So just where has the illustrious Peter Molyneux's pet project, Godus, been lately? Well, there was a lot of talk about Mud Huts in their last update for backers, but for the most part, the usually hyper-talkative Molyneux has been uncharacteristically quiet about 22 Cans' next project. Secretly, though, it seems he's been putting some of that Kickstarter money towards securing some top-notch talent - a casual namedrop in the latest update video reveals that his newest employee is Jamie Stowe, a former level design director who's worked on the likes of Assassin's Creed 3.

Aside from the fact that Molyneux steals apples from the desks of his employees, the other big news imparted in the update is Stowe's arrival. Stowe takes up the position of 22 Cans' Technical Director now, which sounds decidedly less thrilling than determining the placement of hilariously hatted foes in AC3. Stowe's helping the team piece together new builds of Godus, working on balancing the game, data-mining, various analytic hoo-ha, and developing the homeworld that we'll be playing in the eventual alpha release.

The leap from level design lead to technical director is quite vast, so I'm interested to see how Stowe adapts his existing skillset in shaping the world of Godus. I'm also hoping that going from AC3's 600-person team to 22 Cans' 20-ish allows for more creative freedom, because I'm hoping this spiritual successor to Populous can remain relevant to today's gamers while still retaining that earth-shaping, population-controlling charm. In other words, those better be some damn fine mud huts that 22 Cans is building.

I spent most of last night staring forlornly at my prettiest SimCity city, which was constantly at the “processing” stage and would not allow me to play it. I thought perhaps my citizens feared my mayoral skills too much to allow me to enter my own tiny metropolis, but apparently, mayors all over the world had been locked out in the wake of the 2.0 update. Yes, Maxis heard our echoed cries and moans, and they’re currently working to restore order. Here’s what’s the team is working on.

First off: an EA forum post confirms that “some” issues preventing cities from processing have been fixed. It doesn’t exactly elaborate on that, but hooray! Hopefully, if nothing else, it means at least a slightly increased chance of being able to get into one’s own city. For what we’ve suffered, once we’re in, there better be marching bands, parades in the street—the whole shebang.

A forum post detailing Update 2.0 also reveals what other niggling issues the team’s still working to fix. If you were one of the players who callously demolished a building whose service vehicles were out in town, leaving said vehicles stranded and aimlessly stalking the streets as the Ghosts of Infrastructure Past, well, that won’t happen any more in new cities. In existing cities? Yeah, they’re still working to fix that. Also on the fix-list are heightened levels of air pollution and the ever-present random game crashes.

To celebrate the imminent May 2 release of the Might & Magic Heroes VI Shades of Darkness expansion, we’re giving away five copies of the Might & Magic Heroes VI Complete Edition to our Australian readers, as well as a M&MH t-shirt. The Complete Edition includes the full game bundled with the two original Adventure Packs, as well as the Shades of Darkness standalone expansion. Check out our review of the original Might and Magic Heroes VI.
We’ve got five copies of the game, as well as five eminently attractive Might & Magic t-shirts. Each prize package is worth $79.95. All you need to do to enter is answer the below question in the comment section. Our favourite five answers will be contacted via private message when the winners are drawn next Tuesday, May 7.
The question: if you could introduce one new, original faction to the Might & Magic Heroes universe, what would it be?

When Ubisoft revealed Watch Dogs last year, there was some initial uncertainty about how the game's structure and mechanics would mesh. Would it be an urban Deus-Ex-meets-Hitman hacking and problem-solving game? Would it be a sandboxy third-person shooter that visualizes data in the world, and gives you a tool (your phone) to manipulate it? Based on Ubisoft's new video for Watch Dogs released today, it's looking a lot more like Grand Theft Auto than we initially expected.

The Rockstar-style camera work, editing, and music all feel like they could be hyping a slightly more serious, conspiratorial GTA game. Pearce is shown chasing down another character, over which he narrates in his best Batman Voice, "In this city, no one can hide from me. No one." This tells me to expect GTA-style pursuit missions to be a primary piece of Watch Dogs, with information-gathering through the game's hacking techniques possibly acting as a prelude to that.

Watch Dogs is out in November.

If the voice of Batman in the first two Arkham games sounded familiar to you, that's because they were provided by Kevin Conroy, easily the most recognizable actor to portray the animated version of the caped crusader. Best known for the '90s Batman: The Animated Series, Conroy's veteran vocals will be absent from Arkham Origins, trusted source Batman News reports.

WB Games Montreal reportedly told South Africa's NAG Magazine that due to Origins being set early in the dark knight's career, they decided to go with a younger-sounding actor. We're not sure who that is yet, but I can tell you that I never got called back about the tape I sent of me standing on a rooftop in front of some lightning growling, "I am vengeance! I am the night!" There's also no word on whether Mark Hamill will be reprising his role as The Joker, after he famously said Arkham City would be his last performance as the legendary villain.

We do, however, have some things to say on what the new Arkham game will have (multiplayer, specifically), and what we hope it will have.

We created a wishlist of things we'd like to see in BioShock Infinite's three, planned story DLCs. Among them was the opportunity to play as someone other than Booker. While we have no confirmation of whether or not that will be the case, a LinkedIn posting spotted by CvgWorld suggests that we'll be meeting an alternate partner in crime, at the least.

The posting is from 2K animator Michael Shahan, and says that he's working on "animation and R&D for a new AI companion character" in "BioShock Infinite DLC 1." So it seems Elizabeth won't reprise her role as our revival specialist and money/ammo dispenser in the upcoming DLC. Or, perhaps, we'll travel with her again, but with a third character joining our reality-bending band.

We still don't have a release date or any plot details about these DLCs, but we're looking forward to seeing how Irrational can expand on Infinite's infinite story possibilities, and we've already laid out some reasonable suggestions about what we'd like to see next.

Don't they know smoking's bad for you?

I shouldn’t be impressed by a game engine’s zooming capabilities. It’s 2013. Nonetheless, here I am staring at Wargame: AirLand Battle like a monkey at a monolith. It’s breathtaking. My first look at Eugen’s RTS sequel to Wargame: European Escalation, guided by lead developer Alexis Le Dressay, is of a single Apache chopper. Those familiar with the previous game’s battles will know there’s usually little time to appreciate details on units, but I could make out the wobble and swear I could even see the pilot. I wanted to take control, and fly it over the game’s beautiful Scandinavian fields or admire the fjords. But this is not a game of sightseeing.

"At the furthest zoom it’s like looking down onto a military commander’s table."
As boss of one of 12 sides fighting under the umbrellas of either NATO or the Warsaw Pact countries between 1975 and ‘85, you’re here to command troops. Luckily for the aesthetically-minded general, doing so in Eugen’s world is a pleasure. A quick spin of the mousewheel yanks the camera up, parting the clouds. Below is a patchwork of fields. It looks more like a satellite photo than a game, and at the furthest zoom it’s like looking down onto a military commander’s table. In the game, the table would be crawling with icons of allies and enemies, and if I pushed in closer I’d see the infantry and tanks moving at frightening speed.

A bally nice day for a tank battle, what?

But the map is empty to show off the gorgeous new textures and increased scale of the game’s Scandinavian setting. The square I see represents a couple of hundred of square kilometres of Swedish land, marked out with glowing strategic sectors. These sectors give you deployment points: using these lets armies bring reinforcements in. These extra units aren’t built as in a standard RTS; instead, they trundle in from marked points around the world. As in the previous Wargame: EE, land units roll in from the edge of the maps, but AirLand Battle adds new air corridors, too. You’ll need to have control of these before you can call in a fighter squadron, or else your enemy will simply shoot your top guns down.

"Flat fields are now surrounded with snowcapped peaks, and carved through with fjords. The undulating landscape is an immensely important addition."
These jets are the clunkily named AirLand of the title, reflecting the military doctrine of the ’80s that created a greater synergy between ground and air troops. The sequel allows for greater diversity of tactics with the winged beasts, letting you send them deeper into enemy lands. They’ll speedily swoop and dive at their targets, before retreating to refuel and resupply. The importance of their inclusion drove a plethora of new engine tricks that fed back into the game: the flat fields are now surrounded with snowcapped peaks, and carved through with fjords. In a game where line-of-sight usurps the unrealistic notion of fog-of-war, and your every move is preceded with recon units, the undulating landscape is an immensely important addition.

But while it’s a structurally more complex sequel, AirLand Battles simplifies a few things too. The problems in the previous game’s urban battles, where the infantry fighters in cities and towns needed to be looked after, have been smoothed over. The devs have solved that problem by designating ‘districts’ within the cities, and the infantry will always select the best possible positions to defend from.

The previously flat landscape has been updated so you can make the most of your air units.

A quick demonstration drops two tanks on either side of a garrisoned town. The tanks crawl through the fields, intelligently using the hedgerows as cover without any player prompting, but when they enter the open they’re rocketed into burning piles of scrap. It’s a small but welcome tweak. When Eugen’s RTS gets going, there’s already enough to worry about.

"What if Thatcher had a heart attack? How would that affect the UK’s NATO presence in the region?"
The previous game’s biggest weakness was a reliance on a standard narrative and skirmishes. AirLand Battles’ campaign is now dynamic, with the whole of the Scandinavian region in continual flux, and wins and losses will affect the overall make up of the region.

Weather and politics will also cause shifts in power, with special events throwing particularly cruel little twists along the way. An example that was put to me: what if Thatcher had a heart attack? How would that affect the UK’s NATO presence in the region? It’d probably create a more erratic and less focussed British backup.

When you finally feel prepared enough to take your skills online, you’ll have to create your own army. With 12 countries and over 700 units, you won’t want for weaponry. Perhaps you desire an entirely top-hole British war unit – patriotic, what what – or an opportunity to pick and choose from the foreign legions? The units are drawn from a ten year period, so some armies will struggle in certain areas. If I were you, I’d start brushing up on your alternate history. It might come in handy.

It's just going to be too easy to take those two jets out.

In a win for self-descriptive naming, here's Hellraid: a first-person co-op hack 'n slash RPG about raiding the armies of hell. It's being made by Techland, who have form with back-to-basics game naming, having previously brought us Dead Island: a game about an island full of dead people. This time, they're swapping shambling zombie corpses for the similarly undead, but generally less putrefied, demonic hordes.

On top of their four-player campaign co-op, Techland are also teasing what they're calling the Game Master - their equivalent of Left 4 Dead's AI Director. The GM will randomise loot and enemies, and supposedly generate online challenges which the developers hope will keep players busy with a constant trickle of shifting content.

Beyond that, the usual ARPG features are planned, including weapon crafting, armour customisation and character progression. Hellraid is due out later this year on PC and consoles. More info at their website.

I think Metro: Last Light may be locked in an attempt beat Bioshock Infinite for most trailers released this year. It won't work: as many as there have been so far, to usurp Irrational's ridiculous throne 4A would still need to drop a new video every day, right up to the game's May 17th release. Not that it'll stop them from trying. This time: Will protagonist Artyom lead humanity to salvation? Will he stab hundreds of people in murky post-apocalyptic tunnels? Are the two mutually exclusive? Probably not.

More specifically, we meet Anna - crack sniper for Artyom's Spartan Order of Rangers. She's a bit of a pessimist. But then, if you're constantly defending against mutants, fascists, cultists and heavily armed militia, you'd probably struggle to see the lighter side too.

If you've had your fill of moving pictures, read our comfortingly static Last Light preview here.

Maybe I'm too much of a pacifist to understand but, even in the most urgent combat situation, I think I'd abandon my post pretty quickly if a goddamn volcano erupted in the combat zone. It's fortunate for fans of fast-paced FPS multiplayer that the soldiers of Blops 2 are calm professionals/committed psychopaths, because that's exactly the situation you'll face in the Magma map of the upcoming Uprising DLC pack, now dated for a May 16th release on PC.

The pack also includes Encore, set in a deserted London music festival; Vertigo, a futuristic sky scraper with perilous jumps and long drops; and Studio, a Hollywood back lot, featuring medieval castles and Western saloons. Then there's the previously trailered Mob of the Dead, the Alcatraz set zombie map featuring Chazz Palminteri, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Madsen and Ray "was in Revolver yet is still given work for some reason" Liotta.

You can watch the DLC's developers tour the new maps in the video below: