Size Five Games, the indie team been behind Time Gentleman Please and Ben There, Dan That, has a new game headed into beat soon. Called Gun Monkeys, it’s a procedurally-generated, physics-based, online deathmatch … platformer.

“In the distant future, a catastrophic experiment into Perpetual Energy obliterates all human life, leaving the world choc-full of free-for-the-taking energy. Your job is to send a legion of pleasingly-expendable monkeys forwards in time to collect Power Cubes and return them to present-day, all from the comfort of your PC. Sadly, it looks like one or two other entrepreneurs have had the exact same idea,” Size Five Games writes.

Check out the trailer below, and if you’re keen – who isn’t? – keep an eye on Dan Marshall’s Twitter for word on how to get into the beta.

Source: Size Five Games

What makes Dontnod’s Remember Me stand out from other action games is protagonist Nilin’s ability to get inside people’s memories – and wreck havoc with them. This latest trailer for the action effort is all about this wetwork hacking, which has left our hero without her own remembrances, as explained by creative director Jean-Maxime Moris. Dystopic future Paris, here we come; Remember Me is due in early June.

Sony Online Entertainment has given a heads up on what we can expect to grace the MMO in update eight. As well as the usual bug fixes and some UI tinkering, the meat of the extra content includes new weapons, helmets and armour sets, and the super cool Harasser buggy. As the name suggests, the Harasser is all about quick hit-and-run assaults, and seats three players. Take a little peek below and visit the Planetside 2 forums for full patch notes.

Source: SoE Forums

Valve has chosen 13 teams to take part in this years Dota 2 world championships, The International.

Naturally, you’ll recognise most of the names, coming as they do from the best and brightest teams; Invictus, Team Liquid, Team Dignitas and both LGD and LGD International are among the lucky few.

Three slots remain to be filled; there will be a series of qualifiers to select the remaining competitors before the final in Seattle in August.

On the off chance you happen to be heading over to the US – perhaps for PAX Prime which takes place a few days later – tickets will go on sale early this week.

The prize pool has not been announced but the tourney has previously fronted a $1 million grand prize.

Source: The Inetrnational

If you cast you mind way, way back to – oh, actually, Dishonored came out less than a year ago. Hmm. Well, anyway, Bethesda offered some pretty interesting pre-order bonuses for the Arkane Studios stealth-’em-up, and if you missed out on them at the time, you’re going to be able to grab ‘em now.

The four formerly-exclusive bundles are the Acrobatic Killer Pack, Arcane Assassin Pack, Backstreet Butcher Pack and Shadow Rat Pack. The four each have a book; a cash bonus; a collection of bone charms and an item that grants Corvo one extra slot for a bone charm.

You can have all of these for $4 by picking up the Void Walker’s Arsenal when it released on May 14, after which you’ll find them waiting for you in the Hound Pits.

Source: CVG

Hooray! Your Linux box just got slightly more awesome with the addition of Portal to Steam’s Ubuntu-friendly collection, if you’re in the beta. Portal is Steamplay compatible so if you, like practically everyone else on Steam, already own a copy you may be able to just go ahead and install it without coughing up USD$9.99 for it.

In less substantiated but maybe more exciting news, sequel Portal 2 has been spotted haunting some parts of the Steam Linux store, as spotted by Gearburn. We haven’t seen it ourselves, unfortunately, but even if it’s complete moonshine you can probably expect it to be true eventually, as Valve seems hellbent on getting every Source engine game running on the alternate OS.

Source: PCGamesN

It’s so hard to believe that EVE Online is ten years old. The sandbox MMO has come so far, and grown into one of the most interesting phenomenon in modern gaming – although it’s not for everyone. The trailer below takes a look back at where it all began which is a nice introduction for those of us a bit baffled by the whole thing and a great nostalgia trip for insiders.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Blizzard is bringing a bunch of new content to World of Warcraft in upcoming Patch 5.3, with delicious new scenarios for Horde and Alliance alike.

Blood in the Snow is a story-driven scenario in which Alliance heroes assist Moira and the Dark Irons to pu down dwarven infighting. Dark Heart of Pandaria sends you to clean up after a crew of Goblin engineers who have uncovered a mysterious artifact. Both scenarios are part of the Battlefield Barrens storyline.

Secrets of Ragefire is another goblin-centric story, sending you to investigate the cause of missing scouts. Battle on the High Seas sens you onto the high seas in a factional battle.

Additionally, Blizzard has introduced a Heroic difficulty. It’s available for the four new scenarios listed above as well as for Crypt of Forgotten Kings and A Brewing Storm. To queue for Heroic mode, you’ll need an item level of 480 and two friends, but you’ll score Valor Points and a chance to obtain Raid Finder-quality items. A post on Battle.net has further details.

Source: Battle.net

Good news, dark elf fans. Might & Magic Heroes VI: Shades of Darkness is now available. This stand-alone expansion to Might & Magic Heroes VI has you viewing conflicts from the perspective of our shadowy, pointy-eared friends and their monstrous allies. As the trailer below notes, Ubisoft has produced a complete edition of the turn-based strategy title which includes all content released to date, so if you’re yet to try your hand at commanding the armies of Ashan, this looks like a pretty good place to start.

Deep Silver is offering a free digital copy of Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novel Metro 2033 with all PC copies of Metro: Last Light. The eBook will be awarded to players when they authenticate the 4A Games shooter on Steam.

The Metro games and books have a complicated relationship. Metro 2033 drew heavy inspiration from the novel of the first name, but the second book – Metro 2034 – is so experimental and oddball that both 4A Games and Glukhovsky weren’t keen on seeing it adapted. Instead, Metro: Last Light has an original story penned by Glukhovsky specifically for the game.

So, in short: if you really like the themes and story of Metro 2033, and you want the full picture fo the post-apocalyptic canon, you may want to investigate the novels – and luckily, you’ve been given a free opportunity to see if you like the first one.

Metro: Last Light turns up part way through May, after a wait of approximately forever. Metro 2035, Glukhovsky’s third novel in the series, is expected in English later this year. The series has sold over 2 million copies worldwide to date.

Source: Blue’s News

If James’s series has given you the EVE Online bug – or awakened it – you might be interested in this gorgeous new physical release of CCP’s seminal MMO. Called the Second Decade Collector’s Edition, it’s packed with a number of rare and exclusive goodies.

Perhaps the most interesting inclusion for die-hard fans is a translated copy of CCP’s board game, Hættuspil. It was developed in the 90′s and proceeds helped fund the development of EVE Online, but has never been available in English or outside Iceland before.

The package also includes a model Rifter which doubles as a USB hub; a CD of the EVE Online tenth anniversary symphony; Richie Shoemaker’s book Into the Second Decade; and codes for loads of digital bonuses. You’ll score a golden pod skin for one character; a bloodlines costume; a blueprint for a battlecruiser; lots of Amarr goodies; and a mysterious code which will apply to things added to the game over the next ten years.

The special release will drop in October through Amazon and the EVE store, and has been priced at USD$149.99/€149.99.

Source: VG247

Some of you may feel a bit weirded out by Saints Row IV. Although the series has always been fairly light-hearted, it’s now dropping realism altogether to focus on an alien invasion, with the game’s action taking place in a virtual environment instead of a real city. It seems like an abrupt change of tone, but senior producer Jim Boon said the decision has had some interesting knock-on effects in terms of design.

“Creating a virtual Steelport has helped us in a few ways. The use of a virtual world is what allows us to give the leader of the Saints their superpowers. Even for a game as over the top as SR, we wanted to give a reason for superpowers that made sense within our fiction,” he told OXM.

“This has also helped make Steelport feel like a new city once you start navigating through the world from up above, jumping and gliding through the air while battling aliens on rooftops. The addition of our superpowers bring a much greater emphasis on vertical gameplay so we were able to create content going upward rather than outward. While Steelport isn’t horizontally bigger there’s a lot more verticality to explore this time. It completely changes your perspective and feels amazing.”

On top of that, the virtual environment means that when you go on missions to rescue captured Saints, you’ll find them in virtual prisons constructed by the Zin, which will be different each time. Saints Row 4 will release in August.

Source: OXM