BioWare revealed some new details and concept art for their upcoming Dragon Age III: Inquisition yesterday at the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo via Producer Cameron Lee’s tweets.

While the details themselves are fairly scant, and there’s only a few pieces of concept art available, it’s enough to keep me excited for the game. Though the second game in the series was good (depending on who you ask), I’m confident that BioWare will learn from their missteps.

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Like charity? Like games? Revision3 combines the two into a perfect marriage with a 24 hour marathon for charity through Extra Life. The marathon started at 8 AM PST, 10/20/12, and will run for…24 hours!

The marathon, ran by Rev3Games’ Anthony Carboni, Tara Long, and Max Scoville (with friends), supports children’s hospitals by way of playing through a ton of new games.

Among those that are headlining the marathon are XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Borderlands 2, but there’s plenty of other gems thrown in there for good measure, including special guests from Double Fine and Gearbox.

You can find the stream here (or below) — watch it, have fun, and donate! Read more… »

The first Season Pass incorporated DLC has arrived for Borderlands 2, and it stars…pirates. You know — yo ho ho, swashbuckling, rum, Johnny Depp and all that?

The star of our show this time around is Scarlett. Captain Scarlett, to be precise, and she leaves hardly a dull moment during the add-on. She’s an enigmatic, back-stabbing pirate who constantly reminds you that she may or may not backstab you during the course of the DLC.

Right away you can probably tell that a lot of the trademark humor from Borderlands 2 — thankfully, most of the other stuff translates, too. Read more… »

One of the key elements of the FIFA series has always been iterative improvements. Taking the core gameplay elements and making tweaks to them – but always with realism in mind.

FIFA Soccer 13 is no different this year: but the series may be in need of something new and fresh in the coming years to keep an upgrade relevant. Read more… »

Kotaku ran a live Q&A with an anonymous insider from one of those “cold, calculating mega-publishers” today. This is the second time this source has answered questions this year, and it was a great opportunity to catch a glimpse of the business side of things. Some of the topics the insider addressed included Kickstarter, day one DLC, why publishers don’t take as many risks on new IPs late in a console cycle, and more.

Their response when asked about what steps they take to get good review scores was particularly telling. “Reviews only have an impact if they’re 90+, and then the impact is huge. We don’t take steps to get good reviews, we take steps to make good games,” the source said. Of course then they ended by saying, “Then we invite [reviewers] to fancy promotional events to warm them up on the game before they play it on their own.” The whole Q&A is definitely worth your time.

[Kotaku]

Despite Prey 2‘s troubled development history and missing its 2012 release window, one of the developers at Human Head tweeted today that the game still isn’t dead. Nathan Cheever tweeted, “P2 hasn’t been officially canceled, only in limbo.”

This isn’t a new statement, as it echos statements made by publisher Bethesda in April. The game has been in limbo because development was not proceeding in a satisfactory manner. This non-update which only reinforces the game’s previous questionable status doesn’t inspire confidence that Prey 2 will ever see the light of day.

[GamesRadar]

Today Activision announced that all of the Call of Duty Elite services will be free for Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The Elite service launched last year with two tiers. While both tiers received stat tracking and social options, one of the biggest draws of the paid premium subscription was its monthly map updates.

Of course, there’s always a trade off. Instead of giving the premium Elite members early access to DLC, Activision is offering players the opportunity to purchase a season pass.

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Although I was never a diehard X-COM fan (yes, there was a hyphen at some point!), I heartily enjoyed most of the games in the franchise, particularly the few in the early-mid 90s. What made the games so special was the fact that they combined both action strategy and resource management into one beautiful, tough-as-nails marriage. Well, now the time has finally come for the franchise to grace the console generation — and I have to say, I like what I see.

There’s really no other way to put this – XCOM: Enemy Unknown is one of the best games I’ve played all year.

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Watch it now! You done? K. While this trailer only shows a little bit of gameplay, Dennaton Games’ Hotline Miami, completely nails that sleazy 80s cocaine binge vibe. What am I even looking at? A man in a terrifying, blood-stained pig mask?

Seriously, I’m really excited for this game, which is classified as a “top-down f*ck-’em-up” by publisher Devolver Digital. Hotline Miami will be released on October 23rd. You can pre-order it on Steam, GOG.com, Get Games, and GamersGate. Remember, wear something fancy.

[Destructoid]

I was a huge Need for Speed fan back in the day. But eventually, Burnout, and most notably Burnout Paradise, stole my heart and changed my perception of the series. For years I’ve felt like the NFS franchise needed some shaking up, just like Paradise did, when it shook up the entire racing genre.

Thankfully, Criterion Games has stepped up to the plate, and crafted an open world Need For Speed game with a worldmap that tops even Paradise City. Oh yea, and the game looks great so far to boot. Read more… »

Kalypso Media and Realmforge Studios released some new screenshots from Dark, their upcoming steal action game, today. These new screens introduce M17, an elite military unit that specializes in “capturing paranormal beings” and using their knowledge for “military purposes.” How vaguely nefarious!

Oh, did I mention that you play as a vampire in Dark? Something tells me that you’re a fangy, bloodthirsty type of vampire rather than the sparkles-in-the-sunlight type. Apparently M17 doesn’t take too kindly to your continued existence, but beyond that, there’s not much else available about the game other than a trailer and a couple more screenshots. Dark will be available on PC and Xbox 360 sometime in Q1 2013.

When Guardian Heroes hit the market in 1996, the gaming world shook. Never before had the genre seen such a detailed mix of beat’ em up action and RPG elements. It drew in crowds that weren’t even fans of beat ‘em ups like Double Dragon that came years before it — that’s how much power it had.

Fast forward to 2012 — a number of developers who worked on Guardian Heroes are now poised to release Code of Princess, a press-dubbed “spiritual sucessor” to Guardian Heroes. As is the case with anything that has to live up to a ton of hype and legacy, this really could have gone either way for them. Fortunately for fans, I’m pleased to say that you won’t be disappointed.

Bottom line: if you like beat ‘em ups with a solid side of quirk, Code of Princess is a must have, despite some niggling issues.

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