Check it out here.

How much exactly has the project changed in the five years since it was announced?

It's improved massively from what we thought we'd have to do. Back then, the design was a lot weaker, because at that point there wasn't much in the way of benchmarks in the online space. Of course what's happened since then is that we've had a lot of games that have come out that have moved the goal posts.

Probably the only thing that hasn't made it, that we didn't have enough time to do and one that in some respects that I'm quite happy to hold back for post-launch is the idea of turf war. Way back then we thought it would be a part of the game, but as it's transpired we've spent time on other parts of the game that we thought were a lot more important, and secondly it's a great thing to come out with later on.

By limiting it to 100 player servers, do you think that will protect APB from some of the issues that nearly every online game has at launch?

Yep. As a player I've lived through those, through server merges and downgrading and to things like clustered PvP. It always seems a negative, and it always fragments the player base. We won't have those issues and that's great. To be honest, I don't care what people say when they say it's not an MMO because it's just a hundred players, I can't name any MMO where you can compete closely with a hundred players – most of the time it's just a lagfest. So what we decided is let's cap it at that, and let's make it so that it's always great with 100 players, and never say we could have been 500 because the game would just crawl. And what fun is that, just to be able to say we can get 500 players together?

Having had his Gears Of War 3 news spoilt by Microsoft, CliffyB had intended to announce Bulletstorm on Jimmy Fallon's chat show next Monday to keep his appearance 'exclusive.' Unfortunately, he has been beaten to the punch once more, so if you see him at GameStop tomorrow, try not to laugh too hard.

An alien species resides on the mysterious world of Voss and is said to have an incredible aptitude for the Force. These Voss Mystics – rumored to be enigmatic healers as well as seers – struggle to protect their utopian society from annihilation.

Discover the secrets of Voss as you are forced time and again to choose between maintaining the appearance of neutrality so important to your leaders or striking against your enemies while you have the chance.

Sparkster makes his triumphant arrival on XBLA, PSN and Steam with Rocket Knight, the latest entry in the classic 2D side-scrolling rocket action series. Our favorite opossum hero returns home after 15 years to find the kingdom of Zephyrus in shambles. Use your wits and Sparkster’s trusty rocket pack to dodge and defeat a menacing wolf army threatening the lives of his people.

Electronic Arts Inc. and Crytek GmbH today announced that Richard Morgan, award-winning author of the science-fiction bestsellers ‘Altered Carbon’ and ‘Broken Angels’, is writing the story for this holiday’s blockbuster action game, Crysis 2. Morgan is working with Crytek to bring his trademark visceral writing style to the project, which is his first entry into the video game medium. In Crysis 2, New York is under the attack of a unique and frightening alien species that combines deadly weaponry, exceptional sensory abilities and intelligent collaboration to present players with the most challenging opponents ever seen in a first person shooter. Surrounded by devastation, players must assess the situations they encounter, adapt to this urban jungle and use the weapons and powers given solely to them to save New York. Morgan enters this distressed world and brings it to life with gritty characters, a rich back-story and plot twists rarely found in video games.

“Video games are one of the only things in my life I would qualify as a complete addiction,” said Richard Morgan. “The medium has every bit the potential for exciting and emotionally charged storytelling as literature and film, and I’m excited to explore this format on my first project in partnership with a world class developer like Crytek.”

“At Crytek, we pride ourselves on working with the most elite talent in the industry, and Richard is no exception,” said Cevat Yerli, CEO and President of Crytek. “He has helped us take our ideas for Crysis 2 and transform them into a story that really engages the player in many new and exciting ways. His passion for his craft and for games is a perfect match for our team and we can’t wait for gamers to experience this collaboration.”

In Crysis 2, the aliens have returned with a full invasion force bent on nothing less than the total annihilation of mankind. In New York, terrifying alien invaders stalk the streets and a nightmare plague strikes down the city’s myriad inhabitants with brutal epidemic speed. The city’s systems are in chaos, its streets and skyline are smashed and in flaming ruin. Neither paramilitary law enforcement nor the might of the US military machine can stand against the invaders, and all who choose not to flee are dead men walking. Just to survive in this maelstrom of death will require technology beyond anything any modern soldier has ever seen. One man will inherit that means to survive. You alone must wield the combat technology of Nanosuit 2, and make the last stand to save humanity from destruction in the urban jungle that is New York City.

Built on Crytek’s new state-of-the art multiplatform game development system, CryENGINE 3, Crysis 2 will be available this holiday for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, and PC.

Crytek also sent along a direct feed version of the GDC 2010 tech demo trailer:

Enjoy!

Mayhem and hilarity ensue when a scientist travels back in time and gets mixed up with characters from William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet! Guide the man from the future as he embarks on a mind-bending mission to save Hamlet's girlfriend, Ophelia, from the clutches of the evil Claudius. Solve a variety of cunning point-and-click puzzles and advance from one sidesplitting scene to the next as you defeat bosses and overcome mental obstacles. The story will have you in stitches and the fresh challenges will captivate you from beginning to end!

If you're still undecided after playing the sixty-minute demo, IGN's reviewed the adventure game, awarding it a 'Good' 7.5/10.

2K Play announced today that the critically acclaimed The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom will be available April 20, 2010 on Windows PC through Steam. Set in a world made famous by keystone cops, theatre organs and pie-in-the-face slapstick, the inventive game has been heralded as a “big contender for DLC game of the year” by 1UP.com, who gave the game a perfect 100/100 score. The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom presents the comical escapades of the portly pie thief P.B. Winterbottom on his mad-capped pursuit of scrumptious brain-teasing pies that wreak frontal lobe havoc from the puzzle-filled euphoria of time manipulation and self-replication.

Created by The Odd Gentlemen, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom was originally released for Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The Windows PC version is being developed by 2K China. The game will be available exclusively on Steam and comes with many new appetizing ingredients, including expanded leaderboard options, new unlockable Steam achievements, five additional brain-teasing puzzles and Steam Cloud, which allows players to take the game with them on the road by accessing saved games from the Steam network.

“The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom teases and excites fans at first glance because of its charming, silent film art style and biting humor; but the game’s inner genius quickly surfaces and challenges fans to stretch their mental capabilities to solve complex puzzles,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Are you smarter than The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom? It’s time to find out.”

The original Xbox 360 version has a 83% Metacritic average.

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 aluminum 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.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announces F.E.A.R. 3, a heart-pounding paranormal horror first person shooter unleashing intense combat, compelling narrative and co-op play that evolves the franchise. F.E.A.R. 3 is set to release on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, and Windows PC in fall 2010.

Alma returns in F.E.A.R. 3 but this time her sons Point Man and Paxton Fettel introduce divergent co-op, giving players distinctly different abilities affecting their own play as well as the experience of their co-op partner. Gamers participate in single player or co-op modes as Point Man, a genetically enhanced super soldier originally introduced in F.E.A.R., or they can play cooperatively as his conniving brother Paxton Fettel, whose incredible telekinetic power has given him life beyond the grave. The game is developed by Day 1 Studios, developer of the original F.E.A.R. console games in collaboration with Monolith Studios.

“Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is evolving the F.E.A.R. brand with top horror, co-op and first person shooter combat in F.E.A.R. 3,” said Martin Tremblay, President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “Monolith Productions has passed the torch to Day 1 Studios to create a quality, powerful game that stays true to the roots of the F.E.A.R. franchise but takes players to a heightened level of gameplay.”

To further ensure extreme terror in F.E.A.R. 3, legendary horror director John Carpenter (Halloween, Village of the Damned) and critically acclaimed horror comic and script writer Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) have provided consultation to enhance several of the game’s frightening aspects. Steve Niles co-wrote the game script with the development team and John Carpenter provided his expertise in crafting the in-game cinematics.

“After working closely with Monolith, Day 1 is honored to bring the next iteration of the F.E.A.R. franchise to gamers with key elements of the past games yet providing fresh combat and horror experiences in F.E.A.R. 3,” said Denny Thorley, Founder and President, Day 1 Studios. “Players can look forward to new features such as divergent co-op, an evolved cover system, and more scares in F.E.A.R. 3.”

Warner appears to have dropped the ridiculous .F.3.A.R. title we all mocked last month, though the logo they sent along does still use it.

• admin.say command implemented

  • the output currently looks a bit funky on the game client, like so:
    Player: [Server]: but with the next game client it will look like:
    Server:

• admin.yell to squad has changed (you need to specify both team and squad)
• squad numbering has changed - the "no squad" squad has ID 0, and real squads are 1 and up.
• Autobalance improved, it shuffles people both during and between rounds now, and does a better job. Note: There is currently no way to turn it off
• mapList* commands reworked
• banList* commands reworked
• listPlayers command added
• admin.listPlayers command reworked (GUID, kills, deaths, ping and score added)
• Players have non-PB GUIDs now (these are distinct from PB GUIDs)
• onChat event reworked

  • now it specifies target player subset as well
  • shows text before profanity filtering
  • client-originated chat messages starting with "/" make it to the server, and broadcast via onChat, but are not broadcast to other game clients
  • use "/!" if you want to be able to send commands to your homemade rcon tools without showing the commands to other players

• player.onAuthenticated added (it's triggered when a player receives GUID)
• player.onSquadChange, player.onTeamChange implemented
• Couple of crash fixes
• Support for server-side "region" setting (not yet used by the game client)
• Ranked ON forces game-password OFF
• Ranked and PunkBuster settings can only be changed during server startup
• A server is marked as "hardcore" either when Friendly Fire is enabled, or when all the typical hardcore settings (hardcore killcam minimap etc) have been flipped
• exposed number of rounds per maps in maplist.txt, and via the remote admin commands

We have confirmed with our vendor that players who have been charged multiple times for their subscriptions should start seeing a reversal of charges within 24-36 hours. We anticipate that once the charges have been reversed, any fees that have been incurred should be refunded as well. If after 36 hours, there are still incorrect charges or fees on your account, please follow these instructions:

Please begin by contacting your financial institution and explain to them that you were incorrectly charged multiple times and, as a result, over drafted. Most financial institutions will reverse these charges

If your financial institution is unable to remove these charges, you may contact our billing department by calling 650-628-1001 during our hours of operation, which are 10:00 AM EDT - 10:00 PM EDT, 7 days a week. Please have the phone and fax number of your financial institution ready when you call.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that this issue may be causing our players. Please continue to watch the Herald in the coming days for further information regarding this issue.

Update: Sallador let us know that Dark Age Of Camelot accounts have also been plundered.