Launch Date Confirmed: Alan Wake Heading to PC this Month

Alan Wake for PC has an official launch date; it’s been a long time coming. On February 16^th, Alan Wake will be available on Steam, with other digital distribution outlets following. The standard game, bundled with the “The Signal” and “The Writer” DLC, will be available for $29.99. A Limited Collector’s Edition will also be made available, setting you back $35. This edition includes the content found in the standard edition plus the Alan Wake Files Book, developer commentary and extended soundtrack.

RAGE: Campaign Edition is now available on Mac

RAGE is now officially available on Mac with the Campaign Edition, which includes the complete single-player campaign (obviously), the Wasteland Sewers missions and the Anarchy Edition. The RAGE: Campaign Edition is available for you to buy through the Mac App Store. If you didn’t pick up on the little hint, this version of RAGE does not include the multiplayer… it is called Campaign Edition after all.

EA Confirms, Syndicate will not ship with an Online Pass

EA, breaking a habit of what seems like a lifetime, has today announced that its upcoming title Syndicate will not be hindered by an online pass. EA Partners executive producer Jeff Gamon stated that Starbreeze’s reboot would ship without an online pass, in the hopes of lowering the barrier of entry for the game’s multiplayer side.

“We want as little resistance or barriers to entry as possible,” Gamon said. “The co-op is equal billing in this. We wanted everyone who owns a copy of the game to have access to the entire product.” It’s policy for EA to include an online pass in all of its games but it is very interesting to see them changing it up a little.

“Under normal circumstances it would have had an online pass, but because it didn’t have competitive multiplayer and because we wanted as many people as possible to be playing co-op, we got away with it,” Gamon added. “Maybe another reason for not having the Online Pass is we were confident in the scope of the online game.” Throughout the nine multiplayer maps, he says players can expect “a good six, seven hours” on a single play through. “That and the single-player campaign means hopefully we won’t see much in the way of early second hand sales and rentals,” Gamon concluded.

So, will the lack of an online pass make Syndicate a more entice buy? Please share your thoughts.

Kinect for Windows, Out Now!

Microsoft’s Kinect for Windows has finally launched! Microsoft is heavily promoting their upgraded peripheral squarely toward, not only video games but, other functionalities outside of the industry. Microsoft believes that Kinect should move “beyond the living room into other industries such as education, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail.”

The Kinect for Windows package retails for $249, bundling together a Kinect unit and a commercial license for the hardware. This latest version of Kinect is to have hardware features such as “advanced speech and audio capabilities” as well as “improved skeletal tracking that enables control over which user is being tracked by the sensor.” The unit also features “near mode” which recognizes objects “as close as 40 centimetres in front of the sensor.”

Will these improvements be implemented in the console hardware? Is it even possible? We’ve certainly got our fingers crossed.

Rift: Now Free-to-Play up to Level 20

Yesterday saw the release of the 1.7 update of Trion’s popular MMORPG Rift: Carnival of the Ascended. The update in question brought about PVP improvements, a wedding system, a new Chronicle, an additional Master Mode dungeon an over haul of Expert dungeons and better endgame equipment.

Now while that might be good for those already invested in the magical worlds of Rift, what about those who have yet to play? Well now you have an incentive to go play, said incentive comes in the form of Rift being made Free-to-Play until Level 20. The first 20 levels of Rift have been dubbed Rift Lite and it’s completely free.  Your play is not timed and the servers not restricted. Simply download the game and you’re away!

“In the past ten months, Rift has evolved at a breakneck pace, through seven massive updates that set new expectations for live MMOs, in features, in content, and in service,” said Scott Hartsman, executive producer of Rift and Trion’s CCO. “We think a Lite edition with no time limit is the best way for players to see what an amazing experience Rift continues to be.”

This Free-to- Play mentality is nothing new however. Rift Lite is very similar to what World of Warcraft introduced and what many other big MMORPG have done before them. This system is a great way to allow shy gamers to dip their toes into the sea of epic adventures and magical battles and, over time, they may decide to dive in head first. It’s definitely a system that should be introduced to many more games.

Gotham City Imposters: Causing Havoc on All Platforms Next Week

You’ve flown through the streets of Gotham City with real Batman and you’ve taken on the madness of the real Joker… but are you ready to battle their imposters? If not, too bad! Gotham City Imposters will be coming to the PC on February 7^th and to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 the very next day.

Gotham City Imposters is certainly an interesting take on the Batman franchise. Coming to you from Monolith Productions, the twisted minds that brought you both F.E.A.R and Condemned, Imposters is a multiplayer based first person shooter that provides you with 12 player battles between Batman and Joker wannabes. The game has multiple game modes including Psych Warfare, a capture the flag variant as well as a straight-up Deathmatch. Imposters also house an impressive array of weaponry and homemade gadgets, among them the grappling hook and the jack-in-the-box.

Gotham City Imposters will be available for digital download only and will set you back $15 or 1200 Microsoft Points.

Trials Evolution gets Leaked

In the past, RedLynx has been known to “leak” their own game in an attempt to boost publicity but, unfortunately, this time around it wasn’t the devs poking holes in the boat. Sources state that RedLynx have denied claims that it was behind the recent leak of Trials Evolution. “We want to be clear that is not something we did ourselves,” said RedLynx managing director Tero Virtala.

Virtala goes on to say that those who have pirated the the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade exclusive will have the bare minimum of the Trials experience.  ”Trials Evolution is a game that makes full use of being continuously connected,” he pointed out; online-based additions like leaderboards and online multiplayer are unavailable in the leaked version due to Microsoft’s monitoring of hacked Xbox 360s.

A PEGI rating provided a vague launch time for the full launch of the game. We can expect to see Trials Evolution hitting the Arcade sometime soon. Virtala also went on to tease a “new trailer coming soon which will give people a much better look into everything the game will hold and when they can expect to see it.” We’re especially interested in that last part.

The Latest UK Video Games Chart

Welcome back to the Latest UK Video Games Chart, below is a list of last week’s most popular games.

January 22nd – 28th

The Witcher 2, Coming to a 360 Near You – Release date Confirmed

Warner Bros. has finally announced the official launch date for the Xbox 360 port of the highly anticipated CD Projekt Red sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. That’s right, it’ll be coming to an Xbox 360 near you on April 17^th. Excited? You should be!

Originally announced last summer, the title was originally planned to launch on Xbox 360 in 2011, but had to be pushed back to early 2012 before Warner Bros. signed on to publish. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve waited long enough.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier – New Screenshots

With the latest addition to the Tom Clancy series slowly approaching it’s always refreshing to see some new screenshots. By now you should know what to expect from the game, with regards to visuals, but if you’ve yet to have a nose around check out the images below. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be available in the UK May 24th and in the US 22nd May.