The game engine certainly looks to be a fairly powerful one, with some nice lighting effects and level design to immerse you in the gritty, dark world of 2035. The enemies don’t look terribly varied, but they certainly are interesting: strange animated bits of rubble and wreckage, not to mention the requisite mutant freaks and zombies, rising up to oppose you. With the story of Albert, a medic from “The Republic”, emerging from a shelter from the last war nearly 20 years ago, it could easily fit alongside the Fallout series and id Software’s upcoming shooter Rage. There’s no doubt that the post apocalyptic genre is alive and well in computer gaming.

Screenshots

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The first gameplay video has appeared for Valve Software’s brand new Counter-strike game. The game will also be playable at next month’s Eurogamer Expo.

R-Type:

IREM’s classic side-scrolling shooter R-Type is coming to Android devices on the 12th September 2011 from DotEmu. You control your R-9 Arrowhead ship via a touchscreen interface just like on the iOS versions of the game. What more is there to say, it’s R-Type.

Legend Of Grimrock

Be still my beating heart! Legend of Grimlock is a dungeon crawler in the spirit of the legendary Dungeon Master game. Currently in development for PC, iOS and Mac by Finish developer Almost Human Games, the game is due for release later on this year. After watching the video, I’m just a little bit excited as Dungeon Master and its sequel Chaos Strikes Back are my favourite games ever. (via RPS)

But hey, another dance game on the scene from September! This one uses the Wiimote AND the dancemat for added coordination hilarity ;) Here’s a trailer by “leading video producers” Rob Chandler and Chris Brown (not the domestic abuser).

We Dance features a great mix of classic tracks like The B-52s’ Love Shack and unfamiliar songs that I presume the cool kids listen to. Fedde Le Grand’s Put Your Hands Up 4 Detroit, anyone? Also, no Poker Face to further confuse my routines. I love the song but enough, already. Here’s the full We Dance track list if you’re interested.

To be honest, I’m slightly afraid of dance mat games. You know how when you’re learning to roller-blade for the first time or ride a bike and you have a bad fall? The next few times you go, even the slightest wobble sends your whole body into panic mode. I played Dance Dance Revolution with a soft mat on wooden floors way back on the PS2. On a particularly energetic landing, the mat slipped out from under me, I slammed down onto my hip and almost passed out from the shock. Luckily I didn’t break anything and I know that kids all over the world use them all the time but still… dance mats are scary. Loads of fun! But scary…

The Legend of Zelda:

Nintendo have announced that The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony will be coming to the HMV Hammersmith Apollo in London on the 25th October 2011. Tickets will go on sale at 16:00 BST on the 8th Aug 2011 on the Zelda Symphony and Ticketmaster websites and cost £33.75 each. The concert will feature a 70-piece orchestra and choir performing some classic music tracks from The Legend of Zelda games.

Zelda Symphony - Hopefully minus Navi

Minecraft:

The first Mincecraft convention, called Minecon, will take place in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay hotel on the 18th-19th Nov 2011. Convention tickets along with the website to buy them from will go on sale next week. We should also get some more information about what’s going to actually take place during the convention at the same time. (via PC Gamer)

Forza Motorsport 4:

Check out this video showing how Turn 10 Studios created the beautiful Bernese Alps track in their upcoming Forza Motorsport 4 game. This game is really, really pretty. Fortunately the driving experience is spot on too as I got to play around with Forza Motorsport 4 back at E3 2011. Enjoy the video.

Resistance 3 beta:

European PlayStation Plus subscribers get to take part in the Resistance 3 beta from the 10th Aug 2011. According to the PlayStation blog there will be other opportunities for non-PlayStation Plus players to take part in the beta. That information is coming soon apparently.

Things to play with in the beta:

• 2 maps – Seaside and Trainyard
• 2 gameplay modes – Team deathmatch and chain reaction
• New characters skins
• Upgradeable weapons and abilities

Resistance 3 - Trainyard

Call Of Duty – UK championship 2011:

The hunt for the best Call of Duty: Black Ops team in the UK takes place on the 7th Aug 2011 in Leicester Square, London. A total of 128 gamers will be reduced to just 4 who will represent the UK in the World finals at the Call of Duty XP event in Los Angeles. If you think your team has what it takes to be the best in the country then fill in the tournament application form and get practising.

BAFTA Event – Playing Games with Cinema

At Somerset house in London on the 4th Aug 2011 the composer and developers behind Enslaved: Odyssey to the West will be discussing about the relationship between games and films.

Celebrated musician/composer Nitin Sawhney, who composed the score for the game ‘Enslaved: Odyssey to the West’ (also featuring the work of actor Andy Serkis and screenwriter Alex Garland), joins Tameem Antoniades and Tom Colvin from Cambridge games developer Ninja Theory to examine the creative relationship between the billion-dollar industries of cinema and games. With support from Nintendo.

Entry to the talk costs £10 (buy tickets) and includes a complementary drink. There’s also a Facebook page for the event.

Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge:

Check out the gameplay trailer for the second rugby game that is due to be released before the Rugby World Cup 2011 starts on the 9th Sep. The Rugby World Cup 2011 is the other game which will be available on the 26th Aug 2011. Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge has the official licences for the Australian and New Zealand rugby teams and also features the English Aviva Premiership, RaboDirect Pro 12 (previously known as the Magners League) and the French Top 14 teams . Nice :-)

On Friday 2nd Sep 2011, The London Philharmonic Orchestra will be taking part in a Video Game Heroes concert which will include some of the best symphonic music from Little Big Planet, Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Angry Birds, Final Fantasy and Grand Theft Auto in the Royal Festival Hall, London. The concert starts at 7:30pm with tickets priced at £39, £33, £27, £21 and £16 which you can buy here. There’s still lots of seats available, even the £16 ones.

Talia al Ghul from Batman: Arkham City

You can now play Codemasters F1 2010 game on your iPhone/iPod Touch or iPad. It’s available from the App Store for £2.99. It features all the tracks and drivers from last years F1 World Championship, but doesn’t include any of the racing. On the bright side, at least you don’t have to worry about Lewis Hamilton crashing into you.

THQ have released a brand new trailer for their upcoming Saints Row: The Third game. It includes bits from the live demo that was shown at this year’s E3 Expo where I interviewed one of the writers Drew Holmes, who described the game as a toy box. I think you’ll agree, after watching this trailer, this game is looking mental!

[Thanks to @ChrisVideoGamer for the concert info]

The BAFTA Play it up: Innovation, films and gaming event takes place this Sunday 24th July 2011 from 11:45 – 13:15. Here’s the event description:

We’ve heard it before: videogames and films are quickly converging, with films becoming increasingly interactive, and many videogames seeking to emulate the narrative sophistication of the movies. But how is this relevant to the low budget filmmaker? In this event, onedotzero are taking videogame making and filmmaking back to basics, looking at digital innovators in both mediums, and showing us what we can learn from people creating great work for little money.

Tickets cost £5 which also gets you a nice Sunday morning breakfast. After the event there will also be some free drinks courtesy of YouTube to help all the networking go more smoothly….

One of the speakers at the event is Dawid Marcinkowski who is responsible for the intriguingly odd interactive movie – Sufferrosa. It’s all very WTF? A decent broadband connection is recommended too. Check it out. I dare you.

For those of you that don’t have giant living rooms and end up rearranging furniture to please your Kinect sensor, then Zoom for Kinect from Nyko Technologies may be your saviour. It claims to reduce the space required to play Kinect by up to 40% by adding some extra lenses to the front of the Kinect unit. Basically, it’s a pair of glasses. It’s due for release in the US on the 23rd Aug 2011 for $29.99. No international release dates or prices have been announced yet. As this is something that we could really use here at TAG towers we will report back after we get one to test out.

Codemaster’s all-action FPS Bodycount has just got its own website. I know that’s not especially exiting news but
you can download some gun themed wallpapers for your desktop and smartphone from the site. The gameplay trailer from E3 2011 shows you just what kind of mayhem you can expect from the game. Guns, guns, guns….

• CD Projekt RED announced in their Summer Conference that The Witcher 2 will be released on Xbox 360 before the end of 2011 and that patch 1.2 for the PC is available today.This will include a new downloadable feature – Barbers and Coiffeuses.
• Famously DRM-free PC game distributors GOG.com are releasing more than 25 classics from EA including Wing Commander Privateer, Dungeon Keeper, Ultima Underworld, Magic Carpet, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and Crusader: No Remorse.
• You can now download Angry Birds and Angry Birds Rio to play on your PC. Whilst the demos are free, the full versions of both games cost $4.95. Alternatively, you can play Angry Birds in your browser for nothing.
• Sony’s added loads more content on to the PlayStation Store in an effort to clear the backlog that’s been building up during the long period of downtime. This update consists mostly of game add-ons and themes.
• The PlayStation Network Welcome Back Program is now available worldwide. You have 30 days from today to claim your 2 free games per PSN account that was registered before the 21st April 2011.
• WipEout 2048 on Sony’s NGP console comes with cross-platform multiplayer so you’ll be able to challenge PS3 wipEout Fury players.
• The sequel to the unforgiving, but very well-received Demon’s Souls has a release date. Dark Souls will be coming out on the PlayStation 3 on the 7th Oct 2011. See Dan’s review of the first game here.
• There’s a new Star Trek game in the works over at Paramount Digital Entertainment. Scheduled for release next summer, the game will be a Kirk/Spock action adventure using the J.J. Abrams 2009 Star Trek timeline and featuring an original story by Marianne Krawczyk (God of War). No word on whether they’ll be digitising Chris Pine’s face for Kirk but I’m sure our esteemed editor Debbie is living in hope.
• Square Enix announced Final Fantasy XIII-2 – coming next Winter.

And finally, we have the latest FIFA 12 trailer, showing off some new additions to the game like the player impact engine, precision dribbling and tactical defending.

Uncharted 2′s multiplayer was pretty awesome and huge amounts of fun to play, especially the co-op missions. So I’m expecting Uncharted 3′s multiplayer to be something a little bit special. Based on the trailer and the screen shots, Naughty Dog are really trying to make the multiplayer locations as spectacular as possible.

Ok, I may have a bit of a thing for planes and airports, but come on, fighting whilst a plane is taking off. How awesome is that? Although the airport has got a serious breeze blowing through it by the looks of that wind sock in the pictures below. That’s a 25-30kt wind right there. No wonder the buildings look a bit shabby. Take-offs and landings would be a bit sporty too :-)

Finally, the multiplayer beta kicks off on the 28th June 2011 for PSN Plus subscribers and InFamous 2 owners. Everyone else gets to play from 5th July 2011.

Screenshots:

Uncharted 3 is due for release on the 4th Nov 2011 only on PlayStation 3

You also get a sneak peek at the new achievements system and the myriad of stats that will be available for lots of geeky analysis.

The weather effects aren’t just for show either as the rain will help your crops grow and will put out any roaming fires (that you may or may not have started). The dev team are still working on adding a lightning bolt to complete the thunder effect. Update 1.5 is due to be released this week, so look out for it.

Update 20th April 2011: If you haven’t seen any weather in-game yet, be patient. Weather is not a common event. You can find some more facts about Minecraft weather in the Minecraft wiki.

The Minecraft beta is available now from the Minecraft website for PC with the full release coming out on the 11th Nov 2011.