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The revamped 7-inch model of the Wikipad hits retail shelves on June 11 at a similarly revamped $249. After its delay on launch day back in October, plans for a $500 10-inch tablet were scrapped in favor of the smaller, less pricey version coming to US stores next week. UK and worldwide arrivals for the Android tablet are planned for this summer.

Apart from those three inches, this Wikipad no longer includes a rear camera in addition to the 2 megapixel front-facing one. Otherwise, the smaller tablet features the same specs as before: a quad-core Tegra 3 processor with 12 core Nvidia GPU and "true widescreen" HD screen, 16GB of storage with a micro SD for an additional 32GB, and HDMI out. Detachable console-like controls are still included and remain the same size as they were.

The Wikipad will be available at launch at Best Buy, Walmart, and TigerDirect.com

Zynga's gargantuan purchase of OMGPOP, that company that made briefly mega-popular Draw Something, will now be an icon of tech collapse. Only slightly over a year after impulse-spending $200 million on the small company, Zynga is killing it. I learned via Facebook I was laid off today and @omgpop office is closed. Thanks @zynga for again reminding me how not to operate a business — Ali Nicolas (@ali_nicolas) June 3, 2013 Nicolas is a former VP at Zynga. The official OMGPOP Twitter account confirms the shuttering (with a good, morbid sense of humor): While this is the last day at @zynga for many @omgpop staff, we want to thank you for all love and awesomeness over the years! — omgpop (@omgpop) June 3, 2013 @swb1192 To a bar, as quickly as possible! — omgpop (@omgpop) June 3, 2013 Even if Zynga for some reason keeps the OMGPOP brand, it's clear the heart of the company—that very, very expensive company—is ripped out. [via Scott Buscemi]

If the Xbox launch game Halo was, according to Microsoft, "Combat Evolved" and the XBox 360 launch game Geometry Wars 2 was "Retro Evolved" and this Xbox-only new Fantasia game is "Music Evolved", what other things should Xbox-exclusives evolve? (And why isn't Forza subtitled Driving Evolved???)

Hello. It's 2013. That's why the next Halo game runs on tablets, has microtransactions and touch controls. It's a top-down dual-(virtual)-analog shooter. It's canon, nestling between Halo 3 and Halo 4. It's all combat chopped into short missions, replete with the mix of shooting, grenade-throwing, melee and equipment that's been part of the franchise since Halo 3. Plus vehicles.And you don't have to use touch controls. Controller support is coming.And you don't have to play it on a phone or tablet, since it will also run on PC.And you don't have to use the microtransactions, since you can spend just $7 on the game and grind your skills to get better instead of paying for an instant boost. It's just that... ...if you're comfortable riding the currents of modern gaming ...if you're the kind of person who says, "Hey, there have been six Halo first-person shooter games and I think the world could use a change of Halo genre," ... if you're a kid whose parents block you from Halo games that sport an increasingly-inappropriate M rating and would be excited about this new game because it is merely rated T (like Halo Wars!) ...well then there's just one more thing for you to swallow: the game is coming to a phone you probably don't have (Windows Phone) and an operating system PC gamers love to hate (Windows 8). Look, I want to be excited about this, but until the people making the game say it's coming to iOS and Android (they're not saying one way or the other, sticking to just what they've announced), it's kind of hard to be. Official fact sheet:Title: “Halo: Spartan Assault” Publisher: Microsoft Studios Developer(s): 343 Industries and Vanguard Games Format: Digital download available only for Windows 8 PCs, tablets and Windows Phone 8 devices ESRB Rating: T for Teen Price: $6.99 ERP1 Availability: July 2013 Product Overview: Available only for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, “Halo: Spartan Assault” is a new top-down action shooter that brings a “Halo” video game to touch-based devices for the first time in franchise history. Developed by 343 Industries in conjunction with Vanguard Games, “Halo: Spartan Assault” provides an accessible, pick-up-and-play experience for fans and newcomers alike. Set between the events of “Halo 3” and “Halo 4,” “Halo: Spartan Assault” is a new chapter of the award-winning “Halo” universe that explores the first missions of the Spartan Ops program and dives deeper into the backstory of Human-Covenant wars. Play through the eyes of either Commander Sarah Palmer or Spartan Davis stationed aboard the UNSC Infinity as they fight never-before-seen battles against Covenant forces. With rich storytelling, intuitive controls, and best-in-class action, audio and graphics, “Halo: Spartan Assault” brings the epic scale and action of the “Halo” universe to mobile devices through unrivaled action and intensity. Features: Top features include the following: · Original “Halo” gameplay. An action-packed, single-player campaign spanning 25 missions in battles never before experienced in the Halo Universe, all played from a top-down camera view · New and immersive storyline. An original story set between the events of “Halo 3” and “Halo 4,” experience a new war with the Covenant, the first missions of the Spartan Ops program and the rise of Commander Sarah Palmer, all with best-in-class graphics and audio · Built for simplicity. A unique fusion of touch and consolelike controls for easy pick-up-and-play gaming, with the added flexibility of keyboard and mouse controls on Windows 8 PCs and tablets2 · Integration with “Halo 4.” Earn experience points (XP), all-new Achievements, and unlock emblems for your “Halo 4” Spartan career, with additional integration features available after laun · Nonstop competitive fun. Compete against friends in Leaderboards or hone your skills against an onslaught of Weekly Challenges while collecting more than 40 in-game Achievements and Med · In-app purchases. Grind to earn upgrades or speed up your training by purchasing credits for boosts, unique weapons or armor abilitie · Only on Windows. Available only on Windows 8 PCs and tablets and Windows Phone 8 devices. To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo.

Fable Anniversary, an HD remake of the original Fable, is coming this year to the Xbox 360, according to this podcast, released this morning, from Major Nelson and Lionhead Studios' Ted Timmins. In addition to the visual upgrade, to include better lighting and textures in high definition, the game will get an updated control scheme and user interface, Timmins said. Fable's original save system was considered outdated, Timmins said, and so it too will be modified in order to accommodate Fable: The Lost Chapters. Smartglass functionality also will be included. To contact the author of this post, write to owen@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @owengood.

The Halo franchise in the palm of your hand.

See more of Sarah Palmer's adventures in this tablet-and-phone-focused top-down shooter.

What we have here is a classic case of a video game trailer that only makes sense if you have seen the actual game in question. Listen to this week's podcast to find out how dubstep remixes of Bruno Mars might work in a proper video game.

Here's a classic case of a trailer that only makes sense if you've seen the actual game in question. Listen to this week's podcast to find out how dubstep remixes of Bruno Mars might work in a proper video game.

Each year, Bandai-Namco holds a giant Tales-centric event in Yokohama. This year's, Tales of Festival 2013, had nearly 12,000 fans in attendance each day. With concerts, new game announcements, and an array of voice actors from across the games, it was an unbelievably entertaining way to spend four hours. On the second day of the event (which I attended), the Festival began with 8-year old Elle (Tales of Xillia 2) attempting to read the pre-show warnings and rules, but failing because the words were too big. Luckily, Milla (Tales of Xillia/Tales of Xillia 2) was on hand to help her through it. Elle proceeded to ask what the crowd was like, to which Milla responded “probably a lot of women.”—and she was definitely right about that. Of the 12,000 people around me, it was perhaps 90% female (if not more). What followed next was a screening of the anime openings for every game in the main Tales series. The audience took this as a contest of sorts and cheered whenever their favorite games and characters appeared on the jumbotron. Based on the cheers, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Xillia, Tales of Xillia 2 and Tales of the Abyss were the most popular games. As for character-centric cheers, I noticed a pattern. Lead male characters (other than Yuri from Vesperia) got few to no cheers. However, every brooding pretty-boy villain/anti-hero or glasses-wearing genius character got a huge pop from the crowd. As for the female characters, the cute young girl characters were often cheered for a bit, but otherwise none of the female characters seemed very popular—except for Milla (Xillia/Xillia 2) who, interestingly, received the biggest pop of the night. After that, we were all shown the first trailer for the Tales of Symphonia: Unisonant Pack (the PS3 re-release of Tales of Symphonia and its sequel) and were then shown some of the new unlockable costumes that allow the characters in Symphonia to dress up as characters from other Tales games—i.e., Genis dressed as Luke and Lloyd dressed as Guy. Then began the main event: a live reading of an original Tales crossover story starring a wide-ranging cast of characters from across the franchise. The plot revolved around the characters having a field day competition, and the voice actors all appeared on stage in character. The hosts of the competition were Milla (Xillia/Xillia 2) and Yuri (Vesperia). The rest of the characters split into teams of two. Lloyd and Zelos formed team Symphonia; Amber and Jadeite formed team Hearts; Asbel and Cheria formed team Graces; Elle and Ludger formed team Xillia; and lastly Luke, deciding he didn't need anyone else, formed team Abyss by himself. The skit that followed was nothing but wall-to-wall fan service. The field day consisted of four events—sword tech distance, a gel eating contest, last man standing gauntlet of boss battles, and a relay race around the arena. When characters spoke, their animated skit portraits showed up on the jumbotron. Characters used special attacks and said famous lines. Numerous surprise characters showed up (as most of the voice actors have voiced more than one Tales character). But perhaps the most entertaining bits came from team Xillia as Ludger is a silent protagonist who has to talk almost entirely through Elle. He also had conversation trees popping up throughout the event (which the audience voted on). All in all, the skit lasted about an hour and Luke—with a little help from his rival Asch—won the competition and learned a lesson about the value of teamwork. After that, there was a lengthy interview with the voice actors and a mini-competition where the voice actors attempted to voice characters other than their own. To wrap it all up, there was then a five-song concert with DEEN who sang the themes to both Tales of Destiny and Tales of Hearts. In the end, Tales of Festival was a lot of fun. The live reading was hilarious and a real treat for anyone who enjoys seeing voice actors behind the scenes. Moreover, when it ended, I was quite sad. After all, I had only seen half of the event as the guest list was different on the first day—so there was an entirely different skit on the first day that I had missed. Luckily, the entire Tales of Festival was recorded and will be released on DVD later this year. So, if you speak Japanese and love to see voice actors in action, you should definitely give it a watch. For a taste of what it was like, check out the commercial for last year's event at the top of the the page. The Tales of Festival 2013 took place on June 1 and 2, 2013, at the Yokohama Arena. A DVD of the event will be released in Japan later this year. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. To contact the author of this post, write to BiggestinJapan@gmail.com or find him on Twitter @BiggestinJapan.

The first time Tim Schafer's Double Fine studio went on Kickstarter, it broke records. The second time? They're still printing money. Well. Printing donations. Having asked for $725,000 to complete the company's second Kickstarter game, strategy title Massive Chalice, they've passed the required total with over three weeks to spare. The game's campaign page doesn't list specific stretch goals - extra content added to the game as extra money comes in - but Double Fine does say "the game’s scope will grow based on the amount of total backing we receive". Massive Chalice [Kickstarter]

UPDATE: A very brief teaser trailer has been released, promising that more will be revealed tomorrow.

This past weekend at Tales of Festival 2013, Bandai-Namco displayed an impressive amount of merchandise. Some of it was sold at the event or in stores, other items were prototype items for merchandise scheduled to be released in the coming year. There were posters, programs, wall scrolls, post cards, and T-shirts. There were all kinds of necklaces, bracelets, and other jewelry from across the Tales series. They had mock ups of new figures and a hoodie with cat ears. There was even a hand towel... with a hood. Scroll through the pictures below to see all these items and more. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. To contact the author of this post, write to BiggestinJapan@gmail.com or find him on Twitter @BiggestinJapan.

Spike TV's Geoff Keighley has either had his Twitter account hacked or he's suddenly gone giraffe crazy. Hopefully it's the latter, because giraffes are awesome.

These contraptions were given away by Burger King in Puerto Rico earlier in the year. Apparently as a joke. But that video is no joke. A device that holds a burger for you - or anything really, you could put chips or a casserole in there - while you're gaming would be for many a must-buy. Even if you could only eat half the burger before having to slurp. Yes, it's lazy. Horse-like, even. But shut up. Burger King Hands-Free Whopper AKA The Human Feedbag [Technabob]

Into the Pixel is an annual competition which seeks to award and highlight the best video game art in the business. This year's winners have been announced, and each piece will be showcased during E3 next week. It's a prestigious competition, one that not only puts the artist and their work on the mantelpiece just as the world is tuning into E3, but also affords them the chance to be judged and awarded by their peers, whether they also be from the video game business or are just artists in general. Among the judges this year were Blizzard's art manager Seth Spaulding and iam8bit's founder Matt Hall. In total, sixteen pieces were selected to comprise the final exhibition. Most of the artists involved has been featured here on Fine Art previously. A special congratulations must be in order for the Destiny art team, who managed to get two pieces into the final 16, by Dorje Bellbrook and Jaime Jones respectively. Other games making the cut include Assassin's Creed IV, Dragon Age III, Rayman Legends and The Last Of Us. You can see every winning entry below. To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the bottom-right corner. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line! ASSASSINS CREED IV (Martin Deschambault) BROKEN AGE (Nathan Stapley) RAYMAN LEGENDS (Michel Ancel, Jean Christophe Alessandri, Lu Yang, Christophe Messier, Jean Brice Dugait, Simon Quemener, Sebastien du Jeu, Christophe Villez, Anthony Le Du, Jean-Baptiste Rollin, Benjamin Mouret, David Garcia) COMMAND & CONQUER (Raymond Swanland) DESTINY (Jaime Jones) DESTINY (Dorje Bellbrook) DRAGON AGE III (Nick Thornborrow, Matt Rhodes) DARK AGES (Brian Thompson) ICYCLE (Reece Millidge) LEAGUE OF LEGENDS (James Paick) STARCRAFT II: HEART OF THE SWARM (Jeff Chamberlain, Anthony Eftekhari, Ray Chih, Yong Hyun Kim, Kirti Pillai, Laurent Pierlot, Takuya Suzuki, Fausto DeMartini, Vitaly Bulgarov, Chris Yang, Mike Kelleher, Sada Namaki, Shawn Liang, Jim Jiang, Seth Thompson, Bill LaBarge, Hsuan (Steven) Chen) SUPER TIME FORCE (Mike Nguyen & Vic Nguyen) LAST OF US (John Sweeney) TRANSISTOR (Jen Zee) UNANNOUNCED PROJECT (Daniel Dociu) WONDERBOOK (Tyler Schatz, Christina Faulkner)

Gaming's biggest show doesn't kick off until next week, but expert teams of booth fairies and constructobots are already hard at work building E3's cavernous displays. If only the real show was this spacious. Or quiet. You can see an interactive 3D panorama of the floor below; squint and you can already imagine what each booth's secrets reveal (spoilers: PR staff and sweaty control pads). E3 2013 [360 Panorama, via Wario64]

An Indiegogo campaign for The Black Tower is now up and running. Don't remember The Black Tower? It's that French Final Fantasy tribute that looks terrific.

Typically "larp"—which stands for "live action role playing" game—is one of those words that can outright kill the mood. (No offense, larpers!) But this? This sounds a-ma-zing. The Verge reports that some larpers took a retired naval destroyer and used it as the setting for a real life Battlestar Galactica role-playing game. It's an offshoot thing, but one that doesn't stray too far: the game takes place aboard a Celestia, which is a ship that the show mentions but that we never get to see. Everyone aboard has a role to play out, and that's where things get interesting. If you've watched the show, you know this means a ton of tension as the humans try to survive and figure out who the cylons are. "One of the game’s three weekend-long runs ended in a surrender to Cylon agents, another became mired in a bitter ethnic cleansing, and a third — while it had the lowest death count of any run — resulted in the fictional ship itself exploding," The Verge writes. Like I said, it sounds amazing. Now they're looking to bring the game to American shores, although they're still trying to work out the logistics of it all. The project will tentatively "launch" in some form in 2014, but the team still hasn’t decided where to hold the game or how to fund it. Besides a small grant-funded stipend for Dolk, the original Monitor Celestra was paid for by participants; this time, the team has also considered attempting to get help from the show’s owners themselves. The game hasn’t been officially licensed, but Ericsson doesn’t think this will be a problem — especially because Moore and others are clearly already aware of it. "Anyone can cosplay as Starbuck, there's no copyright issue there," he says. "We're really doing the same thing on a large scale." Hopefully they manage to figure out a way. I'd pay money to participate in this sort of thing. You can read more about the project here. Can a real-life ‘Battlestar Galactica’ cross the Atlantic? [The Verge]

When I woke up this morning, you know what I said to myself? "Man, I sure would like a game loosely based on Joy Division’s song ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart' — preferably from the island nation of Malta." Well it looks like I got my wish! Will Love Tear Us Apart?, which you can play here, is made by Maltese studio Mighty Box, and accurately simulates what it's like to be a 13 year old Maltese teenager who just broke his heart for the very first time. It's only loosely based on the lyrics to the famous Joy Division song, and kinda plays like an artsy adventure game from the mid 90s. Enjoy, Mediterranean post-punk fans! [via Consequence of Sound] To contact the author of this post, write to chrisperson@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter at @papapishu

Good things often come in small packages. Gunpoint is just such a good thing, in just such a small package. Like the diminutive buildings you'll spend the game circumnavigating and infiltrating, Gunpoint itself is an intricate array of interlocking circuits and gears, finely tuned and waiting for you to bend it to your will. You play as Richard Conway, a trenchcoated spy-for-hire who, after a job gone wrong, finds himself caught up in a paranoid, 70s-style corporate espionage plot. You'll guide him on infiltration missions as he sneaks into apartment buildings, high-security compounds, office complexes and weapons-manufacturing labs, all in a fairly laid-back pursuit of the truth. Gunpoint may be a stealth game, but Conway isn't some Sam Fisher-wannabe, crouching in the shadows and garroting unsuspecting guards. His methods are a bit flashier, and a hell of a lot of fun. He owns a pair of super-powered trousers that allow him to launch himself hundreds of feet into the air and land without harm. Players line up his leap by holding down the left mouse button, sort of like taking aim in Tanks or Worms. Release, and sproiiing! Every wee building Conway infiltrates is staffed with wee guards who are no less sharp-eyed and deadly for being so wee. If you stray into a guard's field of vision, you'll be shot in an instant. This occurs with shocking immediacy and very little fanfare. It therefore becomes very important to negotiate your way around the guards to whatever corner computer or hidden prototype you're trying to hack or steal. To do that, you'll have to re-wire the building's security devices and appliances, which is where Gunpoint finds sets itself apart from other stealth games. Through a wonderfully simple interface, players can flip over to a hacking overlay called the "crosslink," which lets them access the wiring of the building and manipulate it. It's easier to watch it in action (as in that trailer above) than to explain, but I'll give it a shot: There's a guard on the floor above you, pacing left and right. You're standing next to a lightswitch. By entering the overlay view, you see a wire going from your lightswitch to the light above your head (naturally.) However, flicking over to crosslink mode, you can rewire your lightswitch to open a door on the level above you. If you time it right, you can cause it to open onto the guard, knocking him out. Or you can rewire the lightswitch to send a charge to a power outlet, electrocuting him as he walks by. Or have it open a trapdoor, dropping him to his death. Or you can turn off the lights and sneak up behind him, taking him down with a well-timed jump. Or, or, or. The game, then, is made up of a collection or reprogrammable binary equations. Except for the guards, every object in the world has two states: on/off, open/closed, activated/not activated. By layering so many fundamentally simple variables on top of one another, Gunpoint manages to be complex without feeling overwhelming. The guards are the game's x-factor, and they're what sets Gunpoint apart from the superficially similar (though differently enjoyable) iOS game Beat Sneak Bandit. Guards behave according to simple but realistic AI programming, meaning that half the time, you'll have to progress through a level by manipulating them like you'd manipulate a keypad or a door. If you turn off the lights in one room, you'll learn that the guard in the room will immediately go and flick the lightswitch. So, if you first rewire the guard's lightswitch to open a vault door you can't access, then turn off the lights in his room, he'll inadvertently open the vault for you. Gunpoint is never all that difficult, particularly if you don't mind leaving a sizable body count in your wake. That said, you'll be rated for your performance at the end of each building, and achieving a perfect rating without killing anyone requires a much defter, more creative touch. Despite the many times Conway took a bullet over the course of my time with the game, I never felt punished. That's thanks in part to the ingenious quicksave implementation, which is one of Gunpoint's smartest ideas. Upon death, you'll be given three quickload options, each one going a few seconds further back in time. It serves to encourage experimentation and the near-instant load-times mean that failure only sets you back a matter of seconds. The system did go a bit haywire on me, particularly during the final level, when an annoying bug lost me a couple of minutes' progress. But I'm guessing that was just a bug, and will be quickly worked out. Gunpoint's script is also a winner. In between missions, Conway will engage in text-message conversations with his various contacts and employers, and they're laced with droll (and, it must be said, distinctly British) humor that will make fans of 90s point-and-click games feel a bit misty. It runs at a sort of "low chuckle" setting, and Conway's mellow, sardonic approach to death-defying wetwork stands in welcome contrast to your average oh-so-serious video game antihero. (Also of note: Gunpoint has some of the funniest Steam achievements I've seen in a while. Why can't every game have this much fun with achievements?) The soundtrack, too, deserves a mention, though it's a tad uneven. (That makes sense, given that it was written by three separate composers.) At its best, it conjures the smokey jazz of classic noir cinema. The strongest tunes feature a live jazz ensemble, though some others devolve into overly-frantic sampled instruments when they would've done better to keep things understated. (While a couple of the pieces feature lovely tenor sax solos, another features keyboard sax. Yeah. Keyboard sax. What is this, a mid-90s They Might Be Giants album? (You know what, don't answer that.)) In another cool touch, each the music for each level has been recorded twice, flipping to a more synth-heavy, atmospheric vibe when you switch to the crosslink overlay. It's nifty, and conjures fond memories of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Somewhat astonishingly, Gunpoint is by and large the work of one man—it was designed, programmed and written by Tom Francis, working in off-hours from his day job as a writer for PC Gamer magazine. (I don't really know Francis personally, but I do think he's a fine writer and a smart critic.) It's difficult to believe this is his first game; it isn't just well-written and fun, it's immaculately designed and contains some genuinely new ideas. He's kept a great collection of development diaries, and his process has welcomely transparent. He's even posted a manifesto regarding the kinds of games he wants to make. Reading over it, it's clear that he designed Gunpoint with each of those goals in mind. There's more, of course. Gunpoint comes with a full level-editor that lets players design their own missions, and it ends with a delightful bonus that I won't spoil, though I don't imagine it'll remain a secret for long once the game is released. But suffice it to say, Gunpoint is smart, creative, responsive, surprising, and possessed of an uncommon respect for the player. Midway through the story, as twist piles upon backstab piles upon double-cross, Conway remarks, "I love this job." It shows. To contact the author of this post, write to kirk@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @kirkhamilton.

Whether they consider it the artistic achievement of the decade or just a boring, linear sci-fi brawler, one thing reviewers agree on is that Remember Me is rough around the edges. The question is how rough. While most considered the world of Dontnod's futuristic action-adventure a joy to behold, the quality of the (English) voice acting and the occasional strangeness of the plot were both commonly mentioned negatives—along with the game's disappointing linearity. Let's have a look at what the reviews say. VideoGamer Remember Me is painstakingly slow to unravel. After escaping the grip of her former employers, lead character Nilin - a futuristic memory-jacker turned fugitive - is lead across Neo-Paris and Saint Michel by a mysterious figure named Edge. His guidance has her clambering across rooftops, visiting robotic Red Light districts and re-entering the Bastille prison that once kept her captive. Edge’s instructions provide senseless justification to a narrative that opts for grandiose language and a pompous execution of ideas that makes everything sound far more intelligent than it actually is. Metro GameCentral The artwork is clearly informed by the best of the French comic book scene and together with the wonderfully varied soundtrack this is one of the most intriguing sci-fi worlds in any video game for years. Although there are heavy influences from Blade Runner, and other familiar sources, it’s one of a very few games in the modern era that feels identifiably French, in both presentation and attitude. Given that it’s rather bizarre that there don’t seem to be any actual French people in Neo-Paris, since almost all the voice actors are very obviously British. This single-handedly ruins the atmosphere, although switching to the French voice track and using English subtitles thankfully recovers the situation – and makes some of the more awkwardly translated dialogue work a lot better. Destructoid Combat invites players to "create" their own "combos" by entering the Combo Lab, a contrivance far more simplistic than first impressions indicate. Nilin fights using simple kicks and punches, each bound to a single button. In the Combo Lab, you get to chain these attacks — sorry, Pressens — together by unlocking them and adding them to an attack chain. While you may think this gives you absolute freedom in what you chain together, it's worth nothing there are only four real combo strings in the game, and you don't get to choose what goes where. You can only select the type of punch or kick you deliver, not what you deliver or when. GameSpot It's a shame that you never get a chance to explore this world to any notable degree. Remember Me is one of the most linear, guided games in recent memory, giving you little choice but to wander down its narrow paths until you reach the next battle, the next cutscene, or the next scripted platforming sequence. "Linear" needn't be a bad thing, of course, and plenty of games lead you from point A to point Z with little room to breathe in between. Yet Remember Me stands out as a particularly egregious example of tightly controlled roller-coaster design, in spite of the few nooks hiding various collectibles. Some areas are so confined that the camera fails to find a good angle, and the paths you follow are so narrow that you long to break free. In the meanwhile, you look into the distance, aching to investigate the inviting Neo-Parisian sights and realizing you are an outsider looking in rather than a true part of this incredible place. Edge Magazine Much like the hodgepodge skyline of Neo-Paris, Remember Me sandwiches an extra pillar into its packed structure: memory remixes. Deployed at infrequent intervals, these sections take you to an abstract mental plane to tinker with your subject’s recollection of an event. You rewind time by rolling back the left stick; hold it still near a glitching object to influence both your target and the situation. Effectively, then, you scrub about a timeline seeking switches, but these short sections are designed in such a manner that they make for a palate-cleansing way to absorb a bit more exposition. EGM It’s difficult, if not impossible, not to point out how Remember Me excels outside of how it plays. (...) Remember Me boasts some of the most effective social consciousness I’ve seen in a videogame. I remember more characters of color than not, more diversity than the absence thereof, and none of it ever felt heavy-handed or preachy. It simply existed comfortably within the game’s fiction as part of the norm. Dontnod may not have intended Remember Me to be a shining example of inclusiveness—and it’s all the better for that inadvertence—but the end result certainly is an admirable effort at acknowledging the underrepresented. Kotaku At first, I thought that Remember Me would be one of those games where I liked its ideas more than its execution. But, even though it's surrounded by some rough gameplay and well-worn templates, the core concept behind the game—control over what we choose to hold onto—comes to life in ambitious ways. Top image courtesy of Gergő Vas. Questions? Comments? Contact the author of this post at andras-AT-kotaku-DOT-com.

Ubisoft has announced new tie-ins for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag including an art book and novel.

Live or die, today we're All Random.

We prep for E3 the only way we know how: with a downright illegal quantity of strawberry gummy candy.

Stop — just stop. I know what you are going to say. "Fahey, you already reviewed Pop-Tarts. You even suggested a new slogan for Kellogg's — I believe it was 'Pop-Tarts: F*** Breakfast.'" That's true, but these are not Pop-Tarts. These are new Pop-Tarts Gone Nutty Exclamation Point, and they are beautiful monsters for your mouth. I wasn't looking for snacks — that's often the best time to find them. I was scouring local Targets for a pair of newly-released Transformers toys (Springer and Blitzwing, if you must know), and as I was leaving my fifth location with no new toys in my hands, I went seeking solace where I'd found it many times before — the snack aisle. I should really say "snack aisles", as Target stores are a wonderland of treats that rivals the Candy Mountain Cave. There is an aisle for candy, an aisle for salty snacks, an aisle for seasonal candy and end caps filled with fresh new items the Wal-Mart folks are too lazy to put on the shelves and K-Mart won't see for another decade. Items like Pop-Tarts Gone Nutty Exclamation Point. I find traditional Pop-Tarts enjoyable enough, but they are not a go-to snack for me, mainly due to the calories. I count them, you see, and 400 calories for a single dog food-preserving packet of two tarts is too big a bite out of my budget. If they made singles then sure, I'd eat them all day long, possibly even two-at-a-time. It's about calorie economy. Still, as a snack scientist I couldn't very well resist two new flavors in bright orange packaging — my snackologist card would be revoked. My wife would leave me. My children would grow up in shame. The snackology community would break my windows with fudge bricks — well, they'd splatter my windows. It's very hot in Atlanta. Fearing repercussions, I had no choice but to loosen my belt and take my peanut buttery penance like a man (who had been looking for children's toys for himself not five minutes prior. Really not sure whose side this inner voice is supposed to be on). Peanut Butter From the moment the Peanut Butter Pop-Tart slips free its shiny foil bonds, it's readily evident this is no normal breakfast treat. The dough is lighter and coated with a glimmering diamond-dusting of sugar. Care must be taken with the tart, for this is not the cardboard-tough traditional composition, but something lighter and softer. See the front of the box? There in the bottom left corner? That's a fresh-baked peanut butter cookie, and for once the outside of the box correctly identifies the taste and texture of the item within. Biting into one of these is exactly the same as biting into a peanut butter cookie straight from the oven, only without all the screaming and blistered lips. The cream between the soft cookie shell acts and tastes like molten peanut butter cookie dough. The overall effect is glorious. They need no toasting. Were all Pop-Tarts once this soft? Are these firm-yet-giving pillows of peanut butter perfection only yielding to my teeth so easily out of inexperience? I almost feel ashamed of taking advantage — almost. Chocolate Frosted Peanut Butter As with fresh-baked peanut butter cookies, the sublime subtly of the Peanut Butter pop-Tart loses something when betrayed by chocolate. To mean, peanut butter cookies with chocolate frosting or chips always felt like a slight to the core ingredient — a cowardly act by those with no faith in the core flavor. Now that is not to say that peanut butter and chocolate are not pleasing bedfellows. Time and time again the pair has proven their coupling a righteous event. I'm particularly fond of chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips, for example. I simply feel that when chocolate is added to a peanut butter snack, it is no longer a peanut butter snack — it's a chocolate peanut butter snack, a disparate entity that should exist outside of the proud Gone Nutty Exclamation Point packaging. Just look at the crust. The glittering sugar plains of the straight Peanut Butter variety are gone, left desolate and bare by the cocoa invasion. The crust is firmer, more akin to standard chocolate Pop-Tart than fresh cookie. And that frosting? Its hard edge stabs at its own peanut butter heart. It's still delicious, but I much prefer the plain peanut butter variety. It's more honest and giving. —————————————————- I've yet to find Springer or Blitzwing, though in a way I have. I went out seeking the satisfaction of procuring something new and enjoyable, and that's exactly what I wound up doing. Peanut Butter Pop-Tarts are a fine substitute for a robot that turns into a helicopter and a dune buggy, while Chocolate Frosted Peanut Butter Pop-Tarts are the robot that turns into a jet and tank that I picked up just to complete the set. Snacktaku is Kotaku's take on the wild and wonderful world of eating things, but not eating meals. Eating meals is for those with too much time on their hands. Past critiques can be found at the Snacktaku review archive.

Today's cops are, apparently, throwing their guns all over the place, says a police training expert. One guy threw it behind cover before diving after it. Another guy ditched his weapon in a struggle for a rifle. These are poor decisions, says the expert, and he thinks he knows what's behind them. Yup, video games. Now, let's not point fingers and laugh too much. Whatever the reason for throwing a weapon instead of holstering it, there are all sorts of bad outcomes, from an accidental or negligent discharge (which he notes often outnumber incidents where a weapon is deliberately fired at an armed adversary) to someone else picking up the gun. So if my civilian opinion matters, hell yes, Richard Fairburn, in this article, is telling cops to do a proper and professional thing by holstering their sidearms. He has 30 years of law enforcement experience, and ran the firearms training unit of "a major police academy." That said, his analysis of the cause is based only on two anecdotal occurences, and a deputy offhandedly guessing that police are ditching their guns because they can only carry one at a time in the video games they play off duty. That's just ... weird, probably the weirdest thing I've seen cops blame on video games, but OK. "Could our two cops who threw down their sidearm have unwittingly trained themselves in such a response while playing Call of Duty or Ghost Recon?" he writes. Probably not sir, you see— "I have no science to back up it up, but Jay's theory sure makes sense to me." I'm not sure he understands that, in a video game, there's an implied act of holstering the weapon as you switch it out or use your hands to do something else. Because when I reselect my SMG or my assault rifle, presto, it's back. It's not behind a bush, and it doesn't fall on the ground unless we're in a cutscene. The only time I actually throw a weapon in video game is when I'm rolling with a Tediore in Borderlands 2, which turn into grenades once their ammo is out. That's a science fiction game, not a tactical simulator, so I doubt that's what these dadblasted video-game playin' rookies have in mind when they're chuckin' guns. "An important aspect of holstering during a high-risk event is to ensure the weapon will remain holstered," he correctly notes. "Once you clear that chain-link barrier in a move T.J. Hooker would admire, it’s nice to still have your sidearm with you." Just like you do in a video game. Throwing down your sidearm: A video game training scar? [PoliceOne.com, with thanks to reader mr_raccoon]

Memory can be a depressing thing. Often some of our fondest memories end up lost to the ravages of time, while some of our most traumatic linger endlessly, like a punishment. So, what if you could excise those memories? Or input new ones? What if you could experience the life of another through their own past experiences? It's a dangerous-sounding and fascinating premise, one that Remember Me, a new third-person action game from first-time studio Dontnod, almost manages to successfully realize.

Almost.

Nilin's adventures through Neo-Paris make for a story worth remembering...

Where it falters is unfortunately where so many other thoughtfully written games tend to: its mechanics. Remember Me is a better story than a game, a mixture of Philip K. Dick-style plotting and Luc Besson's sci-fi aesthetics grafted onto an initially nifty, but ultimately repetitive gameplay design. There are a few characters here worth caring about, a story that twists itself effectively around the troubled morality of forever trying to erase one's own painful history, and a visual palette that's absolutely gorgeous. But in-between the margins of Remember Me's best elements are sluggish combat, brainless traversal, and a fractured sense of progression and purpose. This is a game of many highs and lows, with little middle ground to speak of.

Fortunately, one of the highs is the character you spend the most time with. Nilin is a memory hunter ensconced in the seedy underbelly of Neo-Paris' civil war. When the game opens, Nilin's memory is in the process of being wiped clean by nefarious scientists of a corporation that more or less runs the whole show. The company's Sensen technology is ubiquitous in Neo-Paris, with all walks of life sporting implants that allow them to access others' memories and dump unwanted ones. Unfortunately, it can also grant access to those with Nilin's special skills, who might be looking to play around inside of your mind.

Though Nilin has lost much of her memory at the outset, a strange voice appears and helps guide her out of the prison she's mysteriously found herself in. The helper, an omnipresent "Errorist" leader named Edge, tells Nilin bit-by-bit who she is, what she's a part of, and what her mission once was. It's a fairly typical case of rebellious anti-corporate terrorists looking to bring down Big Memory, but how that struggle is framed against the slowly returning memories of Nilin is where Remember Me most definitively succeeds.

Remember Me is deliberate in its meting out of information, introducing you to other characters of varying degrees of villainy over the course of its roughly eight-hour adventure, and then proceeding to give you a bit of insight into how they came to be what they are. The characters the script bothers to flesh out are often strong presences throughout the game. However, a few too many characters are tossed into the mix for brief periods, only to be tossed aside later with nothing worthwhile learned about them. I mention this only because the story is at its best when Nilin is allowed to dig deep into these characters' motivations. Some of the less-interesting characters, like the miserable warden of the new La Bastille prison, are simply psychotic and horrible. Others, like the husband and wife duo that run the corporation, have more nuanced reasoning for how they came to be so powerful, so merciless, and so deeply destructive.

These memories are presented to Nilin in separate gameplay sections, which task you with remixing defining memories in their lives. There's not much to it, in that you essentially just rewind the memory until you find exploitable glitches, which you can then use to completely alter the scope of what's happened. Though it amounts to little more than a bit of extra button-pressing, the consequences of those changes become immediately apparent, and result in some of the more thoughtful storytelling moments in the game.

...Unfortunately, too much of Remember Me revolves around inelegant combat and repetitive traversal puzzles.

Unfortunately, not enough is done with these memory remixing sections to make them more than an occasionally meaningful distraction. The rest of the time, you're punching and jumping your way through the various slums, skyscrapers, and scientific facilities of Neo-Paris, taking on enemy soldiers, robots, and Leapers. Leapers are essentially memory junkies, grotesquely deformed dregs of this futuristic society that can scarcely hold a coherent thought, and lash out at anyone not similarly deformed. The Leapers are a sad, tragic enemy that nonetheless never evolve into a more consistent threat than anyone else in the game. They, like the soldiers under the company's employ, simply lash out at Nilin every time you enter a battle arena, and proceed to die at your hand.

Were the combat better, or at least better-paced, fighting them might have been a more engaging experience. As it stands, hand-to-hand fighting is largely Remember Me's weakest link, a hodgepodge of basic button-mashing combos made far more complex by a system that requires precision and trial-and-error to be most effective. Each move Nilin learns can be manually placed in the structure of a larger combo. There are four distinct attack varieties, each which does something a bit different, bonus-wise. Some attacks help restore health, while others reduce the cooldown time on Nilin's special moves, which can range from intense blasts of memory disrupting energy, to circuit-scrambling attacks that bring robotic enemies over to your side.

It's a nice idea, but it falters in execution. Each hit requires a fairly precise timing to continue to the combo string, and the volume of enemies you often face simply doesn't allow for much precision in your fighting at all. Nilin's attack animations also have a tendency to run a bit long, which makes parsing out the combo timing a real pain early on. Eventually you'll get the hang of it, but it never becomes much fun to fight, no matter how tricky the enemies eventually get.

The rest of the game is peppered with traversal puzzles and the occasional actual riddle to be solved. These suffer from a similar problem of repetition to the combat, where you simply find yourself darting from highlighted ledge to highlighted ledge, or solving the same basic door-opening puzzles over and over again. Granted, there's no reason to really explore Neo-Paris much, outside of a few collectibles and other hidden bric-a-brac. But even still, the fact that the game essentially tells you exactly where to go at all times is emblematic of Remember Me's unwillingness to let the player off the leash. All the game's levels are linear to a fault, often rather cramped, and frankly just not that interesting to explore.

Manually building your own combos sounds neat, but the actual fighting mechanics aren't strong enough to make it worthwhile.

It's too bad, because Remember Me's art design is phenomenal. Neo-Paris' landscapes look both appropriately futuristic and horrifically dingy, the kind of lived-in dystopia you'd want from a game so clearly inspired by Dick-ian sci-fi. Though the textures and other environmental details do look a bit better on PC, the Xbox 360 version of the game looks strong as well. Unfortunately, both versions have the same stilted, often awkward-looking character animations, which tend to detract from the scenery even when they aren't specifically glitching out.

That art design, the game's intriguing story, and the terrific score by composer Olivier Deriviere are ultimately betrayed by Remember Me's slavish dedication to a game design that just doesn't quite work. There are great ideas in this game, ones that deserve better kinds of interactivity than what's presented. Sadly, the plot and the game design never quite enmesh, leading to fascinating moments being broken up repeatedly by mechanics that just aren't much fun to slog through. There's a story and a universe here worth remembering; sadly, it's the wonky and repetitive gameplay you'll most often have trouble forgetting.

There was recently an article published on this very site, written by Nathan Peters. It was a description of his experience as a contract employee in the video game industry; specifically in the QA department of Certain Affinity, a studio that worked on multiplayer aspects of Halo 4. The summary of the article is that if you’re looking to be involved in the video game industry you should never be a contract employee. In fact, it goes so far as state that “It’s time for gaming’s contractors to strike.” Never mind that this statement is immediately preceded by a sentence that starts with “I freelanced…” Yeah. So here’s another viewpoint. I’ve been a freelancer in the video game industry for over ten years, primarily in special events and experience marketing. In that time, I have worked alongside some of the most talented and influential people in the industry, helped produce some of the most amazing shows the industry has ever seen, and launched some of the products and brands that have reshaped the modern video game experience. I don’t think I need to go into crazy detail here. (You can jump over to the Work section of my site and take a look if you’re interested.) In nearly all of these instances I was the same kind of contract worker described by Nathan. I have experienced a lot of the same frustrations that he describes, a lot of the same situations, the difficulties, the contributions, the promises, and so on. I believe there are a few fundamental differences in our attitudes towards those experiences, but these are attitudes that only develop over time. I believe there are a few fundamental differences in our attitudes towards those experiences, but these are attitudes that only develop over time. I have been a freelancer nearly my entire professional life. That is on purpose. It’s work that suits my personality and strengths. I adapt quickly, enjoy being challenged, I like to work, and I have a fierce “do what it takes” mentality. “9 to 5″ doesn’t make sense to me if the work is going to require “5 to 9″ or, in a lot of cases, “24/7″. In my younger days, my work ethic was exploited much in the same way that Nathan describes. I crunched hard to make the best possible impression with my clients. I went way above and beyond what I was contracted for and that became expected from me. I did this partially because I was new on the scene and had something to prove and because I wanted to impress the hell out of the video game companies I was working for. I grew up with video games, I love them, and so I took all the work very seriously (not to say that I don’t now) and very personally. I was disappointed, a lot. I was doing work I felt was instrumental in the greater strategy of what my clients were trying to do but there was very little recognition of my contributions. I was never offered a full time gig, and I was barely making enough money to survive. “I am a key player!” I’d rant. “These events and shows hinged on my expertise!” “I saved the day 100 times over!” “My value deserves recognition!” The lesson you have to learn is: You are being recognized. It’s called “a paycheck” and sometimes “more work.” You’re on the wrong career path if you’re looking to be a superstar, this is especially true in the video game industry, and then doubly so if your work is in events (like mine) or QA (like Nathans). I’ve written other posts on this subject (see here for an example). You’re on the wrong career path if you’re looking to be a superstar, this is especially true in the video game industry This leads to two critically important philosophies that will save you a lot of dissatisfaction down the road: Don’t Seek Glory and Manage Your Expectations. You don’t sign a contract to be the waterboy and expect to be promoted to quarterback next season just because you know how to throw a football. You can give 110% every single day and if more opportunity arises because of it, awesome! If it doesn’t, that’s par for the course. All you’re owed is what you signed on for. Something a lot of freelancers deal with, especially early on, is the very uncomfortable “5th wheel” feeling. That even though you are playing key roles in the projects you’re working on, you are really an outsider, always feeling like you’ve been invited to the party, but you’re not really part of it. Nathan describes this same feeling. All you’re owed is what you signed on for. Interactions feel insincere, you don’t feel accepted. Nathan refers to this feeling as “Jon Snow under the Stark roof” (a Game of Thrones reference). But here’s thing, regardless of House, Jon Snow is pretty awesome. He did a lot of his best work while not under the Stark roof. The trick is to be happy about being Jon Snow instead of bad because you feel like a stranger in House Stark. There are more Houses than just Stark. You start to realize that this feeling of non-acceptance is all on you, not the people or office around you. They are just going about their business, dealing with all the difficulties and politics that come from being in that environment full time. Feeling left out is a choice you can make. This mentality only comes with experience. Once you’ve been doing it long enough, the focus of your viewpoint starts to shift from “I feel like I don’t belong.” to “I don’t feel limited.” Every new contract is a chance to expand your skill set, to learn something new, to produce better work, and gain more experience that you can take with you to your next gig. This is the great freedom of freelance work. That it doesn’t matter if you don’t feel like you are a “real part of the team” because in 30/60/90 days you won’t be any part of the team. You can walk out the door with everything you learned, a paycheck in your pocket, and say, “Ok, what do I want to do next?“ That “next” is on you. That “next” is looking at a contract and saying “This looks awesome; I want to be a part of this,” while understanding that it’s only temporary, just a gig, but still ready to give it 110% because that’s what professional freelancers do. Nathan mentions that freelancers should unionize. He’s a little late on that, The Freelancers Union has been going strong for a long time (full disclosure: I’ve been a member since nearly the beginning) and every feeling Nathan describes in his article is not new to nearly all of us who have been in the game for a while now. Yes, we are a huge workforce of extraordinarily talented people who produce a lot of the amazing work you see every day though are rarely recognized for it. Yes, we are a huge workforce of extraordinarily talented people who produce a lot of the amazing work you see every day though are rarely recognized for it. Recognition is awesome, it feels great, and reinforces the sense of satisfaction you get from a job well done, but it is not an essential element of producing great work. We have a lot of power as a group, but we are also responsible, professional, and understand that we are still outsiders in a culture that idealizes the "9 to 5." Is there an element of “not disturbing the water” because we all still need work? Sure there is, but make no mistake; there is always someone willing to undercut you, always someone who will take the work you won’t. We are a malleable, disposable workforce by design. We understand the rules of the game and still choose to play it. That has to be understood before you go tossing out the word “strike.” We are a malleable, disposable workforce by design. We understand the rules of the game and still choose to play it. Being a freelancer isn’t for everyone and that’s totally ok, it’s rough waters out here. I’ll be honest though, landing a great contract with a company whose product or brand you enjoy, in an industry you love, doing work you feel great about, can’t be beat. With hard work and a little luck, you’ll get to do it over and over again. That’s why I chose the path I walk and why I encourage everyone to give it a try, at least once. How else will you know if it’s for you? Even if it’s not, no one will ever be able to take that experience away from you. So go ahead, put yourself out there, make the deal, and sign that contract (read it first!). Work for the sake of the work and take all the good and the bad that comes with it in stride. Who knows where you might end up… This piece was republished with permission. Kyle Mercury is a freelance photographer and event production specialist with over ten years of experience in the video game and technology industries. You can find his work online or find him on Twitter.

The sober truth of the world is often a hard thing for the 24-hour TV news cycle to stomach. Blaming violent games is easy, so it’s refreshing to see someone break down the reality of the situation in one fell swoop. In the clip above, taken from C-SPAN 2's Book TV, author Karen Sternheimer gives a quick summary of the uncomfortable truths of how the media reports on violent games — about how they regularly warp the findings of violent game studies and ignore the violence that happens every day to children. It's an adult, calm and rational approach to a complicated, systemic failure — which is exactly why it is on C-SPAN 2. To contact the author of this post, write to chrisperson@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter at @papapishu