World of Warcraft patch 4.2 has gone live on the public test realm. The patch notes have been released.

The headline attraction is Firelands, a huge outdoor raid "of the highest difficulty" for 10 or 25 people in either normal or Heroic modes. Firelands takes place in the Elemental plane and puts six bosses between you and a new, "reinvigorated" Ragnaros.

Patch 4.2 adds a new epic quest to complete the legendary staff Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest. Aside from super stats, the staff bestows its owner with the ability to transform into a member of the Blue Dragonflight - i.e. a dragon, in other words. All friends or guildmembers that help with the quest will receive a new pet.

Patch 4.2 brings new daily quests given at the Regrowth (Mount Hyjal) and Molten Front (Firelands). Blizzard promises "unprecedented" daily solo content for level 85 players, including more than 60 quests, four unlockable level 365 gear vendors and an evolving world.

Patch 4.2 introduces a new tier - 12 - of armour sets. Screenshots below.

Patch 4.2 also makes Cataclysm dungeons Twilight, Blackwing Descent and Throne of the Four Winds easier.

The full 4.2 patch notes as they stand at the time of writing are below.

General

• All existing Valor Points in the Currency tab have been converted to Justice Points.

Achievements

• Bear-ly Made It (new achievement): Save all four prisoners before they are sacrificed in Zul'Aman on Heroic difficulty.

Classes: General

• All healing critical strikes now heal for 2 times a normal heal (+100%), up from 1.5 times a normal heal (+50%).
• Dodge: Death Knights, paladins, and warriors no longer receive any bonus to their chance to dodge from Agility. Their base chance to dodge is now a fixed 5%.
• Parry: Death Knights, paladins, and warriors now receive 27% of their Strength bonuses as parry rating, up from 25%. This conversion still only applies to Strength above and beyond their base Strength.
• Players are once again free to dance in combat (without causing graphic errors). Other animations, such as attacks, will take precedence over dancing. The dance animation will be suppressed until the higher priority animation is complete. Fun has been unnerfed.
• Buffs: All class abilities which place a buff on friendly targets no longer generate any threat. This goes for raid-wide buffs like Mark of the Wild and Power Word: Fortitude, as well as triggered effects such as Blessed Resilience or Fingers of Frost, and single-target buffs like Dark Intent and Hysteria. The exception is buffs which directly cause healing or damage, such as Thorns or Renew. Abilities such as these still generate normal threat.
• Crowd Control: Many crowd control abilities no longer cause creatures to attack players when they are cast. The creature will not attack the player when the crowd control wears off, and nearby creatures will not become hostile to the player either. However, if a visible player gets too close to the target creature, the creature will remember and attack the player when the crowd control effect wears off. The intent is to make it easier for dungeon groups to manage crowd control assignments and pulling packs of hostile NPCs. The abilities affected by this change are: Hibernate, Entangling Roots, Wyvern Sting (will still cause hostility when it begins to deal damage), Freezing Trap, Polymorph, Repentance, Shackle Undead, Blind, Hex, Bind Elemental, Banish, Seduction.
• Pets: The Aggressive pet stance has been removed and replaced with the Assist stance. This stance will cause the player's pet to attack the player's target. The pet will not change targets unless the master attacks a new target for a few seconds.
• Spell Interrupts: When interrupted while casting a single-school spell such as Mind Flay or Frostbolt, players will now be able to cast dual-school spells such as Mind Spike (Frost and Shadow schools) or Frostfire Bolt (Frost and Fire schools). However, being interrupted while casting a dual-school spell will still interrupt all respective schools as intended.

Death Knights

• Obliterate base damage has been reduced to 150% weapon damage, down from 160%.
• Annihilation now increases Obliterate damage by 12/24/36%, down from 15/30/45%.
• Unholy Might now increases Strength by 10%, up from 5%.

Druids

• Druids now gain 1 attack power per point of Strength, down from 2. They continue to gain 2 attack power per point of Agility while in Cat Form or Bear Form.
• Entangling Roots and the equivalent spell triggered by Nature's Grasp no longer deal damage.
• Ferocious Bite damage has been increased by 15%. In addition, its base cost has been reduced to 25 energy and it can use up to 25 energy, for up to a 100% damage increase.
• Innervate now grants an ally target 5% of his or her maximum mana over 10 seconds, but still grants 20% of the druid's maximum mana over 10 seconds when self-cast.
• Mangle (Cat) damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 530% weapon damage, up from 460%.
• Omen of Clarity clearcasting buff from now lasts 15 seconds, up from 8 seconds.
• Ravage damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 975% weapon damage, up from 850%.
• Shred damage at level 80 and above has been increased to 520% weapon damage, up from 450%.
• Swipe (Cat) now deals 600% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 670%.
• Earth and Moon's duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.
• Fungal Growth spell visual effect has been updated to be less visually intrusive and more aesthetic.
• Lunar Shower has been redesigned. When casting Moonfire, the druid gains Lunar Shower. Lunar Shower increases the direct damage done by Moonfire by 15/30/45%, and reduces the mana cost by 10/20/30%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 3 seconds. While under the effects of Lunar Shower, Moonfire generates 8 Solar Energy, and Sunfire generates 8 Lunar Energy. The amount of Lunar/Solar Energy gained does not change based on the number of points spent in the talent, or stacks of Lunar Shower. Those druids who wish to delay transition in or out of an Eclipse state should now cast the one of their two basic attacks which will not move the Eclipse bar (either Starfire or Wrath).
• Solar Beam has a new spell effect.
• Symbiosis Mastery has been removed and replaced with Harmony. Harmony increases direct healing by an additional 10% and casting direct healing spells grants an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 seconds. Each point of mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%. Healing Touch, Nourish, Swiftmend, and the initial heal from Regrowth are considered direct healing spells for the purposes of Symbiosis Mastery. All other healing from druid spells is considered periodic.
• Wild Mushroom: Detonate can now also trigger Earth and Moon, in addition to Starfire and Wrath.
• Glyph of Berserk duration increase is now 10 seconds, up from 5.
• Glyph of Ferocious Bite has been redesigned. It now causes Ferocious Bite to heal the caster for 1% of maximum health for each 10 energy used.
• Glyph of Innervate now causes the druid to gain 10% of his or her maximum mana over 10 seconds when Innervate is used on a friendly target, in addition to Innervate's base effect.

Hunters

• Multi-shot damage has been reduced. It now deals 120% weapon damage at level 80 or higher, down from 137%.
• Traps now scale with hunter stats such as hit, expertise, spell penetration and attack power as intended.

Mages

• Pyroblast: The version of this spell cast when Hot Streak is not active did slightly less damage than the Hot Streak version. Its damage has been increased so that both versions of Pyroblast now do the same amount of damage.
• Spellsteal mana cost has been increased 100%.
• Impact: When Living Bomb is spread via this talent, it will only be spread to two additional targets. The net effect is that if the Mage's most recent Living Bomb target is the same as their Impact target, that target will no longer lose the Living Bomb effect. If Living Bomb is active on multiple targets when the Impact effect is cast, Living Bomb will remain active on the most recent Living Bomb target, and will be added to two other nearby targets.
• Deep Freeze and Ring of Frost will now cause diminishing returns for each other.

Paladins

• Divine Light mana cost has been increased to 35% of base mana, up from 30%.
• Flash of Light mana cost has been increased to 31% of base mana, up from 27%.
• Holy Light mana cost has been increased to 12% of base mana, up from 10%.
• Rebuke, Divine Shield and Divine Protection have new icons.
• Seal of Righteousness – now can be proc'd by any melee ability, not just single target melee abilities. This adds Hammer of the Righteous (the physical component) and Divine Storm to the list of abilities that can proc it. In addition, Seal of Righteousness procs can now crit.
• Beacon of Light can no longer be dispelled.
• Denounce has been redesigned. It still reduces the mana cost of Exorcism. However, it no longer has a chance on Holy Shock of making Exorcism free and instant. Instead, it has a 50/100% chance to prevent the Exorcism target from causing critical effects for the next 6 seconds. This effect can be dispelled.
• Holy Shock mana cost has been decreased to 7% of base mana, down from 8%.
• Infusion of Light can now lower the cast time of Flash of Light by 0.75/1.5 seconds, in addition to Holy Light and Divine Light. In addition, the old Denounce spell overlay effect has been transferred to Infusion of Light since Denounce is no longer a proc.
• Speed of Light now increases movement speed when Holy Radiance or Divine Protection are cast. In addition, this talent now reduces the cooldown of Holy Radiance by 13/26/40 seconds, up from 10/20/30.
• Walk in the Light now improves Word of Glory healing by 30% in addition to its current effects.
• Ardent Defender has a new spell effect.
• Guardian of Ancient Kings now uses the 'Assist' pet stance functionality.
• Hammer of the Righteous mana cost has been lowered to 10%, down from 12% to match Crusader Strike.
• Holy Shield now increases block chance by 5% while active, instead of increasing the amount of damage blocked by 10%.
• Judgements of the Wise now procs on attempt rather than on strike, which means judgements that miss can still grant mana. This is to help ensure Protection paladins are not starved for mana if they aren't capped on hit rating.
• Seals of Command: This talent now makes Seal of Righteousness hit an unlimited number of melee targets, instead of only 2 additional targets.
• Selfless Healer can no longer be dispelled and cannot be stolen via Spellsteal; and, in addition to its current effects, it lowers the cooldown of Word of Glory by 5/10 seconds.
• Glyph of Seal of Truth: The expertise bonus granted by this glyph now also works when Seal of Righteousness is active.

Priests

• Devouring Plague damage done has been decreased by 12%.
• Mind Blast damage done has been increased by 12%.
• Shadowfiend now uses the 'Assist' pet stance functionality.
• Shadow Word: Death damage done has been increased by 12%.
• Shadow Word: Pain damage done has been decreased by 12%.
• Mind Flay damage done has been increased by 12%.
• Sin and Punishment's Vampiric Touch backlash Fear effect no longer has diminishing returns.
• Vampiric Touch damage done has been decreased by 12%.
• Players will no longer prematurely cancel a channeled spell when clicking on the Lightwell.

Rogues

• Blind duration against enemy NPCs is now 1 minute, while the duration against players remains 8 seconds.
• Stealth now once again begins its cooldown once the rogue leaves Stealth.

Shaman

• Lightning Shield and Water Shield can no longer be dispelled.
• Unleash Elements is now in the Nature school, and thus can no longer be used if a shaman's Nature school has been locked out.
• Water Shield has had its internal cooldown reduced to 3.5 seconds, once again matching other shields. The amount of mana restored when Water Shield procs has been reduced by 50%.
• Lava Flows now grants a 30/60/90% haste buff when a Flame Shock effect is dispelled, up from 10/20/30%.
• Thunderstorm now reduces the movement speed of players it knocks back by 40% for 5 seconds.
• Improved Water Shield has been redesigned and renamed Resurgence. When Water Shield is active, Resurgence causes critical direct heals to restore mana (Resurgence rank 2 is roughly equal to 150% of the old Improved Water Shield value when a Healing Wave or Greater Healing Wave critically hits, and scaled down accordingly for faster or multi-target spells).
• Mana Tide now grants 200% of the caster's Spirit, down from 400%.
• Glyph of Unleashed Lightning (new Prime glyph) allows Lightning Bolt to be cast while moving.

Warlocks

• Soul Harvest has a new spell effect.
• It is no longer possible to leave combat while channeling Drain Soul.

Warriors

• Overpower now has a 1.5-second cooldown and global cooldown (Taste for Blood's Overpower cooldown has not changed).
• Retaliation, Recklessness and Shield Wall no longer have stance requirements.

Dungeons & Raids

• Dungeon Journal is in the process of being implemented. While some UI elements may exist in the current Public Test Realm build, the feature is not yet complete.
• The Firelands, a new 10- and 25-player raid, is now available for limited testing. Please visit the PTR Discussion forum for the latest raid testing schedule.
• Bastion of Twilight
• The damage modifier on Normal has been reduced for Arion, Elementium Monstrosity, Feludius, Ignacius, and Terrastra.
• Removed one of each type of Bound elemental from the Ascendant Council chamber.
• Arion
• Chain Lightning damage has been reduced.
• Cho'gall
• Health, melee damage, Health of Corrupting Adherent, Depravity damage, Corrupting Crash damage, Flaming Destruction damage, and Unleashed Shadows damage has all been reduced by 20%.
• Corrupting Crash and Depravity
• Halved the amount of Corruption they give to 5 from 10.
• Corrupted Bite effect caused by Blood of the Old God reduced.
• Damage Taken from Corruption of the Old God per Corrupted Blood has been reduced from 3% per stack to 2% per stack.
• Debilitating Beam damage has been reduced by 20% to 6,400.
• The duration of Twisted Devotion has been reduced by 25%.
• Dragon Siblings
• Health, melee damage, Twilight Meteorite damage, Devouring Flames, Blackout damage, Unstable Twilight damage, Twilight Zone damage, Twilight Blast damage, Fabulous Flames damage, has all been reduced by 20%.
• Elementium Monstrosity
• Electrical Instability damage has been reduced.
• Feludius
• Damage due to being Frozen while Waterlogged has been reduced.
• Halfus
• Health, melee damage, Fireball/Fireball Barrage damage, Furious Roar damage, Scorching Breath damage, Shadow Nova damage, has all been reduced by 20%.
• Nether Scion, Slate Dragon, Storm Rider, Time Warden, and Orphaned Emerald Whelp health has been reduced by 20%.
• Shadow Nova base cast time has been increased.
• Ignacious
• Rising Flames now increases damage by 3% per stack, down from 5%.
• Terrastra
• Harden Skin now increases Physical damage dealt by 20% (down from 100%.)

Blackwing Descent

• Atramedes
• Health, melee damage, modulation damage, Roaring Flame Breath damage, and Searing Flame damage has all been reduced by 20%.
• Modulation no longer causes Sound in normal difficulty.
• Sound given by Sonar Pulse has been reduced to 3 (from 5.)
• Chimaeron
• Health reduced by 20% and melee damage reduced by 10%.
• Chimaeron will now only cast two caustic slimes per 30 second cycle, at second 17 and second 23.
• Drakeadon Mongrel
• Time Lapse no longer stuns.
• Frost Burn silence is now 3 seconds
• Dwarven Kings
• Whirlwind no longer drops threat.
• Execution sentence now deals damage only.
• Shield of Light absorption now reduced.
• Magmaw
• Damage and hit points reduced by 20%.
• Lava Parasites have been diminished
• Lava Spew damage, Magma Spit damage, Massive Crash damage, and Infectious Vomit damage have all been been reduced.
• Mangled Lifeless no longer instantly kills, and damage has been reduced.
• Parasitic Infection has been decreased.
• Maloriak
• Health, damage, Aberation health/damage, Arcane Storm damage, Prime Subject damage, Flash Freeze/Shatter damage, and Scorching Blast damage has all been decreased by 20%.
• Aberration stacking damage buff decreased.
• Prime Subjects no longer fixate, and are no longer immune to taunt.
• Nefarian
• Animated Bone Warriors take 33 seconds to fall over, (down from 50.)
• Blast Nova cast time increased.
• Chromatic Prototype Health reduced 20%.
• Electrocute damage reduced 30%.
• Fewer Animated Bone warriors spawn.
• Magma Stacking debuff effect reduced 75%.
• Nefarian health and melee damage reduced by 20%.
• Nefarian's Shadowblaze cast frequency cannot increase beyond 1 per 15 sec.
• Onyxia health and melee damage reduced by 20%.
• Shadowflame Barrage damage reduced 20%.
• Tail Lash damage reduced 50%.
• Omnotron Council
• Barrier absorb amount increased by 100%.
• Increased the cooldown on Power Conversion (Converted Power chance).
• Health, Melee damage, Electrical Discharge damage, Lightning Conductor damage, Health of Poison Bomb, Incineration Security Measure damage, Arcane Annihilator damage, has all been reduced by 20%.
• Flamethrower damage has been reduced by 40%.
• Static Shock caused by Unstable Shield damage and Poison Bomb damage has been decreased by 50%.

Deadmines

• Vanessa VanCleef (Heroic difficulty) now has a sweet, sweet voice to accompany her dialog.

Throne of the Four Winds

• Al'Akir
• Acid Rain now stacks every 20s (up from 15s.)
• Electrocute now pulses every 1s (up from 0.5s.)
• Feedback duration increased to 30s (from 20s.)
• Health, damage, and Wind Burst damage have all been reduced 20%.
• Lightning and Lightning Rod recast time has been increased.
• Lightning Strike friendly chain damage has been halved.
• Will no longer use Static Shock on normal difficulty in phase 1 or phase 2.
• Conclave of the Four Winds
• Gathering Strength cast time has been increased
• Ice Patch slow is now 5% per stack, up to 10 stacks (down from 10% per stack, up to 30 stacks), damage reduced by 20%.
• Rohash, Anshal, Nezir melee, Ravenous Creeper health/damage, Ravenous Creeper toxic spores damage, Hurricane damage, Sleet Storm damage , Permafrost damage , Slicing Gale, and Wind Blast damage have all been reduced by 20%.
• Wind Chill damage decreased by 20%and now increases damage taken by 5% per stack.

Guilds

• The daily guild experience cap has been increased by 25%.
• The weekly guild reputation cap has been increased by 25%.
• The guild experience cap is now removed at level 20, down from level 23.
• The Reins of the Dark Phoenix, purchased from the Guild Vendor, has had its art improved. It's now less transparent and indisputably more awesome.

Items

• Darkmoon Card: Hurricane damage done when triggered has been increased by 40%, however, it can no longer deal critical strikes and no longer receives any modifiers to its damage from the equipping player.
• The 2-piece resilience bonus from Cataclysm PvP sets no longer stacks. If a player wears 2 pieces each from 2 different Cataclysm sets, the player will only receive the 400 resilience rating bonus once. This change does not apply to PvP sets from prior expansions.
• The 4-piece Elemental shaman PvP set bonus (Gladiator's Thunderfist set) has been redesigned. It now causes Lightning Shield to generate an extra charge, rather than consuming one, when it is triggered by receiving damage, up to a maximum of 3 (9 with the Rolling Thunder talent).
• Restoration druid Tier 11 2-Piece: This set bonus has been redesigned to work with the new Restoration druid mastery. Druids with this bonus now receive the bonus to Spirit while the Harmony mastery bonus to periodic healing is active.
• Tier 12: Hunter 4P: The effect which makes Shots cost no focus now also makes Kill Command cost no focus.
• Tier 12: Mage 2P: This set bonus can now also be triggered by Frostfire Bolt.
• Tier 12: Mage 4P: The portions of this bonus referring to Arcane Missiles have been removed. Instead, the set bonus now makes Arcane Power reduce the cost of Mage spells by 10% instead of increasing their cost.

Professions

• Jewelcrafting: The shield block value bonus from Eternal Earthsiege Diamond has been increased to 3%, up from 1%.
• Skinning: Players can no longer skin corpses already being actively skinned or looted by other players.

PVP

• Arenas: The Ring of Valor has been added to the Arena rotation once again.
• Battlegrounds: Eye of the Storm has been added into the rotation as a 10-man Rated Battleground. The tug-of-war style capture points have been replaced with Arathi Basin style capture points to better support 10v10 competition. This change applies only to Rated Battlegrounds. Eye of the Storm is otherwise still a 15-player Battleground with tug-of-war style capture points.
• War Games: Many improvements are being made to the War Games interface, though the changes are not yet fully functional.
• Conquest Points: The minimum cap on Conquest Points earned per week is now 1500 at 1500 or less Battleground rating. The maximum cap remains 3000 at 3000 or more Battleground rating. The cap continues to scale non-linearly between those two points.
• Conquest Points: The game now separately tracks different Conquest Point caps for Battlegrounds and Arenas. The cap for Arena rating will always be 2/3 of the cap for Battleground rating at any given Arena rating. Players may earn a total number of Conquest Points per week equal to the higher of these two caps, but once players have reached the cap for either Arenas or Battlegrounds, they can no longer earn Conquest Points from that source. Conquest Points from Battleground holidays only count toward the total Conquest Point cap.

Quests & Creatures

• There are no longer oddities in the critical strike and dodge chance of lower-level creatures.

User Interface

• Characters can now be reorganized at the Character Selection screen. This feature not yet fully functional and the reorganization of characters doesn't save at this time.
• The cast bar can now be moved to display below the Character frame.
• Move Pad is a mouse-click interface for movement which is now built into the base interface.
• Raid Profiles are in the process of being implemented and are not fully functional. Raid Profiles will allow players to save the raid window user interface layout based on type of content (i.e. 10-player raids, 25-player raids, Battlegrounds, etc.).

This year's Sony E3 press conference happens in the middle of the night: 1am (BST - UK time) Tuesday, 7th June.

That's 5pm for people at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, where the conference takes place.

Sony's entire press event lasts five hours until 10pm their time, 6am UK time.

The actual conference will likely take no longer than an hour-and-a-half, judging by previous years' performances.

The remaining three-and-a-half-hours will be devoted to a "a special event immediately following the press conference". But what that will be Sony hasn't said. Is it an NGP preview event? Is it a party?

The Microsoft E3 2011 press conference takes place on Monday, 6th June at 6pm (BST - UK time).

The Nintendo E3 2011 press conference takes place on Tuesday, 7th June at 5pm (BST - UK time).

Fantasy MMO Age of Conan is to offer users a free-to-play model alongside the traditional subscription set-up, developer Funcom has announced.

Scheduled for some time this summer, the move will coincide with a batch of new content and a name change – the game will now be called Age of Conan: Unrated.

Executive producer Craig Morrison told Eurogamer that the switch is intended to capitalise in a potential upswing in interest following the forthcoming Conan movie.

"The time is right for Age of Conan now as we recognised the opportunity presented by the increased profile of the license, with the new Conan movie coming out this Fall," he explained.

"That meant that we felt that the time had come to make the switch to ensure we had the best possible position and availability for when that interests increases, so that we could draw in even more users to this wonderful world that we have brought to life."

Users who choose the freemium option will have to pay for extra items (potions, scrolls, premium location passes, new pets, mounts, bags, etc.) and expansions, but can still reach level 80 without opening their wallets.

"This is done by allowing free players to most of the original content, and having the expanded content as premium content," said Morrison. "So free players will have access to all the original levelling quests and outdoor playfields that take them all the way to level 80."

Existing subscribers will be re-classed as premium members and enjoy exactly the same benefits that they do now.

Agent and Max Payne 3 are still alive and well at Rockstar Games, publisher Take-Two has confirmed.

Responding to a question during an investor call earlier today, CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that both titles are "still in development", though didn't offer any indication as to when exactly we might see them.

1970s spy escapade Agent was first announced back at E3 2009 as a PlayStation 3 exclusive but little has been heard of it since.

A Winter 2009 launch was initially mooted for Max Payne 3 but the release keeps on slipping. However, a few new details and two screens offered proof of life last month.

Fantasy MMO Age of Conan is to offer users a free-to-play model alongside the traditional subscription set-up, developer Funcom has announced.

Scheduled for some time this Summer, the move will coincide with a batch of new content and a name change – the game will now be called Age of Conan: Unrated.

Executive producer Craig Morrison told Eurogamer that the switch is intended to capitalise in a potential upswing in interest following the forthcoming Conan movie.

"The time is right for Age of Conan now as we recognised the opportunity presented by the increased profile of the license, with the new Conan movie coming out this Fall," he explained.

"That meant that we felt that the time had come to make the switch to ensure we had the best possible position and availability for when that interests increases, so that we could draw in even more users to this wonderful world that we have brought to life."

Users who choose the freemium option will have to pay for extra items and expansions, but can still reach level 80 without opening their wallets.

"This is done by allowing free players to most of the original content, and having the expanded content as premium content," said Morrison. "So free players will have access to all the original levelling quests and outdoor playfields that take them all the way to level 80."

Existing subscribers will be re-classed as premium members and enjoy exactly the same benefits that they do now.

Free-to-play and premium users won't be segregated into different servers, and will all play together. Further to that, Funcom plans to merge all servers to coincide with Unrated's launch.

"We wanted to make sure that people don't have to worry about choosing the 'wrong' server for them. We want the definitions to be easy, so the choice will more be 'do I play on the PVE server, the PVP server or the hardcore server?' and not have to think about 'which PVE server should I play on?'"

The re-launch update will also add two solo story-based dungeons called The Breach and The Forgotten City that scale to a players level between levels 40 and 80.

Further down the line, there's an adventure pack scheduled for the Autumn which incorporates characters from the Conan movie. For more on that, check out our interview with Morrison from earlier this week.

Rockstar's L.A. Noire could be the starting point for a lucrative franchise, judging by comments from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.

Speaking at investor call earlier today, Zelnick stated that the game's reception at retail had been "exceedingly strong", adding that Take-Two was anticipating the brand has a long future ahead of it.

"We have every reason to believe that L.A. Noire is another strong franchise for this company," he said. "We do see this as a powerful new franchise."

There's been no official statement of intent regarding a sequel to the acclaimed crime epic, though developer Team Bondi speculated last week that any follow-up would take significantly less time to develop than the seven years the original gobbled up.

Take-Two also announced Rockstar founders Sam and Dan Houser have renewed their employment contracts with the publisher, along with key creative Leslie Benzies.

The deal is said to be on "substantially similar economic terms" to their previous agreement.

"I want to take a moment to recognise this team that has been with Take Two for well over ten years now," said Zelnick. "They've not only continued to deliver outstanding results but they've showed incredible loyalty. We look forward to working with the Rockstar team for many years to come."

Elsewhere during the presentation, Take-Two detailed a strong set of financials for the last 12 months. Net revenue was up 49 per cent year-on-year to $1.14 billion, though the last quarter saw a decline to $182.3 compared to $233.2 million in the same period in 2010.

"Fiscal 2011 was a very strong year for Take-Two," commented Zelnick. "We generated revenue growth and margin expansion that consistently exceeded expectations, and also took action to position the company for even greater success over the long-term."

The developer behind downloadable FPS Blacklight: Tango Down is working on a Kinect title, according to a pair of online resumés.

As spotted by Twitter tipster Superannuation, two Zombie Studios employees mention the game on their CVs.

One, posted by a C++ programmer, states that it's a single player, on-rails "zero person shooter" that's been in development for five months.

Another resumé, this time from a lead game/level designer, states that it's for Kinect and is being built using Unreal Engine 3.

We've been in touch with Zombie in the hope of gleaning more information and will update if it's forthcoming.

Earlier this year Zombie confirmed it was also working on a free-to-play sequel for so-so 2010 shooter Blacklight: Tango Down. The studio was also behind Konami's two Saw games.

While The Witcher 2 landed in stores last week to almost universal acclaim a number of users, and reviewers, raised concerns about the RPG's brutal learning curve.

Developer CD Projekt's response? Deal with it.

In Eurogamer's 9/10 review of the game last week, Quintin Smith complained that the game was "ungodly tough" at the start before becoming more manageable later on.

"Obviously we have been inspired by hardcore games, by difficult games, and maybe that might be the reason why it was not that obvious to us," answered senior producer Tomasz Gop.

"But we didn't want the game to be a piece of cake at the beginning like, you know, an interactive movie. That wasn't what we were aiming for. We definitely wanted to introduce at least some level of difficulty.

"I think the most common misunderstanding is that most people compare our 'normal difficulty' to other games' 'normal difficulty'," he continued.

"Since we are a hardcore game, we do require a hardcore approach on the 'normal' skill. The 'easy' skill is basically for the guys who want to take it light.

Gop also answered one other complaint that some users have had: glitches. He explained that the development is working hard on a "huge" patch which it hopes will be available in the next few days.

"Definitely, we are aiming toward this week," he said. "I don't know if it's going to happen today or tomorrow but we will release a full changelog so everybody knows what's going to be addressed and knows what's coming.

"It's going to be a huge one and we've taken this last week really seriously and we're trying to fix if not all then most of the important things. It will definitely satisfy a huge number of gamers who are angry out there."

Aside from these few niggles, Gop said that the team is very pleased with how the game has been received.

"We'd like to see more reviews because we've been working for four years and it's only a week now [since release] so we're still waiting and craving for anybody and everybody to let us know what they think. But the ones we have seen so far are really good.

"There are better and worse reviews but still, the average score is totally positive. We did not expect the game to be flawless but it's over 90% and that's great.

"There are reviews that are really, really low but we take down notes and write down everything that is bad or criticism. We never whine or complain to any of the editors or actually anywhere outside [the studio]. If it's a really unfair review – because these things happen – we still try to take out anything that's constructive."

As detailed earlier today, Gop also revealed that CD Projekt is getting ready to announce a new Witcher title at E3 next month.

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Could Hideo Kojima's latest game have hit the scrap heap?

The Metal Gear Solid mastermind took to his Twitter feed last night to mourn the death of a project which he'd been working on for the past year.

"I cannot bear, and cannot be positive," read one post, quickly followed by, "What I prepared minutely spending a year became meaningless."

Of course, he could just be referring to a 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle that he's only just discovered has a piece missing.

However, if he is referring to a game project there are a few possible contenders. Metal Gear Solid: Rising or Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D perhaps? Zone of Enders 3 maybe? Or what of the mysterious collaboration with Suda51 he discussed last year?

SEGA's classic Shinobi franchise is all set for a comeback, judging by a developer resumé unearthed today.

Twitter sleuth Superannuation spotted an online CV for an environment artist at Griptonite Games listing Shinobi 3DS as their current project.

The artist claims to have "created whole levels for 'Shinobi' on the Nintendo 3DS, including many props for use in a variety of environments."

Griptonite specialises in handheld versions of multiplatform releases, having worked on the DS version of Spider Man: Shattered Dimensions and Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines on the PSP.

We're asked brand owner SEGA for some clarification and will update if we hear back.

Debuting in arcades back in 1987, SEGA's ninja platformer has spawned a number of sequel and spin-offs over the years. It was last sighted on the PlayStation 2 with 2003's dismal Nightshade.