This year’s E3 featured a surprising number of zombie-based games, and unfortunately, many seem to miss exactly what makes zombies so interesting.

Dying Light, developed by Dead Island studio Techland, gives some indications it may have something unique to offer. But at this stage, it’s far too early to tell.

Valve’s Doug Lombardi has confirmed reports that DotA 2, which is currently the most played game on Steam, is soon set to leave beta and actually launch.

While more details will be confirmed in the next week or so, Lombardi did reveal that it would launch before The International, a DotA 2 tournament scheduled for August 7 – 11.

Meanwhile, Nexon, who distribute DotA 2 in South Korea, have announced they will be stumping up $1.7 million in prize money for The International which is pretty nuts.

If you still haven’t played DotA 2, chances are every single one of your friends has about seventy-five beta invites sitting un-used in their Steam inventory, so just ask.

Source: Gamespot

Emails received by Battlefield 4 alpha testers invited to the first round of playtests have revealed the system specs for the game, outlined below.

Interestingly, Windows 8 is not supported at this point and neither are 32-bit operating systems.

• OS: Vista SP2, Win7 (Win8 not supported)
• 64 bit (32 bit not supported)
• DX10 or DX11 GPU with 1+GB of RAM, DX11 highly recommended
• 25GB HDD free space required
• Latest Origin version required

Some screenshots have also leaked showing extensive vehicle customisation options. You can ogle at these below (courtesy NeoGAF).

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Ubisoft have reportedly stated in an interview with Machinima that they’d be willing to consider a PC release for The Division if demand was strong enough.

Asking gamers to “sign petitions, get on the forums and post their requests” has resulted in the creation of this petition on Change.org, which is currently at 67,000 signatures and climbing.

It’s a little bewildering to me why the game is not slated for a PC release when you look at some of Ubisoft’s great recent PC releases like Far Cry 3 — and especially given that it’s basically an MMO. Ubisoft, please release this game on PC — all the next-gen consoles are using x86 architecture and PC hardware anyway so this should be easier than it’s ever been. Come on, guys.

Source: DSOGaming

Alien Rage, the game formerly known as Alien Fear, sure seems to have gotten over its fear of aliens. In fact, as this gameplay video below shows, there seems to be no hesitation in shooting them all to death.

The game is of course meant to be quite arcadey so any emotion is probably not called for — instead, Alien Rage delivers on explosions, point-scoring, dead aliens, and of course endless gunmetal-grey sci-fi interiors.

If this is the sort of thing you like, then you’ll probably enjoy the trailer below. Take a look.

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In an E3 full of “next-gen” 3D engines “taking it to next level”, it was somewhat startling to stumble into the tiny Daedalic Entertainment booth and be greeted by the sight of a humble hex grid. Startling yet, after three days of sprawling open worlds, incredibly refreshing.

Nordic Games, which acquired the rights to Darksiders from THQ alongside other title like Red Faction and Titan Quest are keen to add a third chapter to the series — hopefully including the original team.

“Darksiders is really big,” said Nordic’s Reinhard Pollice. “We know we need a partner for that. An established development team that can pull out such a big action adventure. We obviously talked to former team members and, if they are free, we want to somehow involve them. If they are allowed to because, you know, some of them found other jobs or are with Crytek now.”

Pollice explained that fans should not expext a Darksiders 3 “before two years from now” if it happens.

Nordic is also talking to various European developers about getting another Titan Quest game off the ground, which would be excellent news.

Source: Joystiq

We run this sort of story basically every year that there’s a new console revealed, but it’s always good so here you go: Xbox One’s E3 demonstration games were reportedly just running on reasonably high-end Windows 7 PCs, with NVIDIA GTX cards.

Why they didn’t use Windows 8 PCs instead is a mystery, but shots taken by users on the floor clearly show Corsair PC cases inside the Xbox One cupboards, with Xbox One controllers attached.

The Xbox One’s GPU is a modified AMD card, reportedly in the power range of a Radeon 7790.

Reportedly, PS4 game demos were running on actual PS4 dev kits, as confirmed by multiple developers including outspoken indie Jonathan Blow.

Source: CinemaBlend (Thanks, Stefan)

DICE have clarified that their new LA studio is not actually handling the development of Star Wars: Battlefront, despite speculation to the contrary.

“We will support a lot of what’s made in Stockholm from LA,” explained EA’s Patrick Söderlund.

“Imagine stuff like potential expansion packs and premium services being managed and handled out of LA. But the main game, Battlefront, is being built in Sweden. And so is Mirror’s Edge. And so is Battlefield 4.”

“It’s a way for us to expand the DICE universe, to be able to do more. They are helping. Who knows where this will take them long term? Right now they’re focused on helping.”

“In Sweden we are floors eight, nine and ten,” he concluded. “They are the eleventh floor, just in LA.”

Source: Eurogamer

World of Darkness fan site World of Darkness News reports that “a source close to the WoD project” claims the game underwent a big reset in 2010.

According to the report “the information given at The Grand Masquerade (TGM) in 2010 is no longer on the table unless it was re-verified past 2010″.

“The source told us focus and direction has shifted quite a bit since the panel in 2010, and that many aspects are either changed or off the table completely. Thus the info released in that panel should no longer be considered valid unless those same aspects were re-announced, re-verified at interviews, panels post TGM 2010.”

The only specific example that the source could provide was specific support for LGBT groups, which seems like an odd thing to remove.

Source: World of Darkness News via Blue’s News

Behaviour Interactive’s Miguel Caron has explained some of the ways that the developers will control the Tyranids, the enemy AI faction, in the upcoming Warhammer 40,000 MMO Eternal Crusade.

Miguel explained that the game would run campaigns lasting anywhere from two weeks to three months, with the intention of a single faction being declared a clear winner at the end.

“One of the things I hate in massive warfare games is that there is no winner; they never finish. So what we’re aiming for is campaigns that run from two weeks to three months,” he said to Ten Ton Hammer. “The reason why I’m saying from two weeks to three months is because I don’t know who’s going to win, and how fast they’re going to win.”

“If I see a huge population of Space Marines playing in the US for a new campaign and they outnumber everyone else to the point they’re about to wipe out the entire planet within days, suddenly the Tyranid would be a lot more interested in them.”

“We’re not going to try and counter that kind of imbalance too much, but enough to help campaigns last for those two weeks.”

There’s a lot of good information in the full interview — if you’re interested in the game at all, I recommend a read.

During our Watch Dogs demonstration at E3, we saw a game where there’s more than just hacking the environment — Ubisoft also want you to focus heavily on stealth and keeping your reputation clean. Patrick offers a further look.