There's no better way to flaunt your mastery of the art of having $55 than with the Kingdom Hearts 3D "Mark of Mastery" edition. The newly announced special edition comes with a clear 3DS case and a set of art cards that look like they can be slipped into said case, and five AR cards to unlock in-game Dream Eaters. All of this comes in a big box with a magnetic clasp.

This edition shows one of the advantages of portable games: the limited edition boxes don't cost quite as much as those for console games.

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It's not because I lack the requisite memory blocks and quantum computers to run Blizzard's latest, Diablo 3 – it's personal. You see, I'm genetically predisposed to Diablo. It's something I think about each and every day.

Diablo is a proper addiction to me. Diablo 2 is something I associate with the darkest moments of my life, when I skipped showers and seriously lived on Pop Tarts. My only comfort back then was the dim glow of the monitor and the random piece of treasure the game would occasionally drop for me as I toiled away hours doing nightmare-level Meph runs.

I have an addictive personality, as many of those who have met me in real life can attest. I eat horribly, can't seem to quit smoking cigarettes and have drunk to excess on occasion. The Diablo experience is like some kind of magical talisman created by the wizards of southern California that is meant to poke and prod that dark place inside me I actively ignore and deny every day of my life. Diablo brings out my greed and disdain for everything other than myself in the worst way.

But again, these are just words. They don't mean anything without examples, so I'm going to take you back to when I was in college and Diablo 2 ruined my life.

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Respawn Entertainment employees will attend this year's E3, but no, the studio won't be showing any new project at the big show. "Some of us will be present at E3, but we won't be showing anything or doing any press related to the game," Respawn community manager Abbie Heppe told Joystiq.

Thus far, little information exists on Respawn's first project. Aside from a single, extremely blurry screen and news that it's an EA Partners title, Respawn has kept the game out of the public eye. But with a team comprising many ex-Infinty Ward folks – the same folks who helped launch Call of Duty into the world of sports playoff trailer debuts – it's hard to imagine Respawn working on anything small.

Respawn wouldn't tell us whether the mystery project will be revealed this year, nor if the studio would attend the various gaming events scattered across the next several months. We're hoping for a surprise reveal during Tokyo Game Show, just to mess with the Japanese market.

Today's emergency meeting by Rhode Island officials to determine what they are going to do about Curt Schilling's 38 Studios has concluded with officials freezing like deer in headlights. Nothing happened.

Rhode Island's Economic Development Corporation will take no immediate action to aid the developer, following a closed-door meeting attended by Governor Lincoln Chafee and Schilling, who asked for additional help to save the company. Schilling refused to answer press inquiries and officials wouldn't declare how much money the studio is seeking.

"How do we avoid throwing good money after bad?" Chafee is quoted by the Associated Press as saying after the three-hour emergency meeting finished.

"The company still has the option to cure the existing default by paying the $1,125,000 guaranty fee that is past due," reads an official statement by the EDC board. "In the meantime, we will continue to talk with 38 Studios and develop additional information, and will resume the Board meeting at our regularly scheduled meeting on May 21. The members of the Board may not discuss the confidential information received and discussed today."

If the studio doesn't receive assistance, it appears Rhode Island taxpayers may very well be on the hook for the $75 million 38 Studios loan that, after interest, would require paying back $112.6 million through 2020.

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Browser-based FPS Offensive Combat is the new game from U4iA, a studio formed last year by Activision expats. It's an FPS with a mobile/tablet sidearm, described as working together "unlike any game before," though no further details beyond that were provided. The only other aspect U4iA revealed is customization, which we figure is the awesome lizard hat seen in the screenshot above.

U4iA was founded by Chris Archer and Dusty Welch, former Activision and Call of Duty vets. With Offensive Combat, the two hope to deliver "the most competitive multiplayer action ever seen within a browser." A beta for Offensive Combat kicks off this summer.

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Free-to-play shooter Tribes: Ascend has been downloaded 1.2 million times, a significant boost from the debatably framed 800K registered accounts from a month ago.

"It is truly the player support of the title that has driven the population growth and fuels our team to deliver updates," said Hi-Rez Studio COO Todd Harris. "We see the community expanding primarily thru positive word of mouth."

Hi-Rez Studios also noted over 110,000 people have joined Tribes: Ascend through the company's referral system. Our experience with the game since launch has been chronicled by our "Murderous Skier."

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Mikio Watanabe, Cave's executive vice president and COO, is leaving the company as of May 31 for personal reasons, according to a press release issued by the company today. Watanabe will continue as representative director until the next shareholder meeting in August. Following his departure, CEO Ito Masahito will become the only remaining representative director.

At the same time, the latest Famitsu magazine (reported by Andriasang) lists two Vita games by the publisher as canceled. One of the games is a Vita release of its casual/social castle building game Shirotsuku; the other is an unspecified shooter.

If you're feeling worried about the seemingly vulnerable company, now might be a good time to remind you that Akai Katana Shin, the company's latest Xbox 360 shooter, is out in North America this week.

As the November 6 launch of Halo 4 approaches, Microsoft is doling out more information about its multiplayer modes, collectively known as "Infinity Multiplayer" (surprise!). The game will introduce a brand new mode called Spartan Ops, which tells the story of the UNSC Infinity, the massive ship that serves as Halo 4's multiplayer hub (pictured). Spartan Ops will serve as an episodic continuation of Halo 4's campaign, with weekly cinematic episodes that "center on the UNSC Infinity leaders and crew, and a new team of Spartans – Majestic Squad." Each episode will include new missions, allowing one to four players to "explore the corners of Requiem in these objective-based missions, and help uncover the secrets of the mysterious Forerunner world."

Halo 4's competitive multiplayer will be known as War Games and, as previously detailed, will offer plenty of character progression and customization, such as armor specializations that enable "combat enhancements" tailored to specific play styles.

Both War Games and Spartan Ops are included with the standard edition of Halo 4, though those willing to pony up the dough for the $99 special edition will also receive 9 maps (to be doled out across three map packs after launch) and early access to six armor specializations.

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Microsoft revealed Halo 4's Limited Edition today, and there's not a cat helmet to be found. Instead, the $100 package gets you a fancy box, a "UNSC Infinity Briefing Packet," and a host of in-game bonuses, expanding the multiplayer experience.

The LE includes the "War Games Map Pack," a voucher for "three future competitive multiplayer map packs, each including three locations, available for download post-launch on Xbox Live." It also includes early access to six multiplayer Specializations, which will only be released at launch in this package; they'll be "released over time" to the general audience.

Other digital bonuses include an exclusive armor and weapon skin, an in-game emblem, and an Avatar prop. The LE also includes an "extended 90-minute version" of the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn video series, extra featurettes, and making-of videos.

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Searching for the proper metaphor for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2, the best I can conjure is a glass of milk. There's nothing really wrong with it per se, but it's not exactly exciting either. It has some good qualities and is mildly refreshing, but when's the last you time you raved about a glass of milk?

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We certainly didn't expect a 3DS spinoff of Lost Planet ... and we definitely didn't expect a 3DS-slash-PS3 spinoff. EX Troopers, revealed in this week's Famitsu magazine, is also unexpectedly anime styled, featuring manga panel cutscenes and a theme by Jpop star May'n.

EX Troopers takes place on EDN-3rd, in some kind of academy. Bren Turner is new in school, and seems to jump right into the Akrid fighting in what producer Shintaro Kojima describes as a beginners' action shooter.

No official images have been released yet (above is Lost Planet 3), but expect to see a lot of this, as Capcom indicated plans to use this IP outside of games, like its other "Single Content Multiple Usage" initiatives.

Along with a 3DS firmware update (which doesn't do anything interesting), a new patch sent to 3DSes yesterday closes up the Maka Wuhu shortcut, in Mario Kart 7. The patch is required for online play, so you will no longer see miraculous leaps forward on that particular course. The glitch still shows up in time trials.

Now you have only your own driving skill to rely on in Mario Kart. Well, that and blue shells. Actually, mostly blue shells. Now, you have only the random chance that you'll get a blue shell and not be hit by a blue shell to rely on.

The Xbox 360 has added a couple new entertainment apps for your audio-visual pleasure. Starting things off, in the States, there's the Manga app, which enables users to view full length episodes, movies and clips from the Manga Entertainment catalog.

For the northern parts of North America, MUZU.TV will we available to Xbox Live customers in the United States and Canada. MUZU is a ... (*googles*) apparently, it's a music video site, with over 40,000 mini musicals on demand.

Finally, Australians have upgraded FOXTEL with Kinect functionality. The virtual controls on that stuff aren't what one would call efficient, but Kinect compatibility is still worth it for the joys of "Xbox Pause" and "Xbox Play" functionality.

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Using words we don't quite understand, Nividia has announced a new platform that will conceivably make cloud gaming a much more viable prospect. The Geforce GRID platform features "dedicated ultra-low-latency streaming technology and cloud graphics software" and the company believes it will "fundamentally change the economics and experience of cloud gaming."

A single GRID unit houses two GPUs based on Nvidia's Kepler technology, which the company says are capable of maintaining eight separate game streams simultaneously, an attractive prospect for gaming service providers. Additionally, "fast streaming technology" will supposedly drop server latency to "as little as 10 milliseconds," which, as we understand it, is pretty fast. So fast that GRID could potentially stream very high-end games to virtually any device, from phone to TV to toaster. Furthermore, Nvidia is working with smart TV manufacturers to reduce ethernet input lag so that, in theory, Gaikai could have latency on par with a console connected via HDMI (or slightly lower latency, if you believe the graph above).

Of course, we'll have to wait and see how everything works out in practice, but the possibilities are, in a word, crazypants.

If there's a serious dearth of racers on your iDevice, RedLynx is looking to fill that void with a free download of MotoHeroz. Originally debuting on WiiWare, this game is – well, it's basically Trials. If you haven't heard of Trials, then you really need to start reading our site more.

In short, MotoHeroz is a physics-based side-scrolling racer with platforming elements and a really depressing leaderboard where your friends show you how much better they are at the game. MotoHeroz is free to download on all iOS devices running version 4.1 or greater.

Like the TARDIS, the PS3 is "bigger on the inside," capable of holding an entirely new Doctor Who adventure within its slim casing. The BBC announced today that Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock will be released "globally" on PlayStation Network Wednesday, May 23, and in UK retail the following Friday. "We really appreciate your patience as we've been making sure the game is perfect for all you eager fans," said executive producer Simon Harris, referencing the two-month delay of the game, which made the title unfortunately ironic.

The brief announcement on the PlayStation Blog did not offer any release dates for the announced PC or PlayStation Vita versions. It also doesn't tell us if the game will finally reveal the fate of the Doctor's daughter Samantha.

The full PlayStation downloads list for April – as opposed to the sneak peek we got thanks to Pulse earlier this month, where the list is not segregated by platform – has been released and Ubisoft's I Am Alive was indeed the top download. On the PS3 and PSN list, thatgamecompany's Journey followed Ubisoft's long-awaited title. Reverge Labs' debut Skullgirls managed to snag the third spot.

On the PS Vita side, Escape Plan continued to dominate – no surprise since there's not much else for the PS Vita right now, though that changes today. Modern Warfare 3's Content Collection #1 drop on PSN also did well, topping out the PS3 add-on category. Finally, Final Fantasy VII was the top PSOne Classic, but then again you already knew that because it's always Final Fantasy VII.

Ubisoft is celebrating the gorgeous, inviting weather of May with a sale on PSN titles designed to keep you indoors for days. Today through May 22, a large Ubisoft lineup is 30 percent off for standard PSN users and 50 percent off for PlayStation Plus members.

Titles include Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Scott Pilgrim, Prince of Persia Classic Trilogy HD and Far Cry 2, among other full games and DLC packs. Check out the full list and prices below, you hermit.

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