Steam Offers Free Modern Warfare Weekend

As a continuation of their habit to provide gamers with cheap and free games, Steam is offering free Modern Warfare 3 online play this weekend. All you have to do is download the game free of charge, and until Sunday night you'll have free access to all of the game's multiplayer game modes. It's a great way to try out the game if you've been hesitant to buy until this point. Call of Duty has grown a reputation to be a tremendously over-hyped franchise, but that doesn't mean it still isn't a AAA quality online title. Last year Steam ran a similar promotion where you could try Black Ops for free. Although I never ended up buying the game, I still participated, and ended having a pretty good time. If you plan on playing this weekend, be sure to queue up your download right away, as the game files are quite large. Happy kill-streaking!

(via Steam)

Assassin's Creed 3 Coming This October

Ubisoft's chief, Yves Guillemont has confirmed that yet another installment in the very successful Assassin's Creed franchise will be releasing this fall. Officially titled Assassin's Creed 3, the game is slated to drop on October 30. This is one to look forward to, according to Guillemont. It's supposed to be a big step forward in the Assassin's Creed franchise, and Ubisoft is apparently heavily invested in the title. The stories of Ezio and Altair were wrapped up in Revelations, so this game will likely move to new characters in fresh locales. This could explain the lengthy 3-year development time for the game (lengthy in comparison to Brotherhood or Revelations, that is). All kinds historical locations for the game have been rumored, like revolutionary France, colonial America, and even the present day. I can't wait to see what they have in store. They'll need to bring out something really impressive to compete during this year's holiday season, which is shaping up to be killer in terms of electronic entertainment. This will be the fourth straight year with a new Assassin's Creed game. If Ubisoft doesn't continue to make exciting and innovative games, this is a franchise in danger of "Tony Hawking" itself into Oblivion.

(via Joystiq)

Pre-Order Mass Effect 3, Get Battlefield 3 For Free

Everyone knows that the best way to jumpstart digital goods stores is to give away free stuff. The most popular mobile apps are almost always free versions, and Valve's Steam service wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is if it weren't for heavy discounts and game bundles. EA's Origin service is trying a new promotion that is sure to turn some heads. Gamers that pre-order a copy of Mass Effect 3 via the online gaming platform will be treated to a free copy of one of the top shooters from last year, Battlefield 3. There are a few disadvantages to the special deal. First of all, it doesn't guarantee to give you access to BF3 before the release of Mass Effect 3 in March, which doesn't make sense, as the game has been out since last October. It also isn't available for those who already have activated Battlefield 3 on Origin, so you can't gift it to a friend. Lastly, it forces you to use Origin. However, this deal may be good free enough to make up for it. Check it out here.

Mass Effect 3 Has Gone Gold

Bioware's next blockbuster and one of Hex19's most anticipated games of 2012 has gone gold. The content of Mass Effect 3 has been finalized, and the discs can now be printed. The team at Bioware will probably spend the rest of the time until release working on ironing out any remaining bugs and problems. These are the types of changes usually included in a patch at release. The full game will be released in North America on March 6th, and a free demo including a glimpse at the new multiplayer mode is out tomorrow. Be sure to get in your perfect playthroughs before the game is out so you can import a pristine save into Mass Effect 3!

(via Twitter)

Unreal 3 Demo Required 'Ten Times the Power of the Xbox 360'

It looks like Epic Games is going all out on the creation of their next engine. According to a the founder of Epic, Tim Sweeney, a recent demo of the capabilities of the Unreal 3 Engine would have required a system 10 times as powerful as the Xbox 360 to run properly. This is on the same engine that was first utilized by Gears of War (2006) on the 360, and has since become one of the most licensed video game engines, powering games like Mass Effect, Army of Two, Borderlands and Rainbow Six: Vegas. With Unreal 3, Epic has proven that an engine can evolve significantly, so I'd be willing to bet that we'll see a similar transformation with UE4 games. The next iteration of the engine is supposed to be ready for 2014. There's no telling how much graphical processing power will be necessary to push the new technology to its limits. It's unlikely that even the new console generation will be able to full take advantage of the features of Unreal 4. With games looking as good as they do today, I was expecting new advances in gaming tech to be subtle. The VP of Epic, Mark Rein, says we should "expect rapid visual advances in computing graphics." I am excited. My wallet is not.

(via Kotaku)

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 Leaked By Korean Ratings Board

The existence of yet another Magic: The Gathering electronic game has been outed by a posting on South Korea's main video games rating board. It would appear that Stainless Games is transitioning their very popular franchise to a yearly model that matches the releases of the Magic: The Gathering card game core sets. I'm guessing that Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 will be released on XBLA, PSN and Steam, like previous entries in the franchise. Last year, we already saw a leaked cinematic that will likely serve as an introduction to the game.

Many hardcore Magic fans criticize the Duels of the Planeswalkers series for it's very limited customizability. Although it does lack this major aspect of Magic, I think it makes up for it with a killer interface, tons of unlockable cards, and a very agreeable price. I feel a little disappointed that they are switiching to yearly releases. They will have to continue to add more game modes to make gamers want to buy a whole new release each year. If it's just new cards and decks we're buying, it should be an expansion DLC, and not a separate game. If Stainless games remains consistent, we'll see if Duels 2013 is worth buying this June.

(via Joystiq)