GTA V: Pre-Order Today, Trailer Next Week

Hey sexy, looking good! No, not you, I'm talking to GTA V, which celebrates its official pre-order availability by releasing the above teaser image. Not much I know, but come next week we'll have the game's second trailer to pick apart and cook up more ridiculous theories about Nico, Claude, CJ returning for more action. Personally, I'd love for Little Jacob to have his own game. Pipe dream, feel me?

Pre-order GTA V at Amazon (referral) 

Bioshock: Infinite Resurfaces in Latest Trailer

I will admit, I've been worried about the fate of BioShock: Infinite. It's been months (maybe even a year and change) since we've last heard any good news regarding Irrational Games' latest blockbuster. Losing two, no, four developers being the only headlines the latest BioShock entry has made, things weren't looking very good up until a few days ago. The silence was broken last week when The Ultimate Songbird Edition was announced, a collectors treasure packed with just about everything: a 10" Songbird figure, Vigor bottle replica, lithograph, art book, mini Handyman figure, and an assortment of digital goods. Great! But I need just a little more visual confirmation that BioShock: Infinite is still on track.

Well, that came just a few days later in a form of the latest trailer, which shows Booker doing marvelous things while Elizabeth offers and requires assistance in bouts. I'm so relieved Irrational continues to chug away at making this game look as incredible as promised (and teased) since day one, even after losing a handful of key developers. Of course, losing said developers could impact the game in ways that are not visible in trailer form, which would probably be the case as always. Hoping all turns out well, and we're treated to a bit of that magic and wonder that we know the BioShock series is capable of, developer hemorrhage or not.

Pre-order BioShock: Infinite at Amazon (referral link)

Overstrike Ditches the Humor and Personality, Becomes Fuse

Overstrike circa Summer 2011

During E3 2011, a game called Overstrike was announced via non-gameplay trailer. While details never really surfaced, we were able to surmise that Overstrike had something to do with a team of super-spies, dripping with personality, kicking all kinds of ass amidst colorful backdrops; think Team Fortress 2 meets Borderlands. Nary a shred of information regarding Overstrike released from that day until now. Unfortunately, humor and personality doesn't sell games, or so some of these companies think.

Overstrike has been cannibalized into Fuse, a shell of its former self that puts the focus on third-person shooting action and completely strips every endearing part of the source material. Insomniac Games what the fuck are you thinking? You've taken a new IP that had tons of buzz and made it a grey-brown shoot-and-snore fest. Oh but you can use different types of ammo and work as a team of four players! And what? That's nothing we haven't seen before, in fact it's something we see almost every damn day. Witty dialogue, colorful locales, characters with real personality and a sense of humor? Something gamers rarely see. So what happened? Did the boys at EA drop the hammer on your mockups, squeezing out every inch of life to fit their standards? 

Obviously, I'm pissed off about this. Feels like I just finished playing Inversion, one of the most lifeless games I've played in a while, but it looks like Fuse is challenging for that title. Take a look at the Overstrike trailer above and the Fuse trailer below and tell me: do you think these changes have been made for the better? 

Mark of the Ninja Sneaks onto XBLA

As of yesterday, there has been a breach on Microsoft's Xbox LIVE Arcade. Early Friday morning, a shady figure in dark clothing with his face masked was seen infiltrating the platform using a combination of blinding speed, still patience, viscous killer instinct, and deathly silence; this ninja as we will call him, was designed to operate under the nose of the general population without being noticed. 

However, we have spotted the intruder and plan to alert all to his presence. Mark of the Ninja can be found on XBLA for 1200MSP. Use the cover of shadow to brilliantly execute your plan, and anyone who stands between you and your objective, my ninja. Klei Entertainment (creators of Shank, Shank 2) have taken care to craft a title that focuses on stealth as a priority, a rare feat for a ninja-centric title, which so often deal in hacking things to pieces.

Coupled with the infrequent premise of 2D stealth gameplay, Mark of the Ninja looks like a promising release. Worth the money? You'll have to wait to find that out. 

Archos Enters the Game with Android 4.1 Powered GamePad

Uninspired name aside, Archos latest piece of hardware looks like it may be on to something

The Archos brand has been synonymous with hit or miss since the company has been pumping out personal media players for as long as I can remember. Today they've announced the GamePad, a 7-inch Android powered tablet with controls built right into the hardware. Two analog nubs join a directional pad and four face buttons to give a gamer just about every input they need, shoulder buttons possibly included. This could be a very big hit. 

The GamePad is Google certified, running Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean", the latest and greatest in Google's mobile operating system. Archos has developed automatic game recognition and mapping tools, which will allow most advanced Android games to have their controls automatically mapped to the physical input with no fuss. Don't expect PeeMaster 2000 to work with the sleek dual analogs, however Shadowgun should map without issue. With full access to Google Play, you can pick from thousands of titles, any of which will function with their original touch controls should your obscure tastes be too hipster for the device.

Under the hood, GamePad is toting a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor combined with a Mali 400mp quad-core GPU, which means not quite cutting edge but way more than enough to run today's top spec Android games. No word on storage and display specifics yet, but Archos has confirmed that the GamePad will retail for under 150 euros, which is a shade under $200. I expect there to be size options which scale up with price, but more on that as the information becomes available.

As a gaming tablet, this bad boy has a lot going for it. Once you take into account the fact it's fully Google certified - Gmail, Google Play, Maps, Drive - this becomes a tablet that is very hard to turn down, especially at the curiously low sub-$200 sweet spot. Hopefully that doesn't mean skimping on the display and the build quality, something which Archos owners have bemoaned in the past. I'm intrigued, Archos. Please don't disappoint me.

Routine Takes Gaming to Horrors Apex

I haven't been genuinely frightened of a movie since sometime in the 1980s. I'm not sure if that's because I was an impressionable child, or because the movies were just plain scarier. You ever seen ET? That was a damn horrorfest, and one I hope never to see again. So here's Routine, a first-person horror exploration game set on the desolation of Earth's moon circa 198X. This is already hitting all the right notes.

In what I'd call 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Amnesia: The Dark Descent meets Panos Cosmatos, Routine looks all kinds of awesome with a dash of spook. Horror games have been mostly dead the past decade, so to see this attempt to carry the torch from Amnesia sits well with me, like a stomach full of steak and whiskey. Routine is the first offering from Lunar Software, a 3-person studio based in the UK, and is due in 2013 for both Mac and PC. I sorely miss the days of floppy disks, cross-processed colors, and retro-future technology, so I'm eagerly counting the days until I have them all back in my life.

Dark Sector's Successor is Warframe

Sometime 'round 2008 I invested a few bucks in a rinky dink game called Dark Sector, which looked right up my alley. I thought it would be a nice albeit typical trounce around the third-person shooter genre. I was not prepared for how awesome the game truly was, in just about every aspect. A gritty narrative worthy of a Baldacci novel, coupled with smooth action unique to the genre, and graphics that were ahead of the curve made for an enthralling and unexpected experience. Damn near four years later and Dark Sector developer Digital Extremes have since kept themselves busy by creating well received titles such as Homefront and The Darkness II, with nary a peep from their surprise hit. Peep. Dark Sector is back, however in a relatively changed manner.

Warframe is a free-to-play PvE shooter not unlike its progenitor, aside from the F2P and unending Horde mode bits. Digital Extremes haven't revealed much just yet, but here's a kicking trailer which puts on display some of the Tennos' abilities. By the way, Dark Sector's protagonist was named Hayden Tenno, just saying. The Tennos can perform magnificent moves such as teleporting, vanishing, and other things you'd expect of a space ninja. It looks like players will also have the ability to enhance normal actions like running and jumping, all nicely intertwined with gun and swordplay, of course. And the trailer ends with a slowing burst that levitates enemies within a perimeter to be diced to a fine mist, akin to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Yesssss. 

That's really all I got for you right now. We can no doubt expect lots of customizing and micro-transactions to create a more interesting and powerful Tenno. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that DigiEx uses this as a springboard to launch addtional content in this universe. PvP? A full and proper story to fill the gaps between the two games? The return of the glaive?! More info to come as it becomes available. In the meantime, sign up for the Warframe beta to get in on the action.

Steam Expanding to Other Things, Domination to Follow

Steam must play third base, because their corner of the industry is just about the hottest lately. Today, Valve has announced that the upcoming World power will expand beyond games, releasing "Software" titles on the platform as well. Oh snap.

The mysterious "Software" will begin to trickle onto Steam beginning September 5 and will include noted Steamworks features such as easy installation, automatic updating, and the ability to save your work to the Steam cloud.

The base set of Software will range from creativity to productivity applications, with future titles to release via Greenlight, Steam's community powered spam filter, assuring only quality makes it to the store, and subsequently to your library during one of the service's generous sales. 

This is a bold move, but the right one for the bull market minded Valve. I can see drawing and editing programs being a huge success, especially if they are priced right. The market for word processing and data entry is probably a bit (a huge bit) less, but who knows, maybe pricing and features will bring some new customers to the service. With the high-profile troubles of torrent sites in both the near and distant past and future, an aggresively priced, quality crafted application could be the most painless get for bro who was just invited to Demonoid two days before ship sank. Talk about timing, right?

No word on whether or not the Software will support chat and achievements, but I'm you'll know when you get that messge "Your friend is playing Photoshop".

OK Let's GO: Pre-Purchase the Latest Counter-Strike on Steam

I feel like I've already used that "OK Let's GO" bit in a prior article but I don't care - it's a good line. 

Valve has announced today that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available for pre-purchase on Steam; and doing just that will net you some benefits. For those of you with a weak grip on your grip, CS:GO can be had for 10% less than its normal price: $13.49 as opposed to $14.99. That's $1.50 that you could use on a bag of chips or something. Go on, indulge yourself. 

The additional benefit is early access to the beta on August 14, a full week before the title's proper release, and plenty of time to get your DEagle shined, primed, and aligned for the couple hundred thousand you should expect to face off against in the following months.

As alluded, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive releases on August 21. Good times to follow. 

Cult Classic JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Gets HD Treatment

Ora vs. Muda: the eternal struggle

What kind of bizarre (nyo ho!) world am I living in that I get to blabber about JoJo's Bizarre Adventure twice in the span of a week? Last week's announcement of All-Star Battle made my pants slightly tighter, and a few days later the deal has been sealed with the announcement of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. 

Let's be honest here, the "HD" is just a smoothing filter processed over the original pixels, but ask me if I give a fuck. Go ahead, ask. NOPE. I don't, I'm just ecstatic to be able to play this brilliant fighting game again with a slew of new features including:

• "HD" graphics with the option of playing in the original SD glory
• Online matchmaking: choose opponents based on location, skill, connection speed, etc.
• Battle Point and Player Point fueled leaderboards
• Eight player online lobby, spectator mode included
• Save and share match replays

If that's not enough to get you excited, then you clearly never played the game the first go 'round, which was way ahead of its time in just about all respects. And if you haven't, this is a great time to play a ground breaking classic. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure HD Ver. releases for XBLA and PSN on August 21 at the very Capcom price of $20.