Catch the first bit of media( a live action trailer and a few screenshots) below.

True Crime: Hong Kong retitled ‘Sleeping Dogs’, Trailer and Screens Released is a post from: DaxGamer

Overwatch is a  Highrise-esque map that takes place atop a New York City skyscraper. The map that’s in the middle of construction site is an almost symmetrical layout that features 70  story drop-offs with no guard rails.

The next release from Activision’s ”season of content“ will take place in March and features a new map dubbed Black Box and two new Spec Ops missions.

“Overwatch” screenshots below.

Modern Warfare 3 “Overwatch” Map Available February 21, Screenshots Released is a post from: DaxGamer

If you purchase the game new you should be good to go, but anyone who rents or buys the game used will have to shell out 10 extra bucks to unlock the full game.

SSX ships on February 28, 2012 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

SSX Shipping with Online Pass is a post from: DaxGamer

Namco Bandai has delayed the release of the gravity shifting shooter yet again. The delay is to give Saber Interactive, the developer, some time to “polish” the game. The game was set for a February 7 release, but now has the vague release window of “early 2012.”

“This additional development time will allow the team to polish several key aspects of the game ensuring Inversion is of the highest quality,” says a Namco representative.

The Saber Interactive developed game was originally announced in 2009 and set for a 2010 release, but was repeatedly delayed due to various development setbacks.

Does Inversion being plagued by delays affect your decision to buy the game?

Inversion Delayed Yet Again is a post from: DaxGamer

Darksiders 2 is set for a June 2012 release.

New Darksiders II Screenshots and Trailer is a post from: DaxGamer

Today, Namco Bandai has announced the release date for Armored Core V. The game will be released March 20, 2012 in North America and March 23 in Europe for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

“Gamers have been eagerly anticipating the release of Armored Core V, which will bring strategic mech combat to new heights,” said studio head of FromSoftware, Eiichi Nakajima. “With cooperative missions, a persistent online world battling for territories and epic team battles, Armored Core V is the complete action shooter package.”

Are you looking forward to Armored Core 5?

Armored Core V Release Date Announced is a post from: DaxGamer

Spike TV has announced the full list of nominees for the 2011 Video Game Awards. The full list is posted below.

GAME OF THE YEAR

• Batman: Arkham City
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
• Portal 2
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

STUDIO OF THE YEAR

• Bethesda Game Studios
• Naughty Dog
• Rocksteady Studios
• Valve

BEST XBOX 360 GAME

• Batman: Arkham City
• Forza Motorsport 4
• Gears of War 3
• Portal 2

BEST PS3 GAME

• inFAMOUS 2
• Killzone 3
• LittleBigPlanet 2
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

BEST Wii GAME

• Disney’s Epic Mickey
• Kirby’s Return to Dream Land
• Lost in Shadow
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

BEST PC GAME

• Battlefield 3
• Minecraft
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
• Portal 2

BEST HANDHELD/MOBILE GAME

• Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
• Infinity Blade
• Super Mario 3D Land
• Jetpack Joyride

BEST SHOOTER

• Battlefield 3
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Gears of War 3
• Rage

BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME

• Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
• Batman: Arkham City
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

BEST RPG

• Dark Souls
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Dragon Age II
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

BEST MULTI-PLAYER

• Battlefield 3
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Gears of War 3
• Portal 2

BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME

• Fight Night Champion
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters
• Top Spin 4
• Virtua Tennis 4

BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME

• FIFA Soccer 12
• NBA 2K12
• NHL 12
• MLB ’11: The Show

BEST DRIVING GAME

• DiRT 3
• Driver: San Francisco
• Forza Motorsport 4
• Need For Speed: The Run

BEST FIGHTING GAME

• The King of Fighters XIII
• Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
• Mortal Kombat
• WWE All Stars

BEST MOTION GAME

• Child of Eden
• Dance Central 2
• The Gunstringer
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

BEST INDEPENDENT GAME

• Bastion
• Minecraft
• Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP
• The Binding of Isaac

BEST ADAPTED VIDEO GAME

• Back to the Future: The Game
• Batman: Arkham City
• Captain America: Super Soldier
• LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars

BEST SONG IN A GAME

• “Build that Wall (Zia’s Theme)” by Darren Korb – Bastion
• “Exile Vilify” by The National – Portal 2
• “I’m Not Calling You a Liar” by Florence + the Machine – Dragon Age II
• “Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme)” by Darren Korb – Bastion
• “Want You Gone” by Jonathan Coulton – Portal 2

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• Bastion
• Batman: Arkham City
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Portal 2

BEST GRAPHICS

• Batman: Arkham City
• LA Noire
• Rage
• Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN MALE

• J.K. Simmons as Cave Johnson – Portal 2
• Mark Hamill as The Joker – Batman: Arkham City
• Nolan North as Nathan Drake – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
• Stephen Merchant as Wheatley – Portal 2

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN FEMALE

• Claudia Black as Chloe Frazer – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
• Ellen McLain as GLaDOS – Portal 2
• Emily Rose as Elena Fisher – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
• Tara Strong as Harley Quinn – Batman: Arkham City

BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME

• Bastion
• Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
• Stacking
• Trenched

BEST DLC

• Fallout: New Vegas – Old World Blues
• Mass Effect 2: Arrival
• Mortal Kombat: Freddy Krueger
• Portal 2 Peer Review

MOST ANTICIPATED GAME

• BioShock: Infinite
• Diablo III
• Halo 4
• Mass Effect 3
• The Last Guardian

Full list of VGA 2011 nominees is a post from: DaxGamer

Ubisoft has officially announced the next Rainbow 6 game: Rainbow 6: Patriots. Patriots will follow Rainbow team as they take on a domestic terrorist group called the ‘True Patriots’. The “True Patriots” are a well-trained activist group who plan to rid the American government of greedy politicians and corporate special interests.

“Terrorism has evolved, and so has Rainbow 6. In Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, all the team play, tactics, and realism that fans of the series love have been coupled with an exciting new narrative direction,” said David Sears, creative director at Ubisoft. “This adds an unprecedented level of humanity that will make Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots an extremely tense and immersive experience.”

The game is expected to be released sometime in 2013 for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

Rainbow 6 Patriots Officially Announced is a post from: DaxGamer

It’s a bit challenging to review a game that suffers from such the dichotomy that Battlefield 3 suffers. Set in the near-future of 2014, the campaign plot is terribly cliché, involving the repeated formula of Russians, terrorism, impossibly bad-ass protagonists, and somehow always being the center of the action in a widespread conflict. The multiplayer, however, is one of the deepest, most satisfyingly exhilarating outings I’ve ever played.

As I said before, the single player is rather stereotypical, taking major cues from the Call of Duty franchise, and stepping away (disappointingly) from the Bad Company 2 formula. By this, I mean that instead of wandering vast set-pieces, dispatching enemies to your liking and utilizing player choice, Battlefield 3 does what the Call of Duty series is known for: scripted, marginalized action. Quick-time events, choke points, and lack of exploration all plague the Battlefield formula I grew to love with Battlefield: Modern Combat 2 and the Bad Company series. These games set before you objectives in a massive area (usually), and let you accomplish your goals in whatever manner you see fit. With Battlefield 3, however, choice is a thing of the past: almost every single level is very linear. Now it may sound like I’m making the campaign out to be something utterly wretched, but this is not the case. While it isn’t up-to-par with Bad Company 2’s great campaign, it is well above average, and starts to wrap things up and become interesting toward the end. You start out like a standard marine, and nothing seems too special or different from most modern war shooters, and indeed not much is. Reluctantly, this problem persists for the first half of the game, but soon (after an outstanding chase mission) the plot hooks you, and you actually start to care about what’s happening, rather than shooting at masses of dumb AI. Speaking of which, the AI isn’t very intelligent at all. They use cover, but miraculously that never seems to cover their heads, and they all die with the same amount of shots. Essentially, they’re the same thing, dressed up in different outfits and sporting different weapons. This tends to make the campaign less immersive, especially when you can clearly see how artificial and uncreative these AI really are. Going forward, the graphics, sound, and controls are all incredibly stellar throughout the entire package. The graphics really shine in the campaign though, giving some of the best textures I’ve ever seen in a videogame (supposing you have the HD content installed if playing on the Xbox 360). You’re setting up a mortar at the beginning of one level, and on your way down a hill, there are randomly assorted rocks. In sheer curiosity, I went to it to judge the textures, and these rocks (yes, I know, they’re just rocks) had the best textures on anything I’ve ever seen in a videogame. They were absolutely photo-realistic from any angle and magnification. The ending leaves a little to be desired, but is very exciting, delighting the player with intense scenes and a thrilling finale. It certainly makes up for (at least partially) the mediocre first half. Minor complaints: some dialogue is meant only to set up certain levels, an unnecessarily breathy protagonist, occasional cheap deaths, and some rare frame rate hiccups.

The multiplayer in Battlefield 3 is almost masterful. Just to get some annoyances out-of-the-way, the sound cuts out shortly occasionally, and lag is present on the servers now and then. Beyond that, though, it’s almost perfect. I love how open-ended it is, differing vastly from the single player, with dozens and dozens of unlocks to acquire, a long, long journey to the level cap of 100, and a massive amount of vehicles and options to approach any situation, this multiplayer is something that you actually want to play. I’ve always criticized Call of Duty: Black Ops by saying that if it weren’t for the currency and the rewards, the game would bore because the gameplay isn’t anything special, and it’s been done time and time again. Battlefield 3, on the other hand, says to you “Go, my gamer, and taketh the enemy’s head with any and every tool imaginable!” And so heads are taken. There’s also another great aspect of the multiplayer, and it is how the game rewards you for experimenting and doing essentially anything. Rather than scores being dictated by kills like the Halo and CoDs of the world, you are rewarded for myriad reasons, ranging from repairing allied vehicles, healing allies, laying down suppressive fire, and even to having teammates spawn on you. It’s very rewarding, on top of having incredible gameplay and being very balanced, thus adding up to be one of the best multiplayer games I’ve ever played. On Rush Mode, though, I feel as if certain maps heavily favor equipping a Recon Kit if you want to get kills, and of course you’re going to have douche bag teammates that don’t care about winning or losing, but only value their ever-so-precious K/D Ratio, so they sit back, camp, and rarely ever aid the team’s efforts at capturing M-COM Stations, or taking out vehicles. The community will develop, though, and gamers will become more skilled and effective at the tasks handed before them in time. Overall, the multiplayer is my favorite of the year, and second-favorite of all-time.

 There is also a Co-operative mode, where you and a buddy can team up and execute a select few missions inspired by the campaign. These missions aren’t nearly as addictive as the Multiplayer, but they are a very nice way to play with a friend, chat a bit, and kill some mindless AI in entertaining scenarios. Also, I should add that it is a bit more fun than the single player overall, but there are just too few levels to keep me long enough, and I wouldn’t necessarily want to replay them too many times.

An above-average single player that ends up being thrilling and rather good, one of the best multiplayer offerings ever made, and a surprisingly good Co-op mode with too few levels. You’ll blaze through the 6-8 hour campaign, frolic through the Co-op levels, but set up a permanent residence in the amazing multiplayer. I really do wish DICE would have taken more influence from their own formula, rather than take such heavy impressions from the Call of Duty series for their single player, and I do wish there were slightly more Co-op maps, but given that including the phenomenal multiplayer, this is a very, very solid package well worth the money, and is full of content (hell, it’s so much that it had to be put on two discs!). There is simply nothing on the market like this (aside from distant relations to Bad Company 1 & 2), and if you’re looking for a new type of shooter that isn’t all about twitch-reflexes, or jumping 20 feet in the air repeatedly, then this tactical, team-oriented shooter is the game for you.

Verdict: 9/10

Battlefield 3 Review is a post from: DaxGamer

There have been many successful fighting game franchises over years such as Street Fighter, Tekken, Virtua Fighter and Soul Caliber. However, there was one fighting game that managed to stand out from the rest. That game was called Mortal Kombat and it was released by Midway in 1992 and was created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. It was originally available for the arcades and later found itself on home consoles. The game was very popular despite receiving lots of criticism and controversy due to its high level of violence. The franchise has seen its fair share of ups and downs over the years. Midway eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2009 so gamers wondered if they would ever see another Mortal Kombat title again. A new developer would take the helm by the name of NetherRealm Studios which is based in Chicago. They would release the 9th entry in the series Mortal Kombat for the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Does the latest iteration deliver a flawless victory? Read the review to find out!

The latest Mortal Kombat features a pretty good story especially for a fighting genre. The game starts off with all of Mortal Kombat’s combatants decimated at the hands of the evil Shao Kahn. Raiden is the only combatant left and is about to be destroyed by Shao Kahn when he sends a premonition to himself in order to prevent the merging of Earth Realm and Outworld which would end all life on the planet. Thus, starts the Mortal Kombat tournament. Throughout the story mode you take control of various fighters along the way. The game offers veterans and rookies a new perspective. The story mode takes about 5 hours to complete which is short. Staples in the series return such as Scorpion, Sub Zero and Raiden. Other characters such as Kitana, Sonya, Ermac and Jax find their way into this latest iteration. The PS3 version gets an exclusive fighter in Kratos. In all there are 27 combatants not including the 4 DLC fighters in Kenshi, Rain, Skarlet and Freddy Krueger.

The game features a solid control scheme. Combos can be performed. You can even juggle your opponent while in the air which is difficult but it is made a little easier thanks to the simpler controls. Four buttons are used to perform attacks. Each of the four attack buttons is tied to a certain body part. Some buttons allow you to throw while others allow you to block. It’s a solid control scheme that works well for veterans and rookies alike.

Mortal Kombat is a 2D fighting game with 3D graphics (2.5D). Speaking of graphics the game looks really impressive on a large 1080p display. The fighters feature a lot of detail from the skin to the clothing. The environments are very detailed as well. There are 30 areas in which you can compete in. Combatants accumulate damage throughout the course of a fight. Take a lot of punishment and clothing will tear. Flesh will get torn and it will reveal tissue and bone. Fighters will get covered in blood. Even the ground gets covered in blood. Fatalities return this time around and are absolutely brutal. Each character has specific fatalities some of which need to be unlocked. New to Mortal Kombat are X-ray moves which are awesome yet cringe inducing the first time they are executed. There is a bar on the bottom of the screen that is divided into the tiers. Fill up all 3 parts of the bar and you are given the chance to execute said X-ray move. It causes a lot of damage and can even change the course of a fight big time. Skulls will get crushed. Ribs will break. Spines will snap. Cutscenes are well done. It’s safe to say Mortal Kombat is one of the best looking fighting games that I have seen.

The audio aspect of the game is just as good as the graphics with one minor flaw. The voice acting is pretty good with some cheesy dialog. Though, it manages to fit well in Mortal Kombat. I really enjoyed the music which got me pumped up during the fights. Punches, kicks, fatalities and X-ray moves all sound really good. My advice is to turn up the volume which should give gamers a real treat during the game’s fighting sections.

The game doesn’t cut back on modes. You have a tutorial mode which gets you accustomed to the game’s controls, each fighter’s moves and a new addition to the series tag team fighting. Rookies will greatly benefit from this mode. Ladder mode has you face off against 10 fighters and then eventually you go up against Shao Kahan. Speaking of Shao Kahn the fight against him is very difficult because he fights really cheap. Somehow he can cancel a move and then start another. He even has moves that are unblockable which makes no sense at all. Then you have Challenge Tower which which has about 300 challenges and mini games that get increasingly difficult as you progress further. That mode by itself will take a great deal of time to beat. Mortal Kombat wouldn’t be complete without online multiplayer. You have your typical one on one versus mode. There is a tag team Ladder mode which features two teams of two. You have 10 fighters in each lobby. There is a mode called King of the Hill mode. You keep fighting until you are defeated. There are Ranked, Player and Private matches. There is even a leaderboard that keeps track of your performance. Of course you have the Krypt. This is where you can purchse artwork, alternate customes, fights and extra fatalities. It does take time to unlock everything and there are items that are hidden. It is well worth the time and effort.

Mortal Kombat is a great game. The voice acting is pretty good and although there is some cheesy dialog it works well nonetheless. The controls are solid. Performing combos and juggling enemies in the air is difficult but it is made easier thanks to the simpler control scheme. The game has a pretty good story. The graphics look really good with detailed fighters and environments. I really enjoyed performing the X-ray moves and fatalities. There is a lot of content besides the Story mode such as, Tutorial mode, Ladder mode, Challenge Tower and of course Online mode. You have the Krypt where you can unlock artwork, outfits, fights and extra fatalities. Having Tag Team mode for the first time in the series is a great addition. The story is mode is too short. Facing Shao Kahn is a major annoyance because he fights so cheap. Those are my only two gripes with the game. Mortal Kombat is a return to form for the franchise and is the best fighting game that I have played this year.

Mortal Kombat PS3 Review is a post from: DaxGamer