Before Capcom will patch the latest patch in Street Fighter X Tekken in mid-June, old blue-and-gold wants to sell you some more gems. On June 5, a bevy of new gems and the complete costume swap pack goes on sale.

That doesn't mean there aren't freebies up for grabs. A new color palette and Wild Card booster pack – the latter is only available for download until June 19 – will debut alongside several new gem packs priced at 80 MS Points ($1) a pop. Finally, there's the complete swap costume pack to consider, which will set fightin' fashionistas back a hefty 1440 MS Points ($18).

This voice acting-oriented episode of Inside Rocksteady Studios is the first time we personally have ever seen either the Joker or Batman's voices come out of real human bodies, and suffice to say that oh man is it weird.

It's almost like Batman and the Joker are providing voiceovers for Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, instead of the other way around. Seeing the Joker's spooky laugh come out of a hunched-over Mark Hamill is an image that'll stick with us for a while, and his cheshire cat grin didn't help much either. The video also features Stana Katic (Talia in Arkham City and Detective Becket on Castle), but seeing her perform isn't so much of a head trip, considering that it's basically just Detective Becket with an undercover accent.

"The only thing we have to fear is to fear yourself." We're pretty sure that's what president Franklin D. Roosevelt said to galvanize the American public when he took office in 1933, in the thick of the Great Depression. Nothing says "We can do it!" quite like "You're a monster!"

Thankfully Deadlight, which uses the tagline "Fear yourself" in its latest story trailer, isn't a historical-reenactment title, though it may be a simulator of potential future circumstances. If so, we may have a bit more to fear than metabolic reactions or mere humans.

Deadlight is set to launch this summer on XBLA.

Civilization 5 is free to play on Steam this weekend and is only $7.50 ($12.50 for the Game of the Year edition) if you decide to invest in your future's lost time. Fans of the previous installment knock the game for not being as deep, but some of those rebels may be silenced by the upcoming Gods and Kings expansion on June 19.

What's everyone playing this weekend?

Continue Reading

Who's in the mood for a career change but, like, doesn't want to completely change their life? We have an easier solution for you aspiring soldiers of war, city planners and mob bosses out there.

For this weekend, GOG is knocking half off the price of twelve different games. Highlights include Guilty Gear X2 #Reload, Soulbringer and entries in the Commandos series – all games aside from the Commandos 2 + 3 bundle will set you back a pittance of $2.99.

This sale ends on Monday.

Minecraft's ability to churn through the bank accounts of all the cosmos continues unabated, having sold six million copies on PC to date, according to a tweet from Mojang mogul Markus Persson. Factoring in XBLA, Android and iOS sales, the figure is "around nine million," according to Persson, a number that Mojang's Daniel Kaplan puts a tiny bit more specifically as "maybe 9.2" million.

If you've been affected by Minecraft's unwavering grasp on the gaming universe, make sure to listed to the Mailbag portion of this week's Super Joystiq Podcast, wherein Joystiq's feature content director Xav de Matos, managing editor JC Fletcher and editor in chief Ludwig Kietzmann discuss various methods for breaking Minecraft addictions.

Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart are teaming up again to pen a new Assassin's Creed comic called Assassin's Creed: The Chain. It's a sequel to the duo's previous effort, Assassin's Creed: The Fall; however, The Chain also "sheds a new light on Assassin's Creed 3."

Not much else is known about this new comic right now, but if you want to pre-order it anyway, Ubisoft has unsheathed a pre-order page where you can drop $19.95 right now.

If Master Chief were a superhero in the Marvel universe, he'd probably be called Space-Man and his armor would have seen dozens of disparate artistic interpretations over the years, from 1940s Americana to bloodthirsty zombie. He could have even looked like a melted candy cane, just as he does in one of the Halo 4 pre-order bonus skins revealed for EB Games, Play and Amazon today.

EB Games (Canada) has camo-style battle rifle and festive armor suit skins, Amazon gets the "Web" armor skin and Play puts Master Chief in the "Deadeye" helmet skin. GameStop also lists a pre-order bonus, the "Forest" armor skin, but hasn't yet provided an image.

Carmageddon is being refreshed with a Kickstarter-supported new game. But if you want some vintage 'Geddon, you'll be able to get that too – the original game, and its "Splat Pack" expansion, are coming to digital retailer GOG.com in "the coming months."

The bundle will cost $9.99 if you want to buy it outright; it'll also be available for free to anyone who kicked in $25 or more to the Reincarnation Kickstarter, presumably under the assumption that people who like Carmageddon would like Carmageddon.

'Silver Lining' is an ongoing column from freelancer Taylor Cocke, dedicated to examining the hidden potential in recently released, critically panned games. Even in the mediocre, we can find a silver lining.
As I began my time with Ubisoft's downloadable title I Am Alive, the most striking aspect of the game's art style was the high-contrast, almost black and white way it depicted the destroyed city it takes place in. The world feels dead, as it should. The lack of color depicts a space devoid of life, dotted by humanity huddled around the bright oranges and yellows of occasional makeshift fires. At least initially, there's a sharp, distinct difference between the world and those who struggle to live within it. Very quickly, though, it becomes apparent that the distinction exists purely between the protagonist Adam and, well, everything else.

I Am Alive's greatest failures don't lay in its shoddy controls or dated visuals. For me, it was never able to establish a feeling of desperately fighting for survival. At least, not in the same way the non-playable characters are very clearly struggling. Very early, Adam runs into a man sitting next to a fire, who immediately draws his weapon and demands Adam back away. Right away, I Am Alive establishes that its world is one that you shouldn't trust anyone if you value your safety.

Soon after that, Adam comes across a mother and son, the latter of which has been harmed by roving bandits and needs help to survive. Unable to move, they need Adam's help to survive. You can give them a medkit, perhaps forsaking your own safety later on, or simply move on. Again, this pair does its best to show that this world is a frightening, dangerous one.

Continue Reading

A patent filed by Sony Computer Entertainment America in 2011 describes an advertising system in which a game would be "suspended" during play, an advertisement would come up, and then the game would continue – much like TV commercials interrupt segments of programming. According to the patent, ads would be preceded by a warning and a slowdown of gameplay, with another warning displayed when gameplay is about to resume.

The mere filing of a patent is no indication that this will be implemented, simply that the idea came up. Now, while we primarily work as journalists, we consider ourselves reasonably industry-savvy, and can thus be trusted to provide game industry analysis, pro-bono, in an advisory capacity.

It is to that end we present the following advice to Sony:

DON'T DO THIS

Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training director Charles Fogarty said today that the staff of 38 Studios, all of whom were laid off yesterday, will be able to find new jobs because they are "highly skilled."

"The individuals in question, most of them are pretty highly skilled," Fogarty said. "They've already been contacted by a number of employers. Our department has been contacted by folks looking for people with that type of skill."

Governor Lincoln Chafee and his team today held another press conference to address 38 Studios' financial situation, leading with the information that his office wasn't informed of the layoffs yesterday. Chafee held a press conference one hour after news of the firings broke yesterday; about 300 people in Rhode Island and almost 100 from Big Huge Games in Maryland lost their jobs.

Today, Fogarty said he didn't think it would be difficult for these former employees to find new work.

"I don't expect that they're going to be unemployed for all that length of time," he said. "So far there's only been a small number who've actually applied for unemployment benefits at this point."

Fogarty didn't say how many former 38 Studios employees had applied for unemployment. To allay concerns of the wider economic impact of supporting an influx of people on unemployment, Fogarty said the following: "Don't forget, a number of them are not Rhode Islanders. They worked here but they were not Rhode Islanders."

Of the unspecific number of people who filed for unemployment, about half were Rhode Islander residents, he said, responding to questions about the "jobs for Rhode Islanders" pitch that came with 38 Studios' founding.

Gov. Chafee doesn't think it's futile to attempt to find investors in 38 Studios, saying that when a studio is basically defunct and has no employees, "some might argue that that's the time for an investor to come in, when you can get it for pennies on the dollar, but we're still fairly pessimistic."

Unfortunately, even if an investor did jump in, Rhode Island would be the "pennies" part of that analogy, not the dollar.

The above leaked trailer for WWE 13, assuming it hasn't been ripped from the pages of YouTube by THQ, shows off many of the wrestling acrobatics and tiny shorts one can look forward to performing and wearing this fall, when the game pile drives its way onto retail shelves come November 1.

Eagle-eyed readers will recognize wrestling legends The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mankind, among newer faces like Sheamus, Mark Henry, CM Punk and Chris Jericho. Hey THQ, how 'bout bringing back some Doink?

Techland proves its trailer-making chops once again with this announcement of a teaser trailer for the actual trailer of Mad Riders, touting features like:

• races (you like games with races, don't you?)
• trees
• 74.6FPS
• VERY HD

Marvel at the motion-captured vehicle wheels! Enjoy the quick in-joke at Techland's own expense! Remember that Mad Riders exists, long after you've seen this.

There's a lot to cover this week, so think of each segment as vignettes about great games and industry culture.

This week Xav, JC, and Alexander discuss Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, the craziness that is Tropico 4, and a little Diablo 3 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier peppered in for good measure.

Review round table returns with Jordan discussing Dragon's Dogma with freelancer Heidi Kemps and Polygon's Phil Kollar. Joystiq Research Institute welcomes the latest member of the site's editorial staff, Mike Suszek, along with Jess and Mike Schramm to discuss the indie point-and-click adventure The Journey Down.

Alex, Ben, and Jess bring you the latest industry news, including the entire 38 Studios meltdown. And to wrap it all up, Xav, JC, and Ludwig pull questions from the Joystiq Mailbag.

Winners for our Awesomenauts and Diablo 3: Collector's Edition are revealed in this episode, as well as details on a new giveaway for some PlayStation Vita accessories and a copy of Lumines: Electronic Symphony.

Listen to the Super Joystiq Podcast:

• Subscribe to the Super Joystiq Podcast in iTunes
• Super Joystiq Podcast is also available in the Zune Marketplace
• Add the Super Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
• Download the MP3 directly

A stream of the show and details about each segment is available after the break.

Continue Reading

You're reading Reaction Time, a weekly column that claims to examine recent events, games and trends in the industry, but is really just looking for an excuse to use the word "zeitgeist." It debuts on Fridays in Engadget's digital magazine, Distro.

---

If the world does come to a wailing and irreversible halt in 2012, the most terrible loss (besides billions of lives, the infrastructure of civilization, your dog, etc.) will be the glaring glut of video games already scheduled for 2013. Promising brand builders like BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider and Devil May Cry are all bailing on 2012, and inevitable behemoth Grand Theft Auto V has yet to pick a landing zone.

Most of these games are massive, costly undertakings that can't afford to stumble out with stuttering marketing campaigns, let alone on a stage crowded with other huge products. If we're to predict the emergence of powerful next-generation platforms, care of Sony and Microsoft, the movements of third-party publishers should give us our first clues. No manufacturer is in a position to escape the catch-22 of a new console launch on its own: You need standout games to get the system out there, but it's tough to obtain and support those games properly with an install base that starts at zero.

Continue Reading

Halo 4 isn't all Master Chief and his revamped blue buddy. It's also got giant, uninhabited spaces with incredible views, as seen in the two Xbox Live Marketplace "Premium Themes" that Little English Halo Blog snagged.

The vista above – full of upside down buildings hanging precariously over a mountain range and marked with a UNSC shuttlecraft of some form – seems to be a Forerunner world of some form, but we can't be sure. As for the second screen, it looks like an engine room, but then we're not exactly future engineers.

Demon's Souls will not be denied as publisher Atlus announced today that it will support the game's online features for the "foreseeable future." Unlike players in the unforgiving RPG, the servers just refuse to die!

"While it originally seemed as though it would be unfeasible for us to continue to sustain the servers, a number of developments have made it possible for us to continue to invest in and support our fans as they have continued to invest in and support us and Demon's Souls," said Tim Pivnicny, VP of Atlus marketing and sales, we imagine holding a cat o' nine tails. "For all the gamers who have yet to discover the game's amazing online experience, we're happy to say you can still log on and find out why Demon's Souls is still regarded by many as one of the finest games of all time."

The entry fee for electronic sadism is a mere $20 now, as the game is part of the PlayStation 3's "Greatest Hits" collection. The game's online features were intended to end at midnight on May 31, but darkness always finds a way to stay alive.

Continue Reading