The Last of Us isn’t your average survival horror game or story, in fact it seems that it is mostly based around the characters journey and interaction rather than letting you bludgeon a million infected humans in waves.

It seems that the game itself will take place, for some part at least, in the US city of Pittsburgh, as indicated by the yellow bridge seen in one of the games screenshots.

The games combat, which can be seen in the first trailer, as well as in one of the screeshots, will be a mixture of melee and gunplay. It seems that weapons will also degrade over use and eventually break, forcing players to scavenge for new parts or weapons to use.

The environments are also lush and verdant in comparison to other post-apocalyptic games, with Naughty Dog suggesting that vegetation and foliage have become the new kings of the concrete world.

GameInformer also pointed out that although you don’t directly control Ellie, you wont have to babysit her throughout the adventure. She seems to stay well out of the players way, as well as offering assistance when needed.

You can view the screens GameInformer acquired below, as well as the launch trailer to refresh your memory.

Source: GameInformer.

As usual with most games an update is always going to arrive on day one, however XIII-2‘s update is largely the most pointless thing we’ve heard in a long time.

With the press of the R3 button you can now send a Facebook status straight from the game detailing what you’re getting up to. So now you can spam your own Facebook with idiotic status’ that none of your friends will care about, unless they are sad enough to actually give a damn about what you’re doing in the game at every given moement. In which case, they should be shot.

Source: VG24/7

A ‘limited number’ of launch copies of Prototype 2 on PS3 and Xbox 360 will contain free access to RADNET, a code that gives players access to 55 free pieces of additional content delivered over seven weeks. The content in question will contain in-game events, challenges, avatar items, dynamic themes and behind-the-scenes videos, as well as bonus Mutations for Prototype 2′s main campaign. Sounds like some hefty content to be tacked on there.

“Radical Entertainment has always focused on bringing long lasting fun to its fans, and Prototype 2‘s RADNET content is our way of rewarding the game’s most loyal supporters – the early adopters, the one’s who will replay it over and over again,” said Ken Rosman, Studio Head, Radical Entertainment.  “We think this is great because we’re giving our fans hours of additional gameplay outside Prototype 2‘s main narrative, and cool rewards – all delivered weekly following the game’s launch!”

Prototype 2 launches on the 24th of April on PS3 and Xbox 360

Hungry Giraffe sees you stuffing the face of a giraffe who is, well, hungry. Watch the trailer below to get an idea of the game, it sure looks fun!

Hungry Giraffe will launch on PSN on 1st February (tomorrow)and will be free for PS Plus users!

Throughout the next few weeks we should be expecting additional trailers, many more screenshots and even the start a behind-the-scenes video series on the Darksiders website.

The trailer shows off some tantalising puzzles, a rather peculiar and difficult quiz, some NPC mark mission quests, and a whole lot more to enjoy this time around.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 will launch on February 3rd on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, currently PSN is having  an incredible Final Fantasy sale to celebrate it’s impending launch.

No details were given if this is a HD remake for PSN, or another release in the PS2 series of games the US seem to be getting.

With GTA III having recently celebrated a ten year anniversary, and having recived an iOS and Android remake, it wouldn’t be surprising if these were HD remakes, but we aren’t holding our breath.

Source: ESRB

The daughter of Gredgorius Emanuel Steelbeard, the famous missing swashbuckler, Patty backs up the hero of the game with her Sabre, pistol and bad attitude, one she developed as a means to survive the dangers of pirate life.

Risen 2: Dark Waters will wash up on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC at a later date.

"Perhaps you can pick me a special new outfit, for any other jobs you can want to rent me out for?"

Split into two sections, the demo starts with the more clamber happy antics of Nathan, before sliding into introducing the shooting and cover mechanics on the PS Vita. Starting the first section of the demo, its instant that Bend Studio are going for the same sense of scale as Naughty Dog’s entries, and they’ve done it rather nicely; waking up in a burning building, you must take control of Nathan and save him from his potential flaming tomb by climbing and clambering over boxes and pipes. Straight away it feels familiar, not only does Nathan stand, move and interact in exactly the way you’d expect him to, but more importantly the staples of the series make a return. All those climb points are there with the slight yellow hue making it easy to see where you should go next, the collectible treasures are still there, and Nolan North has understandably come back to play Nathan Drake.

The first section is a really good showcase for the intuitive controls of this Vita entry into the series. Although you don’t have to use them, you’d be silly to not start touching the climbable ledges and tracing your line across so you can watch Nathan really leap about like the monkey he is. It’s a neat feature, that at first does feel like is wrangling the direct control away from you – but thanks to the Vita’s second stick – moving the camera around whilst Nathan automatically clambers around allows you to see what’s ahead and plan your clambering route accordingly. The touch screen also game in for a somewhat QTE-esque sequence of tearing through a sheet blocking the way into the next burning room. Some quick finger swipes, on the highly responsive screen, saw Nathan machete the sheet in the desired directions; although we have no clue why it took him three swings of his blade to cut through it when one vertical slice would have worked fine.

The second part of the demo seems to happen straight after the first, but without the narrative context it could have easily just been plucked from elsewhere in the game, after all I’m sure Nathan leaves many buildings via a window. This section shows you the gunplay side of the game, an area that has improved with each sequel, and it’s safe to say that it feels great on the Vita. Once again thanks to that second thumbsitck aiming is natural and the controls all fit just like you think they would, and tapping the rear touchscreen reloaded your weapon effortlessly. The tension of battle was still there, even in this handheld version, having to protect your female compadre from snipers was enjoyable and frantic when the pace of things stepped up. Unfortunately without context, and the ability to hear what was going on, it’s hard to say how well done the supporting characters are played, something that Naughty Dog have always managed to do very well.

Visually this title is stunning for a handheld game, and it hits the high bar you’d expect from the series. Unsurprisingly it isn’t quite up to the smooth and soft visuals that are in the PS3 titles, but they still show all the characteristics of an Uncharted game. It’s a sure sign of what the PS Vita can really do. Just like every new console that surfaces on the market, the launch games are generally some of the worst lookers around. But here, and in other titles like Wipeout 2048, Motorstorm RC and Super Stardust HD, it already looks incredible and so seeing what the next few years of Vita development can bring is surreally exciting.

If you’re a big Uncharted fan, or indeed a general fan of action adventure titles, then this game wont let you down. From our hands on demo, this title felt exactly like a Naughty Dog Uncharted game, it is unfair on Bend Studio to keep comparing their work to the big ND, but its what the fans will do the moment they get their hands on it. Personally we believe from the gameplay alone, those who didn’t know Bend developed it, they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between this and a PS3 entry into the series. If you are unsure of a game to pick up for the PS Vita on launch, then this is set to be one extremely tempting prospect for your wallet.

Admittedly we went in expecting the same blurry, adrenaline filled power racer of the it’s PS3 counterparts, but that isn’t quite what we got. Motorstorm RC sees the handheld entry jump from the visuals of of Sony’s home console and even their own PSP to become a top-down challenge racer akin to Micro Machines or ModNation. Going into it, we felt a little underwhelmed, the high speed hilariously dangerous world of MotorStorm had all but disappeared leaving a mini-scale racer in its wake. Coming out of it, however, our original scepticism had dissolved.

MotorStorm RC didn’t pack the same punch as the series more muscular entries, but that wasn’t stopping the game from dishing out the fun factor, sure the game didn’t look as glorious as its predecessors or handle even remotely the same way, but it still somehow managed to offer up a fantastic slice of racing fun. Whereas the series’ past viewpoints made boost a risky approach as it blurred the lines between a sharp corner and a straight road, the top-down angle of Motorstorm RC made sure you could see exactly what was coming up, the game was more about learning tracks and beating records rather than boost-to-the-finish approach of the early days.

A good amount of the tracks we played through were inspired by the earlier games. Plucking their environments and design of the more memorable tracks to re-building them as short dirt tracks suitable for time-trials set Motorstorm into a world of its own. Each track allowed for a variety of different play modes like a straight up race, 3-lap time trial, timed takeover races to name a few. All of which had us hooked to score a gold medal. While some of the events were perfected relatively easily, the single-lap time trial had us gripped to shave off .5 of a second for a good 10 minutes. Luckily one of the game’s developers were on hand to give us some pointers like where to lay off the gas. We couldn’t be tutored though. After taking in the hints and giving the course a few more tries, we handed it over to the devs to demonstrate how they couldn’t do it either. It defiantly offers up a challenge!

From our demo of the game, no fancy control schemes were in use here, and that’s a good thing. Even the controls made you feel like you were handling a remote controlled mini beast. One stick controlled acceleration while the other handled pitch. They were simple enough to get the gist of and made unintentionally veering into a stone and flipping out pretty easy to correct.

Between the addictive nature of time trials and the pairing of speedy reloads made Motorstorm RC tricky to put down. Sure there isn’t the chance of hilariously being crushed by a big rig on the starting line or the urge to overheat your bike to send your man hurtling into a signpost, but those were never going to win you any races anyway. Motorstrom RC is shaping up to be a fantastic old-school type racer you can pick up and play with just a few minutes to spare.

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