Next week marks the Steam debut of Humble Heart's XBLA darling, Dust: An Elysian Tail. Dean Dodrill, animator and creator of Dust, took to Twitter to announce the May 24 launch date; though there is currently no Steam product page.

Dust: An Elysian Tail is a 2D action platformer in the vein of Metroid and Castlevania, featuring beautiful hand-drawn sprites throughout. Aside from being visually appealing, it's also a delight – a game our review said "doesn't do much to innovate the platform-adventure sub-genre, but it does manage to look and play beautifully throughout, and sometimes that's enough."

The first community-created updated for Team Fortress 2 has rolled out: 'Robotic Boogaloo.' Continuing the robot theme of previous Team Fortress 2 updates, Robotic Boogaloo adds 57 new artisanal hats, helmets, bonnets, turbans, crowns, toppers and other headgear – all created by the community.

Robotic Boogaloo isn't all hats but, naturally, it's mostly hats. Each new Team Fortress 2 item can be found within RoboCrates – rare drops after June 3 – that can be opened with a key from the Mann Co. store, each costing $2.50. The revenue from these items will then be shared amongst all creators responsible for Robotic Boogaloo content.

[Rough translation of the above dialogue: "...whatever."]

The ever-sullen Squall and his friends are set to make a high-resolution return, as Famitsu reports that Square Enix is developing a remastered PC version of Final Fantasy VIII.

Final Fantasy VIII was originally released for the PlayStation in 1999, and PC players saw a no-frills Windows port one year later. News of Final Fantasy VIII's forthcoming rerelease follows up on last year's upgraded PC port of Final Fantasy VII, which added cloud saving and unlockable achievements. While the new version of Final Fantasy VIII boasts a graphical update, no further details are known, and a release date has not been announced.

Join Joystiq in the streets of Neo-Paris and the intricate pathways of the mind in this Remember Me video preview. Dontnod's memory-focused action game features strategic battle jeans, "remembrane buoys" and even more dubiously named plot devices, if you can believe it.

Remember Me launches for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on June 4.

Kevin Flynn, who's worked for the last two years as a senior product manager for EA's UK arm, has left to join Activision's UK side as a senior brand manager on Call of Duty. Flynn's previous efforts for EA include launching Battlefield 3 and its subsequent Premium DLC campaigns in the region.

Flynn enlisted with the Call of Duty squad this month, which we imagine must be the busiest time to sign on for an Activision paycheck. With Call of Duty: Ghosts launching on November 5 and next week's next-generation engine reveal during the Xbox event on May 21, we just hope Mr. Flynn is finding adequate time for his lunch break every day. A hungry worker is not a happy worker!

The results are in, and fans have voted to make Beowolf the fourth new character in Lab Zero Games' little fighter that could, Skullgirls. An ex pro wrestler, Beowolf and his trusty folding chair (named The Hurting, naturally) have come out of retirement in order to test the true limits of his strength. Being a wrestler and everything, Beowolf's playstyle has been influence by Street Fighter's Rainbow Mika and El Fuerte, as well as Tekken's King.

Beowolf is the fourth new character to be funded by Lab Zero's wildly successful Indiegogo campaign, which raised over $800,000 for DLC production back in March. Three other characters, Eliza, Squigly and Big Band, are also currently in development. Squigly is expected to be the first released, dropping alongside the PC version of the game sometime this summer.

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Series creator Hideo Kojima announced Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is coming to the PC. Speaking on his HideRadio podcast, Kojima revealed the upcoming port. The news was then confirmed by Platinum Games creative producer Jean Pierre Kellams.

We'll have further details as we learn them.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's multiplayer offerings grow stronger -- and undead-er -- with today's release of the Uprising DLC map pack for the PlayStation 3 and PC platforms. The pack is priced at $14.99.

Uprising adds the Magma, Encore, Vertigo, and Studio multiplayer maps, the latter of which is a reworking of the classic Firing Range level featured in the original Black Ops. The bundle also includes Mob of the Dead, a Prohibition-era Zombies mode map that takes place at Alcatraz Prison.

Today's release brings PC and PS3 players up to speed with the Xbox 360 version of the game, which received Uprising a month ago. Activision has not announced plans to release any of Black Ops 2's DLC for the Wii U.

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Reus, the 2D god game from Abbey Games, is available today, right now, for $10 (€10, £7) on Steam, GOG, Desura and Gamersgate. It's PC only for now, with Mac and Linux ports planned.

Reus offers a twist on the standard god game narrative, asking players to find balance in the world by controlling nature with four giants. The humans have a strong will of their own, and the player is tasked with ensuring they can thrive, but not too much, lest they become corrupted and destroy the planet.

Reus is on sale on Steam, GOG and Desura, for 10 percent off ($9). If you want to show Abbey Games your full monetary appreciation today, Gamersgate is the way to go.

The Swapper – the Indie Fund-ed, clay model-animated, puzzle platformer put together by a few Finnish university students – has been set to hit Steam on May 30. The game has a lone space explorer wandering an alien cave, with a "weapon" that allows him to create clones of himself to solve puzzles and move around.

Facepalm has released a brand new trailer showing that gameplay and the title's excellent graphics, which were created by animating photos of actual clay. The initial release will be for PC, with Mac and Linux coming later, and "maybe something else" after that.

After June 30, Google+ Games will be no more. Google has announced it's pulling the plug on all games through its service, so if you have credits in any games or wish to continue playing, you'll need to pursue that through each individual developer.

Google announced it's pulling the plug shortly after revealing its new games services suite for Google Play, which is live right now. Google started rolling out games to its social networking service in the summer of 2011, starting with Angry Birds, Dragon Age Legends and sudoku.

Another hot, fresh loaf of financial data has been pulled out of The NPD Group's analytical oven, and its buttery goodness contains sales information for the four week period between April 4 and May 7, 2013. During that time, the physical retail sector of the games industry was down 25 percent when compared with its performance over the same four weeks in 2012, pulling in a grand total of $495.2 million. It's worth noting, however, that this figure does not include the sale of PC games.

Hardware sales brought in $109.5 million, a 42 percent decrease from the $187.8 million seen last year, with the Xbox 360 once again enjoying the highest sales with 130,000 units moved. Meanwhile, the brief reprieve from year-over-year decline seen by the Accessories segment last month was short lived, as in April it by dropped 19 percent to a total of $131.4 million.

Software sales (including PC games) topped out at $267.8 million, with NetherRealm Studios' Injustice: Gods Among Us taking top honors as the best-selling game for the period, the first time a fighting game has finished in first since 2011's Mortal Kombat. Dead Island: Riptide and BioShock Infinite rounded out the podium in spots two and three respectively – meanwhile MMO/Syfy series Defiance debuted in fifth. As always, scope the full list after the break.

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Steam revealed today that Game Dev Tycoon, Bleed and other standout titles are featured in the latest batch of games to earn community approval and platform distribution rights through Steam Greenlight.

Green Heart Games' simulation title Game Dev Tycoon earned a devoted following upon its release last month for its clever in-game approach to anti-piracy protection. Bootdisk Revolution's Bleed, a one-man effort that premiered for Windows and the Xbox Live Indie Games service late last year, combines frantically paced platforming with time-bending, quadruple-jumping gameplay mechanics.

Other games to pass through the latest round of Greenlight approvals include ConcernedApe's open-ended RPG Stardew Valley, The Leonard's "playable documentary" Riot, AustinHand's survival horror title The Legend, and Aterdux Entertainment's Kickstarted strategy-RPG Legends of Eisenwald.

"Hear ye, hear ye," the Newellville town crier bellowed out across the crowded, bustling market. "It is by royal decree, that for the 24 hours proceeding forthwith, respectable denizens of His Highness' Great Sovereign Nation of Valve may acquire the first two entries in the Mass Effect series of merrymaking programmes for $9.99."

"Ad interim," the crier continued, "patrons may avail themselves of substantial discounts on select digital comestibles found within the Royal Steam Marketplace, making it possible to obtain a single issuance of Borderlands 2 for $13.59, or four for $40.79, until May 20. In addition, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be free for interested parties through 1 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday. Should customers enjoy the experience, a 50 percent abatement will be applied to the purchase price."

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