The forthcoming patch 1.6 for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which supports Kinect voice-commands for Xbox 360 as well as new kill cams on all platforms and a number of other additions and requisite bug-fixes, will also be landing a new, heavily requested feature: mounted combat.

In fact, the Bethesda Blog says anyone who opted into the patch's beta on Steam can check out the new addition as of today. There's no word on whether or not mounted combat will land on consoles, but Bethesda will let us know once they've made a decision.

"Thanks again to all our fans, we remain committed to supporting the game through our free updates, mod tools, and more," the team wrote on the Blog. "And yes, we’re still working on our first add-on, Dawnguard – some great stuff to show you soon, stay tuned."

Hit the link above for a breakdown of the current additions and fixes to patch 1.6.

The House Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications has issued a statement today, confirming that the Australian Federal Parliament's inquiry into IT pricing and the high markups burdened on Australian consumers -- often affectionately referred to as "the Australia tax" -- has commenced, defining the terms of reference (which distinctly includes video game pricing) and indicating that public submissions on the matter will be part of the inquiry process (via: delimiter):

The Chair of the Committee, Nick Champion, said “Australians are often forced to pay more for IT hardware and software than consumers in overseas markets. The Committee’s inquiry aims to determine the extent of these IT price differences and examine the possibility of limiting their impact on Australian consumers, businesses and governments. The Committee will look into the cost of computer hardware and software, including games, downloaded music, e-books, and professional software, to name a few. The Committee is looking forward to hearing from the companies who set these prices and the consumers and businesses that purchase their products.”

The terms of reference for the inquiry, which will take public submissions until 6 July, state that it will examine:

• Whether a difference in prices exists between IT hardware and software products, including computer games and consoles, e-books and music and videos sold in Australia over the internet of in retail outlets as compared to markets in the US, UK and economics in the Asia-Pacific;
  
• What those differences are;
  
• Why those differences exist;
  
• What the impacts of these differences might be on Australian businesses, governments and households; and
  
• What actions might be taken to help address any differences that operate to the disadvantage to Australian consumers.
  

More details can be found in this statement from Federal MP Ed Husic and the official documentation over on the House of Representatives website.

Ubisoft and French developer Nadeo -- best known for their Trackmania arcade racing games -- have released the first trailer for their upcoming first-person shooter, the PC-tailored Shootmania: Storm:

For the first time in its history, Nadeo have decided to bring to FPS what made TrackMania such a phenomenon: its unique competitive spirit and a sense of fun.

In conjunction with the online competitive multiplayer, ShootMania Storm will also feature extensive map editing capabilities, allowing players to customise, design and share their creations across the community, using the soon to be released, upgraded ManiaPlanet 2.0 gaming system.

The debut trailer doesn't actually show any first person gameplay, but Nadeo maintain that the footage has been created "using only game tools" and we'll even forgive them for the dubstep because it looks like a lot of fun.

Watch the video below (or here for the HD option), swing by our game page for some screenshots and head over to the official site if you'd like to sign up for a chance at their upcoming beta test.

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

• ShootMania Storm Debut Trailer
• Far Cry 3 "Insane Edition" Trailer
• Ghost Recon: Future Soldier "Elite Mode" Trailer
• Darksiders 2: Death Lives "Death Strikes" TV Spot Trailer
• The Walking Dead "Playing Dead - Episode 4" Dev Interview Video
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance "E3 Demo Title Screen" Teaser Trailer
• Heroes of Newerth "Hero Spotlight - Bramble" Trailer
• League of Legends "Champion Spotlight - Darius" Trailer
• Babel Rising "Kinect" Launch Trailer
• Babel Rising "PS Move" Launch Trailer
• From Dust "Google Chrome" Launch Trailer
• Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 Gameplay Trailer
• SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance "Aft to Basics - Walkthrough" Trailer
• Rune Factory Oceans EU Teaser Trailer
• Fantasy Golf Pangya "Tomahawk Update" Trailer
• KickBeat PS Vita Debut Trailer
• CD Projekt RED Group Summer Conference 2012 Invitation Video

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

Consolers have had access to a playable demo for 2K's Spec Ops: The Line for a few weeks now, but the publisher has now confirmed that PC gamers won't be missing out on a chance to try before they buy, they'll just have to wait a little longer.

A blog post on the official 2kGames site announces June 12th as the release date for the PC demo, as well as the system requirements for the game proper (which as expected for multi-platform titles these days, are very modest):

Minimum: OS: Windows XP SP3, Software: Steam Client, Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 Equivalent, Memory: 2 GB RAM, Hard Drive: 6 GB free, Video Memory: 256 MB, Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 / ATI Radeon HD 2600XT, Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

Recommended: OS: Windows Vista/7, Software: Steam Client, Processor: 2.4 GHz Quad Core processor, Memory: 3 GB RAM, Hard Drive: 10 GB free, Video Memory: 512+ MB, Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX/ATI Radeon HD 4850, Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

Although the PC demo is running behind its console counterparts, the game's release is still supposedly simultaneous scheduled for all three platforms, two weeks after the PC demo on June 29th 2012.

We have no idea why the first footage of a game from a Japanese publisher that's being created by a US developer is coming from German reporters, but Capcom Germany via Kotaku) have a video offering the first look at Spark Unlimited's Lost Planet 3 in action.

The four minute clip is interspersed with German IGN writers babbling about the game, but there's plenty of snow, alien and mechanised power suit action found within that needs no translation. Check it out below.

Lost Planet 3 is due in 2013 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Boasting of their hugely successful launch, Blizzard has announced that Diablo 3 has set a new record for PC games, having sold more than 3.5 million copies by first 24 hours of its May 15 launch -- a figure the publisher is quick to point out, does not include the additional 1.2 million copies of the game that were included in World of Warcraft subscribers' "Annual Pass" promotion.

Notably absent from the release however, are any figures pertaining to Mac OS player numbers.

As of the first week of the game’s availability, that number had already grown to more than 6.3 million.* The above figures also do not include players in Korean Internet game rooms, where Diablo III has become the top-played game, achieving a record share of more than 39% as of May 22.†

“We’re definitely thrilled that so many people around the world were excited to pick up their copy of Diablo III and jump in the moment it went live,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We also regret that our preparations were not enough to ensure everyone had a seamless experience when they did so. I want to reaffirm our commitment to make sure the millions of Diablo III players out there have a great experience with the game moving forward, and I also want to thank them for their ongoing support.”

As for the state of the game itself, the server issues plaguing the initial launch seem to have subsided and Blizzard are getting on with the balancing tweaks and the game's first hotfix notes describe some notable adjustments to both the Monk and Wizard classes.

For more on Diablo 3, swing by AusGamers' own in-depth review.

The Witcher developer CD Projekt RED and GOG.com have announced that they will be hosting their 2012 Summer Conference next week on May 30th 2012 at 5pm GMT (technically still Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, but let's not split hairs).

Like their previous conferences, the Polish company will be live streaming the event for all to tune in to, however the time difference equates to 2am, Thursday, June 1st here in AEST, so hopefully we'll have a recording to share the following day.

In an invitation video (embedded below), CDP CEO Marcin Iwiński mentions only that it will be a "major announcement", not a "Smurfs game", and that there will be a lot of information from both The Witcher developer and their sister company, online retailer GOG.com.

The live-streams will be made available on both thewitcher.com and facebook.com/thewitcher , which all but confirms that the primary announcement will be related to the popular RPG franchise, however recent job listings suggest that the developer has both another Witcher sequel as well as an all-new RPG property with more contemporary themes in the works, so perhaps we'll get to learn more about both.

SEGA and Steam have announced that a map editor for Creative Assembly's Total War: Shogun 2 and the expansion Fall of the Samurai is now available for download, allowing players to "create and automatically share Lan, Naval and Siege Battle maps with other players".

TEd is a powerful tool that enables users to alter terrain type and height, and comprises libraries boasting hundreds of unique battlefield props, such as trees, buildings, railway lines and coastal batteries. Users can construct vast and intricate castles from their component pieces, sculpt beautiful rolling landscapes, and model their own unique townscapes or vivid coastal scenes for naval battles.

When a map is built, it can then be used in any custom VS AI or multiplayer battle, at which point it will be automatically shared with the player’s opponent. Experienced tacticians are now capable of building their own challenging battlefields around features such as choke-points, forests, rivers and custom deployment zones.

Eager map-makers can find it in the Steam Library's "tools" menu, or by clicking this steam link.

The original Nexuiz, released in 2005 was a built on the Quake 3 engine source, offering more of that fast-paced shooter gameplay in a completely free package. Fast-forward seven years to a market now conditioned to much slower FPS games, developer IlFonic have remade Nexuiz as a retail game, polished up for modern-eyeballs with CryEngine 3 technology.

Back in March, we found out that the game wasn't a very good fit for the Xbox 360, but held out hope that the PC version to follow might still work out ok (particularly after the recent success of the delightfully fast-paced Tribes Ascend).

The revamped Nexuiz is now available on Steam for PC, but even at it's generously low US$9.99 launch price, it looks to have limited appeal. Find out why in this review.

With quite a few solid co-op experiences starting to spill out of the woodwork, Ubisoft's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier has arrived to maintain the trend with a lot of gameplay options, an equally compelling single-player experience and some decent multiplayer to-boot.

Dave "ko-zee-ii" Kozicki has taken on review duties for us with this one and dabble on the Xbox 360 version to see what all the Kinect fuss is about, but also knocks heads with an old, unwelcome friend we all know as Ubiosoft U-Play.

Click here for his review.

Love them or hate them, the LEGO series of videogames appears to be here to stay, and with some 11 million copies sold worldwide of LEGO Batman, you can bet the bricked Caped Crusader will be around for a while too.

So the announcement of LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes doesn't really come as a shock, though it looks like this is actually Traveller's Tales' most ambitious LEGO game to-date with a completely open sandbox Gotham City to play in that nestles on around 500 square-miles of game-world. The addition of the likes of Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman and Wonderwoman, among a massive cast of villains such as The Joker and Lex Luthor also sweetens the deal.

We have a new trailer, and new screens embedded below, or you can click here for a direct video link.

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

• Marvel Heroes Gameplay Teaser Trailer
• Magicka: The Other Side of the Coin DLC Dev Diary Trailer
• Forza Motorsport 4 "Porsche Pack" DLC Trailer
• Star Wars: The Old Republic "Coming Up in 1.3" Trailer
• EVE Online: Inferno Launch Trailer
• LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes "Open World" Trailer
• Red Orchestra 2: Game of the Year Edition Dev Diary Trailer
• Firefall "Development Update - May 2012" Dev Diary Trailer
• Saints Row: The Third "Penthouse Pack" DLC Trailer
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 "Console Characters" Trailer
• Defiance "The Making of Defiance" Dev Diary Trailer
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown "Deep Drive #2" Dev Diary Trailer
• Mario Tennis Open "Yoshi Chase" 3DS Trailer
• Battlefield Heroes "Desperados & Luchadores" Trailer
• Cross of the Dutchman Kickstarter Pitch Video
• Cross of the Dutchman Gameplay Trailer
• Core Blaze E3 2012 Teaser Trailer
• Sorcery "Behind the Magic" Dev Diary Trailer
• Iron Front: Liberation 1944 "Tanks" Trailer
• Dungeon Twister: The Video Game Launch Trailer
• Resistance: Burning Skies "Social Features" PS Vita Trailer
• Dungeonbowl Teaser Trailer
• Kung Fu Superstar Debut Trailer
• Heroes and Generals "Beta - Videolog1" Dev Diary Trailer
• Bullet Run Debut Trailer

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

Take-Two, parent company of 2K Games and Rockstar has released its quarterly financial report, where a release date for the Firaxis-developed XCOM: Enemy Unknown was revealed, but a delay of over a year for the FPS tactical-RPG entry, XCOM, was also revealed.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be coming to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this October 12 in Australia and New Zealand, with a bunch of pre-order deals outlined, including the Elite Soldier Pack which offers "top-of-the-line soldier customization features that will only be available for a limited time". The best news, however, comes in information there will be a PC-specific special edition that "contains a variety of unique XCOM items".

"As we reimagine XCOM, one of our goals is to evolve the experience while recognising what made X-COM one of the greatest PC games to date,” said Sarah Anderson, senior vice president of marketing for 2K (via press release). “It’s important to create an experience that is appealing to both existing fans and newcomers to the world of XCOM, which is what we’re doing with XCOM: Enemy Unknown.”

As for the XCOM FPS delay, which is being handled by 2K Marin, no details were divulged for the lengthy delay other than we'd be seeing it sometime between April 2013 and March 2014.

In some sad news today, BioWare has announced that a recent restructuring of their Austin-based studio has left an undisclosed number of workers without a job, while the luckier ones have been able to secure other EA projects.

BioWare founders Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka have today confirmed the rumours of layoffs, which are being speculated as a cause from the recent drop in subscription numbers following Bioware's venture into MMO space with their title Star Wars: The Old Republic. Earlier this month reports from EA's fourth quarter meeting for 2011 had subscription numbers at 1.3 million, a loss of 400,000 from previous quarter.

Hey folks, since you’re reading this you may likely have heard that we’ve done some restructuring here on the SWTOR team. Sadly, we are bidding farewell to some talented, passionate and exceptionally hard-working people who helped make SWTOR a reality. Impacting people’s lives this way is always very hard, but we’re ensuring the affected people are treated with dignity, fairness and respect.

Hopefully those that have lost their jobs are able to secure positions elsewhere, as we know it is quite harsh in the games industry with several home grown studios that have closed down in the previous years.

A little while ago we ran an update on the status of a lawsuit filed by Canada-based Silicon Knights (Eternal Darkness, Too Human) against Epic Games for what they claim was a breach of the licensing agreement between the two for Epic's Unreal Engine.

The case was to be played out before a jury on May 14, but just seven days prior a North Carolina judge ruled that if Silicon Knights wins, they would only be entitled to a settlement of one dollar. However, as reported by Polygon (via Eurogamer), it's not a total loss because if Silicon Knights does win favour with the jury in the outcome, they will have the option to appeal the settlement amount or seek another damages recourse.

According to the reports, the $1 settlement came in the wake of the judge losing patience with Silicon Knights after they failed to actively submit a proper breakdown of the damages sought.

A new batch of screens from Capcom's upcoming Lost Planet 3 have been revealed, offering another chilly look at the first game in the series to be developed outside of Japan.

Lost Planet 3 introduces Jim, a rig pilot who leaves Earth to take on a hazardous but lucrative contract on E.D.N. III. Working for Neo-Venus Construction (NEVEC) who are preparing the planet for colonization, Jim joins his fellow pioneers at the Coronis base and begins surveying the uncharted terrain and obtaining samples of the planet’s energy supply – Thermal Energy.

Hit the thumbs below for the full gallery. Lost Planet 3 is due in 2013 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

It was announced way back in 2009, but developer Gazillion Entertainment has now finally released a trailer for Marvel Heroes, the upcoming Unreal Engine 3-powered, free-to-play MMO, based on the ever-popular Marvel comics Universe.

Drawing upon the 8,000-plus heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe, Marvel Heroes allows players to become their favorite Marvel Super Heroes – from the popular Iron Man, Thor, Storm and Black Widow to the lesser known Squirrel Girl and Cable. Fans will be able to completely customize their characters by constructing costumes taken from each hero’s rich history, choosing from a huge array of super powers for each character, and finding thousands of other items. There are countless ways for players to tailor their experience.

In the game’s social areas, including Midtown Manhattan and the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, players can meet up with other players, discover missions, and buy items from legendary Marvel characters. While pursuing missions, players will explore such famous Marvel landscapes as the Savage Land, Hell’s Kitchen and Mutant Town.

Watch the "gameplay teaser" trailer below or here for the HD option.

Kickstarter is most certainly all the rage at the moment, and why shouldn't it be. The platform is a great way for creators to reach a core community who not only support independent development and creative control, but can also feel like they've had a direct hand in bringing some of the creativity to the fore.

One of the platform's most recent champions is Aterdux Entertainment out of Minsk, Belarus, who only just over an hour ago made finished their drive. Initially the team were asking for $50k, but once that goal was achieved during the drive, they revealed a handful of Stretch Goals which saw them net $83.5k which should help them see out solid development of their game.

Legends of Eisenwald is an original mix of RPG and strategy, with tactical turn-based battles and a simple economic model. Rich possibilities of gameplay mechanics allow a player to feel being a hero of different stories ranging from treasure hunt to fighting for the throne. You can follow your game path as a Knight, Mystic or a Baroness and in each case gameplay and story will be partially different.

Strategy nuts will likely keep their eyes open for this one, but for now, check out a bunch of screens by clicking the attached thumbnails and watch a video showing off their richly detailed game-world embedded below (or right here for HD).

The LA Times has released a document that was made public as part of the ongoing court case between Activision and ex-Infinity Ward heads, Jason West and Vince Zampella, outlining development details for Halo-developer, Bungie, and their contract with Activision which came into affect a month after the Infinity Ward bosses were fired.

The document outlines plans for Bungie to develop four "sci-fantasy, action shooter games" codenamed "Destiny". The first of these would be released exclusively on Xbox 360 in 2013, with three more released over 2015, 2017 and 2019 on the Xbox 360 successor as well as the PS4 and PC. Intervening years would see DLC codenamed "Comet" coming in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

Further, the document also outlines an option for Bungie to have no more than 5% of its workforce working on a prototype for a game codenamed "Marathon". If "operating income" increased during Bungie's tenure at Activision, this percentage of active "Marathon" developers is allowed to grow accordingly.

This is all pretty big news, especially given the tight-lipped nature of Activision and Bungie's relationship. It also gives insight into the vision of some contracts among the major players in the industry. Nice to see Marathon might see the light of modern day too.

To check out the full document released in court, click here.