Those who opted into the Steam client beta may see some interesting language alluding to game sharing in the "steamui_english" file of the latest update. It's suggested that Steam users will be able to set a shared game library – when the original owner logs into the game, the game sharer gets a prompt to quit out.
If you want to see the file for yourself, you'll need to be running the beta version of Steam – go into Steam settings and opt in, then restart the client. Then, you'll need to head into your public folder and open the "steamui_english" file in a text editor like Notepad. Final step: crack open a cold soda, sit back and feel good about being a computer genius.
If you want to see the file for yourself, you'll need to be running the beta version of Steam – go into Steam settings and opt in, then restart the client. Then, you'll need to head into your public folder and open the "steamui_english" file in a text editor like Notepad. Final step: crack open a cold soda, sit back and feel good about being a computer genius.

A new PS4 promotional video reveals users can choose to either download the single-player or multiplayer portion of Killzone: Shadow Fall first when downloading the game. The vid, which shows off the console's interface, uses the example of a Shadow Fall player pestering his friend to play the game with him ASAP. We doubt Shadow Fall will be the only game with this feature on PS4, but the extent of its implementation remains unclear.
The video also explores the idea of clan-based flirting for the hip, young, and cool, but we'll leave that for another time. Slightly more notable, perhaps, is the apparent ability to seamlessly switch from things like the PS Store and watching shared videos to going back to the game you're playing, demonstrated in the vid via a double click of the PS button.
BioShock creator and Irrational Games boss Ken Levine is making a return foray into films by taking on the screenplay for the Warner Bros. remake of Logan's Run. According to Deadline, the move is very much a unique and temporary one for Levine, who will continue on Irrational Games, but Logan's Run has long been a "passion project" for him. Levine first pursued a career as a film screenwriter before being hired by Looking Glass Studios and going on to found Irrational.
There's no word yet on when Levine's take on the iconic 1976 sci-fi film and the book it's based on will hit screens. In any case, a tweet from the man himself would suggest he's thrilled with the move: "I think the 10 year old me gave the 46 year old me a high five."
There's no word yet on when Levine's take on the iconic 1976 sci-fi film and the book it's based on will hit screens. In any case, a tweet from the man himself would suggest he's thrilled with the move: "I think the 10 year old me gave the 46 year old me a high five."
Publisher 2K Games announced today that The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will have pre-order and post-launch downloadable content, which is about as shocking of a revelation as knowing Marmite will divide humanity into the two groups of the next great war.
"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," said Morgan Gray, development director at 2K Marin.
The game's pre-order bonus is the "Codebreakers" side mission. In it, Special Agent Carter and his squad must reestablish contact a top-secret government communications facility, eliminate any threats and decrypt the employee's combined lunch order. There are no details about the post-launch DLC, but the first pack "will be available exclusively to Xbox 360 players."
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will fight the future on August 20 and 23 in North America and internationally, respectively.
"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," said Morgan Gray, development director at 2K Marin.
The game's pre-order bonus is the "Codebreakers" side mission. In it, Special Agent Carter and his squad must reestablish contact a top-secret government communications facility, eliminate any threats and decrypt the employee's combined lunch order. There are no details about the post-launch DLC, but the first pack "will be available exclusively to Xbox 360 players."
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will fight the future on August 20 and 23 in North America and internationally, respectively.

Unearthed from a crate thought lost to Hangar XCOM, this gameplay trailer shows how 2K Marin meshes real-time shooting with strategy in The Bureau. Time can be slowed down while players get tactical via a radial menu, from which they can command Special Agent Will Carter and his trusty squadmates.
Also, it shows us that if you're going to see off an extraterrestrial invasion, you may as well do it dressed to the nines - Carter is the definition of dapper in that vid. Independence Day could only have been improved if Jeff Goldblum had boarded that spaceship in a tux.
The fashion of alien warfare aside, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified touches down on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC on August 20.

Don't worry, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is just as violent as Hotline Miami.
In fact, it has everything that made Hotline Miami so brilliantly bloody – and then it adds more. More characters, more emphasis on narrative, more enemies, more weapons, more underground electronica bands, more masks and more ladies. Playable ladies.
In a demo at E3, one half of Dennaton Games, Denis Wedin, showed off two new, playable characters in Wrong Number: the Pig Butcher and the Fans. The Pig Butcher starred in an early trailer for Hotline Miami, and he's a throwback to the mass murderers of classic '90s slasher movies. That trailer begins with the disclaimer, "Based on true events," because it's for a horror film within the Hotline Miami universe, where these vigilante rampages truly did go down.
The Fans really are the fans, Wedin said.
"They symbolize the players that want Hotline Miami 2 to be exactly like Hotline Miami 1," he said. "They collect masks and get phone calls – and that will be in there, but we don't want to make the same game one more time. We're trying to work with different storylines and what motivates the characters to actually go inside a building and start killing people."
After the demo concludes, Wrong Number makes it clear that "more emotion" doesn't equate "less violence."

According to the PlayStation Twitter account, the 4.45 update includes trophy notification options and improves system stability - hmm.
We've reached out to Sony to clarify the situation. While the issues don't seem to be affecting all users, it might be wise to stay clear of the update for the time being.
Update: Sony Computer Entertainment sent us the following statement this morning:
"We are aware of reports that the recent PlayStation 3 system software update (version 4.45) has caused the XMB to not display on a small number of PS3 systems. We have temporarily taken 4.45 offline and are investigating the cause of the problem. We will announce when the system update is available for download as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience."
3DS firmware update v6.0.0-11 should satiate the needs of those who have collected every single StreetPass puzzle piece and beaten StreetPass Quest twice (or more). The update, only available in Europe at the time of writing, adds four purchasable Mii Plaza games in addition to the original two. Those four are StreetPass Squad, Garden, Battle, and Mansion.
We'd love to tell you about the games themselves, but StreetPass Mii Plaza has crashed on us every time we've loaded up the new Shop page - reports on NeoGAF indicate others are also struggling with crashes. One NeoGAF user reports each game costs £4.49 ($7), while all four can be obtained in a value bundle going at £13.49 ($21). There's no official word from Nintendo, perhaps indicating the patch went out earlier than scheduled.
What we can confirm is another feature in the new update, and that's the ability to create save data backups. Accessible via 3DS Data Management in System Settings, the new feature lets you create or restore backup save data, but only for software downloaded to the 3DS. The new feature may not be compatible with every single game; we tried it for our freshly obtained Animal Crossing: New Leaf, only to be greeted with a message telling us "this software's save data cannot be backed up."
We'd love to tell you about the games themselves, but StreetPass Mii Plaza has crashed on us every time we've loaded up the new Shop page - reports on NeoGAF indicate others are also struggling with crashes. One NeoGAF user reports each game costs £4.49 ($7), while all four can be obtained in a value bundle going at £13.49 ($21). There's no official word from Nintendo, perhaps indicating the patch went out earlier than scheduled.
What we can confirm is another feature in the new update, and that's the ability to create save data backups. Accessible via 3DS Data Management in System Settings, the new feature lets you create or restore backup save data, but only for software downloaded to the 3DS. The new feature may not be compatible with every single game; we tried it for our freshly obtained Animal Crossing: New Leaf, only to be greeted with a message telling us "this software's save data cannot be backed up."
Team2Bit's 2D brawler, Fist Puncher, is preparing to light up Steam on June 21. You can pre-order Fist Puncher right now for a buck off its $10 asking price.
Fist Puncher, published by Adult Swim Games, stars black belt holder and neurosurgery practitioner Dr. Karate, who is out to save the city of Los Cruces from the evil grips of the Milkman. Fist Puncher was financed through Kickstarter last April, and an alpha for the game was made available back in September.
Fist Puncher, published by Adult Swim Games, stars black belt holder and neurosurgery practitioner Dr. Karate, who is out to save the city of Los Cruces from the evil grips of the Milkman. Fist Puncher was financed through Kickstarter last April, and an alpha for the game was made available back in September.

"We're using the funding to ramp up on hiring more smart people, the best and brightest that we can find," Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe told Engadget. "The dev kit as it is now, that we're shipping, will stay the same, and the software side will just keep getting better."
Oculus Rift currently employs fewer than 50 people, and the new hires will be mostly engineers, Iribe said. Right now the headset is in development for PC games, but that doesn't mean other platforms are out of the running completely.
"We're always looking at other platforms, looking at consoles; we're also looking at Android and the mobile side in a big way – but right now we really are focused on the PC platform," Iribe said.
Sony President Shuhei Yoshida said he loves the Oculus Rift, though the PS4 doesn't currently support the VR headset. Yoshida wouldn't say if the PS4 will support Oculus Rift in the future – and he said it with a big smile, Engadget noted.
Writer and developer Tom Francis originally planned his game, Gunpoint, as a showcase piece to earn him a job at a game development studio, but after seeing the success of the title so far he says he doesn't need to join another studio.
As you can see above, Francis hit his initial goal for the game from preorders alone, and sales have only gone up since then, to the point where Francis now says designing the game was "so commercially successful that I'll never need" to work for someone else.
Since the only real monetary cost of the project was a $30 purchase of Game Maker 8 a few years ago, Francis says Gunpoint "recouped its development costs" in just one minute and four seconds. That's after three years of work, of course, but the point remains that Gunpoint was very successful indeed.
The next priority, says Francis, will be to port Gunpoint to the newer Game Maker Studio, where it can then be released for Windows, Mac, and Linux. He's looking to hire someone for this task, so he can get moving on actual updates and another project eventually. It sounds like a tough job, essentially taking over the core game's development for other platforms. "But as the graphs above should suggest," says Francis, "I can pay."
As you can see above, Francis hit his initial goal for the game from preorders alone, and sales have only gone up since then, to the point where Francis now says designing the game was "so commercially successful that I'll never need" to work for someone else.
Since the only real monetary cost of the project was a $30 purchase of Game Maker 8 a few years ago, Francis says Gunpoint "recouped its development costs" in just one minute and four seconds. That's after three years of work, of course, but the point remains that Gunpoint was very successful indeed.
The next priority, says Francis, will be to port Gunpoint to the newer Game Maker Studio, where it can then be released for Windows, Mac, and Linux. He's looking to hire someone for this task, so he can get moving on actual updates and another project eventually. It sounds like a tough job, essentially taking over the core game's development for other platforms. "But as the graphs above should suggest," says Francis, "I can pay."
No More Heroes and Killer is Dead dev Grasshopper Manufacture is "heavily relying" on Unreal Engine 4, with next-gen games in mind. Speaking to Joystiq at E3, Grasshopper CEO Goichi Suda, most commonly known as Suda 51, confirmed his studio's use of Epic's next-gen engine when asked about his thoughts on the PS4 and Xbox One.
"As a developer, we're heavily relying right now on Unreal Engine 4," Suda told us. "That works really well with both systems – or in the sense that we could go either way."
Grasshopper recently revealed it has a stylistic action game in development that isn't Killer is Dead - and it isn't No More Heroes 3 either. As Suda told Siliconera back in April, it's a new game coming to one or more consoles. He also teased to Siliconera the game was either running on Unreal Engine 3 or Unreal Engine 4, adding that if he said which one then "you would know about the platforms."
Suda told Joystiq we can expect Unreal Engine 4 in Grasshopper games "if it's a big title, or if it's suited to that title," all of which suggests a next-gen landing for said secretive game.
As for the future possibility of No More Heroes 3, Suda told us, "Travis [Touchdown] is one of the characters I'm really fond of, that means a lot to me. So if there was the opportunity to create another sequel then yeah, I'm always up to the idea."
"As a developer, we're heavily relying right now on Unreal Engine 4," Suda told us. "That works really well with both systems – or in the sense that we could go either way."
Grasshopper recently revealed it has a stylistic action game in development that isn't Killer is Dead - and it isn't No More Heroes 3 either. As Suda told Siliconera back in April, it's a new game coming to one or more consoles. He also teased to Siliconera the game was either running on Unreal Engine 3 or Unreal Engine 4, adding that if he said which one then "you would know about the platforms."
Suda told Joystiq we can expect Unreal Engine 4 in Grasshopper games "if it's a big title, or if it's suited to that title," all of which suggests a next-gen landing for said secretive game.
As for the future possibility of No More Heroes 3, Suda told us, "Travis [Touchdown] is one of the characters I'm really fond of, that means a lot to me. So if there was the opportunity to create another sequel then yeah, I'm always up to the idea."

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is ready to fire off its next DLC salvo on July 2 on Xbox Live, with PS3 and PC versions to follow. The Vengeance map pack includes new multiplayer maps Rush, Detour, Cove and Uplink, which a remake of Summit from the original Black Ops.
Buried, a new Zombies mode variant, is included with Vengeance along with the Ray Gun Mark 2 weapon, available exclusively in Zombies mode. No pricing is announced in the video above, though the two previous DLC offerings – Revolution and Uprising – were both priced at 1,200 MS Points ($15) each.
This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go.
There was a time when the beat-em-up was king, a time when Streets of Rage, Final Fight and Golden Axe were at the top of the heap. Combo Crew on iOS and Android looks to return to those days, offering several unique fighters, lots of combos and plenty of bosses to bruise, clobber and otherwise pummel.The impressive part is that it does all of that with just two fingers.
Butcher, being the engineering guy, also gets some time to geek out about the game's lighting and animation.
A "bigger" and "beefier" version of 17-BIT's tactical strategy game, Skulls of the Shogun, will hit Steam next month, boasting six new maps, a multiplayer progression system, and a new four-chapter epilogue.
Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-a-Fide Edition features all of the content found in the Xbox Live Arcade and Windows 8 versions of the game, including real-time multiplayer, hotseat support, and asynchronous multiplayer modes. The Steam version's exclusive chapter introduces a new playable protagonist, along with a new unit type equipped with teleportation spells.
Buyers who pre-purchase Bone-a-Fide Edition will receive instant access to a beta version, which includes the first single-player campaign chapter and all 36 multiplayer maps.
Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-a-Fide Edition features all of the content found in the Xbox Live Arcade and Windows 8 versions of the game, including real-time multiplayer, hotseat support, and asynchronous multiplayer modes. The Steam version's exclusive chapter introduces a new playable protagonist, along with a new unit type equipped with teleportation spells.
Buyers who pre-purchase Bone-a-Fide Edition will receive instant access to a beta version, which includes the first single-player campaign chapter and all 36 multiplayer maps.
The weekly PSN update is live, unlocking Capcom's collected quest classics, Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara. Joining the 2D beat-em-up is Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, which finally makes its way to PSN after its Xbox Live Arcade debut back in March.
The Jak and Daxter Collection – which includes all three original PS2 games, Jak and Daxter, Jak 2 and Jak 3 – steps up on PS Vita today, along with Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. Rounding out this week's update are free PS Plus games Saints Row: The Third and Gods Eater Burst.
For the full list of this week's PlayStation Network content, hit up the PlayStation Blog.
Max Payne 3 is due to land on Mac on June 20, after launching on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in May of last year. We found the shooting in Max Payne 3 to be so satisfying that we questioned our overall perspectives on video games, violence and probably life itself.
Check out the game's Mac specifications here, and prepare to have your world rocked by some stellar shooting. From mid-air.
Check out the game's Mac specifications here, and prepare to have your world rocked by some stellar shooting. From mid-air.
While Capcom's arcade brawler compilation Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara hits the PlayStation Network in North America tonight (and Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow), D&D fans in Japan might want to hold out for an upcoming PlayStation 3 retail release, which offers exclusive features and enhancements not found in the digital version.
The PS3 retail version's Facebook page describes the release as a treasure trove for retro gaming connoisseurs, comparing it to the well-received Street Fighter Alpha Anthology on the PlayStation 2. The collection includes a color-edit feature, and allows multiple players to play as same character. The retail edition also offers an in-depth series of options, allowing players to toggle features like random damage and breakable weapons. A similar "House Rules" system was announced for the digital release.
The digital version set for release this week is developed by Iron Galaxy, who previously produced arcade compilations like Darkstalkers Resurrection and Marvel vs. Capcom Origins. NeoGAF member toypop notes that the PlayStation 3 Blu-ray version of Chronicles of Mystara is developed by an internal Capcom team staffed by developers of the original Dungeons & Dragons arcade games.
The PlayStation 3 retail version of Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara will launch in Japan this August. Capcom confirmed with Joystiq that the retail edition is exclusive to Japan, and is not scheduled for a North American release.
The PS3 retail version's Facebook page describes the release as a treasure trove for retro gaming connoisseurs, comparing it to the well-received Street Fighter Alpha Anthology on the PlayStation 2. The collection includes a color-edit feature, and allows multiple players to play as same character. The retail edition also offers an in-depth series of options, allowing players to toggle features like random damage and breakable weapons. A similar "House Rules" system was announced for the digital release.
The digital version set for release this week is developed by Iron Galaxy, who previously produced arcade compilations like Darkstalkers Resurrection and Marvel vs. Capcom Origins. NeoGAF member toypop notes that the PlayStation 3 Blu-ray version of Chronicles of Mystara is developed by an internal Capcom team staffed by developers of the original Dungeons & Dragons arcade games.
The PlayStation 3 retail version of Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara will launch in Japan this August. Capcom confirmed with Joystiq that the retail edition is exclusive to Japan, and is not scheduled for a North American release.
Nintendo is working on a free-to-play version of Steel Diver, the 3DS launch title that served as a submarine simulator, shoot-em-up and strategy game, Nintendo executive Shigeru Miyamoto told IGN at E3. Nintendo will develop a fresh game, with new design, for the free-to-play version. Miyamoto didn't announce any platforms, but said Steel Diver will be available at retail along with the digital launch.
"There is something we're doing with the Steel Diver idea that I think is going to open things up with that game," he said. "It's going to be very fun. We're exploring from a perspective of where we can take that from a multiplayer standpoint – it's going to have this four-player battle mode that I think is going to be very interesting."
Nintendo was unsure about how to handle the free-to-play model, whether with microtransactions or subscriptions, but the team's main focus was to retain entertainment value, Miyamoto said. The free-to-play Steel Diver should pop up direct from Nintendo "relatively soon."
Last year during E3, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata noted (again) that the company wasn't interested in developing free-to-play games, but reassured investors that the Wii U supported that structure.
"There is something we're doing with the Steel Diver idea that I think is going to open things up with that game," he said. "It's going to be very fun. We're exploring from a perspective of where we can take that from a multiplayer standpoint – it's going to have this four-player battle mode that I think is going to be very interesting."
Nintendo was unsure about how to handle the free-to-play model, whether with microtransactions or subscriptions, but the team's main focus was to retain entertainment value, Miyamoto said. The free-to-play Steel Diver should pop up direct from Nintendo "relatively soon."
Last year during E3, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata noted (again) that the company wasn't interested in developing free-to-play games, but reassured investors that the Wii U supported that structure.
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Quotable
'You know what? We're Blacklist, let's try to build on it.'
— Splinter Cell: Blacklist Producer Sébastien Ebacher on evolving Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer.
The Joystiq Podcast
Super Joystiq Podcast Special: E3 2013 Day 2
Latest episode: Thursday, June 13th, 2013

