Namco Bandai's tale of souls and swords, chain whips, undead pirates, gas-mask fetishists, murderous ex-monks, Todd McFarlane rejects, bipedal lizards, elvis impersonators, razor-sharp hula hoops, and Siegfried Schtauffen, will continue in 2012 with the release of Soulcalibur V.

Shown during a press conference at Namco Bandai's "Step Up Dubai 2011" event (shaky footage of the trailer is already online) Soulcalibur V is set to launch on Xbox 360 and PS3, with a story that takes place 17 years after the faux-historical events of the previous game. At the rate technology is advancing in the Soulcalibur universe -- and the rate at which the women's clothes are shrinking -- we'll probably have all-nude musket duels within the next few games.

Namco has yet to send out a full character roster, but Siegfried and Nightmare already appear in the first trailer. The game's story is reportedly focused on a new character called Patroklos, son of Sopithia. Expect to see a little more media when the countdown on the game's teaser website concludes later today.

Rocksmith, Ubisoft's upcoming resuscitation of rhythm game Guitar Rising that allows players to plug in any guitar and jam away, has a special promotion going on through GameStop. Anyone who pre-orders the game (a product with a $79.99 MSRP) will get a voucher good for $25 off any guitar purchase at a Guitar Center location of their choosing or via Guitar Center's web site.

The voucher will be sent "within two business days" after the game ships or printed out in-store. It can't be combined with any "clearance, ukuleles, price matches, scratch & dent, vintage equipment, Gift Cards and musician services (Pro Coverage, GC Garage)" and the coupon is only valid through December 31, 2011.

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It might not bring you to tears, but under the right "conditions" -- like lighting and stuff -- we bet you could totally see some crazy things in this magical Child of Eden pre-order bonus poster (full image) from GameStop. At the very least, it's compatible with any old wall you tack it to. Typical bonus DLC is so limited, you know?

Child of Eden will be released on June 14 for Kinect and plain old controller-induced psychedelic gameplay. Check out this recent video for a better idea of the game's Kinect mechanics.

Are you hoping to one day start your own Starscream, Anamanaguchi or other totally radical chiptunes band? Your musical outfit could have a worse origin than this: As part of a Kickstarter fundraising campaign, you can donate $50 to grab a "Chip Maestro" -- an NES cartridge that turns your old-school gaming console into a decidedly new-school MIDI synthesizer.

If you've got a MIDI-compatible keyboard (or even a MIDI converter for your PC), you can start recreating the 8-bit melodies of your youth -- or the poppy, energetic melodies of tomorrow. Check out the device's Kickstarter page for a video demonstration of its capabilities!

[Thanks, Tom!]

Video game music peddler Sumthing Else has announced plans to release the soundtrack to THQ's Red Faction: Armageddon. The soundtrack was composed by Brian Reitzell, whose portfolio also includes film soundtracks for 30 Days of Night and Stranger Than Fiction. The soundtrack will be available via iTunes, Amazon MP3, retail and the Sumthing Digital website starting May 31. Amazon currently has the CD available for pre-order at just under $15.

Red Faction: Armageddon itself will hit shelves on June 7.

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Sometimes you can't decide whether to read a comic or watch a cartoon. For those times, there are motion comics, which are almost both. Capcom has revealed a new Street Fighter motion comic, Eagle One Media's Street Fighter: The New Challengers, coming to DVD on August 2.

The summary text mentions separate storylines for Cammy, Chun-Li and Ken, along with appearances by Guile, Fei-Long, Sakura, Gen, Balrog, Blanka and Vega -- which seems like rather a lot of ground to cover in 90 minutes. A clip is available after the break.

If you order the $20 DVD from Eagle One, you'll get a figurine; for $10 more, you can add a Ryu T-shirt to the package. Warning: XL only.

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Gearbox Software has announced plans to host its first-ever "Community Day" on June 11 in Dallas, Texas. The free event will take place at the Palladium Ballroom and feature several of the studio's games, along with developer panels.

The event will give players a chance to try out Duke Nukem Forever's multiplayer several days before it's alleged release on June 14. Panel topics will span Duke Nukem Forever, Borderlands, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Brothers in Arms and additional subjects. The day will also see the "first public unveiling of never-before-seen materials by Gearbox."

If you're interested in attending, you'll have to register for the event. For out-of-towners, the registration form also lists several hotels with discounted rates and complimentary shuttle service to the fiesta.

You have to hand it to Studio FX Films. Its "Live Action Nazi Zombies" short film does a great job of recreating the Call of Duty Zombies mode. The video even throws in weapon purchasing and awkward spawn animations. There are plenty of zombies, too -- far too many for our protagonists, as it turns out.

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If you missed Valve writer Erik Wolpaw's talk on Portal 2 at New York University's Game Center lecture series event last Thursday, don't worry -- we've got you covered. NYU has uploaded the entirety of Wolpaw's massive, hour-plus talk and the Q&A session that followed in video form (which we've embedded below the break).

Grab a drink and relax -- you can put that notebook away. There won't be a test or anything.

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If you're looking for Capcom-branded goods on the cheap, the Capcom store is having a limited-time Flash sale. For the next few hours, you can get the custom light-up Dark Void statue seen above or a copy of Phoenix Wright for the DS at a discounted price.

The Dark Void statue was limited to a run of 1,000 made specifically for Capcom fan events. Normally it'd retail for $90, but it's only $30 right now; Phoenix Wright is half-off at $15.

The Evil Dead series has spawned a handful of mediocre video games throughout the years. Surprisingly, the third film, Army of Darkness -- which centers on a giant medieval battle between humans and the undead -- has never been tapped for a game adaptation. Backflip Studios looks to change that with Army of Darkness: Defense, a tower defense game for iPhone and iPad.

The game has players taking control of Ash, summoning up troops to defend Lord Arthur's castle as the Deadites attempt to steal the Necronomicon. Army of Darkness: Defense also includes "over 150 direct lines of dialogue from Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams," so we hope you're not sick of hearing this just yet.

Army of Darkness: Defense debuts this Thursday for $0.99 on iPhone/iPod and $2.99 on iPad.

We always knew Duke's job was tough, but it looks like you can add one more responsibility to his list of duties (hehe, duties) in Duke Nukem Forever: killing clones. With so many Dukes running around recklessly, we get the need for a Duke cleaner-upper, but we'd be lying if we didn't say we fear some kind of Jet Li The One type of invincible Super Duke rising from this conflict. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Around the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Activision Blizzard repeatedly touted its 12 million subscribers. During yesterday's investor conference call, however, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime revealed that as of the end of March, the subscriber base had fallen from a stratospheric 12 million all the way to a humiliating 11.4 million, a decline of 5%.

Morhaime explained the tiny mass exodus by saying that players were completing the new content in Cataclysm more quickly than previous expansions, and then leaving the game. However, Rift also launched in March, which may have lured away part of those 600,000 ex-WoWers.

Still, if we're talking about part of 5% of your userbase maybe leaving for another game, things are still going well for you.

This new Dark Souls trailer (past the break) closes the previous launch window ever so slightly: to October 2011. In addition to the revelation of a more specific release date is the realization of horrible homicide. Seriously, dude dies in this trailer. Like, a lot.

It's not like we didn't expect as much -- this is the Demon's Souls successor, after all -- but watching this trailer makes us feel all funny inside. It's like falling asleep with Saw on the TV.

[Thanks, Tengu]

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In a new interview with Play Magazine, Obisidian CEO Feargus Urquhart addresses the launch of Fallout: New Vegas -- which was, uh, pretty ugly. On Xbox 360, the game is still very much plagued by issues.

"Now in the case of Fallout: New Vegas, we made a gigantic game, and I'm proud with what we were able to do but I wish it wasn't as glitchy when it came out," said Urquhart in the interview (as excerpted on NowGamer). "The criticisms people had are fair, but it's difficult to get a game the size of New Vegas bug free. But that's an excuse, and it doesn't matter when someone's paid $60 for a game. It's something we need to work on."

With the launch of Dungeon Siege 3 on the immediate horizon, Urquhart emphasized that Obsidian is placing extra emphasis on quality assurance for the game -- a process of "playing and playing and playing and playing to ensure it's of a high standard," he said. "On top of this," Urquhart added, "this is the first time we've got to use our own technology on something, which means we know where to find the bad bugs from the start!"

The full interview will be published in Issue 205 of Play Magazine, which hits UK newsstands this Thursday.

We knew that we'd have our chance to kick some zombies in their stupid, three-dimensional faces sometime this summer -- but without anything more specific than that, it's proven difficult to pencil any undead annihilation into our day planners. Fortunately, Capcom has firmed up the summer launch window for Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D into something more specific. How specific? How about June 28, 2011, at like, midnight or something. That specific enough for you?

You can find a trailer announcing the release date posted after the jump. We found it scary, but mostly because we're pretty terrified by acts of violence against journalists. And, you know, decapitation.

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Microsoft today sent out the release schedule for Xbox Live Marketplace content over the next two weeks (May 10–23). The schedule was posted in the latest edition of the "Xbox Live Newsbeat" press email, which showed next Tuesday's L.A. Noire "In the Spotlight."

"In celebration of launch on May 17," the newsletter teases, "take your L.A. Noire experience to the next level and download the 'L.A. Noire Rockstar Pass' add-on." The Rockstar Pass what now?

Releasing day and date with the retail game, the 800-point DLC "Pass" is presumably a sort of Project Ten Dollar experiment. It's unclear, however, if it will provide access to the pre-order bonus content (already confirmed to be made available for purchase "at some point after the game comes out") or offer wholly new content to all owners of the game. Perhaps it's a sort of Cerberus Network-like pipeline for delivering new detective cases -- but that's just a guess. The Pass remains a mystery for now, as Rockstar has yet to respond to our request for clarification.

Otherwise, the new Marketplace schedule has few intriguing reveals. Besides noting some previously announced dates and several Games on Demand launches, it does list Sega Rally Online Arcade for release on Xbox Live Arcade next Wednesday, May 18, for $10. Some pirate-themed deals and the demo of Fable 3 for Windows will also be available next week. Head past the break for the complete schedule.

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