Sony finally has something to show from the upcoming PlayStation Vita FPS, Killzone: Mercenary, in the form of a gameplay trailer. The game, developed by Guerilla Games Cambridge, puts players in the combat boots of a mercenary, with players accepting paying assignments from both ISA and Helghast forces.

The trailer release was accompanied by confirmation of the game's release date: September 17, 2013 in North America and a day later in Europe. Those who pre-order the game have a handful of bonuses to look forward to, including 48 hours of double XP and an in-game cash bonus for those just starting out. Don't be surprised if additional retailer-specific bonuses pop up as well in the months ahead.

Our last peek at BioShock Infinite came in the form of a trailer disguised as mini-documentary on the floating city of Columbia, but this latest one follows a more traditional path. Irrational Games' City in the Sky trailer is your basic, pre-launch runthrough of the story (as we currently know it) and key gameplay elements.

Of course, nothing in BioShock Infinite is really basic. From riding the Sky Line to Vigor-induced powers to your constant companion in Elizabeth, the narrative-heavy game feels like a BioShock adventure through and through. The wait won't be much longer. Infinite finally reveals itself to all on March 26, 2013.

When you’re doing something as revolutionary as CCP is with Dust 514, it can be easy to focus on the bigger aspects and forget about the basic gameplay mechanics that make modern shooters as popular as they are, but, thankfully, through the help of a year-long closed Beta, Dust 514 is continually getting closer to the standards set out by other heavy hitters in the genre while also creating new milestones along the way.

Dust 514 isn’t meant to be just another shooter, but rather, it takes a stance against stagnant innovation by turning the console shooter market on its head with a free-to-play, massively-multiplayer, first-person shooter available to anyone who has a PlayStation 3. That’s huge.

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Brace yourselves, cyberpunk fans. Flashback, the badass adventure game platformer from 1992, may be getting the HD remake treatment in something called Flashback Origins. The news comes from French site Gamalive (via Eurogamer), which claims that creator Paul Cuisset and his studio, VectorCell, is developing, with Ubisoft publishing.

Ubisoft has yet to confirm anything, but the teaser image above should certainly look familiar to fans of the original. The fact that Cuisset and VectorCell are handling development is a little bit alarming give the disaster that was 2012's Amy, but lessons can be learned. Besides, who knows Flashback better than its creator?

Assuming the report is accurate, it's looking like the plan is to release Flashback Origins sometime in 2013 for download on PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and Steam.

The latest trailer for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Netherrealm Studios' DC Comics fighter, Injustice: Gods Among Us, is all about the story (via All Games Beta). Or, perhaps, stories. It looks like there's quite a bit going on in this two-minute clip, titled "The Line."

There's some cool stuff happening here even if you're not versed in your DC lore. The trailer is light on gameplay and heavy on cinematics, but you can get from it a sense of the conflict that drives these various heroes and villains to trade punches in various environments.

Fans of DC lore will no doubt see things here that my untrained eyes aren't catching; let us know what stands out to you in the comments!

Here's your chance to bid on some awesome memorabila and all for a good cause! X-Play is auctioning off a rare Skyrim statue, a limited edition Halo 4 Xbox console and a copy of X-Play's final script. The latter two items are signed by Morgan Webb, Blair Herter, Kristin Adams and the X-Play staff!

All proceeds go to Child's Play, a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games in their network of over 70 hospitals worldwide. They set up gift wish lists full of video games, toys, books, and other fun stuff for children in hospitals.

The weeklong auction ends in only a few hours, so get in there now and don't miss out on your chance to bid using the links below. It's for the children!

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 6-Foot Statue

2. Xbox 360 S Limited Edition Halo 4 Bundle 320GB

3. Signed Script From the Final X-Play Episode

An upcoming TV movie chronicling the behind-the-scenes beginnings of the BBC's seminal sci-fi drama, Doctor Who has found its star in a former ornery detention-dealing groundskeeper of Hogwarts, David Bradley.

Set to be titled, An Adventure in Space and Time, the biographical movie will see the veteran actor, now best known for playing Argus Filch in the Harry Potter films, leave the Wizarding World behind to step into the role of William Hartnell, the actor who portrayed The First Doctor on the series from 1963-1966. Joining him will be Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity, Braveheart) as BBC head of drama, Sydney Newman and Jessica Raine (The Woman in Black, Robin Hood) as Doctor Who producer, Verity Lambert.

This shout-out to the time-traveling phenomenon that captured the imaginations of Whovians everywhere will not only chronicle the show's genesis, but sets it into the larger context of the cultural shifts happening in Britain in the early 1960's. However, it will not go unchristened by the current guard since it will also be watched over by current Doctor Who exec producers, Steven Moffat and Caroline Skinner. According to Skinner:

“It’s a lovely story about very fascinating characters. There are lots of witty and entertaining stories about the genesis of Doctor Who which say quite a lot about what the early ‘60s in Britain was like. But it’s also a very personal story about William Hartnell and Verity Lambert and their relationship being forged in the making of what turned out to be a sensational hit show that we’re still watching today.”

Since its revival in 2005, the show is more popular than ever today. On this 50th anniversary of the series debut, the BBC is now more reflective of its long history than ever before, which makes this upcoming movie the perfect companion. (No pun intended.)

An Adventure in Space and Time will make its US debut at a still-unspecified time later this year.

[Source]

Here's a bit of games biz news out of Japan: Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio founded and overseen by No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, is now the property of GungHo Online Entertainment. Grasshopper's currently in-development projects, including the recently discussed Killer Is Dead, are unaffected by the deal, and the studio will continue to operate under the same name as before.

GungHo is probably best known for its Ragnarok Online MMO (and the Ragnarok series), though you may have seen the company mentioned more recently, following the 2012 release of the PS Vita puzzler, Dokuro. The good news for Grasshopper is that the new owner brings more financial support and an outside set of eyes that will hopefully help keep projects on track with minimal undue interference.

Congrats to Suda51 and the entire Grasshopper family.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 launched with built-in YouTube streaming support, and now Twitch.tv is getting in on the fun as well. A morning announcement reveals the new partnership between Activision and Twitch, with streaming support for multiplayer games, player webcams, and audio commentary coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows PC versions of the game (no Wii U, sadly).

It's not clear in the press release exactly when the new feature goes live, but the wording certainly makes it sound like the switch will be flipped soon. Those who wish to stream will need an active Twitch account of course; having a presence on Facebook and Twitter helps as well, as the feature will automatically update your feeds whenever you're streaming, provided of course that you allow it to.

Ubisoft Montreal is working on something called Osiris that appears to be set in ancient Egypt. A leaked behind-the-scenes trailer (via All Games Beta) shows off some mo-cap work and flashes of concept art for the game, including looks at a pharaoh with arms outstretched and a plague of locusts.

Osiris is the ancient Egyptian god of the dead, though not so much in a Grim Reaper sort of way. It was believed that he presided over the afterlife, judging and granting entry to the dead and giving new life to things that grow in the ground.

This could well be the game that was originally pegged as the next Prince of Persia after a screenshot leaked in 2012. In somewhat related news, Ubi Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat recently said that "Prince of Persia is being paused" in an interview with IGN. The publisher has a lot of big franchises to juggle at the moment, and Mallat throws out a vague hint when he says "we'll find something to entertain them in the future." Could Osiris be what (or one of the things) he's referring to?

Upcoming follow-up, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For has finally found the titular "dame" in question: Eva Green has been brought on board to play the sexy, sinister Ava Lord.

Now, co-directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez's violent, scuzzy, neo-noir pulp film has a gorgeous face to put on its posters. In this instance, that face will be Eva as Ava. Perhaps the most important character in the film, she will be introduced as a doting damsel in distress who reaches out to her ex, Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) seemingly fearing for her life from her abusive gangster of a husband. However, we soon find out that the only things in distress are the hapless helping of men enchanted by her beauty who she uses, abuses, and kicks to the curb. After getting his heart broken by Ava years earlier, Dwight, despite his better judgment, is about to  prove that no good deed goes unpunished as he is thrust into a web of sex, lies, and murder. -- Although, the sex might make it worthwhile.

According to Miller and Rodriguez in a joint statement:

"We've been wanting to tell this story for a very long time. Ava Lord is one of the most deadly and fascinating residents of Sin City." From the start, we knew that the actor would need to be able to embody the multifaceted characteristics of this femme fatale and we found that in Eva Green. We are ecstatic that Eva is joining us."

For Green, the role is a perfect fit as the raven-haired beauty with sharp blue eyes has played strong, manipulative women in the past with her career-making role as Bond Girl, Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, as woeful witch, Angelique in last year's Dark Shadows, and as Persian general, Artemisia in this summer's 300: Rise of an Empire. This role, however, may end up being both her sexiest and most wicked, yet.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For goes homicidal for love at theaters..in 3D on October 4.

[Source]

The multiplayer beta for Crysis 3 launches today on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, and Crytek has a tutorial video that explains how it all works. It's an open beta, so all are welcome; the event will run from January 29 through February 12, 2013, ending a week before the game's February 19 release.

The Crysis 3 beta gives players the opportunity to sample two of the game's eight online modes, Crash Site and Hunter. Crash Site is a 6v6 point capture mode in which every carries the same equipment but defending teams get to grab a shield. Hunter is a variant on infected/zombie modes, with a pair of Nanosuit-equipped Hunters chipping away at a larger team of C.E.L.L. Operatives while each downed C.E.L.L. respawns as a Hunter.

For more on these two modes, check out our Crysis 3 multiplayer hands-on.

BioWare seems to be hinting that fans have more Mass Effect 3 DLC to look forward to. Executive producer Casey Hudson and producer Michael Gamble took to Twitter yesterday (via Joystiq) to post a pair of new images clearly marked with the game's logo and some appropriately cryptic comments that reveal nothing but suggest much (second image posted after the jump).

The last Mass Effect 3 DLC, Omega, was released in late-November 2012. Not long after the story DLC's release, a BioWare forum post from designer Jos Hendriks (via Eurogamer) confirmed that "it's all hands on deck" for the Omega follow-up, with the full writing team of eight collaborating on something. Presumably a larger something than previous Mass Effect 3 DLC releases have offered.

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It appears that the upcoming sequel to last year's The Amazing Spider-Man could have another iconic antagonist to add to its rogues gallery. According to The Hollywood Reporter, actor, Paul Giamatti has been in talks to play the immense, unstoppable, super-powered assassin, Rhino.

If the news indeed pans out, the Sideways and John Adams star, Giamatti will be the second belligerent baddie set for film, presumably joining Jaime Foxx as spark-shooting sinner, "Electro." Additionally, the report indicates that actress, Felicity Jones has joined the cast for a role that has yet to be specified. Although, given her age, look, and resume, the role could very well be for "Betty Brant," the beleaguered secretary of the Spider-Man-hating Daily Bugle boss, J. Jonah Jameson. (Played by Elizabeth Banks in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.) If it is the case that Jones plays Betty, it would create an opening for Jameson, which would also be a critical new casting decision.

It will certainly be interesting to see where Rhino fits into the puzzle of this film. In the comics, the character was previously a low-level thug in the Russian Mob named Aleksei Sytsevich who, looking to line his pockets, gets the opportunity to be a guinea pig in an experiment to create a sinister super-soldier on the behalf of some shady benefactors. Exposed to extensive radiation and chemicals (the true hallmark of super-power origins,) Aleksei's body becomes bonded with a crafted super-durable armor made to look like a rhinoceros. 

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What is Game Day 2013? That's what Sony wants you to ponder as you watch the above 16 seconds of... something. The clip was posted on the official PlayStation YouTube account yesterday with no supporting info. All we have to go on is a date at the end of the clip, February 1, 2013. Otherwise known as "this Friday."

The safe bet seems to be that this is a God of War-related announcement, based largely on the woman in the clip's Greek-ish dress and the ash that starts to swirl around her toward the end. Why the secrecy though? It's not like you don't know that God of War: Ascension is coming in March. And what does "Game Day 2013" mean? All will be revealed soon enough.