Following these removals is Dragon Age II as it’s big DLC “The Legacy” was released this week. Instead of having it available through Steam, Bioware have opted to sell it through their own site, quite possibly the reason it has been removed.

David DeMartini spoke to IGN.com about the removals saying it’s Valve’s “restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to sell downloadable content.” and ”We hope to work out an agreement to keep our games on Steam.”

[Quotes sourced from 1up]

“Titan is… the media is not meant to know anything about that,” Pearce said. “It’s our next gen MMO and we’ve only started talking about it in a limited fashion because we want to leverage the fact that we’re working on something like that for the purpose of recruiting – getting some of the best talent in the industry on that project.”

As of yet, it is unclear if “Titan” is a working or final title.

The leaked schedule also provided other news. Diablo III was given an expected release window of late 2011, and new Starcraft II expansions were mentioned.

Source: IGN

Take a look at what this new edition to the series entails:

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(Click To Enlarge)

As a ‘thank you’ from the Just Cause 2 team for all the grapple carnage of the last two weeks, players can now ram, smash and crash their way across Panau in a smooth, pimped-out ice cream van – the Chevalier Ice Breaker – available now for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC absolutely FREE.

Pimped-out by Panau’s finest body shop, the Chevalier Ice Breaker’s lowered suspension, slick aluminium alloys and body-styled side skirts are perfectly complemented by its rigid front bull bars, more than capable of tearing apart anything that stands in its way. Mind that child!

The Chevalier Ice Breaker is the perfect addition to your arsenal of vehicles for ramping up the chaos on Panau. Take it for a spin and add to the over 25 million kilometres driven by players worldwide, just one of the stats tracked online at JustCause.com. Register your PC, PS3 or Xbox 360 profile on the site and see how your tallest BASE jump, total kills and more shape up against the world’s top ten players.

As Rico Rodriguez, the Agency’s most powerful weapon, players must take on the island of Panau and its military regime in order to track down Rico’s former boss and mentor, Tom Sheldon, who has gone rogue with millions in Agency cash and intel. Using a unique grapple and parachute combination, there is no vertical limit as the air becomes your playground: grapple a passing plane in flight, hijack helicopters, BASE jump from the tallest buildings or mountains and leave a trail of chaos and destruction in your wake. Just Cause 2 offers players the freedom to tackle missions any way they choose and, with over 100 vehicles and countless upgrades and collectibles, the choices for relentless adrenaline-fuelled action are limitless.

Just Cause 2 is available now for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows® and is released under the EIDOS brand portfolio.

The news was brought to surface today on the company’s Facebook page. The port comes complete with a revamped battle menu containing small images for Attack, Run, etc. which will apparently make the touch controls all the more intuitive.

A few screens were unveiled along with the announcement, although no release date or price have been set for the games.

So, here we are again with Desmond, an unlucky subject (or lucky in some ways) chosen to use the all new Animus. Although for our first moments, we’ll be using the first old Animus. Your very first moments upon entering the memory, is that of a baby being born. This baby is no ordinary baby, it’s an upcoming Ezio, a new character for a new historical setting. Sure, our previous character was awesome (and still damn right is) but Ezio has a sleek, ladies-man look. He’s also a very good fighter, I kid you not. He seems to want the attention, much like we crave the attention of all the great features yet to discover.

What made Assassin’s Creed special was the beauty of the landscapes and carefully crafted historical characters. However, what made it even more special is how you become apart of a historical setting thanks to the wonders of DNA and the Animus. Nevertheless, the sequel does what made the first a very exciting and fresh experience. Not just another game, not just a typical sequel, but a game that throws in many new and useful features whilst modifying certain elements to better reflect our new setting. Many of the flaws from the first seem to be addressed. Assassin’s Creed II takes place in Italy, a place that has many secrets and beauty that one could only wish he or she could experience in reality (although, probably without the violence). If you can’t quite get that time machine working, then I guess we’ll have to settle with some Assassin’s Creed II.

"What made Assassin's Creed special was the beauty of the landscapes and carefully crafted historical characters."

It becomes increasingly hard to tell you about the details of Assassin’s Creed II. I really want to tell you some things but then there’s a part of me thinking, I really shouldn’t just give every speck of detail away. So, let me put it this way – if you are even slightly curious about the previous events, then you will certainly have a sense of continuation and explanation come through. First things first with the character Ezio, he has all his fingers but he doesn’t wield a blade right away. This allows us to play and moderately progress through the various tutorials that will pop up and eventually lead you to the things you really want to do. It’s a good balance, because titles that are too overwhelming at first play can be difficult to grasp. A fist fight feels solid early on and it’s easy to learn the controls of combat – especially if you liked it in the first. The controls feel similar, but there are many small and interesting changes to discover. Ezio seems to be a much more flexible protagonist, it seems, and as you climb buildings and make satisfying jumps, you’ll soon start to notice it.

Throughout, you are not alone. There are many small and effective ways that passers-by can aid you. You can hire prostitutes to lure the attention of enemies whilst you make your way past them. If you want to spill your coins, go ahead, because doing so will attract residents nearby, creating an effective distraction. Compared to the first, Ezio doesn’t seem to be alone much. Early on, I’ve found myself having to follow someone to get to some enemies rather than just making my own way there. Ezio, being his character, does like the attention, so I guess it’s only fair to have assistance during fights. When fighting, you’ll have a choice of weapons by holding down RB. You can have a variety, at last. An interesting-yet-simple element that’s been present for many years in other titles, is that you can now pick up a weapon dropped by an enemy. If you find yourself needing further aid, you’ll probably want to preserve some currency for weapons and upgrades.

A major new feature is the economy. There are marked on your map, so these shouldn’t be a problem to find (assuming you’ve synchronised the View Points). Instead of having the health eventually re-generate, as was the case in the first, this time it doesn’t – kind of. If one block gets decreased, but not all the way, then that block will re-generate. Say, if you have a few blocks decrease completely, then it will not re-generate. Fear not, there are some creepy-looking doctors standing on the streets of Italy. You simply walk up to them, press Y and can be healed for a small decrease of your currency. Also, you can take some extra medicine, in case you are unable to find a doctor. This is especially useful during areas with fights or if you’re just too lazy to find the doctor.

The impossible is now possible - Leonardo would be proud.

There’s nothing more satisfying in Assassin’s Creed II than climbing up a very tall building, which likely is a View Point and looking into the distance. Seeing all the building and landscape is kinda breathless, just the closest match to reality in my opinion. View Points, like in the first game, are synchronised, which will un-blur parts of the map, to make it easier to navigate. It is highly encouraged that you synchronise View Points upon finding them (preferably when not in combat, might I add). Conveniently enough, there are hay stacks placed, so you can just dive off these to get back on the ground quickly. Bird droppings are present on buildings to indicate that you can jump from there safely. The beauty shines through day and night. So, exploring somewhere like Florence or Venice is still satisfying without the sun. However, with that said, I did find certain alleys a slight bit difficult to see through due to the poor lighting.

It’s not just jumping across buildings, though – there are tombs and more open areas present. Your knowledge of the areas will be put to the test in events like races. Like Crackdown (yeah, great comparison!), you are getting from checkpoint to checkpoint whilst trying to figure out the quickest and most effective way of getting there. I guess this will be trial and error on some later races, but so far it has been a lot of fun. Races, however, are just one type of side-mission to play in. You’ll discover more of these and be able to earn achievements from doing so. On the subject of achievements – the list does seem fair and, although there are some collectibles, it’s nowhere near the shear amount of flags in the first game. Symbols are also on the sides of buildings, where you’ll have to switch to Eagle Vision to activate the puzzle. On one, I was linking a series of images together that all had one similarity. It does seem a little confusing but if you look beyond the description of what to do, I’m sure it will become obvious how to work out.

All this way through, and not once did I mention anything about swimming. Well, as with many sequels, you can now swim. I take it Animus 2.0 is a much better machine. I found myself discovering new features at times I wasn’t expecting. So, not everything is clearly revealed right off the bat. This is what makes Assassin’s Creed II a very satisfying experience. There’s far more features in the game than I’ve explained and you will soon discover them. It does seem to be a great experience so far for me and it doesn’t look like the game is just going to suddenly end after a few hours of playing. Add on the length of all the side-missions, and you’ve got yourself a rather lengthy title to play, and a satisfying one at that, with dives off of buildings and dual blade killings. Whoops…that’s it. YOU go find out the rest of the features now before more come into my mind.

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