On the eve of the release of Diablo III, I've been hearing chatter about the great Diablo series from office colleagues who I didn't even realize were fans. It turns out, for example, that Greg from finance not only loves Diablo, but he used scam people in it. Today, the man who cuts my paychecks is reformed (thank goodness!) and wants to warn you about the kind of shady dealings that occur in games like these. - Stephen Totilo, Editor-in-Chief, Kotaku.

Future Diablo III players beware. The Diablo universe isn't known for being a friendly and welcoming place. There is a darker side to Diablo and its players. This is your warning.

The series' creators at Blizzard didn't intend for this in Diablo II, but it was inevitable. As players quickly realized that in-game gold was worthless, rare and unique items became the game's currency. This created an interesting economic structure and "class" system, for lack of a better word. I don't mean "class" as in Barbarian or Sorceress, I mean it as in "rich" and "poor".

There was always someone richer than you in Diablo II, which fueled feelings of jealousy and resentment towards others. This is the real reason Diablo II had so much replay value. There was no light at the end of the richness tunnel and everyone wanted more, more, more. Players became obsessed with obtaining the best items and didn't care what it took to get them. Eventually, the rich saw this as an opportunity and the poor became blinded by hope and desire.

If you log in to Diablo II today, bots will continuously spam you via private messages and public chat rooms to buy in-game items for real money. It wasn't always like this and rare items weren't so common. Early on, the only way to obtain rare items was to find them yourself, trade for them, or take the most devious option and scam somebody for them.

I started playing Diablo II shortly after its release in the summer of 2000. I was 14 years old and had a ton of free time. Once I got hooked, I got a few of my real-life friends hooked and we would play for hours on end. We shared items, made powerful in-game friends, and quickly became rich. Being rich wasn't enough for us. We wanted more, so we turned to scamming. We worked together, very efficiently, to deceive and steal from other players. Long story short, we scammed items, stole accounts, and made people very, very angry.

For what? This is what Diablo II was about back then. Am I proud of this? No, but at the time it was acceptable. Diablo exemplifies the greed in people. Everyone wants its loot. There were always tons of scams going on, and anyone who has ever played Diablo II has most certainly dealt with some. Players were doing what they had to do to become the best. Players constantly took advantage of those who had less than them. The most successful scammers in Diablo II were the ones who actually had rare items and flaunted them. They were the ones who gained the blind trust of the poor.

Diablo II taught me an important real-life lesson at a young age: "Don't trust anybody". This post serves as my warning to future Diablo III players. Trust your gut. Many people don't really want to help you and nothing is free. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. That was the unintentional beauty of Diablo II. That's what made it so damn fun.

Blizzard will do their best to stop old Diablo II scam tactics from being effective in Diablo III, but that doesn't mean you will be protected from your own gullibility or carelessness. To toughen you up, here are a few of the most popular Diablo II scams:

1. DND Scam—The scammer will ask you for your "Dueling and Damage" or "Diablo Network Database" ranking, rating, etc. in order to join their clan or receive a free item. They will tell you to type /DND (account name) (password). The trick is that "/DND" actually stands for Do Not Disturb, It is a Battlet.net command that creates an away message. The scammer will private message you and your away message will automatically respond with your account information.
2. Trade Window Scam—The scammer will show you a rare item in the trade window that they are willing to trade. Before the trade goes through they will exit the trade window and say it was a mistake. When you re-enter the trade window, they will try and trade you an item that looks the same on the surface, but it isn't the same rare item. Always check to make sure you're getting what you are supposed to in a trade.
3. Rush Payment Scam—The scammer will offer to rush your new character to the end game areas for a price. They will ask for half of the payment up front and half at completion. When you give them the up-front payment they will take it and leave the game without helping you.

Were you ever scammed when you played Diablo II? Did you scam people? Tell your story in the comments, and have fun playing Diablo III, hopefully scam-free!

What is there to say about Dreadline, really? It's an in-development indie game from Eerie Canal Entertainment, which consists of folks who worked on Freedom Force and BioShock. It features time-travel and stars The Mummy, a cube named "Cube-rick" (ha),The Wolfman, and a ghost, all of whom are traveling through time, "visiting calamities to kill The Dude."

Whatever that means.

I don't know. I just know that I watched this trailer and now, I want to play this game. Particularly after the closing line: "Dreadline: Where time is running out… for those who have run out of time."

Eerie Canal Entertainment [Official page via Rock, Paper Shotgun]

What is there to say about Dreadline, really? It's an in-development indie game from Eerie Canal Entertainment, which consists of folks who worked on Freedom Force and BioShock. It features time-travel and stars The Mummy, a cube named "Cube-rick" (ha),The Wolfman, and a ghost, all of whom are traveling through time, "visiting calamities to kill The Dude."

Whatever that means.

I don't know. I just know that I watched this trailer and now, I want to play this game. Particularly after the closing line: "Dreadline: Where time is running out… for those who have run out of time."

Eerie Canal Entertainment [Official page via Rock, Paper Shotgun]

"This isn't going to end well."

Start up Max Payne 3 and the first menu screen just loops an endless sequence of the title character sitting alone drinking and smoking. Stare at that for more than a minute and you can't help but think those six words.

It's been almost a decade since we last saw him and the eight years between Max Payne 2 and this new threequel have not been kind. In the real world, the kind of character-driven action that made Remedy's hard-boiled franchise a hit got supplanted by big-spectacle war games and other, safer-feeling fare. And inside the fiction of the franchise, let's just say that Max's ability to dodge bullets never extended to his psychological side. He's bruised and clearly doesn't care about himself anymore.

It's good for gamers everywhere, then, that Rockstar still gives a damn about this pill-popping, whisky-chugging ex-cop. Max Payne 3 delivers a bleak yet thrilling experience that manages to balance the expectations of what a shooter feels like today with the traits that made Max a beloved cult character. Max Payne 1 & 2 let you feel like an out-of-control badass who—once this last bit of vengeance gets dealt with—might still get his life together somehow. This game blows up any such delusions. This man is functionally dysfunctional, and barely that.

Max Payne 3 finds the title character working as a hired gun in São Paolo, escorting members of the rich Branca family through a society where the haves live in explosive proximity to the have-nots. The game's filled with existential dread and self-delusion. Still reeling from the death of loved ones long ago, Max talks of talk of a fresh start but he's still so haunted by his past that you know even he doesn't believe that. Since this is a Max Payne game, all manner of hell breaks loose. This installment—the first created solely by Rockstar, without the help of Max's creators at Remedy Entertainment—isn't as self-consciously affected as its forebears. Remedy writer Sam Lake's quirky use of language and fondness for metatextual touches aren't in evidence here, though Rockstar tries to honor those sensibilities. This game's shinier, faster and altogether more modern, with a more stripped-down presentation to heighten its cinematic feel. It's a different kind of gritty, more Michael Mann than Jim Thompson.

It's hard to overstate how graphically stunning this game looks. If you've stuck with Rockstar since the GTA III and Vice City days, you'll remember just how butt-ugly some of those games were. But Max Payne 3 serves as a pay-off for Rockstar having crafted their own engine. All the power of their RAGE technology gets shown off in an inverted way; instead of rendering vast locales like Liberty City or the Old West, here the engine packs smaller spaces full of true-to-life detail. Piles of garbage in the favelas, stacks of paper in office buildings and ubiquitous decay in a decrepit hotel make the environments feel disgustingly real. That great sense of place is exemplified by your time in the favelas. You're not pornographically shooting shit up—at least not at first. Instead, you walk through confused and then humiliated, an interloper with his own agenda as the people who live there go on with their daily lives. You'd never want to visit any of these places. And yet here you are.

Hints of the comic-book panel narrative sequencing remain, but get a slick update that splashes key phrases onscreen. Sometimes the camera will weave and sway in drunken fashion with images strobing in and out of double vision, as if the whole affair's been pickled in whisky. But there's very little that's unintentionally unsteady about Max Payne 3.

Mechanically, it's Rockstar's most self-assured game to date. The publisher never executed brilliantly when it came to the shooting experience in its games. In any given GTA game, you aimed in the general direction of enemies and hoped for the best. Not here. The mix of cover-based combat with Max's signature shootdodge and bullet time abilities manages to work extremely well, letting you feel constantly focused and precise. The kills you can pull off in MP3 feel beautifully choreographed, especially when you pause the game mid-game and spin the camera around to take everything in. There's an odd tension at the core of Max Payne 3's gameplay. It holds a cover mechanic nested inside a system that dares—hell, encourages—you to be reckless. If you gamble poorly and are at death's door, you can use your last bit of energy in a Last Man Standing slo-mo sequence to take out an enemy and limp away to keep on fighting. None of this creates any kind of dissonance. Instead, it feels in line with the character. "Throw caution to the wind and then, in those moments, that's where you find your reward," it whispers to you.

You already know you're playing through a man's self-destruction, the question remains what the exact nature of that breakdown will look like. Perversely, you're going to have fun doing it. That's because Max Payne 3 boasts incredible set pieces, like where you ride the concussive wave of an exploding water tower in slow motion and need to gun down the thugs on the rooftop below you. It's a micro-moment where a tableau turns into a shooting gallery and these sequences never get old.

Those set pieces get balanced by more prosaic but still tense gunfights. The enemies prove to be smart enough to be really dangerous and different factions have different behaviors. The gangs stay in cover for a shorter amount of time and come after you, while the paramilitary outfits you fight will attack from both the foreground and background. I lost count of the times where I was so concentrated on one threat that another thus managed to creep around and get way too close to me. About halfway though the game, I ground my way through the same gunfight in a tight space three times, my attention so focused during the final attempt that I didn't realize I was holding my breath that entire time. And you know what? That exhale into a temporary respite? It felt incredibly good. Counter-intuitively, I made me all the more eager to run into the tapdance of triggers that I knew lay waiting in the next room.

The challenge in Max Payne 3 might drive you to drink, too. For a while, you think there might even be some redemption for ol' Max. That's a driving factor in the single-player, too. Does he deserve it? Can you make him survive long enough to get there? You'll find yourselves near death without painkillers and, sooner or later, you're going to jump out behind that cover and find out what you're made of. Guns have personality, you feel the difference between a .608 Bull and a 9mm, for example, even though they're both pistols. Some I wanted to hold onto for as long as I could, others were just implements to get me through the next firefight until I could find another lethal true love. It may feel like enemies are bullet sponges but as it turns out they're harder to put down outside of Bullet Time. But you'll need to use Max's hyper-reflexes judiciously. Bullet Time gets earned by killing enemies and/or shooting them in specific parts of their bodies. The game always gives you enough bullet time to pull off a shootdodge or a headshot if you're skilled enough. So, the difficulty feels balanced.

The tension between the safety in cover and the thrill of driving into a hail of bullets makes Max Payne 3 a great adrenaline junkie simulator. That accomplishment carries over into multiplayer, as well. Yeah, you can hang back and assist or pick off enemies from cover but true glory is only found in play Max Payne-style.

As Stephen Totilo noted, MP3 marks Rockstar's most ambitious implementation of multiplayer yet. You'll collect bursts—power-ups like Call of Duty's perks—as you progress through a match. Bursts use adrenaline, which you build up by killing or looting dead bodies. Looting also can discover cash for buying weapons and upgrades. The adrenaline meter can be used for either Bullet Time/shootdodging or for Bursts. The Bursts grant buffs like better guns, more health or enemy location awareness and provide strong strategic advantages when used correctly.

You'll know when the tension just rises and rises and releases spectacularly in a multiplayer match? Max Payne 3's online modes have plenty of those. Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch play fast and frantic as expected, but feel distinct from other games out there thanks to the looting and Burst/Bullet Time options available to players.

But the standouts are the Payne Killer and the Gang Wars modes. The former is a king-of-the-hill style mode where the first two players to cap someone else become Max and his partner Passos, getting more robust abilities and weapons to face off against anyone trying to take them down. Gang Wars weaves a story narrated by Max across four match types, making rival factions fight for turf or deliver packages across the maps. This mode culminates in a winner-take-all team deathmatch where the scores from the previous carry over. If your team screwed up in the missions before the final showdown, there's still a chance to come out on top.

Max Payne 3's multiplayer comes across as impressive and intricate, full of intriguing quirk that will grow in unexpected ways. I'll be updating this review in two weeks to see how the multiplayer evolves.

"This isn't going to end well." That's the key phrase hiding inside all the creative endeavors that identify as noir. The protagonists get beat up, get fingers cut off and noses sliced open. They literally leave parts of themselves on the table or in an alley. And that's just the physical part. Other game franchises fit you inside the armored boots of a space marine or give you quips to mitigate the carnage you dole out. And, yeah, heroes may suffer. But not like Max Payne's drunk, drugged-up ass. You don't want to be this guy.

Noir isn't about heroism, you see. It's about failures and foibles and the innermost demons lurking inside human nature that some unlucky slobs just can't outrun. Horrible, horrible things happen in Max Payne 3, many of them because of the title character's superhuman ability to fuck things up. Things that made me gasp out loud and avert my eyes. But this game isn't a fuck-up. In fact, it's anything but. If you get Max Payne 3, you'll see how good it feels to have your stomach heave with this anti-hero's signature brand of self-loathing and cunning. And then go online and see just how you manage the balance of caution and carelessness with thousands of people trying to do the same. Welcome home, Max. It's good to see you again, you poor bastard.

As a result of today's news that Australian retailer GAME has gone into administration, select GAME stores will not be receiving stock of Diablo III. Kotaku AU has just been informed that if you have a pre-order with a store not receiving Diablo III stock, no refunds will be provided.

The following text message has been sent to consumers who have existing pre-orders with stores not receiving stock:

Due to the appointment of an administrator to our business this morning, it is with regret that I inform you all that our stores will not be receiving any stock of diablo 3. Because of this, we regrettably will be unable to fulfill any pre-orders. Also, we will be unable to refund any deposits paid towards a pre-order of diablo 3. If you need any more info, please email customerrelations@game.com.au

We called up one of the stores not receiving Diablo III stock. According to that store manager - cash placed on Diablo III pre-orders cannot be used to buy other games and it cannot be used to pre-order other unreleased titles. It is simply money the consumer will have to write off.

Incredibly this is not illegal.

It's a complex situation. Apparently you're in a much better position to do something about the pre-order if you paid with credit card, in which case you can dispute the payment itself. Another solution, which some may find unwieldy, is to actually register as a creditor. GAME Australia's website actually provides details on how you can do this, by sending Proof of Debt forms to this address:

C/Mary Mullins
PwC
GPO Box 2650
NSW 1171

Technically, with GAME going into administration, consumers with paid pre-orders have become unsecured creditors. The Corporations Act determines the order that creditors are paid, and unsecured creditors are generally at the bottom of a long list. You can find more information about your specific rights here.

If you're planning on picking up Max Payne 3 when it releases tomorrow, Max will be urging you to hurry the hell up while playing the game. Sometimes it's to give you clues as to where to go next. Other times he just wants you to get on with it.

This is no time to be lingering in the VIP lounge of the club. There are people to burst out of the back of vans, and others to save from being thrown off balconies.

Chance has been a huge factor in role-playing games since the earliest days of pen-and-paper games. Normally represented as the roll of a die, Tower of Fortune swaps dice for slots. Is it a winning combination?

Yes. Thanks for reading.

Crafted by a Rodan and Rin of Game Stew Studio, Tower of Fortune is as simple a graphical role-playing game as they come. Our hero must ascend a tower, level-by-level, in order to rescue his daughter from the forces of evil. He fights battles, earns treasure, and spends his downtime at the tavern, just like any good adventurer would.

The difference here is that everything he does is governed by a simple single-row slot machine. The battle reel features swords that damage the enemy, skulls that harm the hero, experience-granting tomes and fortune-building coins. The more symbols matched, the greater the effect. Spin the same symbol consecutive times and a combo grows, increasing the effect; swords do more damage, books offer more experience, etc. Betting your gold on a spin doubles the effect as well, though double damage to you is always a possibility.

Even tavern time is governed by the reels. Spending coin for a spin results in healing beer, hit point-enhancing meat, lucky kisses, or damaging bar fights.

It's essentially an incredibly addictive game of chance masquerading as a role-playing game, and it's pretty damn brilliant. You can always spend real money on in-game coin to purchase items and enhancements, but that is the coward's way in this dangerously random world. No, a true adventurer casts his $.99 and let's fortune carrying him where it will.

Tower of Fortune — $.99 [iTunes]

This jeep in Battlefield 3 is special. It won't listen to reason when you say things like, "But you're just a Jeep. You were designed for 4-wheeling and hazardous shooting."

And of course the only thing left to do when trapped in a glitched out Jeep is to answer the call of many of our impulses: Shoot aimlessly out of it. Because you never know.

I'm tripping balls in Battlefield 3 o_O [YouTube via AmazingFilms247]

Or a Play-Doh controller? Or doodles on a piece of paper?

This unbelievable Kickstarter, launched by two MIT grad students, promises to create an invention kit that lets you turn just about anything into an electronic input device. In the video, students play Dance Dance Revolution with water buckets and Pac-Man with a piece of paper. It's by far the coolest Kickstarter project I've seen to date.

MaKey MaKey: An Invention Kit for Everyone [Kickstarter via Reddit]