Co-op 3DS dungeon crawler Heroes of Ruin got a little lost on the way to North America and will be delayed by a month. Developer n-Space noted on its Facebook page today that the game will launch on July 17 in North America, instead of the previously announced June 26 date.

The release date in Europe for the Square Enix published game remains steady at June 15.

[Thanks, Brendan M.]

As part of CD Projekt Red's summer conference today, it was revealed that Retro City Rampage will be available on Good Old Games. Retro City Rampage, slated to arrive later this year, hearkens back to the 8-bit days of yore to deliver a parody of modern day open-world games, and it has generally been a topic of gleeful discussion among Joystiq staff.

In addition to Retro City Rampage, GOG.com has also acquired the first three games of the Tomb Raider series and Sid Meier's Colonization. Notably, the Tomb Raider collection has actually been "remastered for Windows." The Tomb Raider collection is $10, while Colonization is available for $6. On June 19, indie game Tiny and Big will also come to GOG, for $10 ($9 for pre-orders). Finally, GOG.com is hosting a special pre-order program for the upcoming indie adventure title, Resonance. Those who pre-order will receive a 10 percent discount and access to a 4 hour playable preview of the game prior to its June 19 launch.

Continue Reading

While the focus of CD Projekt Red's summer conference was its new Cyberpunk RPG, the company still doled out a few tidbits about its best-known title, The Witcher 2. Specifically, the game has moved 1.7 million copies across the PC and Xbox 360 platforms.

The company hopes to sell a few more copies by bringing the Xbox version to Japan. To be published by Spike Chunsoft, the Xbox version of The Witcher 2 will arrive in Japan on August 23. Finally, The Witcher 2 will be available on Mac this fall. We're guessing you'll probably need a Mac with a dedicated graphics card to actually run it.

CD Projekt Red, developer of the Witcher series, is looking into the fictional future for its next game, announcing development of a new "triple-A" game based on the Cyberpunk pen-and-paper game by Mike Pondsmith. Players will build a character from a series of classes including mercenaries or the cyberpunk-standard "hacker," load that character up with tech implants, and work through a non-linear storyline.

A new CDP team, made up of Witcher vets, is working on the game, and staffing up for additional help. There's no release window yet, and it seems early in development, so don't go buy a new video card for it yet.

City Interactive announced Dogfight 1942 this morning, bringing arcade-style aerial combat wings to XBLA, PSN and Steam later this year. The publisher plans to release a demo of the game prior to takeoff.

The game is the digital version of Combat Wings: The Great Battles of World War II, which was formerly intended to be a retail product. The name change must have been done recently, since just a few weeks ago the XBLA marketplace leaked the game with a different title.

Continue Reading

Ratchet & Clank are heading once more into the space breach, this time waging a "Full Frontal Assault" against space crabs with gatling guns, it seems. Insomniac head (and general nice dude) Ted Price took to the US PlayStation Blog this afternoon to announce "Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault" for PlayStation Network, alongside plans to launch the game "this holiday season."

Aside from the artwork you see above and the logo we've dropped in the gallery below, Price offered few details on the game. He said it'll be a "fun-sized" R&C title (like Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty before it), and that the game will return to "the series' classic feel, camera, controls, and weapons, while innovating and giving you a whole new way to play." What that means is another question altogether. Price also said that the game will feature online co-op, but kept details similarly slim.

Reports of Battlefield 3's "Premium" service just got a lot more official looking, with a fact sheet leaking out of Germany containing lots of details. The service apparently costs $50 one time and includes a variety of content, including access to the five released and upcoming Battlefield 3 expansion packs, two weeks of early access to said packs, and "a host of unique in-game items not available anywhere else."

That, however, is where the "interesting" part of this ends, and the "pretty gross" part begins. Beyond the DLC access, Premium members are said to get "access to powerful new features." What features might those be? "The ability to reset stats" is listed, but so is "queue priority into servers," which means exactly what it sounds like. As in, "pay for this service and get into servers faster than the rabble."

The fact sheet reconfirms what we saw leak out of the EU PlayStation Blog earlier today – Battlefield 3 "Premium" is expected to launch alongside the "Close Quarters" DLC on June 4 across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Head past the break to see the full sheet.

Update: EA tells Joystiq, "Looks like the excitement for Battlefield Premium cannot be contained. For details, please visit Battlefield.com on June 4." We'd suggest you check out Joystiq.com on June 4 as well. Just a guess.

Continue Reading

Like some errant Necromorph, a new video has suddenly popped up on the Dead Space website. Entitled "Dead Space Graphic Novel Short," the video showcases the story of John Carver, an Earthgov Seargent, as he "witnesses an attack on the Marker Site he guards which changes his life forever." There's also a countdown on the site – coded in Dead Space's alien language – set to expire in six days. Electronic Arts' E3 press conference, meanwhile, is set to take place on Monday, curiously only five days away.

Despite the video's title, there's reason to believe this is all tied to Dead Space 3. As noticed by fans on the Dead Space Facebook page, the website's source code contains numerous references to "ds3." The site adds that this is "just the start of John Carver's saga in the Dead Space Universe," implying that something grander than merchandising is on the way. Perhaps Carver is a new protagonist? One way or another, we'll find out next week.

GameSpot reports that UK retailer Play.com posted a listing for an unannounced Vita game called Ghost Recon: Final Mission, which has since been removed.

Concurrently, retailer Zavvi posted a listing for a Vita version of Assassin's Creed 3 – Ubisoft announced an Assassin's Creed game being in the works for Vita last August, alongside games like Dungeon Hunter, Lumines, and Rayman Origins that have all since been released. The Zavvi listing remains active.

We'll check with Ubisoft; however, for an actual status update about these games, we're sure we'll need only to wait for E3.

Are you experiencing a dearth of Doom? id Software is worried about just that possibility, as evidenced by today's announcement of Doom 3 "BFG Edition." Doom 3 is getting remastered and repackaged, with the "Resurrection of Evil" expansion and seven brand new levels, which id are wrapping up as "The Lost Mission."

Beyond remastering graphics, id's also adding Achievements, Trophies, and 3D. In the gameplay department, a "new check point save system" is being added, and the ever-frustrating flashlight issue is being resolved with "the new armor-mounted flashlight." If that weren't enough, the BFG Edition includes both Doom 1 and 2, so you can truly vanquish every single last demon in all of the space hells, all in one package. Finally!

Continue Reading

Square Enix's E3 lineup is packed with unannounced iOS and Android games (packed), but the one that seems most noteworthy is Final Fantasy Dimensions, due this summer on both iOS and Android. "Drawing upon the roots of the series with such features as beautiful 2D pixel art, job-driven character growth, additional scenarios in which to inherit the jobs of your adventuring companions, and a classic story of light, darkness, and crystals," the description reads, "FINAL FANTASY DIMENSIONS delivers the best of FINAL FANTASY, retro and fresh alike, directly to your smartphone."

It sounds like a new game in the classic Final Fantasy style. Judging by the logo, we're guessing it's a smartphone conversion and localization of the Japanese cell phone game, Final Fantasy Legends, which was released episodically in 2010.

The other newly announced game that piqued our interest the most was "Demons' Score", an Unreal Engine 3-powered "breakbeat action game that seamlessly fuses music and battles."

Continue Reading

Guardians of Middle-earth is the next "massive online battle arena" heading to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Warner Bros. Interactive's Monolith Productions is crafting the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit-themed MOBA, and the studio plans on launching the game this fall (ahead of this December's film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey).

According to the announcement, 10 players will battle in five-on-five matches set against the backdrop of Middle-earth. Various Lord of the Rings bulletpoints will be hit, of course, with characters like Gollum and Sauron available for fighting (as "Guardians" – think League of Legends' "Hero" characters). We'll assuredly get a closer look at the game next week during E3.

Our European friends at the PlayStation Blog made a bit of a mistake this morning, it seems, having accidentally outed an upcoming "Premium" service for Battlefield 3, as well as a date (June 4) and pricing across European/Australian regions (£39.99/€49.99/AU$79.99). The game's upcoming DLC pack "Close Quarters" also got a date and price: June 4, £11.99/€14.99/AU$23.95.

As you might imagine, someone at Sony quickly realized the issue and pulled the info ... but not before Google Cache caught it in its icy, permanent grip. We've reached out to EA and Sony for more info, but it sounds like the rumored Call of Duty Elite-esque service for Battlefield 3 is more than just a rumor.

Turns out yesterday's Hitman Absolution tease, which featured a bunch of Kasumi Goto silhouettes, was actually showing off the naughty nuns from the clip above. Using only a minuscule amount of his silent assassin repertoire, Agent 47 takes out an ICA (his former employer) hit squad, known as "The Saints," in brutal fashion.

Those looking for something a little less up-close-and-personal can pre-order Hitman: Absolution now from GameStop and obtain the Hitman: Sniper Challenge as a bonus. Agent 47 runs (and kills) for his life once again on November 20.

Arrowhead Game Studios is preparing the next DLC expansion for its wizard-powered adventure, Magicka. The Other Side of the Coin expands upon the story of Magicka by placing players in the boots of Alucart, an evil vampire who is in no way related to Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

The Other Side of the Coin will cost $4.99 and also includes four new challenge maps when it becomes available for download on June 14.

We hope you've kept your Vitas charged, because this week, there's stuff you can do with it. Resistance: Burning Skies is available on PSN, as is the demo for Gravity Rush. Try it and see what we were talking about!

Speaking of excellent games, Rayman Origins is now available digitally on PS3 for $29.99. It's joined by the PS2 party game Rayman Arena, which is ... maybe not quite the classic Origins is. See everything that's out today on the PlayStation Blog.

Continue Reading