Ubisoft Annecy's multiplayer game director Damien Kieken confirmed the news that there will be no multiplayer beta for Assassin's Creed 3 claiming that Ubisoft would rather spend time perfecting the game, then putting out a time consuming beta.

"To be honest, it’s something we want to do every year because we get community feedback that helps us tune the game. It is also a good reward for the community that has followed us from the beginning. But doing a beta takes a lot of time; we’d need to polish a version, submit it to the platform holders and support it when it’s out. And all the time put into the beta doesn’t go into the final game. Because we wanted to push so many things into the game, we took the hard decision to favor the final game content instead of doing a beta and we believe it will be favorable in the end..." Kieken told Xboxgamezone in a recent interview.

Disappointed that you won't be able to take the game for a test drive, before it's release? Relax, you can get your eager gaming mitts on Assassin's Creed 3 on October 30th.

The September 6th release of the last DLC on the Xbox 360, Collection 4: Final Assault will include new maps Gultch, Boardwalk, and Parish along with the release of De-Commision and Off Shore to non Elite members.

On August 9th, you can get your hands on the Collection 3: Chaos pack which includes new Spec Ops missions and the Spec Ops mode Chaos which is based on chaining kills together to get the highest score possible. Also included in that pack are two previous Elite maps Vertigo and Intersection.

Both packs will put you back 1200 MS points.

via Gaming Age

Resident Evil 6, meet boobies. Boobies, meet Resident Evil 6.

Capcom has made a questionable decision with putting full fledge frontal nudity minus genitalia in their new entry into the long running Resident Evil horror series with Resident Evil 6. The nakedness has been introduced in the form of a female spider boss who according to CVG will straddle your character and caress her breasts all while you hear the words fuck and shit being yelled in the background.

Before you even ask, yes that is Ada in the video and yes you get to play as her in the campaign.

What would this mean for Sony if Microsoft were to go through with their rumored purchase? Sony could be saying "buh-bye" to seeing a Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, James Bond, or Crash Bandicoot (just to name a few) game on their console again if Microsoft would turn the tables and make these games an Xbox exclusive. Keep in mind that one of those series that happens to be the cash cow Call of Duty series brought in $1 million dollar worth of profits worldwide to Activision with it's latest entry Modern Warfare 3 all with the first 16 days of it's release.

Questions have also been raised regarding Blizzard's PC series World of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft. What would Microsoft do with those popular franchises especially with Diablo III being rumored to eventually be releasing on consoles. Microsoft would have the opportunity to make a console release of Diablo III an Xbox exclusive giving Sony the very frosty cold shoulder.

There are endless possibilities of the "what ifs" if this turns out to be true, but keep in mind that there other takers showing an interest in purchasing Activision-Blizzard such as Time Warner and China's Tencent so it could go either way. However if Microsoft happens to buy Activision-Blizzard it will be interesting to see what will happen with these franchises under Microsoft's eye.

via Reuters

While Ubisoft has kept mum on a specific release date for their recently E3 2012 unveiled Splinter Cell: Blacklist, it appears that Amazon UK has spilled the beans for them.

A keen eye over at VideoGamer spied the next entry into the series on the Amazon UK website with a release date of March 29th, 2013. Ubisoft has only mentioned Spring 2013 which falls in line with the now rumored March 29th release date. Also appearing in the ad for the game was the "Upper Echelon" Limited Edition version of the game that comes with loads of extra content including different armor, goggles that actually shine gold, a bonus mission, and a map that showcases all of the conflicted zones across the world.

We are going to chalk this one up to rumor until Ubisoft confirms the release date and the limited version, but in the meantime I do have a question though regarding the limited edition if it does exist. Is there a DLC code to unlock the replaced Michael Ironside's voice of Sam Fisher? Pretty please?

"...I tell you one thing: he's far funnier, far more daring and far more engaging than I will ever be. He just comes up with an endless supply of amazing and incredible ideas.

And he's another reason why I left Microsoft. I have to tell you, he is. He was out there, and I was watching and laughing at his tweets probably harder than anyone. This guy, he can do all this stuff, he can be that free, he can explore these ideas like throwing babies into pits - you couldn't do that with the corporate PR machine at Microsoft," stated the real Molyneux during the interview.

I believe there is a reason that you Mr. Molyneux are laughing at his tweets harder than anybody else. Seriously, who wants to throw a baby into a pit? I can kind of see why Microsoft's PR people slapped your hand to keep you quiet.

via Eurogamer and Peter Molydeux

This announcement comes one month after Square said that a Final Fantasy VII "is not a priority" and that "new titles take precedence" despite the fact that a Final Fantasy X HD remake was confirmed back in 2011's Tokyo Game Show.

I believe someone needs to cast Esuna on Square Enix because they are completely blind to the bigger picture.

via UberGizmo

"By combining Gaikai's resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE's extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices." stated Andrew House of Sony Computer Entertainment.

What this means for the the future of Sony with a new console device like the Playstation 4 remains to be seen or talked about. However rumors are already running rampent that Sony will use this aquistion to allow backwards compatibility of previous PS0ne and Playstation Two titles.

via The Escapist

Xbox Live Arcade

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• The Walking Dead Episode 2 - 400 MS Points
  
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• Jeremy McGrath's Offroad - 800 MS Points
  
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• FREEBIE ALERT - Haunt is free for a limited time!
  
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• Mini Ninja's Adventures - 1200 MS Points
  
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Downloadable Content

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• Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut - Free
  
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• Skyrim: Dawnguard - 1600 MS Points
  
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• Battlefield 3: Close Quarters - 1200 MS Points
  
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Games on Demand

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• Cabela's North American Adventure - $39.99
  
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• Cars: Mater-Nation al- $19.99
  
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• Grease Dance - $19.99
  
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Retail Games

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• Spec Ops: The Line
  
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• The Amazing Spider Man
  
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Why in the world would a director of a highly anticipated game say, "20 per cent of the players will see the last level of the game. It’s horrible to know. It makes the people working on it really really sad,". I have no clue, but Hitman: Absolution's director Tore Blystad made this rather idiotic remark in a recent interview with the Official Playstation Magazine. To Blystad's credit he did say that game was made for people who want to go back and replay it.

If you are going off of a 20% finish rating, how in all of the Agent 47 fiber wire gaming goodness is there going to be any replay value?

E3 2012 came to a close a couple weeks ago and Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo each had their underwhelming and rather dull showcases for the upcoming year, but is there a reason why? More so on Nintendo's side? According to european website Non Specific Action, an insider claims that Nintendo held back during this year's E3 and that they had two huge Wii U games to announce, but decided at the last minute to hold off on those announcements, because they didn't want to take the buzz surrounding their upcoming console to jump ship to these new games. Both of these games are considered to be key franchises to Nintendo. I'm guessing Mario and Zelda if this rumor turns out to be true.

What started out as a rumor for team Microsoft has officially turned into a Microsoft coverup regarding the Xbox 720. Late last week, a fishy document surfaced on the web claiming to contain information regarding Microsoft's Xbox 720 including a release date and specs. While it was tossed to the side, turns out that document is not so fishy after all. Microsoft has taken ownership of the document and asked that the original posting website take all information down regarding their highly secret next console. According to Tech Radar details in this document included the name Xbox 720, a 1080p 3D supporting Kinect, a blu-ray drive, and a release date of the 2013 holiday season.

[caption id=" align="aligncenter" width="649] The Actual Leaked Document[/caption]

You be the judge

Crystal Dynamics recently revealed that along with the rips, tears, and bruises of a much younger and inexperienced Lara Croft in their upcoming reboot Tomb Raider, Ms. Croft will also face an attempted rape. This statement was later clarified by Crystal Dynamics where they claimed their words were twisted by online gaming website Kotaku during the interview that has seemed to outrage fans of the series and the gaming population in general. So what's the big deal? Why can't a video game explore a more mature and vulnerable storyline involving a female that is usually strong and very dependent? Movies, novels, etc...seem to be able to get away with telling these stories, so what's wrong with a video game telling the same thing?

Rape is something that is not to be taken lightly. It is a serious offense and can damage the victim for years to come. People are often afraid to speak about it or even mention the term which is one of the reasons that I believe that the idea of a video game character being in that situation seems so hard to grasp. After all video games are long considered to be a form of escape, a creative outlet, and gives the player the chance of playing out events that can otherwise send a person to jail. So do gamers really want to see an attempted rape. Probably not, but we are talking about something that can be done in other forms of entertainment without a single word being mouthed about how it shouldn't have been done. A fantastic case in point is the 2002 novel The Lovely Bones and the 2009 movie adaptation, The Lovely Bones where a young girl is lured by a disturbed man who rapes her, murders her, dismembers her body, and dumps the remains in a sinkhole. I'm not sure how many of you remember the critiques that came out by those that read that book and famed movie critiquers such as Robert Ebert seemed disappointed that the movie did not follow in the book's footsteps of showing the brutalization of the young girl.

Excerpt from Roger Ebert on The Lovely Bones Wiki

On the movie side of things, in 1999's hit Boys Don't Cry starring Hilary Swank as the main character who is a female leading the life of a male as a transgendered. Swank's character Brandon falls in love with Lana who returns his affections, however is heckled by two other men who cannot accept that Brandon has female genitalia. Both of the men end up beating, raping, and eventually murdering Brandon in front of Lana. Boys Don't Cry was hailed in the media for tackling tough subjects especially after the killing the openly gay Matthew Shepard. Boys Don't Cry ended up receiving 43 awards including Hilary Swank winning best actress at the Academy Awards.

So what is with the double standard? Why do people gravitate towards movies and novels based on the same touchy subjects however when it's presented in a video game, people tend to back away from it? Or does the problem with the term rape being spoken about a female character in a game that you play as just spook everyone?

Take Atomic Games, Six Days in Fallujah that Konami dropped out of publishing. Completely different subject matter, but again the same touchy subject involving the Iraq war. Why is it that the thought of playing these events out in a video game disgust people, but yet we can turn on the news and listen to the stories of the events that transpired that day or even watch a beheading or hanging over the internet?

It's a double standard in the entertainment industry and one that I believe should be crossed. If Lara Croft's backstory includes an attempted rape, why can't the subject be in the game in a way that Crystal Dynamics would see fit? Knowing the full story to a character causes a person to root for them even more and in this case with Lara Croft where we are seeing her origins, why wouldn't you want to know what happened to Lara before she became the ass kicking, pistol toting, female badass that we know and love?

The man most known for not his heavyweight boxing talents, but an unfortunate ear biting incident in a 1997 fight with Evander Holyfield where he bit both of Holyfield's ears and led to him being banned from the sport, Mike Tyson is headed to WWE 13 as pre order downloadable content. No word on if an ear biter move was added to his wrestling skills in the game.

• UFC Announces Partnership with EA
  
• Dead Space 3 Gamplay Shown; Release Date Confirmed for February 2013
  
• Crysis 3 Releasing February 2013
  
• Sim City Social Coming to Facebook
  
• Need For Speed Most Wanted Releasing October 30th, 2012
  
• FIFA 13 Will Be Able To Connect To Tablets, Smartphones, and Consoles
  

UBISOFT

• Rayman Legends and Zombie U announced for the Nintendo Wii U
  
• Just Dance 4, Watch Dogs, and Shootmania Storm Officially Announced
  
• Far Cry 3 Gameplay Footage Shown
  

MICROSOFT

• Halo 4 Gameplay Revealed
  
• Xbox Smartglass Announced; Windows 8 Compatible
  
• Gears of War 3 Judgement staring Baird and Cole Announced and Trailer Shown
  
• Splinter Cell Blacklist Shown without Michael Ironside voicing Sam Fisher
  
• FIFA 13 and Madden 13 Kinect enabled
  
• Nike Kinect Trainer Announced
  
• IE Browser Announced
  
• Fable The Journey Trailer Shown
  
• Forza Horizon Trailer Shown
  

SONY

• Games Announced For The Vita Include; Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified, Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation, and All Star Battle Royale
  
• Beyond Staring Ellen Page Announced
  
• HTC Partners With Sony For Mobile Related
  
• God of War: Ascension Releasing March 13, 2012
  
• JK Rowling Wonderbook Collaboration Announced
  
• Playstation One Classics Releasing On The Vita
  
• Gameplay Footage from The Last of Us Shown
  

Final Thoughts: Overall the stars of E3 Day One were both EA and Ubisoft with the overall winner being the showing of the insanely gorgeous Far Cry 3. Microsoft and Sony were huge disappointments. Microsoft's conference felt rushed and did not have any announcements that made me excited to be an Xbox 360 owner. Where were the "now available" Xbox Live Arcade titles that they usually release the night of their conference? No dashboard update talk for this coming fall? It seemed that all they were worried about was the timed exclusive DLC that gamers do not really care about which is something that these companies need to understand. Sony's press conference was about the same dull showing, except that they didn't have Usher and dancers in spandex twirling around on stage and totally not matching Dance Central 3 in the background. (Not sure if anybody else took notice to that or not when they had dancing to the game towards the end) Both Microsoft and Sony need to seriously rethink their awful conferences this year, because E3 Day One for the console owners was a complete and utter disaster on their behalf.

These new features will go live this coming Fall 2012.

Microsoft has managed to secure another "first" in the battle of the console peeing contest.

Just announced at E3, Xbox 360 users will receive the downloadable content before the other guys for the out next year reboot, Tomb Raider. Seems kind of silly announcing DLC before the game releases, but I guess that "my stream last longers than yours" is the real battle here.

Take Two has announced that the return of the originator of video game Bullet Time, Max Payne 3 has sold over 3 million copies since it's release on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on May 15th. Take Two also announced that they are planning on releasing seven DLC packs for the game beginning on June 1st.

The DLC appears to cater towards the multiplayer aspect of Max Payne 3 which some fans have said is lacking and needs work. June 1st's DLC release is titled, Local Justice Map Pack.

via Side Mission

Not sure how fans will react to that considering that they have been beating down Bethesda's door for years requesting an Elder Scrolls MMO that can play with their fellow gamers including co-op main story play.

via Game Informer (Video Interview)

Speaking to Famitsu, Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura told the Japanese magazine that a FFVII remake is not a priority at this time.

"There are a lot of people who want a remake of Final Fantasy VII. However, new titles take precedence. We work our hardest to make something that might be even better than Final Fantasy VII. The new Final Fantasy must overcome the Final Fantasy of the past.”

While Square is focusing on their current release, FFXIII-2 with followup DLC and a possible rumored FFXIII-3, they are also working on Final Fantasy X HD remake which makes their statement regarding FFVII seem a bit confusing.

via IGN

PSM3 tweeted the hint over the weekend and singled out the words "*d0*" and "ooh". Could those words be clues as to what big news Sony has at this year's E3 which kicks off June 5th?

343 Industries explains the Infinity in Halo 4 as a way for your own "persistent Spartan IV" who is on board the UNSC Infinity to feed into the main storyline spawning a "second campaign". How are they doing this you ask? After Halo 4 releases, 343 will be releasing four short CGI mini-episodes each week starring the four new Spartan IV's. Your Spartan IV's story can be played with your co-op friends online and your Spartan's path is in your hands. Your persistent Spartan IV will be available for use in free for all, co-op, team, and Infinity. Not only will you be making physical changes to your Spartan over the story, but also combat changes to aid your Spartan in battle.

How much will all of this cost? Free, well sort of. If you buy the game new, it is free. If you buy it used, you also have to purchase an online pass. That's right, 343 Industries joined the online pass crowd.

Halo 4 is releasing to very eager thumbs on November 6th, 2012.

via StickSkills

It only took 12 hours and 29 minutes for level 32 Barbarian Yoshichan to complete D3 on the normal difficulty. His next move is to beat it on nightmare difficulty.

Who wants to stereotype and say this person a.) lives at home b.) daddy and mommy let him stay home from school or played the sick card c.) blew off work for this day d.) has never had sex a day in their life e.) loved that Ghost Recon Future Soldier trailer with Coco's huge ass

via Game Politics