Tips are back….in video form! Are you playingGrand Theft Auto Vnow that it’s finally out? So am I! Actually, I’ve been playing it for a little while now, and I’ve gathered some of the things I’ve learned throughout my travels and put them into one quick video. One of the biggest things I can suggest is to switch between all three playable characters if you’ve saturated all your mission icons, as it can be a bit puzzling sometimes to find out where to go next without a contextual action springing up....

Here we have video of the original PSP and the PSP 2000 (right) side-by-side, each showing off hand-synched loading times from the recently releasedCrisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. If somehow you’re reading this before watching the video (who does that these days?), let me tell you that you’re about to be surprised. The difference is a real eye opener. The PSP Slim manages to load a battle and play more half way through it before the original PSP even shows the battle screen....

The other Romero’s son, that is Romero’s Aftermath, George. C. Romero’s MMO survival horror game, releases today in open beta. Film director George C. is the son of George A., who you’ll know from feisty romcoms likeNight of the Living Dead. The game offers both PvP and PvE action, fully-explorable towns, crafting, base building, and item trade and customisation. And it looks kind of amazing. The only purchasable items are “cosmetic skins, customizations, and boosts that allow players to acquire certain in-game items more quickly (if they don’t have the time to put into exploring)....

Finding the dirt-spoon The shovel inSons of the Forestis a tremendously important item to attain. It’s agiant bottleneckin the game’s progression and can generally be seen as the border between the first and second halves of the game. I cannot tell you why, on an island full of excavation, there is a single shovel. Nor can I explain why you can’t build one out of a hubcap and a stick or something....

Gameplay tweaks hope to deliver the ultimate assassination experience Warner Bros. and IO Interactive have released a new trailer for upcoming stealthy/stabby titleHitman 2. The video, titled “Hitman: Perfected” looks at how the new games aims to sharpen every element of the long-running series gameplay with new features and modes. In the lightning-fast promo,Hitman 2gives us a glimpse at new multiplayer modes, such as the PvP “Ghost” mode and a co-op variant of Sniper Assassin....

Assassin’s Creed Shadowsis about to release on March 20, and its pre-sales have already pushed it into the top five on Steam’s global top sellers list. As of March 18,Steam’s Global Top Sellers listranksAssassin’s Creed Shadowsin second place, just behindCounter-Strike 2. Even thoughCS2is a free game, it appears on the list because Steam ranks games based on total revenue, which includes in-game transactions. SinceCS2and other free-to-play titles generate massive sales through microtransactions, their spots on the list reflect overall earnings rather than just game purchases....

On paper at least Astral Breakerskind of surprised me, as I hadn’t heard about it before today. It will be released for the Wii U eShop next week, and it looks like a cool little competitive puzzle game, much likePuzzle Fighter. It’ll sport co-op and versus modes, as well as the ability to play solo against a CPU. The developers also included a Zodiac-style theme, where you may create your own constellations, which will change your powers in combat....

We have to wait until January 2010 for ultra sexy action shooter Bayonetta, as you may recollect fromJim’s droolings on the subject, and while that’s only five months from now, it really is still too long to wait for most of the people dying to play it. Sega West president Mike Haynes had some comments to spill on the delayed US release date: It was purely practical reasons to be perfectly blunt, Bayonetta’s coming out in Japan this October but we then need to translate it…....

With over 28 perks in Warzone, narrowing that group down to only four at a time can be daunting. That said, we did our best to create the best perk package. Raven Software made a few distinct changes toperksin Modern Warfare 3’s iteration of Warzone. Instead of a timer, all four perks immediately activate after picking up a loadout, and every user has default perks that are always active. This list of default abilities includes Overkill, meaning it will always be possible to carry two primary weapons at once....

There are many different skills to unlock during your playthrough ofMarvel’s Spider-Man 2and perhaps you want to know what’s best to get first. It’s okay if you feel some decision paralysis, but let us help with our suggestions. You unlock skills by spending Skill Points awarded for leveling up. When you have at least one point to spend, open the main menu and navigate to the Skills tab. You can see how many skill points you can earn at the bottom-left section to the right of your current level....

Studio veteran steps away after 19 years of service In somewhat shocking news for the fighting game community, developer Toshimichi Mori announced his departure from veteran anime game studio Arc System Works. Mori announced that he was leaving the studio in a new and succinct statementposted to Twitter just yesterday. “I have something to report to all of the users,” begins the message. “I, Toshimichi Mori, have left Arc System works, the company I worked at for many years....

‘Not anything close’ Last month, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick made an off-handed remark about the budget ofDestinyreaching “$500 million dollars,” which led to a discussion on the long-term viability of AAA games. But Bungie COO Pete Parsons took us back down to earth recently speaking to Games Industry Biz, noting that, “For marketing you’d have to ask Activision people, but for development costs, not anything close to $500 million. I think that speaks a lot more to the long-term investment that we’re making in the future of the product....

Captain Price is Right As inevitable as death, taxes, or Hamster’s Arcade Archives release, Activision’s newest entry to theCall of Dutyfranchise,Modern Warfare 2,is enjoying an incredible launch In fact, the Steam edition of the billion-dollar head-popper has already broken the series record for concurrent players on its first day. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, available today on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox platforms is currently entertainingan amazing 192,524 playersas of this writing....