Most hardware offerings saw a surge, and the only two systems that continued to decline were Xbox 360 and Wii U.

Here’s the full software chart for June 10-16 Life-to-date sales are in parentheses:

1. [3DS] Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (Nintendo, 06/13/13) – 104,569 (New)
2. [3DS] Tomodachi Collection: New Life (Nintendo, 04/18/13) – 43,372 (1,133,246)
3. [3DS] Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter: Albatross no Tsubasa (Square Enix, 06/13/13) – 17,925 (New)
4. [3DS] Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (Nintendo, 03/21/13) – 14,949 (781,660)
5. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Nintendo, 11/08/12) – 14,393 (3,278,356)
6. [PS3] Resident Evil: Revelations (Capcom, 05/23/13) – 9,759 (160,120)
7. [3DS] Shin Megami Tensei IV (Atlus, 05/23/13) – 9,034 (241,670)
8. [PS3] Terraria (Spike Chunsoft, 05/23/13) – 6,608 (42,549)
9. [PS3] Kamen Rider: Battride War (Namco Bandai, 05/23/13) – 6,152 (172,946)
10. [3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission (Namco Bandai, 02/28/13) – 4,707 (208,316)
11. [Wii] Taiko Drum Master Wii Super Wonderful Edition (Namco Bandai, 11/29/12) – 4,634 (497,427)
12. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo, 07/28/12) – 3,595 (2,043,072)
13. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Best Price!) (Capcom, 11/15/12) – 3,485 (319,972)
14. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo, 12/01/11) – 3,392 (2,064,091)
15. [PSV] Valhalla Knights 3 (Marvelous AQL, 05/23/13) – 3,375 (60,0570)
16. [3DS] Run For Money: Flee From the Strongest Hunters in History! (Namco Bandai, 07/05/12) – 2,568 (496,786)
17. [PSP] God Eater Burst (PSP the Best) (Namco Bandai, 06/06/13) – 2,463 (4,376)
18. [NDS] Pokemon Black 2 / White 2 (Pokemn, 06/23/12) – 2,453 (3,014,537)
19. [3DS] Taiko Drum Master: Chibi Dragon and the Curious Orb (Namco Bandai, 07/12/12) – 2,391 (495,981)
20. [Wii U] New Super Mario Bros. U (Nintendo, 12/08/12) – 2,224 (521,251)

Here’s the full hardware chart for Week 24. Last week’s sales are in parentheses:

• 3DS LL – 29,533 (27,172) +
• 3DS – 17,602 (12,700) +
• PS3– 10,872 (10,394) +
• PSV– 10,664 (9,733) +
• Wii U – 5,983 (6,330) –
• PSP – 5,651 (5,076)+
• Wii – 1,461 (1,060) +
• 360 – 397 (432) –

Thanks, Gematsu.

If you had wandered around the E3 show floor visiting the booths of the major publishers, as I did, you might have noticed the recurring theme: everything is super violent. Or, maybe, because copious amounts of violence in games is so common that you take it for granted, you wouldn’t even have thought about it.

But as a critic and columnist, I was most definitely aware of the death-dealing that surrounded me at every turn during E3, and so when on the final day of the show I had the chance to check out a game from Square Enix called Murdered: Soul Suspect – a AAA experience more about working your brain than your reflexes – I was intrigued.

Despite being a game with the word “murder” in the title, Soul Suspect is not just another action-oriented story about killin’ dudes. More correctly, it is a tale of one murder, that of the detective protagonist Ronan O’Connor, who is violently killed at the beginning of the game. Like, he is thrown out a window and shot a bunch of times

But while our hero is dead, he isn’t gone, because this is a game about a ghost detective who most solve his own murder, and he doesn’t kill hordes of people while he’s trying to do it. He is a ghost, and he interacts with the world the way a ghost would, by walking through walls and stuff. The twist is that the town in which he lives is intimately familiar with the supernatural and is full of anti-ghost measures that stand in his way, creating the perfect setting for a 3D adventure game in the old tradition. For example, there are homes marked so as to prevent ghost access, and the Ghost Detective must discover ways around these protective measures, such as by inhabiting a living person who crosses the barrier.

Murdered does contain something the developers have described as “combat,” which can occur when Ronan encounters a demon in the ghost world. But these encounters are just another sort of puzzle to deal with, and don’t, from what I’ve seen, devolve into typical killin’-dudes territory. This just is not that kind of game. It’s a game about solving murders, not committing them.

But the fact that Murdered was the only game I saw from a major publisher at E3 that did not use violence as its core mechanic really made it stand out, and I couldn’t help but ask creative director Yosuke Shiokawa, who is working in a sort of auteur role on this project, why Airtight decided to create this type of experience.

He told me that what he set out to do with Murdered was create a AAA experience that is unlike other AAA experiences, and he bemoaned the fact that so many of the so-called next-generation games being shown at E3 were actually providing current-gen experiences. “We have a next-gen game on current-gen consoles,” he said. “I believe next-gen games should be innovative,” and should not provide the same experiences we’ve already been receiving.

But the differences between Murdered and other big games don’t end at the lack of violent mechanics. Shiokawa says the concept and story were created before any design began on the game, and he claims sole ownership over that creative aspect of the product.

“I made the major storyline first before making levels or detailed mechanics,” Shiokawa said. “The story is, yeah, more important than gameplay. I created gameplay elements to support this storyline.”

He keeps saying “I” not because he’s an egomaniac but because he really is the brain behind the entire Murdered project. He claims credit for Murdered’s early game design documents – more or less the bible by which a game is constructed. “This is not design-by-committee.”

Compare that stance with that given to me by an Infinity Ward animator talking about the process of building the campaign in Call of Duty: Ghosts; it’s a shocking change of pace, and one that did cause some friction between Shiokawa and the dev team at Airtight Games working on Murdered.

Shiokawa told me that early on in the development process, there were some designers who perhaps didn’t “get” what he was pushing on them. But after the team playtested a very early build and was able to see Shiokawa’s ideas in action, he says everyone fully bought in.

It should be noted that Square Enix showed only a hands-off demo of Murdered at E3, and so it’s difficult to say how good it’s really going to be. But it will definitely be a major change of pace from the AAA norm we’ll be experiencing in the coming year, and that in itself makes this one worth watching as the next generation begins.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is planned for launch in 2014 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

PS3 games

10 Pin: Champions’ Alley
Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles Of Mystara
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
MotoGP 13
Thunder Wolves
Tour De France 2013 – 100th Edition

PS3 demos

MOTO GP 13
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles Of Mystara
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
Thunder Wolves

PS Vita games

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power Of Two (available June 21)
MotoGP 13
Price: £29.99/€34.99
The Jak & Daxter Trilogy (available June 21) (Cross-Buy)
Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (available June 21) (Cross-Buy)
Jak II: Renegade (available June 21) (Cross-Buy)
Jak 3 (available June 21) (Cross-Buy)
Lego Legends Of Chima: Laval’s Journey (available June 21)
OMG HD Zombies!

PlayStation Mobile

Calculator
Miko Gakkou Monogatari: Sanae Episode

PS3 DLC

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – Revolution Trial (free)
God Of War: Ascension (x2)
GT5 Promotional Content Pack (available for two weeks only) (x7)
Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory – The Seven Sages (free)
LittleBigPlanet (Cross-Buy) (x2, free)
Motogp13 2012 Top Riders
Resident Evil Revelations (x3)
Rugby League Live 2 – DLC 2013
Uncharted 3 – Ancient Masks Bundle Pack

PS Vita DLC

LittleBigPlanet (Cross-Buy) (x2, free)
Motogp 13 2012 Top Riders

Discounts

OddWorld Strangers Wrath HD (£5.99/€4.79)
Burn Zombie Burn (£2.79/€3.49)
Kung Fu LIVE (£5.99/€4.79)

Pricing, availability and the rest can be found through the PS Blog.

Speaking with VentureBeat, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the image “wasn’t meant to be a tease” for Beyond Good & Evil 2.

“It was just part of our promotion in the run-up to E3 – homaging some of the characters from our past,” he said. “I think that was maybe misinterpreted. I think the first game was exceptional, and people remember the experience they had, so they would like to see it again.

“We had a period where we had a demo that went out before it was quite ready, so everybody saw something that appealed to them. That’s why I think they keep expecting something. But I can’t say much more than that.”

Thanks, OXM.

According to Ismail, speaking in a video interview with ElderGeek via Gamespot, the PC version will launch “a few weeks after” the PS3, Wii U and Xbox 360.

“We’re working hard on the PC version,” he said. “It’s one of the main platforms we work on in the office. For our PC fans, don’t worry. The game on PC looks phenomenal.”

Assassin’s Creed games always eventually come to PC, but always after the console versions are released – so this news isn’t surprising.

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is out in late October, early November and will be a launch title for PS4 and Xbox One.

According to the PlayJam, the developers of the Android-powered microconsole, it has taken the firm longer than anticipated to develop the user interface.

Those who backed the project on Kickstarter with $300 or more have been beta testing the console UI.

“It has taken a while longer to prepare the review UI than we had hoped,” reads a statement on the Kickstarter page. “This is in part because the DEV version of the hardware this will be delivered on is slightly different from the production hardware. This has required a duplication of effort that we have had to balance with ensuring that work on the final units maintained momentum.

“As a result we have not yet had the feedback that we wanted prior to finalizing the UI and going ahead with mass production. In the spirit of Kickstarter it would be disingenuous of us to cut out this process and not give those backers the opportunity to comment on and help perfect the UI prior to completion.

“We have therefore taken the decision to push back the whole project by one month to ensure we can fit this process in. We appreciate that this will frustrate backers keen to get their hands on their device but we did not feel it was fair to bypass this step as it was a key pledge and the feedback will be really welcome.

“We now expect to ship product from China during early August and expect it to be with you by the middle of the month, prior to units launching in retail.”

The original delay of GameStick was due to “higher-than expected” demand, the firm stated at the time.

You can catch-up on Dead Sun details, along with information on nine cancelled projects from within the Legacy of Kain series here.

Now, Square-Enix community manager George Kelion has posted on the same GAF thread “I thought you might want a bit more information. I can confirm that Dead Sun was a project which had been in development – but which was cancelled. I know it’s disappointing to hear about these things out of context, and whilst some of the details released are accurate – some details are not.

“You know game projects can be cancelled for a variety of different reasons and I know it’s very hard to tell from images and info alone, but in the end LoK: Dead Sun just wasn’t the right game, at the right time… but you’ll have to take me at my word on that, I’m afraid.

“Obviously, it’s not usual for assets from cancelled games to be released, but given that there’s a lot out there already I thought you might appreciate seeing a few more images that were taken from the previously in-progress game.

“As you’ll be aware, we’re currently working on a multiplayer game firmly set within the Legacy of Kain universe called Nosgoth, which we’re very proud of. It’s grown in size and scope since its initial conception and we’ll be talking more about it in the future. While we’re not working on a single-player Legacy of Kain game right now, that doesn’t mean it’s not something we’d look at making in the future.”

Kelion then posted a gallery of images from Dead Sun, which we have below, starting with protagonist Gein.

What do you make of the game’s cancellation? Let us know below.

Cerny’s keynote titled “Changing the Game: Developing into the Next Generation”, will discuss bringing PS4 from concept to reality.

His speech will also touch upon the “lessons learnt from previous console generations, the future vision for PS4 and how embracing the Indie community will have a key role in fulfilling that vision.”

Cerny is also working with SCE Japan as the director on PS4 title Knack, and his talks will also discuss the motivations behind “creating a game in tandem with the hardware, and the lessons and insights gained from occupying this dual role.”

Develop takes place at Brighton’s Hilton Metropole and runs July 9-11.

The decision was made in order to “offer cricket fans the best possible gaming experience to compliment this historic back to back Ashes year.”

“505 Games has made a commitment to creating a cricket game designed for cricket fans,” commented Tim Woodley, SVP of global brand & marketing.

“Developer, Trickstar Games has taken the time to overhaul and rebuild the game engine to offer brand new features in batting, bowling and fielding. By pushing back our release date, this gives us the opportunity to deliver a quality cricket title.”

An exact date wasn’t provided in the press release.

Expect Ashes Cricket 2013 sometime in July on PC, PS3, Wii U and Xbox 360.

Available from June 21 – and today in some regions – it’s priced at €39.99, and comes with the following games:

LittleBigPlanet PS Vita
WipeOut 2048
MotorStorm RC
Little Deviants
Frobisher Says! (with Fun Pack DLC)
Ecolibrium (with Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum game packs)
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
Lemmings
Hungry Giraffe
The HD Adventures of Rotating Octopus Character

The Mega Pack will also be available in some territories as part of a new Wi-Fi PS Vita hardware bundle, priced at €249.99.

Release dates will vary across Europe:

Out now: France, Spain, Portugal, Israel
June 26: Austria, Switzerland, Germany
June 28: UK

Speaking in the same interview with CVG we reported yesterday, BioWare’s general manager said it’s nice to have “head room” in consoles once again – room which allowed the team to make a “a radical leap in character fidelity,” over the previous entries in the series.

“Our goals is to get right past the uncanny valley and right to characters who you love and interact with,” said Flynn. “Morrigan for example has moved radically forward in terms of that kind of stuff.

“The computing power behind the new consoles just enables so many things. And then you get in to the peripherals that they have and it’s almost too much – you’ve got to really pick and choose what you can do cool stuff with. It’s nice. I was telling some people that it feels like they’re It feels nice to have all of that head room again on consoles.

“A lot of our jobs the past few years have been to get really good at squeezing out incremental performance out of the consoles.”

Flynn said the team is working to “fill up all of that space with really cool things,” and admitted that none of the team working on the game thought the characters could look as good as they do when the project first started.

With the new tech also comes the ability to use the cloud which, according to Microsoft, will also give developers more “power”. However, Flynn said he could not comment yet regarding what BioWare’s plans are for the cloud -or if the team has any plans as of yet.

“We don’t have any comment yet for what we’re going to do with that, but it certainly does open up opportunities for sure,” he said. “RPGs are great because there’s no shortage of data or things to use more computing power for, right?

“If we can be smart with that and find ways, then we’ll throw it over to the cloud for sure.”

Dragon Age: Inquisition will release in fall 2014 on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Do you think the clip looks tactical? Speaking of tactics, I recently interviewed development director at 2K Marin Morgan Gray on Declassified’s strategic elements, to find out just how deep and taxing the game actually becomes. Check out our chat here.

The DLC mission is called “Codebreakers”, and it follows Special Agent Carter and his squad as they investigate a top secret government communications facility that has fallen silent. Once thee they must deal with alien enemies and attempt to break a code being transmitted from the station.

On the extra content, Gray said in a statement, “The alternate 1962 universe that we’ve created for The Bureau is vast and there are many more stories to tell about the early days of XCOM. We’re excited that our stories will provide a new perspective on the war effort, much like how our critically acclaimed Minvera’s Den DLC for BioShock 2 allowed us to present a unique perspective of Rapture.”

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified hits PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 across North America from August 20, and across Europe August 23.

First up, if you missed the Mirror’s Edge reboot trailer, you can watch it again here.

Speaking with IGN, Bach stressed that he and his team wants to do something great with the series, rather than just putting a ’2′ on the end and calling the new game a sequel. If anything, it’s a re-imagining of the original concept with all the wrinkles ironed out.

Bach said of last week’s E3 reveal, “Why not now? We had to dwell on what it should be and what it could be, as well as find the right focus for the franchise, bringing it back and not just rushing it out there. I think the franchise deserves a proper launch.”

Changing the free-running formula of the original might alienate fans however, and Bach knows this all-too well. “How do you innovate and move forward without ruining what made the game great?” he mused. “It’s easy to capitalize on gimmicks or things that are popular right now.

“Couple years ago everyone’s talking about subscription. That’s the s–t…now no one is talking about subscription…. Jumping onto the awesome wagon that’s passing by is not helping your franchise if you have a great franchise. And Mirror’s Edge is one of them. We need to always remind ourselves what the game is at its core so we don’t move away from that.”

What would you like to see from the Mirror’s Edge reboot? Let us know below.

Speaking with Famitsu, Nomura confirmed that the game will pick up right where Dream Drop Distance left off, and will follow the final battle against Xehanort. He added that right now, the team is still figuring out which Disney worlds to include in the plot.

On combat, Nomura said, “We have a demo version running on the actual hardware, but the action’s pretty frantic. The really bold action we’ve always had is getting even crazier. Kingdom Hearts 3 has three-person parties, but NPCs and other characters join the fight in each individual world, and the resulting action is really flashy and exciting. The enemy AI is a lot more intricate, too, and I think the gameplay will reflect that new dynamic balance. For example, there’s a foe that’s shaped like a vehicle, and Sora may jump on it and fly around; that’s already implemented.”

Nomura also has his hands full on Final Fantasy 15, and he stressed that both that team and the Kingdom Hearts 3 team are well aware of each other’s efforts, “The FF15 and KH3 teams are aware of each other. They’re constantly honing their work at this point in development. Even though KH3 is still pretty early in development, it’s already producing some great scenes in Square Enix’s internal conferences. We’re discussing new developments never seen in any KH before, so keep an eye on further updates.”

Those “further updates” may come at this year’s Tokyo Games Show, Nomura suggested, but stressed that it’s too early to say for sure. The game will launch on PS4 and Xbox One.

Meanwhile, check out Nomura’s discussion about why Final Fantasy 13 Versus shifted to Final Fantasy 15.

Thanks Polygon.

As part of its campaign to 3D-ify its classic games, Sega is releasing Ecco for ¥600 and also announced that space shooter Galaxy Force 2 is getting the same treatment. No release window or details were given however.

We’ll update you on Western release details when they become available.

That’s it folks. Scant city. But why not check out this footage of Ecco to refresh your minds.

Thanks to KobayashiBR for the clip.

Thanks Nintendo Life.

Big Announcement! #TheSims4 will be revealed in Gamescom in Germany! The game will take the @EA stage to show off the game. #TheSimsLB

— The Sims 3 (@TheSims3) June 18, 2013

The Sims Twitter confirmed the reveal at gamescom, which takes place between August 21-25. The game is currently slated for a vague ’2014′ release.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, Sims 4 homepage has a logo and some art, as well as some bullet points in the Sim’s gibberish language that I can’t read.

Are you pumped for The Sims 4? Let us know below.

Thanks PCGamesN.

In a statement sent to VG247, Sean Murray of Hello Games wrote, “Lately pretty much all of us have been playing on our PCs more than our consoles, especially at lunch, and you know that means Team Fortress 2. Like, we’ve clocked up over 4000 hours in it between us and have so many hats.

“Just for fun Aaron started adding TF2 characters into Joe Danger and I was in love with how good they looked. We completely had to make them happen for real, so we called Valve, and now it’s a real thing! Like, there aren’t many companies you can imagine saying yes to that.

“So the entire cast of TF2 is in Joe Danger as playable characters. I’m never happy with anything we do, but damn it, they look completely amazing. Super chibi Heavy is sooo cute. You’ll also encounter them in the Challenge mode.”

On the Minecraft stages, Murray added, “We imagined how cool it would be to ride through Minecraft environments, so we talked to our friends at Mojang. And now that’s happening too – in Joe Danger you can build Minecraft levels. It started as an environment… then became props… then characters. Since we have an editor, all the cubes, and Steam Workshop – it means you can pretty much build anything too.”

What do you make of the above content? Let us know below.

Sony posted the July update on PS Blog EU this afternoon, confirming that Battlefield 3 will be available for free as of July 3.

Payday: The Heist drops for free on the same day, and subscribers will also get discounts on the game’s Wolfpack DLC. Saint’s Row: The Third will also be made free to all PS Plus Members.

Also on July 3, PS Vita owners can download a free copy of Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus and Unit 13.

Kingdoms of Amalur – Reckoning, Lord of the Rings War in the North, The Cave, Rayman Origins and Coconut Dodge will all leave PS Plus as of July 3.

What do you think of the above offering?

Speaking with NowGamer, the Grasshopper Manufacture founder said, “I honestly don’t know what Microsoft’s plans or vision for Xbox One in Japan is going to be. We really haven’t received immense support for Xbox One in Japan as of yet, so I don’t know what their plans are.

“That being said, Windows and a lot other Microsoft products have a track record of being successful in Japan, so I think it’s matter of time or some kind of hook that will let the Xbox explode or shine in Japan. But what or when that is, is still kind of up in the air.”

It follows confirmation that Microsoft currently has no release plans for Xbox One in Japan, despite having listed support for the console in almost every Xbox 360 territory worldwide. It hits the rest of Asia in 2014.

Will Xbox One help the brand explode in Japan? Let us know what you think below.

Thanks OXM.

Speaking with Polygon at E3, creator Dennis Wedin said that Wrong Number development was progressing far alongside creation of the first game. Dennaton Games then moved on to another franchise but decided to return one last time to its world of ’80s neon and brutal murder.

On the game’s premise, Wedin said, “This is the end, this is the grand finale for Hotline Miami. Everything will end with this game. We also tried to give that tone to the game as well. This is the theme for the whole game. It has that sadness. All good things end.”

This time, the game has several playable characters spread across various factions, the first of which is a bunch of movie fans making a slasher flick based on the events of the first Hotline Miami. As such, levels are now referred to as ‘scenes’, and during the tutorial the movie’s director will intervene and scold the actors.

Wedin explained this shift in perspective, “It’s a way of portraying the story for the first game in somebody else’s eyes. Some people saw the first game as a horror movie — [Jacket] was mentally ill, he was a psychopath. We wanted to, in a way, let someone else do his own version of it. The director gives enough twists to it and made it into this slasher B movie that some people saw it as.”

The second faction are known as ‘The Fans’, and they are thugs who wanted to be a part of Jacket’s bloody wave of violence in the first game, but who missed out. They now roam the streets beating people up just to garner attention from the media and ruffle as many feathers as possible. They’re also the characters wearing animal masks this time.

Worried about the more-visible plot? Don’t be, Wedin said, “People who just want to play a fun game don’t have to take part in the story if they don’t want to, but people who love stories and details can find a lot of that just by watching. Since it’s a sequel, we added more gore, more graphics and weapons and stuff like that. We’re really trying to give each stage a personality and more backstory instead of just random apartments.”

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is out in 2013 for PC, Mac, and Linux.
What do you make of the Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number premise? Let us know below.

First, if you missed the Battlefront E3 trailer, do yourself a wee favour and watch it here.

Speaking with IGN, Gibeau discussed the dream pairing of DICE and the Battlefront series, “Battlefront is a vehicle experience, it’s a character experience. DICE has proven, in how they develop Battlefield, as far as being able to do air, land, sea combat, all the way up to F-18s fighting.

“They’ve been able to demonstrate through the Frostbite tech and through their design capabilities and talent that they can create these huge, epic set-piece wars. That’s kind of the dream of Battlefront. Hoth, the battle of Hoth. You’ve got space, you’ve got the surface, you’ve got infantry, you’ve got AT-ATs. That’s the table stakes that they come in with. They know how to do that. They’re really good at it.”

Gibeau stressed that Star Wars: Battlefront will not just be a re-skinned Battlefield however, and continued, “But [DICE isn't] just going to ape what we’ve seen in the past. They’re going to bring their own sensibilities and design ideas. We want to innovate. We want to try new things,” and added, “From our perspective, it’s capturing that epic, Star Wars, all-out huge scale. That’s what we’ll go after.”

Are you pumped for the return of Battlefront? Let us know below.

The site posted this water-marked image which allegedly shows Valve’s internal bug-tracking and management platform ‘Jira’. You can see reference to Half-Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Steambox, Source 2 and more intersting names in this gallery of screen grabs.

This could all be place-holder, so run your tongue over that block of salt-lick for now and swallow deep. The has slung all 791 listed project names on Pastebin for all to see, if you’re interested.

Earlier this year I wrote a blog about the possibilities of Source 2, after the new engine was rumoured, and how a big leap in tech would be quite awesome for Valve.

Valve’s Chet Faliszek has also suggested that Left 4 Dead 3 could happen at some point down the line.

What do you make of the above? Total bollocks, or is Valve setting up its framework for more Gordon Freeman stories?

Thanks OXM.

The below sessions will be streamed live via the Eurogamer YouTube channel:

Saturday 22nd June

• 12pm – Panel: How can new business models improve PC gaming?
• 1pm – Total War: ROME II live demo
• 2pm – A look back at Frozen Synapse and a look forward to Frozen Endzone
• 3pm – Dreamfall Chapters
• 4pm – Project Eternity
• 5pm – Sir, You Are Being Hunted

Sunday 23rd June

• 12pm – Panel: Is storytelling in games getting any better?
• 1pm – Hotline Miami 2 vs. Luftrausers
• 2pm – Total War: ROME II live demo
• 3pm – WildStar
• 4pm – The Creative Assembly Game Jam
• 5pm – DayZ Standalone

Rezzed 2013 takes place at the NEC in Birmingham on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd June. YOu can get a day pass for £12 or a two-day ticket for £20 over at the official site.

The original game is free on Steam, if you’d like to do your homework on the series.

Here are the shots, care of Destructoid. Thanks peeps.

Speaking with GamesBeat, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained the delay. “What happened was that we saw the Wii U was not going to sell enough of those games,” he confirmed.

“The game is going to be fantastic, and we didn’t want those creators to wind up in a position where even after making a fantastic game, they didn’t sell well enough. We decided that we had to come out on enough machines that players can try it out on any one that they have, and give more time to both improve the game on the Wii U and create versions for the other consoles.

“I think it was the right decision for gamers and for the team. My role is to make sure that the team is happy with the quality of the work they do and the reach they can have. The quality is there now, because they had more time. They’ve expanded the possibilities of the game. It’s much bigger content-wise. We have new bosses in key levels and so on. The experience is much more complete.

“I think it will be one of the best games we’ve ever done. Sometimes we have to go against the urge to get to market too fast. We have to make sure we give enough time and resources to our creators to they can reach the potential in their games. This time, they were very close to excellence, but not quite there.”

The discussion echoes statements from Ubisoft that said it wants Nintendo to sell more Wii U consoles before it commits to any more console-exclusive releases.

Do you think Ubisoft made the right move here? Let us know what you think below.

Thanks Nintendo Life.

FYI, the pack’s out June 25 at £7.99 / $9.99 or 800 MS Points.

Thanks MP1st & OXM.

In his interview with GI.biz, Gara said of the PS Vita’s 2011 launch, “I don’t think it’s unfair to say it came into a very complex marketplace that probably wasn’t fully envisaged at the time development started.

“It borrows a lot from the mobile and tablet world, especially with touch control. And it borrows a fair amount from the PlayStation of old with the analogue sticks. And it’s a very worthy and better successor to PSP. Where it’s been difficult has been proving the companion status for PlayStation 3. The fact is it was developed for PS4, much more than PS3.

“The number of things we could demonstrate and prove was limited – there’s been some good examples – but now we go into the PS4 era, that companion device will look far more clear. We’re optimistic it’s got a lot more legs left in it and the PS4 has given it a shot in the arm.”

Gara cited the inclusion of remote play as a real boost to the handheld’s appeal, “When you consider something like Watch Dogs will be available for PS Vita via the Remote Play functionality it’s very exciting. And the fact the PS4 is coming out at a well-received price point means it’s not out of the question to own both.”

The exec also said there are currently no plans for a PS3 price-cut, and stated that the console will prove to be an entry level machine to Sony’s banner of gaming devices for a few years yet.

Are you now more-keen on PS Vita following E3? Would you like to see a PS3 price cut soon? Lets us know what you think below.

First pass at Design Document for the next Mass Effect! #sorryforthetrees pic.twitter.com/EMG2QS4lie

— Yanick Roy (@YanickRRoy) June 18, 2013

There it is; Mass Effect 4 in design document form. Don’t you wish you could just open it up and read it all cover-to-cover?

Well, BioWare Montreal studio director Yanick Roy followed up this teasing tweet by saying that the Mass Effect 4 team has pinched several systems from the Dragon Age 3 team:

@shinobi602 Don't worry: we have a large and talented team, we started a while ago, and we are "borrowing" a lot of game systems from DA3.

— Yanick Roy (@YanickRRoy) June 18, 2013

@chris23651 @shinobi602 Yes, since we share engine, we can start from some of DA3's core systems instead of from scratch.

— Yanick Roy (@YanickRRoy) June 19, 2013

So does this mean an open world, like Dragon Age 3′s? What do you think?

BioWare is keeping coy about Mass Effect 4′s innards for now, as it’s clearly a long way off, but we do know that it won’t star Shepard. In fact, BioWare told me last year that the hero won’t just be ‘Shepard 2′ in terms of background and motivation. They will be a new character altogether.

What do you make of the above?

Thanks CVG.

The clip above confirms that Murdered’s protagonist Ronan is killed in the first moments of the game, and then must solve his own murder throughout the game. Players can roam around as a ghost, possess people, solve crimes and more. They can also traverse a spiritual realm called The Dusk that is full of demons – ghosts who have become corrupted – and use Ronan’s supernatural powers and deduction to kill them.

Check out the gameplay above and let us know what you think below.

Thanks GamesHQMedia.

Speaking with the magazine, Nomura explained, “Around one or two years after we announced FF Versus 13, it was suggested to us to shift to FF15 as part of the company’s direction. By that time, a fair amount of time had already passed since the announcement and Versus was a well-known title, so it wasn’t a given that this would be 15; it could have still been Versus.

“Personally, I came to accept the idea once FF Agito 13′s name was changed to Final Fantasy Type-0. As for the timing of the announcement, given that we were changing platforms as well, [the timing] wasn’t something we could decide on our own discretion. We worked together with assorted other divisions to get it announced at this E3.”

The game was revealed during Sony’s pre-E3 conference last week for PS4 and subsequently Xbox One, along with confirmation that it will spawn multiple sequels. Nomura shed light on why the game moved to next-gen formats, “We had originally thought about making this announcement last year, but due to assorted reasons that got delayed. This meant that the lifespan of the current generation of consoles was starting to pose a problem to us.

“If we were a year later, other companies will have more time to research the next generation, and releasing the game against their products on the older generation could have caused us to look inferior when people inevitably compared us.”

He added that current-gen tech simply wasn’t viable for the game’s ambition, “With current-gen systems, we couldn’t fully express what we wanted to do in this project. There were more and more things that we would’ve had to change the form of. However, the assumption was that we’d go ahead with a current-gen release, so went through a trial-and-error process to do as much as we could.

“So we built an alpha version about a year ago, and the company response was ‘If you remained bound to the current generation, will it will be the product you envisioned?’ They suggested shifting fully to next-gen, and that was the spark that led to the move.”

The generational shift has helped Nomura’s team realise what he has called a dynamic and seamless, with combat that – while real-time – does have many RPG stats running under the hood to dictate several aspects of battles. Adding in new lighting, visual and audio tech, it’s not hard to see why the game moved to next generation consoles.

Are you excited for Final Fantasy 15? Let us know what you think below.

Thanks Polygon.