You could have asked me what the screenshot above was from a week ago and there’s no way I would have ever guessedHuxley: The Dystopia. I sort of stopped paying attention to the massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (or does FPS come before MMO?) a year or so ago, like many of you likely did at some point. Come to think of it, I don’t recall seeing “The Dystopia” in the title before today, so I must be really out of the loop....

Microsoft is conducting an open call for US based participants for a public preview to help us prepare for an updated Xbox 360 disc format. They say as part of the preview program, you will receive a copy ofHalo: Reachalong with other possible rewards. Doesn’t that sound exciting? Don’t worry about getting in, as Microsoft says they’re accepting “multiple thousands” of testers. Plus, being a US only test, that narrows down the field even more....

City Interactive’sSniper: Ghost Warrioris finally hitting PlayStation 3 on June 28, the publisher revealed today. The game is not just a simple port of the PC and Xbox 360 game that came out last year, instead featuring a number of PS3-exclusive features and upgrades. City Interactive that means updates to gameplay (with two new rifles, the L96 and the M200 Intervention) and visuals, an all new single-player mission, along with a “Hard Core” mode for people who wish they were actually snipers....

Most of you have complained about the marketing campaign forDragon Age: Origins, and BioWare’s decision to use Marilyn Manson’s “The New Sh*t” as a backing track. I personally love it and think it’s a hilarious move, but nevertheless, during my interview time with lead designer Mike Laidlaw, I had to ask him: What’s the deal with that music? “It’s funny,” laughs Mike. “I think honestly the fact that it was labeled as Marilyn Manson actually caused people to flare up more than if it hadn’t been, but if you dig into what I think people are reacting to, it’s, ‘Why are you putting rock n’ roll into my fantasy?...

Slant Six and SCE have announced a new and snow-themed expansion called Cold Front for the FPSSOCOM: Confrontation. Set to hit at an unknown date and priced at $14.99, the cold DLC is packing a flurry of content includingfivenew maps, three of which are re-tunedSOCOMgolden oldies. Thermal goggles and white camo will be included in the DLC, as well as a different character progression system, a new mode dubbed “Arms Run,” and a new Special Forces regiment, the Russian Spetsnaz....

David Hayter, the voice of Solid Snake in theMetal Gear Solidfranchise, has announced today the formation of his own film production company. Dark Hero Productions will be bringing action, sci-fi and horror titles to market. The company’s first project,Demonology, will be written and directed by Hayter and comes from his experiences attending an international high school in Japan as a child. While he’s waiting for funding to be approved on that project, Snake will be getting some practice in onSlaughter’s Road, a werewolf flick which will mark his directorial debut....

Sony has declared that its new N-Gage,the Xperia Play, will not be a new N-Gage. “As you can see from the design of [the Xperia Play], when you hold it in portrait it’s a smartphone,” said Sony-Ericsson’s Dom Neil-Dwyer. “It’s not a game device that you can make some phone calls on, it’s a smartphone. When you’ve got the game keys hidden and you’re just holding it like that, people wouldn’t know what it is, but obviously when you pop it open it’s a great gaming device....

EA Bright Light’s robot-having downloadable titleSpare Partsis coming to PlayStation Network on Tuesday and Xbox LIVE Arcade on Wednesday for $10, according to thePlayStation BlogandMajor Nelson. Having long since given up on the notion of anotherMetal Arms, this will have to fill my itch for games which feature non-menacing robots. Considering that it’s gotSimon Peggin it, and the co-op isn’t just restricted to online play, I’m not too heartbroken. And given the scope of this game — or what I believe the scope to be, anyway — I’m pleasantly surprised by the pricing....

Famed designer Warren Spector wasn’t done withDeus Exafter he and his studio finished the follow-up Invisible War. In a recent interview withVariety, Spector said that he tried to acquire the rights to the IP from Eidos, but before that, he had plans for a game in the vein ofDeus Exready to go and needing a publisher. “There were and still areDeus Exstories I would like to tell,” said Spector. “That story is not done for me....

As we reported previously, there is a Notorious Monster inFinal Fantasy XIthat is really hard. So hard, in fact, that you can fight it for over 18 hours and get nothing but vomit and tears to prove your mettle. Recently,Kotakureported that Square Enix is going to fix the issue. An update toFinal Fantasy XI’sofficial sitepointed out that this “issue of major unrest in the community” needed “alterations [to] prevent such battles from exceeding a certain predetermined length of time....

Star Wars: Battlefronthas always been a pretty sweet series of games, and people have been itching for news onBattlefront IIIfor a long time now. Perhaps it may satiate the demands ofStar Warsnerds, if only for a little while, to learn thatStar Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadronis making its way to the DS and PSP this Fall. The game’s title wasleaked by the ESRBa few week ago, but LucasArts has made the official announcement today, complete with screens and details....

Gamers worldwide know that South Koreans love theirStarCraft. They don’t care that the game is a decade old and was only released in English — they love it that much.Siliconerashows us a book that takes the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach of teaching South Koreans the English language. StarCraftplayers already know all of the game’s English names and terminology, so the book StarCraft English takes these terms and and groups them with other English words that have the same prefix or suffix....

Here’s a story that’s short and sweet if you’re a Mac user: the Mac client forStarCraft IIbeta is now available for download. Blizzard promised it would be coming in April, and here it is, with only a few days left. As a new Mac owner, I was thrilled when I logged into my Battle.net account to find that it was available. Only problem is that the download launcher, a six meg file called “Downloader” won’t actually launch on my Macbook Pro running OS X 10....