Microsoft has just taken the lid off the Limted Edition of Halo 4. For $100/£69.99, you’ll be receiving the following:

• War Games Map Packs: The Limited Edition includes access to nine maps – three future competitive multiplayer map packs, each including three locations, available for download post-launch on Xbox LIVE.
• Specializations: Receive early access to six Specializations, available at launch on Xbox LIVE, and use them, one at a time, to achieve higher ranks in your Spartan career. In addition to gaining access to new ranks, Specializations unlock new customization options.
• The Special Edition of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, a 90-minute extended version of the live-action digital series which will take fans back to the terrifying beginning of the Human/Covenant war, when the Master Chief inspired a young cadet who would eventually become a leader aboard the UNSC’s greatest vessel ever: the UNSC Infinity.
• Digital Content also included: Bonus in-fiction bonus content expanding the characters and stories of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn; Special Featurette: Bringing Gaming into Reality; Making of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn

The Limited edition will also fetch you some digital goodies on Xbox Live which you can use to customize your Xbox Live profile such as:

• Unique in-game Spartan IV armor skin
• Unique in-game weapon skin for the Assault Rifle
• An exclusive in-game emblem
• Xbox Live Avatar prop
• Xbox Live Avatar Spartan IV armor set

Halo 4 ships this November and the Limited Edition is already available for pre-order. So grab them while they’re hot.

New details on the Halo 4′s multiplayer component have emerged. Halo 4 is the dawn of a brand new trilogy termed as the The Reclaimer Trilogy, and has been mapped out for the next 10 years.

The UNSC Infinity will serve as the game’s multiplayer hub. You’ll be able to customize your character, and manage  and track your progress from the largest ship in the UNSC fleet. Here’s the full scoop:

• Halo Infinity Multiplayer - The hub of the Halo 4 multiplayer experience is the UNSC Infinity – the largest starship in the UNSC fleet that serves as the centre of your Spartan career. Here you’ll build your custom Spartan-IV supersoldier, and progress your multiplayer career across all Halo 4 competitive and cooperative game modes. Surrounded by the sights, sounds and crew of the biggest vessel in the UNSC fleet, your multiplayer experience will be embedded in the fiction of “Halo” like never before, where your progress and game choices affect your appearance, arsenal, and role on the battlefield.

• Spartan Ops – The story of the UNSC Infinity intersects with the Halo 4 campaign, then continues on in a brand-new, story-driven experience known as Spartan Ops. A first of its kind and an exciting new addition to the Halo franchise, Spartan Ops is an episodic adventure that blends immersive storytelling, high-quality cinematics, and action-packed gameplay to deliver an unprecedented serialised experience. A massive-scale adventure that builds off the Halo 4 story, access to Spartan Ops is included with Halo 4 at no additional charge – effectively delivering two campaign experiences in one game.

• War Games – The competitive multiplayer modes of Halo 4, known as War Games, take place on the combat deck of the UNSC Infinity and revive the visceral and immersive experiences that “Halo” multiplayer is famous for. Halo 4 introduces fresh, immersive new game modes and strategies to help you progress your Spartan-IV career, while also delivering an experience that’s still distinctly and uniquely Halo. More details on all the modes of War Games will be released at a later time.

• Total Combat Freedom and Player Progression – Halo 4 features a vastly expanded suite of new multiplayer modes, weapons, vehicles, armour abilities, a new loadout and player progression system, and a new armour modification system that introduces gameplay-enhancing customisations for the first time in a Halo game. These advancements can be used in both Spartan Ops and certain War Games matchmaking playlists, empowering player choice, vastly expanding their creative options, and make the experience deeper for core fans and more approachable for newcomers.

Halo 4 will be out something this November for the 360. here’s what you can expect from the final product:

• The Reclaimer Saga Begins:  Experience the dawn of an epic new Halo adventure, solo or split screen with up to three friends.
• Go Beyond the Story: Halo 4’s Infinity Multiplayer features a vastly expanded suite of multiplayer modes, weapons, vehicles, armor abilities, a new loadout and Spartan IV player progression system.
• Spartan Ops: Extend your campaign experience in a massive-scale adventure that builds upon the “Halo 4” Campaign. Receive a weekly series of cinematic episodes on Xbox Live followed by new game play missions, played solo or cooperatively with up to three friends – effectively delivering two campaign experiences in one game.
• War Games: Battle the competition in fresh, immersive new game modes and strategies.
• Track your groups, stats and scores on HaloWaypoint.com.
• Edge-of-your-seat Entertainment:  Immerse yourself in Halo 4’s graphics, sound and epic game play including a mysterious and deadly new class of enemies.

There is no doubt that a remake of Final Fantasy VIII is one of the most demanded games of all time. Square Enix has always evaded the topic with comments on its possibility that offer no clear answer. The publisher never completely denied it either.  Today, making matters ever worse, Square has stated that new installments will “take precedence” over remakes.

Character Designer Tetsuya Nomura had this to say in an interview with Famitsu:

“There are a lot of people who want a remake of Final Fantasy VII.  However, new titles take precedence. We work our hardest to make something that might be even better than Final Fantasy VII. The new Final Fantasy must overcome the Final Fantasy of the past.”

Nomura believes that series producer Yoshinori Kitase will take the franchise further in the future, and although the franchise hasn’t exactly been on the top of its game lately, he asks fans to trust his direction.

Capcom is notorious for including a slew of locked content on their game discs which can be only unlocked by purchasing the corresponding DLC, even though the content is already ready on the disc itself. Their moves have drawn strong backlash from fans and critics alike. However, it looks like the publisher might finally be learning from their mistakes, as they have announced that they are currently ‘re-evaluating’ their policy on on-disc DLC.

“We would like to assure you that we have been listening to your comments and as such have begun the process of re-evaluating how such additional game content is delivered in the future,” wrote Capcom US boss Christian Svensson on their  Official Blog

“As this process has only just commenced in the past month or so, there will be some titles, where development began some time ago and that are scheduled for release in the coming months, for which we are unable to make changes to the way some of their post release content is delivered.”

The first Capcom title that will have a softer approach to on-disc dlc will be the upcoming Action-Adventure RPG Dragon’s Dogma which will have some, but not all its DLC included on the disc.

“Just wanted people to know in advance the whys, wherefores and where we’re going in the future. You are being heard. Thanks

It looks like somebody over at 343 industries just can’t get enough of jigsaw puzzles. 32 scraps of an image popped up on the Halo Waypoint forum, which fans have manged to piece together only to reveal teh final box art for the 360′s biggest exclusive of this year.You can check it out below.

Halo 4 hits store shelves on November 6th.

There’s no denying that Diablo III is one of the most anticipated releases in the history of gaming. It snatched the honor of being the most preordered PC game on Amazon recently, but the numbers weren’t disclosed. Today, Blizzard has revealed that the total preorder are over 2 million, something that even most AAA multiplatform games can’t accomplish even years after their release,  let alone preorders.

Yes, the people in Blizzard will be bathing in a pool of money tonight as after over a decade of waiting, DIablo III has finally arrived on our shores today. Servers for the game went live and they were immediately brought to the knees as the load has far exceeded Blizzard’s expectations. Over 8000 midnight launches were held all across the globe where fans lost their minds at just the thought of Diablo III finally landing in their hands.

Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime commented on the occasion:

“This launch is a culmination of many years of hard work by our development team, and many years of passionate, dedicated support from gamers around the world.”

“We’re grateful for the enthusiasm of our players, and for the help of our beta testers in getting the game ready for release. Now that Diablo 3 is live, we hope everyone’s ready to have a hellishly good time slaying demons and collecting loot in Sanctuary.”

The much awaited reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise will not be landing on our shores this autumn as previously announced. Developer Crystal Dynamics has sent out word that the game will now only ship sometime in the first quarter of 2013.

The extra development time will be utilized to add more polish.

“When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about,” explained Crystal Dyanmics studio boss Darrell Gallagher on the official Eidos forums. The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of. We truly believe that we have something very special on our hands and we can’t wait to share it with you.”

“Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game.”

“We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.”

The Tomb Raider franchise hasn’t exactly been on the top of its game lately, with other new franchises like Uncharted stealing much of its thunder.  The series seeks to reinvent itself with the next iteration by focusing on Lara’s origins, and portraying a far more realistic character. The game made quite a splash with its last year’s E3 demo, and we’re definitely looking forward to see more of it at this year’s show.

Sega’s announced that the second revision of Virtua Fighter 5 titled Final Showdown will be released in downloadable form on PSN and XBL on June 5th in the US and on the 6th elsewhere.

For $14.99/ £9.99/€12.99, you’ll be receiving the whole Virtua Fighter 5 core package, along with several balance changes, new arenas, and two new characters: Taka-Arashi and Jean Kujo, who weren’t seen in the original console release. Other enhancements includes a training mode, eight player Online Room Match Mode, and a match record feature to replay, save, and upload fights.

Character Customization DLCs for all 19 characters  will also be available from day one, and will set you back $4.99/ £3.59/ €4.49 . The pack will include around 600-950 items, so you won’t face any shortage of options.

Diablo III will be landing on our shores next weeks and we doubt if any PC game released over the past decade has enjoyed as much anticipation as the third installment in Blizzard’s Action Adventure RPG series. We don’t need to prove it, as the numbers say it all. Diablo III takes the crown of Amazon’s most pre-ordered PC title to date. We can’t imagine what the sales figures would look like once the game hits the shelves.

“Today, it became the most pre-ordered PC game of all-time on Amazon.com – even exceeding pre-orders for Blizzard’s own StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm,” said an Amazon Representative.

After over a decade of patient waiting, we are more than ready to take out our rage on demons and undead alike when Diablo III arrives on May 15th.

The world gets its first glimpse at Assassin’s Creed III running on the brand new AnvilNext engine. The trailer showcases Conner facing off against red coasts and big brown angry bear. As you can see for yourself, the next iteration of the Anvil engine is capable of churning out stunning landscapes and fluid animations without comprimising in therms of scale. Let us know what you think about the trailer below,

Assassin’s Creed III will be out for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on October 31st.