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.

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.

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.

After a rocky and disappointing first year, the 3DS has transformed into a juggernaut of Japanese RPGs, with developer Atlus leading the charge. This year alone, the company will have four first-person RPGs to its name: Etrian Odyssey IV, Soul Hackers, Shin Megami Tensei IV, and the upcoming Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millenium Girl – not bad for such a relatively niche product.

The only issue comes from the fact that this particular subgenre rarely offers the accessibility of your typical Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, though Atlus hopes to remedy this issue when The Millenium Girl launches this fall.

Continue Reading

Humble Bundle 6 lasts for two weeks and includes PC, Mac, Linux and Android versions of five games for the low, low price of "anything": Aquaria, Fractal, Organ Trail: Director's Cut, Stealth Bastard Deluxe and Pulse. Pulse is the outlier, available for Android only.

Pay more than the average and snag Frozen Synapse and Broken Sword: Director's Cut. Frozen Synapse is in late beta on Android and has some known issues, and it's best played on tablets, the developer notes. All games come with their respective soundtracks, too.

Currently the Humble Android Bundle's average is below $5, so act fast and get seven games for less than one single-digit piece of American money. Or, knowing that you can allocate your money among charity, the developers and Humble itself, you can pay the equivalent of a double-digit piece of money. Or triple-digit. All of these games would cost $95 separately, and it's safe to expect more additions before the sale ends in two weeks. Because that's how Humble Bundles roll.

Shadowrun Returns is scheduled to release for PC and tablets on July 25, a slight delay from developer Harebrained Schemes' original release window, which in itself was already a delay. Harebrained has also gone ahead and noted some highlights on its site from backers using the game's editing tools, which will ship with the game.

If you've missed checking out Shadowrun Returns, here's 20 minutes of footage.

Vlambeer founders Rami Ismail and Jan Willem Nijman didn't think Ridiculous Fishing would win an Apple Design Award. Sure, it was in the running, but it was a long shot, and they had other places to be during the ceremony at WWDC on June 10 (E3, anyone?). Just in case, they asked Ridiculous Fishing collaborator and indie extraordinaire Zach Gage to go to the show, and he did. In flip flops. And shorts. And Ridiculous Fishing won.

"Holy shit," Ismail laughed during our chat at E3. He was still getting over the fact that Ridiculous Fishing won an Apple Design Award, and that Gage collected it in what's commonly considered summer beach attire.

So far Ridiculous Fishing sales have hit the "hundreds of thousands," Ismail said, and after the Design Award, sales spiked again. Even Elijah Wood got hooked on Ridiculous Fishing – or, as Ismail put it, "The Hobbit played it!"

Continue Reading

Ampltude Studios' Endless Space will launch its first premium expansion, Disharmony, on June 26 through Steam. Publisher Iceberg Interactive will also have an English retail version – key-only box with 16 page artbook – two days later. The expansion is priced at 10 in both $ and € Earth currency forms.

The Disharmony expansion will add a new faction ("The Harmony") to the 4X strategy game, as well as new ship types, targeting and redesigned weapon systems, better AI, along with an "enhanced invasion mechanics."

Endless Space has sold over 300,000 copies and the developer has been quite generous with free add-ons, having done four since last year's July launch.

With all of the hubbub about next-gen at this year's E3, Earth Defense Force 2025 stood out as the product of an entirely different generation, one where wildly idiosyncratic Japanese-developed games both delighted and confused gamers willing to take a risk on untested and out-there concepts.

Technically, it's a complete mess, though I'm sure any fan of Earth Defense Force can tell you the series has never been known for its impeccable graphics or silky smooth action. Despite its rough edges in comparison to the polished Xbox One and PS4 games on display in the very same convention center, EDF 2025 still carries a unique charm.

Continue Reading

Grounding Inc's Crimson Dragon already had a lot in common with the Panzer Dragoon series. Given that it was under development by the same core team that worked on Panzer Dragoon, including creator Yukio Futatsugi, the similarities weren't exactly surprising.

After trying out the latest iteration of the game and speaking with Futatsugi at E3, it seems that any distinction between Crimson Dragon and Panzer Dragoon is nominal at most, especially now that Kinect is no longer a central feature. In the most vital of ways, this is a Panzer Dragoon game. As a longtime fan of the series, I can tell you that's a very good thing.

Continue Reading

GOG.com, already home to hundreds of ridiculously cheap games, may be going a little bit crazy. The site is currently running a "#NoDRM" summer sale, discounting over 500 games, with most of them down to $5 or less. Then we have the really nutty deals like Alan Wake and Alan Wake's American Nightmare for $4.48 and several other games, like Torchlight, for free.

Steam let six games and one piece of software through its Greenlight service last week during E3, granting each the ability to be distributed on the platform.

The greenlit games were Assetto Corsa by Kunos Simulazioni, DreadOut by Digital Happiness, Benjamin Hill's Ether One, GunZ 2: The Second Duel by MAIET Games, Stonehearth by Radiant Entertainment and Ben Falcone's first-person survival horror game for Oculus Rift, The Forest. Stonehearth, a sandbox strategy game, recently raised $751,920 on Kickstarter. Heaven Benchmark by Unigine was the lone piece of software that community approval last week.

Though Mad Max has been a project spanning several years, going through several iterations in that time, Avalanche Studios CEO Christofer Sundberg claims it's not the game that was rumored in 2008.

God of War 2 lead Cory Barlog had reportedly gone to Avalanche Studios in 2010 to work on a Mad Max game, tied to a new movie. "I don't know what [Barlog] worked on before he started working with us," Sundberg told Polygon, "but when we worked together he wasn't on Mad Max."

Sundberg said the team has been in production on this Mad Max game for around 18 months, though it's been at Avalanche in some capacity for years now. "The game has gone through a series of iterations. We've been working for it for a couple years."

Mad Max is due in 2014, for PS4, PS3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. We saw the open-world action game game at E3 and caught up with our old hillbilly pal, Chumbucket.

Auto-updates, previously tied to PlayStation Plus on PS3, aren't tied to the paywall on PS4. Speaking to Videogamer at E3, SCEE UK & Ireland MD Fergal Gera also noted "the social features of PS4 and PS4 games sit out of the subscription service."

During its E3 conference, Sony quietly revealed a PS Plus subscription is required for online multiplayer on PS4. However, in addition to auto-updates, SCEA VP of Publisher & Developer Relations Adam Boyes told us at E3 video services like Netflix and Hulu remain outside of Plus on PS4, while Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida noted a publisher decides if the online multiplayer of its free-to-play game is or isn't tied to Plus. We also confirmed the price of an annual PS Plus subscription will remain at $50 when the PS4 launches this holiday.

One-man indie development studio Benjamin Rivers' side-scrolling pixel art horror game Home will be available for iOS devices this Thursday, June 20. The Universal App will cost $2.99 and feature new content, new terrifying environments to explore and updated story elements.

Rivers has also established a website to showcase the spooky real-world environments people play his game in – anyone who Tweets, Instagrams or Vines their eerie gaming location of choice using the hashtag #homehorror has a chance of making it into the collection.

Meanwhile, the OSX version of Home should be released sometime this summer, Rivers announced, adding that the improvements made for the iOS version of the game will be transferred to existing and future desktop versions at some point in the future.

Continue Reading

VIP members can access some new maps in Gears of War: Judgment today, available as part of the Lost Relics DLC pack. Headlining the pack is a new mode called Breakthrough, where one side attempts to move a flag from one point to another while the other team tries to stop them.

Lost Relics includes four multiplayer maps in total: Lost City, Museum, Ward (OverRun only) and Checkout, the same fan-favorite map featured in Gears of War 3. Rounding out the DLC pack are some new weapon and armor skins.

Hit the jump for some flythrough videos of each map – if you like your DLC tours a little more static, then feel free to peruse our gallery of screenshots below.

Continue Reading

PopCap Games is known for making games that appeal to a mass audience, and perhaps none are more so than Plants vs. Zombies. The cute 'n clever tower defense game has connected with players of all ages and origins. A sequel, then, was inevitable, and after an announcement last year we finally got to see the game in action at E3 last week.

It's unfortunate, however, that much of the discussion around Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time, at least during the game's iOS launch, probably won't be around any of the great new content. There are new zombie enemies, new plants, three new worlds set in different time periods, touchscreen-centric powerups that allow you to throw zombies around or pinch them apart, and even a new "plant food" buff that gives each plant an extra burst of ability when used.

At launch, they'll probably all get lost in the mix, because there's one other big difference between the first Plants vs. Zombies and its sequel: PvZ 2 is a freemium game.

Continue Reading

Up until now, Saints Row: The Third modders have had to rely on community-created tools to make Volition's game even more lively. Jeff Thompson, Volition's studio director of programming, is currently preparing official engine tools to share with the mod community, prominent modder IdolNinja explains in a blog post.

In addition to Saints Row: The Third documentation, Thompson is preparing official Saints Row 2 tools – something IdolNinja explains is a "test run" for Saints Row 4. "In simple terms, the modding community will finally be able to create and offer new clothing, new vehicles, new guns, new NPCs, new missions, and even new world geometry which will greatly extend the life of the series and enhance the Saints Row games in ways we never even dared to dream of," IdolNinja explains.

IdolNinja concludes that Thompson is expected to send something along this week, though there's no indication if that'll be the Volition mod tools or just the first steps in making that happen.

In late March, Square Enix cited "weak sales" of big console titles to explain its massive restructuring, which saw the dismissal of now-former President Yoichi Wada. Games such as Hitman: Absolution and Tomb Raider were slated to reach over three million units in sales in fiscal 2013, arguably considered successful to other publishers.

Meanwhile, Eidos Montreal's reboot of the long-running Thief series reportedly suffered multiple setbacks during its lengthy development cycle. When asked if he feels pressure to ship a critically-acclaimed game in light of the "disappointing" sales of other top-tier Square Enix games, Thief Producer Stefan Roy told Joystiq at E3 that the developer "cannot compromise with this one. We reinvented this franchise, I think we have a single shot."

"We cannot say, 'oh sorry, we missed, so we are going to try again.' No, it doesn't work that way," he added. "So we cannot compromise, we must really give a good product, we must work closely with the marketing to make sure that the messaging around the game is really clear."

Continue Reading

When players look back on the platformers of yore, it's easy to forget one important thing about them: They're tough. Modern platformers allow infinite retries and plentiful checkpoints, but old-school platformers, like Disney's Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, required precise jumps over one-hit enemies and sent you back to the beginning of a level, or even the game itself, when all your lives were lost.

Sega has preserved that difficulty in the remastered version of the game, as seen on the floor of E3 2013 last week. Sega Studios Australia has teamed up with the original game's creator, Emiko Yamamoto (who still works for Disney in Japan), to recreate the game in 3D and add new elements.

Continue Reading