Generals is a real time strategy game, pitting the US against China and the Global Liberation Army. The newest game runs on DICE’s Frostbite 2 engine, the same technology used to power Battlefield 3. Command and Conquer: Generals 2 is slated for release in 2013. Under new studio, “Bioware Victory” the developer is expecting to release the game only on PC.

The Spike Video Game Awards is notable for showcasing world premieres of video games releasing 2012 and beyond and a couple of games are already confirmed for the awards show including: Bioware’s next project, the next Alan Wake game, Metal Gear Solid Rising, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 6 Patriots, Transformers Fall of Cybertron, and Bioshock Infinite.

Among other festivites include a performance by the Black Keys of their video game song “Lonely Boy” and Grammy nominated electronic DJ Deadmau5 will perform throughout the telecast with the Gamer God Award being bestowed on the Blizzard creators with exclusive footage of the upcoming Diablo 3.

Who will win this year’s Game of the Year? Tune in on December 10 to find out.

What do you guys and gals think?

The co-op missions presented in Mass Effect 3 will have a “direct impact on the outcome” of the single player campaign and allowing an “alternative method of achieving ultimate victory” in the storyline. To facilitate this, Bioware introduces a “Galaxy at War” system that gauges Commander Shepard’s readiness and ability to apply every possible asset – people, weapons, resources, armies, fleets” against the Reapers. The new “Galaxy Readiness” system is presented as an “alternative method” as “it is still possible to achieve the optimal, complete ending of the game in Mass Effect 3 through single-player alone.”

The multiplayer for Mass Effect 3 will solely be cooperative and not include competitive modes, furthermore adding the fact that “players will create custom characters to fight on different and unique fronts in the war. This will include the ability to play as favorites like Turians, Krogans, Asari and more…each with their own unique set of abilities.” Consequently, the co-op modes were designed by a team separate from those who developed the single-player campaign.

Mass Effect 3 will release March 6, 2012 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

If we aren’t furiously typing away at our keyboards already, a retail pamphlet listing reveals a “online multiplayer pass” for Mass Effect 3′s Collectors Edition. Oddly enough, it comes from a South African retailer who outlines all the features included in the Collector’s Edition North American bundle.

The “online multiplayer pass” has the Bioware forums up in arms speculating if it is a reference to previous EA’s online passes or a similar deal to Mass Effect 2′s Cerebrus Network, which enabled players access to downloadable content, most notably, the character Zaeed and his loyalty mission.

The current rumor pictures Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer to be a Horde-mode affair, where four players fight cooperatively against waves of enemies.

MDK2 was released in 2000 and is the sequel (duh) to MDK which came out in 1997. From what I gathered in the preview some aliens invaded and it’s my job to show them my sweet parachuting skills and killing them all. In MDK2 you play as Kurt Hectic (has a sniper rifle and can glide), Max, a six legged dog, and Dr. Fluke Hawkins, a scientist, in the full game.

Kurt has access to a basic machine gun, grenades, and a sniper rifle. The rifle is where things get a little interesting since you have a couple different types of bullets such as mortar, homing, bouncing, and more. He also has pickups that give effects such as creating a decoy, black hole grenades, and cloak. Kurt’s levels balance a bit of platforming with combat with some areas mixing them both. His boss fight involved sniping orbs to slowly open up the armor of a giant ship that’s firing at you.

The next level puts you in the paws of Max the dog, who enters an enemy ship by flying a torpedo and crashing it right into the ship. That section is an actual controllable sorta mini-game which was a nice bit of variety from the previous platform heavy stage. Max is definitely my favorite character to play as since he has a jetpack for some quick platforming sections, but the neat thing is that he can equip 4 guns at once to rain fire on those aliens. You’ll find Uzis, magnums, shotguns, missiles, and Gatling guns. His stages are a bit more action heavy, but the action is fun so it works. Dr. Fluke Hawkins plays quite a bit differently from Kurt and Max since he can’t really fight as well as those guys. With Hawkins you’ll go around levels collecting items to fix doors, create new paths, and kill enemies with. One spot has you collect a leaf blower so you can blow enemies into a giant Venus flytrap. You’ll switch between characters every so often so the game really keeps things fresh by switching it up with the characters.

From what I’ve seen of the original MDK2 the graphics have gotten quite a nice update (unlike the barely noticeable RE4 ‘HD’ update Capcom). Everything has a nice shiny look to it and the effects from the weapons look pretty nice. Also loved the bullet casings falling out when you shot your gun and the little particles that bounced on the floor when you shot things, I’m just a sucker for that kind of shit.

Overall MDK2 HD looks to be worth a quick purchase to relive some nostalgia or just to try an old classic for the first time. Personally I don’t see the Beamdog service competing majorly with Steam or GoG who is also known for offering classic games for sale and I don’t really want to have 4 different services with different game libraries. MDK2 HD IS exclusive to Beamdog though, so if you want it you’ll have to shell out the dosh over there.

You can expect MDK2 HD to be released exclusively on Beamdog on October 12th.

“This is an incredible moment for everyone at BioWare and our partners at LucasArts who have dedicated their lives to build this extraordinary game,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare.

BioWare also announced that each copy of the game comes with 30 days of subscription time, after which players can choose between different subscription plans to continue to play the game.

Here are the subscription models after the 30 days are up:

•1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
•3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
•6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)