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Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan DLC Developer Video Looks Epic

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A new developer diary has emerged for the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online DLC, Riders of Rohan. The video shows off an impressive number of gorgeous looking environments, some familiar from the films and others brand new.

Rather than stick to the plains, the Rohan DLC will also allow you to explore Fangorn Forest and the Anduin River. And what better way to explore this new world than with your new customisable horse? Long-time players of the game will also be grateful for the Level Cap increase, which is now at Lv.85.

Check out the video after the jump.

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Sony’s Wonderbook: Book of Spells to Tour UK

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Keen to cash in on the Christmas shopping boom, Sony are taking their latest toys on tour to UK shopping centres with a large focus on the new Wonderbook PS3 peripheral and JK Rowling’s Book of Spells, set in the Harry Potter universe.

Using the PS Move motion controller in conjunction with the camera players will be able to interact with the Wonderbook directly thanks to its numerous large augmented reality pages that allow you to conjure up dragons and castles and take part in wizardry classes. Check out the trailer to see for yourself.

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Hands-on previews, PlayStation 3, Previews

Dust 514 (Hands-On Preview)

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How do you take on the mighty big guns of Call of Duty or Battlefield? Giving your game away for free isn’t a bad place to start. We’ve seen the free-to-play market really boom this year, a trend further enforced by the large presence of many free-to-play titles at this years’ Gamescom Expo in Germany.

To be honest though, those hungering for ‘proper’ games haven’t had anything to match the core experience offered by bigger premium games. CCP would like to change that attitude though with their new PS3 title, Dust 514, an MMO first-person shooter.

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PC, PlayStation 3, Previews, Regular previews, Xbox 360

Painkiller: Hell & Damnation Preview

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Painkiller Hell & Damnation wants to rock it old-school and we’re more than a little up for that in the midst of all the identikit military shooters. Brash and often ridiculous weaponry complimented by simple ‘kill everything’ gameplay is just what the FPS world needs write now. While usually the domain of the PC gamer, the game will be coming to Xbox 360 alongside the PC release, with a PS3 version to follow in 2013.

The game is actually a HD remake of the original Painkiller and the Battle out of Hell expansion pack. Thanks to the polish added by the Unreal Engine 3, the game is looking pretty impressive, although we’re only shown a brief stage in a night time graveyard and the opera house.

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Silent Hill: Book Of Memories Screenshots: Heinous

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Oh dear. Just…oh god. Silent Hill you used to be terrifying for all the right reasons, now you’re just assaulting my eyes with some of the worst graphics we’ve ever seen on the Vita. We tried giving them the benefit of the doubt by saying it might be a downloadable title, but alas, this is a retail title.

The camera viewpoint points towards a Diablo-esque game, but presumably with unresponsive combat and more enemies that look like inside-out genitalia. The addition of multiplayer to this take on the series could be something of a winner though. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed this plays better than it looks.

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Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes Trailer Sneaks In

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It’s Metal Gear, so forget any notions of a twenty second teaser video, here’s nearly 11 minutes to shove your face into. You’ll get to see cutscenes and a bit of gameplay too. The FOX Engine is looking pretty damn good as we see snake infiltrate a base in a rainy night. Nobody seems to have told Konami that this generation’s hardware is on its last legs.

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Hands-on previews, Platforms, Previews, Wii U

Batman Arkham City: Armoured Edition (Wii U Hands-on Preview)

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Wii U versions of core multiplatform titles are going to play a big part in the console’s future. Nintendo wants to compete directly with Microsoft and Sony this time rather than settle for a casual market. The Wii versions of regular titles always felt like poor ports, so what better way to convince gamers you’re serious this time around than starting with one of last year’s biggest action titles, Arkham City.

Our hands-on demo begins during the Ra’s Al Ghul section of the game where Batman has been poisoned and he’s tracking down a ninja to try to find the antidote. This session served the purpose of showing us a broad selection of the unique Wii U features.

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New Screens And Trailer For Final Fantasy XIV Online

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Not to be outdone by the return of Lightning, new signs of life emerge from Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn. At today’s 25th Anniversary event for the Final Fantasy series new in-game screenshots were released along with a new trailer.

The original FFXIV was something of a disaster on PC, leading to Square-Enix deciding to pull back and essentially start again, hence the Reborn part of the title. Old assets have been scrapped to ensure everything looks as new as possible as graphical standards have moved on since the original release. That and almost everything attached to the old game was broken.

Have a good nosey at the images after the jump and don’t forget to click them if you want to see enlarged versions. There’s a new trailer too, which almost makes us want to forgive the original’s shoddiness. It’s reassuring to see a PS3 logo at the end of the trailer too as you’d be forgiven for thinking Square-Enix had sacked off those plans. Saying that, is anyone taking bets it will end up being a PS4 game?

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Aliens: Colonial Marines Playable At Eurogamer Expo

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That’s right; the game that some of us believed would never see the light of day will be playable at Eurogamer’s mammoth public show! Coming from the mighty Gearbox studio, we hope this delayed title is more like the awesome Borderlands 2 rather than their last title, the abomination that was Duke Nukem Forever.

Let’s face it though; it’s going to have to try really hard to not be awesome. Randy Pitchford is probably bouncing around his office with excitement as we speak. Check out Tom’s preview to see what all the fuss is about. The Eurogamer Expo runs from the 27th-30th September at Earl’s Court, London. There are still tickets remaining, but you’re going to have to be quick.

Or maybe you’d like some free tickets?

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Marvel Heroes Registering For Beta Players Now

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Fancy getting to play Marvel Heroes before anyone else? Of course you do. Coming from the creator of Diablo, Marvel Heroes is an upcoming multiplayer action RPG that will also be free-to-play. Featuring a host of Marvel favourites such as Wolverine, Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor and Iron Man, things are heating up for one of the hottest titles money can’t buy.

The news was part of the new announcements at PAX 2012, where the developers took the chance to reveal the latest additions to the roster: Punisher, Daredevil and erm… Squirrel Girl. Check out the new trailer after the break.

We got our hands on the game at Gamescom recently and can’t wait to play more. To find out how to stand a chance of getting into the closed beta just click the link below.

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Far Cry 3: Survival Trailer Welcomes Us To Rook Islands

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For those of you tired of military shooters, feast your eyes on the gorgeous Far Cry 3. Rather than focus on Vaas telling us All about his ‘insanity’ for a change we get a real good look around the two main islands that will be used for the single player campaign of the game.

Lush jungles -complete with wildlife ranging from birds, komodo dragons and tigers- are amongst the most detailed ever seen on a console. It sort of makes Just Cause 2 look like something spewed out on Blue Peter. An early look at some of the underground ruin areas shows a new side to the game and gives it something of an Uncharted FPS feel. Or imagine Skyrim’s tombs actually looking like something on a current-generation machine (sorry, burned PS3 gamer here).

Jet skis, hang gliders, jeeps and quads are given a brief showing. Nasty nature seems keen to eat your face as we see close encounters with tigers and sharks. Wrapping a bandage around your arm or pulling a dislocated thumb back into place are shown too, not that any of those will be applicable to getting out of a shark’s stomach.

Far Cry 3 is climbing up our most wanted lists at an alarming rate.

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Paragon Studios Closing And City Of Heroes To Shut Down

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NCsoft are closing Paragon Studios meaning the popular original superhero MMORPG City of Heroes is set to shut down before the year’s end.

Paid subscribers should take note that their recurring subscription billing has already been cancelled. Further details regarding a timeline for cessation of services will be revealed over the coming weeks. So we’d recommend getting as much game time in as possible before the servers are turned off permanently.

A statement on NCsoft’s blog read: “”In a realignment of company focus and publishing support, NCsoft has made the decision to close Paragon Studios. Effective immediately, all development on City of Heroes will cease and we will begin preparations to sunset the world’s first, and best, Super Hero MMORPG before the end of the year.”

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Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Revealed

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Disappointed about Lightning’s backseat role in FFXIII-2? Us too, but fear not, as Square-Enix has just announced a new title for the PS3 and 360, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

Set to be the final entry in the FFXIII series, the game will take place over four large open-world islands on the world of Novus Partus. The Paradigm battle system remains but we will be able to move Lightning around the battlefield and swap weapons. That sounds like quite a big departure from the norm, but the combat in the last two games certainly needed a little more player input.

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Raiden Slices Up The Competition In PlayStation All-Stars

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Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance star, Raiden has been added to the upcoming multiplayer brawler, SuperSmash PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. He’s the latest third-party All-Star to be added to the ranks and it looks like he’s not going to make Sackboy’s life any easier thanks to him packing some deadly blade attacks.

I raised some concerns with my Gamescom Hands-On Preview that characters with swords seemed to significantly out-balance everyone else in the game and this video shows Raiden going along with that theory nicely. Hot damn he’s looking pretty badass though. With his Special attacks displaying killer moves like spinning heel blades, a stun attack slice-fest and a merciless charge on competitors trying to hide in cardboard boxes.

Other recent inclusions that you may have missed are Nariko (Heavenly Sword), Evil Cole (inFamous) and Sir. Daniel (MediEvil). But will any of them be able to stand up against the seemingly unbeatable Kratos?

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PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Previews, Regular previews, Xbox 360

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (Preview)

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Frogwares have been providing Sherlock Holmes titles for years now on the PC with only Sherlock Holmes Vs. Jack the Ripper making its way to a console. But keyboard-loathing point and click adventure fans will be pleased to hear that the latest case to crack will be tri-platform, coming to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The developers and publishers are keen to expand the Sherlock Holmes brand and bringing their games out on all three platforms, specifically the consoles, is key to that goal.

Influenced by the movies from the 60s rather than the ridiculous Guy Ritchie eyesores, the experience will be a traditional one, instead of something that’ll have Arthur Conan Doyle spinning in his grave. For the first time in the series, we’ll be seeing a very dark side of Sherlock Holmes. The trailer even goes as far as to make him look like a murderer so we’re intrigued to see how events will play out. During the course of the game, we’ll be playing as both Holmes and Watson. Our money’s on Holmes being a bit murdery on the side. Look at his evil face! He totally did it.

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Action, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360

Darksiders II (Review)

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After the first game where War -one of the Four Horseman- jumped the gun a little and brought on the apocalypse and wiped out humanity, we get to step into another rider’s shoes. Running parallel to the events of the original game, we’re now playing as Death.

Death is eager to clear his brother’s name and if possible, restore humanity to Earth. For the most part of the game though, we won’t be going back to Earth. Instead we’re exploring several large open maps of typical fantasy fare – forests, canyons, ice worlds, hell and any other staple you could care to remember.

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Hands-on previews, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Previews, Xbox 360

Far Cry 3 (Hands-on Preview)

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After sitting through so many presentations at Gamescom, it was a relief to see that I’d actually get to play Far Cry 3. The recent E3 singleplayer stage was available as was a round of multiplayer. I’m eager for something a little different than another military shooter and Far Cry 3’s tropical paradise setting is one hell of a place to start. Console gamers missed out on the first game and the dull African setting of the last game left a lot to be desired for many, so expectations are high for Ubisoft’s title.

The start of the single-player stage began on a cliff-top across from an island. Using the bow, I took out the guard far in the distance. The arrows realistically drop over longer distances, so it took a few attempts as my first shots landed in the water just in front of him.

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Hands-on previews, Platforms, Previews, Wii U

ZombiU (Hands-On Preview)

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If ever a console needed a title to appeal to regular gamers rather than small children and fitness-obsessed parents it’s the Wii U. After the relentless shovelware from the original Wii, Nintendo have a lot to prove to get us onboard.

It’s not a great start for Ninty at Gamescom 2012, as they couldn’t even be bothered turning up in first-party form. Thankfully Ubisoft have stepped up -hot off the heels of a hella-strong E3 showing- to get gamers onboard, with Rayman Legends and the much bloodier ZombiU.

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Hands-on previews, PC, Platforms, Previews

Marvel Heroes (Hands-on Preview)

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The tagline that the Gazillion Studios team, would like us to take on board for Marvel Heroes is: “Marvel meets Diablo on Steroids.” Considered the President of the company is one David Brevik, co-founder of Blizzard North and creator of Diablo and Diablo II, we’re inclined to take notice.

This upcoming action MMORPG would be a tempting enough prospect for fans of the genre and the world’s most iconic name in comics. Consider this though: the game will be free-to-play. Sure there will be optional micro-transactions, but you’ll be able to play all the way through the game without spending a dime. “We’re aiming to create the highest quality free-to-play game ever made,” ambitious, but there’s no denying the potential.

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Hands-on previews, Platforms, PlayStation 3, Previews, PS Vita

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (Hands-on Preview)

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Four player brawlers are something of a rarity these days, especially if your dusty Nintendo consoles have been boxed up for a while. Skirting around the much-mentioned copycat nature of the game, what we have here is an impressive collection of PlayStation’s most iconic first-party characters (and Fat Princess) plus a select few third-party heroes kicking the pixelated hell out of each other.

As well as brawling, the game is also something of a platformer as the game is set in 2D levels with players able to leap around platforms and sometimes even bounce off the walls or fall into traps below.

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Gaming reviews, previews and features by Brendan Griffiths