EA is evaluating whether to put some of FIFA Street's stand-out features into FIFA 13.

While a decision is yet to be made, if FIFA's makers do decide to include some of FIFA Street's mechanics, it could see new dribbling features and some elements of standing ball control added to this year's and future FIFA games.

FIFA Street, out next month, was built using the FIFA 12 engine at EA Canada - a first for the Street series. It ditches the cartoon visuals of previous entries for a more realistic look, while retaining the same focus on tricks and skills.

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Is my save playable again? This is the question PS3 owners will be asking themselves as they slot their Skyrim disc back in and download the latest patch.

Patch 2.03 - equivalent to 1.04 on other platforms - sets out to make amends for the severe bouts of stuttering that plague Skyrim's playability on Sony's console. Notoriously, this has had a greater impact on those with a larger time investment in the adventure, with performance deteriorating the further players progress and the more they interact with the world and its characters.

As detailed in our previous dissection of the phenomenon, the catch with this bug is that it has little to do with the hardware's graphical output; a new save running on the same patch, and through the exact same areas, manifests no such problems. A memory management issue stemming from larger-sized save files, and issues with the PS3's more restrictive split-RAM setup, were assumed the most probable causes at the time, with no absolute explanation being put forward so far. Bethesda's knee-jerk response to the problem last year arrived by way of patch 2.01, where some improvements were made, although the stuttering still persisted to an unacceptable level.

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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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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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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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Sony has admitted it made a big mistake deciding not to publish cult RPG hit Demon's Souls in the US and Europe.

When GameInformer suggested it was among the platform holder's biggest mis-steps this generation, Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida replied, "Absolutely! Tell me about it! 100% agree!"

Yoshida went on to explain that it had completely misjudged the quality of the game, blaming a lack off opportunity to properly try the game out during development.

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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 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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Long awaited Team Ico adventure The Last Guardian is still alive and well but is making slow progress, according to Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida.

Speaking in an interview with 1Up, Yoshida confirmed that the PS3 game, which has been in development for the best part of six years, is still a priority for the publisher.

"The project has been making progress, but slow progress," he admitted.

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Sony has officially announced that LittleBigPlanet Karting is in development.

"We can confirm that LittleBigPlanet Karting is in fact in development and we look forward to sharing more on the game soon!" a message on the official PlayStation Twitter account announced.

LittleBigPlanet Kart's existence was first outed at this week's Destination PlayStation event.

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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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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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There's a knack to getting good PS3 performance gains from new Skyrim patch 1.4, Bethesda has revealed.

Shared Bethesda community manager Nick Breckon:

Skyrim patch 1.4 was wheeled out yesterday. The PS3 lag-fix was the most high profile bullet-point fix, but was by no means alone.

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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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Making a new tennis game must be a daunting prospect given that two series have, like Novak Djokovic turning the screw on a flagging opponent, already got every angle covered. On one side of the court there's the zesty arcade brio of Virtua Tennis, with the controlled, sim-like approach of Top Spin on the other. Perhaps unsurprisingly, EA Sports has gone for something in between, but it's another sports game it most resembles.

Grand Slam Tennis might as well be called FIFA Tennis. It's a brand thing, and it's a bland thing, too - all crisp, sterile menus, ESPN swooshes bookending replays, tournament icons swooping in after every point, licensed players and stadia. But FIFA has been benefitting from its maker's iterative approach to sequels for years; formerly raw and unfocused, it's been tweaked and refined over the years into the well-oiled machine it is now. Grand Slam Tennis 2 has but a single predecessor, and that was a Wii game. Essentially, this is a debut all over again.

The first made a bit of a splash on Wii as the first title to support the original, unwieldy MotionPlus dongle, and it played a solid game, with acceptably precise motion controls and a caricatured look that was a perfect fit for its host console. Naturally, the visual style is more realistic here, but that serves only to highlight what's missing.

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According to NPD data for the month of January, Activision's shooter beat out Just Dance 3 to the top spot.

Skyrim finished third, NBA 2K12 fourth and Battlefield 3 fifth. There were no new entries in the top 10.

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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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UPDATE: According to a Tweet from Bethesda, Skyrim update 1.4 should now be available for PlayStation 3 owners in Europe, with a US roll-out to follow.

ORIGINAL STORY: The long-awaited Skyrim patch 1.4 is now live for Xbox 360, Bethesda has confirmed.

It is trickling out across the various territories now.

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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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As detailed on the PlayStation Blog, the game is a traditional top-down shooter with a twist - you can teleport your ship around the screen to evade enemies, collect power-up and solve puzzles. See the trailer below for a better idea of exactly how the mechanic works.

"It sounds incredible and is a genuine, high-quality homage to the classic games we older folk remember fondly," wrote James Marsden, boss of the UK-based studio.

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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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Asura's Wrath has been delayed to Friday, 9th March, Capcom has confirmed to Eurogamer.

Capcom's quirky god-filled action game was due out on 24th February.

Capcom said the delay was "due to the uncertainty of the UK retail market" - surely in reference to GAME and its current, well-documented troubles.

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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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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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Back when I worked in a game store selling third-party controllers to unsuspecting customers (on the basis that if I ever recommended an official pad, I'd be on permanent stockroom duty) an import-savvy shopper informed me that Famitsu had announced a crossover between Namco and Capcom. My automatic assumption was that this had to be a fighting game, and that Capcom had somehow struck a deal with Namco and was about to bring the likes of Ryu and Jin together in the ultimate 2D mash-up. Boy was I wrong.

Namco x Capcom turned out to be a tactical-RPG, and when a fan translation patch surfaced a few years later I saw for myself that this was a million miles off 'The King of Iron Fist Tournament with a Shadaloo twist' that I'd imagined. But it did get me thinking as to how a crossover between the world's most popular 2D and 3D fighting game franchises could ever work.

Street Fighter has always been about condensed command lists with special moves that rely on charge and circular motions, while Tekken is defined by its limb-based buttons that focus on juggling. And although they share the concept of one-on-one combat with health bars, multi-hit combos and a three round format, in every other respect they're the polarised bookends of a diverse genre.

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Naughty Dog has talked in detail for the first time about the plot of forthcoming PlayStation 3 survival adventure The Last of Us.

As seen in a clip on GameInformer, game director Bruce Straley and creative director Neil Druckmann explained that the game takes place 20 years after a virus outbreak decimates the world's population.

Survivors huddle together in a number of military-run safe zones, where times are hard and life is cheap. Inhabitants are executed for the most minor infractions and anyone who screens positive for the virus is immediately euthanised.

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Good news Xbox 360 patrons: Skyrim update 1.4 arrives tomorrow to clean house and squash a huge list of game-wrecking bugs.

A post on the Twitter feed of Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines earlier today announced that the patch should be ready for Microsoft's console some time in the morning, US time.

"PS3 update is looking good too. We'll update if we get more info from Sony," he added.

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Batman: Arkham City has now shipped over six million copies worldwide, publisher Warner Bros. Interactive has announced.

The new figure was released as part of the entertainment group's annual financial report, which saw a healthy bump in revnues.

The Filmed Entertainment division, which includes Warner's gaming interests, reported revenues of $12.6 billion, up from $11.6 billion last year, and operating income of $1.3 billion, up from $1.1 billion.

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SoulCalibur 5 has entered the weekly Japanese software chart at number two, but sales are well below its predecessor.

The latest entry in Namco's beat 'em up series sold a modest 34,328 copies on PlayStation 3 in its first week on shelves, compared to the 74,607 SoulCalibur 4 managed back in 2008.

It was beaten to the top spot by last week's number two, Resident Evil: Revelations. Capcom's 3DS adventure saw sales drop 70 per cent week-on-week to 43,575, but that was still enough to take the chart crown.

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A video game adaptation of forthcoming sci-fi blockbuster Battleship launches this April, publisher Activision has announced.

Developed by Silent Hill: Homecoming studio Double Helix Games, it's "a blend of strategic naval command and first-person action gameplay."

The game won't follow the movie's plot, instead telling a standalone story set in the same universe. See the screens below for a closer look.

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Mass Effect 3 publisher EA has signed up hardware case creator Calibur11 to create Commander Shepard-themed Vault armour for your console.

The Vault case envelopes your slim Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 with N7 branded suit armour, exactly like the suit hero Shepard wears in-game.

Perhaps it's even bullet proof? It's probably not bullet proof.

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There are 36 pieces of music on the SSX soundtrack, and EA has named them.

The tunes come from a diverse bunch of brains, their number including Run-DMC, DJ Shadow and Lateef the Truthspeeker, who's mentioned in The Bible.

If you don't like EA's music, you can import your own, and have your playlists play while browsing menus or when navigating the pistes.

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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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Killzone 1 for PlayStation 3 has been "delayed indefinitely," Guerrilla Games has announced.

"With regards to KZ1 for PS3, not sure what happened but I've been informed that it's been delayed indefinitely," read a post on the official Killzone Twitter account.

Then: "I have no further info about KZ1 for PS3, save for the fact that it's delayed indefinitely. If I learn anything else, I'll tweet it here."

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An array of discounts see everyone get money off 2K mob tale Mafia 2, while a gun barrel of Grand Theft Auto games and content comes cheaper on PSP.

Cel-shaded beat-'em-up Shank 2 also launches, plus there's a new co-op mission for Uncharted 3 which sees series villains Zoran Lazarević, Eddy Raja and Harry Flynn team up.

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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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Konami has announced the first DLC for Rebellion's head-rolling action game NeverDead.

It adds a new character, expands the Asylum level, adds three new challenges and two new costumes for main character Bryce Boltzmann.

The NeverDead Expansion Pack Volume 1 launches on 21st February.

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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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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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Sony has improved the display speed of the PlayStation 3 web browser with a new system update.

Firmware v4.10, which is now available to download, optimises the display of web content and increases the accuracy when viewing page layouts. The PS3 now supports some websites it struggled with before, displaying them correctly.

4.10 also implements the already announced account name change into the Terms of Service. Your PlayStation Network account will now be known as your Sony Entertainment Network account.

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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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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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It looks like LittleBigPlanet Kart Racing is on its way to PlayStation 3.

A Tweet from US online retailer FutureShop stated that the title was announced earlier today at a Sony "Destination PlayStation" event, alongside a new Move steering wheel peripheral.

Sony hasn't offered an official confirmation that the game exists, but the event definitely took place and Sackboy was in attendance.

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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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The patch addresses various bugs and glitches, as well as making some improvements to online performance.

Here's the full changelog, as posted on the game's official site:

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Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception gets a fresh batch of co-op content in the US today, developer Naughty Dog has announced.

As explained in a post on the PlayStation Blog, the Fort Co-Op Adventure, priced at $5.99, sees series villains Zoran Lazarević, Eddy Raja and Harry Flynn team up in a new add-on that further explores the mystery behind the Janus head statue from the original on-disc co-op adventure.

A batch of new character skin packs are also available to purchase from today.

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Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe has confirmed and explained his surprise exit from Eat Sleep Play, the studio he founded in 2007.

In a series of posts on his Twitter page, the outspoken developer described the struggle of making games remotely, and revealed his desire to work directly with a team again at a new studio, which he plans to set up.

News of his exit emerged this afternoon in a Salt Lake Tribune report that revealed ESP layoffs and claimed Jaffe intended to make casual games.

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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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Outspoken Twisted Metal and God of War co-creator David Jaffe will leave the developer he founded in 2007, Eat Sleep Play, according to a new report.

Now that PlayStation 3 exclusive Twisted Metal is finished, layoffs have occurred at Eat Sleep Play and the studio has decided to make iPhone and iPad 2 games, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

The newspaper, which is based in the same area as ESP, said eight employees - around 20 per cent of the workforce - have been laid off. 26 staff remain.

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An extra pair of limbs is so useful in an FPS, and so much fun, that it's a wonder we haven't seen more games transform you into a multi-tentacled engine of destruction. Instead, we've had to wait five years for this sequel to The Darkness - an unusually long delay in an industry as fond of annual sequels as it is of taking good ideas and running them into the ground.

And having four limbs really does make a difference, opening up combat possibilities that other shooters can't hope to compete with. As demon-infested mobster Jackie Estacado, you not only have two human appendages with which to wield a standard variety of pistols, shotguns and assault rifles, but two piranha-faced tentacles - manifestations of the ancient Darkness that has set up home in Jackie's body.

The one on the left, let's call him Grabby. The context-sensitive left shoulder button sends him snapping out to sink his teeth into any of the objects marked with a glowing core. Hitting the button again throws the object in question. So you can quickly lob scaffold poles and pool cues as deadly spears. Car doors can be ripped off and used as a shield, then thrown as a lethal frisbee. Grabby can also lash out and feast on the hearts of fallen foes, topping up your health in the process.

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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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Journey, a very important Actual New Game of 2012, has once and for all been finished, developer ThatGameCompany has revealed.

No more delays, no more wondering why a PSN game has taken three years to build.

"Three years is a long time when you finally finish something and look back [and say], 'What have I done in the past three years?'" tweeted the studio's creative leader, Jenova Chen, knowingly.

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The PlayStation Vita version of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection will utilise the handheld's rear touch pad controls.

Hideo Kojima, Big Boss of the Metal Gear franchise, shared the news via his official Twitter feed last night, along with a couple of new pictures of the game in action. Well, in menus.

"You can slice enemy's throat with knife if you flick the rear touch pad," Kojima explained.

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