Civilization V has received a gigantic patch designed to improve enemy AI and rebalance the game to make higher difficulty levels more challenging. The new patch also adds a multiplayer hotseat mode that’s compatible with all maps. The update allows players to save between turns (the inability to do so before infuriating many players) to make it easier to swap saves by email manually.

Calling all Browncoats! DarkCryo’s next project is the Firefly MMO, previously started in 2006 by Fox Entertainment and Multiverse. Firefly Universe Online will be an MMO that includes all of the ingredients that an online MMO should possess. There will be appearances from the cast of the series, canonical planetary environments, and multiple playable factions such as the Browncoats, Alliance, Reavers and Megacorp. The game has reputedly been in development for “some time now” and they are currently “seeking official endorsement by 20th Century Fox and Mutant Enemy.”

Splash Damage has released some new teaser screens and an updated release date for Brink‘s upcoming DLC pack. Called Agents of Change, the content was originally scheduled to arrive this month, but has now been confirmed for early July for PSN, XBLA and Steam. The pack will be free-to-play for its first two weeks.

The DLC contains two multiplayer maps (Founders’ Tower and Labs), two outfits (the Sad Punk and the Limey), two weapon attachments, and five new player abilities. Splash Damage has also announced it will respond to game improvement suggestions from the community by addressing issues with online modes, AI upgrades, and weapon modifications.

SideQuest has revealed more info on the upcoming PS3 exclusive RPG, Rainbow Moon. It promises a core quest of 25 hours and more than 100 hours if the player opts to do all the missions. The first screens have just been released (some of which are below), and as you can see it’s looking pretty nice. The title is billed as both hardcore turn-based game, so it’s not going to appeal to everyone.

Baldren, cursed by his long-time enemy, finds himself warped to Rainbow Moon. Baldren soon discovers that being stranded in an unknown place is the least of his problems, however, as a dimensional gate has been opened where hordes of monsters pour through. Baldren must seal the gate and warp himself back to his home planet, but it’s not quite that simple. The gate can only be sealed by a dimensional gate staff and no such object is available anywhere on Rainbow Moon. Baldren can create one if he finds the right materials, but he needs seven magical artifacts that are hidden deep inside Rainbow Moon’s dungeons.

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The third piece of Fallout: New Vegas DLC is called Old World Blues, and it will be released on July 19 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. In Old World Blues you will discover how some of the Mojave’s mutated monsters came to be when you unwittingly become a lab rat in a science experiment gone awry. You’ll need to scour the Pre-War research centers of the Big Empty for technology that will enable you to turn the tables on your kidnappers or join forces with them against an even greater threat. There will also be an update issued prior to its release to bring “improvements to performance and stability in major areas.”

The MMO, LEGO Universe, will be free-to-play starting in August. The official statement from The LEGO Group says that the free-to-play version of the game will offer “a limited selection of game content, including two adventure zones and one player property area for building their own virtual LEGO models.” Paying members will have access to all areas in the full game, along with membership benefits such as competitions and community events. If players want more than the free version offers, they’ll need to start paying the $10 monthly subscription fee.

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Frontier Developments
Genre: Pet Simulation
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

If you’re the kind of person who’s ever wondered how much fun you could have with a baby tiger without the fear of being either scratched to death or arrested (and no, I’m not labeling you), then you should check out Kinectimals. I bought this game with my four year old daughter, Leela, firmly in mind, but I can’t lie to you. I’m just going to confess straight away and clear my gaming conscience by telling you that I’ve played it more than she has.

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Tomorrow will see “the biggest, most ambitious update in the history of Team Fortress 2” go live. The Uber Update, as Valve is calling it, will include expanded gear for both the Heavy and the Spy, plus a Payload map dubbed Barn Blitz.

“We’ve got a lot to announce as we get closer to the update’s release this Thursday, June 23rd,” reads the statement on the Team Fortress site, so keeping watching as the details are revealed.

Looking for a bit of a change for your Mortal Kombat experience? Fans who have downloaded either the Mortal Kombat Compatibility Pack or the Skarlet DLC pack, can now download the Klassic Sektor and Cyrax skins for free. While these skins are nice eye candy, gamers will have to be satisfied with just the look, as the characters will not receive an added Klassic Fatality.

Halo Anniversary will support Kinect, says Microsoft Game Studios head man, Phil Spencer. He also went on to say that eventually all first-party titles would support the device in some way.

“As a first-party, we believe Kinect will be important to all genres of games, be it racing games with Forza, combat games like Ryse, even games like Halo Anniversary has Kinect integration,” Spencer told Gamespot.

He didn’t mention what form this Kinect support would take, but don’t discount full game control. This Ghost Recon Future Soldier E3 Kinect video demonstrates that this is a possibility.

Sources close to Rockstar Games have hinted that the next installment of the GTA franchise is already getting its final touches. A 2012 release is pretty likely, and the game itself is looking vast. Speculation abounds as to the setting of the new game, and evidence from as far back as last December, suggests that the game is being codenamed Rush.

Rockstar’s big co-boss, Dan Houser, has provided the first official acknowledgment that Grand Theft Auto 5 is in the works. In a recent statement, Houser said that they are working on the city first, and then they will work on the characters. A set of casting calls from a talent agency point to the game as being set in a “Los Angeles-like” metropolis, with a colorful cast of California characters being filled for a voice-over session.

John Carmack, head of id Software, has revealed that the studio is already discussing the potential for the fifth installment of Quake.

“We went from the Quake 2 and the Quake 4 Strogg universe. We are at least tossing around the possibilities of going back to the bizarre, mixed up Cthulhu-ish Quake 1 world and rebooting that direction,” Carmack stated. “We think that would be a more interesting direction than doing more Strogg stuff after Quake 4. We certainly have strong factions internally that want to go do this. But we could do something pretty grand like that, that still tweaks the memory right in all of those ways, but is actually cohesive and plays with all of the strengths of the level we’re at right now.”

The next game due out from the id camp is Rage which has recently been delayed. Then it’s Doom 4, so could Quake 5 be on the horizon after that?

Take a peek at this exciting, behind-the-scenes trailer for Treyarch’s new map pack. The teaser shows the designers offering in-game tips for each of the new multiplayer maps (Hangar 18, Silo, Hazard and Drive-In). It also provides us a look at the new Zombie infested map, Shangri-La. The map pack debuts on Xbox Live June 28, and day-one downloaders will be treated to a double-XP weekend starting July 1.

Zelda fans eagerly await the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. While they wait, one question has been gaining momentum. Will the new game get ported over to the Wii U? According to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, that’s a negative. Fils-Aime has clearly stated that the new game was built specifically around the Wii controller.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword arrives for the plain old Wii this holiday season.

An unfocused unofficial image of what appears to be GameStop promotional material, posted by Unofficial Call of Duty: Black Ops Forums user Steam89, seems to suggest that new DLC is coming soon. From straining your eyes trying to decipher the image, it seems Activision is readying a third map pack for Black Ops supposedly called Retaliation, which will add four new multiplayer maps and one zombie level. A release date is not shown in the cropped image, but the forum poster says the pack will arrive June 28.