The upcoming first-person puzzler Magrunner: Dark Pulse is launching on Thursday, seeking to blend sci-fi with the Cthulu Mythos because well why not.

As you can see in the trailer below, it’s got a bit of a Portal vibe to it, assuming of course Portal also featured shoggoths and the Dark Young of Shug-Niggurath.

The current cheapest pre-order price is at GOG.com, where you can grab it for $16.99. It is also available on Steam.

Take a look!

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We The Force Studios are a small indie group developing out of Mexico, and they’ve used E3 to announce the upcoming launch of their 2D action-platformer Randall.

Set in a dystopian future where a crystal-like mineral infects the minds of the populace and keeps them docile and afraid, Randall has instead found himself with the ability to read people’s minds — and must use this power to prevent an evil corporation from taking over the world.

Take a look at the trailer below and see what you think — we could be in for a treat.

Source: Polygon

EA deployed Need for Speed Rivals at their E3 conference last week, and for those of you who missed the livestream, you can now catch it here.

It’s one of those “interactive trailers” which are all the rage and allows you to watch a single pursuit from different angles. If it’s not working out, click here to jump to YouTube and watch it there instead.

The game hits on November 19 this year.

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Game development in Australia has been given a boost today with the announcement of $6 million in funding, to be divided amongst 10 Australian developers.

The $6 million is the first part of the $20 million package announced last year, to be delivered over the next three years.

The ten successful companies to receive funding were:

• Defiant Development (QLD)
• ODD Games (SA)
• Soap Creative (NSW)
• Tantalus Media (VIC)
• Tin Man Games (VIC
• Torus Games (VIC)
• Twiitch (VIC)
• Uppercut Games (NSW/ACT)
• The Voxel Agents (VIC)
• Wicked Witch Software (VIC)

Data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that employment numbers in the Australian game development sector have fallen from 1431 to 581 people. Hopefully this cash injection can help to bring that number around.

Source: Screen Australia (thanks David)

Jonathan Blow was the most accomplished E3 presenter I saw all show.

While most demos consisted of rehearsed hyperbole, checking off each key message in easily quotable soundbites, Blow instead took his audience on a thoughtful journey of understanding. In doing so he conveyed perfectly what his new game, The Witness, is aiming to deliver to players.

The upcoming Salem MMO, which we last covered a year ago, has just announced that they are splitting from Paradox and will be bringing their sandbox MMO to market themselves.

“Effective from July 8, Seatribe will assume full support management and development ownership of Salem: The Crafting MMO,” writes Seatribe on their official forum. “Any decisions taken from that point on will be taken by and communicated through Seatribe to you – the community. Paradox Interactive will start phasing out their involvement in the project from today and on July 8 the game for all intents and purposes will be Seatribe’s to run.”

“We firmly believe this decision is in the best interest of Seatribe, Paradox Interactive and absolutely for the community as you will have a development team working even more direct with you and the game.”

The game will continue to be monetised as it currently is, so players who have already bought in will be taken care of.

Source: PC Gamer

According to reports today, Bethesda showed a brief teaser of Fallout 4 at E3 last week.

We didn’t get to see it (if it existed) but apparently it’s coming in October 2015 for PC and both current- and next-gen consoles.

Reportedly the game has been in development since January 2011 and is set in Boston, with areas including Somerville, Cambridge, and Arlington. If there are any Americans reading this, I hope this makes sense to you.

Local co-op options are reportedly being considered as well — although this whole article is complete speculation, so keep your tinfoil hat firmly on.

Source: Strategy Informer

EA’s Andrew Wilson (seen here at 0:38) has explained that one of the main reasons it hasn’t ported most of its EA Sports range over to PC is because the majority of PC users who would play it won’t be able to run the new engine.

Before you post your PC specs with a scoff, Wilson clarifies that he is aware that high-end gaming PCs exist — but claims these represent a small portion of the people likely to be interested in an EA sports title.

When discussing the recent FIFA 11, Wilson claimed that “Even though there were some PCs on the marketplace that could run that engine, the lion’s share of PCs on the marketplace could not. And the majority of the gamer base that was playing the game on PC did not have a PC spec that would work with that.”

Wilson also claimed that porting the new EA Sports Ignite engine to PC is possible, but could cause some issues. “There needs to be some adjustment in terms of how EA Sports Ignite works to facilitate the open nature of PC architecture, rather than the closed nature of console architecture,” he explained.

Source: Polygon

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