And then slap themselves. Who will have the final slap? We’ll have to wait until the game’s long-awaited release this October to find out.
2K Games has officially announced a sequel for one of the best-selling new IPs of 2009, Borderlands. Gearbox Software's FPS-RPG blend will once again come to Xbox 360s, PS3s, and PCs when Borderlands 2 is released at some point between April 1st 2012 and March 31st 2013 (2K Games has only revealed a release window of the 2013 financial year at this stage).
In a slew of new job ads for SEGA's Creative Assembly studio, platforms for the developer's mysterious Alien project have seemingly emerged alongside indications that 'next next' generation consoles may even be targeted for the project.
The announcement of Call of Juarez: The Cartel came as quite a surprise to many in the industry. The traditionally Western shooter franchise, we discovered, has jettisoned its once-unique selling point (perhaps following the release of Red Dead Redemption) and moved the action into modern times; the New West, we’re told on the box. It seems like an odd decision – if the Juarez brand of Old-West shooter was no longer viable, why transport the franchise to a new setting rather than starting anew? And, one entire game later, I still can’t answer that question. If anything, it raises another question: at what point in the game’s development was the decision made? Because, sadly, The Cartel has a distinctly unfinished feel about it. 
ase the action in some more creative venues, the visuals wouldn’t seem quite so lacking. But sadly, we get the standard warehouses, docks, and nightclubs that are so mystifyingly popular in mid-level shooters. 
Sony Computer Entertainment Studios' President, Shuhei Yoshida has indicated that The Last Guardian's release may still be quite a way off despite the game being previously slated for a late 2011 release.
It's been a bone of contention for hardcore fans since F1 2010 was released last year but, up until now, Codemasters Birmingham has been reluctant to put the safety car in F1 2011 amid concerns that it might have a detrimental effect on the gameplay's immediacy.
Economics dictate design. In the heyday of the arcade, it made fiscal sense for games to abuse their players; more deaths meant more money in the slot, tumbling down into the belly of the beast. But with the rise of the home console, and the ascendancy of the pre-owned market, modern games have become terribly insecure.
g, before dashing off up some stairs to the right. After rushing the archers above, you spot a passage leading off behind the death-pig below. If you drop down you should have ample time to make your escape, right?
tion and disruption has been expanded upon with various class-specific abilities (the Pyromancer, for example, can summon a Grave Lord which randomly infects another player’s game, causing monsters to continually respawn). Although Demon’s Souls' fans might struggle to re-capture the same exhilarating sense of surprise and discovery - the thrill of the new - that they had with the original, there’s still much here for them to enjoy, and new players discovering the series for the first time are set for a refreshing - if rather challenging - treat.
Deus Ex's re-entry into the gaming scene couldn't be more timely. In an era when the world's two biggest publishers trash talk each other's impending blockbuster shooters like adolescent schoolboys – games that will once again have us headshotting, fragging, and ducking for cover in a feedback loop of mind-numbing muscle memory - the last stand of the Eidos brand name in an unassuming Montreal studio reminds us all why first-person shooters were once the future. A future, much like that of Deus Ex's own fictional universe, that hasn't panned out quite as bountifully as initial discoveries and innovations had once promised. The dawn of the FPSRPG at the start of the last decade has resulted in very few followers over the last eleven years and only one major disciple in Ken Levine's Irrational Games studio. For such a critically acclaimed genre then, it remains a mystery why so few publishers have managed to wean themselves off the teat of lowest-common-denominator FPS gaming.
heir hacking mini-games, Human Revolution instead uses a system that convincingly depicts the actual process of hacking (who'd have thought it could be conceivably possible?!). There are nodes to capture and fortify, tracers to avoid detection from, uni- and bi-directional ports, nuke viruses to unleash, stop worms to slow down or halt detection, and even spam folders to negotiate. Not since Introversion's Uplink has there been this kind of detailed hacking in a video game, and that game was based entirely around hacking!
se, it being such an open-ended game, there are minor exploits to be taken advantage of here and there. Criticisms have also been made of the bosses (specifically that it's impossible to beat them without using violence) and we'll concede that some shots do need to be fired in anger. Nonetheless, there are stealthy way-rounds (very long and sometimes arduous ones, we'll admit) that allow you to defeat each boss with minimal violent actions. Loading screens also take some flak because they happen often and for long periods. All things considered then, why are we giving it a 10 if it's not perfect? Because it's the best FPS we've played in years, and that's enough.
Consistent with the Major Nelson leak a couple of days ago, SEGA has now confirmed that Sonic CD will be released across XBLA, PSN, PC, and mobile platforms this winter.
For any of our international readers who aren't up to speed with events in England over the past week, we've had some of the worst examples of rioting and looting in the country's history, culminating in over 1000 arrests and 600 criminal charges in the last few days alone.
Master. I've seen him in other projects and he's amazing! So him for sure... Monty Python was a huge influence for me as well. I grew up in London in the UK, so my friends and I were constantly acting out scenes from the show and getting ourselves into trouble with our school teachers. Many an hour spent in a hallway. You mentioned The Tick... yeah, I loved that show.... definitely one of the funniest animated series ever!
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the best console games of this generation aren't found in your local retailer at £50 a pop – they're on XBLA and PSN for a tenner each. We can debate the reasons why until Eric Chahi returns in another 13 years to make his next game, but the simple fact of the matter is that there's less financial risk involved in making a digi-download title. Less financial risk = more innovation, originality and gameplaying whimsy. If you tell a publisher's executives that you want $50 million of their money to make a game about intergalactic space monkeys, they'll laugh you out of the room and, if you're lucky, advise you to come back when you've got a good concept for an arcade racing game with power-ups. Tell them that you want a tiny fraction of that amount for your wacky project, though, and they might just listen for more than a few seconds. 
t that it uses what's effectively a strategy game UI (albeit a simplistic one), the lack of a mouse rarely holds the game back. On the contrary in fact, in some elements of the gameplay a thumbstick seems to lend itself well to the layout.
while the tasks are more specific too (e.g. keep all your villagers alive for a certain time, or reach a precarious or difficulty positioned 'Totem' etc.). Some are insanely difficult and will require many attempts but most are designed around stages that take under 5-10 minutes to run through, making the mode easy to dip in and out of – online rankings and leaderboards keep them addictive as well. All things considered, From Dust offers a similar number of gameplay hours to many full-price, triple-A games and it's more entertaining than most of them as well.
Following leaks from game testers at the end of last week, Valve has now officially announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for release in early 2012 on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and Steam.
The computer systems journey on regardless, and upon discovering a suitable planet, the rickety ships crash land. The computers then reshape the world into a second Earth, but due to the damage sustained in the crash they create a land filled with beasts rather than people. Skip to 1,000 years later and a new species of 'Earthnoid' humans are picking up the pieces.
The combat is where Earth Seeker makes its boldest step, as instead of a hands-on approach, you pause the action mid-fight and select attacks from a menu - in a style not too dissimilar to Final Fantasy XII. The attacks depend on the weapon you're wielding, as short swords tend to favour multi-hit combos and somersault swings, while claymores offer torpedo dives and sundering slashes.
Indeed, you could almost accuse Earth Seeker of being Monster Hunter: Lite, but by diversifying the formula with RPG elements, Funamizu and his team have crafted a game that offers something eerily familiar yet undeniably different. 
Ergonomics aside, the core of Dual Pen pits your character against challengers in seven sporting events. A couple are undeniably fun, notably archery and skiing; others are merely okay. One - basketball - is a train wreck.
It waits, it watches, and it tucks away dialogue and situations recorded and designed for only the most extraordinary playthroughs. It makes you think that, yes, you were supposed to execute the hostages and stab your girlfriend's Mum in the street, smashed off your robo-tits on bad hooch. Eidos Montreal planned for that kind of maniac. They planned for everything.
Even in the linear levels between the city hubs you're given space to move and choices to make. It looks like a shooter and plays like a stealth game but Deus Ex is a proper RPG where you'll have to make real choices every time you walk through a door.
There are big choices - moments when conversation leads you towards an obvious branching path. In those moments you'll weigh up the options as if they really do count because those decisions will go on to define your next 30 hours of Alone Time. There are smaller choices to face, too - every room you enter makes you select between craftily hiding and sneaking or just good old running and gunning.
Mass Effect, Bioshock, Riddick and more have all had a good go, but Human Revolution is the first game to pick up exactly where Spector's team left off and to do almost everything better. Where Deus Ex's AI was dumb, Human Revolution's feels smart; where Deus Ex's combat was lightweight, Human Revolution's is angry and aggressive; where Deus Ex's stealth was clumsy, Human Revolution's is precise.
Check out the massive five page Deus Ex: Human Revolution review in issue 109 of the newly redesigned Xbox World, which goes on sale on September 1. Subscribe to get it delivered to your door before it hits the shelves.