EA and Starbreeze Studios announced that actors Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Men in Black II) and Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity) are going to be part of the cast for Syndicate, EA's FPS action interpretation of the 1993 strategy classic.

“Syndicate immerses players deep into a dystopian world of unscrupulous corporations and chip augmented enforcers,” said Mikael Nermark, CEO of Starbreeze Studios. “These agents are the weapons of this war for market dominance and we needed strong talent to represent these intense characters. We are honored to have worked with the incredible Rosario Dawson, Brian Cox and Michael Wincott to make this world come alive.”

EA's shooter is scheduled to land in stores on February 21, 2012 in the US and February 24, 2012 across Europe for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and and Windows PC.

Well, the winter is as cold, relentless and stubborn as it can be, which is fine really. It's supposed to be that way, at least for this time of the year. Anyway, I assume you're all having a nice weekend. You can definitely expect my full impressions of Kingdoms of Amalur early next week. I'm deep into this sucker and I have pretty good idea of what I'm going to say about it. The same goes for Final Fantasy XIII-2, so be ready.

Hope you guys have something nice to play as well.

3D Artist Kevin K. Griffith, Environment Artist Nate Bowden, Senior Artist Nick Eberle, and 3D Artist Richie Marella talk briefly about Diablo 3:

Ah, DOTA - a once popular mod for Warcraft III, but now apparently the source of a potentially long-drawn-out legal dispute. Well, of course, we all knew this was bound to happen sooner or later. The folks over at Kotaku have reported that development studios Valve Software and Blizzard Entertainment commenced a legal battle over the name DOTA (Defense of the Ancients).

Blizzard's reaction on the matter of DOTA 2 started when they outlined how the first Warcraft III (DOTA) and all things made in the game's World Editor are property of Blizzard as per its EULA. "At all times, the DotA Mods have been marketed, advertised, and promoted as Warcraft III scenarios that require purchase and installation of Warcraft III and knowledge of Warcraft III's gameplay mechanics, user interface, and on-screen display," offers Blizzard. "The fact that the DotA Mods are 'mods' of Warcraft III and that to be played the user must first purchase Warcraft III is well-known and well-publicized throughout the United States and the world."

They also said: "In contrast to Blizzard, Applicant Valve Corporation ("Valve") has never used the mark DOTA in connection with any product or service that currently is available to the public. By attempting to register the mark DOTA, Valve seeks to appropriate the more than seven years of goodwill that Blizzard has developed in the mark DOTA and in its Warcraft III computer game and take for itself a name that has come to signify the product of years of time and energy expended by Blizzard and by fans of Warcraft III. Valve has no right to the registration it seeks. If such registration is issued, it not only will damage Blizzard, but also the legions of Blizzard fans that have worked for years with Blizzard and its products, including by causing consumers to falsely believe that Valve's products are affiliated, sponsored or endorsed by Blizzard and are related or connected to Warcraft III."

Holy cow! Two of the greatest PC developers enter an epic legal battle. This should be interesting.

As for our stance on this, well, it's pretty much certain that Blizzard has every right to protest. Maybe Valve dived into someone else's strawberry patch without thinking much about the consequences...

Source.

The latest sales data from NPD Group indicates that "new launch performance" went through a 99% decline during January 2012, as opposed to the same month in 2011.

Of course, this might have a little something to do with the fact that this was one of the 'deadest' Januaries for gamers, and probably one of the worst post-Christmas dry seasons. Still, Activision has the most reason to celebrate (as usual), seeing as CoD: Modern Warfare 3 was the biggest seller during January 2012.

However, NPD analyst Liam Callahan pointed out that: "Games like Dead Space 2, Little Big Planet 2, and DC Universe Online ranked within the top ten last year, making for a poor comparison in January '12 where there were no major releases. ... As shoppers were not drawn to stores due to new launch activity, this potentially impacted additional software purchases made on impulse."

Here are the top selling games in the US for January:

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard)
2. Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft)
3. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Softworks)
4. NBA 2K12 (Take 2 Interactive)
5. Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts)
6. Madden NFL 12 (Electronic Arts)
7. Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo)
8. Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (Activision Blizzard)
9. Zumba Fitness 2: Party Yourself (Majesco)
10. Saints Row: The Third (THQ)

Callahan stressed that consumers most likely spent between $350 million to $450 million on video games elsewhere than retail including "used games, full game and add-on content downloads, social network games, mobile games, rentals and subscriptions."

Source.

BioWare has released a number of trailers for the upcoming shooter Mass Effect 3. The following trailer, introduces us to ME3's 'Interactive Storytelling' and how important the story is to the gameplay mechanics:

Also, check out these:

• Mass Effect 3 'Customizable Arsenal' Trailer
• Mass Effect 3 'Adrenaline Pumping Gameplay' Trailer
• Mass Effect 3 'Ruthless Enemies' Trailer

Morning folks. Another working week comes to a close and we celebrate whoever invented the weekend all those years ago (hm, shame they didn't invent a three-day weekend). Anyway, our upcoming reviews for Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Kingdoms of Amalur will suffer a slight delay due to the fact that I feel like crap. It's probably a stomach flu of some sort, but suffice it to say I cannot remain seated in a chair for too long and... Um, I'll be right back...