This weekend, CryTek announced the release of the latest version of the free CryEngine 3 SDK, version 3.4 which supports new and revamped features including some highly anticipated DirectX 11 features among its core updates.

Among the more noticeable upgrades, the CryEngine 3.4 SDK which is of course available as a free download now offers game developers updated DX11 tessellation, new advanced character rendering options, improved AI systems with multi-layer navigation meshes, improved skin rendering, eye and glass shaders, geometric light beams and a slew of bug fixes and general improvements to existing features. A non exhaustive list of some of the key updates can be found below with the full SDK 3.4 changelog following below the official release trailer.

Key enhancements free CryENGINE 3 SDK users can look forward to in version 3.4 are:

-Revamped DirectX 11 Tessellation
DX11 support and tessellation has come a long way since Crysis 2. Phong, PN triangles and displacement maps, along with no need for pre-tessellated assets, makes CryENGINE’s DX11 support among the best in the industry.

-Multi-layer Navigation Mesh
The multi-layer navigation is a powerful new and easy-to-use navigation system that AI agents utilize to path-find through game maps.

-Improved Skin Rendering and Eye Shader
New scattering approach gives more realistic rendering with fewer artifacts. New settings, checkboxes and sliders for things like oiliness, iris control, colors, pupil dilatation, tessellation and parallax support make CryENGINE character rendering more advanced and customizable than ever before.

-Advanced/Improved/Extended Glass Shader
The glass shader is a specialized tool for rendering glass-based surfaces. It can represent a wide range of glass types, including regular windows, stained glass, leaded glass, beveled glass, some crystal types and some types of transparent plastics as well. The improved glass shader now also boasts features such as a dirt layer designed to produce extremely realistic-looking glass surfaces complete with dust and dirt, differential fog and refraction blur.

In addition to:

-Improved glass rendering.
-Geometric light beams.
-Point light shafts.
-Time of day based filmic HDR tone mapping.
-Curves and key tangents for time of day.
-User controlled per cascade shadow bias through time of day.
-Improved transitions between levels of detail.
-Volumetric fog features extended and improved.
-Improved distance cloud shading.

Source: crydev.net

CryENGINE 3 3.4.0 SDK Full Changelog

• Refactored UI game events
• Added new UIGameEvent class (moved functions from UIActionEvents to this class)
• New interface for auto registering to UIManager
• Continuous update is not automatically paused/restored when filtering/restoring the visible objects inside sandbox. Pausing the continuous update also when jumping into game in Sandbox.
• Include node indices in navigation graph debug draw
• DX11 CBuffer Downscale Improvements + fixes
• Make sure vehicles can use the Multi-layer Navigation
• Added Overwrite All button to checkout dialog
• Added FG node to catch and trigger upon animation events set up in character editor
• Changed UIEventSystems of old game dll to use new event dispatchers
• HUD3D use correct offsets for different resolutions
• Now correctly set the alpha for glass phys fragments.
• Added variable stable fragment size to glass, meaning smaller pieces can stick nearer edges.
• Coloured glass particle effects to match glass material (Off by default).
• Enabled glass cvars in release builds.
• Fixing EngineAssets location
• Add icon and version number to remote shader compiler
• Remove some obsolete shaders from the shader list
• Gamma changes now respect window focus in Dx10/11 (As per Dx9 in DeviceLost state).
• Support for non-uniform phys scaling (clone-based)
• Set the web server port for the Remote Shader Compiler
• Re-added EF_Query( EFQ_D3DDevic )
• FrameProfileSystem now displays frame time, lost time, and overhead with same averaging method as profile entries.
• Time of Day: added serialization of key flags for splines
• Sandbox, Time of Day: added toolbar for Spline editor, dockable frames.
• Added “Reverse” to MaterialEffect particle hit direction options.
• Add GeometryBeam inside the Sandbox shader list
• Remote Shader Compiler to VS2010
• Set ai_MNMEditorBackgroundUpdate to 1 by default
• Shadowpool caching support, blockpacker usage fixed
• Being able to choose an entity class category from within Lua scripts and external entity class handlers used inside the Editor, instead of always putting them into “Default”
• Added callback to handle glass system cvar changes. Tidies up the temp crash fix.
• Enabled the new glass system by default when in multiplayer.
• Implements the light animation by (ab)using the light node in the movie system.
• Adds position/rotation animation support to the light animation system.
• Makes it possible to scrub a light animation through the regular TrackView interface.
• Move more textures to Engine\EngineAssets
• Lua debugger GUI improvements
• Added GameScript projects to GameCodeOnly solutions
• Implements the film curve preview in the Time Of Day dialog.
• New UIEvent receiver and sender helpers for variable args and arg count
• Some helper functions for easier UIEventDesc creation
• Allow to use Vec3 as type for UIEvent FlowNode ports
• Rework TemplBeamProc 1. Dust 2. Air Turbulence 3. Volumetric Shadows
• Re-add start and end colors
• Simple tool to check flags
• New glass shader featuring: Improved lighting consistency. Support for opaque layer, tint color map, alphatest shadows using opaque map, blurred refraction (High end only). Removed support for alphablended non-refractive glass. Tidied up legacy code.
• Glass Shader: Added diffuse multiplier to vertex alpha.
• Glass Shader: Added global opacity multiplier.
• Enable geometry instancing by default
• Changed UIEventSystems to use new easier style (new game dll first)
• Improve default values for film curve tod settings
• Add MotionBuilder 2012 exporter to be built in the tools solution file
• Updated UpdateCryGameScriptsProject
• HUD3d position C2 calculation
• Database Save button now enabled/disabled depending on count of modified libraries.
• Added cvar to define if _mp should be auto added to sound files on mp
• Enhanced particle MaterialEffects, allowing direction type to be specified per-effect, same as other effect modifiers. Compatible with ealier XML that specifies it per group.
• Allow lazy updates for flash elements
• Allow to override dyn tex with from uielement
• Only render uielelemnt to dyn tex if needed (with lazy render flag)
  Optimizations:
• Removed useless GUID info from ParticleEffects.
• Resizing and “Look & Feel” of the solid panel
• Perf improvements to glass triangle hashing loop.
• Saving of ~300 bytes per glass RN by removal of temp vars and class restructuring.
• Swapped a large continuous glass array for a smaller cyclic one. Up to 40kb PC and 10kb consoles saved.
• Glass impact decal params are now only calculated once instead of every frame.
• Using CTRL + Middle Mouse to add/remove a flowgraph breakpoint
• ITimer and FrameProfile systems now consistently use CryGetTicks(), replacing runtime tests and function pointers.
• Removed unused members in ProfilerInfo.
• Added state to SParticleUpdateContext to reduce repeated computations.
• Integration of multi-particle ParticleEmitter.EmitParticles() change.
• Sped up emit rate/count computation in SubEmitter.EmitParticles(). Cache EmitCountScale, avoid calling GetExtent() during particle emission.
• Removed SAnimationDesc struct from code and new AnimGraph files, following C2 behavior. Replaced with runtime functions to compute SAnimationMovement and get SAnimationSelectionProperties*.
• Removed unused GetAnimationLength functions.
• Adjusting view distance ratio on a few object for consistency
• Sandbox Rollupbar resizing and “look & feel”
• Cleaned up gamma ramp calculations, now round results correctly.
• Prevent execution of sound creation code with an empty sound name string and display of an unnecessary error message to the log
  Refactoring:
• Little simplification to tod sun shadow cascades control/removed hdr contrast control
• Tweakable per-cascade shadow bias
• Significantly improve shader compilation speed by replacing fxc with cryfxc
• Move cryfxc into PCD3D11/v005
• Adding d3d compiler dll to be complete
• Rename %DETAIL_MAPPING back to %DETAIL_BUMP_MAPPING to maintain backward compatibility
• Added inline tick functions to ITimer: GetTicks(), GetTicksPerSecond(), TicksToSeconds(). Removed silly virtual TicksToMillis/Nanos(). Also added GetNonFiberTicks(), which subtracts FiberYieldTime(), simplifying a lot of code. Removed redundant tick functions and members from FrameProfileSystem.
• Movd OPT_STRUCT facilities from TypeInfo.h to platform.h. Made member and acccessor names more consistent: _Member, Accessor(), Setter(val)
• Remove not needed ifdef GAME_IS_CRYSIS2
• Branch refactoring
• Update the ToolkitPro .dll inside the Tools directory
• Removed support for deprecated fog mode. Prerequisite for coming volumetric fog enhancements.
• Add parser support for shader interpolator arrays
• Terrain non linear alpha blending factor support (“blend layer”)
• Updates for per-light shadow bias / lights specular was mismatching sun specular / tone mapper curve tod control / brute force dof quality mode+ resolution scale fix
• Separates the HDR parameters and packs together with the film curve preview in the TimeOfDay dialog.
• Increase the range of volumetric scale
• Move light beam update to a new shader
• Adapting 3dMouse default values
• Validate shaders for fog and water volumes
• Removing geom_instancing=0
• Small tweak to vignetting texture (was a bit overkill)
• Remove grass material pre-multiply on diffuse colour
• Removing per art request cvdetailscale (and old cvnumlayers)
• Moved CryCG to mingw-gcc based builds
• Move two more textures to Engine\EngineAssets
  Added:
• Added missing file that’s being referenced for grenades
• Adding scripts only RC Job
  Deleted:
• Deleted StaticSymbols.cpp (obsolete)
• Delete no longer needed test file
• Delete depreciated Tool Box config file
• Delete depreciated Modelling Panel file
• Delete unused/unavailable item from equipment pack
• Delete depreciated file (Tools -> User Commands)
  Tweaks:
• Updated AsianCoaxialWeapon to use HMG weapon sounds. Lowered rate of fire for visuals to match audio.
• Removed GAME_IS_CRYSIS2 from AI system, replaced with local define in AI system if new flight navigation should be used
• Better facing for dynamic flash tags
• Adjusting new script separation RC Job processing
• Adding R_HDRBlueShift = 0.
• Adding new glass decal controls, default values.
• Fixed issue with unused grenade types (flash, emp, smoke) spamming console. Fixed spacing. Fixed issue with incorrectly pointing helper.
• Removed vehicleCollisionDestructionSpeed=”4″ param from MH60. Was blowing up far too easily when nudging other vehicles.
• Removed commented out CVars. Changed r_HDRRendering default to ’3′.
• Lowered grenade damage (250 -> 150). Lowered min/max radius 5/15 -> 2/10. More realistic behaviour for a frag grenade, less chance of killing yourself.
• Keeping the joint velocities when “ragdollizing” the actor. Better for the Hit/Death Reactionsystem (death reactions).
• Sandbox, Time of Day: More sensible default zoom settings, cleanup.
• Added isPassengerShielded=”1″ to gunner seat for protection against rockets.
• Tweaked damage and radius on vehicle explosions. Fixed issue with Abrams explosion not causing reaction (delay set to 0.2).
• Updated path to new cloth asset
• Updating size of glass texture atlas.
• Changed the default TOD to suit new filmic tone mapper (r_HDRRendering 3)
• Ensured lock pointer is NULL before attempting to lock to help track down a possible failed LockVB crash
• Renamed CryEngine_GameCodeOnly to CryEngine_GameCodeOnly_LEGACY
• Small code cleanup
• Adjusting RC Job for new script processing
• Tweak default TOD – decreased DOF settings
• Adding ai_MNMEditorBackgroundUpdate to system.cfg to generate nav mesh in editor whilst not the primary focus
• Removed upper limit for maximum players in multiplayer
• R_shadowsstencilprepass const cvar set to 2
• Removed hardcoded weapon attachment definitions, instead loaded in a data driven way.
• Made some glass index types more explicit to help avoid errors.
• Updated glass decal atlas – Slightly increased white-levels on larger break pattern.
• Removed glass system cvar from multiplayer.cfg as now globally enabled.
• Renamed CryEngine_VS10.mk to new name as well
• Changed 0xCE 0×94 to delta
• Added canary for CRenderObject id overflow
• Tweak HMMWV – added dynamic light for headlights
• Disabled the game side stealth-o-meter code in the Target Track Threat Modifier. CL676413 – !B Fixed issue where the visual stimulus would be pushed down because the outThreat wouldn’t be set by the threat modifier.
• Removed unnecessary file copy and linker flag
• Minor cleanup of make variables
• Reduced smart path follower look ahead distance to 0.33 meters instead of 10
• Updated system.cfg to clarify sys_spec is only for Launcher and not for Editor
• Cleaned GameCodeOnly solutions
• Character shader refactoring/cleanup.
• Update multiplayer.cfg – Removed several duplicate CVars. Removed graphics related CVars that shouldn’t be MP specific and are defined in main CVarGroups (viewdistratios, etc). Removed obsolete CVars.
• Removed unnecessary UI warnings
  Fixes:
• Sandbox will now notify the designer if they are trying to “Export to Engine” while the navigation data didn’t finish the processing operation. Also Launcher will load the navigation data even if there is a version inconsistency between the MNM configuration file and the exported data
• Fix the result value returned by the RayCast in case the ending triangle is not acceptable.
• Small fix due to renamed GetUserName
• DX11 CBuffer Downscale Improvements
• Disabled warning “Could not read AI Cover Surfaces” when there are no Cover Surfaces on the map
• Crash when drawing debug information for formations
• Fixed Entity Pool
• Fixed GetOutputXMLFileName if empty string is passed
• Time Of Day: Fixed creation of property nodes after re-opening the dialog box
• Fixed: HitDeath Reactions didn’t consider caused damage for explosions
• Fixed: HitDeathReactions never checked if ragdollizing the actor is allowed
• Fix global initialisers in x64 release builds
• Fixed: Possible infinite loop while loading malformed Lua breakpoint information from breakpoints.lst
• Improved Scoped Time Logger
• Fixed potential crash in CStructInfo.FindSubVar
• Fixed: Readded Game Token type not set correctly (always used type string, bad for network serialization)
• Move into Compiler from typo’d directory.
• Removed double-triangle hash on glass node initialisation.
• Fixed a case where glass phys frags with id 0 were using garbage geometry.
• Fixed: No Bird boids animations
• Blend layer color input fix for vegetation
• Crash fix for MP if no game mode is set
• Fixed CSaltBufferArray::IsValid
• Fixed: Missing caused damage parameter when notifying the HDR system (Collision)
• Final fix for x64 static linking
• Fixed: Weird living entity behavior on non terrain ground.
• Fixed health not updated on hud
• Fixes the issue of ‘r_measureoverdraw’ not working in DX11.
• Fixed: Crash in BreakableManager
• Fixed: Wrong path to default CGF
• Shadow tweaks
• Finally fixed crash in profile system when changing profile_allthreads from 0 to 1.
• !I potential multithreading problem with rigidbody mass recomputation
• Enable flowgraph nodes Input:Key and Input:Action in multiplayer
• AnimationGraph: Fix for animation randomizer not being properly called, resulting in unrandomized repetition when multiple characters enter the same state
• Tick timing fixes and cleanup:
• Fixed inconsistencies in CryGetTicks, QueryPerformanceCounter, and QueryPerformanceFrequency. CryGetTicks is now equivalent to QPC on all platforms, fixing some profiling results. Win32/64 use Windows QPC rather than RDTSC, as it’s guaranteed thread-safe, and has acceptable performance on Profile builds.
• Sandbox: “Inside the Time of Day window, groups of keyframes cannot be deleted.” –
• Sandbox: “Time of Day: When first opening the Time of Day, the timeline scrubber does not render/refresh”
• Fixed: Material Picker doesn’t pick correct submaterial
• Fixed: Don’t receive update item callbacks when setting the initial values in the TimeOfDayDialog
• Fixed wrong vcproj file settings in Project.mk
• Fix dissolving issues on sprites causing flickering
• Sprite-model dissolving quality improvements
• Fix up lod dissolving issues on view change
• Dissolve improvements – distance based, cross over LODs to minimise volume differences and screen-space noise
• Implement dissolve to-from nothing/bottom LOD/sprite
• Fixed D3D11 staging texture leak – introduced pool of staging textures
• Ensured that staging textures only get freed on Unlock, if they were allocated as a result of a Lock
• Fixed log(0) FPE
• Fixed: Footstep sounds and player water interaction not working
• AnimationGraph: Additives Modifier will now correctly end looping animations even if multiple characters are in the same state
• Duplicated cvar registrations
• Compile fixes for VS2010, plus fix for long running shader servers
• Fix shader lists being left as .tmp files if rename fails (adds same 5s retry as with delete of old .txt files)
• Removed non-ansi characters that makes errors when building with asian locale
• Correctly adding the mnm data file (.bai) to the level.pak
• Renamed IUIElement to IUIObject since it conflicts with IFlashUI
• Crashfix if shader error message occur while platform os is not initialized yet
• Fixed DebugCallStack::FillStackTrace in 64-bit mode
• Fixed: Expended ammo was never reset correctly when dropping/picking up the weapon.
• Various fixes for pointer checks, missing initialisation, incorrect asserts, unhelpful log messages, bad indentation.
• Fixed: Puppet range container was never reset. Was constantly growing inside Sandbox.
• Alpha value now used for refractive particles on blending as well as bump scaling, for proper results with overlapping particles.
• Fixed FPE in ParticleContainer.ComputeUpdateContext when TurbulenceSize was small.
• Fixed correct editor set level
• Fixed function BasicActor:InitialSetup
• Fixed compile error in debug win32
• Refactor instancing RT flags to reduce shader combinations
• Fixed “ai_DebugDrawVolumeVoxels” and removed (unused) volume hidespots-related code
• Fixed basic event hanlder
• Fixed correct windows event handlint
• Temporary crash fix for new glass system
• Static analyzer warnings fix
• Fix crash when a texture is used for rendering which was created during the precache phase
• Fixed assert in Debug-Renderer
• Compile fix + fix for gs tweakables not being properly set/declared
• Ensure right view projection matrix used for waterfoginto
• Fix Color shift bug. Renamed the generation params
• Couple more shader compilation fixes/cleanups
• Register class otherwise renderer will not be able to create render window
• Don’t add bullet impulse if there was no rendermesh hit
• AI: CGoalPipeXMLReader::ParseGoalOp (COPWait does not work for XML goal pipes)
• Fixed: Full recursive clone for archetype entities properties table
• AI: CETHR-1075: SIGNALFILTER_SUPERFACTION always sends signal to Player (regardless of faction)
• An issue with multiple phys areas affecting an entity
• Fixed: Boolean properties didn’t work when using external entity property handler
• Some fixes to linked scaled physics objects
• Fixed: Typing in new helper directions didn’t update correctly the actual helper rotation in the Vehicle Editor. Only worked when rotating it in the viewport.
• Fixed static linking of dedicated server without staticsymbols.cpp
• Fixed mem overwrite crash in WriteVerticesIndirect, and removed implicit container count limit
• Fix AnimGraph file compatibility with new cvar which indicates AnimDesc objects in ver 63 files.
• Re-enabled USE_SELECTION_PROPERTIES define, as AnimationSelectionProperties required for pre-Crysis2 AnimGraph code.
• Lightbeam Hot Fix
• Fix shader compilation bug
• Fixed: HitDeath Reactionsystem health thresholds were never used
• Fixed: TacticalPointSystem AvoidCircle not working correctly
• Fixed: Display name sometimes not set to an empty string for the Material Picker Tool
• Removed missing files from Editor project
• Added free_container of s_pWaterHitsMGPU to avoid level leak
• Fixed aux geom level leak
• Fixed memory overwrite in terrain serialisation
• Glass depth fog correctly uses refracted depth.
• Instancing-related shader compiler error fixes
• Preset wasn’t specified (from now on it uses “Gradient” preset)
• Had no crytif settings: now uses preset=DiffuseLowQ
• Had no crytif settings specified, now it’s HDRReflectionsRGBK_high
• Fixing wrong preset used, now it’s HDRCubemapRGBK_highQ
• Adds mips to noise texture
• SetMaxWaterDepth and SetMinWaterDepth use the wrong depth value in cm. They multiply the value in meter twice.
• Fixed invalid index buffer sizing on glass fragments.
• Removed redundant draw attempt on glass fragments.
• Removed double offset in DX11 DevBuffer updates.
• Sprites popping in and out.
• Fix juddering sprite quads
• Initialise LOD transition state on vegetation to prevent lots of dissolves when turning
• Cut down on sprite updates due to light info changing
• Sprite/model lighting differences – write more upward normal for sprites to receive more ambient light.
• LOD/dissolving issues – account for instance scale in sprite switch distance
• LOD popping/sprite accuracy – fix editor tool to allow artists to clear rotations on vegetation
• Fixed missing sprites if vegetation lod0 mesh is not streamed in yet
• Default to least detailed LOD for sprite generation – Grass sprite fix with new sprite system.
• Fixing the debug draw of the path with the MNMPathStart and MNMPathEnd tag point. It now correctly checks if the path was found to add the start and end position to the path point.
• Allow path and raycast debug also without MNMDebugLocator and minor code adjustments for the RayCast over the MeshGrid
• Add AlphaBlendShadows in the shader parser for the new beam shader
• Fixed Multi-layer Navigation menu items
• Time Of Day: Time and Speed settings are always saved – after editing and dialog closure
• Some fixes to articulated kinematic objects
• Fixed: ZeroG update ignores global gravity
• Fixes path to new engine assets dir
• X64 relese fixes
• Fixed CullRenderer crash due to uninitialized values
• Fixed error in devirt when providing a path with ends with a path seperator
• Abbreviated SpecFromDiffuse shader param names so that they fit in the material editor without resizing the labels
• Fixed inverted zoom adjustment for particle Max Distances.
• Some fixes to player-player collisions
• Fixed: AI Actors not triggering Area triggers
• MD: Fixed compile issue for MotionBuider plug-ins.
• Fixed UIInput to be usable with controller analog stick as well
• Fixed: Invalid point access in curved editor control
• Safety guard for potential tone mapper updates with incorrect 0..1 mapping
• Shader compilation fixes
• Fix shader compile error
• Couple more compile fixes
• Fixed: Music Graph doesn’t invalidate correctly the panels after loading a new graph
• Fix for shadows batching into scene normals alpha channel (when shadows disabled, shadows term was glossiness)
• Don’t create shaders which are requested from compressed shaders only
• Fixed documentation of console variable “ai_DebugDrawNavigation”
• Fixed: Possible Crash when removing material effects FG content
• Fixed typo in rope node that was using position as U texture coordinate.
• Removing unexisting old file from DedicatedLauncher and Launcher
• Fixed: Crash on chainloading a level on a Dedicated Server due to not unloading the previous level before changing the game context
• Particle Effect Enable/Disable menu commands now modify library.
• Fixed: Opening/Closing prefab or group didn’t update the prefab flowgraph list correctly
• The following shaders/features are removed: metal, custom, rain layer

Walking around with heavy machine guns and anti aircraft guns trying to kill everything that moves… No I am not talking about the latest Rambo movie, I am talking about the latest trailer for Prototype 2. That’s right, in this trailer James Heller is showing off his cool new toys in style by blazing hot lead where it has never gone before! One thing I don’t understand in this trailer is the silly voice saying “boom” or “NOPE”, it just sounds really weird and out of context in the trailer at least. Let’s hope they won’t put it in the actual game because I might have to turn on some music and mute the game while playing. Prototype 2 will hit the shelves on April 24, 2012 available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. Check out the trailer for yourself down here.

Fresh Crysis 3 details have been leaked via a russian link aggregation site, which claims the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC threequel will release in spring 2013. Electronic Arts was forced to acknowledge the leaks today and stated that more information will be following next week. Crysis 3 will take place in a heavily destroyed New York which has become “almost a jungle”, thus combining the settings of the first and second games. I personally hoped for a new and more creative setting. Crytek apparently promised to deliver “the best sandbox FPS in the market”. We can only wait and see if they can hold true to their promise, at least we already know it isn’t going to be the most innovative sandbox FPS in the market.

Capcom has moved forward the release date of Resident Evil 6 by a month pushing it to October 2nd 2012 instead of November 20th. They made the announcement at the Capcom Captivated event in Rome communicating the date change from old to new at the end of the latest trailer. The new Resident Evil 6 trailer shows a lot of new footage and some characters returning to the franchise but all in all the trailer does personally bore me a little and I hope it won’t represent what the actual game will be like when it’s released.

The publisher also released some juicy details about the campaign, Resident Evil 6 has three campaigns you can play in any order you please, starting with Leon in the US, with Chris in China, or with Jake in Idonia. Muller’s campaign begins in the fictional Eastern European nation where he was born. The son of Albert Wesker, Muller’s blood holds the cure for the Resident Evil 6′s new C-Virus; in fact, Muller’s blood can handle any consonant you can throw at it – C, T, G, or t+G – which makes him the most valuable man in the world during 2013′s age of global bio-terrorism.

“Jake’s story is a story of escape,” says Resident Evil 6′s Director, Eiichiro Sasaki; “he is being followed and he is trying to evade these forces that are trying to capture him in the middle of the Idonian civil war. The horror elements you can introduce in that type of story are different from other characters, and the way he will play is different, too.”

The reason for moving the release date forward is explainable according to Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. He thinks “it’s smart to be in front of competitive games”. Also the new release date will make Resident Evil 6 available for sale a week in advance of Assassin’s Creed 3 and Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Pachter continues: “I’m sure it was for competitive reasons. Although not the same genre, BioShock: Infinite is close to a horror-style game, and it’s coming out mid-October.”

Resident Evil 6 will be available on October 2nd 2012 on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

The only people who would say Reach is the best game in the Halo series are those who never played any of the others. It’s a sad realization when you come to it, like getting stuck with a plasma grenade. But the future looks promising with a new game on the horizon and a somewhat new studio at the helm. Let’s look to our Halo past in hopes that it determines a better future.

Go Back Again: The Wrongs of Reach

Maps – If there is one function of the maps in Halo: Reach, it is to accommodate the load outs. Reach clearly subscribes to the mantra that “bigger is better”. Never have players spent so much time in matchmaking walking to the battle. What’s clearly the main focus of many maps in Reach is that they bend to accommodate the various load outs; gone is the emphasis on weapon placement and base balance. You can still strategize and hold key areas on many maps that will surely be the key to victory, but there isn’t that same level of thought we’ve seen in past iterations.

Ranking System – In Halo: Reach, the number of credits dictates when you rank up. Therefore, ranking is not a function of skill, it’s a matter of time. So the highest rank doesn’t go to the pro player who has a stellar K/D and consistent performance, rather the addict who plays non-stop. In a game that doesn’t clearly separate the best from the worst, there is no weight given to rank. And so, aside from the lackluster map packs of Reach, the ranking system is probably the biggest step backwards the Halo franchise took with Reach. A suggestion: don’t fix what isn’t broken. Revert to the ranking system of Halo 3, and flesh it out by adding more tiers.

Credit System – The concept of money only works when it holds value. By tying the use of credits solely to armor upgrades, Bungie tells those players who aren’t interested in character customization that there is no reason to strive for higher jackpots, little deterrent to quitting early, and virtually no reward for good play when you consider that the rank system is also broken. A suggestion: while queuing, players outside the game should be able to wager their credits on the outcome of the game currently in progress, who the MVP will be, who will get the final kill, etc. Bottom line, there needs to be more depth in the credit system for those of us disinterested by Spartan shopping.

Honourable mention: Lobby map previews are stock photos, theatre controls are still cumbersome, lack of vehicular innovation, max. cut off of local players in certain playlists, can’t review challenges once completed, rehashing campaign missions for credits

We’re There: What’s Right in Reach

Solid Campaign – One area that has never suffered in the franchise is the campaign. Reach was especially ambitious by expanding the narrative’s focus on the multiple main characters of Noble 6 team. The story was compelling, the adaptation was faithful, and they paid homage when homage was due. Though the campaign of any FPS is over-shadowed by the main event that is Multiplayer Matchmaking, Reach did a great job of making us care about the origin story.

Matchmaking Interface – Pop in a copy of Halo 2 or 3 and you’ll realize just how far the out-of-game experience has improved. Reach’s game selection makes the older veto process look primitive and limited. Queuing and joining are simple yet intuitive. Carnage reports offer the level of depth players want after every match. Even the playlists are organized into better segments to ensure you find the game type you want to be playing.

The Concept of Load Outs – To reiterate, the concept of power-ups each with their own advantage and disadvantage is fantastic. It adds to the “rock paper scissors” that the weapon balance worked so hard to achieve. However, the specific load outs that were included in Reach are unbalanced in a “rock paper bigger rock” relationship. Armor lock effectively deterred the use of grenades. Jet packs punctuated fall damage to the point that players don’t feel like Spartans anymore. Invisibility is an unbalanced 2-for-1 that also jams radar. It all feels like a way to offer COD-esque sprinting without seeming like modern shooters.

Honourable mention: Assassination animations

All in all, Halo 4 is going to be a blockbuster game with a massive fan base and even larger expectations. Do you agree with what I’ve outlined as the rights and wrongs of the last game? What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the franchise, and what do you hope to see in Halo 4? Let us know in the comments below.

Article written by Adam Rodricks.

With nothing to do with all my pent up rage towards motion control, I thought “what would an angry house-wife in the 1950s do?” and I wrote some strongly-worded letters to the forefathers of motion-control gaming.

Dear Wii Sports,
Attention: Wii Tennis
I spent hours in you (TWSS) perfecting my swing. I duplicated my forehand in real life, even adding a second hand for maximum precision. It was a full-body work out. I felt the burn, I sweat the sweat. All just to be beaten by a disinterested friend, who could barely be bothered to flick his wrist. Just one more occasion where a man’s right hand beats the real thing.

Dear Skyrim,
Have a great summer. Don’t change, bro. Don’t change.

Have you experienced similar frustrations with the current-generation’s motion-controlled games? Do you want to see them invest more in it? Let us know in the comments below.

Like we announced a few days ago, tonight Ubisoft released the official Assassin’s Creed 3 launch trailer! Last week magazine Game Informers and Ubisoft released various images of the box art and concept drawings. After seeing those images it was pretty clear the new Assassin’s Creed game was going to be set in the 18th century during the American Revolution. Ubisoft has described the game as the largest project in the company’s history. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal in collaboration with six other first party studios, it has been in the works for over three years with twice the production capacity of any previous title from the publisher. Assassin’s Creed 3 will be available on October 31 2012 on Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. Below is the official announcement plus the awesome looking trailer, enjoy!

Assassin’s Creed III is powered by Ubisoft-AnvilNext, a revolutionary new game engine that delivers breakthroughs in visual quality, character models and artificial intelligence. Assassin’s Creed III will feature a ground-breaking level of stunning graphics that bring Colonial America to life.

Set against the backdrop of the American Revolution in the late 18th century, Assassin’s Creed III introduces a new hero, Ratohnaké:ton, of Native American and English heritage. Adopting the name Connor, he becomes the new voice for justice in the ancient war between the Assassins and Templars.

Players become an Assassin in the war for liberty against ruthless tyranny in the most stylized and fluid combat experiences in the franchise to date. Assassin’s Creed III spans the Revolutionary War, taking gamers from the vibrant, untamed frontier to bustling colonial towns and the intense, chaotic battlefields where George Washington’s Continental Army clashed with the imposing British Army.

“Assassin’s Creed III features the franchise’s most expansive setting so far, along with an exciting new hero and exponentially more gameplay,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “Whether you’re a longtime fan of Assassin’s Creed or if you’re new to the franchise, you’re going to be blown away by the scale and marvel of Assassin’s Creed III.”

Additional Assassin’s Creed III details can be found in exclusive cover features in the next issues of Official Xbox Magazine (20th March), Official Playstation Magazine (20th March) and Nintendo Gamer (23rd March).

The battle between the Templars and Assasins will continue during the latter half of the 18th century in the new world: America. Today Game Informers released their April cover images which show Assassin’s Creed 3′s “daring new hero” wielding an axe and pistol. Along with the publication of the box covers and the other images the magazine writes:

“Ever since the conclusion of Assassin’s Creed II, a senior team of Ubisoft developers has been secretly toiling away on what comes next. That team aimed high, with plans to examine and rethink every element of the franchise from the ground up, build something new, and take a full three year development cycle to do it.

“The game that emerged is Assassin’s Creed III. Set in the latter half of the 18th century, we’ll see the war between the Templars and the Assassins escalate as it crosses over to the New World of America, and witness firsthand the events of the American Revolution.”

“Caught in the conflict is a daring new hero in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. We have the full story of this new hero and the striking game in which he stars, along with exclusive screens and art from the project, all packed into a massive 13-page cover story.”

Ubisoft said that the switch to the 18th century conflict will mark its “biggest installment yet”. They continued: “We confirm that Ubisoft will announce all the details of Assassin’s Creed III on Monday March 5th at 5pm.”

I have a habit of staring. Most often it’s off into the distance or down at my shoes, but occasionally my absent-minded glare leads others to think I’m interested in things (and people). Such was the case at Gamestop last week. “I see you looking at our upcoming releases. Are you interested in pre-ordering and receiving an exclusive reservation bonus?” I resisted the urge to blurt out “who are you? What’s going on?” and silently shook my head. Then it hit me. I’m almost indifferent about pre-ordering games these days.

Once upon a time, I was a kid who not only knew the release dates of games, but also the day that the pre-orders opened. I’d guard those receipts with my life up until the day of launch, for nothing more than the experience promised to me. No perks, no additional content, no shoddily made hats that smell like an old Italian man. Just the game. So why, when we now receive more for doing the exact same thing, do I now regard the pre-order process so unfavorably?

Only at Gamestop – A big reason for my jaded view is store-exclusive content. What the big retailers are telling me is that I can’t have a complete game unless I buy it from them. Well I don’t need 5 copies of Resident Evil 5. And I’m not willing to wait 6 months for your perks to become DLC which I’ll then have to pay more for. So instead of offering a pre-order bonus, it sounds to me like retailers are offering to forego subtracting content if I am willing to pre-order. No wonder I’m so bitter.

Supply and Demand – The fuel to my pre-order fire in years past simply does not exist anymore. It used to be that if you wanted a guarantee that you could play it first, you would pre-order. But especially in big cities like mine, that’s not the case anymore. In fact, it would be harder to find a store that is sold out than it would a store that is in-stock. Chalk it up to the growth of the industry, or better inventory management but there really isn’t a need to reserve anymore. I know I can have what I want when I want it, so why go out of my way for an alternate uniform or plush toy?

e-Stores – The age of digital downloads is threatening the very existence of the reservation system altogether. Infinitely duplicable, readily available at any amount of notice and I don’t have to put on pants to get it. This is the future our forefathers dreamt about. The times are a changin’ and with the emergence of e-stores comes one less function for brick and mortar game stores.

Alas, my big ball of bitter won’t be welcomed by everyone. For the small-town obsessive worriers who play their games offline [an ever-shrinking demographic], please continue to pre-order your precious games. Take solace in the fact that you have a contract with a large, faceless retailer. After all, it’s not like they’ve ever let you down…

Article written by Adam Rodricks

Free-to-play has become a viable strategy for several games in the past year such as Team Fortress 2 and DC Universe Online, and now Sony and Guerilla Games will gift gamers the multiplayer portion of the year-old FPS in all of its glory up to level 10.

Beginning next week, players will be able to download a standalone version of Killzone 3’s multiplayer, which will include all game modes and maps, including DLC from PSN. Sony announced the shift on The Playstation Blogcast Thursday, which will cap players once they level up to “Sergeant”. Upon reaching the rank, gamers can choose to unlock the full experience for a one-time fee of $14.99.

As if maxing out your character wasn’t enough incentive to keep your weapons cocked, players will also be awarded 24 hours of double-experience play for taking the plunge.

Sony and Guerilla Games hope the shift will keep the community fresh and active while providing all PSN users an opportunity to try out the Killzone 3’s main event. The standalone multiplayer will be available for download on February 28.

Article written by Adam Rodricks