Being a fan of puzzle adventure games, I couldn’t pass up the chance to play Toki Tori 2 on the PAX show floor. What’s not to love about an adorable yellow bird tromping around a brightly animated forest? I got a hands-on with Two Tribe’s second installment, yet first attempt at publishing a completely independent game, and was delightfully surprised!

Two Tribes launched the original Toki Tori over a decade ago for the Game Boy Color. I haven’t played the first one for comparison, but the developers assured me that the …

[Disclosure: I'm a volunteer on their advisory panel, along with some other familiar faces you may know.]
The floodgates have opened at GameLaunched.com, a new crowdfunding company focused on the games industry with international appeal. You’re probably already familiar with sites like GoFundMe, IndieGogo, and Kickstarter, so I needn’t explain the concept further. Their niche focus is commendable. Unlike the other guys, Veronica Mars can’t just waltz in and push brilliant indie gaming projects out of the spotlight unless she’s ready to help sell the gaming industry a proper female lead. Thus, niche is …

With BioShock Infinite‘s impending release, Irrational and 2K are showing off how the team created Elizabeth, Booker’s enthusiastic companion. It’s always interesting to see how many people are integral to the creation of a single character, and how much work went into making her — hopefully — believable. 
Actress Courtnee Draper details the challenges of bringing her to life just with her voice, while Heather Gordon, who gave the physical performance for Elizabeth, explains how she had to tell the character’s story through movement. The way the team talks about Elizabeth …

This week’s Steam sale is offering up to 75% off on select titles. Most notable is Binary Domain going for $6.24, sleeper hit of 2012. Plus there’s Cities XL Platinum at 33% off. Platinum was released just last month, and the sale right now comes at the right time. Plus, it has a pretty funny trailer.
Here’s the full list of game at their current sale prices. Anything you plan on picking up?

Grotesque Tactics 2 – Dungeons and Donuts — $2.49
Grotesque Tactics 1 and 2 pack — $3.74
Binary Domain — $6.24
Cities …

Zombie Studios has confirmed Daylight will be playable at PAX East 2013. The upcoming horror game has been attracting quite a lot of attention since it was announced back in February, and PAX East attendees will be able to play a demo of the game for the first time — lucky twits.
Zombie Studios will also be letting attendees play around with Blacklight: Retribution‘s recently released Onslaught mode which will be located at the Intel Gaming booth; there will be an Onslaught competition at Intel’s booth, with the winner receiving a custom Retribution PC.

Via Destructoid

The future of the TimeSplitters franchise looked bleak when Free Radical was bought by Crytek and nothing was heard of the series in some time. Now, a fan-made TimeSplitters game will see the light of day before the end of the year, thanks to Crytek and some former Free Radical devs.
Eurogamer is reporting that the game entitled TimeSplitters Rewind is being made using the CryEngine and with assets from the original game, with the blessings of Crytek. Despite fan petitions support for a new TimeSplitters hasn’t been vocal enough to …

Seems like you can’t turn around these days for great videogame bundle deals. Right now, you’ve got just over 24 hours to save on some great adventure games published by WadjetEye Games. There’s a fairly simple pay what you want option with some cool unlockable bonuses. 
For a minimum of $1, you’ll get Gemini Rue and Puzzle Bots, along with the soundtracks to four games in the Blackwell franchise. If you pay over $5, you’ll also get the rather excellent Resonance and four full Blackwell games. Now that 3,000 bundles have …

Valve distanced themselves from Xi3′s Piston via a public statement that came after an announcement that the Steam-ready console would cost $1,000. Now, Xi3′s CEO says Valve asked him to build the Piston and that Gabe Newell requested that he keep details to himself on the project.
According to Jason A. Sullivan, founder, president and CEO of Xi3 Corporation, in a statement given to Kotaku, Valve initiated the $1,000 console, invested in it, and showed it off at its booth at CES, this year.
Valve marketing head Doug Lombardi’s statement from earlier …

Dean “Rocket” Hall and the rest of the folks at Bohemia Interactive have been pretty busy working on the standalone version of DayZ and this new developer video helps shed some light on what they have been polishing. Improvements to player health, inventory, and zombie pathfinding have been made, as well as implementing zombie spwaning from the server-side. A full breakdown of the features discussed in the video can be found on the developer’s blog.
It has been said before but, it is still really impressive to see a mod take off with …

Indie Royale’s latest collection of games has launched today, featuring six titles in the “Debut Bundle,” so named for bringing Windows versions of four games and two which are the first commercial release for their studios. As usual, the games are offered at a low minimum price, which increases during the length of the promotion but can be reduced by the good will of folks willing to cough up more than the minimum. Plus, there are a few other bonus goodies and, if you spend above the $8 threshold, they’re …