Rockstar has announced the Max Payne Rockstar Pass, a way to pre-order all Max Payne DLC at once for 35% off the cost of the individual packs. That equates to 2400 Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360 or USD $29.99 (around NZD $37 currently) on PlayStation and PC.

According to Rockstar, the first DLC will be a map pack called "Local Justice", and will include a police precinct map for gang wars, deathmatch, team deathmatch and Payne killer multiplayer modes; two additional maps for deathmatch, team deathmatch and Payne Killer; as well as precinct-themed multiplayer avatar items, multiplayer challenges, and more. It's expected in June.

Winter will bring map packs titled "Disorganized Crime" and Hostage Negotiation", as well as "Made In Heaven" and "New York Minute" – deathmatch and co–op packs respectively.

 

Kinect voice support is included in the latest Skyrim Xbox 360 update.

With the Kinect enabled, 200 commands may be issued using voice alone, including hotkey assignments, directions to followers, inventory and map navigation and manipulation, barter, and more - see the images below for a full list.

Shouts may be made in English or Dragon, the latter requiring the player to hold the right bumper while speaking. Receiving mockery from flatmates is context-sensitive.

 

It’s slim pickings as far as the mech genre’s concerned these days, but the Armored Core series is an old hand, and a welcome one at that.

This time around the mechs, canonically known as ACs, are leaner and meaner than ever. Standing only five metres tall on averege, the strategic focus has consequently been shifted back from button-mashing to group tactics and intelligent use of terrain.

There’s not much of a story to be found in this title, bar the traditional “Resistance versus the Man” trope, but there doesn’t need to be. Armored Core has always been all about finicky customisation, finding that perfect balance between death-dealing and survivability in the garage, before heading out to the killing fields. The in-game tutorials go some way to decrypting the intricacies of mech-mechanics for the uninitiated, but most recruits will probably resort to trial and error, picking up the finer nuances of 21st Century combat along the way.