Make Sure You Check Out: Retro City Rampage!

For those of you who haven't heard of the upcoming game Retro City Rampage, here's a quick synapses:

THE PLAYER is out for a friendly frolic of CRIME CAPERS when suddenly ambushed by EVIL GOOD GUYS. They will stop at nothing to end his RAMPAGE OF DOOM threatening the citizens of Theftropolis City. Are YOUbad enough to defeat the EVIL GOOD GUYS?

RETRO CITY RAMPAGE lets you play as THE PLAYER. Take the wheel with five-finger discounts on over 30 vehicles and wield over 20 weapons that will make you say "WHOA"! Run down innocent pedestrians to hear the magnificent monophonic modulated sounds. Order a pint of "SOUR MILK" from the barkeep to make yourself sick and avoid taking responsibility for your actions. At some point, defeat the EVIL GOOD GUYS then relax and go do it, when you want an ICED TEA.

Or to put bluntly, it's an awesome 8-bit parody game with tons of violence, car jacking, and maybe a bit of time travel!  More specifically, the game features:

* Over 50 Story Missions
        - Driving, Shooting, Stealth, Platforming, Swimming, Rhythm, and much more
    * Over 30 Arcade Challenges
        - Instant Action!
        - Record and share replays
    * Over 25 Weapons & Power-Ups
        - From Lightguns to Bionic Arms, Rockets, Guitars and "Grogotovs"
    * Over 40 Vehicles to Steal
        - Cars, Trucks, Bikes, Vans, Skateboards and Tanks
        - Equip Guns, Rockets, Flames & Nitro!
    * Over 100 Character Customizations
        - Hair Styles, Tattoos, Glasses, Even Plastic Surgery!
    * Huge Open-World to Explore
        - Buildings, shops and activities (including over 80 interiors)
        - Bonus Arcade and Casino games
    * Free-Roaming Mode
        - With 6 Playable Characters
    * Featuring Special Guest Stars
        - Each includes their own bonus subgame
    * Supports Anaglyphic 3D Glasses
        - Select Missions Playable in 3D!
    * Playable in 5 Languages
        - English, Francais, Italiano, Deutsch, Espanol
    
    * Steam Leaderboards & Achievements

This game is looking to be very awesome, and has the "Gamerzitch, Seal of Approval".  It will be coming out in May to PlayStation 3, PS Vita, PC/Steam, WiiWare and XBLA for the low price, of $15.  You can pre-order the game for PC today over on the Retro City Rampage Website, which gives you access to not only the Steam version, but a DRM-Free version as well, you also get access to multiple pre-order bonuses, including a 20% off coupon, a mini-soundtrack, and a digital cover/cartridge label.

Rumor Mill: Half Life 3 Steam Achievements Leaked?

If you are a true gamer than you already know about Half Life aka the biggest FPS series of all time. The Orange Box which included Half Life 2: Episode 2 was released 4 years ago and there has been nothing regarding Half Life 3 or Half Life 2: Episode 3 since. After the success of Portal 2 some have speculated that Valve doesn't even need Half Life 3 since it can make successful games without the Half Life name.

But after the rumor about Half Life 3 being announced at the VGAs hit people got extremely excited. A reader over at Stickskills.com found possibly the holy grail of Half Life 3 information. He uncovered the Steam achievements for the game.

It was soon discovered that the page where the achievements were located abruptly vanished. And by vanished I mean brought up an error page. There's always the possibility that this is real information but then again, things like these tend to be busted.

Steam to Start Rolling Out Faster Downloads, Tease Dota 2 Release 'Soon'

Steam is arguably the best way to buy video games on the PC, however downloading those games is a rather lengthy affair, especially with large games like The Witcher 2. Well Valve is hoping to help improve the speed of Steam downloads via a new content system. All of the deep technical details have been detailed in a blog post.

To put it in layman's terms, downloading games, DLC, and other content will be a much quicker process. HD trailers are already utilizing this new download system, with the first major piece of content being the long awaited Dota 2.

While Valve announced Dota 2 a while ago, they haven't shown us what it looks like or when it's going to be released.

"Over time, more and more of the content on Steam will be delivered using this new system." Says Valve. "Soon, Dota 2 will be delivered using it."

The key word there is 'soon.' When it comes to Valve though we don't necessarily know what 'soon' means.

Rumors have pointed to Valve giving an official unveiling of Dota 2 at Gamescon, next month in Germany.

EA Games Start Disappearing From Steam

Lately Electronic Arts has been heavily pushing its new game distribution service Origin, claiming that it would be the only way to get the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic digitally. This raised a lot of questions, one of the biggest ones being how EA would continue to deal with Steam. It looks like we may have gotten an answer earlier today as we saw Crysis 2, Alice: Madness Returns, and Battlefield 3 all disappearing from the service.

Neither Valve or EA have commented on this yet, though other press outlets are reporting that a statement will be coming later today.

As of this moment you're still able to purchase older EA games such as Mass Effect 2, and Need for Speed games. It looks like EA is only holding back/pulling their upcoming and most recent titles with the hope to drive traffic to their new service.

As we learn more we'll let you know.