Precursor Games' ambtious Kickstarter project to create a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkenss has been hampered by negative reports of the developer's former studio Silicon Knights --predominantly, some rather serious allegations made in an article on Kotaku following the launch of the ill-received X-Men Destiny.

With the crowdfunding efforts of Precursor's Shadow of the Eternals having clearly been impacted by the spectre of these accusations, Precursor CCO, and former Silicon Knights head Denis Dyack was urged by his colleagues to try and clear the air, and the result was a half hour video blog from Dyack, telling his side of the story.

Citing eight anonymous sources, purporting to be disgruntled former Silicon Knights employees with a total of 45 years experience at the faltered studio, the allegations in Kotaku's report claimed, among other things, that Silicon Knights had diverted publisher funding intended for X-Men: Destiny toward an Eternal Darkness 2 prototype.

Dyack's video response touches on a number of concerns heard from community members hesitant on backing Shadow of the Eternals, explaining that he had not originally felt a response was warranted to such unfounded comments, but now realises how widely believed the allegations have become.

Outright apologising for "the way that game turned out", Dyack claims that Silicon Knights actually put more than $2million of their own funding into X-Men: Destiny, over publisher Activision's allocation, and that although "some mistakes were made" that they "put nothing but their best efforts into this project".

The outspoken developer acknowledges that he has said something things in the past the he shouldn't have, and apologises for past transgressions, explaining that his new position at precursor, in a creative-focused capacity, puts him outside of such budgetary decisions.

An even more detailed forum post over on the precursor games site further explores what they believe to be a violation of journalism ethics on Kotaku's part, in the questionable manner that anonymous sources were used.

Watch the full video below, and head over to the Kickstarter page if it gives you a change of heart. Shadow of the Eternals is planned for PC and Wii U, and a successful crowdfunding drive will secure the development of the game's first episodic instalment.

Following their departure from Valve Software, amidst a widely publicised round of layoffs, former Valve employees Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson have revealed that they are continuing with the augmented reality research they had been working on at the celebrated Seattle studio.

Having formed a new company, Technical Illusions, the pair invited tech blog The Verge for a hands-on look at CastAR, a pair of augmented reality glasses with a built in projector that constructs a miniature virtual environment on a reflective screen assembly, that can be viewed from various angles.

It's called CastAR, and it's nothing like Google Glass or the Oculus Rift. The idea here is to project a miniature virtual reality, which you can see and interact with in three dimensions, into the real world.

Four key components make it work. First, a pair of miniature projectors attached to the glasses beam images from a connected PC. A special retroreflective projector screen bounces them back to your face. There, the active shutter glasses filter out images for each of your left and right eyes, 120 times a second, so that you see those images in 3D.

Lastly — and this is the tricky part — a camera built into the glasses sees infrared LEDs positioned around the edges of that projector screen so that the glasses can optically track the exact position of your head, allowing the software to adjust the 3D perspective in real time so that you can physically look around objects that don't even exist. It's basically the famous Johnny Chung Lee demo with the Nintendo Wii remote, except the team has custom algorithms for extremely low latency

The Verge writeup explains that an internal struggle at Valve between supporters of virtual reality research, and those wanting to explore augmented reality ended with VR winning out, and speculates that Ellsworth and Johnson's dedication to their AR tech left them at odds with the company vision.

Rather awesomely, the report claims that Valve "released all interest" in the project, giving the Technical Illusions team full legal rights to their research. Ellsworth is quoted as saying "Gabe was completely behind it... I talked to Gabe, and he talked to the lawyers, and he's like, 'It's theirs, make it happen,' because he could see we were passionate about it."

Check out The Verge's hands-on video demo below for a better idea on how the CastAR tech works, and how it might offer some cool new perspectives for multiplayer gaming.

The first teaser trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins featured an impressive CG glimpse at one of the confrontations bound to take place in that game, with Batman facing off against the mercenary Deathstroke.

Now it appears we might be getting more of this popular DC villain with Amazon posting up this pre-order ad that outs Deathstroke as a playable character via DLC. Whether or not he'll be playable in a similar fashion to how Catwoman was in Arkham City or if he'll just be available for the Challenge maps portion of the game remains to be seen. Warner Bros has been teasing a full reveal for the game in the coming days though, so stay tuned for more as it comes in.

Batman: Arkham Origins is the third entry in the series and the first to not be developed by series creators, Rocksteady. It will be available this October on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

(Source: IGN)

Given the frustration felt by many a Nintendo fan over the Wii U's lack of compelling content, it makes sense that the development community would also be irked by the console's lack of next-generation architecture, poor networking capabilities and an overall snub at the modern gaming landscape.

Specifically, a senior software engineer for EA by the name of Bob Summerwill took to Twitter recently to air his Wii U and Nintendo grievances saying things like "The WiiU is crap", that Nintendo "should have "done a Sega" and offered Mario/Zelda as PS4/Durango exclusives" and that "Nintendo are walking dead at this point".

The Tweets have since been pulled down, but IGN has them available as screenshots. This outburst also follows confirmation by EA that they discontinued development of FIFA 14 for Wii U following "disappointing" sales of FIFA 13 at the console's launch.

"Six months ago FIFA 13 was a launch title on Wii U," an unnamed EA rep told Eurogamer. "Although the game featured FIFA's award-winning HD gameplay and innovative new ways to play, the commercial results were disappointing. We have decided not to develop FIFA 14 on Wii U."

EA aren't a small publisher, and many of their games, specifically sports-related, are among the best selling in the world, so it's undeniable this is a blow to Nintendo. What do you think, has the Wii U officially tanked before it even really began?

According to a report at Games Industry International, Fallout: New Vegas, and Project Eternity developer Obsidian Entertainment will be collaborating with Allods Team on Skyforge, an upcoming MMO, first announced by the Russian studio in May 2012.

The announcement was reportedly made by Allods parent company, and publisher Mail.ru at KRI 2013, the Russian equivalent to GDC:

"Skyforge is very interesting and promising project. I am glad that Obsidian Entertainment is involved in working on this game," said Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart. "I am confident that the cooperation with the Allods Team will be a great experience for all of us."

Skyforge is due to launch in 2014 on PC.

Activision and Infinity Ward have posted a very brief teaser clip for Call of Duty: Ghosts by way of the the six second social media video sharing site Vine. Call of Duty: Ghosts on Vine.

Check your expectations before clicking through however, as it's just a few moments of some under-construction footage from the game, showing some character and environment models in a raw wireframe view, obscuring any of the expected technical advancements.

Call of Duty: Ghosts is due on November 5 for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U, and on next generation consoles when they launch.

The game is due to be formally revealed by developers at Microsoft's Xbox event on May 21st (early Wednesday morning here in Australia).

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

• Alien Rage Teaser Trailer
• Disney Infinity "Barbossa" Trailer
• Disney Infinity "Davy Jones" Trailer
• Game & Wario Wii U Trailer
• Infinite Crisis "Champion Profile - Gaslight Joker" Trailer
• Killzone Mercenary "War is Your Business" Trailer
• Narco Terror Announcement Trailer
• Resident Evil Revelations "Dev Diary #4: Mystery" Video
• Resident Evil Revelations "Nintendo Direct Wii U" Trailer
• Team Fortress 2 "Robotic Boogaloo" Trailer
• The Last of Us "Gustavo Santaolalla Music Featurette" Video

Stay tuned for the latest game videos as we get them online!

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Metal Gear Solid, Konami has announced a new Legacy Collection for PlayStation 3. The new package will contain Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: HD Edition, Metal Gear Solid 3: HD Edition which includes the original MSX versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition, Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, Metal Gear Solid 4: Trophy Edition and two Ashley Wood digital graphic novels.

The Metal Gear Solid series is the seminal work of Hideo Kojima, Japan's master game creator, and the progenitor of the stealth action game genre. With more than 33 million units sold to date, the Metal Gear series has become a global phenomenon. The player controls a secret agent from an elite special forces unit who is sent on solo stealth missions through enemy installations, vast jungles, and sometimes even the thick of battle. Alone and surrounded by the enemy, even a special forces agent will find it tough to come out alive. But that is the secret behind the series' popularity-the cerebral challenge of figuring out how to avoid combat, and the thrill of sneaking through enemy territory undetected.

In addition to the large collection of Metal Gear titles, the Legacy package will contain an all-new 100 page art book highlighting marketing art from across the globe, spanning the profound 25 year history of the esteemed franchise.

Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection will be available on July 9 for PlayStation 3.

If you were wondering how resourceful a game's community could be, look no further then Valve's Team Fortress 2 community who have just announced their first update for the title.

Titled Robotic Boogaloo, the new update will include 57 new in-game items marking the most community items that Valve has ever shipped. These new items will initially be available only in RoboCrates, however after June 3 they'll turn into rare drops for all.

This update is 100% created by the TF2 community. And when we say everything, we mean everything—the in-game content, the update hub website, the animated short, the comic, even the splash images in the Steam store. Even better, everything you created avoided the classic trap of using other companies’ intellectual property. (Those of you working on a Darth Vader Pyro mask, we've got some bad news for you.) Plus, in a first for the Team Fortress economy, all the creators of the Robotic Boogaloo Update have decided to share the revenue earned from the sale of RoboCrate Keys. That means that everyone involved will be profiting from this update, not just the people making hats.

The new update also comes with a very interesting animated short which you can check out below. An informative community website on just what exactly is involved in this community update has also gone live which also includes a comic for those who would rather look at some colourful images.

Nintendo has broadcast their latest Nintendo Direct stream, this time focusing on a few upcoming Wii U titles but also revealing a new partnership. The new exclusive deal between Sega and Nintendo will offer up three Sonic titles, but will also be bringing the Sega Game Gear to the Virtual Console. Of the 13 titles included are Crystal Warriors, Columns, Sonic the Hedgehog and Shining Force 2: The Sword of Hajya.

New Super Luigi U, the upcoming standalone expansion to New Super Mario. Bros U, will be gaining a digital release on June 20 but for those wanting a disc will be able to grab the retail copy on August 25. President of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, also unveiled the newest character to grace Luigi's side, Nabbit from the original series who was previously a mischievous villain.

Release dates for both Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 were also revealed, putting them at July 26 and August 23 respectively. Details on Wonderful 101 were slim sadly, however Iwata San ensured that more details will be making their way to E3 this year so stay tuned. For Pikmin 3 fans, a large batch of screenshots were revealed during the stream which you can check out below but also throw your Pikmin over to our game page for more.

A Yakuza 1 & 2 HD collection was also announced during Japan's stream, however details on whether they would be getting an English release are currently unknown. This will mark the first time the series has been on a platform outside of Sony's.

For those looking to future titles, a new Direct will be streaming around the time of E3, showing off any and all unannounced titles from Nintendo. No date or time has yet been revealed.

Nintendo has revealed during their latest Direct stream that an exclusive partnership is now underway between Sega, offering up Sonic the Hedgehog for Nintendo platforms. The new partnership has given Nintendo three Sonic titles, two of which are Sonic: Lost World for Wii U and 3DS and Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games for Wii U.

Sonic: Lost World will be a brand new action adventure platforming game, and will launch exclusively on Nintendo's consoles. More details on the new title will be given during their E3 presentation.

"Sonic the Hedgehog has proven incredibly successful on Nintendo platforms and we are pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with Nintendo," said John Cheng, President & COO, Sega of America. "As we initiate this new exclusive partnership with the next three titles we believe that Wii U and Nintendo 3DS are ideal platforms to showcase the evolution of the Sonic brand."

While we countdown until E3 2013 a single image was revealed during the stream for Sonic: Lost World, showing off what is presumably the game's world.

Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games will offer players the chance to take the action of the Olympic Winter sports to their screen with various mini-games revolved around the theme. Included in the Wii U title will be skiing, snowboarding, bobsledding, pairs figure skating and curling.

Players will be able to use both the Wii U GamePad but also the Wii Motion Plus controller, dependent on the minigame. The game will also include fantastical events alongside the minigames that will be set in the world of Mario and Sonic, where players will gain special abilities not possible in the real world.

No release date has yet been given for both titles, and the third unannounced title will be revealed closer to E3. Check out some of the images below for a glimpse at how Sonic is doing in Nintendo's realm.

Capcom has unveiled a large batch of screenshots for the fourth main title in the Monster Hunter series, showing off some new winter zones plus the devious giant-looking rabbit known as Lagombi.

Two new monsters are also making their debut in the screenshots, Arselnus and Skuagil who will no doubt make it tough when trying to gather mining materials from the cold plains. Make sure you take a swig of a hot drink before checking them out below or at our game page for the full collection.

Monster Hunter 4 is currently expected in Japan later this year on 3DS, however no English date has yet been revealed.

After extensive beta testing with some of the world's best pro-gamers and Fighting Game Community members, Razer has today announced the launch of the Atrox Arcade Stick for Xbox 360.

Touted as "an extremely moddable controller," the arcade hardware is offering 10 highly responsive buttons and a precision eight-way joystick inside a completely moddable exterior and interior. Users can swap in their own personal designs for a unique look, while also getting access to the internal compartments and honeycomb structure for easy screw mounting.

“Following a huge beta testing program, we’re confident that we’ve built an arcade stick enthusiasts will love,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, CEO and creative director. “We know that the Fighting Game Community is huge on modding their arcade sticks, and that is why we made the Razer Atrox extremely mod friendly. We are excited to see what extreme mods the Razer Atrox will be the base for.”

ngineered and refined to perfection through countless prototypes and an extensive beta testing phase, the Razer Atrox Arcade Stick is crafted to allow advanced modification – With internals and storage easily accessible at the touch of a button, the joystick, all 10 buttons and the top panel are fully interchangeable for full customizability.

The customisable controller is currently slated for June 2013 release worldwide, with pre-orders starting on May 21 and priced at $269.95.

Following in the footsteps of other MOBA titles like DOTA2 and Heroes of Newerth, Riot has added the ability to finally customise your in-game item sets for League of Legends.

Included in the recent patch 3.7, the new addition to the client UI will allow players to customise item builds for their in-game use, offering a more personal feel when visiting the shop. With this new UI element you'll be able to build a full list of items for your playstyle, so when you go mid with Annie you'll be greeted with the exact items that you'll need in that match.

The item shop has been your one-stop spot for Infinity Edges, Ohmwreckers and Doran's enchanting accessories for quite some time. Happily, you'll now have a second, in-client place to research and plan builds. The new Item Set tab lists every in-game item and lets you customize your builds for your favorite setups

For those in need of a more in-depth overview of what exactly you can do with this new game addition, check out the official post by RiotGTez which includes a short FAQ as well. Surrender@20 also has a great breakdown of the new patch 3.7 which you can check out here.

In what appears to have been an accidental leak, popular digital distribution store Green Man Gaming has posted up details on the first expansion pack to hit Maxis' simulation title SimCity (via Joystiq).

Titled Amusement Park, the new expansion will offer mayors of SimCity the chance to lay down customisable parks which will include attractions and entrances. Those who do place down parks will also gain an increase in cash through shoppers, tourists and boosting the local commercial economy.

No price on the expansion was sadly revealed, however a smart YouTuber by the name of HypnotoadProductions was able to capture the page before it was taken down which you can check out below. Since accidentally going live, SimCity's official Facebook page has responded stating that "some of you may have seen thrilling new SimCity content that arrived too early at the gate. It’s coming May 28th. We think you’ll be amused."

AusGamers' own nuclear fallout expert, Jickles (well, not really), has been given the chance to revisit the ruskies in Moscow's subway system, bouncing between encampments and battling supernatural forces in the continuation of post-apocalyptic Russia, as realised by Russian novelist Dmitry Glukhovsky.

Metro: Last Light continues the adventures of Artyom in the post-apocalyptic Moscow, where you'll have to gather your wits once again and venture both underground and above in the collapsing world. While the sequel doesn't actually follow the original Metro 2034 book like Metro 2033 did for its one, it does offer up a unique plot that is sure to get your tastebuds wet.

But for many, Last Light’s changes will simply make the experience less intimidating and more enjoyable, and it’s hard to begrudge the game too hard when it’s still delivering such a fine experience.

Check out his full thoughts on the game over here.

Electronic Arts spokesman Jeff Brown has told Kotaku that the publishing giant "have no games in development for the Wii U currently," however hasn't ruled out chances of EA developing anytime in the future.

EA has previously published several games for the console since its launch, including FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13, Mass Effect 3: Special Edition and Need for Speed Most Wanted, but have made it clear that no current games are in-development.

The comment comes as part of a recent few rocky months between publisher and console maker, with EA announcing earlier this month that Madden NFL 25 would not be coming to the Wii U. That announcement was piggybacked on a comment made by EA DICE's technical director Johan Andersson who recently explained that the Frostbite engine, which powers titles like the Battlefield franchise, would not be coming to Wii U due to "not too promising results" when testing the Frostbite 2 engine.

While publishing giant EA may be out for now, Nintendo is hoping to gain new interest in the console with a Nintendo Direct later tonight which will be showcasing upcoming titles for the Wii U. The company is also preparing for a Wii U Software Showcase before E3 next month, which will supposedly reveal some of the more prominent first-party titles from Nintendo. New entries in the Mario Kart, Wii Party, Super Smash Bros. and 3D Mario series are expected to be revealed at E3.

When Avalanche Studios founder Christofer Sundberg teased some new images from an "unnanounced" game earlier in the year, many people jumped at the idea of a Just Cause 3 or Mad Max game. This however seems to not be the case, but instead the teased images were actually from a steampunk sandbox game the studio was working on five years ago.

Speaking with Edge, Sundberg explained that the game teased in the images was " a steampunk-style game we had in development that we put on ice." According to a recent Twitter post, Sundberg also revealed that when the game was shut down in 2008 they lost ~90 developers in the process, however five years later are "doing better than ever."

Sundberg teased in the interview that while the game has been put on the backburner, "being an independent developer I can control my own destiny and we’ll make something in that world sooner or later." Hopefully we'll see more on what the developers at Avalanche Studio have been working on at E3 this year.

Nintendo has revealed that a new Nintendo Direct will be airing tonight, focusing "on the Wii U software coming this spring and summer." The stream will be airing tonight at 12am AEST and will also be featuring a look at some 3DS software coming to Australia in the near future.

The new Nintendo Direct is in preparation for the company's new take on E3 2013, where they have opted out of a full stage presentation in favour of smaller hands-on booths and streams. Currently it is unclear what exactly we can expect at E3 this year from Nintendo but hopefully we'll hear more tonight.

Sony has published a new promo video for the PlayStation 4 in thier "conversations with creators" series, this time featuring some of the Blizzard Entertainment crew discussing their upcoming console-tailored version of the formerly PC-only action RPG Diablo 3:

In this video, you'll hear from three of the developers behind Blizzard Entertainment's action role-playing epic: Production Director John Hight, Lead Designer Joshua Mosqueira, and Senior Designer Jason Bender. Together, they'll explain how bringing the game to the PlayStation 3 and 4 has empowered them to viscerally transport players into the foreboding, demon-besieged world of Sanctuary by putting the action in the palms of their hands.

The clip contains quite a bit of groan-worthy hyperbole, but for those keen for a couch-friendly version of D3, it offers a pretty comprehensive overview of everything they're doing controls wise to make the game a better fit.

Diablo 3 is in the works for both the PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4, but an official release date is still yet to be announced.