Paradox Interactive has launched the first of two tutorial series for their recently released medieval combat sequel Mount & Blade: Warband. The tutorial series gives viewers a quick look into the features and gameplay options offered in the game. This first video walks gamers through their start in Calradia. Later videos will introduce them to the advanced combat maneuvers that will bring them victory in Warband‘s multiplayer.

“Mount & Blade: Warband is not your easy combat, cookie cutter game, it requires skill and dedication but you’ll get richly rewarded for your efforts,” said Paradox Producer, Mattias Lilja. “I still get my butt kicked every single time I get on the servers so this tutorial series might mean I could actually get ahead.”

This time next year, fans around the world will experience the finale to the Gears of War trilogy when the third installment arrives in stores April 5. Developed by Epic Games and available only on the Xbox 360, Gears of War 3 will plunge players into a tale of hope, survival, and brotherhood that will conclude the current story arc for Gears of War. With the last human city destroyed and the remaining survivors stranded, time is running out for Marcus and his comrades as they fight to save the human race from the jaws of extinction.

“When we released ‘Gears of War’ more than three years ago, we set out to tell the world an unforgettable story of bravery and sacrifice in the face of insurmountable odds, and a year from now, players will get the chance to experience the final chapter in the story of Marcus Fenix and his companions in Delta Squad,” said Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games. “This is definitely the biggest and most dramatic chapter yet in the ‘Gears of War’ saga, and we can’t wait to deliver it.”

The new head of Third Echelon, Tom Reed, has some very definite ideas about what his agency (and make no mistake, it’s his agency) should be doing. Equally at home in the field or testifying in front of Congress, Reed is an operator in every sense of the word. Fast, cunning, and deadly, he’s exactly what Third Echelon needs to lead it in a brave new world of terrorism and information warfare. There’s no place for an old-school Splinter Cell like Sam Fisher in Tom Reed’s future.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction is a story of how elite government agent, Sam Fisher, turned the bitterness of his past into the fuel to drive his quest for answers. For years, Fisher has been off the grid and on his own, chasing his daughter’s murderer. But the trail leads him to Washington D.C., and Sam must stand against vast, faceless enemies and battle the corrupt government agency that made him into the merciless warrior he’s come to be. Free from constraints, he must now outwit, outmaneuver, and outgun his enemies to get what he’s seeking: the truth. The Xbox 360 version of Splinter Cell: Conviction will be available in stores beginning tomorrow, and each retail copy will include an invitation to this summer’s Ghost Recon beta.

People Can Fly has officially announced that Bulletstorm will release for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in 2011. Players assume the role of Grayson Hunt complete with an arsenal of over-the-top combat moves and outrageously large guns. The title includes a ‘skillshot’ system that rewards players for inciting mayhem in the most creative way possible. The more insane the skillshot, the more points players collects to upgrade their character and unlock weapons, which then allows them to execute even more creative moves and exaggerated skillshots.

“Bulletstorm is the kind of game we love to make because it’s pure, unadulterated entertainment,” said Epic Games President Dr. Michael Capps. “People Can Fly has created a wildly fun first-person shooter that looks gorgeous running on the latest Unreal Engine 3 technology, and the skillshot system is a welcome addition to the genre. We can’t wait to see how everyone reacts to seeing Bulletstorm.”

Blockbuster has finally made that no-brainer move and will begin offering game titles by mail just like they do movies. The Games by Mail program allows you to rent games through the mail as an additional option to your current Blockbuster Online subscription. You can rent Wii, PS2, PS3 and Xbox360 games through your current online rental queue. (I guess you’ll have to thread them into your movies list for now.)

For now, you’ll only need to pay when you play. You can rent unlimited games (though only one-at-a-time) during your monthly billing period for an additional $7.99 plus tax. If a game is not shipped to you during your billing period, you won’t get charged, but game rentals will count toward the number of rentals you are allowed out at one time under your Online subscription plan. In addition, participating stores (check first to make sure yours is one of them) will accept online game returns in exchange for in-store game and movie rentals.

Right now the program is being tested in the Cleveland area, but Blockbuster plans to expand it soon.

Today Ubisoft revealed new details for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, which will be available for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and PC this fall.

As a member of the elite Ghost Recon, you are among the few who possess the power, the adaptability, and the cognitive fortitude of the future soldier. Specialized in every area of combat, equipped for survival, and trained in absolute discretion, you are entrusted with the missions that no other soldier can handle. Armed to the teeth with an arsenal of real-world high-tech weaponry only in prototype today, you are an F-16 on legs, trained to lock on to your objective even in the world’s most complex, high-risk warzones.

In this latest incarnation of the Ghost Recon series, the Ghosts pack the latest and best high-tech military equipment inspired by real-world prototypes, and have the ability to blend into any environment with optical camouflage. An exoskeleton enhances the Ghosts’ physical abilities, allowing them to run, leap, slide and kick farther & faster than any soldier on the field today. They’ll also be able to unleash large-radius firepower with a personal mortar capable of firing multiple guided rockets simultaneously.

EA has revealed to Eurogamer that codes for Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 content will not expire and can be redeemed beyond the April 30 date listed on the leaflets inside the boxes. Both games come with codes that provided extra armor, items and even in-game companions.

Despite earlier claims that Haze developer Free Radical (now Crytek UK) was working on an “original FPS” for its new overlord Crytek Studios, it appears that the UK-based studio is actually hard at work on Crysis 2‘s multiplayer component. In an interview with VG247, CEO Cevat Yerli revealed, “that is all they [Crytek UK] are doing, with a full team on it, and they are blasting forward at full speed with more focus and dedication than I’ve ever had before at Crytek.”

Yerli unfortunately couldn’t expand on the various types of multiplayer we’ll find in the game when it arrives later this year, though he did note that the team at Crytek UK will be “making the gameplay unique to both the console and PC versions.”

In the competitive spirit of the game, Fatshark and Paradox Interactive have announced a contest for players of their recently released third person shooter, Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West.

Keep your guns locked and loaded! It´s not very often players have the opportunity to kill a game´s developer, but this week Fatshark will put their gun slinging skills to the test in Kill the Fatsharks. Beginning today and running through Sunday, April 18, players will have their shot at killing members of the development team on Steam. The developers can be identified by the “Fatshark Clan Tag”. Those who are victorious will receive the “Kill the Fatshark” achievement called “Feedback”.

Jason West and Vince Zampella, creators of the Call of Duty franchise, just announced the formation of their new development studio, Respawn Entertainment. The company intends to focus on creating state-of-the-art gaming experiences for global audiences, and is in the process of assembling their team of designers, artists and engineers. Applicants can submit resumes to jobs@respawn.com. Respawn also announced that Electronic Arts has been granted exclusive worldwide publishing and distribution rights to their games.

“Respawn Entertainment marks a fresh start for Jason and me,” said Vince Zampella, General Manager of Respawn Entertainment. “For the past decade we led a great development team and poured our hearts into creating an epic game franchise. We’re very proud of what we built – and proud that so many millions of fans enjoyed those games. Today we hope to do it all over again — open a new studio, hire a great team, and create brand new games with a new partner, EA.”

The nunchuk-like device for Sony’s PlayStation Move has been given the simple moniker “navigation controller” and will enable players to navigate in-game characters in select PlayStation Move titles. The wireless controller adds directional buttons, an analog stick, and two shoulder buttons to the PlayStation Move control scheme. It will be used in most of the Move games that require navigating an in-game character, and replicates the control features of the left side of the Dualshock 3 wireless controller.

Source: PlayStation

The battle between Activision and the former heads of Infinity Ward just took a turn for the petty. Kotaku reports on one example recently brought to light in the court filings that addresses the fact that the Activision logo was absent from Modern Warfare 2.

Prior to the game’s release, Infinity Ward decided to do so without an Activision logo present in the opening credits. It’s on the box, but not within the actual game. Activision claims that they specifically requested for it to be included, but Infinity Ward refused, and only mentions Activision in small print.

While this is probably one of the more petty aspects of the battle between the two, I can’t help but wonder if the logo was that big of a deal to Activision, why they released it that way in the first place?

Thanks to next month’s cover of Game Informer; we now know that the previously unnamed game in development at Epic’s Polish subsidiary, People Can Fly, is titled Bulletstorm. The game is described as a shooter which has players “take on hideous mutants in a flurry of lead, all the while racking up combos that encourage variety over headshot after headshot.” The cover shows a guy battling some bad guys that look like mutated Borderlands‘ bandits.

Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski has not responded to the reveal just yet, but posted in a recent Tweet that coming soon are, “two announcements about two upcoming games.”

Source: GameSpot

Some Splinter Cell: Conviction Special Edition packages may ship with a faulty USB flash drive. According to 1Up, an Ubisoft representative relayed that some of the drives shipping next week are “likely” to be defective, and that the company is working on a solution for customers who may receive the faulty units. In anticipation of the outrage to come, the company has announced an immediate price drop of the Special Edition, from $79.99 to $69.99. Ubisoft plans to post information for those who receive the faulty drives on the game’s official site.

The LA Times reports that Activision Blizzard has finally gotten around to that countersuit we’ve all been expecting. In this most recent lawsuit, Activision claims that they fired Jason West and Vincent Zampella because the two “morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers who attempted to hijack Activision’s assets for their own personal gain.” They then went on to declare that, “West and Zampella’s misdeeds formed an unlawful pattern and practice of conduct that was designed to steal the [Infinity Ward] studio, which is one of Activision’s most valuable assets — at the expense of Activision and its shareholders and for their own personal financial gain.”

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