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Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos has said that Rock Band 3 will be a “big step forward” for the series when it launches later this year.

In an interview with Gamerant, he also said that E3 will be a grand reveal for the innovations that Rock Band 3 is bringing to the table.

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The first expansion for Dragon Age: Origins, Awakening, is now available through the Xbox Live Marketplace.

The download clocks in at a hefty 2 GB download and will cost you a pretty penny – 3200 Microsoft Points, to be exact. If you’re not familiar with the conversion, that’s $40.

You can grab the expansion here.

PC and 360 retail versions will be available this Friday, and the PS3 version will be digital download only in Europe, but will be getting a retail version as well in the US.

Finally! Crackdown 2 has just received an official release date in the UK. The title will be hitting shelves in the country on July 9.

Ruffian’s also released the first ViDoc for the game.

A summer release was originally mentioned a few months ago by Ruffian Games, but this is the first confirmation of an exact release date.

Full press release after the cut.

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Anyone who has been a fan of gaming for a while now is more than familiar with Insomniac Games, long time supporters of the PlayStation formats and creators of famous franchises such as Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet and Clank. If certain rumours are to be believed though, this exclusive support may soon come to an end.

A “trusted source” who spoke to IGN anonymously during GDC claims that the company intends to go multi-platform.

Existing franchise are, as far as we know, locked into exclusivity on the PS3 for now, but this does not stop the company from creating a new franchise for the other existing consoles, the Xbox 360 and the Wii.

Insomniac is refusing to comment on this rumour for the time being, but we’ll let you know if something comes of it. I personally would be extremely surprised if this turned out to be true.

In these sandbox times established by the likes of GTA, Carmageddon and Sim City, it seems to me like linearity has become a sin when it comes to game development. Unless you’re making a certain type of game, a linear style of gameplay and story progression seems to have certain fans screaming for blood.

Final Fantasy XIII in particular has had to endure a lot of flack for keeping the first 25 hours of the game strictly linear, while other games that used to be linear like the Prince of Persia series are going for something more akin to a sandbox title.

I’ve always upheld that linearity is far from a bad thing. I grew up playing linear games and some of my favourite games of all time are completely linear. So I ask you

- Why is linearity considered such a pet peeve of certain gamers?

- Is a sandbox title inherently better than a level based, linear game?

I’ve seen some interesting things done with YouTube’s annotations feature. Mostly providing your own subtitles, notating certain points of a video, or taking you to a related web page.

I’ve also seen some YouTube channels where the page “breaks”, or is otherwise interactive. However, these are always done by major companies, not your average guy with a camera.

The crew of Hey, Ash Whatcha Playin? (HAWP) has found an awesome middle ground between these two and created a review of Mad Dog McCree (ported to Wii). If you want to watch the full review, you’ve got to “play” the quickdraw game and get a perfect score to finish.

As the review requires you to view the page directly from YouTube, I can’t embed it here. Check out the full review here and good luck.

You might remember this trailer for Deus Ex 3, which didn’t really tell us much of anything about the game. In fact, there’s no gameplay in the video. There’s really nothing in the video at all, except for some abstract… Stuff.

Well, we’ve got a new trailer for you, which shows off a little more than “stuff”.

Unfortunately, we don’t get to see any combat in this trailer, either. But we do get to see what appears to be the main character having some sort of trippy, angelic dream where he flies into the sun and burns.

It’s unclear whether or not you’ll be playing as JC Denton or another clone of him like the previous titles, but the likeness is uncanny, so I feel it’s a safe bet that you play as another clone again.

We’ve got some screenshots and the new trailer after the jump.

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Well, here it is, folks. The next single-band installment from Harmonix, Green Day: Rock Band, has been announced for a worldwide release of June 8th, 2010 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii consoles.

Full PR available here with more information and screenshots under the cut.

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Easily one of the best part about having friends or coworkers who are also die hard gamers like yourself, is the fact that you can talk to this person about how the developers don’t know what they’re doing, how you would’ve done such and such game better, and ultimately, “back in my day…”

Personally, “back in my day” is the best part of any gaming-related conversation. Mainly for the sake of bringing back fond memories, but also because I always manage to realize something that I never noticed before as a kid, or simply couldn’t figure out.

Case in point: Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Casino Night Zone. I spent years trying to get past that block that you simply couldn’t jump over. If you’ve played Sonic 2, you know what I’m talking about. I ended up giving up on the game completely, and declared it broken and unbeatable. Then, just two years ago, I learned while talking to a friend that you actually have to press down on your D-pad, as the platform you’re standing on is actually an elevator.

Silly realizations like this are one of the many reasons it’s always a good idea to take a trip down memory lane. Today’s trip will take us to the town of DoDonPachi. PEW PEW after the jump.

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There you have it, folks. At the Sony segment of the GDC, Sony has officially given “Arc” a name – The PlayStation Move.

Seems kind of like an obvious name for a motion controller, but I suppose it also succinctly explains its purpose.

The PlayStation Move will come bundled with a PlayStation Eye, a game and the controller itself for under $100.

In addition, PS3 games LittleBigPlanet and Resident Evil 5 have been confirmed to support Move functionality.  A new title, Sports Champion, will feature several sports-related mini-games for use with the PlayStation Move.

Very much looking forward to Microsoft’s motion controller, too!  Everyone stay tuned for Microsoft’s This Camera Tracks Your Movements!

Looking for the latest information from Sony’s GDC press conference? TGV will be live-blogging the entire conference. Don’t forget to particpate in the pre-conference polls, and comment on what you would like to see. The conference starts at 4:00 PST.

The live-blog can be found after the break.

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Developer of the Rock Band series of music games, Harmonix, has announced that they are working on a new Rock Band game, Rock Band 3, due out in late 2010.

The announcement, which was made at an investor conference, and then later made public via the Rock Band Facebook page, promises to “innovate and revolutionize the music genre once again”

“Harmonix is developing Rock Band 3 for worldwide release this holiday season! The game, which will be published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts, will innovate and revolutionize the music genre once again, just as Harmonix did with the original Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band. Stay tuned for more details!”

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Now this sounds cool. EA Sports has just revealed in a press release that Tiger Woods 11 will be hitting stores on June 8, and to boot, the PS3 version will come with support for the PS3 motion controller.

The PS3 motion controller itself is due for release near the end of the year.

EA Sports is expected to show more details on this at GDC later today.

Press release after the cut.

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In an announcement that will surprise no-one, Microsoft has stated today that the brunt of its Natal line-up with be show off at this year’s E3.

“We have very strong first and third-party developer support for [Natal]. Needless to say, we’re putting some of our best people on coming up with great game ideas for this, and we’re going to have some great stuff,” said Microsoft CFO Mindy Mount, speaking at the Jefferies Annual Global Technology Conference in New York today.

“As a history, Microsoft works very strong with third-party developers, so we’re hoping that we’re going to get some great titles from that. You’ll be able to see more news about that this summer at E3. We’ll show you the full line-up.”

The yet-to-be-officially-named motion-capturing gaming device, Natal, is currently rumoured for an October release date. This journalist, personally, is very excited about seeing what Microsoft has to reveal for the device at this year’s E3.

The latest issue of Nintendo Power reveals that a sequel to Scribblenauts is headed its way to your DS this fall.

Developer 5th Cell hinted at a sequel when they mentioned that Scribblenauts could end up on the Wii as well.

Confirmed for the sequel are 120 new and improved worlds to explore, a hint system, an improved level editor, tighter controls, and an expanded dictionary with 10,000 new words to use in the game.

Personally, I think the first game would’ve benefited greatly from tighter controls, so I hope that the sequel will deliver everything promised above and more!