Here’s the debut trailer for Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012.

6 new shots posted.

We lay siege to a haunted house during our hands-on cooperative session with Dungeon Siege III.

When we last visited the world of Dungeon Siege III, we helped young Lucas Mont Barron escape the burning Mont Barron estate, adventured through the countryside, and rescued a supposed Archon, Anjali, from some cultists. Now, we’re back in developer Obsidian Entertainment’s action role-playing world.

However, this time Lucas and Anjali are teaming up for some cooperative gameplay as we go hands-on to investigate the spooky Gunderic Manor.

Once again, we stepped into the young adventurer’s shoes. Adept with a sword and shield, Lucas is a strong melee fighter who excels at powerful blows against single targets.

Our co-op companion was Anjali, a fiery mage with some crowd-control abilities. Our mission was to help Leona, a witch looking to set up shop in the dilapidated Gunderic Manor. We agreed to investigate the manor for her and clear out any malcontents (or homeless people) we found within it.

The quest started out easily enough. The manor seemed to be deserted until we encountered Alise Gunderic, one of the manor’s former inhabitants. Specifically, we encountered the ghost of Alise Gunderic, who pleaded with us to destroy the Heart of Nagog.

According to her, this item was the one thing binding her soul to the mortal realm. Having only just met her, we decided to trust her completely and agreed to help without another word.

All of the gargoyles and skeletons outside must have overheard our conversation because after we exited the room, they all sprang to life and attacked. What a mistake on their part.

It didn’t take us long to fall back into the easy rhythm of Dungeon Siege III’s combat. Our role was simple: Get in front of the enemies and dish out as much hurt as possible.

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Snowblind Studios explores the previously unseen northern battles of Middle-earth in this action role-playing game.

We’ve seen games individually based on the Lord of the Rings films and books, but we haven’t seen a game that encompassed nearly all major media birthed from Tolkien’s fantasy universe until now.

Warner Bros. and Snowblind Studios have license to use both the films and the books in their upcoming action role-playing game Lord of the Rings: War in the North. While this ostensibly lets the development team at Snowblind borrow visual elements from the films and stay closer to the lore of the books, their relationship with the fantasy universe created by Tolkien even goes deeper. The Tolkien estate is working in conjunction with the development team on the new story, overseeing details to ensure that it fits in within the rest of the Lord of the Rings canon.

War in the North occurs around the same time as the War of the Ring in which Frodo and Sam make their way to Mordor as the rest of Middle-earth fends off Sauron. And much like that story, War in the North focuses on the fellowship of a dunedain (ranger), dwarf, and elf attempting to fend off Sauron’s armies in the north headed by one of Sauron’s top lieutenants, Agandaur. Using this fellowship as the foundation for gameplay means that you’re never alone.

You always have direct control over one member of the fellowship whether you’re playing alone or with two other people. But if you are playing solo, then the AI will take over the other members. Additionally, if you’re playing as the dwarf but feel like switching to the ranger, you’ll have opportunities to switch at various hub areas.

The reason you might want to switch, and the reason why you’re always playing with two other characters at any given time, is that members of the team have their own strengths and skills that are designed to work more effectively when used in conjunction with each other. For example, Farin the dwarf is the tank of the group, which means he’s most effective when engaged in melee combat. In fact, one of his special abilities, called war cry, is even designed to draw enemies toward him and away from his teammates who might have a harder time standing toe-to-toe with more powerful foes.

This war cry skill also makes him impervious to knockdown strikes, but he can still take damage, and you would do well to use evasive moves while in this state. Meanwhile, Eradan the ranger is formidable at both close and long range, but he has the ability to surprise enemies with his special stealth skills. Finally, Andriel the elf can be used primarily as a support-ranged character because one of her skills lets her cast an orb that simultaneously heals other members of the fellowship and deflects enemy projectiles.

However, she can also dual-wield various weapons, which can make her effective in close combat.

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Eidos Montreal reveals release date for long-awaited cyberpunk action-RPG; UK release set for August 26.

The traditional press release may want to watch its back, as more and more companies are using Twitter to make major announcements. The latest example comes from Eidos Montreal, which today used the microblogging service to reveal the release date for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Square Enix’s long-in-development action role-playing game will arrive on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on August 23 in North America and August 26 in the UK.

Deus Ex will be available in two versions: The regular $60 edition and a $70 Augmented Edition. The latter will include premium packaging for the game, a 40-page art book, a DVD with behind-the-scenes features, and a motion graphic novel included on a bonus disc. Players who preorder from specialty retailer GameStop will get a new mission–complete with a cameo from original Deus Ex protagonist JC Denton–as well as in-game assists in the form of a grenade launcher, explosives, and an automatic lock pick.

Developer Eidos Montreal has said it wants to stay true to the spirit of the original Deus Ex, allowing players to choose their own approach to each level. Depending on the augmentations players choose, they can go through each part of the game with a focus on combat, stealth, hacking, or even social interactions. For more on the game, check out GameSpot’s previous coverage.

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We go hands-on with the exiled prince himself, Sebastian Vael, in Dragon Age II’s upcoming DLC pack.

Dragon Age II is almost upon us, along with the game’s first downloadable content pack: The Exiled Prince. It’s no secret that some fans were less than thrilled with the implementation of the previous Dragon Age’s DLC.

This time developer BioWare has tried to craft a content pack catered to their desires by extending the game’s storyline and not deviating from the main party.

On the eve of Dragon Age II’s release, we got the chance to try out this upcoming content pack and put the noble Sebastian Vael through his paces.

“All of the quests in The Exiled Prince revolve around a coup that you learn took place in the city of Starkhaven, elsewhere in the Free Marches,” explained Ferret Baudoin, lead designer for The Exiled Prince. “During the coup, all of Starkhaven’s ruling family was killed in a bloody massacre, except one: Sebastian Vael. Sebastian was third in line for the throne of Starkhaven, always overshadowed by his elder brothers.

So he led a life of excess–wine, women, and song. In the process, he became a headache for his father, who decided that Sebastian would do better with a life of religious contemplation in Kirkwall.”

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GDC 2011: We get a taste of combat in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Developers 38 Studios and Big Huge Games took the opportunity at this year’s Game Developers Conference to show off their new action role-playing game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Founded by former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling, 38 Studios has assembled a talented cast from across the entertainment industry to bring its primer title to life.

These include Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion lead designer Ken Rolston.

We got the chance to peek into their fantasy world during a hands-off demonstration last week.

We began in a crypt, knee-deep in a pile of corpses. All we knew was that our character had recently died. Now, he was alive once more, thanks to the efforts of an excited gnome that had appeared on a balcony overhead. However, the one-sided conversation was cut short as the gnome urged our character–a blond-haired bruiser decked out in a pair of long johns–to arm himself against the crypt’s hostile inhabitants. Our character lifted a broadsword from a nearby corpse, and right on cue, he was attacked by a skeleton warrior.

As the two traded blows, the developers explained how they had integrated some traditional action game combat mechanics, such as launcher attacks and enemy juggling, into Reckoning. Each attack from our character was controlled with just one button, with variations in timing determining which attack was used. Our character opened with three quick strikes; then, he performed the same series again and paused slightly after the second hit before attacking again. This triggered an upward slash that lurched the enemy into the air, leaving him vulnerable to more hits.

With the battle concluded, our character collected some loot from the skeleton’s body. As it turned out, the fiend had a bit of a leather fetish because he was holding a pair of leather pants, boots, and armor. These items could be compared against our character’s current equipment and even equipped from the loot screen if we wanted. The developers made it clear that they wanted all of the customization options found in a traditional role-playing game, but without all the cumbersome menu diving found in other releases.

As we exited the crypt, our pilot skipped us ahead to the city of Didenhil. This scenic forest village served as one of the game’s main quest hubs. Here, we received a crash course on item crafting as our character produced a special gem that, when socketed with our broadsword, created a flaming broadsword. To help demonstrate how awesome this new sword was, he chased down an unsuspecting chicken and used it to punt the creature clear across town and into a small pond. It was an impressive shot.

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