Last week, 10,000 people took to Steam to play Half-Life 2 as part of a gentle protest against Valve's silence on the development of the series' next instalment. It's part of an ongoing campaign that rose from the background noise of forum discontent to deliver an open letter to Valve.

"The lack of communication between Valve and the Half-Life community has been a frustrating experience," it reads. "Fans of the Half-Life series have waited years for a word on when the franchise will return. [...] Waiting patiently for over four years is a daunting task [...] fans should at least be acknowledged in some way, regardless of developmental plans for the next Half-Life project."

Of course, you don't have to go far on the internet, much less in gaming, to encounter egregious displays of self-entitlement. That particular mixture of naivety and self-absorption is the principle feature of an X-Factor generation, regularly flattered into thinking their views are of vital importance by cheap marketing initiatives to "drive engagement" - rhetorical questions on Facebook; the Like button; text to vote now! Why not get on YouTube and unload your soul into the digital ether? You are worth it, you beautiful snowflake.

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Featuring a range of impressive lighting and shader effects along with extensive use of post-processing, Digital Extremes' proprietary Evolution engine is a great fit for The Darkness 2, thanks in no small part to a superb cel-shaded art style that brings Top Cow's comic to life in a beautifully vibrant, violently gory manner. After the disappointments surrounding the PS3 version of the original game - with its sub-HD resolution, pared down effects and lower quality textures - the good news is that the standard of the cross-platform development work this time around is hugely improved: The Darkness 2 is very, very close on both consoles.

To be honest this isn't particularly surprising given that Digital Extremes' custom Evolution engine has clearly been optimised for both consoles for quite a while now. 2007's Dark Sector was an early example of impressive cross-platform conversion work done right; fairly closely matched in terms of performance, the main difference resting with the sub-HD framebuffer resolution of the PS3 game.

The Darkness 2 pushes both consoles thoroughly with an extensive range of visual effects. Dynamic light sources are scattered about the environments and post-processing is abundant throughout, making for an expansive range of impressive graphical effects. However, this all comes at a cost: there have been some compromises made on both consoles to accommodate these features while working within a 33ms rendering budget necessary to maintain a steady 30 frames per second update.

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However, speaking in an open letter sent to all Steam users today, Valve boss Gabe Newell reassured customers that it has no evidence to suggest that encrypted credit card numbers or billing addresses were compromised.

That said, he advises anyone with a Steam account to keep an eye on their credit card statements just in case.

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The new Star Trek game currently in development at The Darkness 2 studio Digital Extremes will be published by Namco Bandai in early 2013.

The title ties in with the follow-up to J J Abrams' 2009 Star Trek movie, which is due in cinemas on 17th May 2013. However, it will tell a standalone story authored by God of War scribe Marianne Krawczyk.

The game is a co-op adventure which sees players stepping into the shoes of either Captain Kirk or Spock as, according to the announcement blurb, they embark on "a sweeping journey of epic proportions across unexplored planets and enemy battleships with the latest 23rd century weapons and gear."

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Sin City star Rosario Dawson and veteran Brit thespian Brian Cox are among the voice talent roped in by EA for its forthcoming Syndicate reboot.

Dawson plays play conflicted EuroCorp exec Lily Drawl, who's torn between the demands of her corporate paymasters and the underground resistance movement.

"I'm amazed how videogames have become so deep in story, delivering fantastic worlds and memorable characters rivaling big Hollywood films," she commented.

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A post on Schafer's Twitter feed earlier today read, "$1,343,061! We've passed the budget of Day of the Tentacle and are closing in on the Full Throttle budget ($1.5M). I'm adding motorcycles!"

A follow-up post clarified that the budget for Day of the Tentacle was around $600,000 - though that was way back in 1993. Grim Fandango, released in 1998, apparently cost $3 million to make.

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That very lovely Witcher 2 intro cinematic - the one with the bloke on the boat and the blood - was the "most expensive asset we ever created", developer CD Projekt Red told Eurogamer.

Said studio managing director Adam Badowski: "It was a huge budget. But we probably can't tell how big."

Pretending we didn't hear, we pressed him. Half as much as the Xbox 360 project cost - a full year's wage for a full team of developers?

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A day when graphics can't get any better is "within sight", according to bright old Epic Games boffin Tim Sweeney.

His definition of better refers to what the human eye can perceive. Sweeney said human eyes are roughly equivalent to a 30-megapixel camera; the best resolution for us is 8000x4000 pixels. And we apparently don't notice frame-rates above 72 every second. I've tried counting.

"The limit really is within sight," announced Sweeney during a "Technology and Gaming in the Next 20 Years" speech at the Dice Summit 2012, reported by VentureBeat.

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Acclaimed PC survival horror Amnesia: The Dark Descent could be getting a sequel, judging by a new teaser site posted by developer Frictional Games.

As spotted by Rock Paper Shotgun, the page sports the Amnesia logo, a blurry image and the phrase "Something is emerging".

Click on the image and you're taken to a Google Maps view of China.

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Indirect DOTA co-creator Blizzard has legally opposed the Dota trademark Valve is trying to register for new game Dota 2.

"By this Opposition, Blizzard seeks to prevent registration by its competitor Valve Corporation of a trademark, DOTA, that for more than seven years has been used exclusively by Blizzard and its fan community, under license from Blizzard," stated Blizzard.

"By virtue of that use, the DOTA mark has become firmly associated in the mind of consumers with Blizzard, including to signify a highly popular scenario or variant of one of Blizzard's best-selling computer games, Warcraft 3."

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PC copies of The Darkness 2 are harder to find, although Game and Gamestation have them for £34.99.

Shop on the world wide web and you'll get The Darkness 2 on PC for just £24.85 from The Hut. Wowza. GameStop's price is a mere Queen-pound more.

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Update: The Raspberry Pi Foundation has asked us to clarify the availability of the device. The developer version (essentially a Linux PC) should be going out to customers this month and details will be posted on the Foundation's website.

The separate consumer version (which includes kid-friendly software and is intended for educational use) will be cased and be, essentially, a piece of consumer electronics. The Raspberry Pi Foundation hopes to release this latter device in Q3 this year. Both versions will be available for sale to anyone.

Original story: Elite co-creator David Braben hopes the consumer version of the intriguing Raspberry Pi device - the $25 credit-card sized computer - will be made available to the public in the third quarter of this year.

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The cheapest place in the UK to buy the console version of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is at Asda. The supermarket giant is charging £37.97 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.

It's harder to find Reckoning on PC on the high street. None of the supermarkets are stocking PC copies, apparently, although Game will flog you a copy for £34.99.

Morrisons don't appear to be stocking the game on console or PC at all. The supermarket is cutting down on the range of games in store, one assistant chap told us.

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The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was crowned Game of the Year at this year's video gaming Oscars, the AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards.

Skyrim won five awards in all, including those for story, RPG/MMO, game direction and gameplay engineering.

Beaten RPG/MMO competitor Star Wars: The Old Republic was recognised for its Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay.

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BioWare has blasted out five fresh Mass Effect 3 videos, showing off the game's story choices and in-game customisation, enemies, action sections and its co-op multiplayer offering.

First up, a look at how Shepard shapes the story of Mass Effect 3 through good and evil (Paragon and Renegade) dialogue options - and how the consequences of these play out.

Next, a glance at the game's multiplayer and the races you can play. Choose a sniper-loving Turian like good old shipmate Garrus, or paint yourself blue to join Liara T'Soni's biotic bunch, the Asari.

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Blizzard has narrowed down the release window for keenly anticipated action RPG sequel Diablo 3 to the second quarter of 2012 - so some time between 1st April and 30th June.

CEO Mike Morhaime announced the news during an investor call earlier today.

"We can also confirm that we are targeting a Q2 launch for Diablo 3. We expect to announce more details about the release schedule in the coming weeks," he said.

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Modern Warfare 3 has seen a 12 per cent increase in unique online gamers over last year's Call of Duty outing, Black Ops.

The figure, released as part of Activision's annual financial report today, accounts for the first two months following each game's launch.

The publisher also announced its Call of Duty Elite service now has over seven million registered user, of which more than 1.5 million have coughed up for a premium subscription.

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Forthcoming 2K third person shooter, Spec Ops: The Line allows players to gun down unarmed civilians and open fire on "angry mobs".

The potentially controversial content was flagged up in the game's ESRB listing, which went live earlier today.

"Battles are highlighted by realistic gunfire, screams of pain, slow-motion effects (during headshots); injured characters emit blood splashes when hit, and continue to incur damage when killed," it read.

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Embattled Square Enix MMO Final Fantasy 14 is shrinking, with the developer announcing a series of server merges.

As detailed on the game's official site, the number of Worlds is being reduced from 18 down to ten as of 27th March.

All players will be required to re-assign their characters to one of the new servers. If you fail do so by the 19th March, Square will automatically choose one for you.

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An ambitious, time-rich Minecraft player has taken it upon himself to recreate the entire World of Warcraft universe within Mojang's indie phenomenon.

Minecraft forums member Rumsey has put together some custom software to help transfer Warcraft's world map over to Minecraft, and is using a mod to circumvent the game's 128 block height limit.

He aims to complete every single continent and dungeon in the game, and has already polished off the Kalimdor region.

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Over the past couple of weeks, I've been in an ongoing debate with a colleague who has been arguing that free will either does not exist or, if it does, the only choices we can make are arbitrary. I've been arguing the opposite, but after playing King Arthur 2, I'm starting to agree with him.

What I'd really like to do is feel my squires strap my armour about my body while my hand grasps at the pommel of the sword I won, before staring down at the vast armies I've amassed from the tallest tower of the castle I've constructed and then, finally, turning to meet the eyes of my beloved Melissa, the woman I first met at the royal court in London.

But it turns out that King Arthur 2: The Role-playing Wargame doesn't want me to have more than one army just yet, I'm not allowed to build castles wherever I want to, and a wordless Melissa offers no explanation for why she won't marry me but will, instead, dispassionately embrace any other knight I nudge toward her.

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Nordic Games has revealed the insides of the Alan Wake PC Collector's Edition.

Stand-out features include the addition of in-game audio commentary and background information, and The Alan Wake Files collection.

The retail version of Remedy's thriller launches on 2nd March. As previously announced, the digital version launches on Steam on 16th February. It goes live on "other popular digital channels", such as EA's Origin, "soon afterwards".

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Batman! Biff! Read this massive legal agreement before playing! Pow! And this one! We know it's a pain, you'll be playing soon. Now your Games for Windows Live ID! Now create a Warner Bros. ID! Checking for downloadable content...

Holy b****cks. Class-based shooter Gotham City Impostors snuck out of Warner's back door earlier this week, which strikes you as unusual for a first-person shooter based on one of the biggest licenses around and made by Monolith, developers of Condemned and FEAR. Something to do with its extraordinarily large amount of in-game purchases, perhaps? Or maybe Gotham City Impostors isn't... you know... any good?

Its matchmaking system certainly isn't. It almost never works quickly or smoothly - instead, be prepared for regular waits of five to 10 minutes, frequent cancellations and dropouts, and many disconnections. This is an exchange two of my teammates had as a new game finally started:

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Will there be a Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 2? Co-developer Big Huge Games would love to make it, but it needs enough sales of the first game to convince a publisher to fund it.

Reckoning finally launches in the UK tomorrow, Friday 10th February. It marks the end of a long journey for BHG, which has worked on the game in some shape or form for half a decade.

You'd think, then, that BHG would fancy creating something entirely different for its next big project. Not so, according to lead designer Ian Frazier. In fact, not only would the team be happy to work on a sequel to its open world fantasy RPG - it would love to.

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An English language version of the Russian-made Cannon Fodder 3 is now available to download from GamersGate.

It costs £19.95 and weighs in at 542.59MB.

These are the system requirements:

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Codemasters has announced the Dirt 3 Complete Edition, which comes with £20 worth of extra content.

The Complete Edition is due out on 9th March for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and carries a suggested retail price of £29.99/€39.99.

It has 12 new routes across two locations, new cars and a range of liveries (via download on PC).

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Mode 7 managing director Paul Taylor headline's this month's show, devoted to the best Independent Game Festival 2012 finalists.

Taylor's talk is called 'Frozen Synapse - From Concept to Creation'. He will discuss the inspiration, influences and internal workings of his turn-based strategy shooter.

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Heavy hitters Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3 and Skyrim have made the BAFTA GAME Award shortlist.

It is the UK's only publicly-voted award at the British Academy Video Game Awards.

A panel of industry experts, including Eurogamer's own Johnny Minkley, bashed their heads together to come up with the list of candidates, reproduced below.

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Bethesda Game Studios created dragon mounts, Kinect shouts, a werewolf skill tree and more as part of a Game Jam for Skyrim, Todd Howard has revealed.

Speaking at the DICE 2012 keynote in Las Vegas, Howard revealed a raft of new features Bethesda's staff made work in the gargantuan fantasy role-playing game as part of a week dedicated to new ideas.

Features added included seasonal foliage, spears, kill cams, water arrows for enhanced stealth, new follower commands, building your own home, goblins, mounted combat, dragon mounts, Kinect shouts, added skill trees, becoming a flying vampire, a huge mud crab and, wait for it, fat giants.

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UPDATE: Double Fine's adventure game will be made - it's just shot past the magical $400,000 goal it set itself last night.

The $400,000 barrier was breached just after 10am UK time on Thursday, 9th February - with 33 days to spare.

"$407,470. I love you, world. Double Fine fans are the greatest fans in the whole world. Your gonna make me cry. :) :) :)" wrote an emotional Tim Schafer on Twitter.

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Dead Souls is the Western name for Of the End, the zombie-themed PlayStation 3 exclusive Yakuza game.

Elsewhere, a Limited Edition of PC strategy game Total War: Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai launches on 23rd March 2012.

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Square Enix has made Sleeping Dogs, the game formerly known as True Crime: Hong Kong, official.

United Front Games' "gritty" and "visceral" openworld cop drama launches in the second half of 2012 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

You play undercover cop Wei Shen as he tries to take down the Hong Kong Triads. There's driving, close combat and shooting.

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Nomadic former Blizzard leader Bill Roper has been promoted to leader of Disney's games business.

He replaces Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian, who held the role for one year, according to Gamasutra.

Roper joined Disney last July to head the Marvel gaming division.

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Ubisoft has admitted its online server switch has affected games previously promised to be safe from the current maintenance.

Which games these are, Ubisoft hasn't said. But gamers posting on the publisher's official forum report being unable to sign in to the PC version of Driver: San Francsico.

Futuristic city-building simulation Anno 2070 is apparently also experiencing problems.

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More from the talkative Destination PlayStation event - this time concerning True Crime.

According to a tweet by Future Shop Gamer, which attended the event, Square Enix has revealed Sleeping Dogs, due out on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in August.

Future Shop also published an image, which looks a lot like True Crime: Hong Kong, the game Square Enix picked up after Activision ditched it halfway through development.

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US shop GameStop is selling codes for a Mass Effect 3 DLC pack named From Dust - ahead of the game's March release.

From Dust costs $10, according to a receipt snapped by Joystiq - likely meaning the usual £7.99/800 Microsoft Points price point in the UK.

What do you get for your money? EA and BioWare are yet to say.

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Mass Effect 3 will be supported by two iOS apps, BioWare has revealed. Mass Effect Infiltrator is a third-person shooter, while Mass Effect Datapad allows players to stay in touch with their crewmates on-the-go.

Both games will boost players' Galactic Readiness rating through Mass Effect 3's Galaxy at War metagame.

Infiltator sees players freeing prisoners from hostile Cerberus bases and uncovering evidence of the group's misdeeds. It's coming to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices.

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Brilliant developer Valve has made a Portal 2 Space Core mod for brilliant game Skyrim.

Dubbed Fall of the Space Core, Vol. 1 (more to come?), this literally drops the little round Space Core robot into your Skyrim world. Better still, the robot appears to be voiced by none other than mister promiscuous voice, Nathan North. Sorry, Nolan Drake.

"To celebrate the opening of the Steam Workshop for Skyrim, Valve and Bethesda have teamed up to bring you the Portal 2 Space Core mod, which will let the aggressively space-centric little robot tag along on your adventures in Tamriel," Valve's blurb on Steam reads.

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Namco Bandai Europe has revealed the Ridge Racer Unbounded Day One Edition, due out alongside the standard edition on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 30th March.

The Day One Edition is available at the standard retail price, and includes three extra cars and five new paint jobs.

The cars are The Ghoster, a low rider coupe; The Immortal, a red sports car; and The Road Wolf, a classic red coupe inspired by the cars of the sixties.

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Firstly, can the "grizzly old farts" - as Blackley describes the group - who made Asteroids, Missile Command and Centipede possibly have anything new to say 30 years after their original flush of creativity?

Secondly, considering almost all involved went on to have long and lucrative careers in the tech industry, why do they need THQ's help to release a few humble iPhone games? Especially when said publisher appears to be on the brink of financial ruin.

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Ms Splosion Man, Toy Soldiers, Hydro Thunder and Ilomilo are among the first batch of games to go on sale in Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 8 store, according to an insider source.

The Verge's mole offered a list of titles that will be on offer in the new operating system's forthcoming preview version, expected to go live later this month.

Here's the rundown:

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Doublefine boss Tim Schafer and Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson are in discussion following the latter's insistence that he wanted to help get a Psychonauts sequel off the ground.

A spokesperson for the developer told Eurogamer, "Tim and Markus are talking. Who knows what might happen?"

As reported earlier today, a Tweet from Notch directed at Schafer this morning read "Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen." He later added, "Also, I'm serious."

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The next batch of Modern Warfare 3 DLC launches on Xbox 360 from 21st February for premium Elite members, Activision has announced.

It's a new multiplayer map called Overwatch set on a construction site atop a New York skyscraper - see the screenshot below.

"Battle takes place along two levels in a near symmetrical layout, with the central bridge and side routes open to attack from multiple angles. Watch your every step, as a lack of boundaries surrounding the perimeter leaves nothing to prevent you from falling far to the ground below," read the announcement blurb.

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UPDATE: Bethesda has confirmed that a Skyrim PC high-res texture pack is now available for free download from Steam, alongside the Creation Kit.

To run it, you'll need Windows Vista or Windows 7, a minimum of 4GB of system RAM and a DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with at least 1 GB of RAM and the latest drivers.

ORIGINAL STORY: Is a high-res PC texture pack for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim the "special surprise" developer Bethesda teased last week?

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Microsoft is taking "aggressive steps" to combat the recent surge in Xbox Live account hijackings but also needs gamers' help to stamp out cyber-theft, according to the service's general manager.

An open letter from Alex Garden published on Major Nelson's blog today didn't explicitly reference the storied FIFA Ultimate Team exploit but did acknowledge that "account hijacking across the internet continues to grow".

"While we here at Xbox have no evidence of a security breach in the Xbox Live service, that is of little comfort to our members whose accounts have been compromised by malicious and illegal attacks," he wrote.

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No, Saints Row developer Volition - the next Xbox possibly preventing people from playing pre-owned games "can be a bad thing".

Those words belong to Adam Badowski, managing director of Polish Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt Red, who spoke to Eurogamer today.

"It can be a bad thing," Badowski said of the rumoured next Xbox technology.

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Activision has announced Skylanders Giants, the follow-up to toy/video game hybrid Skylanders Spyro's Adventure.

It introduces over 20 new figures, including super-sized giants and characters featuring light technology. There are also new challenges, a new story and better integration across console, handheld and mobile devices.

Included are eight new figures that are more than twice the size of the main skylanders cast in both physical and virtual form. These are the Giants.

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EA has outlined Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning's controversial day-one DLC, House of Valor.

Reckoning, out today in the US and on Friday in the UK, drew attention when it emerged EA's Online Pass unlocks single-player content.

The Online Pass, included in new copies of the open world fantasy RPG, unlocks the House of Valor faction quest, which includes seven individual single-player missions. In addition, it unlocks a Mass Effect 3-themed in-game item - the N7-inspired Shepard's Battle Armour.

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Over 100 pieces of Gotham City Impostors DLC have gone live on the Xbox Marketplace ahead of the online shooter spin-off's launch.

105 items are available, ranging in cost from 80 Microsoft Points to 320 Microsoft Points.

80 points gets you the Premium Card Pack 1, for example, which unlocks five unique Calling Cards - essentially online profiles players can see in between matches.

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Multi-millionaire Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson has said he is willing to personally fund a sequel to Double Fine's cult classic Psychonauts.

Double Fine head Tim Schafer has continually stated he would like to develop a second Psychonauts game, but has been unable to secure publisher-funding to back the project.

"Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen," Notch tweeted to Schafer earlier this morning.

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Alienware has admitted it is possible to build your own X51 for under the £700 asking price, but declared: if you can do it, you're not the target audience.

The X51, unveiled last week, is slightly bigger than an Xbox 360 and is designed to work upright or laid on its side. The bottom range X51 can power Battlefield 3 in 1080p at an average of 32 frames-per-second, with high resolution textures, 4x aniostropic filtering and medium anti-aliasing turned on. The top-end X51 can power Battlefield 3 running the same settings at an average of 54 frames-per-second.

Inside the X51 can be either an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processor. That can be complemented by either an Nvidia GeForce GT 545 or an Nvidia GeForce GTX 555. RAM varies from 4GB, 6GB or 8GB DDR3, and there's plenty of digital storage space thanks to the 1TB 7200 RPM hard-drive.

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The Darkness 2 is due out this Friday on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, but you don't have to wait that long to check out Digital Extremes' first-person shooter sequel, because we've just put the demo live on our Gaikai page.

We've also added the excellent Orcs Must Die and Capcom's Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. In recent weeks we've also stocked the shelves with the likes of Alice: Madness Returns, Arcania - Gothic 4 and Mount & Blade: Warband. You can also check out FIFA 12, Crysis 2 and The Witcher 2.

Gaikai is a streaming games service that lets you play PC titles without leaving the comfort of your web browser. All the hardcore processing is done on the server side, so you don't even need a PC or Mac with a decent CPU or graphics card. Not that we're dissing your computer, obviously. I'm sure it's lovely.

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High-quality graphics in video games can be a distraction, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has claimed.

The director of Wii role-player The Last Story believes developers would spend their time better by focusing on other aspects of their creations.

"Now that high-quality graphics rule supreme, you can reproduce what you want to communicate visually, but at the same time, I don't know how to put this, but there's an element that's slightly excessive about it all," Sakaguchi said, speaking in a new Iwata Asks interview. "You end up communicating too much to the player."

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Call of Duty: Elite developer Beachhead has revealed new details and screenshots for Clan Operations.

These are being put through "extensive testing", promised Beachhead on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 forum. "And while we can't give you a date on when it will be ready, it is getting closer every day," the developer added.

Clan leaders can enlist in a Clan Operation via the Compete section of Elite.

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In the fantasy world of Amalur, everyone believes in fate - in a predestined path that they are bound to tread, with a predestined end. An elven race called the Fae believes so strongly in the immutable power of destiny that they re-enact their songs and stories, over and over.

You, however, are the Fateless One, a unique being with an unwritten destiny that is yours to control. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning begins with your death and subsequent resurrection with no memory - and, according to the seers, no fate. Not only can you be who you want to be (rogue, warrior or sorcerer), you alone in Amalur can change the way things are.

It's a convenient plot device for a role-playing game, of course. But to give creator 38 Studios its due, it's also a pretty elegant metaphor for the promise that makers of Western RPGs love to make. While a Zelda or Final Fantasy is about ensuring the time-honoured legend reaches its foregone conclusion, the American role-playing dream is to hand you a complex world and let you bend it to your will.

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Evidence continues to mount that a third entry in the Star Wars: Battlefront series is in development at Legendary: The Box developer Spark Unlimited.

As noted by PlayStation Lifestyle, a new job listing at the studio calls for a "senior combat designer for a 3rd Person Action/Adventure sequel in a high-profile science fiction franchise currently greenlit for full production development for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC markets."

The site also spotted the LinkedIn profile of a former senior software engineer that mentions time spent on an "unannounced third person sword fighting game (well known IP, Xbox 360, PS3)". *Cough* lightsabers *cough*.

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Those sales are across PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, according to a Joystiq interview with CEO Doug Kennedy.

"It is a tremendously successful franchise," said Kennedy. "We have lots of plans to support it both with DLC and additional add-ons for the franchise."

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Free-to-play PC plane sim Microsoft Flight takes to the skies from 29th February.

You'll be able to download it from the game's official site.

The game's first expansion, titled Hawaiian Adventure Pack, launches the same day, priced at 1600 Microsoft Points.

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Hawken, the multiplayer indie mech shooter that attracted significant internet buzz last year with its stunning announcement trailer, launches on 12th December as a free-to-play title.

As reported by VentureBeat, developer Adhesive Games hopes to pick up revenue from the sale of virtual goods such as additional weapons and armour.

Gameplay will be fast paced and session-based, with players opting for either 15 or 30 minute skirmishes.

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2K's Spec Ops: The Line is riddled with conflict and contradictions. It's partly about the culture clash that's played out across the dunes of Dubai as the Middle East crashes violently into the consumerism of the West - a parable told in the tidal waves of sand that splash up against the city's shards of concrete and glass in the game's near-future vision.

But there's another, more curious conflict at Spec Ops' own dark heart. Here's a tale of the dehumanising horror of war, its story leaning heavily on Conrad (and a little awkwardly too, with its Kurtz-inspired character clumsily renamed Konrad). And at the same time, here's a game about the simple pleasures of slamming your shoulder into a wall before lining up headshot after headshot after headshot, in combat that's physical, muscular and entertaining.

Can 2K and developers Yager Development have their cake and eat it, providing a moral tale and a meaty shooter all at once? A tour through a handful of Spec Ops' campaign missions doesn't present a comprehensive answer, but it does give a glimpse of a game that, with its own internal conflict, promises to be more interesting than many of its peers.

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UPDATE: Bohemia Interactive has issued Eurogamer the following short statement on the delay of Arma 3.

"We did not reveal exact release date so far but our target was for some time and still is Q4 2012 (instead of early plans of late summer that was announced initially)," said a spokesperson.

"However, we are prepared to give development additional time if it will need it to ensure as good experience as possible. As soon as we have more specific release dates and plans we are going to communicate it clearly.

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No more Mass Effect 3 Collector's Editions will be made before the game's launch, BioWare has confirmed.

The Mass Effect 3 N7 Collector's Edition, which costs £70 in the UK, is sold out on a number of US shop websites.

On Amazon.com, for example, a note on the Xbox 360 version product page reads: "Due to high demand (and possibly the imminent Reaper invasion), we have unfortunately run out of our pre-order allocation for Mass Effect 3 - Collector's Edition for Xbox 360.

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BioWare isn't happy with the new Mass Effect: Deception novel either.

The Mass Effect creator offered fans its "sincerest apologies" for the canonical "errors and oversights" in the book, and said changes would be made.

"The teams at Del Rey and BioWare would like to extend our sincerest apologies to the Mass Effect fans for any errors and oversights made in the recent novel Mass Effect: Deception," BioWare's community leader Chris Priestly informed fans.

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10,000 Valve fans logged on to play Half-Life 2 en-masse in an attempt to make their campaign for more Half-Life information heard.

But that number is far less than the 50,000 users expected to make the gesture.

The A Call for Communication (Half-Life) Steam Group is lobbying Valve to release more information on the future of the Half-Life series - be that Half-Life 3 or Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

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Final Fantasy 13-2 has entered the UK all-formats chart in first place, ending FIFA 12's reign on top.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, a trilogy of classic MGS games now made a little prettier, arrived in second.

Fellow new entry SoulCalibur 5 was fifth, behind Battlefield 3 and FIFA.

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It's only fitting that Grim Fandango takes place in the Land of the Dead, because in hindsight it represents something of a eulogy for the declining adventure genre. LucasArts' penultimate adventure game (its swansong was the anticlimactic Escape From Monkey Island) may well be its best. It helped cement director Tim Schafer as something of a superstar, prone to appear on late-night talk shows and host awards ceremonies despite Grim Fandango and his biggest games (Psychonauts, Brutal Legend) being commercial failures. Before we were all swayed by open worlds, 3D combat, and an influx of shooters, Grim Fandango proved that there's still some life left in those dusty bones.

The story of Manny Calavera - a grim reaper brilliantly reimagined as a travel agent - uncovering a web of corruption in the Land of the Dead is part Mexican folklore and part film noir. Given how well Grim Fandango blends the latter with a traditional adventure game template makes it a wonder why this hasn't been done more, since both genres are predicated on crafty problem-solving, deception and wry humour.

Recently we've had Phoenix Wright and L.A. Noire attempt to rectify this, but their protagonists were straight shooters, limiting their deductions to snooping around crime scenes and calling bluffs. Manny, however, frequently resorts to sabotage, blackmail, flirtation, manipulation and fraud to get what he wants. It's not that Manny's a bad guy - rather that he's a good guy in a bad world forced to stoop to everyone else's level to make any progress.

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The PC Creation Kit for The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim arrives on Steam next Tuesday, developer Bethesda has announced.

A Tweet from marketing man Pete Hines earlier today read:

"For our Skyrim PC fans, the Creation Kit is on track for release on Tuesday. And, we also have a special surprise with it. #whatcoulditbe!?"

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The publisher wouldn't put an exact figure on how many employees are affected.

The cuts are a result of restructuring at the Vancouver office which will see its studio in nearby Burnaby - which NFS: The Run team EA Black Box is part of - shift focus to digital formats.

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