Attention, wannabe soldiers: America’s Army 3 has been released and is ready for combat, at least on Steam. Later today, the game will be also available for download on the official site through several partners.

Accompanying the game is a new America’s Army graphic novel, further brainwashing developing the story line of America’s Army.

For years certain series were only found on certain consoles. These exclusive titles were a big win for whoever had them since many of them were popular enough to sell a new console on the mere promise of a game for it. Unfortunately with the rising costs of development this has become less and less of an effective strategy. Sony in particular has been suffering as a result of this. Recently the newest Final Fantasy title was announced to be a multi-platform title; the JRPG series had been a Playstation exclusive for more than ten years. Now with Metal Gear Solid Rising being developed for the Microsoft console as well, Xbox strategy boss Shane Kim has said that the third-party playing field has become level.

Kim says that achieving this has always been part of their strategy for the console, hinting that they knew the viability of exclusive games was soon to be ended. Their future plans include focusing more heavily on exclusive downloadable content for multiplatform titles as they have with games like Fallout 3, as well as Project Natal.

One thing’s pretty clear–some of the oldest game companies out there are getting pounded by the modern game business environment.  Midway’s been getting shellacked, which you can read about right here, and Atari has been in the dumps for quite some time.  This is why we all–Atari included–have reason to be intensely, almost perversely, happy about the recent release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game.

Set as a third person shooter, you’ll charge through the various landmarks of New York as “the new guy” (Venkman insists on not using names as he doesn’t “want to get attached”), the guy (or gal, that’s a possibility) who tests the experimental equipment and is thus most likely to be blown into New Jersey by a malfunctioning proton pack or something similar, which won’t actually happen but considering you’re working with the Ghostbusters, the chances of it happening are fairly likely.  Anyway, the environment has changed, and the city is a lot more tolerant–even downright friendly–of Ghostbusters and their ghostbusting.  The city’s insurance policy has actually been extended to cover the Ghostbusters and the concomitant property damage they incur, so you’ll be able to do whatever needs to be done to clear the city of ghosts. But it’s not just ghosts you’ll have to worry about; there’s a much deeper plot at work here that you’ll also have to break through.

There will be plenty of ghosts, too–you’ll be taking on construction workers and angry sous chefs from beyond the grave and even the Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man within the first six levels.  You’ll get to work the PKE meter and the proton pack and plenty of nifty new gadgets like the highly destructive boson dart system.  You’ll pick up pages of Tobin’s Spirit Guide, the single greatest resource a Ghostbuster can have, and supplement them with actual PKE scans.

I firmly believe that this may be the single best simulation of what it’s like to be a Ghostbuster ever released to date.

Of course, it may well be the ONLY actual simulation of what it’s like to be a Ghostbuster ever released to date, but that’s somewhat beside the point.  In fact, I’m somewhat surprised to see it took as long as it did to get one out.  Some of that, naturally, is to latch onto the resurgence of Ghostbusters with the emergence of the third movie on the horizon but still, they could’ve been pumping these out for YEARS between two and the still upcoming three.

Not that I’m not, on a limited level, happy about this development, of course–if they HAD flooded the market with Ghostbusters games it would’ve seriously tarnished the brand, but this is largely beside the point.  The point is that this is an intensely fun game that packs in plenty of action.  Sure, the controls can be a little hard to grapple with, especially in the Wii version, but it’s still plenty fun to lash out with the proton pack and roll out the trap.  One downside, however, is that the game stops short of giving you the ultimate experience of driving the Ecto-1, the Ghostbusters’ converted ambulance.  That might well have made for the best part of the game, but no–they patently refuse to allow you drive the Ecto-1.  They’ll even MOCK you for not being ALLOWED to drive it.  I’m sorry, but sacrificing a fantastic experience for a cheap joke just isn’t right.

These minor points aside, well, there’s plenty of fun to be had here, and getting your hands on this game should be well worth your time.

The once high and mighty development studio Midway is facing imminent closure. Though they weren’t the first company to put blood and guts into video games, they were the first ones to accomplish it in so stylistic a manner that others followed suit soon after, with Mortal Kombat’s ‘fatality’ becoming something of a gamer buzzword. Unfortunately they’ve been on a steady decline for some time and the lukewarm reception of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe and the absolute flop of Wheelman have pushed the company to the grim precipice.

Many of the branches have already been They’re not going quietly into that good night- their Newcastle studio has revealed their last hope at getting a financial backer who can help them pull out of their slump. It’s an open-world action game called Necessary Force, set in the film cliche of a maverick cop in the city who makes his own rules. They’re looking to explore the ‘troubled morality’ of the situation with the game and feature the sort of choice/consequence idea that’s becoming increasingly popular these days.

The website for the game is up and features a trailer which looks good so far, though it seems to be long on rendered environments, concept art and cutscenes and short on actualy gameplay footage, but it does look good. Will this be enough to get someone interested in the studio? Can a non-fantastic open world title that lacks the familiar GTA branding succeed?

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Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, has recently predicted that games for the next generation of video consoles will cost upwards of $60 million to make.

Now, there is no word on when Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo will release their next generation consoles but Guillemot says since playing next gen games will be like playing one of today’s CGI movies its no wonder that the cost will be so high.

To put this into perspective, games for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 cost between $20 million and $30 million to make with the Wii costing much less. With games currently priced at $50 and $60 is it safe to assume games of next generation will cost $100 and $120? Let’s hope not but it would make sense if Guillemot’s predictions prove true.

Read (CNBC)

Sony has recently released a list detailing the newest additions to their Greatest Hits collection and you know what that means, right? Lower prices of course.

Below is the complete list, courtesy of Kotaku, of 6 games that will be added to the Greatest Hits collection:

Army of Two, Electronic Arts

Battlefield: Bad Company, Electronic Arts

Devil May Cry 4, Capcom

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Sony Computer Entertainment America

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Konami

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Sony Computer Entertainment America

These games will all be lowered to the much-more-manageable price of $29.99.

It was recently made known that the Xbox Live Arcade rendition of Space Invaders, Space Invaders Extreme, is set to get its share of downloadable content tomorrow, priced at just 240 Microsoft Points.

Included in this pack are three new stages including both new enemies and bosses for players to pit themselves against. But that’s not all as the pack will also feature playable version of both Space Invaders and Space Invaders 2 (the original titles) for some good old nostalgia.

Again, you’ll be able to pick up this DLC pack for the XBLA version of Space Invaders Extreme for just 240 Microsoft Points tomorrow, June 17th.

Add this announcement to the horribly kept secrets bin — Recently made official by a product listing put up by Steam is the fact that Bethesda games such as Oblivion, Morrowind and Call of Cthulhu have made their way onto the service.

If you haven’t already played through both Elder Scrolls games now is a perfect chance as Steam is offering a Deluxe Edition of Oblivion which includes pretty much all DLC currently out for the game for just $19.99. Additionally, Morrowind will be offered for just $11.19; hell, why not by both together for $28.19.

This isn’t just Bethesda’s back catalog however, as Rogue Warrior (one of the studio’s newer titles) seems to have also made the cut with the product listing announcing its September 2009 availability.

What you see above is supposedly a picture taken at the offices of Sony Pictures, which is based in Culver City, CA, of a movie poster for none other than Metal Gear Solid.

There is no official word from Sony (or anyone else for that matter) but the poster states that both Daniel Craig and Christian Bale will be featured in the movie. Not only that, but it will also be hitting movie theatres sometime in July 2011.

Definitely take this with a grain of salt until we heard official confirmation from anyone involved.

Read (PS3Center)