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Far Cry 3's 'Insane Edition' contains the best bobblehead, exclusive to Europe

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It's official: Europe is getting the coolest version of Far Cry 3, replete with the amazing bobblehead seen in the trailer above. Is that star of stage and screen Michael Mando with a goatee and hula skirt? Sure is!

Beyond the facsimile of Mando, buyers of the so-called "Insane Edition" get "exclusive survival kit packaging" (a cloth book), an "essential island survival guide," and "access to all unlockable content" (which includes the in-game content that pre-orders get in the US). Considering the "Insane Edition" is just £15 more than the standard "Lost Expeditions Edition" at £49.85 (at least in the UK – we're waiting on EU pricing), we're thinking it's worth the dough. Perhaps you haven't looked hard enough at that bobblehead? Really explore that space.

Enormous Street Fighter box set arrives September 18

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For the Street Fighter fan who thinks he or she has everything, Capcom has revealed the $150 Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector's Set, due September 18 on Xbox 360 and PS3.

The box includes no fewer than 15 discs, containing Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter 3 Third Strike Online Edition, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition (and its DLC), and Street Fighter X Tekken (and its DLC), along with a documentary, two anime movies, the full Street Fighter animated series, and eleven discs of music.

The set also includes an art book and a light-up Ryu statue.

And Ryu's belt.

Alongside the announcement, Capcom also revealed some dates for 25th anniversary tournaments this year, which you can find after the break.

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Yakuza 5 due in Japan December 2012, has new engine

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Yakuza 5, as revealed in a leak from the latest Famitsu magazine, sounds like it's expanding significantly on its predecessors, spreading out into five Japanese cities (Tokyo, Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka) with one protagonist in each – for a total of five, one more than any previous game.

Those protagonists include Kazuma Kiryu, who is now a cab driver in Fukuoka (but will certainly get back to solving everyone's problems with violence), Yakuza 4's escaped convict Taiga Saejima, once again in prison, loan shark Shun Akiyama in Osaka, and Kiryu's daughter Haruka, playable for the first time. Why, we remember when she was just an NPC in a PS2 game, cheering for us as we showed off in the batting cages ... they grow up so fast.

According to the summary of this Famitsu interview, Yakuza 5 has had double the development time of previous games, and features a new engine, allowing the game to move from battle scenes to adventuring "seamlessly." The game is reportedly set for a Japanese release this December.

Inafune working with Level-5 on Guild02 [update: screens]

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Guild01 is an upcoming 3DS cart by Level-5, collecting four small games by Suda 51, Seaman's Yoot Saito, Yasumi Matsuno, and comedian Yoshiyuki Hirai. Even before the (so far Japan-only) release of this game, early Famitsu info reveals the existence of a second collection called Guild02, this time involving the outspoken and suddenly very busy Keiji Inafune.

Inafune's game translates to "Insect Tank," and puts the player in the role of a miniaturized WWII tank fighting giant insects. His game is joined by "Alone," a "suspense game" by Chunsoft visual novel writers Takemaru Abiko and Kazuya Asano, about someone who wakes up in a dark room with no memories, and "The Friday When Monsters Appear" by Kazu Ayabe, creator of the My Summer Vacation series. True to the title, monsters show up every Friday in a '60s-era town full of children who love the giant Ultraman-style heroes of the day.

Guild02 will also have some kind of connectivity with the previous collection, allowing Guild01 owners to get passwords to unlock material in Guild02. We suppose that's one advantage over releasing these games one by one on the eShop, but seriously, Level-5, release these games one by one on the eShop. That's what it's for.

Update: Famitsu has screens of all three games. Above (obviously), Insect Tank.

Analyst estimates Amalur IP worth $20 million, 38 Studios employees head to job fair

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The value of 38 Studios' Amalur intellectual property is estimated to be in the range of $20 million. We asked Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter for his valuation following confirmation of layoffs at the studio and coverage of 38 Studios employees flocking to Turbine's recruitment drive in Providence last night.

"Nobody is buying MMOs after Star Wars fizzled. I think value is low, probably $20 million or so," Pachter said. "There is just no demand for game assets right now, as THQ proved when it tried to sell the Warhammer MMO. I think [Electronic Arts] could step in, since they are the publisher, so you might see some alternative way to get 38 some bridge financing."

Electronic Arts had been the publisher on the Big Huge Games developed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, but has yet to confirm it would publish 38 Studios' "Project Copernicus."

"Nope – never been an announcement on that," Jeff Brown of EA corporate communications told Joystiq. "We don't have any new announcements to make regarding 38 Studios. We enjoyed working with Curt and his team on their first game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Like game fans all over the world, we look forward to what 38 Studios creates next."

With reports out of Providence delivering an uncertain near future for the studio, it wouldn't be surprising if publishers tried to pick up the Amalur IP for pennies on the dollar. However, with documents showing that 38 Studios put up the IP as collateral against the $75 million loan, anybody trying to pick up the IP will be negotiating with the state of Rhode Island for control of Amalur.

3.5 million people bought Diablo 3 in the first 24 hours

It's true – the world is big into Diablo 3. So much so that the game was purchased more than 3.5 million times in its first 24 hours available, making it the "fastest-selling PC game" of all time, according to Blizzard. On top of that 3.5 million, another 1.2 million copies were scooped via the WoW Annual Pass (which included a free copy of D3).

Blizzard's wording on this claim is especially interesting, pointing out that "more than 4.7 million gamers around the world were poised to storm Sanctuary on day 1 of Diablo 3's release." Blizzard CEO and cofounder Mike Morhaime addresses the Diablo-sized elephant in the room soon after, saying, "We also regret that our preparations were not enough to ensure everyone had a seamless experience when they did so. I want to reaffirm our commitment to make sure the millions of Diablo III players out there have a great experience with the game moving forward, and I also want to thank them for their ongoing support."

Beyond the day-one sales, Blizzard revealed that by the end of its first week on sale, more than 6.3 million copies were in the hands of gamers worldwide. That guy Diablo is getting beat up by, like, a lot of people.

Modern Warfare 3's 'Content Collection 2' now on Xbox Live

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Another pair of maps drops into Modern Warfare 3's new Face Off mode today, namely "Lookout" and "Getaway." Content Collection #2 also adds three new general purpose multiplayer maps and two new Spec Ops missions, all for 1200 MS Points ($15).

This content is available to all Xbox Live Gold subscribers. A Call of Duty Elite subscription is not necessary to use this content in Modern Warfare 3.

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Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Far Cry 2, American Nightmare hit GOG

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"Old" may no longer be a requirement for admission to the Good Old Games vault, but we're glad to see that "good" still makes the cut. The Longest Journey's sequel, Dreamfall, open world shooter Far Cry 2, and Remedy's Alan Wake's American Nightmare have arrived on the service, and are now available at $15 or less.

Other recent updates include a few other, properly old games like Torin's Passage, the Quest for Glory series, and Silver.

Porsche joins Forza 4 lineup today

Porsche was not included in the launch of Forza 4 due to complications with EA, who had the license at the time. But Porsche makes its return to the Forza franchise today (as promised) with the Porsche Expansion Pack DLC.

The Porsche Expansion Pack is available to download right now for 1600 MS Points ($20) in Forza 4, and adds 30 new rides to the virtual garage and new Porsche events in World Tour and Rivals modes.

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Rumor: PlayStation All-Stars coming to PS Vita, SCEA resume says

We'll be seeing more characters added to the PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale roster soon enough, and perhaps even see it heading to one additional platform. The LinkedIn profile of Robert Krekel – a sound designer at Sony Computer Entertainment America – suggests PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale may be coming to PlayStation Vita as well.

Krekel lists PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale as his current project, on both PlayStation 3 and Vita. We've inquired with Sony and will update if we hear more -- but as you might expect, this falls firmly in the "rumors and speculation" category.

Sega publishing Ron Gilbert's Double Fine game

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It's been almost two weeks since Double Fine and Ron Gilbert gave us our first glimpse of their new game (different from Double Fine Adventure, the Kickstarter project), and today Sega all but outed itself as the publisher.

After tweeting a link to the image above, the official Sega account has been silent on the matte. It's easy to see the images Gilbert's been teasing match up with the shaded area above. All that remains is the official announcement.

SOE announces free-to-play Bullet Run, a revamped Hedone from Acony Games

Acony Games, a German developer, has been working on an online first-person shooter called Hedone, about contestants fighting to win a deadly reality show. Sony Online Entertainment today announced that it is publishing a game by Acony called Bullet Run, and as far as we can tell it's Hedone with a new title.

There's no mention of Hedone on the official website or in the press release, but the free-to-play shooter now called Bullet Run boasts the same reality show premise as Acony's project, and it certainly looks the same as the old game (not to mention that hedone.tv now redirects to Sony's official Bullet Run site).

Some of Acony's developers previously worked on MMO flops APB and BattleForge, so the track record here isn't the greatest. But SOE apparently sees something in the title and is already trying to work some rebranding magic. Beta signups for Bullet Run are going on now, and the game is set to go live later this summer.

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Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz hitz Vita on October 23

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Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz is stopping, dropping and rolling onto Vita on October 23 in North America and Europe. This is a tad later than the initial "early 2012" launch window we received in September, but with a title as adorable as this one our anger seems to just melt away.

Banana Splitz will feature more than 100 levels, eight minigames and a custom level builder that turns photos of real images into Monkey Ball-able objects.

Warn your family: Kung-Fu Superstar is motion-controlled martial arts

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Kung-Fu Superstar is a new Kinect game from Kinesthetic Games, a developer formed from former staff at "Codemasters, EA, Climax, Lionhead Studios and others." It's also a really good excuse to clean up your living room and perhaps send your kids to their friends' houses, lest they all be kicked.

Kung-Fu Superstar purports to teach you real martial arts techniques, which you use to play out the story of kung fu enthusiast Danny Cheng, who hopes to "discover the secrets of Kung Fu and become the most popular martial arts stuntman Hollywood has ever known."

The game is clearly made for Kinect, but studio head Kostas Zarifis tells Joystiq, "We're developing the game for multiple platforms (Kinect definitely being one of them). The game will have a very important controller component too!" Wii and PS3 are both listed among the tags for the YouTube clip embedded above.

Lawsuit outs West and Zampella's salaries, bonuses at Infinity Ward: Projected $13M bonus in 2010

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Former Infinity Ward studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella had projected salaries of $420,000 in 2009, with projected bonuses of more than $3 million each, emails between Activision bosses in 2009 show.

The spreadsheet lists the expected salaries of the top 20 Infinity Ward employees in 2009 and 2010. The 18 remaining employees -- the bulk including software engineers and game designers -- had projected salaries between $71,500 and $173,000. The seven employees under West and Zampella each expected a bonus of $603,000, while staffers seeing the lowest percentage of the bonus pool (1.5 percent) had a projected $278,000.

In 2010, the year Activision fired West and Zampella, they were each expected to earn $437,000, with projected bonuses of $13 million each. The rest of the top 20's projected salaries and bonuses rose accordingly, with salaries between $74,000 and $180,000, and bonuses ranging from $1.4 million to $2.5 million.

"If you recently worked on a hit FPS, read this and see how incredibly underpaid you are," ngmoco general manager Benjamin Cousins tweeted about the documents.

The emails were released into public record in the lawsuit between the Infinity Ward Employee Group and Activision; West and Zampella sued Activision in 2010 claiming they were owed $36 million in royalties associated with Modern Warfare 2, after Activision fired them earlier that year. West and Zampella now claim $1 billion in damages and the case is set for trial May 29.

Take-Two ends fiscal '12 with loss, high '13 projection raises eyebrows

Take-Two Interactive's revenues for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, were $825.8 million, short of last year's $1.14 billion, because it didn't have Red Dead Redemption in it. Last year's breakout star, L.A. Noire, did well with 5 million units shipped, but that doesn't compare to the more than 13 million units (8.5 million at that time) done by Red Dead Redemption.

Overall, the publisher had a net loss of $108.8 million for the year, compared to the $48 million profit in the previous year.

Here's where things get interesting: During this afternoon's investor call, CEO Strauss Zelnick reiterated a point from earlier in the call that there are "titles yet to be announced for fiscal 2013." This is significant because the company expects revenues of $1.75 - $1.85 billion for the fiscal year ending next March. Look back at that blockbuster Red Dead Redemption year, and note that revenues reached $1.14 billion. So, what's the deal?

Officially, at this time, Take-Two plans to launch Borderlands 2 in September, NBA 2K13 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown in October and, finally, BioShock: Infinite in February. Although any one of those could be a runaway hit, there's still $600-$700 million missing over that impressive Red Dead year to hit the projection. Either Grand Theft Auto 5 is secretly on the docket for this year or Take-Two is expecting blockbusters from more than one of the announced games.

Scourge: Outbreak spreads to PSN, XBLA, Mac this summer

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Tragnarion Studios, who you may (may!) remember from the DS game Doodle Hex, is working on a futuristic third-person shooter for XBLA, PSN (PS3), and Mac. Yes, those are the correct platforms.

Scourge: Outbreak introduces the "Echo Squad," a group of mercenaries hired to take out the Nogari Corporation, conveniently located on Nogari Island. Four players can team up to infiltrate the "alien-infested facilities," locate a double agent, destroy the Nogari, and gain control of the "Ambrosia" power source. Functionally, this means co-op shooting, with story segments coming through as flashbacks from the four separate characters.

Scourge: Outbreak will allow players to stop both the scourge and the outbreak this Q3, "later this summer."

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PSN Tuesday: Sorcery, Doctor Who

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Sorcery arrives on PSN today, allowing players to turn their PlayStation Moves into magic wands that only work within their televisions. It's joined by Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, about a man who wields a sonic screwdriver, which is basically a magic wand powered by pseudoscience, and Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, about people who can toss magic projectiles sans wand.

Both PSOne Classics (Alone in the Dark New Nightmare) and PS2 classics (Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain) are available on PS3 today, along with a mess of old Sega games.

Meanwhile, on Vita, Table Top Tanks provides AR tank battles.

NBA 2K13 slotted for October 2

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NBA 2K13 is set to launch on October 2 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP and PC, Take-Two Interactive announced today. This is in line with the October precedence set by previous NBA 2K titles. Developer 2K Sports has yet to reveal any details about the game, but our best guess is that it will feature an orange ball and some tall dudes.

2K13's direct predecessor, NBA 2K12, shipped 5 million units, Take-Two said.

Max Payne 3 ships 3 million units, PC launch pushed worldwide June 1

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Max Payne 3 has shipped 3 million units since hitting shelves last week, publisher Take-Two Interactive revealed in its FY 2012 financial report.

Take-Two also announced Max Payne 3 is now scheduled with an international PC release date of June 1. Rockstar initially planned to launch Max Payne 3 for North American PCs on Tuesday, May 29, but has pushed that back to meet the standard European launch day of Friday that week. All's fair in love and gritty, noir-style war.

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Now Playing: May 21-27, 2012

Posted on May 21st 2012 2:50PM

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