A late Friday announcement has revealed that Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed will be coming to the big screen on Memorial Day, May 22, in 2015. Previously, we learned that Michael Fassbender would both be starring an co-producing the game-gone-movie and that filming was aimed to begin this summer. Not much else is known, the project doesn't even have a director yet, but the reality of this movie's existence is quite apparent.

Assassin's Creed is being made by Ubisoft's newly formed studio, formed only in January, Ubisoft Motion Pictures in conjunction with 20th Century Fox. UMP is also in the process of kicking off production of Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon movies. With this release announcement, Assassin's Creed appears to have taken the lead in development.

However, it should be noted that Ubisoft could be playing a very risky game with the Assassin's Creed movie. There's no argument that Memorial Day is one of the biggest weekends for movies in the year, but dear me there is going to be huge competition. Launching three weeks earlier will be Avengers 2, sequel to the highest grossing movie ever. Also expected to launch in the weeks prior to Memorial Day? The next Star Wars movie. Let's hope everyone wants to see a few movies on Memorial Day.

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag will be launching this fall, which should help us measure just how excited gamers still are about the Assassin's Creed franchise. Or will the success of the game going into 2015 even matter considering its overall success to date? Time will tell.

Praise be! Dust: An Elysian Tail's XBLA exclusivity window has come to an end and will be coming to PC, via Steam, on May 24. Yes, that's just one week away! One of the most brilliant 2D side-scrolling action games in years is finally spreading its wings on another platform. Oh, to finally experience Dust's hand-painted art in glorious resolutions only capable on a computer monitor. 

For those who missed it the first time Dust: An Elysian Tail is the story of ... err, Dust, a mysterious figure and his powerful sword the Blade of Ahrah. The Blade empowers Dust with insane strength and so we get the intense "easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master" combat system therein. Basically, things start with genocide and every goes to hell from there. Dust: An Elysian Tail will surprise you, I promise.

Check out Dust: An Elysian Tail on PC, via Steam, starting May 24 for $14.99. Expect a small discount during launch week, however. It'd normally be a preorder bonus, but it doesn't appear that Dust will be taking preorders. That mean's you'll have to flag your calendar yourself! Don't let this one pass you by. Oh, here's a quick reminder, Dust: An Elysian Tail was made by one dude -- just one -- over the span of almost four years. Mind boggling.

Back when Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was known as Metal Gear Solid: Rising, it was slated to arrive on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Then came the name change and developer switch, and MGR:R dropped the PC side. However, in a recent interview, series creator Hideo Kojima confirmed a PC port of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is on the way.

PC gamers had been demanding a version for their platform for some time, and luckily Kojima listened to them. He didn't reveal a ton of details on the PC version, not even when we can expect it, but at least it'll be on the way. At the very least it should carry better quality visuals, but seeing as how the console version already runs at 60FPS, it won't need a frame rate bump. Keyboard optimized controls would be a plus, especially since not every PC gamer likes using a controller.

Hopefully once more information arrives, maybe at E3, we'll have a better idea of what the PC port of MGR:R will be like. There's a decent amount of DLC for the console versions, so that'd be rather nice to have on the PC, too.

The Wonderful 101 was initially announced as one of the Wii U's "launch window" titles which were supposed to hit before the end of March. That didn't happen. Then we were left wondering if it was even in development anymore. Today Nintendo President Iwata sated our fears with a five second announcement. The Wonderful 101's new release date is September 15. Damn.

It's tough news condsidering The Wonderful 101 was my favorite Wii U game during E3 last year, prior to the console's launch. Things change, obviously. The Wii U hasn't received the expected support from third parties and consumers haven't felt the need to invest in the console's first party future. As such, The Wonderful 101 is now part of Nintendo plan to have a great holiday 2013 season rather than a great launch window.

That's really all there is to say. All that Iwata showed today on The Wonderful 101 was the logo above and a release date. I expect the game to be playable at E3 again this year -- hell, the game's probably been done for months and is just waiting for strategic release. Anyway, expect more information soon.

Layoffs are never a pleasant thing to talk about, but we need to be aware when they happen. The latest major studio to be affected is Trion Worlds, the creators of Defiance and RIFT. According to reports, layoffs reportedly spanned all Trion studios, and suggested numbers run as high as 80% of staff were let go.

Trion's San Diego studio, responsible for the development of Defiance, was apparently hit the hardest. According to IGN's unnamed sources, employees were actually being escorted out of the building, and senior staff from numberous Trion dev teams may not be receiving severance packages due to "undelivered services."

Another source mentioned "mostly Defiance support staff and dev staff" were laid off.

Trion Worlds did release a statement, after rumors of the layoffs hit the Internet. A representative remarked that the 80% estimate was "grossly exaggerated," and the statement states that RIFT staff was unaffected by layoffs.

"To best position Trion in a rapidly changing industry, we have reorganized our teams and are expanding our free to play offering. With Defiance, we delivered a great game that more than one million gamers registered to play and continue to enjoy. As we progress from launch to ongoing development of the game, we are adjusting our staffing levels to deliver new content and improved features. RIFT, and our other titles in development, were unaffected by these changes. We are very much looking forward to the free to play release of RIFT and are excited by the other new titles currently in development."

This news comes a week after Trion confirmed development for five more Defiance add-ons, including a new playable race, this year. More recently, high-fantasy MMO RIFT finally went free-to-play.

Team Fortress 2 updates have returned! "Robotic Boogaloo" marks the first update for Team Fortress 2 that is entirely made by the community and what an update it is. That is, it's impressive if you love hats -- and who plays Team Fortress 2 that doesn't love hats? 57 items are being added in this update all at once. They're only acquirable through robo-crates, which puts all the content in this update stuck behind a premium wall, but it's better than nothing, right?

Also available today are an all new short video capturing the robotification-of-hats process and a sexy new comic as well. Considering there at 57 dang items being made available I won't list them here, but I'd recommend checking out the official announcement site if new hats titillates you.

Valve wants everyone to know that this is not the end of official Team Fortress 2 updates. As far as they're concerned both Valve and community can produce quality content for everyone at the same time. So if you're a bit saddened that this update didn't include any big chunks of content, cheer up buddy! It's coming down the pipeline. In the mean time, celebrate this great success! Look how awesome the TF2 community is and how purchasing cool items puts money in their pockets!

A sad day indeed for Pikmin fans. It appears Captain Olimar, hero of Pikmin 1 and 2, has been forced into retirement. In Pikmin 3 he will be replaced by three new protagonists. Introducing Alph, Brittany, and Captain Charlie (ABC?) who are on a mission to save Planet Koppai and fortunately crash land on a planet populated by Pikmin. As such, it also a glorious day for Pikmin fans, as we now have three exciting new characters to get to know. That said, we salute you for your service, Olimar. Godspeed.

Our three new protagonists will make the most of their unfortunate crash landing by recruiting Pikmin to help them gather fruit. Yes, fruit. They then return this fruit to their spacecraft where the seeds are removed and the fruit itself turned into juice. The juice is used as a food resource to further exploration of the planet, while the seeds are sent home.

I'm unclear on this last point, but it seems like if you run out of juice, you can't continue to explore. However, Iwata makes clear there is no limitation on the number of days you can take to complete exploration of the world -- you can even jump between the days you've used to explore. The challenge will be in how efficient you are at exploring the full world. Perhaps running out of juice simply ends the day?

Also shown was how GamePad functionality will be used in the game, as well as other controller functionality. The GamePad will provide a mini-map which can be used to creat an almost top-down strategy experience. Exploring uncovers areas of the map which will remain uncovered for the duration of the game. Also, the Pro Controller will work or with Wii Motion Plus + Nunchuck. Of course, the game is also entirely playable off-screen on just the GamePad screen.

Pikmin 3 will be launching on August 4 exclusively for the Wii U. While today's updates focused on the Story mode, Nintendo President Iwata said to look forward to more information on Challenge mode and the game's various multiplayer modes soon. Multiplayer! Stay away from my fruit, you savages.

I'm looking for standalone footage of the Pikin 3 gameplay, but for now hopefully these screenshots work.

Love Metal Gear Solid? I bet you do. No doubt many others share that sentiment, because Konami is still putting out Metal Gear Solid HD bundles. The newest collection, for PlayStation 3 only, dubbed Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection and first teased in April, has suffered a slight delay since it was announced. Originally expected to arrive in June, the eight-game bundle is now dated for July 9, 2013.

Set to arrive in the Americas, the Legacy Collection celebrates the series' 25th anniversary by packing together every MGS title. Yes, every one of them, not to mention some extra stuff like digital graphic novels featuring Ashley Wood's artwork, and an artbook. And, as the saying goes, that's not all.

For $50, here's what you'll be getting:

• Metal Gear Solid
• Metal Gear Solid 2: HD Edition
• Metal Gear Solid 3: HD Edition (includes original MSG versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2)
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition
• Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Trophy Edition
• 2 digital graphic novels by Ashley Wood
• 100-page artbook highlighting marketing artwork

The packaging, Konami pointed out, will also be pretty special.

While today's Nintendo Direct event didn't ship out much in the way of 3DS news, the reveal of several upcoming Game Gear releases for the Virtual Console surprised everyone. Thirteen classic games from that huge handheld brick of a platform are now planned for release including the pack-in puzzle title Columns and several Sonic games. Is this due in part to Nintendo and Sega's new partnership? 

Here's the full list of announced Game Gear titles coming to the 3DS Virtual Console:

• Columns
• Crystal Warriors
• Defenders of Oasis
• Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
• G-LOC: Air Battles
• Shining Force II: The Sword of Hajya
• Sonic Blast
• Sonic Drift 2
• Sonic Labyrinth
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Tails Adventure
• Vampire: Master of Darkness

That's one, two... seven games from the backlog of Sonic titles, though big strategy titles like Crystal Warriors and Shining Force II: The Sword of Hajya should also go over very well nowadays.

The best part of this announcement? That extra special feeling of knowing you won't run out of batteries after playing a game for more than fifteen minutes. Seriously, Columns was the worst game in the world because it was specifically made to eat time on your batteries. "Ah I'm bored, I'll play Columns since I'm stuck in Sonic." 30 minutes later. "Ah, my batteries are dead, I should sell my Game Gear for some pogs."

Expect more news on the Game Gear games coming to the Virtual Console as we approach E3.

Hey everyone, Nintendo announced the next Mario & Sonic Olympic game during today's Nintendo Direct event. Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games' announcement is great because it's the most appropriate place for me to make terrible puns referring to the cold. Cool, right? I should probably chill. Mario & Sonic's Sochi Games will be Wii U exclusive, unfortunately. Why do you have to be so cold-hearted, Nintendo?

Here's a short list of some of the Winter events we can expect from the Sochi Wii U game:

• Curling
• Skiing,
• Figure skating pairs
• Snowboarding Slopestyle (new to the 2014 Olympics)
• Hockey
• Bobsled
• Skating
• Biathlon

Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games will be played with the Wii Plus Motion Controller primarily, though some of the games, like Curling and Biathlon, will feature the Wii U GamePad's functionality.

Whether the requirement for motion controls cools your excitement or not, keep in mind that these Winter Olympic games are just supposed to be ridiculous fun that can be shared with friends. With that thought in mind, Nintendo says they'll be laying on thick the fact that this is a video game. As such, fans should expect to be able to do out-of-this-world tricks, or even race bobsleds against snowboarders in some modes. Snow-tastic!

Alright, I think I've had enough terrible borderline puns for the day when I start to hate myself and have to google Mr. Freeze quotes from Batman & Robin. Expect more information on Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (i.e. the game with too long of a title) before E3. If more Olympic games from Nintendo and Sega bothers you, let me share one more Mr. Freeze quote: "I'm afraid that my condition has left me cold to your pleas of mercy."

PS, the graphics are much improved over previous versions of the franchise. I'm looking for the gameplay trailer shown today, but for now here's a link to the specific part of the Nintendo Direct event where the announcement is made.