Square Enix London recently revealed Sleeping Dogs, an upcoming cop drama set in Hong Kong, heading to Xbox 360, PS3, and PC in the latter half of the year.

The game, developed by United Front Games, puts you into the role of Wei Shen, an undercover cop who is given the job of entering one of the bigger, and more powerful, criminal organisations – the Hong Kong Triads – and taking it down from the inside. It's an open-world title, which means you'll be walking the neon-lite streets of Hong Kong. Square-Enix's statement mentions that the story will begin to focus on Wei, as he starts to question his own motives.

Lee Singleton, GM of Square Enix London Studios says: "From the moment you pick up the controller and experience the blend of driving, close combat and shooting you know you're playing something fresh and a bit special. Sleeping Dogs has one of the best melee combat systems out there – it's super brutal with devastating takedown moves, and when added to UFG's proven heritage in driving games, a first class story and the vibrant backdrop of the Hong Kong underworld we get a fiery recipe with fun written all over it."

Stephen Van Der Mescht, the Executive Producer at United Front Games, discusses his work on the title: "Working on Sleeping Dogs has been such a huge passion for the team at United Front Games and we're really pleased to be working with Square Enix London Studios. The extensive experience both our studios have in creating compelling open-world gameplay and rich and rewarding combat makes for a perfect partnership. Working together we can be sure that Sleeping Dogs is the most intense and immersive experience it can be."

The game will also allow players to use martial arts moves in combat. It'll also bring environmental takedowns to combat, allowing you to take down enemies with items in the game world, including circular saws to phone booths, even refrigerator doors.

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The third content drop as part of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's 20-drop "season of content" is planned, and it's set to come out later this month.

The new map, Overwatch, is scheduled to hit the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the 21st of this month (Feb 21) for all Elite customers. Unlike last month, this will be the only drop this month but hang on as next month, according to the official MW3 Content Calendar, shows three content drops scheduled. One multiplayer map and two Spec-Ops missions.

Upon further looking of the March content calendar, it looks like the names of the drops have been revealed. Next month sees map 'Black Box' hit, which, in true Modern Warfare style, appears to have a downed airplane. It'll hit alongside Spec-Ops missions 'Black Ice' and 'Negotiatior'.

Also, recently revealed by Activision is that PS3 Elite members will finally get the first two drops on the 28th of this month (Feb 28). That means PS3 Elite customers will receive the first two maps, 'Piazza' and 'Liberation', effectively being a month behind the Xbox 360 Elite consumers. As there is no Elite for PC players, PC consumers will have to wait until the content drops become packaged into DLC packs, which will then be sold to players as with previous Call of Duty titles.

Check out some more screens of the new maps below:

In our first podcast for the new year (and the first in a year and a bit), new Editors Matt and Debs, and old-timers Kieran and Adrian discuss what they've been playing recently, discuss what they think of HD remakes of games, collections and so on, the Skyrim Creator's Kit which hits this week, converse on the Humble Bundle heading over to the mobile Android platform, and mull over the upcoming releases this month. Debs also explains what the new SSX is like after previewing it at a recent event in Sydney.

It'll be up on iTunes shortly. We'll let you know when it's up and where you can click in order to subscribe.

It didn’t matter that it was still Summer, I was determined to go to snowboarding. With my luck, I knew a little place in Sydney that offered just that opportunity. Thanks to Electronic Arts and Red Bull, a little snowboarding haven was set up to allow myself and other journalists the chance to take a ride down some crazy slopes in EA’s upcoming title, SSX.

Some gamers may already be familiar with the SSX series, the most recent title being SSX Blur on the Wii. However, having been a big fan of SSX 3 on Playstation 2, I had certain expectations of the new title slated for release in March this year. And to be honest, the few gameplay previews seen around the web had left me a little more than apprehensive.

For those not familiar with the successful snowboarding series, SSX allows players to race their way down snowy mountains, while pulling off tricks that earn you boosts and advantages. Competitions take place in the wilderness, tricked-out snow tracks, and icy half-pipes. But how does the 2012 reboot compare so far?

On jumping into my first game – a simple race down the mountain – I was surprised. The controls felt different, but easy. The graphics looked the same but fresh and crisp. Of course, for a series-driven sports game, one would expect an update to the graphics and controls, but the new controls felt almost intuitive. Here I was, an SSX veteran, wondering if they had actually improved this – I switched to the classic controls, and virtually faceplanted in the snow. Repeatedly. Yes, the new standard controls are definitely improved, and made the transitions between tricks and movement smooth and fast.

Aside from this, the game itself does have some added features – a new survival mode where the gear you buy determines how well you’ll fare. It also boasts mountains based on real topographical data from NASA. Personally, I didn’t notice this, since I was too focused with finishing my races in a decent time, and with as little face to ground action. One of the new features seen in released gameplay footage, the rewind feature, is meant to alleviate this problem.

This probably concerned me the most since I was a purist at heart – in times of old SSX, if you made a mistake in your race, it just meant you needed to pick yourself up and either catch up or start again. I was glad to see that the new feature didn’t give players an easy way out – if you faceplanted, ruined a trick or took a wrong turn, it served to put you back on track, and only you. Other players would continue leaving you behind, and with enough of a challenge to try and take back your spot in first place.

After all my doubt, it was great to see that the SSX formula for fast and fun racing has remained. I like how gameplay has been enhanced to make it easy for the rusty and the new to pick up the title. This is one reboot I’m looking forward to playing with a little bit more, and since its hitting stores March 1st (Australia) and 2nd (New Zealand), it shouldn’t be too long a wait.

A software engineer has spoken out on Reddit about his experience with former employer Zynga. To prove this, he provided a picture of a “Termination Certificate” which was provided by the company (image: http://imgur.com/jjPNI). While his role involved creating the content that made it your mobile phones and social media sites, he has answered questions that many users have wondered about the casual games giant.

Among some of the details, he explains how Zynga allegedly had a penchant for “spying on players” – basically as much gaming, habit, and network data about their players to effectively monetize their games. He’s also admitted at how, despite fixing in-game maths because testers say that something in a game is not fun – like, for example, low item drop rates within a game – this is tweaked to be more “unfun” down the line by management to improve the profitability of their games.

Outside of the claims that everything within Zynga is created and optimised for profitability, he has also briefly explained the situation behind other mobile developer Nimblebits’ Tiny Tower game. According to the ex-employee, Zynga’s Dream Heights is a direct clone, and standard procedure for Zynga; “If you can’t buy em, clone em”. He goes further to say that the only original software created at Zynga has been the Mafia Wars series and Poker, with the rest having been purchased or cloned from other smaller studios.

Zynga have not yet responded to these claims.

Honestly, this former employee’s revelations don’t seem particularly surprising. But it's nice to know that I’m not paranoid when I think they’re spying on me.

Via Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/pc6j9/iama_former_fulltime_zynga_engineer_quit_6_months/

If you have an iOS device and want to relive some classic titles from yesteryear, Namco Bandai has just released the Namco Arcade so you can relive your favourite games from the 80s for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. But is there a catch?

Currently, only four titles – XEVIOUS, The Tower of Druaga, Motos and Phozon – are available, however there are plans to release other titles in the future. Additionally, you can only choose one title to play each day, and even then you can only play it once. But for those who are left wanting more, players are given the opportunity to purchase Play Coins to have another go, or to buy each game outright for unlimited turns.

Personally, I think I’ll feel a little restricted with this one-a-day formula, though I’m curious to check out some of the other titles down the track that I’ve missed the first time around!

Not ones to leave console gamers out of the series, the newly unveiled edition will include new features not currently available in the PC version of the game: new cinematics, quests and locations, as well as new NPCs to add more depth and complexity to the already massive RPG. These new features will also be making their way to the PC version as free extra content. Also, DLC made available for the PC version are being incorporated into the console edition.

In the announcement, head of CD Projekt RED Adam Badowski explained that this version is not just a platform port from the PC version released last year, but has been rewritten to suit the Xbox 360, including a revamp of the player’s interface to make character control more suitable for console, as well as improved graphics to make it “one of the best-looking games ever to make it to consoles”. From footage available on the developer’s Youtube channel, this may not be a far cry from the truth.

It is still yet to be confirmed whether local Aussie retailers will be stocking the special Dark Edition seen via US retailers, which includes the artbook, world map and game soundtrack among other extras. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition has been slated for release from mid-April.

The highly anticipated sequel to the franchise, Mass Effect 3 will see the return of series voice actors including Martin Sheen, Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale. New introductions to the franchise include Freddie Prinze, Jr as helpful marine James Vega, and gamer favourite Jessica Chobot as news reporter Diana Allers.

Other voice cast set to return include Seth Green, Tricia Helfer, Carrie-Ann Moss and Lance Henriksen, reprising their respective roles played in previous games.

Mass Effect 3 is set to hit stores March 8 – yet gamers who just can’t wait that long will be able to get their galactic butt-kicking into gear when the demo launches worldwide on February 14th.