PixelJunk developer Q-Games will show off three new titles at E3 next week.

"E3 coming up... it's exciting!" CEO Dylan Cuthbert Tweeted earlier today. "Three of our games are at the show! That has to be some kind of record for a small company like Q right?"

He later confirmed that one of them will be Move-friendly PlayStation 3 music game PixelJunk Lifelike, though the other two remain unannounced.

Other than its PixelJunk brand for Sony, Q-Games has a long history with Nintendo, dating way back to when Cuthbert co-developed SNES classic Star Fox while at Argonaut Games. So something for the 3DS perhaps? Or maybe even Project Café? Place your bets.

Q-Games' last offering, PixelJunk Shooter 2, won a 7/10 from Eurogamer's Chris Schilling when it launched on PS3 back in March.

Age of Empires Online goes live worldwide on 16th August, publisher Microsoft Game Studios has announced.

There are two ways to get involved with Gas Powered Games' free-to-play strategy MMO. First up, you can jump right in via the game's website and then purchase extra content at your leisure. There's an estimated 40 hours of gameplay available without the need for opening your wallet.

Secondly, there's also a retail version on shelves for your local equivalent of $19.99 which includes:

• The Premium Greek Civilisation which unlocks the power of Rare and Epic items, Advisors to enhance your civilization, the Player vs. Player Arena and more
• Windy's Wild Widgets Store to give your civilization an edge with the ability to buy and sell special items (available exclusively at retail)
• Hotkey quick reference card
• Limited-edition poster and Advisor cards
• Instructions to download the free-to-play experience

A number of premium content packs are planned, the first of which will give freemium players access to all the extras included in the retail edition, at exactly the same price.

Pro Civilisation Packs, which offer additional civilisations for $19.99 a pop, are also incoming, as are $9.99 Booster Packs, which add new storylines and game modes.

The first Booster Pack, available from launch, is called the Defense of Crete and tasks you with seeing off wave after wave of invaders on the titular island.

There will also be in-game item packs called Empire Extras available for $4.99 each. The first batch offers the following:

• Bountiful Bushes: Beautiful Egyptian themed shrubbery (Available for Egyptians)
• Ornate Ornaments: Amazing Egyptian themed statues and decorations (Available for Egyptians)
• Glorious Gardening: Greek themed bushes and fountains (Available for Greeks)
• Startling Statuary: Greek themed statues (Available for Greeks)

For more on the game, have a read of Christian Donlan's recent hands-on preview, or take a look at the new launch trailer below.

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A video game adaptation of Top Cow's Hunter-Killer comic book is in the works for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

Blacklight: Tango Down and Saw developer Zombie Studios have been signed up by Top Cow, who are also behind The Darkness series, to handle development duties. A publisher and release window for the title are yet to be pinned down.

As for gameplay details, all we currently know is that it will be "team-based".

First published back in 2005, the comics deal with a sub-species of genetically engineered super-soldiers known as Ultras. Some of them go rogue, with the government dispatching loyal Ultras – the Hunter-Killers of the title – to track them down.

Zombie Studios seems to be a hive of activity right now. It's also working on a Blacklight sequel and, as revealed last week, an unannounced Kinect shooter.

Two key creatives who lost their jobs last month during a wave of redundancies at Disney-owned Split/Second studio Black Rock Entertainment have set up on their own.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, Split/Second director Nick Baynes will be Roundcube Entertainment's studio head while senior producer Ian Monaghan will serve as development director.

No announcements have yet been made regarding their first project.

Around 100 Black rock staff were asked to clean out their desks last month, after Disney failed to find a suitable project for the studio to work on following underwhelming sales of its acclaimed 2010 racer Split/Second.

A handful of staff have apparently been kept on to work on an unannounced title.

Last year's Xbox Live Arcade exclusive Castlevania: Harmony of Despair is finally on its way to PlayStation Network, so say insider sources.

According to Siliconera's tipsters, Konami's multiplayer-focussed twist on its ever-living 2D platforming series is due on PlayStation 3 soon, though no concrete date is offered.

The game originally launched last August as part of the Xbox 360's annual Summer of Arcade season.

Alas, the new multiplayer direction didn't seem like a great fit for the acclaimed platforming formula laid down by the PSone classic Symphony of the Night and its brilliant GBA and DS successors.

"Harmony of Despair isn't a failure of concept but a failure of ambition, one that leaves Koji Igarashi still waiting for his next great discovery," wrote Eurogamer's John Teti in his 4/10 review.

WWE '12, this year's entry in THQ's long-running wrestling franchise, enters the ring on 25th November for PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, publisher THQ has announced.

Developer Yuke's has instituted a number of big changes to its annual series, not least ditching the traditional SmackDown vs Raw suffix.

"I've just felt for a couple of years now that the franchise has been getting stale and in need of a reboot. Not just with the name but also with the game experience," explained creative director Cory Ledesma in a Q&A on the game's official site.

"The name of the franchise evolved a couple of times over the years, and it has gotten to the point where the name doesn't really mean anything. WWE currently doesn't have brand wars, and the shows themselves are rarely competing against each other, so SmackDown vs. Raw as a name doesn't really have a meaning."

According to IGN's reveal, among the headline additions is a new animation system that lets you interrupt opponents' moves mid-flow. The camera angle has been pulled back, the speed of gameplay ratcheted up and a new taunt system brought in for a more TV-like experience.

Analogue stick grapples will be replaced by traditional face button attacks. Limb-targeting has been added, as has a new 'Breaking Point' submission mini-game.

Game-changing Dynamic Comebacks will give you a shot at coming back from the brink of defeat to clear the ring, and there's improved AI that should be able to detect if you're spamming moves.

"We aren't changing the game entirely or completely ripping everything out to start over. That wasn't the goal," insisted Ledesma.

"What we are doing is taking the basic essence of what is good in the past games and making a new experience that feels fresh, fun, responsive, faster, smoother and is of higher quality.

"If you're played the SmackDown vs. Raw games in the past, I have zero doubt you will notice the difference as soon as you pick up this year's game."

WWE '12 will be THQ's second grappling sim of the year, following the more arcadey, OTT action of WWE All-Stars, which launched to measured acclaim back in March.

There's a teaser trailer below, though it's light on actual gameplay and heavy on Randy Orton's sweaty pecs. Enjoy.

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Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian is developing a 2D RPG, judging by a new recruitment call.

As spotted on NeoGAF, a new job advertisement on the studio's site states, "Obsidian Entertainment is looking for a 2D character animator to work on a highly stylised, high profile role playing game."

It notes that applicants should preferably have experience working on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as a working knowledge of Flash.

There's no further indication as to what the studio has brewing, though perhaps it's the undisclosed title that bossman Feargus Urquhart discussed with Joystiq earlier this year.

"There is a property that we are working on, that we can't talk about yet," he said.

"It's something we've been working on since the middle of last year, just with a small team, it's only been five or ten people. It's a license that you would go, well you gotta do it.

"It's not a license where it's, 'Okay, we'll take that and we can do something with it.' It's more like, well that's once in a lifetime."

Intriguing. Let the guessing games begin.

Next down the off-ramp from Obsidian is action RPG sequel Dungeon Siege III, due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 17th June.

Hitman developer IO Interactive has clarified comments made last week suggesting the next game in the series, Hitman: Absolution, will be easier than past entries.

Last week director Tore Blystad explained that the series' hardcore nature had put off many consumers in the past, so the development team was now looking to make the new title more accessible.

Over the weekend, community manager Nick Price took to the game's official messageboards to calm fears that the studio was dumbing the franchise down.

"The point, which is missed completely by most people who have been alarmed by this one partial quote, isn't that we want more people to enjoy the game as such - we want people to enjoy the game more," he wrote.

"Reduce frustration and reloads and such things. Obviously, this will allow more people to play the game where they would turn it back to the store after two hours because it became to hard or too punishing too quick. But core fans will be able to enjoy the game the same way they did earlier."

First announced earlier this month, Hitman: Absolution is currently in the works for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and is expected on shelves some time next year.

Something called Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team has popped up on the Australian Classification Board site.

The listing, spotted by Joystiq, doesn't give much away other than that it's been rated 'M for Mature' and is developed by THQ Digital Studios UK – the same outfit behind the recent Red Faction: Battlegrounds downloadable title.

Could it be some kind of tie-in with the impending Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine shooter perhaps? We're onto THQ now in search of answers.

Halo creator Bungie might finally be ready to lift the lid on its unannounced new project, judging by an update on its site.

A blog post on Bungie.net from community manager Eric Osborne apologised for a lack of recent updates, explaining that he had had his hands full in recent weeks.

"Yup, truth told we have been less and less active on Bungie.net as of late," he wrote.

"Part of that is owed to my aforementioned travel arrangements, but a significant amount of my time is also now being dedicated to other upcoming endeavors that won't make a splash on the front page until Bungie Day closes in around us.

"Unfortunately, that means there are just too many balls in the air for me to juggle without letting a few fall to the ground. More explicit details about those balls in the weeks ahead."

"Bungie Day", when the studio celebrates its strange fascination with the number seven, falls on 7th July every year.

Can't wait that long? Elsewhere in the post, Osborne teased that "breadcrumbs tucked away into the folds of Bungie.net that just might lead to something [Bungie artist Stosh has] been working on for a little bit now."

Bungie has remained tight-lipped regarding its post-Halo Activision project, though speculation has recently pointed towards a sci-fi MMO codenamed Destiny.