Square-Enix has announced that Final Fantasy XIII-2′s DLC run has come to an end with the release of “Lightning’s Story: Requiem of the Goddess” and “Snow’s Story: Perpetual Battlefield.”

Kirby hates when we talk DLC on the site, but I never listen to him and this story rates over an 8. Both stories unlock their titular protagonist to be used in the main story’s party after their conclusion and the obligatory coliseum battle. Lightning DLC will cost 400MSP ($4.99) and Snow’s DLC will cost 320MSP ($3.99). The kicker in this story is that Lightning’s Story will introduce a new ending to the game. Yep, we’ve come to the point where we are paying for game’s endings *tear*.

In the last week we have seen an outbreak of delays. Well today the epidemic hit Obsidian Studio’s South Park: The Game. Originally “South Park” had an undefined 2012 release date, that has now changed to an undefined 2013 release date.

South Park: The Game is still shrouded in mystery as not much details have been given since its unveiling in Game Informer magazine earlier this year. No reason for the delay was cited, but with such little information known it’s not hard to imagine the game still needs more time

Addressing the company’s on-going stance of having some DLC on-disc to help “ensure for a smooth transition when the DLC is available, allowing players who choose not to purchase the content the ability to play against players that did” Capcom VP Christian Svensson posted the following letter on Capcom Unity.

“Hey guys,

We’ve been getting several questions, here and elsewhere about the future of on-disc DLC.

We would like to assure you that we have been listening to your comments and as such have begun the process of re-evaluating how such additional game content is delivered in the future. As this process has only just commenced in the past month or so, there will be some titles, where development began some time ago and that are scheduled for release in the coming months, for which we are unable to make changes to the way some of their post release content is delivered.

One such title is Dragon’s Dogma, where the decision to include some additional (but not all planned additional) game content for the game on disc was made at the beginning of the game’s development cycle as at the time this was determined to be the most efficient way of ensuring certain content was made available. Owners of Dragon’s Dogma will be able to further their gameplay experience with the release of additional quests, weapons and other items in the months following the game going on sale.

Dragon’s Dogma’s  post-launch content will extend the lifespan of a title that already offers around 30-40 hours of gameplay by following the main story thread, but if a player was to complete all the side quests Dragon’s Dogma ships with, that increases to around 100 hours. Players will also be able to add to the stock of 100s of weapons and 1,000s of customization options to create not only their ideally equipped, but also their most elaborately designed character.

Just wanted people to know in advance the whys, wherefores and where we’re going in the future. You are being heard. Thanks.”

Here’s hoping they realize the error of their ways… and that Resident Evil 6 doesn’t have on-disc DLC.

The Tomb Raider franchise showed a promising reboot at E3 2011, since then we’ve seen the game evolve to something even non Tomb Raider fans were anticipating its release. Well the masses will have to wait just a bit longer. Tomb Raider has been delayed from a Fall 2012 window to Q1 2013 .

“A Message to the Tomb Raider Community

When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about. The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of. We truly believe that we have something very special on our hands and we can’t wait to share it with you.

Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game. In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.

Darrell Gallagher”

Marcus “Notch” Persson has confirmed via Twitter that the newly ported Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has already surpassed the 1 million copies sold plateau.

The game was released on Xbox Live on May 9th and much like it’s various iterations became an instant success. So congratulations to Mr. Persson and the staff at Mojang may you have continued success!

Remember. Release dates are quite literally made at the whims of the publisher.  The following are subject to change without any warning.

Releases To Watch For This Week

Max Payne 3 (Xbox 360, PS3)

Tuesday May 8, 2012
Poor Max Payne. The guy just can’t catch a break. Starting with the death of his wife and newborn kid in Max Payne, his life just keeps going down the drain. Just when it can’t get any worse like it did in Max Payne 2, he finds himself in a sequel to this third person shooter series where his life will undoubtedly get even worse.

Several years after Max Payne 2, Max Payne has left New York City altogether and finds himself in Brazil working private security for a wealthy businessman, Rodrigo Branco. Unfortunately for Payne, Branco’s wife got kidnapped on the night he was supposed to be protecting her. Now Payne must shoot his way to find her and clear his name.

The original Max Payne introduced the Bullet Time mechanic to video games, and this iteration continues that tradition. Like before, Payne will be able to slow down time to help you aim as well as to help you avoid fire since you can see each and every bullet fired at you. It also makes the times Payne jump through the air with guns blazing that much more balletic than in normal time. As overpowering as this may sound, consider the fact that Payne does not have regenerative health. Unlike many, many other shooters, Payne will have to rely on finding health items and whatnot to regain health, which makes the need to avoid damage that much more integral. Hopefully Bullet Time will help you avoid most of it.

Stranglehold once tried to implement Bullet Time in its multiplayer mode where everybody enters Bullet Time the second anyone starts it. It didn’t work out all that well, but perhaps Max Payne 3 has the solution to that.

Unlike its predecessors, Max Payne 3 has a multiplayer component. It follows much of the conventions of current multiplayer shooters such as customizable load outs, a leveling system, Deathmatch, team modes, customizable appearances, and whatnot, but it does stand out with the Burst system. After the adrenaline meter builds up enough through skillful play, you will be able to activate specific abilities like forcing a player to drop all of his grenades fully primed or disguising yourself as an enemy. Oddly enough, it can also activate Bullet Time. Instead of slowing everybody down like in Stranglehold, it only slows down you and anyone in your line of sight. It kinda makes you wonder what that scene will look like from the outside though doesn’t it.

Gamers didn’t exactly fall in love with Max Payne’s because of its awesome shooting mechanics, which makes one wonder the relevance of the multiplayer component. They fell in love with the Noir story of Max Payne. I sometime wonder if the series depend on people’s schadenfreude for Payne more so than anything else. Multiplayer’s legitimacy aside, Max Payne 3 has shaped up to be very pretty graphically speaking and a real treat for animation fans thanks to the seamless way Payne’s different animations blend into each other. Let’s see if people can put down their mouse long enough to take a look at Max Payne 3.

Coming This Week

Tuesday May 15, 2012

Battleship (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, 3DS, DS)

Let me say this right up front. No. This movie tie-in does not include the actual game of Battleship. It actually has more in common with Crysis, given the FPS parts of the game and the aliens part, than the board game. Although occasionally you do control ships to fire some gun batteries, but you never actually say “Fire on B-7,” or anything like that. I can’t wait for the movie version of Monopoly.

Game of Thrones (Xbox 360, PS3)

On the bright side, at least the general setting of Game of Thrones does make some sense for a video game, until you realize that the true nature of the Game of Thrones series doesn’t exactly lend itself to being a video game. That doesn’t seem to be stopping Cyanide from trying though. This RPG looks to play a little bit like Dragon Age complete with a circular menu to choose skills to activate and an obligatory skill tree. Unlike Dragon Age, or any Bioware games for that matter, conversations will be a touch more subtle in terms of its outcome. Now which option lets me sleep with my sister?

Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends (Xbox 360, PS3)

Can’t get enough Ferraris? Wish you could drive every Ferrari? Well, your wishes just came true. This sim racer comes with over 50 Ferrari models with a buttload of tracks to drive them on. Just don’t look for anything deeper other than living out your Ferrari wish fulfillment though because it’s fairly light on any feature that doesn’t involve you driving a Ferrari.

Akai Katana (Xbox 360)

I love watching videos of people playing insane shoot’em ups, especially if they’re playing a Cave shooter. Renown for their difficulty, Shmups made by Cave test its player’s fine motor skills and their ability to see opennings in the waves of bullets thrown at you. Akai Katana represents Cave’s first horizontal shmup, and in classic shmup fashion tells an insane story about flying samurais with magical katanas capable of unleashing swarms of bullets and opening portals for vehicles of doom to pop through and unleash hell. Good luck.

Sunday May 20, 2012

Mario Tennis Open (3DS)

For a fellow who looks like he could lose a few pounds, Mario sure plays a lot of sports doesn’t he? We haven’t seen him play Tennis in a long while, but it looks like he’ll be making a come back to it here. In addition to buttons, you’ll also be able to play with the touch screen Super Street Fighter IV 3DS style, meaning the touch screen gets segmented into different buttons representing the various tennis strikes you can execute. Also a first for the series, Mario Tennis Open supports online play for doubles and singles matches. Happy volleying.

May day blues got you down? Well we have the podcast for you! This week we break down our monthly NPDs, shed a tear for the delay of a AAA game, and split your sides with LOL news. We walk with the dead in what we’re playing and discus the antiquated convention of boss battles. It’s Last Podcast episode 67, and no one can resist our hot, hot jam!

For this episode and more subscribe by visiting The Last Podcast presented by RRB Games RSS feed or by subscribing to our podcast using Apple’s iTunes or Microsoft’s Zune.

Remember. Release dates are quite literally made at the whims of the publisher.  The following are subject to change without any warning.

Honorable Mention

Starhawk (PS3)

Tuesday May 8, 2012
I still want an actual sequel to the PS1 Warhawk. I’m sure that game wasn’t actually all that good, which is why I want an updated version that builds on it. Instead we got a multiplayer only sequel and this, which barely counts given the only similarity between this and the two Warhawk titles before it is the word “hawk” in the title. At least this time around, it has a single player component.

In Starhawk humanity has colonized space and discovered a new form of energy simply called Rift. Like any good McGuffin energy source, it has certain undesirable qualities like turning people into raving mutants that want to tear out the throats of non-raving mutants (strange how groups of crazy mutant people always turn out that way). These hapless colonist and miners must defend themselves from these mutants, and Emmet Graves, a partially mutated colonist, may be able to help them out with that.

Like the PS3 Warhawk, Starhawk plays like your usual third person shooter, but it distinguishes itself in two ways. First it emphasizes the vehicles like the eponymous Starhawk, which by the way can transform into a mech in addition to being a badass starship. That one may have been carried over from the predecessor, but it certainly helps Starhawk stand out from most shooters. The most important difference lies in the elements it derives from the Real Time Strategy genre.

Emmit can build structures. Sort of. To be more exact, he makes a call for a structure request, and that structure falls from outer space to where ever you wanted it to fall (Space Santa Claus is awesome!). These structures range from garages that come with vehicles to automated turrets to help you defend your newly made base. Unlike most RTS games though, the very act of creating/calling-in a structure can be used offensively by calling in a structure right on the heads of an enemy unit.

What game with RTS elements wouldn’t have a multiplayer component? The main focus will be team based with each side creating their bases around a source of Rift energy, but players can actually call down structures anywhere on the field. How often do you come across an RTS game where getting a turret inside an enemy base is a viable strategy?

The last Warhawk eschewed any kind of a single player component, which in general raises the bar of entry simply because the veteran players makes it nigh impossible for most newcomers to get good. Although many who have played it generally lauded it, it ultimately could not gain traction in a landscape that has Call of Duty in it. Perhaps Starhawk’s single player component will help this spiritual successor soar. That is if Battle.net “accidentally” go offline long enough for gamers to notice this game.

As if I don’t have enough to do in Skyrim, Bethesda has announced new DLC this summer for its massive, seemingly endless-in-a-good-way RPG.

Bethesda announced that the expansion would be called Dawnguard and it would be coming out this summer on the Xbox 360. More details will be announced at E3.

I’ve been playing this game since Christmas and I have clocked well over 100 hours. I still haven’t even visited certain cities and still have all kinds of quests on my to-do list. I’ve just now re-started the main quest and plan to “beat” the game. This is just…this is just too much.

Source: Bethesda

Remember. Release dates are quite literally made at the whims of the publisher.  The following are subject to change without any warning.

20/20

Okamiden (DS)

Original Release Date: March 15, 2011
The DS may be on its way to retirement, but if history is to be believed, the retirement phase of any given system usually gives us some of its best, but overlooked titles. Released right on the heels of the 3DS’s release, Okamiden was poised to be the DS’s swan song. News of both Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 and Pokemon Black/White 2 titles for the DS came afterwards stripping away the title of the swan song from Okamiden. Nevertheless, this DS title shines anyways.

This sequel to the PS2 cult hit, Okami continues the story of the land of Nippon. Nine months have passed since Amaterasu, the wolf god protagonist of the original, banished all evil from the world and went back to the heavens. Now a new evil has arisen, and only Chibiterasu, Amaterasu’s son, can stop it. Like its predecessor, Okamiden centers around Chibiterasu’s ability to use the Celestial Brush to do various things like create bombs or slash enemies. Being able to do this with an actual analogue to a paintbrush (thank you stylus) instead of faking it with the analog stick on the DualShock makes all the difference though.

Like Okami, Okamiden impressed the critics with its Zelda-esque qualities, the Japanese Sumi-e inspired art style, and engaging mechanics garnering a Metacritic score of 82 out of 48 reviews, but too much like its predecessor, gamers seem to have overlooked it again. VGChartz pegs its sales numbers at about 40,980 unit for its opening week. Like most video game sales, it went downhill fast afterwards. Admittedly, getting interested in a DS game these days can be a little bit tough given the 3DS recent rise in popularity, but gamers looking for a Zelda-esque adventure without the staleness inherent to the property these days really should check out this little gem, because we may never get anything like it ever again if these sales trend persist.

Coming This Week

Tuesday May 1, 2012

Sniper Elite V2 (Xbox 360, PS3)

Not everyone wants to be the front line infantryman charging into enemy territory guns blazing. As the name implies, Sniper Elite V2 puts you in the shoes of a sniper, but unlike most First Person Shooters that boils down sniping to nothing but putting the crosshairs on the enemy’s face before pulling the trigger, sniping actually requires you to factor in wind, the gravity’s pull on your bullet, the muzzle attached to your rifle, and even your own heartbeat. You better make your shots count because I’d like to see you do the math on all that while the guy starts shooting back at you.

Late to the Party

• Mortal Kombat (Vita) 5/1/2012