Well GI Editor-in-Chief Adam McNamara said he didn’t think we’d be able to guess what game would be the cover feature in the June issue of GameInformer. He was right about me at least. So It’s not Half Life 3, but at this point we’ve all come to realize that no magazine will ever reveal it. It’ll just show up one day, with suitcases and an apology.

Part of me is wondering if this means that we’ll lose the traditional Single-Player only RPGs we’ve all grown so accustomed to. The other part simply doesn’t care. As far as game mechanics and visual representation goes, Skyrim and the other games have already been Single-Player MMOs. I will however say that I’m not ready to pay for a subscription to get the same addiction I could get for one flat price.

More details over at GameInformer

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I didn’t expect even my grandchildren would live to see this day. Now that Diablo III has a release date I know for sure I’ll never have any. May 15 2012 folks. About a week before my birthday too! What joy!

Beginning May 15, players around the world will be able to return to Tristram to discover the dark secrets of a fallen star and begin their quest to save Sanctuary from the impending demonic invasion. To secure your place as a barbarian, monk, demon hunter, witch doctor, or wizard right now, simply log in to your Battle.net account, and then purchase and download* Diablo III, and you’ll be ready to play when the game launches.

World of Warcraft players interested in getting Diablo III for free can still get in on the World of Warcraft Annual Pass, but the promotion will be ending at 12:01 a.m. PDT on May 1, 2012. When you sign up for the Annual Pass and make a 1-year commitment to World of Warcraft, you’ll receive a free digital copy of Diablo III, an exclusive World of Warcraft in-game mount (Tyrael’s Charger), as well as access to the upcoming World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta test. Learn more at the Annual Pass signup page.

For more details on the May 15 release of Diablo III, be sure to hit the official press release, or head to our new Diablo III game page to learn more about the game and pre-purchase your digital copy.

And to think, just a couple weeks ago I bought Star Wars: The Old Republic and got a Diablo III beta key in the same day. Now I know for sure of when I’ll be able to cancel my SWTOR subscription. Screw you Maya calendar. You guys might not have had the guts to face Diablo, but I’m not going out without at least getting heat stroke.

Make sure to pre-order the limited edition before people like myself beat you to it. Like you were really saving your money for anything else.

You know it’s a great time to be a gamer when sequels like this are free-to-play. I still remember slaloming down grassy hills toward enemy encampments just to high tail it out by speeder with their flag in tow in this fast paced shooter franchise. Tribes 2 was one of my all time favorite PC time sinks right up there with Unreal Tournament and Diablo. I’m happy to report that on April 12th gamers of all wallet contents will be able to afford this revival.

Sure, the series has changed hands more than a few times over the years, but with MMO newcomer Hirez Studios at the helm they seem to be in good ones.

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Moving on to better things, eh Molyneux?

Peter Molyneux, a gaming pioneer whose legacy won him the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award at last year’s GDC, is leaving Microsoft and Lionhead Studios for a new game developer- 22 Cans.

Molyneux will be departing his position as the leader of Lionhead (which he himself founded) and as the creative head of Microsoft Studios Europe, which oversaw development at Lionhead and Rare, among other companies.

Microsoft gave him quite the sendoff quote, saying,

“As co-founder of Lionhead and an integral part of Microsoft Studios, Peter was the creative visionary behind the blockbuster Fable franchise, and one of our most passionate and influential developers for the Xbox 360 platform. He has made an indelible mark on the games industry and we wish him all the best of luck in his future endeavors.”

He’s also responsible for making Black & White, and making numerous overly enthusiastic and ultimately exaggerated claims of how amazing and revolutionary his games would be. You can tell by the way he talks about video games that they are his paramount passion.

“I remain extremely passionate and proud of the people, products and experiences that we created, from Black & White to Fable to our pioneering work with Milo and Kate for the Kinect platform. However, I felt the time was right to pursue a new independent venture. I’d like to thank the team at Lionhead, as well as our partners at Microsoft Studios for their support, dedication and incredible work over the years.”

“It is with mixed emotions that I made the decision to leave [...] at the conclusion of development of Fable: The Journey.”

Molyneux is currently working as a creative consultant for said Kinect-enabled game, which will be releasing sometime later this year. What his position will be at 22 Cans, and what kind of games they will be making is still unknown.

My take: I’ll just leave you with one of The Five Greatest Peter Molyneux Quotes provided by NowGamer:

When quizzed at GDC ’09 about the watered down sexual undertones in Fable games, presumably by an American journalist, Molyneux responded in a way that sums up the man in a nutshell. He’s a bit of a dreamer who’s not afraid to speak his mind and he most certainly has a lot of guts. The below retort is possibly Molyneux’s greatest quote to date,

“It’s you Americans. There’s something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we’d be romping around naked on the stage here.”

Long time no see.

My first FPS multiplayer experience was at a middle school of all places. During one summer, a teacher, a GYM teacher no less, set up a program where students could pay to come in and play Halo 2 in a 16 player LAN party twice a week. And what can I say? I was hooked from the very first match.

We played a variety of gametypes, team-based and free-for-all. I didn’t win every single one, but it didn’t matter. This was a brand new experience for me, and everyone was having fun. Even the teacher.

Yeah, the teacher played with us. I don’t think I need to say this, but that’s fucking awesome. Every time I slayed him I felt like a god. He was usually on top of the scoreboard though, go figure.

It’s an experience I haven’t forgotten, and it’s the kind you never forget. This year Halo 4 comes out, and we just got our first look.

Disclaimer: I don’t bother pointing out anything obvious in this video. Instead I focus on showing you a couple things that aren’t so obvious. The rest is self-explanatory.

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Did you see the Doom 4 artwork leaked earlier this week? Rhetorical question- nobody did, because it isn’t Doom 4 artwork, at least not anymore.

Today, id Software design director Matthew Hooper responded to the leaked images on Twitter, saying they “have nothing to do with what you’re gonna see in Doom 4.”

Whether they ever had to do with Doom 4 is still a mystery.

But we do know that it’s definitely alive and well, as confirmed by parent publisher Bethesda amid rumors of it’s cancellation. “Doom 4 is not cancelled,” they said. “When we are ready to talk about it, we’ll let folks know.”

We also know that it will probably be id’s next big release. Last year at E3 2011, id Software head of technology John Carmack said that the core development team that worked on Rage would be switching gears over to Doom 4 once Rage was finished. And Rage 2 would follow after that.

My take: I’m actually kind of glad those images don’t represent Doom 4 is at this point. They almost looked like screenshots of a more demonic Rage. Don’t get me wrong, Rage is alright. But when I think of Doom, I think dark, tight corridors with grotesque, fluid leaking demon spawn trying to eviscerate my flesh and crush my very soul.

Horror just isn’t as effective in daylight and open areas. Sure it can still invoke some muscle tension and panic, but it’s just not the same. Remember Resident Evil 5? *sigh* But at least we can look forward to seeing what Doom 4 has in store for us. If past titles are any indication, it will a scary good time. *looks at RE5* Well, we can only hope.

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It looks like E3 has a new contender for late arrivals and frequent showings with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Once again shown to a crowd of expectant gawkers with nothing more than an awesome trailer, The Old Republic managed to do exactly what it did in 2009 – get everyone hyped. With the only brief announcement being that every player in the game would be able to fly their own ship. Okay. Now maybe ten more scraps of details like that and we’ll be comfortable enough to hazard a release decade. Nevertheless, the trailer was incredible. It isn’t quite clear why Chun Li was beating the crap out of Darth Vader, but who didn’t love it?

What is Halo Reach? No one should need to ask that now. At Microsoft’s 2010 E3 Keynote, they showed us a brief section of a singelplayer level from a Halo Reach video. Needless to say, it added in aspects from Halo Reach multiplayer beta and showed how they would be implemented in the regular campaign. Showing off four members of the elite Spartan Noble Team, this four minute Halo Reach video puts every Halo Reach screenshot we’ve seen previously into motion. Oh, and did you know there seems to be space combat? The September 14th Halo Reach release nears.

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The 360 Project Natal got it’s official name today at the Microsoft Press Conference’s E3 Keynote. Now called Kinect, and it will hit shelves this holiday season on November 4th, and it’s still without a price point for some reason (I’m guessing they didn’t want a hefty price tag to distract people from the show). There will be 15 launch titles, and 6 of them were shown off at the conference:

Kinectimals: Picture Nintendogs on the Xbox 360, but with a LOT more control and activities to try.

Kinect Sports: The title says it all.

Kinect Joy Ride: A racing game.

Kinect Adventures: A game designed to get you moving. It takes your picture during all of the crazy moves you have to do.

Your Shape: A Ubisoft title that is basically a much more advanced Wii Fit.

Dance Central: A Harmonix title that teaches you how to dance. Think Rock Band except you are utilizing your entire body for points.

They didn’t actually say what the other titles were, put they did show an image of all of their box art. The ones that I can confirm are:

Motionsports, The Biggest Loser, Sonic Free Riders, and EA Active.

Not a single one of those games were very interesting to me, but at the end of the demonstration, they showed off actual gameplay using Kinect for an upcoming Star Wars game. It was told that this project was a collaboration between Microsoft and Lucas Arts and that it would release next year. I have to say that I am extremely excited on this one. It appears that you’ll be able to control your lightsaber with exact precision, with all the bells and whistles of things like physics to control how your weapon effects Storm Troopers and other enemies. This game (that wasn’t given a name) is at least one thing to look forward to.

*Image via E4g.info

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