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Footage of Call of Duty Online - a free-to-play, micro-transaction game for the Chinese market - has surfaced.

Well, OK, technically you’re an “Earth-like planet” called Terra – a name which, since the dawn of time, has translated to “Earth, but we don’t want to call it that for some reason.” Totally-Not-Earth’s sun has decided to pack its proverbial bags (read: fire, because that is the only thing the sun owns) and relocate to another galaxy, so our largely inhabitable landmass goes along for the ride. And thus begins a wacky road comedy with appearances by the likes of Zack Galifinakis and Mercury.

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There are so many games out there we couldn't possibly review them all. Welcome to Snapshot, where we highlight games that might fall outside our usual coverage but are still something we think you should know about. Today: Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers for PC. Some games teach us about the perils of war, how physics work or what we can look forward to in a future of space exploration, aliens and super-intelligent robots. But some games provide insight into something even more mystical, even more special and remarkably less intelligent than those robots: ourselves. Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers is one of those games.

And it has high-powered laser action. Like, a lot of high-powered laser action.

High Moon Studios is working on a new Marvel game...but what is it?

Which of the StarCraft II teams this week will emerge from the pack as the world's elite?

PlayDead has released a special boxed version of Limbo for PC including 3D glasses, a soundtrack and more.

Roller coasters always represented both the ultimate thrill and the…

In-game footage of Total War: Rome II is being cruelly withheld until time indeterminate, but the important thing is that I’ve seen it and you haven’t, ner ner ner ner ner ner ner. Ner. I’ve even spoken to the devs about it. Ner! I suppose you deserve to see something for yourself though, even if you are a horrible person who’s going staight to hell because you were rude to that cat once.

So, here is a live-action, mood-setting, betrayal-including trailer for the Creative Assembly’s latest strategy titan, showing off the glory, folly and cruelty of the Roman empire. Warning: includes bare-naked nipples.

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After more than a year of testing, Valve has finally announced the release date for Left 4 Dead 2’s Cold Stream add-on.

Games about pirates sometimes feel the need to exclaim their titles, as if rushing into a room and excitedly waving their arms, jumping up and down, screaming in your face. ‘Pirates’, they yell, spittle flecking your bewildered visage, ‘piiiiirates’! Or, in this case, they’re bellowing ‘Caribbean’, which makes it really hard for me to work out which vowel to elongate. I guess it would be ‘Caribbeaaaaaan’!. Anyway, Caaaaaribbean! is a newly announced game from Snowbird Game Studios of Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword, and it uses the same engine for a piratical game, with naval combat, boarding operations and sieges. More screenshots below.

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Lexis Numeriques’ Alt-Minds offers an augmented reality game that operates on the PC, tablets, mobiles and Facebook, and we’ve seen it in action.

Oh good gracious, Rezzed is this week. Friday and Saturday, in fact. And if the line-up wasn’t already flipping impressive enough for you (playable Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Prison Architect, Natural Selection 2, Xenonauts, Skulls Of The Shogun, DOTA 2 and tons more, along with speakers like Peter Molyneux, Randy Pitchfork, and RPS’s very own game jam), it just got one hundred and seventy three thousand times better. Yes, we’ve waited until almost the last moment to organise announce the greatest event of them all: The 5th Annual International Rock, Paper, Shotgun Indie Mud Wrestling Championships.

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Yes, the rumors are true: Creative Assembly's next game is Total War: Rome 2, a sequel to the studio's 2004 title. The PC exclusive is set to launch sometime in 2013.

Creative Assembly studio communications manager Al Bickham walked me through a very brief demo for Total War: Rome 2, the siege of Carthage. The goal for Total War: Rome 2 is all about letting players rewrite history in the single-player campaign mode, which lets you conquer the globe as you see fit. But Bickam promised me "more detail to each man" in skirmishes for the sequel, and a more cinematic and epic experience.

Total War: Rome 2 will also seamlessly transition battles from sea to land. During my 10 minute overview of Carthage, I witness giant boats carry Roman soldiers onto the beach, where they hastily put together giant siege towers so soldiers could scale the massive walls of Carthage. A free camera provided a top-down overview with a map, or you can get right down into the action at the man level. But what I saw was still very early in development, pre-alpha gameplay with no UI elements and large chunks of Carthage not having been rendered.

Bickham wasn't too chatty about what's planned for Total War: Rome 2, citing its relative infancy in development, but he did say he hopes to show "the value of one man" on the battlefield.

With Rome: Total War II, Creative Assembly is setting is sights as high as they've ever been.

Sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed PC games of all time in the works for 2013.

The AU team on the newly passed R rating, Nintendo's latest misadventures, the Cabin in the Woods and more.

Did Spec Ops' unique narrative win over the critics? Also covered: Spider-Man, Penny Arcade, and Magic: The Gathering!

Sunday mornings are for waking up and… no, I’m not actually awake. No point trying to pretend that I am. Try as I might to coax some consciousness from the soggy depths of my skull, the truth is that today is only twitch of the needle before the oblivion of bed once again. I suppose that is what Sundays are for.

• Polygon’s Arkane/Bethesda/IonStorm article about the men designing Dishonored is quite the thing to behold. I mean, blimey. But also really? Also, some good anecdotes: “There are some problems, though, that QA can’t fix, and when Ultima VIII is released, it has a lot of them. One hundred, by Smith’s counting. Smith is so frustrated by the state of this game that he writes a list detailing the reasons why he didn’t like it. All 100 of them. “I literally said it was a slap in the face to Ultima fans and RPG fans,” Harvey said. “And I sent it to my boss. I don’t know why I did it, but it was the kind of thing I did back then.” Harvey Smith in proto-angry internet man shocker! Sort of.

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Hello youse.

It’s been a while since I did a free-wheelin’ freestyle board game column. What I’m saying is that this column will be a train of thought type thing, where I just stumble through the paragraphs flailing wildly for some kind of solid through-line. There will probably be bits of poetry, and links to music videos, but there will also be some incredibly insightful comments about board games, and that’s what you’re all here for.

Jim has to put a title on this thing, though. So let’s say that this one is about THUNDER ROAD. And let’s drive!(more…)

We’re basically halfway through the year, and the massive Steam Summer sale is looming overhead. Still, there’s some fantastic deals to be had on some great games right now, and if this selection isn’t enough, remember you can always direct your web browser toward the SavyGamer internet website to get clued up as to what are the best deals in gaming across all formats at any time. Here’s your weekly roundup of the best PC download deals around: (more…)

As I stare down the epic list of Kickstarted and Indiegogoed PC projects, my tired eyes cry out, “sleep John, it’s Saturday morning.” But then my fingers call back, “No eyes! That is weakness. And we can show no weakness in the face of trying to think of a word other than ‘goal’ or ‘target’ for every entry.” “But you just typed ‘goat’ instead of ‘goal’,” retort my eyes. But even this can’t stop me.

Usual rules. Our mentioning a game here doesn’t mean we endorse giving it your money – it’s all on you. And if there’s a game you’d like to see mentioned, email me via my name above – but this of course doesn’t guarantee that a project will be mentioned. And a new one, below.

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Well, presumably. I mean, you’re supposed to be protecting them, but – if I didn’t know any better – I’d say the world was designed specifically to slice, dice, burn, electrocute, and robo-punch these impractically helpless creatures in a variety of comedic ways. The very notion is, of course, madness, but sometimes – when I’m all alone on dark nights, rain attempting to drown the earth and flashes of lightning dramatically illuminating my face – I can’t help but wonder. I’m probably fretting about nothing, though. I’m sure Cute Things Dying Violently has perfectly benign intentions. And hey, now the Xbox Live Indie Games hit is coming to PC on July 17. There’s a trailer after the break, which depicts… well, I really shouldn’t have to explain this.

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I think we’ve all had a good think or two about what we’d do if we ever gained the power to time travel. Most of us, however, probably haven’t decided on “get sad and die.” (And if you have, gosh, at least go ride a T-Rex first or something.) Happy-sadly, Suspense II uses a gauntlet of fairly brainy puzzles in conjunction with said time travel powers – all the while subjecting you to heart-rending ruminations on the nature of mankind and mortality. See, at any given moment, you’re able to hop back-and-forth between a sunny rural area full of soaring mountains and their respective majesties and, er, the apocalypse. Some of the tiny, wordless environmental stories Suspense II tells with that conceit, though, are brilliant. It’ll only take you 20-30 minutes, so give it a quick play here. Then do some soul-searching, learn to play guitar like you always meant to, and – when you’re ready – come back and read my (somewhat spoilery) thoughts after the break.

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Blizzard’s new beast is definitely a lot of fun, but it’s all action and no role-playing.

Chances are you're one of the 11 million people who've played Death Rally on mobile platforms, but if not you can check it out on PC.

We take a look at DayZ, Guild Wars 2 and Dota 2 in this first episode.

World of Goo sure was a weird / fun / great little puzzle game, but since its release in 2010 we've been dying to find out what's next. Well, the wait is almost over.

Cornered Rat, the guys who made the wonderful-but-rickety MMO World War II Online, are currently storming another beach: the lightly defended shoreline of Kickstarter funding. They’re now making a tactical shooter-with-extra-bits called Rapid Assault. It’s going to be 64-player with infantry and armour on “huge” WWII battlefields, realistic damage models, and lots of other general ambitiousness.

Cornered Rat’s Al Corey claims: “We are long-time fans of games like Red Orchestra, ARMA and World of Tanks and we’re inspired to bring a new, combined arms tactical shooter to market with our own flavor.” Hmm. Let’s take a look at that pitch video, below.(more…)

The gentlemen of Tomorrow Corporation (Kyle “World Of Goo” Gabler, Allan “Worked At EA” Blomquist, Kyle “Henry Hatsworth” Gray) have announced their game will be called Little Inferno. Look, that’s the clever logo up there, where the i is a match, and there are fingers are holding the match. Could that be the player’s own fingers? Possibly, because the cryptic clues that TC have revealed about their new game is that it will be “strange”, that they are aiming for a Winter release, and that it’s about burning stuff. How do we know that last bit? Well, because they close their announcement with a series of questions, the last of which is this: “What would you most like to set on fire?”

Oh, now there’s a question.

I've had a great run here at Joystiq. It's been a wonderful six years but, this morning, Senior Reporter Ben Gilbert informed me that Hero Academy will soon be coming to Steam. It will feature a special Team Fortress 2 team of heroes, will be cross-platform compatible with the iOS version and all purchased teams will work across both versions.

Hero Academy will come to Steam on August 9, which means I have about 40 days of productivity left. I can't promise I will write another word after that. Sorry.