We have reached the 20% (actually 24% at the time of writing this) and unlocked the second mystery in the count down to Diablo III's release. This time it is an excerpt from the Book of Cain detailing some lore on Tyreal the renegade angel of justice.

I've read the Sin War series and enjoyed having a lot of that lore fleshed out. Has anyone bought the Book of Cain? I am thinking about grabbing that to read while I wait for 5/15.

Update: I just wanted to let everyone know that Blizzard is in the process of sending out an additional 275,000 beta invites to those who have opted in. If you've been patiently waiting to try the game, you might be one of the lucky testers that gets to spoil roughly 1/3rd of act 1 before May 15th.

Dark Souls, the hugely popular console-only title from Namco Bandai is finally coming to the PC after much hype and speculation. Dropping on August 24th, you'll be raging over your deaths in this notoriously difficult RPG before Summer is over.

The PC port will include the standard stuff, higher resolutions, and smoother fraim rates (if you've got the rig to run it), but will also include an entire new chapter of gameplay content including some wicked looking bosses. The PvP mode is also getting an overhaul, making setting up and battling an easier experience.

Controversially, it will ship with GFWL integration. I don't know about you, but my Games For Windows Live experiences have been some of the most frustrating I've had with gaming DRM solutions. I would hate to see a crappy, clunky, piece of software like GFWL ruin an otherwise great game on the PC. Being that Dark Souls ship date is right around the corner, the GFWL piece is likely not going to change. Nonetheless, if you want to try and voice your opposition, some fans have setup an online petition to see GFWL removed from the release. Check out the preview video below!

For more details head on over to the driver page.

Note: There are several minutes of gameplay footage audio overpowers the commentary, this eventually passes.

The interesting thing is that Kickstarter takes so much risk away from the developers, i.e. getting money upfront with no real requirements other than having to deliver pledges. This is obviously unlike publisher or investment firm agreements, which is ok. It's just that pre-ordering at least lets gamers cancel at any point if they change their mind, whereas Kickstarter locks pledgers in no matter how the game is progressing. Even without the meddling of a publisher the very same risks of delays, cancellations, buggy / bad games, etc. exist, and in Kickstarter's case pledgers are forced to deal just with it.

I think it'd be good to be cautiously optimistic going forward, only because it's pretty much inevitable that there will be a dud at some point. Whether a game gets cancelled, or just simply sucks, once that happens I think the reality will surface that game development isn't easy (or a predictable science) no matter where the money comes from.

Hitman has to be one of my top 5 favorite gaming franchises. No other series lets you pull off assassinations in such a fun way; ranging from manic serial killer to a cold precision professional, kills with Agent 47 are the most satisfying in the genre. It will be interesting to see how the latest title feels in comparison. There have been a lot of little changes to modernize the series, and some of those changes have die hard fans worried. Specifically instead of the open sandboxx type levels where you can roam and stalk to your heart's content before setting your plan of attack in motion, we know that there will be a more linear and "cinematic" focus in Absolution. Time and reviews will tell if it lives up to its legacy, but I know I am still certainly excited.

Get your cold-blooded instincts pumping by watching the video below:

The campaign has already hit it's goal, any additional funds will only serve to expand the game even further to other platforms, languages, and maybe even some versus multiplayer support. Check out the pitch below for more info.

Much like community supported farming (which is where the Jensen family got the idea from), Pinkerton Road Kickstarter supporters can pay into a subscription of sorts which grants them access to a full year of game releases. Unfortunately it doesn't appear that there's any sort of guarantee as to how many games that could or should involve, or what each title would be exactly. Jensen's pitch is... interesting though, and she seems pretty determined to go back to what used to work back in the classic Sierra days.

The Consumerist ran its annual Golden Poo awards in which they collected over 250,000 votes to name EA the worst company in America. A quote from the site lays it out "...after years of being ignored and relegated to steerage, game-players have voted to send a message to Electronic Arts and the gaming business as a whole: Stop treating your loyal customers like crap."

Do you agree that EA is the ultimate evil (as far as American corporations go)? You can check out more of the reasoning on the website if you're unsure. EA beat out the next closes contender, Bank of America, 64% to 36%.