Contrast, the shadow-shifting puzzle platformer from Compulsion Games, will not be released in May as previously planned. After being Greenlit on Steam, the game has since been picked up by Focus Home Interactive for a wider release. Contrast will now be released on XBLA, PSN and PC in Q4 2013.

We think Constrast could be pretty cool. Here's a new trailer to help you endure the longer wait.

Payday 2, the Overkill-developed crook sim, is set to launch in August. The news comes at the end of the trailer above, which teases a new web series set to start in two weeks.

We have yet to see any actual Payday 2 gameplay beyond a brief teaser issued in March, but feel free to case our gallery of in-game shots below. Payday 2 – which adds classes and a contracts database on top of its predecessor's core robbery mechanics – is planning its heist on Steam, PS3 and Xbox 360. Pre-orders are open on Steam right now and all who sign up early will get an in-game loot pack.

Payday 2

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SimCity's 4.0 patch – whose numbering nomenclature has certainly sent developers everywhere into a death spiral – should arrive shortly. The update adds a new park, new region, more explicit details on what generates happiness, and the usual set of fixes.

The update comes a week before the "Amusement Park Pack," which is scheduled to launch on May 28. EA announced earlier this month that the game has gone on to sell 1.6 million copies despite its launch complications.

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The Warriors, Rockstar's 2005 game based on the 1979 cult movie, is coming to PSN next week. As per typical PS Store updates, it arrives in North America on May 28 for $9.99, and then in Europe the day after for £7.99/€9.99.

Rockstar Toronto reportedly worked on a spiritual successor to The Warriors, an Xbox 360 game called We Are The Mods. According to CVG, it was similar in style to The Warriors' urban brawling, but set in mid-1960s England, during the Mods and Rockers era.

Since that never came to fruition, the closest you're going to get to a current-gen Warriors game, outside of CTXM's The Warriors: Street Brawl, is next week's re-release. Like all PS2 Classics on PSN, it's only playable on PS3.

Microsoft has announced Kinect for Windows will receive the updated Kinect sensor shown at the Xbox reveal event for the Xbox One. The rub: it won't arrive until some time in 2014.

We already knew Kinect for Windows would be updated with the new sensor and a new software development kit (SDK). The improved Kinect sports a 1080p RGB camera, capable of 30 FPS in full color, and can even see in the dark through infrared. The new Kinect also has a greater field of depth which Microsoft promises will cut down on the required distance from the device. It can also read your heartbeat but we try not to think about that too much because it's scary.

This week's live Super Joystiq Podcast is all about the Xbox One. This is our second show on the topic, but a lot more info has trickled out in the last two days. We'll also get to hear the straight dope from our own Ludwig Kietzmann and Alexander Sliwinski, who both attended Microsoft's Xbox Reveal event in Washington.

And since we're on the subject of Xbox, we'll be giving away a very limited edition Xbox 360 controller – there's only one of them – featuring the Joystiq logo and long-lasting, built-in lithium-ion battery. Tune it to see how you can win.

The show goes live at 3:45 ET!

Finnish developer Housemarque announced today that it's working on a "spiritual successor" to the Super Stardust series for the PlayStation 4.

Housemarque's twin-stick shooter Super Stardust HD launched as a downloadable title during the PlayStation 3's first year of release. The company followed up with the PS3-exclusive zombie shooter Dead Nation and the multiplatform Outland, and made its PS Vita debut last year with Super Stardust Delta.

"We truly believe that better technology can lead to better gameplay," Housemarque's CEO Ilari Kuittinen explains. "The more tools and resources we have at our disposal, the better."

Kuittinen continues: "Think of Super Stardust HD: at the time, PlayStation 3 gave us the opportunity to populate the game with thousands of interactive objects and implement the game's famous 'spherical gameplay'. Today, we can take advantage of the architecture of PlayStation 4 to create incredible visuals with direct impact on the way the new game feels."

Housemarque additionally revealed that it is working on "another unannounced PS4 project." The company will announce further details regarding both games later this year.

Sony executives are considering splitting the company's entertainment and electronics divisions, following billionaire Daniel Loeb's proposed initial public offering of its entertainment business. The entertainment arm includes all PlayStation properties, alongside Sony's film and music businesses.

Loeb, with Third Point LLC, owns a 6 percent stake in Sony worth $1.1 billion, and is Sony's biggest investor. Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai confirmed that the top brass is considering Loeb's offer, but didn't say when it would come to a decision, Bloomberg reports.

"It's only a start," Hirai said. "It's important that the board will discuss this and come to a decision that represents Sony's stance." Following Loeb's offer yesterday, Sony stock surged 9 percent.

You know Nintendo Direct – now meet Square Enix Presents. That's the name of the company's live-at-E3 video series, which it'll be broadcasting via YouTube.

Square Enix Presents promises coverage on the company's E3 line-up, which is expected to include the new Final Fantasy for PS4. It'll also feature dev interviews, game demos, and presentations on upcoming content. And, apparently, lots of chocobo music.

The shows will run across all three main days of the conference, which are June 11-13.

Square Enix America CEO Mike Fischer left the company this month and is now vice president of digital music and video for Amazon in Japan, Polygon reports. This follows news in April that Square Enix America eliminated "a number of positions" and Fischer was expected to leave in May. Those same reports said the head of marketing should be gone after E3, along with other employees in public relations.

In March, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada stepped down and the company announced widespread restructuring that it expected to cost $106 million. Square Enix posted a net loss of $134 million for fiscal year 2013, citing "weak" sales of major console games, including Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution and Tomb Raider, the last of which sold 3.4 million in its first month.

A new trailer for Destiny brings Bungie's new world into the live-action realm – with plenty of CG and story time with Breaking Bad's infamous villain. In the video, we learn about the law of the land in the upcoming, online-focused shooter, thanks to a passage from Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book.

Earlier this morning, Bungie sent Joystiq a copy of the classic story, featuring a highlighted passage detailing "The Law of the Jungle" and a note promising to see us at E3 2013. The video promises a "worldwide gameplay reveal" during Sony's E3 2013 press conference on June 10, 2013.

The passage from the book – as spoken in the trailer – reads: "Now this is the law of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky, And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, the law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack." A fitting passage, considering Destiny's focus as an "always-on, persistent world adventure."

According to Variety, the ad – starring Giancarlo Esposito – was directed by Jon Favreau and produced by the ad shop 72 and Sunny, with visual effects from Digital Domain. Esposito and Favreau had previously worked together on the pilot of NBC's Revolution, which stars the standout boss figure from Breaking Bad. The ad will also be broadcast during Game 3 of the NBA Western Conference Finals on May 25.

Destiny is launching on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2014.

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It's all about Nintendo mascots on the eShop this week. First and foremost, we've got Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, the delightful 3DS port of the challenging Wii game from 2010. Next up, Kirby gets three, count 'em, three new games on the Wii U Virtual Console: Kirby Super Star, Kirby's DreamLand 3 and Kirby's Dream Course. The Kirby games are $7.99 apiece or, from now until May 30, if you buy two you'll get the third game free.

Also running until May 30, you can grab the 3DS eShop game The Denpa Men: They Came by Wave for 20 percent off.

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Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two charges onto Vita in a few weeks time. SCE America announced a release date of June 18 this morning. The Vita port of the co-op game is also confirmed for Europe, although that remains undated for now.

SCE America says the Vita version, being handled by Blitz Game Studios, features ad hoc network support. Lots of the additions center on the touchscreen, including being able to control paint, thinner, and the electric beam of Oswald (the one that's not Mickey). The touchscreen can also be used to command AI and navigate the user interface, among a number of other actions.

Disney closed original developer Junction Point earlier this year. The game sold 529,000 units in the US across November and December 2012, having launched for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and Wii on November 18.

The E3 Nintendo direct is scheduled for June 11 at 7AM Pacific (10AM Eastern, 3PM UK). The new installment will "provide updates about future Wii U games," according to Nintendo. Nintendo Europe has also announced a direct for the same time. In keeping with tradition, it'll likely be the same general information with region-specific details.

Need for Speed Rivals – the franchise's first turn into the new world of next-gen consoles – is also coming to the PC. In crafting the PC version, Ghost Games executive producer Marcus Nilsson promises "Need for Speed Rivals will look easily as good on PC as next-generation consoles."

The original press release for Need for Speed Rivals made no mention of a PC version; however, the PR has since been amended revealing the PC version will arrive on November 19 alongside the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. Xbox One and PS4 versions will launch "later this year."

Other than differences in graphical fidelity and online player count, Rivals features differences in its new marquee feature "AllDrive" across current- and next-gen systems. AllDrive is the ability for the game to "seamlessly" adapt to player interaction as they cross paths in the open-world space. On next-gen consoles, players will have unspecified exclusive ways to interact with the game using other devices.

Nilsson would not detail if the PC version's feature-set would be based on the current- or next-gen platform versions.

Expanding on how AllDrive would work, Nilsson offered an example of how the game would react to friends in the same world engaged in separate chases that come across each other. With the new feature, Need for Speed Rivals would recognize player proximity and any current missions and automatically shift objectives and scoring to that of a traditional co-op encounter. Players can enter and exit each other's worlds to race and interact "on-the-fly." The core features of AllDrive will be available on all platforms.

For more on Need for Speed Rivals, read our reveal post with additional comments from the game's executive producer.

[Ed. Note: This post was updated to reflect changes to the announcement press release.]

Recently renamed developer Ghost Games and the fellow racing fanatics at Criterion Games have banded together for Need for Speed Rivals: a new game that represents the franchise's first drift into the next-gen console world (which is not to be confused with the 2005 handheld spinoff).

Powered by Frostbite 3, Rivals aims to utilize the power of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 to give players "the freedom to seamlessly go from single player to co-op to multiplayer" when it releases "later this year." [Update: This story has been updated for accuracy, removing mention of a release window for the next-gen versions from an outdated release draft.]

Need for Speed Rivals transports players to the fictitious Redview County, an open-world environment where players can take on the role as either street racer or police officer. Like Most Wanted before it, racers aim to become the most infamous person behind the wheel, while cops attempt to work together to drive the area's high-risk inhabitants off the road. Players can personalize the experience with custom license plates, paint, liveries decals and rims, and performance upgrades.

Current-generation consoles will also join the rivalry – powered by its own version of Frostbite 3 – on November 19. A PC version is also in the works.

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As of today, you can join Sam, Ash, Brock, Claptrap, and dealer GLaDOS at the table via iPads and iPhones. Telltale Games launched Poker Night at the Inventory 2 on iOS this morning, where it's priced $4.99. Just don't bring anything less than an iPhone 4 or iPad 2, 'cos it ain't getting through the door.

Techland is keeping its zombie vendetta going in Dying Light, a new first-person action game coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2014, care of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

The ruined-world game hinges on a realistic day/night cycle, as well as the agility and Parkour skills of the protagonist turned traceur. Day is pitched as a preparation phase, in which you scavenge a warmly lit urban wasteland for supplies and craft weapons to fend off undead walkers. The night requires a stealthier approach, if not a swift homeward retreat from deadlier monsters.

Combat in Dying Light appears to be largely based on upgradeable melee weaponry (eg. an electrified machete), with bone-breaking blows triggering an x-ray visual effect. Zombies can also be pushed into spiked walls with a jump-kick to the chest.

The frequency of fighting drops once night arrives and faster, more powerful creatures emerge. These can be detected via an on-screen pulse – one of the abilities you have by virtue of being an infected human yourself. When the monsters of the night do give chase, the camera can quickly flip 180 degrees to show their proximity, even while you dash and vault in the opposite direction. Movement certainly appears to be more fluid than in Techland's Dead Island, with which Dying Light shares a theme of smashing zombies in the tropical sun.

The openness of the environment, overall game structure and the true nature of nightfall, the publisher says, are details left for another day.

Grand Theft Auto 5 will try to beat a couple extra bucks out of you with its "special edition" and "collector's edition," which were announced for pre-order this morning by Rockstar Games.

The $79.99 special edition includes the game, artbook, blueprint map, in-game special ability boost for the playable characters, stunt plane trials, bonus outfits and additional weapons. The $149.99 collector's edition includes everything already listed in the special edition, with the addition of security deposit bag and logo key, cap, classic characters for GTA online and "unique vehicles and garage property."

All pre-orders of the game will receive the Atomic Blimp in-game vehicle. Yes, a blimp. Grand Theft Auto 5 will deliver its goodyear goodies on September 17.

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