Helicopter combat is coming to Steam on Wednesday, May 15 with the release of Thunder Wolves, developer Most Wanted Entertainment’s new action game. Published by bitComposer Games, the sim puts you (and a friend in co-op mode) in control of nine choppers and a full arsenal of weapons in 13 missions set in four global hot spots. The game is priced at $14.99, but those who pre-order will receive a 20-percent discount.

Reliable information about the next generation of consoles has been coming at a trickle as we approach E3 2013. Recently, Epic Games vice president Mark Rein told attendees at the UK Game Horizon conference that both Microsoft and Sony are “going heavily” into free-to-play models for games being released on their respective new machines. Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, made a similar statement to Game Informer, saying that “We are developing a free-to-play type of game, but we haven’t announced it yet.” No word on FTP offerings for the new Xbox, which will make its first official appearance at a Microsoft press conference on May 21.

Source: Joystiq

World of Tanks, Belarussian developer Wargaming.net’s mano-a-mano mechanized combat simulator, has recently been upgraded to version 8.0. Features of the new version include upgrades to graphics and vehicle physics, allowing players to drive their tanks through rivers and over ledges, making them behave closer to the real thing than before. Also added are new tanks, new achievements and an improved user interface. Those interested in the details of the new version can view the patch notes here.

Casual-game developer PopCap, creator of classic time-wasters such as Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle and dozens of others, has completed their previously announced corporate downsizing plan by laying off 96 employees in Dublin, Ireland, according to Games Radar. An official statement from the company states that “PopCap has provided outplacement support and many employees have offers in other parts of PopCap, at EA or new opportunities with technology partners in Ireland.” The successful developer was purchased in 2011 by Electronic Arts for approximately $750 million. Fifty jobs were also eliminated in PopCap’s Seattle offices earlier this year.

After 17 years at the helm of one of the most successful development houses in gaming history, BioWare founders Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka have decided to retire to pursue other interests. Zeschuk is investing in various social programs, while Muzyka is diving into his passion for craft-brew beer through The Beer Diaries, an online interview show. Taking over at BioWare is general manager Aaryn Flynn, who has hit the ground running, announcing another Dragon Age sequel and a new Mass Effect game are in the works for the powerhouse Canadian developer.

The long-rumored Steam Box might not be a rumor for too much longer. A member of the Valve R&D team has announced that a proprietary hardware unit is set to enter external beta testing sometime in the next year, according to GameSpot. Details are scarce, other than the item is being designed to solve certain “control barriers” in Steam games, and is said to be tied with Big Picture Mode, a current beta program that allows Steam to be viewed on HDTVs.

Developer Most Wanted Entertainment has begun seeking crowd funding for a sequel to the 2005 space combat strategy game Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. The new game, Nexus 2: The Gods Awaken, takes place 25 years after the events of the first story, in which Capt. Marcus Cromwell and a powerful AI named Angel led humanity against invading alien forces. Numerous levels of user support are available in the funding of Nexus 2. You can get your name on the closing credits for a single dollar, all the way up to a $10,000 contribution, which gets you a personalized copy of the game, in which your face and voice replace those of the story’s hero. More information can be found here.

Almost 2 million PC gamers can’t be wrong — Terraria is coming to Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. Developer Re-Logic’s popular RPG side-scroller is being ported by Engine Software for release in early 2013 by publisher 505 Games. ”We’re looking forward to bringing an already hugely successful experience to a brand new console audience,” says 505 head of global brand Tim Woodley. ”We can’t wait for the existing Terraria fan base to experience all-new content.” The original PC version reportedly sold approximately 1.6 million copies since its release in 2011.

Kickstarter has become the go-to destination for game developers large and small seeking alternative funding methods for their projects. Two more games have recently reached their crowd donation targets, one with three weeks still to go. Big-time development house Obsidian (Fallout: New Vegas) has raised $1.8 million for their upcoming dungeon crawler Project Eternity, exceeding their funding goal by $700K with 24 days remaining as of this writing. Meanwhile, Uber Entertainment’s space RTS Planetary Annihilation recently completed its fundraising period, bringing in $2.2 million, beating its target figure by $1.3 million. Uber plans to release Planetary Annihilation in July 2013; no tentative release date has been announced for Project Eternity.

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath has received a high-def upgrade. The 2005 Xbox classic has been available for PCs on Steam since 2010, but is just now getting a much-needed digital facelift. The new version, now available on Valve’s download service, includes improved controls, extra difficulty levels and more Steam achievements, and will eventually be free of charge to those who own the previously released PC port. And if Wrath gives you an uncontrollable Oddworld urge, three other games in the series are also available on Steam as part of the Oddboxx Collection.

For the past few years, Playstation Plus has arguably been the best value in online console gaming (free games every month for $10 less per year than an Xbox Live gold membership — when’s the last time you got a free game from Microsoft?). To sweeten the deal even further, Sony is extending the service to PS Vita owners starting in November, according to Shacknews. Also included is an extra 1 GB of cloud storage, and if you already have a PS3 Plus account, the extra Vita service is free of charge.

Two game developers have gotten themselves in seriously hot water, and gamers are banding together to support them. On Sept. 9, ARMA III developers Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar were arrested on the Greek island of Lemnos, accused of espionage after being caught with videos and still photographs of local military installations. Their employer, Bohemia Interactive, has stated that the two were on vacation on the island and were not gathering images for the upcoming ARMA III. Since the arrests, a fan site and online petition have been created to support the incarcerated designers. Twitter and Facebook pages have also been launched, according to Gamespot.

Wing Commander fans can rise from their knees; their prayers have finally been answered. Chris Roberts, creator of the legendary space combat games, has announced his return to the gaming industry after a successful career as a Hollywood producer. Roberts is poised to unveil his new project on Oct. 10 as part of GDC Online. According to his teaser site, Roberts left the games industry in 2002 because of a dissatisfaction with the technology available to him at the time. Now that the gap between his dream project and the tools available to realize it has narrowed, Roberts is poised to make a hopefully triumphant return.

Sony is once again relaunching its flagship gaming console, the Playstation 3. Only three years after the release of the PS3 Slim, the new version of the hardware is said to be half the size of the original 2005 model (and has yet to be given a pithy nickname of its own). The unit is set to be released in North America on Sept. 25 for $269, including a 250 GB hard drive, a packed-in copy of the game-of-the-year edition of Uncharted 3, and $30 to use while playing the Eve Online spinoff, Dust 514. A 500 GB version of the new design will be available on Oct. 30 for $299.

Source: Joystiq

As the old song lyric goes, “Everything old is new again.” Apparently this is true for classic video games such as the 1982 Commodore 64 hit The Sword of Fargoal. Jeff McCord, creator of the random-dungeon hack-and-slasher, is attempting to bring his creation new life for the modern PC, Mac and Apple mobile devices (he’s even promising a Linux version). McCord is using the crowd-funding route to pay for his new opus. Those interested in helping to bring his new game to market can check out his Kickstarter page for all of the details on the project.