For anyone thinking about taking a trip to the picturesque/morally ambiguous metropolis of Dubai, as presented in Yager Games’ upcoming shooter Spec Ops: The Line, we’ve put together this little tourism guide to get you familiar with the sights, sounds, and smells that await you in this beautiful yet deadly destination. And if you like what you see, be sure to take a trip of your own when Spec Ops: The Line releases on June 26.

UPDATED 2:40pm -- Well, it looks like we weren't the only ones eager to put the pieces together. Thanks to the eagle eyed folks over at Segabits (via My Nintendo News), we now know who will be publishing whatever this Double Fine game ends up being: none other than Sega. What do you know about that?

Original story follows:

Over the past week, Double Fine’s Ron Gilbert started posting pictures of characters from his upcoming mystery project, and yesterday, the final piece was revealed in the form of a picture of The Knight.

After scrolling through the pictures on Gilbert’s Grumpy Gamer website, we noticed the edges of some of the pictures seemed to match up (which isn’t terribly surprising considering we put together an actual puzzle a few weeks back that was sent to various outlets to tease the game’s upcoming reveal). Sure enough, we were right, as you can see from the above image we pieced together using plutonium-enriched algorithmic cyclotron emitters (aka a standard photo editing program).

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EA and Crytek rather unexpectedly revealed Crysis 3 this week. If you haven’t checked out our Crysis 3 first look preview (for shame!), definitely do so to find out all about the new additions, big improvements, and overall franchise-pushing-forward-ness at play in the upcoming sci-fi threequel. If nothing else, you’ve most likely seen the announcement trailer in all of its shiny, high-poly count glory. So we figured we'd take a little break from racing hedgehogs and “not” betting on hedgehog races to breakdown the trailer and highlight a few of the key features at the heart of Crysis 3.

1. Under the dome – Crysis 3 is set 20 years after the events of Crysis 2, and while it does take place in New York City, things have changed quite a bit, thanks to the Nanodome that Cell Industries dropped on top of it to contain the Ceph infestation. One of the most significant side effects of the dome is that it has accelerated the ecosystem and turned New York into an “urban rainforest.” There will be various districts that adhere to a particular environmental theme (grasslands, swamps, jungles, etc.), each of which is being designed to not only look distinct but encapsulate a unique tone and mood as well. They will also be brimming with life of all shapes and sizes. See number 2.

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As a way to either promote its upcoming stealth/sci-fi action title Dishonored, or to warn us  of an impending regime change at the hands of the mysterious City Watch, the folks at Bethesda and Arkane Studios sent over this rather sharp collection of game-inspired items housed inside a faux wooden crate.

The piece de resistance of the package is a snazzy, Victorian-inspired clock, complete with a temperature gauge and a hygrometer, which, as you are all well ware, is used to gauge humidity. Both meters confirmed our offices to be a comfy setting in which to get in some quality clock watchin’.

But the clock’s niftiest feature comes via a button on the back of it that plays the following message from your kind City Watch protectors:

And just in case Dishonored's art design and overall aesthetic wasn’t enough to conjure up memories of Half-Life 2, this broadcast surely will, with its Wallace Breen-esque warnings of staying safe and being on the lookout for individuals threatening to upend the entrenched societal establishment.

To this end, the package also includes a wanted poster for a “masked miscreant” and “Enemy of the City of Dunwall” who stands accused of murdering “various individuals of note.” The current reward stands at $10,000 coins. Not too shabby.

• PREVIEW: Dishonored First Look Preview -- A Steampunk Mix of Hitman and BioShock? Yes Please!

To see more of these finely crafted items, check out our Dishonored unboxing photo gallery. And remember, report any suspicious activity and stay safe. And be sure to tune in later in the week for our latest look at Dishonored in our new gameplay preview. It is a pretty safe bet that we will see more of the game at E3 12.

Max Payne 3 marks the return of grizzled, pill-popping, time-bending super cop Max Payne. It’s been almost a decade since gamers have worn Payne’s hard boiled gumshoes, but Rockstar Studios has made it a point to ensure Max’s return is as explosive and attention grabbing as he was when he first dive-strafed player’s hearts all those years ago. And while non-stop cinematic action is the core of the Max Payne series, the real heart and soul lies with the titular cop, more specifically actor James McCaffrey.

McCaffrey not only reprises his role as Max in voice, but now in body as well, having done the performance capture for Max Payne 3 as well. So to find out more about what it was like reuniting with Max, how the performance capture experience has changed since the previous game, and what players can expect from Max’s latest bloody journey, we spoke with McCaffrey via email. Read on!

It will have been nine years since we last heard/saw you as Max Payne when Max Payne 3 arrives next month. How did it feel to be back in Max’s shoes after all those years? Did you find they still fit, or had you/Max grown a bit in that time?

James McCaffrey: It was surprisingly comfortable. The guys at Rockstar have done a fantastic job at creating a story that fits perfectly with where Max might wind up in his life after so much time. So Max still fits, probably more so now after having to do much more work for the character this time, in terms of having to do all the motion capture work, which was all brand new to me. Ultimately, that makes the character more believable, but it’s also more of my own performance that winds up as part of the game.

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If wild, cartoony violence and deep weapons customization options are two things you just can’t get enough of, then Edge of Reality’s free-to-play fragfest Loadout definitely needs to be on your radar. This third-person, team based multiplayer title—currently on track for a Steam release but perhaps Xbox Live bound as well—delivers the kind of frenetic and goofy fun of a Team Fortress 2 but with the weapon personalization of something like Borderlands.

Before each round, you have the option of mixing and matching every aspect of your primary weapon, from the hilt to the type of gun (rocket launcher vs. machine gun) to the magazine type to the type of ammo (fire vs. electricity, and you can even choose properties like sticky or bouncy). The combinations are endless and can result in some pretty wild outcomes. For my two matches, I built an machine gun that fired fire bullets and a shotgun with an extra spread barrel that packed instant death in electric slug form.

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Part Shadow Complex, part head-to-head, eight-on-eight multiplayer mayhem, part mash-up of over-the-top 90’s action flicks, The Showdown Effect, from Arrowhead Game Studio and Paradox Interactive, is a 2.5D shooter that puts you in the grizzled shoes of a John McClaine-esque action hero, and your only job is to blast, blowup, and bloody up other players in a competitive multiplayer setting.

While the game supports up to eight players, it was only playable against one other person on the show floor. Still, the matches I played did a fair job of showing off the various acrobatic combat maneuvers at your disposal once the bullets start to fly. Not only can your tiny hero pull off the always appreciated dive and shoot move, he can also grab ledges to pull himself up to higher levels, slide down walls, and even do cartwheels and backflips Matrix-style, to avoid incoming rounds.

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If Dust: An Elysian Tail, a side-scrolling, fantasy, beat-em-up, looks familiar, that’s probably because you’ve seen it cropping up at events like PAX East 2012 for the past few years. It’s hardly surprising that the game has been around for so long, given that it is, astoundingly, being made by a single dude, Dead Dodrill. Of all the games at PAX East, Dust is easily the most visually arresting I’ve seen yet, thanks to the incredible hand-drawn animations of the characters and environments.

The fluidity of the characters works wonderfully with the fighting game-esque combat system. With a few button combos, you can string together insane combos on multiple enemies at one time, flinging them into the air, driving them to the ground with your sword while your little fairy friend litters the screen with deadly balls of energy, creating a glorious display of chaos and beauty. It’s quite a satisfying and even more impressive sight to behold.

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Nival’s upcoming MOBA-style Prime World introduces a unique take on the genre by letting players manage their own castle/city and cultivate multiple controllable heroes, all of which can be fully customized to fit each player's particular aesthetic and combat style. Toss in cross-platform integration so you can manage your heroes and castles wherever you are, and you have the quintessential “persistent strategy game.”

For an exclusive look at what Nival has cooking for Prime World, check out the trailer below. If you find yourself bobbing your head to the shredding music, you can thank Moscow-based metal band Solar Deity. The group also composed an original song specifically for the game as well.

Yes, BioShock Infinite’s Siren can raise the dead, but it's her phenomenally terrifying voice that will really make your skin crawl; she’s a double (deadly) threat! The final Heavy Hitter to be revealed in BioShock Infinite’s running video series introduces us to a particularly spooky villain, one with a deep connection to a rather dark and twisted time in America’s history.

“Siren is a nod to a major social movement at the turn of the century,” explains Irrational Games creative director Ken Levine. “There was a sense of the spiritual world, and I don’t mean like when you ask people, ‘Oh, are you religious?’ and they say, ‘No. I’m spiritual.’ No, I mean, people were actually talking about contacting the dead and speaking to the dead.”

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If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to stroll the hallowed halls of Ubisoft Montreal, the studio behind such blockbuster franchises as Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry, wonder no more! X-Play gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of one of gaming’s most acclaimed developers/publishers, and pretty much guarantees that you will hate having to go into your office tomorrow.

Behold, BioShock Infinite’s Boys of Silence, the latest, and most disturbing, character yet to be highlighted in Irrational Games’ “Heavy Hitters” reveal series. This supremely creepy foe sports one of the most bizarre yet fascinating character designs in recent memory, what with its metal tube ears, bolted and locked leather neck, and oddly foppish blue suit.

The Boys of Silence design is so striking in fact that it’s hardly a surprise that when BioShock Infinite creative director Ken Levine saw the first concept art for the character, he instantly connected with it.

“Rarely this happens when I see a concept I’m like, 'Oh my god! We have to do that!'" says Levine.

More details after the break.

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The design evolution of BioShock Infinite's Handyman is detailed in the latest installment in Irrational Games' character reveal series. Unlike the previously revealed Motorized Patriot, which is a machine through and through, the story behind this hulking, yet spry, mechanical menace is much more disturbing.

“The Handymen are sort of a tragic figure," says BioShock Infinite creative director Ken Levine. "There’s a certain sadness to who they are and how they got there.”

• VIDEO: BioShock Infinite "Handyman" Trailer

Levine wouldn’t elaborate on the tragic events that led to these dudes being trapped in metal husks, as he’d prefer for the truth be revealed to players when they actually play the game. Fine by us. The more surprises the better.

Hit the jump for details on the Handyman's evolution and his unique abilty set.

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Leading up to GDC 2012, one of the big rumors as far as reveals was that EA and Maxis would unveil a new SimCity game. Well, as you’ve probably seen by now, that’s exactly what happened. However, despite holding a special press event to officially unveil the game, neither EA nor Maxis talked at all about the game itself or provide any details regarding its development, aside from showing a pre-rendered target concept/SimCity announcement trailer.

Instead, EA relegated said info that people wanted to a lately added panel entitled "Inside the Glassbox,” a largely technical-based presentation about Maxis’ new simulation engine that powers the SimCity. For someone like me (i.e. someone with zero understanding of the inner workings of a computer simulation engine), it was a rather dense discussion to wade through.

• NEWS: SimCity Announced

Thankfully, the elegance and conciseness of the Glassbox engine itself, and the fundamental building blocks that drive it, made the presentation of the simulation elements, and even the code behind it, actually quite entertaining and educational. Better still, it made me genuinely excited about SimCity, a franchise that has held little appeal for me since I first played the original way back when.

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You might remember back in 2006 when David Cage and his team at Quantic Dream released a short video called “The Casting.” It was a brief yet powerful scene designed to show off the developer’s latest experiments with performance capture. It had nothing to do with the game they were working on at the time—which ended up being Heavy Rain—but rather it was a way to demonstrate their vision for what new technology could allow them to deliver in terms of storytelling and performance; for a refresher, you can watch it here.

At GDC 2012, Cage took to the stage to give the world its first look at Quantic Dream’s newest test piece entitled “Kara.” Similar to “The Casting,” the video is a standalone story that doesn’t (but would be so awesome if it did) represent what the team is working on next. It’s just something designed to showcase what Quantic Dream has been up to since it finished development on Heavy Rain back in 2010. And if you’ve seen the piece, then you know it packs a mighty impressive punch.

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