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Splinter Cell: Blacklist – Threat Trailer

Ubisoft has released a new Splinter Cell: Blacklist trailer offering a glimpse of the Engineers, a faceless and powerful enemy whose goal is to take down the United States.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist will be available on August 20th for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC.

Infinite Crisis – Behind the Scenes Video

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment have released a behind-the-scenes look at Infinite Crisis. The video includes interviews with members of the development team, as well as Geoff Johns, Chief Creative Officer at DC Entertainment, and Jim Lee, Co-Publisher at DC Entertainment, discussing the DC Multiverse.

Blackpowder Games Announces Betrayer

Seattle-based indie game developer Blackpowder Games today revealed Betrayer, a first-person action adventure game for the PC. Betrayer is the self-funded debut of the studio, which was founded by ex-Monolith developers best known as the creative team responsible for the No One Lives Forever series and the original F.E.A.R.

Betrayer washes you ashore in the New World in 1604, where you’re expecting to join a struggling English colony on the Virginia coast. Instead you find only ghosts and mysteries in a land drained of color and life. You’ll build up an arsenal of weaponry including muskets, crossbows and throwing axes, collecting untold treasures along the way. Chart your own course through an untamed wilderness teeming with danger and discovery as you search for survivors and unravel the colony’s many mysteries, including the identity of the strange, silent woman in red who helps from afar.

Betrayer is set to release as a Steam Early Access title in August.

Ridge Racer Driftopia Closed Beta Signup

Be one of the first to experience Ridge Racer Driftopia and provide your feedback to the development team. Go to http://www.ridgeracerdriftopia.com and register to receive a beta key granting you access to Ridge Racer Driftopia’s closed beta starting today on Steam.

Ridge Racer Driftopia will be available for PlayStation 3 and PC in 2013.

Sony Online Entertainment Announces EverQuest Next

Sony Online Entertainment today announced EverQuest Next. EverQuest Next has been in development since 2009. Nearly two years ago, SOE made the decision to rethink core creative and technical aspects of the design and start from the ground up to build a new kind of game. As a result, EQN is different from all of the MMOs that have been made before in very important ways, including:

• Multi-Classing – EQN will offer players the ability to explore and interact with the world according to their individual style of play. There are no levels in EQN, but there will be more than 40 distinct classes (or professions) at launch, with multi-tiered abilities and specialized weapon skills to collect and master. Players will even mix and match abilities from each class, creating truly custom characters that feel distinct and powerful.
• Destructible Environments – No modern MMO has successfully implemented destructible environments that stretch across an entire seamless game world — this changes forever with EQN. Every piece of the world is fully destructible and players will have the ability to manipulate almost all of it. They will interact with and explore the world in amazing ways; venturing down into the deep bedrock beneath the surface and using powerful combat abilities to blow gaping holes into the ground. The EQN world will extend far into the heavens and deep into the procedurally-generated earth through 10,000 years of known lore and history.
• Permanent Change – Players will also have the ability to cause the world to change around them, permanently, in dramatic ways. Through the concerted effort of the world’s inhabitants, including players, creatures, and non-player characters, city walls will be built and destroyed, large-scale wars will be fought and won, and epic stories will unfold over months and years.
• Emergent AI – In EQN, NPCs will have specific motivations and preferences that direct behavior in nuanced and unpredictable ways. Players will find themselves in a world where NPC decisions are based on core values, not dictated by static spawn points. For example, Orcs may attack opportunistically because they want an adventurer’s gold, not simply because a careless hero wanders into an attack radius.
• A Life of Consequence – Finally, each character in EQN will have a unique story; they will not follow a predetermined path. Instead, they will seek out adventure, fame and fortune in a constantly changing sandbox world. The game will remember every choice and action that players make and will organically deliver increasing opportunities to do more of the things players like to do … from crafting armor and exploring the wilderness to purging goblins from the forests.

This winter, SOE will introduce EverQuest Next Landmark. Essentially, Landmark will combine the building tools SOE is using to create the fully destructible world of EQN with all of the social functionality expected from a modern MMO.

The game will feature persistent worlds that each support thousands of other players and varied terrain inspired by the environments of EQN. Most importantly, Landmark will provide anyone who wants to participate with the opportunity to actually build structures, and eventually create other types of content, to be considered for inclusion in EQN.

Landmark will launch this winter as a “Free To Play. Your Way.” offering and the first step in a multi-phase release strategy. It will serve as the gateway to EQN and as the collaborative building hub where SOE will guide the development of selected structures and environments for inclusion in EQN.

No formal date is set for the launch of EverQuest Next.

Ace Combat Infinity Announced

Namco Bandai today announced the first free-to-play game in the Ace Combat series, Ace Combat Infinity, will be available in the latter part of 2013 exclusively as a free download for the PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Network.

Saints Row IV – Developer Diary #1

Deep Silver and Volition have released the first in a string of Developer Diaries for Saints Row IV that will highlight several aspects behind the conception of the game.

Get a “behind the scenes” look into the studio of developer Volition and watch Jim Boone, Senior Producer, Steve Jaros, Creative Director and Chris Claflin, Lighting Lead, being probed about the vision behind the creation of the fourth game in the Saints Row series.

Saints Row IV launches August 20th for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Disney Infinity – Toy Box Combat Trailer

Disney Interactive unveils sneak peek at the combat possibilities in the Disney Infinity Toy Box mode with an all new gameplay trailer.

The trailer brings to life how players can fight with brains or brawns using different gadgets and vehicles to enhance gameplay. Mr. Incredible teams up with Mike Wazowski to combat against evil, while Captain Jack Sparrow takes on Syndrome – the possibilities are endless for these potential showdowns.

Disney Infinity will be available on August 18th for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Wii and Nintendo 3DS.

Dragon’s Prophet to Launch in September

Sony Online Entertainment and Infernum Productions announced last night at the annual SOE Live fan event that the free-to-play MMORPG, Dragon’s Prophet, will launch on September 18th. Developed by Runewaker Entertainment, Dragon’s Prophet allows players the opportunity to capture, train, ride and fight hundreds of unique dragons while unlocking their skills and abilities.

CD Projekt RED Opens New Studio

CD Projekt RED announced today the opening of a new studio in Cracow, Poland. The new studio will bolster the development of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077.