STEAM
It's a sequel hype-up weekend on Steam: Borderlands and its GOTY edition are both 75% off, as is Orcs Must Die! (There's also an Orcs Must Die! 2 demo available now, so have some of that.)


75% off Borderlands: Game of the Year - $7.49
75% off Orcs Must Die! Game of the Year - $3.24
82% off Civilization Collection - $24.99
66% off Ys The Oath in Felghana - $5.09




AMAZON
Amazon is running the same Borderlands deal as Steam, and many of the usuals are on sale as...usual.


75% off Borderlands Game of the Year Edition - $7.49
80% off Burning Hot Bundle - $7.99
72% off Mount & Blade - $4.17
50% off Mount & Blade: Warband - $10.03
61% off Dragon Age 2 - $7.81
25% off Mass Effect 2 - $14.92
71% off Trine - $5.83
50% off Mount & Blade: Warband - $9.95
27% off Dungeon Siege 3 - $14.68
52% off Tropico 4 - $19.17
26% off Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - $14.84
More Amazon PC game downloads


GAMEFLY
GameFly returns to the list this week with 50% off Max Payne 3 and 75% off Mirror's Edge. Nice!


50% off Max Payne 3 - $29.99
75% off Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction - $5.00
75% off Mirror's Edge - $5.00
50% off Nexuiz - $5.00
More GameFly deals


GAMESTOP
Bethesda games are up to 50% off this weekend on GameStop.


33% off The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - $40.19
50% off RAGE - $9.99
50% off Hunted: The Demon's Forge - $9.99
50% off The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition - $9.99
50% off The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GOTY Deluxe Edition - $12.49



GOG
"Awesome Adventure Games" are 50% off on GOG this weekend. The list includes some personal favorites: The 11th Hour, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, and Little Big Adventure (a.k.a Twinsen's Odyssey).

More game deals


Green Man Gaming's Summ...oh wait, Winter Sale
Update: I don't usually add pre-order deals, but it has come to my attention (thanks commenters!) that Green Man is offering Borderlands 2 pre-orders for $40 with the voucher: PARTP-ALCNO-TIESU.


If you find any great deals we missed, the comments are a lovely place to share them.

STEAM
The Summer Sale remains absent, but Valve has confirmed that there will be a sale which will take place during the summer. Just later. For now, how about 50% off Wargame: European Escalation and a bunch of CoD DLC?


50% off Wargame: European Escalation - $19.99
50% off Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Collection 2 - $7.49
50% off Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Collection 1 - $7.49
50% off Call of Duty: Black Ops - Rezurrection Content Pack - $7.49
50% off Call of Duty: Black Ops Annihilation Content Pack - $7.49
50% off Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation Content Pack - $7.49
50% off Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike Content Pack - $7.49
More Steam deals



AMAZON
Oh, hi Amazon. Didn't see you there. What's that? You've got a big sale going on? 50% off Spec Ops: The Line, you say? Neat. And you've got 33% off Max Payne 3, 75% off Binary Domain, 75% Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai, and big discounts on bundles like the Square Enix Ultimate Collection? Shh, I don't know where I was going with this either Amazon, so let's just relax and enjoy your deals:


50% off Spec Ops: The Line - $24.99
33% off Max Payne 3 - $39.99
75% off Binary Domain - $9.99
50% off Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - $29.99
75% off Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai - $7.49
92% off Square Enix Ultimate Collection - $7.49
81% off Bioshock Dual Pack - $7.49
80% off X-COM: Collection - $2.99
91% off Plentiful Paradox Package - $12.49
43% off Battlefield 3 - $34.45
75% off Dead Space 2 - $4.99
25% off Mass Effect - $15.00
29% off Mass Effect 2 - $14.17
75% off Borderlands - $7.49
50% off Sid Meier's Civilization V - $14.99
75% off PAYDAY The Heist - $4.99
26% off Saints Row: The Third - $36.91
71% off Trine - $5.83
39% off Metro 2033 - $12.26
50% off Mount & Blade: Warband - $9.95
27% off Dungeon Siege 3 - $14.68
50% off Tropico 4 - $19.99
75% off Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - $4.99
More Amazon PC game downloads

 
GOG
GOG's weekend promo theme is Strategy First Global. As usual, all of the games are either $2.99 or $4.99. This week's selection is big, and includes FlatOut, Jagged Alliance 2, Disciples 2 Gold, Apache vs. Havoc, and more.

MORE GAME DEALS
Usually I list out the best from these sites, but A. some of the sales are currently cheaper elsewhere (e.g. Max Payne 3 is 30% off at GamersGate, but 33% off on Amazon) and B. I'm really, really busy today. It's mostly that second thing, so let us know in the comments if I missed anything big this week.


GamersGate deals
GameStop deals
Green Man Gaming deals

 

Depending on who you talk to, LA Noire was either a compelling masterpiece or a grand folly. One thing’s for sure, though; its creator Brendan McNamara had an ambitious idea for a game and followed it through.

His next game seems to be taking a similar retro-tact to LA Noire. According to Kotaku, it’s “one of the great untold stories of the 20th century.” Oh yeah, it’s also called Whore of the Orient - but we’re not sure how long that name will stick before a concerned parent makes them change it to “Chinese Detective Story”.

As Kotaku points out, Whore of the Orient is the nickname for Shanghai, which could lead to a lot of sexist jokes we’re not even going to begin to make. Its huge population and dodgy quarters make it comparable to LA Noire’s vision of 1940s Los Angeles.

Of course, Brendan McNamara’s Team Bondi studios were controversially shut down after the release of LA Noire, but it seems McNamara’s got a new chum in the form of Mad Max director George Miller, whose KMM Studios are backing Whore of the Orient. It’s also more than likely that LA Noire’s groundbreaking MotionScan facial animation will return - McNamara owns Depth Analysis, the company behind it.

 
The dust has finally settled on the GTA trailer! You've probably watched it twice by now. So what's next? Rumour and speculation of course. Absolutely loads of it.

Tom's multiple protagonist's theory is still holding up. Eurogamer take the idea one step further, implying that the three character's featured could be Tommy Vercetti, Niko Bellic and Carl Johnson. It's a neat idea, but one that doesn't quite fit in with the previous game's timelines. The trailer's main character could still be an older an older Tommy Vercetti though, even if Ray Liotta's agent has confirmed with IGN that he's not returning for voice over duties.

I've embedded the GTA Vice City trailer below for comparison purposes. Tommy or not, the chap in the GTA 5 trailer definitely has a rounded, better textured head, which is reassuring.



There's also a theory that the homeless guy featured in the trailer could be a subtle dig at Nico's voice actor in GTA IV. He expressed dissatisfaction at the wage he received for the voice over work when speaking to the New York Times a few weeks after the game's release. He didn't take a hit at Rockstar directly though, saying: "But it’s tough, when you see Grand Theft Auto IV out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they’re making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don’t see any of it. I don’t blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games." Fair enough.





Dog alert! One of the first scenes in the trailer features a silouette of a four legged beast, which we can almost definitely confirm is a dog. Will we be able so shoot it? Or possibly skin it using Red Dead Redemption's tech? One can only hope.



The music in the trailer is the title track from The Small Face's album, Odgen's Nut Gone Flake. It's probably just in there because it's an emotive tune but interestingly enough, their album cover is a parody of an old-fashioned tobacco tin. Just like almost every item in GTA.



L.A. Noire's facial tech will almost definitely feature, although we were struggling to see any evidence of it so far.

Real Estate, gyms, and flying things like jets and blimps are also visible in the trailer. Expect the return of buyable houses, customisable avatars and flyable planes. While we're on alternate forms of transport, check out the two wheeler propped up against the house. That ain't no car people...



There's also some speculation on GTA forums.com about a release date. It involves a lot of intimidating maths and more speculation than even I'm comfortable with. They seem to settle on May 24, 2012. HMMM.

So what have we missed? Let's talk in the comments.

After a lot of excited pointing at mountains and dogs, the PC Gamer office got chatting about the sneaky hints Rockstar have dotted throughout the new GTA 5 trailer.

You've probably noticed the narrator sounds a lot like Ray Liotta, who voiced GTA Vice City's player character Tommy Vercetti. But the greying middle-aged man we see in the footage isn't the only one in player-character situations. There's also a shaven-headed youth in a car chase with the police, and a tattooed black guy running from a cop chopper. And hey, isn't that all three of them together breaking into the jewellery store? Click below for a full size image of the evidence.



Chris Thursten points out that GTA IV used a deal gone wrong to link three characters that you ultimately ended up playing: Niko in the main game, Johnny Klebitz in the Lost and the Damned DLC, and Luis Lopez in the Ballad of Gay Tony. GTA V might give us a choice of three protagonists from the off, each with their own stories, and use this robbery as the flashpoint that links them.

It'd make for a more interesting story structure, and of course it would set them up beautifully for a co-op campaign that ties into the single player.

 
Grand Theft Auto 5, or GTA 5 (if you're an acronym kind of dude) trailer alert! Sit back and have a little watch.

We mentioned a few Grand Theft Auto 5 rumours earlier today but now, with the benefit of hindsight, you can either mock or bask in the awe of our incredible insight. For some spookily accurate insight, check out what PSM3's Dan Dawkins had to say a few weeks ago.

We'll have a more in-depth analysis of the first Grand Theft Auto trailer on the site as soon as possible. For now, just watch and comment.

Recently we highlighted the remarkable ICEnhancer 1.2 mod for GTA IV, a visual overhaul that had us all reaching for the "install GTA IV" buttons on our Steam accounts. Redditor dfkjsd posts with news that the mod has now hit version 1.25. The mod creators have put out a lovely new trailer to celebrate, with lots of driving and some occasional slow-mo hyperviolence. You can grab the latest version of ICEnhancer now from GTA4-mods.com.

The recent Steam Summer Camp Sale has brought new achievements and in-game rewards, along with a bumper selection of cheap games. Today is "Encore Day!" Unless Valve go for a stadium-satisfying multi-encore finish, it's your final chance to download a bargain. All the games are picked from the week's top sellers.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 for £4.99/$7.50, Terraria for £2.99/$4.99 and Magicka for £2.71/$3.39? Yes please. Click through for more details of today's deals.

You've got just over six hours to grab these bargains:


Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition - £7.50/$7.50

Just Cause 2 - £3.49/$4.99

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - £5.00/$7:50

Sanctum - £2.49/$3.75

Portal 2 - £14.99/$24.99

Dawn of War: Retribution - £14.99/$14.99

Total War: Shogun 2 - £17.99/$29.99

The Witcher 2 - £23.44/$33.49

Terraria - £2.99/$4.99

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - £14.99/$19.99

Fallout New Vegas - £8.99/$14.99

Two Worlds 2 - £8.50/$17.00

Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City - £6.24/$9.99

Magicka - £2.71/$3.39

 
What's the best bargain you've ever picked up in a Steam sale? Back in 2008, £6.99 was a great price for Team Fortress 2. How naive.