So, the Xbox One reveal is a thing that happened, but we’re here to talk about games that you can play right now. Defiance is free-to-play from May 23 (yesterday) until this Sunday, 1 PM (Pacific). SimCity is now up to version 4.0, and despite what John Yan is saying, probably none of us at Gaming Nexus is logging back in. And you Far Cry 3 map editors can now spin your VHS tracking knobs with Blood Dragon content.

What are you playing this weekend?

Russell Archey | staff writer | Twitter @neoscyther
I finally finished up with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Yes, you read that right. I finally finished the main quest in Skyrim--and boy did I overdo it. Full dragon plate armor, free destruction spells, the works. Well enough about that. This weekend I'm planning to enjoy an old classic thanks to Steam's Unreal Deal being only $10 until May 27, so I'll likely be playing something with the words "Unreal Tournament" in it somewhere.

Sean Cahill | staff writer | Twitter @seancahill2
Unfortunately with one hand fully bandaged, I'm going to have to play some old school role-playing games and nothing new, so I dusted off the Wii and plan on playing Final Fantasy VI a bit.

Nathan Carter | staff writer | Twitter @natedoggcata
It’s Memorial Day weekend, and that means all hands on deck where I work, so I won't be able to do much gaming. If I get time, I'll probably try to get some practice in with Injustice: Gods Among Us. Other than that, it will probably be quick games of Left 4 Dead 2 when I can. My regularly scheduled gaming will continue next week when I get my hands on Donkey Kong Country 3DS. 

Sean Colleli | staff writer
I'll be finishing up Resident Evil Revelations on Wii U. If Capcom keeps going like this, we might actually get the sequel to Resident Evil 4 that it deserved. After that, I'll be enjoying Super Metroid on the Wii U Virtual Console, and maybe some more System Shock 2 on Steam.

Jeremy Duff | senior staff writer | Twitter @duff3c
I will be spending my weekend finishing off FUSE before its launch, and boosting up my virtual card collection in Prime World Defenders. Between that and welcoming the true start of summer with the opening of the pool season, I should find a means of enjoying the extended weekend.

Charles Husemann | editor-in-chief | Twitter @chusemann
I'm going off into the woods for the weekend so it's going to be nothing but iPad games like Temple Run 2, Bookworm Heroes, and  Jetpack Joyride. I'll also be playing fun outdoor games like "Which kinds of snakes are poisonous again?" "No, I thought you packed that," and "WHAT WAS THAT NOISE? OH GOD, WHY DID I WATCH ALL THE FRIDAY THE 13TH MOVIES THE WEEK BEFORE SPENDING A WEEKEND IN A CABIN IN THE WOODS?"

Randy Kalista | staff writer | Twitter @randykalista
Hoping to lose a little sleep as I roam Among the Sleep's alpha. My own post-toddler (is that an age? "Post-toddler"?), well, she gets to trippin' in the middle of the night sometimes, images of her dream world leaking over into her real world. Good times. Checking out this horror game played from the perspective of a two-year-old is probably my worst idea ever. Love the game's title though. Among the Sleep. I mean, I guess that's where you'd eventually find yourself if you were told to "go to" sleep.

Mike Mahardy | staff writer | Twitter @mmahardy
I'll be finishing up FUSE for review, as well as the yearly playthrough of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night that always throws off my backlog schedule. Other than that, I'll keep playing Injustice: Gods Among Us, as it has me completely hooked. I particularly love Green Arrow and Lex.

Now that the European football* season is pretty much over with only the UEFA Champion's League Final left to be contested on Saturday, fans will have to find their footie fix somewhere else until next August.  I can't speak for others, but FIFA Soccer is where I'll turn when Beautiful Game withdrawal becomes too much to bear.
 
Now despite FIFA 13 itself being pretty good, there's still a ton of room to improve and the improvements being bandied about now (enhanced shooting, smarter AI, more options when you're on the ball) are definitely areas that can stand improvement in FIFA Soccer 14.  

However, not everything is changing because just like last year EA Sports is using the promise of 24 weekly free Ultimate Team gold packs as a pre-order incentive.  If you're not familiar with FIFA Ultimate Team, it basically turns its particular brand of football in to a collectible card game where you assemble your squad from players you get in virtual packs you can spend in-game points and/or real money on.  Along with players, you get all sorts of other cards from buffs, balls, kits, and even stadiums.  

Your Ultimate Team is a true Frankenstein's monster built from the disparate parts you get in card packs.  Gold packs are top shelf card packs with a higher rate of rare players and items than the other standard card packs.  If you pre-order the "Ultimate Pass" pre-order package, you'll receive 24 weekly gold packs for free which is more than enough to build a solid starting squad.  This Ultimate Pass is only available until September 23, with the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC versions of FIFA 14 set to release the next day on September 24.  

The EA Sports Ignite-powered Xbox One and PS4 versions of FIFA 14 will be out "in the next 12 months" and will be available for pre-order "soon."  If you want to see what Ignite-powered next-gen games will look like, you can check out this video from a few days ago.

To learn more, follow the jump.

*Yeah, I'm calling it football.  So what?  There's more than one kind of football.  The whole soccer/football argument is little more than an outdated tribal rivalry anyway. [READ MORE]

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The city is overrun by infected citizens. Daylight is fading fast, and supplies are running low. You have no choice but to race against time, and race against the setting sun. Because once it sets, the real predators come out. This is Dying Light.

With a seamless day and night cycle, survival aspects and next-gen graphics, Tehcland aims to capture the essence of their survival title Dead Island, and the appeal of scavenging in Minecraft, in their upcoming title Dying Light.

"The next-gen technology allows us to create a truly dynamic open world that features a game-changing day/night cycle," Pawel Marchewka, Techland CEO said. "Inventive free-running mechanics also allow for nearly unrestricted exploration and weapon-crafting to further enhance the action survival experience."

Dying Light is announced for both current and next generation consoles, with a 2014 release date, following closely on the heels of Techland's other recently announced title, Hellraid.

 

Besides BioWare RPGs, no upcoming new release makes me want to enter cryogenic stasis more than a Rockstar open-world title. GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption sit right up there with my favorite games of all time, and I have no reason to expect that GTA V will be the title that lets me down.  What GTA IV had that sucked me in was a strong sense of place, and I can feel that same sense of place oozing out of Grand Theft Auto V's screenshots.  That's like getting a sunburn from your buddy's vacation photos.  

It's really too bad that the nitrogen-flux matrix on my cryostasis machine blew out the last time I tried to use it.  Thank the Maker I was only testing it on the neighbor's cat.  The neighbors weren't happy, but at least I didn't need someone to explain to my children why their daddy was now an empty husk. 

Anyway, I'm getting off topic....  Rockstar has announced a GTA V Special and Collectors Edition and revealed their details along with pre-order bonuses.  

The GTA V Special Edition will include the full game (natch), a SteelBook filled with exclusive artwork, a Blueprint Map of Los Santos and Blaine County, the Stunt Plane Trial mini-game, bonus outfits, new weapons, and the three playable characters, Michael, Franklin, and Trevor, will receive a boost to the recharge rate on their special ability meter.  

The GTV V Special Edition will run you a cool $79.99.

The GTA V Collector's Edition includes everything in the Special Edition plus a GTA V Security Deposit Bag with Logo Key inspired by the in-game heists, a GTA V 9FIFTY Snapback Cap from New Era, custom characters to use online, unique vehicles and an in-game garage to store them in, and the game will come in a collectible outer box with the GTA V logo foil embosses across its surface and a matte, scuff-resistant film lamination.

The GTA V Collector's Edition will run you an even cooler $149.99.

Finally, everyone who pre-orders the standard game, Special Edition, or the Collector's Edition will get the in-game ability to pilot the Atomic Blimp.

You can pre-order them starting now right up until GTA V's September 17 release date or while supplies last.

To learn more, follow the jump and/or visit www.rockstargames.com/V. [READ MORE]

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NoecoreGames has officially launched its action RPG The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing on Valve’s Steam service. The game retails for $14.99 but is being offered for 10% until May 29.

I took a brief look at the game last week and had a lot of fun with it, although I know that I barely scratched the surface of the adventure. The final build brings the full alchemy system and the ability to design and develop your own hideout for a meta game where you face off against waves of monsters. You can check out the official launch trailer for the game below:
   

The Ignite engine is EA Sport's next-gen sports engine.  It got its first big introduction yesterday as part of the whole Xbox One (boy, that sure is nicer to type than "Xbox 360") announcement.  It upgrades rendering, physics, animations, artificial intelligence, locomotion, and pretty much everything else that makes an EA Sports game what it is.

The four titles announced that will take advantage of Ignite are Madden NFL 25, FIFA Soccer 14, NBA Live 14, and EA Sports UFC.  In these games, Ignite will allow the AI-controlled players to make more natural decisions, ostensibly the decisions an actual human would make.  Ignite can handle four times the calculations per second which, ideally, means faster decision-making at the very least.  Ignite can also handle 10-times the animations that previous engines could.  I don't even think I need to explain that one.
 
Anyway, you can watch the following video for some idea what next-gen games using Ignite will look like.

For full details, follow the jump.  You can also find EA Sports on the web and Facebook and get all the lastest news at ea.com/news.  You can also visit Madden 25, FIFA 14, NBA 14, and EA Sports UFC on the web.
  [READ MORE]

So we all heard that you'll have to register the game on your Xbox One. It sounds like it will be a serial number type deal. Kotaku  has a report talking with Microsoft's Phil Harrison. Yes, the same Phil Harrison who was front and center with the PlayStation 3.

So you get a code to enter into the system that ties the game to your Live account. Multiple people in your family can play the game on that console, so it sounds like if you have multiple profiles, you'll be OK there.

Now let's say you want to bring it to your friend's house. They'll have to pay a fee to install it and if it's a new game, it's going to be the full price of the game. Ouch. I'm not sure how long the wait will be before the game's install fee decreases and to what amount, but don't look to take new games over to a friend's house and expect to play it. And you can probably deduce how this is going to affect used games.

Now, Microsoft's looking at making a way to let you sell your games online. So, Microsoft's going to control the used game market for the Xbox One it seems. For those that play Diablo 3, this might sound a little familiar to you. Blizzard, probably seeing how much money they are losing out when people trade items on their own, built a way to do selling and trading into the game. Microsoft, probably seeing the money being lost in the used game market, is looking to make it part of their ecosystem. 

This certainly presents an interesting scenario. If the PlayStation 4 doesn't restrict people from installing used games, which system do you think Gamestop is going to push when families come in looking to purchase something for their kids to play games.

-Update- You will be able to take your games over to a friend's house and play it, as long as you login with the profile that you registered the game with as detailed by Major Nelson.

Warner Bros. released their newest DLC today for Injustice: Gods Among Us, bringing Batgirl to Xbox Live Marketplace for 400 Microsoft points. The DLC will release May 22 for $4.99 on PSN. 

Available alongside the Batgirl DLC is the Red Suns skin pack. This add-on features several skins from the Soviet alternate reality of Superman from the Red Son graphic novel. The Killing Joke Batman skin will also be available. Both are 240 Microsoft points or $2.99.



 

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