• Performance improvements
• Better spawn protection
• Nerf for G3 and SCAR-H 7.62mm, buffs for 9mm and p90
• Totally redone squad mechanism

For example, Electronic Arts of Redwood City, Calif., shipped more than two million copies of Dead Space 2 in the game’s first week on the market this year. It shows a total of $1.2 billion in global profits the last five years using an accounting method that management says captures its operating profits.

But largely because of deferred revenue, deductions for executive stock options and a variety of accounting requirements, the company officially reports a net loss for the period. And the company reports that it paid out $98 million in cash for taxes worldwide in those years.

That’s a nice 8.2% tax rate captured through tax deductions available for software development. But, things are a stalemate, as Canada offers a 37.5% of payroll deduction to video game companies. Have we entered the tax wars?

It’s said that these screenshots are of a development build up to four months old, so no doubt the game will look many times more polished before then. And since Dota2 is free to play, you can bet the Hon/LoL communities are going to be totally destroyed by its release. The Dota 2 Gamescom Trailer below shows off its true beauty:

According to his manifest/diary, he viewed “Call of Duty, Modern Warfare” as “a good alternative as well” to marksmanship training:

I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game. It is probably the best military simulator out there and it’s one of the hottest games this year. I played MW1 as well but I didn’t really like it as I’m generally more the fantasy RPG kind of person – Dragon Age Origins etc and not so much into first person shooters. I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else. I’ve still learned to love it though and especially the multiplayer part is amazing. You can more or less completely simulate actual operations.

While the link between violent video-games and real-life violence is subject to much debate, the use of ultra-realistic games as effective simulator trainers, either for flying airplanes, carrying out military missions, or learning other skills, is indisputably an issue. In today’s world, when one can lookup how to make bombs online and practice shooting in Call of Duty, anyone could become a one-man-terrorist.

Kotaku has more commentary on the role of Video Games in this act of terrorism . For more general information, see At Least 80 Dead in Norway Shooting from the New York Times and Follow Up of the Day: Norway Attacks Suspect Identified.

Update: Slashdot has published The Oslo Massacre and Violent Video Games: the Facts, decrying “media hysteria” about the role of videogames in committing this act of terrorism.

Dead Nation (77/100) – $7.99
inFAMOUS (85/100) – $23.38
LittleBigPlanet (95/100) – $18.40
Super Stardust HD (85/100) – $9.99
Wipeout HD + Fury (89/100) – $19.99

But, which two games should you choose? I’ve linked in the MetaCritic scores above, as well as their Amazon prices. Since you’re getting this for free, you want to maximize the rating and the current market price to get the most out of it. Here’s the price-weighted ratings chart:

Sold on May 5th for $1,220 to an anonymous buyer, the gameboy, cartridge, and instruction manual feature Mir postmarks. Bonham’s describes it:

A space Nintendo, flown on Soyuz TM-17 to the Mir space station by cosmonaut Aleksandr A. Serebrov in 1993. This Game Boy spent 196 days in space and has orbited the Earth more than 3,000 times. Upon its departure from Mir, TM-17 accidentally ran into the space station, fortunately causing no major damage.
Tetris, one of the most famous computer games ever, was invented in the Soviet Union and is therefore a particularly apt pastime for a cosmonaut on Mir.
Together with SEREBROV’S autograph provenance note signed, in Russian, dated May 20, 1994, stating that “Like all cosmonauts, I love sport. My particular favorites are football and swimming. During flight, in rare minutes of leisure, I enjoyed playing Game Boy.”

An interesting piece of history!

If you haven’t read Game Informer’s Valve’s New Game Announced, Detailed: Dota 2, go do that. But basically what it has announced can be summed up by the following points:

• IceFrog, aka Abdul Ismail, has been hired by Valve to make Dota 2
• Dota 2 is a straight port of Dota with all the original heroes
• It will probably be value added with better graphics, achievements, social “steam” aspects
• It will probably have hats

There’s no new gameplay or mechanics, and the map is identical. However, the engine will be new, and we can hope for better graphics. The Source Engine will be used, and there will be voice chat (something HoN already has). There will be a new “coaching” system, as well, where players can login to help other players rise in stats so that they can play in higher-ranked matches.

Follow IceFrog’s blog for more updates on Dota 2. Also, Valve has released the following artwork:

Dota 2 Heroes – Morphling

Dota 2 Heroes – Lina

Dota 2 Heroes – Drow

Dota 2 Heroes – Bloodseeker

So i remained tied to the glove chain thing, couldn’t fire it or ult until I was killed! Weird glitch.

2K Games and Gearbox Software announced today that forever is nearly here, as Duke Nukem Forever® will officially make its long-awaited debut for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC in calendar 2011. Duke Nukem, the interactive entertainment industry’s most irreverent and quoted character of all time, will bring his signature brand of babe-lovin’, cigar-smoking, beer-chugging and ass-kicking action as he once again saves the Earth and our babes from hordes of invading aliens.

Check out Pikimal’s visit to the DNF booth, and these reviews. Joystiq in their Duke Nukem Forever preview says “after 13 years in development, and then being pronounced dead, Gearbox has performed something of a miracle here.” The bad boys at Destructoid confess that “Duke Nukem Forever is something special indeed. Tits and pigs and kicking eyes like footballs conspire to make this a serious game of the show contender for me.” And Kotaku calls it “the king returned as if through a time machine.”

Check out this gameplay video on YouTube:

PS: did you know you can pre-order Duke Nukem Forever? Wow!