To complement our previous story bringing the announcement of Diablo III, here is a selection of screenshots we handpicked from the debut collection posted by Blizzard on the game's website today.

 (...)

 Continue reading 'Diablo 3 Screenshots'...

Twenty years after the cataclysmic events of Diablo II - and eight years after its release in the real world back in 2000 - the long-speculated, and even longer-awaited sequel Diablo III has finally been unveiled today, at Blizzard's 2008 Worldwide Invitational event. Aside from the announcement itself, fans are already treated with dozens of screenshots, a few wallpapers, artworks and, best of all, the first three Diablo III trailers covering all of the above, and a whole lot more! Need I say they're a must-see?

We've already added the HD trailers locally, and we'll return in a bit with a selection of screenshots as well, but in the meantime all there is to know about the game can be found on the newly-opened Diablo III website. No release date yet, obviously, just some stuff about the game's story, locations, characters, monsters, and adventures awaiting you upon your return to the world of Sanctuary. Dig in!


Below we're including the gist of today's press release: (...)

 Continue reading 'Diablo 3 Announced, With Pics And Trailers'...

Despite the usual trend when it comes to recent games, it seems that Prey 2, along with all those asshole-like doors and… wall grafitti, will not come to all the consoles and their mother, when it will eventually ship. More exactly, the guys at Radar Group stated that the sequel to the 2008’s would-be-shooter will find its way to the PC and Microsoft’s X360. So no PS3, at least for a while, though it is hard to believe that such a title would not take advantage of some sales boost with Sony’s console being so overrated.

Details on Prey 2, Earth No More, Incarnate and other two “unknown” projects can be very well spotted on Radar’s website, along with Casey Linch’s statement on The Game Reviews, according to which the game’s developer is still Human Head.

Well, if you are interested in a FPS that denies you DEATH in any possible way, Prey may be a thing for you. And I bet that Prey 2, too.

- The 360+ MB Crysis patch 1.2 is finally up for download. But it has issues. And also some dedicated (albeit beta) nVidia drivers.

- "We have no plans to have in-game advertising in StarCraft II", says Blizzard via Blizzplanet. Well, they have no plans for announcing the next Diablo game today, either. But that doesn't mean it's not there...

- Dark Sector has just gone Gold, and is now ready for releasing in North America this March 25 on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

- Capcom dismisses Resi 5 date rumours, the ones placing the release of Resident Evil 5 in October 2008 (just before Gears of War 2). So it might only come out in early 2009.

- Huxley, that MMOFPS nearly gone vaporware, was featured this week in an IGN preview saying that Webzen plans to release the PC version by the end of 2008, followed about six months later by the Xbox 360 version (which will take place 50 years later, but will still have "cross-platform interaction" with the PC version, oddly enough).

- Each game from the Orange Box package - Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life 2: Episode One + Two - will be available as separate PC titles at retail on April 9, as confirmed by Valve on Joystick. Too little too late.

- Europa Universalis III: In Nomine announced for this summer (or some time before it). It's like an expansion for another expansion, since it will require the Napoleon's Ambition add-on, and the idea for it was born on Paradox' forums. Sounds... promising...

- Various WiiWare games were announced lately, but the vast majority of them look like pure, double-distilled shit. One exception is LostWinds (which we covered last month), and another one will hopefully be Lit - a 3D horror action-puzzler coming from WayForward (Contra 4, Shantae), which I found out about on Gamasutra.

- The U.S. Air Force wants 300... Spartans? Moonkins? Nope, PlayStation 3 consoles. Awoo! Awoo! Awoo! They're supposedly "conducting a technology assessment of certain cell processors", and the PS3 is perfect for playing while on-duty their top-secret research.

I'm pissing in the wind, just pissing in the wind, what a wonderful feeling, my e-peen is happy again... Just when we thought we had finally gotten away from all those silly "make / don't make that [X game sequel]", "close / don't close that [Y studio]" petitions... something new comes along. A boycott, no less! A boycott against the holy mother of monopolistic corporations - Microsoft - and all the developers and publishers jumping the Games for Windows Live bandwagon. Sort of a PC Gaming Axis, to combat the evil (?!) PC Gaming Alliance, and gas all the new-age untermenschen who don't agree that online PC gaming should be free. Sieg Heil!

As much as we cherish our fragging memories from the good old LAN parties with Doom 2 and Quake, we no longer live in the '90s, nor does the rest of the gaming world. Well, except for a select few, like the ones mentioned above - with their inspiring futile Boycott Games for Windows - Live initiative. Do they have a point? Sure. Should the Windows Live [gold] service be free? Sure. Should Halo 2 be natively playable on Windows XP? Sure. Should lolis be legal? Sure. But hey - there's not much we can do about any of these, no matter how many clicks we give. And God knows we keep clicking for lolis like madmen!

- The PSP version of Need for Speed ProStreet is finally shifting into retail gear this week, on February 22. Time for another NFS soon, eh?... *sigh*... What a drag racing.

- Also on February 22, the PS3 version of Unreal Tournament 3 will be released in Europe. Other releases this week include Dragon Quest Swords (Wii), The Club, Dynasty Warriors 6, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (DS).

- The Witcher Enhanced Edition was announced for May 2008, bringing changes in the game's mechanics, better graphics, a MOD editor, and two new adventures (comprising 8 new quests). In other words, they're trying to sell us a fucking patch.

- Second Life goes mobile, by "[reformatting] the online world to fit on mobile phone screens while mapping the keys on handsets to commands in-world". World of Warcraft should take a cue, instead of experimenting with shitty mobile chat features.

- JoWooD and World Forge (Sparta: Ancient Wars) announced a new strategy game called The Golden Horde, which "takes you back to a place in time where the heirs of Dschingis Khan were ready to fight for their honor and glory". Dschingis Khan?! What the fuck! Somebody fire that PR idiot who can't even spell Genghis Khan right. FAIL.

- THQ and Blue Fang Games (Zoo Tycoon) are banding for a new game, in development for the Wii, DS and PC. More zoophilia?

On the same day that EA was revealing Red Alert 3 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, Vivendi also made a similar, albeit shadowed announcement, about another supposedly-hardcore RTS game heading for all three supposedly-hardcore platforms: World in Conflict. As one of last year's top strategy titles on the PC, World in Conflict was previously known to be in development for the Xbox 360, but this week a PS3 version was also confirmed.

Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version of World in Conflict are now set for release in autumn 2007, effectively meaning that the Xbox 360 has already been delayed almost one year from its initial date. But looking on the bright side, this way the devs (Swordfish Studios, overwatched by Massive Ent.) will hopefully have enough time to do a proper port, controls-wise.

Other-wise, World in Conflict will be reinforced with new content on the consoles, for both its singleplayer campaign and multiplayer mode. And this yet-to-be-detailed "new content" will also be made available on the PC, in the form of an expansion. More info about the latter should be interecepted soon.

Holy grenade, NovaLogic is still alive and kicking! I could've sworn they were dead for the last three years (in my eyes for sure), ever since I stopped caring about their increasingly crappy Delta Force games. But maybe - just maybe - taking a huge break will turn out for the best.

For now, it seems that NovaLogic is working on something called Delta Force: Angel Falls (or "Black Ops" according to other reports), as teased on the company's front page; good thing we have CryoCopy to freeze it in place, otherwise it redirects you after a couple of seconds. The splash image has a clear "2008" splashed on it, (mis?)leading us to think that we might be sniping our asses once more by the end of this year. Just like good ol' times. But on what platforms, through what virtual locations, and for what purpose? Such details, sadly, still elude us.


The Delta Force had better be strong with this one!

- Red Faction III was confirmed during THQ's latest investors call. Exactly one year after CEO Brian Farrell practically said the same thing. Only this time, we know with relative certainty that it's developed for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. By Volition, duh.

- Steam reaches 15 million accounts. For some odd reason, players keep making new accounts after getting their asses banned, or forget their password. Or username.

- Activision confirmed various sequels for their top franchises, from Call of Duty, to Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk, Spider-Man, Bond and other kiddie games. Or we could've just said "Activision confirms Call of Duty 5", since we don't give a crap about any of the others.

- The Club demo is out of for the PC. So is the full game, but only on the PS3 and Xbox 360 momentarily. Good luck clearing 2 GB for the demo!

- "We at EA blew it" (with Bullfrog, Origin and Westwood). No, you didn't blow it. You fucked it up. You fucked it up!

- Okami Wii is completely playable by now, but Capcom is still not giving a firm release date. March? Maybe. By the way, this game should've been made for the Wii from head start.

- StarCraft II and WoW: Wrath of the Lich King also playable, if you can hold your breath until the end of June, and find your way inside Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational event from Paris.

Yeah, right! Actually, we just needed some random placeholder thingie to break the ice, now that we're expanding our "network" with this new website. Gaming website, obviously enough. It was in fact supposed to be the first one we should've opened two years ago, but being the lolicons that we are, we started off with Animekon, then one thing led to another and... well, here we are today, at last.

So, expect the usual gaming news and rumors, unusually relayed by two longtime gaming journalists from some obscure Eastern European country. We'll also have various trailers streamed from our little-sister website TVkon, and a purely symbolic games database to keep things tied together, but without much detailed info - I'm sick and tired of maintaining a website with over nine thousand games, keeping track of release dates, official websites and all that crap. We'll let others do the grunt work for now, until we're prepared to turn this thing into a real gaming website (hopefully prior to the release of Duke Nukem Forever). Until then, enjoy it as it is, and welcome to Playkon!