"The bearded man growled into the cell phone, his voice like gravel over glass on fire." At least, that's how I imagine officer-turned bodyguard Max Payne might narrate himself in the new trailer Rockstar has cut for Max Payne 3. Revealing more story details of this Sao Paolo-set sequel.

Find out what will set Max on his latest brutal path for hard-boiled revenge after the jump.

Here's the official synopsis:

The second official trailer for Max Payne 3 reveals the web of intrigue that builds around Max, beginning with the kidnapping of Rodrigo Branco's beautiful young wife, Fabiana, while under Max's protection. As Max fights to uncover the truth behind the kidnapping, he is pulled deeper into a web of violence and deception with little hope of escape as street gangs, paramilitary forces and elite police units fight for power and influence over the streets of São Paulo, Brazil.

Max Payne 3 will be available on May 15th for the PS3 and Xbox 360 with the PC version to follow on May 29th.

Related posts:

'Darksiders II' Brings Death To June
Review: 'Gotham City Impostors' Is the Real Deal

--
Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

Activision and Radical Entertainment announce that their rapidly-mutating, open world action game is getting the industry requisite special edition for the April release. Want to know what they've decided to load it up with? Find out after the jump.

Remember when Prototype and Infamous came out around the same time back in '09? It was one of those weird Deep Impact/Armageddon-type situations with two (superficially) similar open world games relying on a lot of traversal elements and a strain of superheroism in both (in one case around the edges, in the other more directly, even with comic-style call-outs). No major point to make here, it's just interesting to see how the two series have diverged in the years since.

We got Infamous 2 last year, and now Prototype 2 is about to have its big hurrah this spring, and the standard release will also be accompanied by the slightly pricier "Blackwatch Edition," bursting at the seams with a bunch of collectible content and the first DLC pack for $79.99 in the U.S.

Here's what's included in the Blackwatch Collector's Edition:

PROTOTYPE 2 RADNET Edition Content
Free PROTOTYPE 2 DLC Pack #1 - Colossal Mayhem
Official PROTOTYPE 2 Soundtrack CD
Exclusive PROTOTYPE 2 Hardbound Art Book
Dark HorseDigital Comic "PROTOTYPE: The Labyrinth"
20% Discount Voucher at PROTOTYPE Merchandise Store

And there's a trailer for the collector's edition below:

Prototype 2 will be available for the Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 on April 24th.

Related posts:

'Kingdoms of Amalur' Already Has a Sequel In Development
'Darksiders II' Brings Death To June

--
Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

Last week in Las Vegas during the DICE summit, Activision invited people to check out the first hour of their upcoming Prototype 2. This was complete and unfettered access to the experience, hands-on and with no one telling you what you could and couldn't do. As it turns out, the game takes care of most of that for you. Throughout the first 15 to 20 minutes of the game, you're driving newcomer Sergeant James Heller through a training course, learning how the controls work and seeing his horror of a world unfolding in front of him after the man who apparently killed his wife and daughter infects him with the same Blacklight Virus that gave Mercer his powers.

Unfortunately, the promised Mercer vs. Heller "Murder Your Maker" storyline that was teased when the game was announced back in 2010 never surfaced during this first hour of the game, and Heller actually looks like he's going to work hand-in-hand with Mercer to discover what Blackwatch and Gentek are doing, and why the Blacklight Virus has broken out in NYC again. Mercer makes an appearance only at the beginning of that first hour, luring Heller into the Red Zone at the center of the viral outbreak, infecting him, and sharing memories with him to let him know the truth.

Beyond that, Heller is on his own, tracking down officers in Blackwatch and absorbing their memories, and linking up with a Father Guerra in Heller's old church. Guerra provides Heller's moral compass in the first part of the story, urging Heller to show restraint while searching for the truth, and Radical promises that Heller will have several confidants and aides along the way, to Mercer's lone sister Dana from the original Prototype lending him a hand. Heller also has new abilities that extend beyond Mercer's in some cases, like his Viral Sonar hunting ability that sends out a pulse and returns a signal that can be traced back, and his Bio-Bomb ability which he gains access to later in the game.

But while the game still follows a super-powered human in New York City, the real changes are under the hood. Radical took the things that didn't work from the first game and sanded off the rough edges, leaving a very polished gameplay experience behind. Gone is the unwieldy upgrade system that used massive amounts of XP to allow Mercer to unlock his abilities. The UI has been upgraded as well, making the screen much cleaner and easier to read. It's also much easier to control Heller than Mercer, and accessing the much improved (and slimmed down) radial wheel of abilities is much more intuitive. One reason is that the game runs in the Titanium 2.0 engine, a step up from the original Titanium engine that powered Prototype and Radical's The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

The original Prototype had the unfortunate timing of coming out right after inFamous, and hopefully when Prototype 2 comes out in late April, they won't have the same problem. Both games are well worth playing, and while you won't have to have played one to enjoy the other, you'll miss out on the impact of the full story if you skip the original. Pick it up on the cheap and play it for the next couple of months before the sequel hits.

Prototype 2 BLACKWATCH Collector's Edition Trailer

Related Posts:

'Prototype 2' Trailer Explores Alex Mercer's Fall
Kinect-Enabled Shouts Among The Beautiful, Crazy, Experimental Ideas of Bethesda's 'Skyrim Game Jam'

--
Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

A report over at  Deadline claims Sony has struck a deal with Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance co-director Brian Taylor to write and direct a feature film based on the recently revived Twisted Metal franchise. The newest version of the game was just released yesterday and Ghost Rider's Avi and Ari Arad will be producing the film.

Just like the game, the Twisted Metal film will revolve around an underground fight to the death in pimped out, weaponized vehicles. While specific details on the plot haven't been revealed yet, Deadline reports that fan-favorite characters like Sweet Tooth (the insane, ice cream truck driving clown) and Doll Face will be appearing in the film.

This will be Taylor's first time going solo on a film, but he previously worked on the two Crank films starring Jason Statham and there's talk of a third. Considering just how over-the-top those two films were (seriously, they're ridiculous) Taylor may be just the guy to tackle a Twisted Metal feature.

What do you guys think? If handled correctly could a Twisted Metal film be good? Or, will we just end up with another Death Race on our hands? Hit the comments and share your thoughts!

[via Deadline]

Related posts:
Initial Copies of 'Twisted Metal' To Be Bundled With 'Twisted Metal Black'
Rockstar: Don't Expect Any 'GTA V' News For A While

--

Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

As the spring release for Telltale's adventure game based on Robert Kirkman's wildly successful zombi apocalypse comic nears, the developer drops a couple of new screenshots for the game and also announce a new weekly online talk show centered on the game's development process.

Find out more after the jump.

Here's the thing: as successful and very cool as Double Fine's Kickstarter campaign has been to make a new adventure game for the stated purpose of bringing them back into the general gaming public's consciousness, let's not forget Telltale has had the point and click thing on lockdown for a few years now.

And right now, one of their most anticipated titles (by me, at least) is The Walking Dead, a five-part, downloadable episodic adventure game following a separate group of survivors from the ones with which we've become familiar in the comic (and to a certain extent the TV show) in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak.

Telltale and Kirkman also announce Playing Dead, a nine-part web talk show featuring Kirkman and the game's story consultant/Book of Eli screenwriter Gary Whitta, hosted by AJ LoCascio, the actor who provided the voice of Marty McFly in Telltale's Back to the Future game. The first episode is available now on the game's site, and will be downloadable over PSN and Xbox LIVE tomorrow.

The Walking Dead will be available for download this spring for "all major gaming platforms."

Related posts:

Non-Gaming Game News For the Week Ending February 17th
Rockstar: Don't Expect Any 'GTA V' News For A While

--
Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

You know, typically we like to peg any statements about a new game as rumor, but when the guy who founded the developer—in this case, former baseball player-turned game development entrepreneur, Curt Schilling—goes on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and replies to a pretty direct "Is this game getting a sequel" with a pretty direct "Oh yeah," well, you have to imagine that he might know of what he speaks.

This isn't, strictly speaking, a huge surprise, but it is a surprise to hear it just a week after the first game made its debut. But then, critical response has been generally really positive for the fantasy RPG (from this quarter as well, I might add), so one can imagine a situation where Schilling and hypothetical execs at at Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning's publisher EA discussed the prospects of a sequel, perhaps while chomping cigars and wearing cowboy hats and reflecting on the monies, oh the monies (the game did especially well in its first week in the U.K.).

I'm sure in the interim, we can expect DLC for KoA, which had a healthy five year-plus development cycle, and unless 38 Studios decides to reinvent the wheel, I'm guessing we'll see the sequel sooner rather than later.

[Source: GameSpot]

Related posts:

[Rumor] More 'Magic: The Gathering - Duels of The Planeswalker' On the Way in 2013
Namco Bandai To Co-Publish Next Year's 'Star Trek 2'

--
Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

THQ and Vigil's apocalyptic fantasy sequel hits June 26th along with a host of preorder deals from the usual retailer suspects. Check out what THQ has planned for the second horseman after the jump.

The new game in the series will be hitting the PS3, 360, and PC in June along with a tie-in novel in May, evidence that THQ sees Darksiders as a proper franchise in the wake of the fairly unanimous positive word of mouth and reviews for the first game. This time around, though, it's not War you'll be controlling, but Death (and given that there are four horsemen, I think it's fair to say we can expect games featuring Famine and Pestilence) down the line.

Of course, it wouldn't be a major game release without each of the major retailers in turn attempting to lure you to their brick and mortar or e-storefronts with the promise of baubles and accoutrements: at Amazon, your cash on the barrel head gets you the "Deadly Despair" pack which provides a bump in speed for Death's horse, Despair while Best Buy is offering the "Angel of Death" pack which includes angelic armor for Death and scythes to match along with a colored visual trail for your crow familiar. GameStop seems to have the better deal if you like more content, offering the "Death Rides" pack which provides additional in-game missions.

You can check out the most recent developer's diary video for Darksiders II below:

[Source: GameSpot]

Related posts:
Rockstar: Don't Expect Any 'GTA V' News For A While
'NeverDead' Review - Try Not To Lose Your Head

--
Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

Which are you into more? Tactical stealth action involving genetic manipulation, global conspiracies, and Cold War-era paranoia? Or the virtual end of the world as a rampaging, ancient alien enemy bent on galactic conquest sets their sights on Earth? Well, guess what? You can try out the demos for Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3DS and Mass Effect 3 today.

More about both demos after the break.

MGS Snake Eater 3DS is another interesting major release to hit Nintendo's eShop. I'm wondering if some of the quirks that were part of my demo experience with Resident Evil Revelations will carry over here, specifically the limited/timed demo setup which allows 30 opportunities to play the game in question, if I recall correctly.

And don't forget that EA/Bioware is actually giving you an in-game bonus for Shepherd-ing it up with the Mass Effect 3 demo in the form of downloadable armor for your character in Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning—and vice versa if you play the KoA demo.

The demo to DLC plan is actually one of several Mass Effect 3 plans where you can get extra content for the game outside of the game, including DLC codes included with the new line of toys, as well as participation in the game's Facebook app.

Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3DS will be available on February 21st while Mass Effect 3 arrives for the PS3, PC, and Xbox 360 on March 6th.

Related posts:

New Video Games For the Week of 2/14: Veni Vici Ludi Vita
The Angry Birds Slingshot Onto Facebook

--
Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

ModNation Racers was released for the PlayStation 3 two years ago to gamers looking to experience customizable, kart racing in HD. Taking queues from Sony's "Play, Create, Share" mantra, the game was almost entirely customizable; with one of its biggest selling points being players could share everything they created, from tracks to characters. ModNation also saw a PSP release, with many of the same features brought over, allowing for karting and creation on the go. Not surprisingly, the family friendly title has also been tapped as one of the PlayStation Vita's launches games, as ModNation Racers: Road Trip bringing even more karts and characters to Sony's latest handheld.

The game follows very closely in its predecessors' footsteps, bringing kart racing home to a Sony platform. Fans of the previous two titles will instantly recognize the customizable characters, karts and tracks, which all make a familiar return. At its base level, the game remains mostly unchanged, save for some new weapons being added, bringing the total to seven. Beyond that there isn't a whole lot new to see in terms of gameplay.

One of the bright spots for Road Trip is that it may become the home of creative ModNation fans. All of the game's customization controls have shifted from the awkward controller to the easy-to-use touchscreen, making precision tweak to karts and tracks both simple and fun. The touchscreen on the back of the Vita even comes into play, allowing creators to use it to terraform custom tracks to their preferred height. Road Trip also includes is the option to auto-populate a course, allowing you to focus on the track, while the game adds in all the surrounding ambiance. While the controls may make things much easier, the real reason that the create mode will become a designers destination is because anything created on the Vita can be shared with the PlayStation 3's ModNation, and vice-versa. It's easier, quicker, and can be sent to its big brother; there's really no reason not to construct content in Road Trip.

On the other side of the coin, Road Trip under delivers when it comes to two key points in the game: career mode and multiplayer. Road Trip's career mode is stripped of all of the personality of the original game, losing the cut scenes and rival back-stories. What's left are just a series of GP races that need to be completed in a certain order. On the multiplayer front... well there isn't really one. Outside of four-player Ad Hoc races, there are no online racing features. Not including online multiplayer seems like a huge misstep for a kart racer that's appearing on a console that's more than capable of running it.

ModNation Racers: Road Trip is a fun kart racing game that showcases some of the unique features of the Vita, unfortunately, it feels like an incomplete package. Not providing a fully fleshed out career mode may save on cartridge space, but it takes a bit of life out of the series. And not including a fully fleshed out multiplayer mode just seems like a mistake. The game looks great, plays great, and is the only kart racer in the Vita launch line-up; if you're looking for some single-player racing fun or a game that lets you create until your heart's content, ModNation Racers: Road Trip should scratch that itch. However, if you're looking for a game that will allow you to show off your racing skills, not just your design skills, to other gamers, ModNation is going to leave you at the starting gate.

--
Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

Get a look at new toys from the upcoming Transformers: The Fall of Cybertron game, shots of McFarlane Toys' Halo 4 figures, while Prototype 2 and Dragon Age: Origins tie-ins kick off Dark Horse's digital exclusives program.

Prototype 2 starts its run as a comic this week, Dragon Age: Origins next week from Dark Horse

We brought you news about Dark Horse Comics' Prototype 2 bridging comic a couple of weeks back, and it's about to hit the publisher's digital store this week via iOS and Android devices as part of a alternating release scheme with their Dragon Age: Origins tie-in which starts next week. Both series will sell for 99 cents over their full six-issue runs with print trades for each available in the summer (Prototype in August, DA: O in July).

Both comics have scripts by their respective games' writers, with David Gaider, head writer of Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Origins on the DA: O book and Dan Jolley, lead writer for Prototype 2 providing the story for that book.

Here are the synopses for both books:

Prototype 2

Part 1 of “The Anchor” picks up with Alex Mercer one year after the Blacklight virus hit New York City. Traveling the world in search of something to believe in, Mercer sees only reasons to hate humanity, until far to the north he finds himself in a cabin with a kind old man and his daughter. But when he encounters evil even there, Mercer finally finds something to fight for!

Dragon Age: Origins

It’s unusual for a king to embark on a dangerous quest himself rather than send an emissary, but King Alistair Therein has caught wind of a rumor big enough, and personal enough, that he is compelled to investigate—though not alone. With deadly, wisecracking mercenaries Isabella and Varric by his side, Alistair travels to a city of assassins to learn the truth about his kingdom and his own reign!

Prototype 2 will be available for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC April 24th.

This is what Halo 4 Master Chief looks like

Finally, over on the MTV Geek side, our own Lemonjuice McGee got an exclusive look at the Master Chief figure in development by McFarlane toys to tie in to this year's sequel. The updated Spartan's armor is modified from the look in last year's E3 trailer (can you spot all of the differences), but it's still recognizable as John-117.

Here's the copy on the new figure which should presumably be rolling out sometime later this year:

Stranded in deep space at the end of Halo 3, Master Chief entered a Cryotube aboard the ship Forward Unto Dawn, telling his artificial intelligence companion, Cortana, to "wake me, when you need me." Halo 4 begins with Master Chief waking up ready to face new threats and mysteries.

Cryotube is approximately 9 inches tall and features a working door and a custom angled base. The Master Chief figure in this set features a light coating of frost and ice crystals; remnants of his hibernation between games. Figure also comes with an all-new weapon making its debut in Halo 4!

This fall, Microsoft Studios and 343 Industries are releasing Halo 4, the highly anticipated video game expected to be one of the top entertainment launches of 2012. McFarlane Toys is proud to announce that its best-selling line of Halo action figures continues this fall as well, with figures from Halo 4.

Halo 4 brings back the most popular character of the Halo universe, the Master Chief, and kicks off an all-new trilogy of games. Dubbed the "Reclaimer Trilogy" by 343 Industries, these new games explore the characters of the Master Chief and Cortana, expand the Halo fiction in bold new ways and bring even more of the innovation that the Halo series is known for to the gaming world. McFarlane Toys Halo 4 action figures bring the all-new characters, weapons and vehicles of Halo 4 to video-game fans and action-figure collectors worldwide.

Action figure collectors can expect the same quality and attention to detail in the Halo 4 line that they've come to expect from McFarlane toys. The Halo 4 figure series continues in the 6-inch size introduced with their Halo: Reach figures. They're also introducing a series of larger, boxed figures. These deluxe items are in scale with their 6-inch figures, but include larger accessories, such as Master Chief's Cryotube.

McFarlane Toys is part of a select group of licensees with Halo 4 products available at game launch. Halo 4 Series 1 kicks off this August with four carded figures and one boxed figure set, and expands to include even more figures later in the fall.

Halo fans can see more exclusive Halo images debuting at NY Toy Fair on Waypoint!

Hasbro creates a line of toys for the upcoming multiplatform title, Transformers: The Fall of Cybertron

The game, which had its trailer debut during the VGAs is from Activision and developer High Moon Studios and as the title suggests, features pretty much the end of days for the Transformers' home planet. Also: a bunch of new robots!

Here's the synopsis for the game which should give you some backstory for the new toys:

The successor to acclaimed developer High Moon Studios' highest-rated Transformers game of all time, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron allows players to experience the darkest hours of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons as they vie for control of their dying home world, playing through both sides of the TRANSFORMERS' most epic battles that culminate in their legendary exodus from Cybertron. With the stakes higher and scale bigger than ever, fans will control an unprecedented assortment of TRANSFORMERS characters armed with authentic transformation designed around their unique abilities, including GRIMLOCK's nearly indestructible T-Rex form and the legendary COMBATICONS forming into the colossal BRUTICUS. Taking the franchise's competitive multiplayer to all-new heights, Transformers: Fall of Cybertronfans will go head-to-head in blistering Autobot vs. Decepticon matches after creating their own unique characters with the most in-depth, advanced customization ever before seen in a Transformers game.

The ones from the image below combine into one the combine Transformer, Bruticus (bottom image).

Transformers: The Fall of Cybertron will be available on most things that play video games August 31st.

Related posts:

Non-Gaming Game News for the Week Ending February 10th
You Can Now Record Video With Your Playstation Vita (At Least In Japan)

--
Discuss this story in our Gaming forums! Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!