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

Petroglyph’s latest game has escaped from beta testing and has been released into the world. Battle for Graxia takes the MOBA formula and evolves a lot of features. Match replays don’t just sit on a server; they’re downloadable. You can queue up as a White Knight and fill in for players who drop, and cut your teeth in PvE before taking it online in the PvP. Free heroes rotate out every week, and players can customize their heroes using artifacts and skill trees. Interested players can go ahead and sign up here. Plus, it has a hero named Murderhoof, which is awesome.

We’ve spent years speculating about what the next generation of game consoles might look like. To help us out, Sony decided to take a few hours out of their busy day on February 20 to share some info about their next-generation machine. (The image at left is one of many concepts created by various sources, and might not be an accurate view of the console; we still don’t know what the damn thing will look like when it releases in the 2013 holiday season).

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Every year we receive a number of clever trailers from game publishers around the holidays, but this one from Wargaming.net was exceptional. Check it out; this is one Santa you don’t want to meet in a dark alley. Many thanks to our friends at Wargaming, and happy new year to all!

How many times have you read game reviews and said to yourselves, “That guy’s a hack! I could do better than that!”? Well, we’re giving you the opportunity to put up or shut up. Avault is searching for PC game reviewers. The big holiday release season is just starting to heat up, and we’re staffing up to cover as much of it as possible. If you’re a knowledgeable gamer and a strong writer, we want to hear from you. If you’re motivated and interested, send three writing samples (no resumes, please) to michael@avault.com with “PC Writers Wanted” in the subject line. Several former Avault staffers have gone on to successful careers in the gaming industry, and you could be next!

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.