Deathwing skewered on the perch of Wyrmrest Temple. The tortured ghosts of Sylvanas, Jaina and Tyrande. Mannaroth! Again! Last night, Blizzard released details of the new dungeons and raids coming to World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. I’ve got some bad news.

They sound amazing. Prepare for a loregasm.

There are three five-mans and one raid coming to 4.3. The five-mans tell the story of heroes charging through time and space to retrieve the Dragon Soul, an ancient weapon that Thrall and the remaining sane Dragon Aspects reckon could defeat Deathwing. The raid is the run up to, and the final Deathwing fight - running up Wyrmrest Temple before being plunged into the Maelstrom.

So: first to the end of the World. Of Warcraft. In End Times.



Yes. That’s a picture of Deathwing skewered on Wyrmrest Temple. As the guards in Metal Gear Solid once said: “!”

Some more exclam worthy excerpts from the dungeon companion.


Echo of Sylvanas: Spawned from shattered timeways and cloistered within the Ruby Dragonshrine, a maddened fragment of the Forsaken's leader, Sylvanas Windrunner, waits restlessly. Having lost everything and unable to find peace, this tormented echo aches for a chance to unleash her dark fury at anything still living within these barren, time-twisted wastes.


Echo of Tyrande: Once high priestess of Elune and leader of the night elves, this time-twisted fragment of Tyrande Whisperwind now wanders the desolate future of Azeroth. Enveloped by eternal midnight, she is forever separated from the comforting light of Elune and torn by questions about why her goddess did nothing to put an end to such madness.


Echo of Jaina: The tormented fragment of Jaina Proudmoore has been split and infused within the shattered pieces of her staff. To restore balance to the timeways, this echo must be defeated. However, the devastating magical power possessed by the once-proud ruler of Theramore is hardly lost to her time-havocked spectre. In this future Azeroth, she is only divided, and waiting....


Echo of Baine: Enraged by his failure to protect the world and, most importantly, the Horde, this time-ravaged shade of Baine Bloodhoof lingers within the ruins of the Obsidian Dragonshrine. Although he's still as powerful as the tauren high chieftain from the present, within this shattered future Azeroth, this guilt-ridden echo is little more than a discordant vessel of unquenchable malice and anger.


LORE-DY ME!

Dungeon 2: the Well of Eternity
The Well of Eternity is WoW’s big bang moment; how the baddies brought the Burning Legion to Azeroth using the Dragon Soul. In this dungeon, the heroes go back in time to nick the Dragon Soul from under the noses of the arranged wizards. Think of it as like Back to the Future, except replacing the book of sports results with a giant tumescent crystal.

Bosses wise... well. Meet Mannoroth and Azshara.



Peroth'arn: Like many of his fellow Highborne, Peroth'arn swore allegiance to the corrupted Xavius in exchange for gifts of demonic power. As a master of fiendish magic and recipient of the satyr curse, Peroth'arn stands outside Azshara's palace in defense of the Burning Legion, ready to destroy those hoping to disrupt the entrance of the Dark Titan, Sargeras, into Azeroth.


Azshara: The songs of Queen Azshara's beauty, majesty, and power are too numerous to count, but it was her vanity that drove the Highborne to summon the Burning Legion. She now watches her most trusted magi empower the portal where Sargeras will be brought into Azeroth, content to let multitudes of her servants die in advance of the Dark Titan's arrival.


Mannoroth and Varo'then: Varo'then, head of Queen Azshara's personal guard, and Mannoroth, the pit lord whose blood will corrupt the entire orc race, stand as the last line of defense against those hoping to bar Sargeras's entry into Azeroth. Though both Tyrande and Illidan have fought bravely thus far, the fate of Azeroth will be decided at the Well of Eternity's very brink.

LORE-D ABOVE!

The last five man?
It’s the Hour of Twilight. The heroes journey back to Wyrmrest Temple to deliver the Dragon Soul to Thrall and the rest of the Dragonflight. But half of Azeroth stand in their way. Including the high priest from Stormwind Cathedral. And... is that an old god in front of the temple?



Arcurion: Horde and Alliance assaults against the Twilight's Hammer have slaughtered many of the cult's fearsome elemental ascendants. One exception is Arcurion, a formidable water ascendant tasked to slay Thrall and retrieve the Dragon Soul. Should this twisted elemental being succeed, nothing will be able to stop Deathwing from ushering in the Hour of Twilight.


Asira Dawnslayer: Former blade-for-hire Asira Sunbright was initially leery of working for the Twilight's Hammer, but the cult's generous payments quickly won her over. In time, she succumbed to the corruptive influence of her dark employers, even going so far as to take on the name Dawnslayer. As one of the cult's deadliest assassins, Asira has been called upon to exterminate Thrall and his comrades.


Archbishop Benedictus: Archbishop Benedictus is the revered leader of the Church of the Holy Light. For years, his wise guidance has been instrumental in seeing humanity through bleak times. Yet beneath his apparent benevolence lies the shocking truth that Benedictus has pledged himself to the eradication of all life on Azeroth through the agency of his dark master... Deathwing.


The raid
Finally, there’s the raid. You can read about the various bosses in Dragon Soul on Blizzards site. Don’t miss the description of the Deathwing fight. When I first read it, I nearly erupted.

“Your assault on the massive Deathwing will begin a battle unlike any other. It is a fight so wide-ranging and intense that it comprises two unique encounters, taking place across Azeroth. Taking to the skies, players will parachute from soaring gunships to attack the monster mid-flight and attempt to weaken him by ripping away his armor, exposing the molten flesh beneath. Should they succeed, they will plunge into the depths of Maelstrom for the final encounter.”

Here’s an interesting thought. If the next expansion for WoW is announced at this year’s Blizzcon, and Blizzard follow their schedule of releasing expansion packs a year following, Cataclysm still has over a year left to run. Which means that Deathwing probably isn’t the end.

The old gods live at the centre of Azeroth. And we’re going deep underground to fight Deathwing.

I don’t think Deathwing is the final boss of Cataclysm at all. He’s just a peon.

 
F1 2011 is now available in North America, with a European release set for this Friday. The new entry in the series has been impressing us here in the office, especially the co-op campaign mode, which lets you experience the curious combination of co-operation and rivalry that fellow racing team members enjoy.

To celebrate the launch, Codemasters have released a new trailer for the game, showing off the gorgeous looking visuals and a stirring soundtrack. It's like a slow motion waltz around the track, which is decidedly unlike the high speed nature of sport itself, but makes for a very pretty video.

Our review of F1 2011 will be in PC Gamer UK 232, which arrives in stores on the 28th of September.

Indie games sell better on Steam and with less hassle for developers than they do on Xbox Live, according to a number of developers Gamasutra interviewed recently.

Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games explains how Zeboyd's Cthulu Saves the World did a disappointing 16,000 sales on Xbox Live Indie Games, "which means it's earned just about the same amount of money as our first game - even though we spent so much more time creating it."

Zeboyd switched their focus to Steam, bundled Cthulu with their first game, and sold the package for $3 apiece on Steam starting in July. Five days later, they had already made more money on Steam than their annual revenue on XBLIG.

There are other benefits to developers, according to Braid creator Jonathan Blow.
" live a comfortable life and just put my game on Steam without that much of a hassle, or I can have the XBLA business people dick me around and give me asshole contracts that I need to spend three months negotiating back to somewhere reasonable ... it's like, at some point, the question 'Why should I do that?' arises."

Perhaps developers shouldn't. Introversion software enjoyed huge success on PC with the superb DEFCON and Darwinia, and were poised to press on with new projects when they took a detour into XBLA development. It took them three years to finish the project and get certification, during which the company hit financial straits. Rather than guaranteeing Interversion's future, however, the Xbox release of Darwinia nearly destroyed it. An 11th-hour Steam sale for DEFCON produced enough revenue to keep the company going.

The Gamasutra piece points out that XBLA is a tougher market for indies now than it used to be, and with a high-bar to entry just to make it into the store, Xbox might be offering more risk to indie developers than it does in rewards.

As the small guy on the block, you occassionally need to hire some muscle to get things done on time. The Asura of Guild Wars 2 are doing just that--except they're building their muscle. The newly announced Asura Battle Suit racial skill will put the players in the husk of a golem, allowing you to feel as mighty as the Norn without losing that cute physique we've come to love. It's only a matter of time until one of the tinkering Asura figure out how to mount some rockets launchers on those shoulders. We squeezed Guild Wars 2 game designer Jon Peters for all the extra info he'd give on these magical mech warriors.

PCG: What kind of cool down will the battle suit skill have?
Jon Peters: It’s unknown at this time, but it will be similar to other Elite skills.

PCG: Can friends join you in the battle suit?
JP: It’s designed for one player, but one person summons the battle suit, then anyone can interact with it to get into it and use it.

PCG: What kinds of skills does the battle suit open up?
JP: We haven’t finalized those skills yet, but you will be able to spin around, punch guys, etc. Cool stuff like that.

PCG: Will non-asura be able to join you in the suit?
JP: Yes, player characters of any race can use the battle suit, not just asura.

PCG: Is the suit golem-like in nature?
JP: While the suit is about golem-sized and shares some design elements, it definitely looks different than your standard unmanned golem.

PCG: Will the battle suit be used by enemy asura?
JP: Yes. Battle suits can be used by PCs, but enemy asura (such as the Inquest) would definitely have access to their own suits.

PCG: Any chance of the asura battle suit being usable in PvP?
JP: In World vs World vs World PvP, absolutely yes! In competitive PvP the battle suit will get banned from tournaments.

Asura may be tiny, but this interview with ArenaNet's Jeff Grubb and Ree Soesbee (game and content designers for Guild Wars 2) was so large we had to split it into two parts. Part 1 focused on the magical floating city of Rata Sum. In this section we focus more on the lore of the minuscule warriors along with a few bonuses. Read on to get more info on the amazing race that connected all of Tyria.


PCG: Tell us about the Asura, who are they?
Jeff Grubb: The Asura first appeared in Eye of the North, which was the last of our Guild Wars product. They were a subterranean race that were driven to the surface by the Great Destroyer, who was one of the harbingers, the heralds of Primordus, one of our elder dragons. The big thing that happened between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 is the awakening of the elder dragons, these very powerful, titanic elemental forces that are ravaging the world. Now the Asura were a refugee race. They were sent to the surface where they set up shop inside some old ruins, Rata Sum. Since then, it’s been nothing but getting better for them all the time. They have taken Rata Sum itself and carved out a huge cube of stone and magically levitated it so it is hovering above the surrounding areas. Rata Sum is now honeycombed with colleges, the schools, the laboratories, the support network, the arcane council, and in the depths, the golems. Servitor golems are still mining out and building new rooms for everything. They’ve been a very successful race.

The original Asura are diminutive, they have long ears and big eyes that fits with their underground nature. They're the smartest kids on the block. Asura are magical but they approach their magic from an intellectual approach rather than a holistic one. They're a race of mad wizards, highly competitive and very proud. They do not suffer fools gladly, and they really don’t hesitate before they throw you into the fools’ bucket.



PCG: How have relations and social situations changed between Asura and the other races?
JG: I think the Asura have worked their way into the fabric of other races much more effectively than the other races have done so. The Humans and the Charr of course have been fighting for centuries, so when you see a Charr in Divinity’s Reach, it’s, “Oh my god, why is the Charr here?” The Sylvari are new, people still don’t know what to make of them. The Norn leave a swath of broken beer kegs—ha, no, a swath of adventure behind. But the Asura have moved in. There are Asura Gates in all of the major cities, so therefore, they are part and parcel of the components of the world. They’ve actually worked very well as far as working with other races. Which is a little bit scary because Asura tend to be a little manipulative as well.

RS: Well, I want to add a caveat to that, which is that they’re not doing that well with the Sylvari. They had terrible issues the first time they met a Sylvari, and they didn’t understand it was a sentient creature, and they did a whole lot of tests on it before they realized the talky mouth noises it was making were actually language and that it was intelligent. Then they had to go and make reparations to some extent, as much as an Asura ever would. And that has caused tension between the two races for the 25 years of the Sylvari’s existence. Because those two cities are very very close to one another, there has definitely been some squabbling. I wouldn’t say they have the same war as the Humans and the Charr, but they get along in sort of a testy way.

JG: I always put out the idea that the Asura have intelligence, but not necessarily wisdom. Whereas the Sylvari is the reverse: they have the wisdom, but they don’t have the knowledge of the world.



PCG: You also mentioned that Asura are kind of going to be an enemy in this regard with the meta-krewe Inquest.
JG: Well, you talk about being a krewe, the krewe being the basic unit of, you have a prop, you bring a bunch of Asura together for a krewe, and you disperse them—it’s like movie production. The Inquest, at its core, is a method by which you organize so everybody gets knowledge. Which is to say, the Inquest gets knowledge. And in order to do that, they’ve made some major changes to the way Asura function. You no longer are working on your project, you’re working on part of a project that we tell you to. You join us, you’re part of the group, you’ve got the eternal NDA, you don’t leave the Inquest, you belong to us, we will recruit you, we may recruit you even if you don’t want to be recruited.

Most Asuras will not experiment on sentients. That’s one of those things that’s just not a good thing. The Inquest don’t have that limitation. They are more willing to not just manipulate, but to harm others because they’ve made the judgment that they're superior and therefore have the right to do what they will without worrying about you. If and when they screw up, they don’t hang around to deal with their messes. In Metrica province in one of the early areas, there’s an area that was an Inquest base. They were experimenting with things no Asura should mess with. And the area is a magical Chernobyl right now, and yes, your story takes you into that. They are essentially knowledge without wisdom.

PCG: Are they a group of outcasts?
RS: Oh goodness no! They’re very integrated and very powerful. When you have that many Asura working together toward a common goal, you really have a force to be reckoned with. The Asura as a people are ruled by an Arcane Council. In theory the Arcane Council is supposed to be the best and the brightest among us, but in reality it’s, some of the best and the brightest that really couldn’t get out of the politics and are stuck with it. The Inquest actively looks for those positions, they’re actively trying to get the race as a whole to listen to their ideas and to sort of work for their krewe. In an Inquest magical future, the Inquest are the Asura—that’s all there are.

JG: They see themselves as the future of the Asura, and the Nightmare Court are outcasts, and the Sons of Svanir are the rowdy guys that, if they don’t make trouble, will be tolerated. The Inquest are Lex Luthor in Metropolis. They have tangible political power.

RS: And it’s hard for any other Asura to really discount them. You can devalue their methods, you can disagree with their ethics, but wow, do they get results!



PCG: What type of player would enjoy the Asura?
JG: There will be a lot of smart people going into the Asura, a lot of people who have personal drives for making their character the best. One thing—and this ties in with what Ree just said—the animations for the warriors are really cool. We didn’t expect this. Most of the Asura you’re going to encounter will be from the magical side. There are Asura warriors, there are Asura guardians, but most of the guys you encounter will be from the elementalist, necromancer magic user-type school and professions. As a player character, you can play anything, and we saw a lot of people in the demos at GamesCom and PAX playing Asura warriors. In part because they look really cool as a little guy in full-plate armor with a huge sword!

RS: One time at GamesCom, I was standing and watching the people on the screen, and they were fighting the big dragon. The big demo dragon had come up, and someone had just made an Asura with a gigantic blue afro, and he was doing the roll on the ground. People were running over to his character instead of watching this gigantic fight going on behind him. “The dragon is going to kill you all—ooooh, afro!”

JG: The laugh animation is very good for the video story. He literally throws himself on the ground and rolls around.

RS: And wipes some tears.

PCG: Are we going to see any more of an emotional side to the Asura through this process? We’ve seen that with other races.
JG: Oh yes. There are Asura love stories.

RS: In fact one of the early Asura story chains has to do with a male and a female Asura who are in love, and the female Asura undergoes a horrible laboratory accident and they have to deal with it.

JG: There are Asura love stories.

RS: I think we said earlier that one of the things an Asura parent might say is that their child is their finest invention.

Tom Senior has developed some ill effects from his Dead Island review. He seems to have become obsessed with inflicting gruesome violence on people with household implements. Just today he duct taped a couple of batteries to a kitchen knife and tried to stab Owen with it. Fortunately Owen wasn't electrocuted, because physics doesn't actually work that way, and received only severe lacerations instead. Tom handed him an energy drink, it's not clear how that is supposed to help.

Check inside for a selection of nail studded custom made PC gaming news.


BitTech analyse the business of micro-transactions by making a graph that is too big for the internet.
Joystiq report that if you pre-order Battlefield 3 on Origin, you get Dead Space 2 for free.
Who says PC gaming is expensive? VentureBeat have gotten one of David Braben's $25 mini computers to run Quake 3.
CosmicLog has a fascinating article on how gamers helped scientists unravel a molecular mystery.
DICE's Karl Magnus Troedsson talks to IGN about mod tools.
Joystiq let us know that The Binding of Isaac will be released on the 28th of September.
CVG report that Starbreeze are working on a new game with an award winning Swedish film director.

 
Tell us readers, what is the best/most ridiculous weapon you've made in Dead Island?

Sony Online Entertainment have told IGN that DC Universe Online is going free to play in October, which is great news for anyone tempted by the prospect of a flashy, accessible superhero RPG that makes excellent use of the world of DC Comics.

It's good news, too, for DC Universe Online players, who have suffered at launch from the hacker attacks that closed Sony Online Entertainment's servers for a while earlier this year. Can the free to play shift reinvigorate the plucky young superhero MMO? Read on for more on the pricing system, and Sony's reasons for making DCUO free to play.

Free players

Access to all current areas and missions
Two character slots
Can join guilds
New game packs purchasable as microtransactions

 
Premium - if you spend, or have ever spent more than $5 in DCUO

More character slots
More invenory space
Can hoard more money

 
Legendary - $14.99 a month subscription

All new level packs included as part of the cost
15 character slots
80 inventory slots

 
IGN asked SOE executive producer Lorin Jameson why they decided to move DC Universe Online to a free to play model.

"In terms of 'Is it a result in a drop in subs' – absolutely not," he said. "This is the right business model. If I can be honest, the game ended up costing a lot more than we thought it would, and this was our preferred business model from day one."

"We are really seeing the benefits of free to play, and we're really liking it. "Needless to say we're paying close attention to it and maybe looking to make some surprise moves a little later."

Though there will be a price attached to new level packs and DLC for free and premium members, SOE say that items that improve character stats will not be for sale. You won't be able to buy the best laser weapon in the universe and then defeat everyone. That's Lex Luthor's job. For a detailed run down of the different pricing tiers, check out the DC Universe Online F2P FAQ.

We reckon DC Universe Online's mix of fast, punchy action and spectacular superhero powers is pretty great. find out why in our DC Universe Online review. If you're thinking of joining next month, be sure to check out the PC Gamer guilds. Swing by our forums to join. Will you be giving DCUO a go?

"Why won’t you just die?” I cried, plunging a cleaver into a zombie’s skull. Car totalled, I was stuck on the side of a mountain, fending off the undead. Having blunted my weapons on his friends, this last one was proving hard to dispatch. A few more frantic swings, a terrible splat, and it died. I stood breathless. The zombie’s severed head rolled off the edge of the cliff.

Scary, horrible, hilarious. Three traits of the best zombie fiction, which developers Techland have successfully infected their openworld zombie apocalypse sim with.

The setup is simple. You wake in a hotel on the beautiful holiday resort of Banoi Island. A mysterious man on the other end of a distant radio system is promising escape. You need to contact him, but there’s a more pressing concern. Almost everyone is dead. And walking.



A brief prologue, and you’re shoved out of the door of a beach hut, armed with an oar, and instructed to clear out the nearby lifeguard tower. Dead Island’s story is centred around a series of safehouses scattered about the open world, and its primary missions send you deeper into the island as you move from one group of survivors to the next.

The first thing I noticed was the blood. When a zombie left its desiccated meal and lumbered towards me, I smacked it with the oar so hard its ribs flew out of its body and span away, spilling red stuff from its torso in all directions. The zombie groaned a little, then tried to get back up. I whacked it on the back until it expired. The gore was spectacular. The violence of Dead Island remains remarkable throughout the game.

Half an hour later, the lifeguard tower was secure and the survivors in the beach hut are free to move in and start building a stronghold. Once your comrades are established, you can wander around chatting to them, taking on more tasks to help them out. There’s always a main quest objective to follow, but it’s often more satisfying to complete the dozens of sidequests that you pick up from survivors. If you’re willing to risk your neck finding lost loved ones and medicine, they’ll reward you with cash and weapons.



So I found myself heading into the surrounding bars and swimming pools, to find food, water and booze. In this order: food, water and booze.

Missions sent me all over the island. I travelled to the coast to get flares from a downed helicopter, drove out to a gas station to secure some vital orange juice, and braved the resort’s hotel basements to rescue radio equipment. You spend a lot of time in Dead Island on fetch quests, but they’re enlivened by the constant threat of zombie attack.

It helps that the island is a beautiful, convoluted place to explore. Small wooden stairways coil around little pools and holiday huts, each area encircled by tropical fauna. It’s a careful layout that encourages exploration and puts you in close quarters with the lingering undead.

As I completed more missions, I gained experience and levelled up. There are four characters to choose from, and each has three skill trees from which you can unlock new combat moves and general buffs to make you and your weapons more resilient. I played as Xian Mei, mistress of sharp things. As well as the ability to deal hideous damage with edged weapons, I would eventually gain bonuses for backstabs and flying stabs. She’s fragile, but her limb-severing talents make her the most effective of the bunch.




The other three characters can gain more ludicrous abilities. Rap star Sam B, master of blunt objects, has a rage mode that eventually causes his punches to send zombies flying through the air. It’s funny and brutally effective. Master of throwing tat, Logan, has an ability that causes tossed objects to return to his grasp. They don’t fly back to him, they teleport to his hand and BOOMERANG! appears in big red letters on the screen. It makes no sense, but is tremendously satisfying to inflict, and can wipe out a small horde in seconds. Finally, Puma is master of Dead Island’s rare but largely ineffectual firearms. You don’t encounter guns until a third of the way into the game, and when you do, they’re pathetic. It makes Puma easily the weakest character, though her group buffs are useful in co-op.

In some ways, it’s a better game as a singleplayer experience. The sense of unease as you wander the deserted island is more powerful, and the zombies a greater threat. But with friends, it becomes pure slapstick. Like the time Tom ‘goddamn’ Hatfield and I took on a Thug and an army of zombies in a parking lot.

I was dedicated blunt close-combat specialist Sam B. Tom was ranged ninja Logan. With barely any plan in mind I charged in and launched a flying kick at a zombie. It connected with a bloody crunch, and then everything exploded. Tom, targeting the same zombie, had thrown a plank of wood just a moment after my kick flattened his prey. His auto-aim cursor shifted to the explosive canister positioned just behind that zombie. Hollywood physics did the rest, and I died horribly in the flames. It took a full minute for Tom’s laughter to stop.



One of the benefits of rolling with friends is the ability to swap items. Dead Island’s weapons start out as flimsy, breakable tools that wear out after a few swipes. There’s always some debris to hand that’ll get the job done, but as time passes you gain skills that increase the durability of your items, and you start spending money on upgrades. You’ll find recipes that will let you craft mods for weapons, adding explosive, electrical and venomous effects. By the time I got beyond the tropical beachfronts, I had a favourite murder weapon that I kept in tiptop condition: an electrified sickle that I could never quite bring myself to chuck, unless it was at a zombie’s head. I called her ‘Old Zappy.’ Her critical hits could reduce a zombie to a fizzing electric puddle. She never let me down.

Beyond the holiday resort lies the game’s best-kept secret: a vast inland city. It’s a warren of baked brown slums covered in litter and streaks of blood. The streets are lined with burnt-out cars. and the shattered shopfronts have been looted bare by gangs. This is Dead Island in survivalist mode. Pockets of humanity have scratched out safehouses here and there, while other areas have been taken over by bandits who will shoot you on sight. You have to pick your way through the rubble, avoid large groups of zombies and constantly assess the best route to your objective. Is it safer to take to the rooftops, battle through the alleyways or brave the open streets? It feels like a war zone, with a tightly packed geography that makes it a fascinating place to explore. It’s inhabited by some memorable characters, too, not least the nun who sends you on a quest for booze and rewards you with a mace. Aside from some tedious sewer sections, each location feels busy and new. Later, you’ll travel further afield, but I don’t want to spoil to much of what lies ahead.



Dead Island does have problems: it can occasionally feel clumsy. The skippable cutscenes seemed determined to make me hate my character, the minigame for smashing through doors is abysmal, and unless you want your zombies to bleed XP numbers as well as blood, you’ll want to turn off that counter, and the zombie health bars, immediately. Niggles such as the slow mouse cursor in menus and the lack of drag and drop on the inventory screen contribute to a sense that Dead Island is a little rough around the edges, but it never breaks the experience.

When it comes to combat, aside from the pants-but-rarely-used guns, getting up close with the undead has rarely been so grotesque and satisfying.

And the game is huge. Dead Island lacks the geographical sprawl of Far Cry 2 or Just Cause 2, but the island is so varied and packed with detail that navigating it feels much more interesting. Even when blasting through the main quest line and ignoring the many, many side quests, it’s easy to rack up 25-30 hours, and the whole thing is playable with a friend in co-op.

Part grim, survivalist nightmare, part slapstick zombie comedy and the goriest game you’ll play this year, Dead Island is the most fun you can have with an electrified cleaver and a sack of wet, walking flesh.

The Golden Joysticks are upon us and after his rage filled appearance in the Golden Joysticks shortlist video Tim is making another appearance. Here our mighty Editron is describing the game he voted for in the Golden Joysticks, but without telling you the name. What do you think he's talking about? The answer will be revealed on the Golden Joysticks facebook page later today.

If you want to cast your vote, go to the Golden Joysticks website and you'll have a chance to win some loot, including an Alienware gaming laptop.

"We did the boss battles" announces the president of G.R.I.P. proudly in the Deus Ex: Human Revolution behind the scenes video above. The footage, highlighted by Gameranx, reveals that Human Revolution's awful boss encounters weren't made by Eidos Montreal, but instead outsourced to a different company headed by a chap who admits "I'm a shooter guy, coming into this not knowing a lot about the Deus Ex world." The video gives a pretty good indication as to why Human Revolution's boss battles were such a horrible flop.

Thankfully, almost everything else was fantastic. Discover what we thought of Deus Ex: Human Revolution in our Deus Ex: Human Revolution review.