When EA re-launched their digital download service as Origin as a direct competitor to the hugely successful Steam, it had a lot to live up to, and with the exception of consistently fast download speeds, it still arguably falls short in much of its functionality.

However, EA have big plans for their orange online store-front and in their recent investor conference (via: seekingalpha), revealed that more social features and more ways of accessing the store are in the works.

EA Investor Relations VP Peter Ausnit explained that "You're going to see, over the next 12 months, some milestones and a roadmap of features that will include more social features, enhancements to the way that our consumers can access Origin"

Not only just focus on the PC but other platforms as well, and then building in different business models, so that we can not just do direct-to-consumer downloads as we currently do with full games or DLC but also different types of business models will allow us to aggregate our consumers and provide them with better opportunities and price value relationships for our content. So there is a very detailed and long-term roadmap to make this a portal to our consumer on a global basis. Rolling it out in a fundamental way as well globally is part of our plans as well. It's pretty much Western world only right now, and as you can imagine, our ability to reach into other regions will be very important. But think about more social community-oriented features, think about different models and think about more and more third-party publishers coming on board than already the pretty good slate that we have right now.

We recently saw Steam nudge onto iOS, but EA CEO John Riccitiello elaborated that Origin does actually have a similar presence there as well

And if you take your Android or iOS device right now and open for example, Scrabble and hit the EA button at the bottom, you'll be linked to what is essentially the Origin store, and that's transacting today and effectively so. So it's a very early implementation, but it provides access to your Origin friends, has links to all of your Facebook friends, has access to all of our mobile content. And that's been deployed. I use it everyday. We haven't made a big noise with it yet, primarily because it's in its early stage, think of it as a second early beta.

As for the desktop states, he explained that Origin "is now installed on more than 9.3 million desktops, and within the quarter, Origin recorded a milestone, over 1 million daily unique users".

With the recent spate of announcements of more third party publishers joining the fray, Origin looks like its here to stay.

Kicking off the year with more video interviews and exclusive access, today we have our promised Darksiders II developer interview with the game's lead designer, Haydn Dalton.

Apart from revealing the man behind the death-mask (me!), Haydn reveals a lot about what's gone into the game from a combat balance perspective, especially with the new RPG elements, and also talks about boss battles being more like puzzles than actual straight-forward combat. He also talks about the team wearing their hearts on their sleeves, but that their biggest inspiration for Darksiders II was actually the original Darksiders.

Click here for our full video interview feature, complete with written transcript.

In their Q3 2012 Earnings Call for investors yesterday (via: seekingalpha), Electronic Arts' various big wigs were all very chuffed with the successful launch of BioWare's first MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

On the topic of the game's success, The EA Labels President Frank Gibeau confirmed that the game has sold through 2 million units since it's December launch and has "a little over 1.7 million active subscribers", explaining that "the rest have either not started playing yet or have opted out".

This is an outstanding start for an MMO, and the metrics on engagement suggests players are loving the game. Unique log-ins are averaging about 1 million per day, and their average playtime is approximately 4 hours per day.

And throughout the launch, server performance and stability exceeded our expectations, allowing us to accelerate the introduction of new players in December. Outside of scheduled maintenance, our servers have been up and running 99.5% of the time, which is a big win in and of itself. Every major MMO launch has had significant service issues until now. Star Wars: The Old Republic broke that cycle, leading PC Gamer to write, "BioWare hit a homerun with server stability."

I want to take a second to correct the reports, which speculated that a lack of congestion was a sign of slow participation. Shortly after launch, we doubled the efficiency of each server, allowing us to handle twice as many players and remove the waiting lines. The lack of congestion is a function of great engineering.

In the next phase, our goal is to grow the number of subscribers with frequent releases of content that make the game even more exciting. With this in mind, BioWare has just released an extensive game update that provided additional higher-level group missions and new game features to keep players engaged. We plan on delivering another major update even larger than the first in March.

He tantalisingly closed out comments on the game with saying "Going forward, we have an ambitious plan to reach the broader market, the millions of Star Wars fans all over the world. You'll be seeing that very soon.".

Later in a Q&A with some institutional investors -- enquiring about their global launch plans -- Investor Relations VP Peter Ausnit also offered a brief comment on the game's intended arrival Down Under, confirming that they are still on track for the previously mentioned March 1st 2012 launch date.

We recently announced that we're -- on March 1, that we'd be in Australia and New Zealand. It's all about, as you might imagine, server location down there, but we have a very strong demand from all of our consumers in that particular part of the market.

BioWare's original announcement seemed a little open to interpretation, but following these comments, it looks like a certainty that Australian Star Wars: The Old Republic players will be getting a locally-hosted servers to adventure on.

For more details on Star Wars: The Old Republic, check out AusGamers' review.

Another day, another matinée - here are all the gaming-related videos that have crossed our desktops since the last screening:

• Ghost Recon Future Soldier "Singleplayer Reveal" Trailer
• Game of Thrones "Riverspring" Trailer
• Lollipop Chainsaw "Pre-Order Bonus Skins" Trailer
• Risen 2: Dark Waters "Move!" Dev Diary #3 Trailer
• Star Trek Online "The 2800" Trailer
• Natural Selection 2 "Gorilla" Trailer
• Trials Evolution "Features" Gameplay Trailer
• MotorStorm RC "Online Features" Trailer
• Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 PS Vita Gameplay Trailer
• World of Tanks "Update 7.2" Trailer
• PixelJunk Sidescroller Dev Diary Trailer
• Victoria 2: A House Divided Launch Trailer
• Cross Fire "Hero Mode X" Gameplay Trailer
• The Sims 3: Showtime Producer Walkthrough Trailer
• Brand Xbox Live Indie Games Launch Trailer
• Team Assault: Baptism of Fire Teaser Trailer

As always, stay tuned for the latest game videos as we get them online!

Ubisoft have released a new trailer for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, showing off some gameplay action (or at least, in-engine action captured from cinematic camera angles) from the game's singleplayer campaign.

For some reason they're touting it as a "singleplayer reveal", but we have previously had tastes of gameplay from both singleplayer and multiplayer. Hit the embed below for this latest clip (or click here for the HD video page.

Ghost Recon: Future Solder is due on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on May 24th 2012, with a PC version promised later in 2012. For more details on the game, swing by our recent hands-on preview.

Sony's PlayStation Blog have confirmed that PlayStation 3 owners can expect Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's DLC season to kick off on the 28th of February 2012 in the US (so Feb 29th for Aus), at which point subscribers of the Call of Duty: Elite service will have access to the first two new maps for the game Piazza and Liberation -- yes, the same ones that Xbox 360 subscribers could access a week ago.

With Call of Duty DLC offerings looking to consistently lag a month behind the Xbox 360, the PS3 appears to be the second-class platform for this particular game in publisher Activision's eyes, however the poor chumps who bought the game on PC seem to be fairing worse still as there is still currently no word on when any of the DLC will be arriving on the desktop -- as the Call of Duty: Elite Service is still not an option for Windows players.

Watch the trailer below (from the Xbox 360 DLC launch last month) for a look at these two maps in action.

After a delay that seemed to be quite annoying to many PC gamers, the 1.2 patch for Rage has finally arrived. The biggest new feature seemed to do with the texture detail problem that caused hassles for many at release:

Texture Detail: Enabling Texture Detail will improve up-close texture quality by performing upsampling with adaptive sharpening. This does not update or increase the resolution of the base textures included with the game but improves the perceived resolution and crispness of textures. This is an intensive operation and is only recommended if you have a quad-core CPU or higher. Please disable this feature if you encounter poor performance, stability issues or are given a notification that the game has run out of memory after loading a map. The Texture Detail option can be found in the Settings -> Video Menu.

The full patch notes, including list of bug fixes, are available here. If you're interested in checking this game out, make sure you check out our buy page for the lowest prices (~$24 from ozgameshop).

A Mac version of the game is also available - OS X users can check it out at the App Store or from Aspyr (no mention of Steam?).

Naughty Dogs CG-rendered video reveal of their new zombie-flavoured game tentpoled a lot of pants, teasing a marriage of their proven storytelling from the Uncharted games with post-apocalytpic zombies. Today a new videos has made its way online, going behind the curtain on the creation of that impressive trailer and revealing the actors that will be providing the voice and motion-capture performances of the game's principle characters.

Video game voice veteran Troy Baker (Arkham City's Two Face and Booker DeWitt in upcoming BioShock Infinite) and screen actor Ashley Johnson (The Help, Growing Pains) will play the roles of father and daughter survivalists Joel and Ellie.

Scope out the clip below for a candid look at them on the mo-cap stage and an early draft of the impressive debut trailer.

The Last of Us is expected in late 2012 or early 2013, exclusive to PlayStation 3.

Another day, another matinée - here are all the gaming-related videos that have crossed our desktops since the last screening:

• TERA "MMO-Fo #1 - Larpers" Trailer
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim "Creation Kit & Steam Workshop Preview" Trailer
• Syndicate "DART 6 Chip Infomercial" Trailer
• Rayman 3 HD Debut Trailer
• Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City "U.S.S. Characters" Trailer
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Launch Trailer
• Need for Speed: The Run "Italian Pack" DLC #3 Trailer
• Forza Motorsport 4 "American Le Mans Series Pack" DLC Trailer
• Dragon's Dogma "Story" Full Trailer
• The Last of Us "Debut Cinematic Workprint" Video
• The Last of Us "Debut Cinematic Mo-Cap" Video
• UFC Undisputed 3 "UFC 143 - Diaz vs Condit Simulation" Trailer
• League of Legends: Clash of Fates "Zigg Champion Spotlight" Trailer
• The Humble Bundle for Android and Mac and Linux and Windows Trailer
• The Last Story Teaser Trailer
• Doublefine Happy Action Theater Lifestyle Trailer
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 "Rickie Fowler Q&A" Trailer
• SSX "Antarctica" Trailer
• Phantom Breaker "Infinity vs Fin" Gameplay Trailer
• FIFA Street "Authenticity" Producer Diary Trailer
• Dungeon Defenders "Barbarian Hero Class" Trailer
• Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention PS Vita Trailer
• Cube World "Spirit System" Gameplay Trailer
• Blacklight: Retribution "Deadlock" Trailer
• Mortal Kombat PS Vita Gameplay Video

As always, stay tuned for the latest game videos as we get them online!

A demo has been released for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, the upcoming strategy game that gives you the chance to lead an elite team of soldiers onto a private island to oust an evil dictator.

The demo [...] offers you the opportunity to take a squad behind enemy lines as they clear all the opposition in the area. Jagged Alliance is all about testing your combat planning skills, and the Orta Laboratory level featured in the demo will challenge you to use the “Plan & Go” system for optimizing your battle plans before you drop those pesky villains with a well-aimed shot from one of the many real-world weapons featured in the game. “Plan & Go” is a new addition to the Jagged Alliance series, introducing a battle planning mode that moves above and beyond turn-based play, and will prove both exciting and challenging to hardcore veterans and tactical newcomers alike.

Find out more about the game on our game page, and you can grab the demo now locally from AusGamers (370MB).

The 4.3.2 patch for World of Warcraft has landed, offering the usual swag of fixes, balance tweaks, and new features. Some of the more interesting ones seem to do with dungeons and raids:

• You can now form same-faction raids with Real ID friends, allowing you to enter Raid Finder in groups larger than 5, run older normal or heroic raids, or participate in Battlegrounds. You will not yet be able to run normal or heroic Dragon Soul with cross-realm raids of Real ID friends.
• Several typo fixes and clarified descriptions have been added to the Dungeon Journal entries for Dragon Soul.
• Players can no longer win multiple copies of the same item on a single Raid Finder boss kill. For example, a player who chooses Need on two set piece tokens or two weapons and wins the first, will not be eligible for the second on that particular boss.

I also particularly like this one: "A notice is now displayed 15 minutes prior to the player being disconnected by parental controls." So gamers getting yoinked off the PC by their parents get that one last little hurrah before bedtime kicks in.

Check out the full list of changes for the details.

Publisher En Mass Entertainment have kicked off their pre-order campaign for the upcoming MMO TERA, which can now be committed to for US$49.99 from North American retailers or (more relevant to Australians) the En Mass website.

Players who pre-order TERA will have access to all of the game’s Closed Beta Tests, scheduled to take place from February through April, as well as an exclusive Head Start play period over the weekend prior to the game’s launch on May 1st.

A schedule of planned beta events can be found in the announcement press release, which also introduces a new promotional video series amusingly starring MMA fighter Bas Rutten -- a self-proclaimed "MMO-FO" teaching some LARPers about real true action combat. Watch the embed below.

A big bugfix patch for Skyrim on the PC has been released - bounce Steam to get the update, as usual. The main changes are highlighted in this snippet from the release page:

Today we’ve taken Skyrim’s 1.4 update out of beta and made it available for everyone on Steam. In addition to bug and quest fixes, 1.4 adds launcher support for the Skyrim Workshop. Currently we’re putting the final touches on the Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop and will let everyone know as soon as they’re up.

The full extensive list of changes - mostly bugfixes and quest fixes is - is available here.

For console gamers, Bethesda indicate the patch is getting submitted to go through the various approval processes "this week", so it'll be a bit longer before this update comes to you.

There's still no specific release date for the hotly anticipated Creation Kit, but Bethesda have released a new video showing off the editing suite's functions - check it out below (or click here for the HD video page). Among the various low-level editing functionality the Creation Kit will offer, the video also confirms that mods will still be able to be freely distributed on third party websites in addition to the neatly presented Steam Workshop option.

We've already seen some pretty amazing things come out of the mod community working only with their own resources, so we can't wait to see what they come up with once they get their hands on the same tools used by the developers.

A company can only hid behind the "strategic restructuring" line for so long before the truth shines through. In the case of publisher THQ, who recently faced rumours of financial woes and a desire to be bought up by someone, somewhere, with lots of money, by denying there were any issues at all, has allegedly let go of some 170+ staff, globally, Australia notwithstanding (sorry to see you go, bro).

Obviously companies have every right to micro-manage staff and resources, but as MCV UK reported this week, the publisher has been threatened with a NASDAQ de-listing if their stock doesn't rise above $1 by July 23, and for more than 30 days THQ's stock has been below the required minimum $1 to maintain a listing.

All this news also follows the closure of two Australian-based development studios, and one US-based studio as the publisher reportedly decided to focus on a company-wide "realignment" that also included "shifts to reduce movie-based and licensed kids’ video games in our portfolio".

There's a lot riding internally though, from a creative point-of-view, on THQ's continued liveliness, including the recently AusGamers-visited Darksiders II, the next instalment in the Homefront franchise, as being developed by Crytek UK (formerly Free Radical), a South Park RPG being developed by Obsidian and headed up by South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, an unannounced project from their upstart Montreal studio headed up by Assassin's Creed co-creator, Petrice Desilets, a new unannounced title from the original Left 4 Dead team, Turtle Rock, a Warhammer 40K-based MMO being helmed by Vigil Games, a sandbox horror game called InSane from film director, Guillermo del Toro working with Saints Row Developer Volition and Devil's Third from Ninja Gaiden legend Tomonobu Itagaiki and Dawn of War 3 at Relic. Not to mention the publisher's long-standing alignment with both the WWE and UFC...

What happens next is really anyone's guess. Stay tuned for more as we have it.

Monolith's much touted first-person action Batman-themed multiplayer romp (say that fast three times), Gotham City Impostors, was originally scheduled for a January 10 release, but in keeping with the "impostor" theme, we were all made fun of and the game went into a perpetual beta testing period, with no release date in sight.

Thankfully the wait wasn't actually that long, as both Warner Bros. Interactive and Monolith have announced the aptly described "Team Fortress 2 with pretend Batmen and Jokers" will be releasing across Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this February 7 (which is just a few days from now). No reason was given for the delay, but we reckon it was a simple case of tightening up gameplay post-beta release which doesn't sound too bad at all.

The game is a team-based first-person shooter of sorts (first-person action is probably a better fit), that pits a host of wannabe do-gooders against a gang of hopeful evil-doers with all sorts of zaniness gluing them together. Watch a trailer for the game embedded below, or click here for the direct link. And as always, stay tuned for the AusGamers review, inbound like some impostor-crafted Batarang.

There might be a whole other reason to pick up Capcom's forthcoming fantasy action romp, Dragon's Dogma, on Xbox 360 over PS3 when it releases this May.

Capcom has revealed that anyone picking the game up on Microsoft's platform will gain exclusive access to a Resident Evil 6 demo a full 60 days earlier than when the same demo will be available on the PS3 (September 5) via a redeemable token packaged in with the retail copy of the game. Dragon's Dogma then will be released across both the PS3 and Xbox 360 May 24 (AU) and features a massive open-world built from the MT Framework tech that powered the likes of Lost Planet 2 and Marvel Vs Capcom 3.

An exciting new franchise which redefines the action genre, Dragon’s Dogma is from the team that produced some of Capcom’s greatest action games. Set in a huge open world, Dragon’s Dogma offers an exhilarating and fulfilling action combat game with the freedom to explore and interact in a rich, living and breathing world.

Dragon’s Dogma introduces an innovative team system to the genre. Known as Pawns, these three AI partners fight independently, demonstrating prowess and ability they have developed based on traits learned over time from the player and their actions. By utilising the Xbox LIVE online entertainment network or PlayStation Network players will journey to the Rift where they can share their own Pawns with friends and be rewarded with treasure, knowledge of the world and strategies for taking down enemies. Conversely, players can borrow friends’ Pawns with the specific skills or experience required to tackle a particular quest. In addition, Dragon’s Dogma will ship with thousands of ready-made Pawns for players to pick their allies offline.

Like so much else this early in the year, we're getting a look at the game concurrently, so stay tuned for our own spin on how Capcom's foray into open-world action-RPG development fares (hint: pretty good, actually).

EA have released a new video for Syndicate, offering a Producer briefing on the freshly launched co-operative demo for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (No PC demo planned, unfortunately).

As the game has been refused classification by the Australian Classification Board, you're not likely to find this one on the Xbox Live or PlayStation Network if you're signing in with an account that has its region configured as Australia, however most clever gamers should be able find a way over that minor hurdle.

Watch the video embedded below and keep an eye on your favourite grey import e-stores for the February 21st 2012 release date on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Local law guy @nicsuzor pointed out this story from the Netherlands, where their local Supreme Court has ruled on a case involving the theft (at knife point) of some virtual property from the game RuneScape:

In September 2007, two players of the game forced a 13 year old to give them his items from RuneScape. They asked him to drive with them to their house, where they hit him on the head, kicked him and threatened him with a knife. The boy then transferred the virtual mask and amulet to the account of the attackers.

A Google translation of the ruling is available from the website of the Dutch Judiciary and the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. While it is pretty obvious that sticking a knife in anyone's face and assaulting them is inappropriate behaviour, it's noteworthy that the court thought that depriving the player of his virtual property was actually theft, because he'd invested "effort and time" and the assets had "accumulated fair value".

Another day, another matinée - here are all the gaming-related videos that have crossed our desktops since the last screening:

• Mass Effect 3 "Voice Cast" Trailer
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 Launch Trailer
• Soul Calibur 5 Launch Trailer
• Syndicate "4-Player Co-op Briefing" Trailer
• The Darkness 2 "Executions - Sliced" Trailer
• Prototype 2 "RADNET Edition Content" Dev Diary Trailer
• Shank 2 "Survival Mode Multiplayer" Gameplay Trailer
• Grand Slam Tennis 2 "French Open" Trailer
• NeverDead "Boss Battle - Alex" Gameplay Trailer
• NeverDead "Boss Battle - Panda Bear X2" Gameplay Trailer
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 "Adjusting Your Stance" Trailer
• Soul Calibur 5 "Behind the Game - A New Era" Trailer
• Soul Calibur 5 "Carls Jr" TV Spot Trailer
• Soul Calibur 5 "UK Collector's Edition Unboxing" Trailer
• Kid Icarus: Uprising "Intensity" 3DS Trailer
• Heroes of Newerth "Hero Spotlight - Berzerker" Trailer
• Rise of Immortals "Talking about Ukkonen - Part 2" Trailer
• Crusader Kings 2 "Seven Deadly Sins - Sloth" Live Action Trailer
• Men of War: Condemned Heroes Teaser Trailer
• Hybrid Trailer
• Cube World "Improved Combat" Gameplay Trailer

As always, stay tuned for the latest game videos as we get them online!

The newest expansion pack (read: not DLC) for Total War: Shogun 2, Fall of the Samurai, has been given a worldwide release date of March 23, 2012 for the PC platform.

The new addition to the popular and well-received Shogun 2, is almost the same size as the original game but doesn't require Shogun 2 to play. It features a number of new additions and improvements including an expanded map, new agents, a more robust naval battle system and the most significant addition of all: Western influence. We're currently dabbling in a preview build of the game and also recently caught up with The Creative Assembly's Craig Laycock, who serves as the series' community manager, so stay tuned for a deeper look at this newest expansion, right here on AusGamers.