Industry vet and life president of Eidos, Ian Livingstone, will host a discussion titled “From Dungeons to Downing Street – How Games are Growing Up for Good!” In it, he will chat about how the mass media often portrays the industry in a negative light, and rarely focuses on the “good that game can do.” Livingstone, will share his experiences in “raising the profile of the industry with the UK government,” most recently with the Next Gen report on skills, and how the UK games industry gives back via the GamesAid charity, and mentoring PlayMob, a games start-up with a business model that focuses on “giving”.

Jan L. Plass’ offering, “AAA Game Mechanics Inspiring Learning and Assessment Mechanics”, will discuss how “engaging mechanics compensate for shortcomings in aesthetics, musical score, or level design,” especially with games for learning. Plass will discuss how the his group approaches designing games using custom mechanics and he will present demonstrations from the school’s library of related learning and assessment mechanics and the foundations.

Finally, Preloaded’s Phil Stuartwill host a track called “More Than Fun: Designing Games With Purpose” which will touch upon the challenges faced when creating games with a specific educational or communication objective. His talk will specifically discuss how to put the “about”‘ at the beginning of the game design process.

For more details of what to expect out of GDC 2012, visit our event hub.

GDC 2012 runs March 5 through March 9 in San Francisco, California.

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So far the game holds a Metacritic score of 77, and review scores are all over the place.

It’s out in the UK on March 7.

• DigitalChumps – 9
• GameInformer – 8.5
• UGO – B+
• GameTrailers – 8.1
• GamesRadar – 8
• Joystiq – 3.5/5
• Destructoid – 7
• G4 – 3/5

As usual, if you have any to add, point us in the site’s direction through the comment section.

The firm also provided some other nice stats as well:

• Nearly 2 million Killing Floor DLC packs have been sold.
• 45 million hours of Killing Floor have been played to date.
• 440 Million Zeds have been dispatched in Achievements alone – including more than a quarter-million Christmas Santa.
• Zeds are being killed at the rate of over 20,000 an hour.
• Hundreds of custom maps have been created by the community.

In celebration, the firm has included Killing Floor as part of the Midweek Madness sale on Steam, so if you haven’t purchased it yet, now’s the time as it’s 85% off and will only run you $2.99.

The game is also available through Gamers’ Gate, Gamefly, Green Man Gaming, other digital outlets, and “stores across the world.”

There’s also quite a bit of information pertaining to the menu system, how the freedom element from previous entries in the series hasn’t been neglected, and how you will apparently also be able to throw a knife into a guard’s skull.

The protagonist in the game, James Brody, has been on the island for years trying to find his kidnapped girlfriend. During his stay, he starts having a mental breakdown, and his actions are accompanied by hallucinations based on an “unreliable perspective.” No word if this is caused by post tramtic stress disorder or not due to his stay on this mad isaland, but surely there is a reason for this strange, mental behavior in the game someplace.

Antagonists on the island are apparently a bit insane as well, as are the allies. Lots of “crazy” permeating the place, then.

Edge was shown two different mission demos, one of which showed a stealth assault and another, described by the magazine as scripted, showed the character escaping from a sinking ship and its volatile enemies.

Players will be able to either kill enemies from afar using a sniper rifle, or run in like Rambo without a jockstrap guns-a-blazing. You can apparently get a bit MacGyver-like with more makeshift techniques such as strapping C4 onto a Jeep and pushing it down a hill into an enemy base. Unlike MacGyver though, you will be killing people.

According to the Edge piece, put in bulletform by GamingEverything, the demos showed quite a bit of both scripted and linear moments, and Edge noted some platforming and exploration.

Far Cry 3 is slated for release on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 sometime this year with some pegging it for late March.

Thanks, PikiGeek.

Each game will combine the foundations of the original tabletops with new designs and gameplay elements inspired by Blizzard’s universes.

MONOPOLY: World of Warcraft will have players vying for control of World of Warcraft’s locations, wit such “coveted” real estate as Twilight Highlands, Grizzly Hills and the Swamp of Sorrows – instead of Pennsylvania Avenue, Park Place, and Boardwalk.

The standard Monopoly rules will apply, and it will include custom sculpted houses designed after Warcraft towns and hotels designed from Warcraft cities. A red and blue die representing the Horde and Alliance factions will also be included.

The game will debut during the 109th annual Toy Fair going on now in New York City. WoW players can get a look at the game through Facebook and also vote on the token designs. Current options, including Murky, Chen’s Keg, Mechagnome, and a Spellbook, are just a few, and the six most popular tokens will be represented in the game when it launches this May in North America for $39.95.

RISK: StarCraft will once again find the StarCraft universe in jeopardy as players choose from the Terran, Protoss or Zerg factions and use one of six heroes to bring order to the galaxy.

The “struggles” portrayed in the RTS game series are adapted in, and the winner will be determined by “astute deployment of military might and strategic field tactics.”

It comes with three play modes and over 290 custom playing pieces. More details about the game will be revealed as it moves toward release this summer in North America for $49.45.

“With hair flying, long legs kicking and the ear-piercing shrill of deadly vixens, Girl Fight is a unique all-female, fast-paced spin on arcade-style fighting games,” so says the press release.

Apparently, the game allows players to choose from “an array of sexy fighters to battle their way out of The Foundation,” which is a “shadowy, scientific organization” which is looking to weaponize the “psionic fighting abilities of the cast of gorgeous, all-female fighters.”

And here’s more from the press release: “With unlimited funding and no moral or ethical compass, The Foundation collects its test subjects from all around the world, often abducting and plugging women into their virtual construct known as The Mainframe. To make it back to reality, the women must utilize their fighting and psionic abilities in an all-out battle for survival.”

In other words, abducted, attractive females fighting in a ring for their freedom using their bodies as well as telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the psyche. Right.

Here are the game’s features:

• Fighting Styles and Character Options: Players can select from a wide range of distinct fighters, each with their own fighting style. Players can even create their own experience by customizing their fighter’s appearance and abilities.
• Unlockables and Customization: Players will find a robust set of unlockables to further customize their characters by proving themselves as the ultimate femme fatale in the ring. Points can unlock new character skins, more varied abilities and codex entries.
• Arenas: Girl Fight takes the players all across a virtual globe in many different arenas, filled in by augmented reality constructs. From war-ravaged San Francisco to the rubble of demolished Foundry buildings, reality and fiction blur in the virtual arenas.

Get ready to “lick the competition” this spring.

It will officially release on the North American PlayStation Store February 21 for $7.99 and in supported European territories February 22.

“We’re thrilled to have Mutant Blobs Attack as one of the first PlayStation Vita downloadable titles, and for us to have hit our day-one launch goal,” said Ryan MacLean, DrinkBox CEO. “Everyone at DrinkBox Studios is super happy with the end product and we decided to sell it for only $7.99.

“It’s a crazy low price point. Insanely low. I’m insane. HUUAGGGGH Backflip!”

The firm has also created a new bundle for the game’s PS3 predecessor, Tales from Space: About a Blob, which will include the game and “a bunch of” DLC for $9.99.

The original game will also be available for the new price point of $7.99

It starts off with a $1 minimum, but as more money is tossed at it, more goodies open up.

The first, called Game Madness Incentive, includes a bonus game which is Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals.

Some “soon to be released” DLC for one of the titles in the bundle will also be included, and there’s the Music Madness Incentive as well which includes soundtracks and exclusive music from three indie artists – none of which has been released prior. The music includes tracks and a video from “electronic artists” Celldweller, FantomenK, and Damage Vault.

Then, there’s the Mystery Madness Incentive and it has something to do with fish. We have no idea what this could be.

Games included in the bundle come with a Steam key, and three include an alternate download method in case you are not a Steam member.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Wasteland Angel
• Sideways New York
• Xotic
• BEEP
• The Ball

The Be Mine Bundle can be yours until February 28.

Thanks, IndieGameMagazine.

Both are part of a series of Japanese-language talks from influential developers, and each will provide simultaneous English translations of all talks.

In the Game Design track, Nintendo director Koichi Hayashida will lead a presentation called “Thinking In 3D: The Development of Super Mario 3D Land” where he will share several “Miyamoto-sayings” and describe how the development team for the game made it the fastest-selling hand-held Super Mario game in history.

In another talk, Capcom producer Masachika Kawata will host “Revealing the Truth About Resident Evil: Revelations,” where he will discuss why Capcom chose to release the game on 3DS and how it tried to stay true to the game’s survival horror roots while “rethinking and improving” the game’s controls and playability.

For more details of what to expect out of GDC 2012, visit our event hub.

GDC 2012 runs March 5 through March 9 in San Francisco, California.

Speaking with Massively, Johannessen said permadeath allows for the player to make more of an investment in the character created, instead of tossing its life away on “random acts of griefing” and expecting the character to respawn.

“Permadeath prevents griefing more than anything else,” he said, adding that its implementation is similar to that of the firm’s Haven & Hearth’s. Characters in Salem can be summoned and killed if a serious crime has been committed – even when the player is offline.

“When you commit a serious-enough crime (e.g., murder, theft, vandalism), you leave a little clue behind that other players can use to track your homestead,” he explained. “If they reach the homestead, the clue can then be used to summon you (i.e., the offending character) into the game for some dispensing of justice.

“Basically you shouldn’t be running around killing people unless you can protect yourself.”

Salem is set in New England during the 17 century, and similar to the time frame, the game will be full of alchemy, folklore styled creatures and the prerequisite witches and crafting.

Johannessen said it shouldn’t be “too long” before the game goes into open beta.

If you are one of the former, Bethesda has posted the following on the official forums, and hopefully it will fix any remaining problems you may be experiencing:

“The 1.4 patch for Skyrim includes many performance-enhancing updates for the PlayStation 3. A few important things to note:

1. To ensure the fastest jump in performance after applying the patch, be sure to first create a new manual save by entering the save menu and choosing “save game.” You should then restart your PlayStation 3 before continuing to play.

2. If you encounter strange behaviour while playing immediately following application of the patch, do not be alarmed – this is a temporary effect of Skyrim scripts correcting themselves after the update. Once this process runs its course, be sure to make a new save and restart your PlayStation 3.”

Try these steps out, and if it still doesn’t help matters, head over to the forums and post on the matter. Bethesda has said it looks “at forums (including our own), wikis, blog comments, YouTube videos, and more,” when it comes to user feedback.

Thanks, OPM.

Here’s the description according to the ESRB:

“This is a third-person shooter in which players assume the role of a special operations soldier who battles enemies in a storm-ravaged Dubai.

“Players use machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, and grenades to kill enemy soldiers in frenetic combat. Battles are highlighted by realistic gunfire, screams of pain, slow-motion effects (during headshots); injured characters emit blood splashes when hit, and continue to incur damage when killed.

“Players can also “execute” or incapacitate enemies at close range (e.g., punching soldiers in the face or snapping their necks). Some weapons cause damage such as dismembered limbs or scattered body parts; a handful of sequences depict severely burned or mutilated corpses. During the course of the game, players have the ability to shoot unarmed civilians or open fire on angry mobs.

“Cutscenes also include intense instances of violence: bloodied characters getting interrogated and/or executed; soldiers getting shot in the head at point-blank range. The words “fuck,” “shit,” and “asshole” can be heard in the dialogue.”

The developers have previously said finding the right tone for the game has been a tricky process, as it’s been difficult to present the horrors of war in a game without going the “gore porn” route.

Spec Ops: The Line will be released during the first half of Take-Two’s fiscal 2013 on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.