“Dead to Rights is all about extreme visceral combat,” says Dead to Rights: Retribution character art manager Dan Calvert in this latest developer diary, “it’s all about action, adrenaline. We have awesome violence.”

The game is so violent, in fact, that the team states it had to tone down the look and feel of the characters because of it. While they initially went for a pic realistic look, they found that the game was so violent that it actually made people uncomfortable. Because of that, they went with a more stylized look for in-game character models.

The team also goes on about the design choices made for the game’s dog, Shadow. You’d think they just sat around and said “Let’s make a bad ass wolf dog thing that gnaws people’s faces off.” But it’s a bit more complicated than that, as things usually are. There’s more details in the video if my “bad ass wolf dog thing that gnaws people’s face off” explanation isn’t good enough for you.

Dead to Rights: Retribution ships for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2010.

Via Destructoid

Today, Activision Blizzard announced that its Call of Duty franchise has surpased $3 billion in retail sales, taking into account internal numbers, as well as independent tracking sources.

Being a space wizard in the original Mass Effect required patience and a knack for navigating radial menus. Not to discount the power, of course. In the end, we just found that space soldering gave us the most redeeming combat experience. But it looks like Bioware has stepped up the Adept in Mass Effect 2, making us excited to give the class another look this January.

For example, and as explained in the latest trailer above, the Adept can now curve his pulls, enabling him to grab enemies from behind cover. The class can also angle pushes, allowing for easier bad-dude-off-of-ledge action. Neat.

Now it looks like the only thing the Adept needs is a pointy hat and the capability to summon a demon or cast Magic Missile. Game’s not out yet, so you never know — these things could make their way into it. Or not.

Via Destructoid

The soft-spoken, brilliant machinist Tali is making a return in Mass Effect 2, joining a growing cast of several fresh faces and a single familiar one (as of now). Her role in this game is unclear, but it appears as though the Quarian has found herself in some sort of trouble because of her contact with Commander Shepard. At the end of the latest character trailer shown above, we hear an elder Quarian saying, “You are hereby found guilty of treason against the Quarian people and sentenced to exile.”

Sounds like bad news, right? Right. Then again, Tali is no stranger to being outside of the Fleet or even ruffling a few feathers. In the last game, she was getting her Pilgrimage on before finding herself in trouble with Saren. She managed to discover some nasty evidence about his attack on Eden Prime in a Geth memory core and thus had to seek out protection from the Shadow Broker. The Quarian would eventually join Shepard for the entire ME ride, serving as a brilliant lock-picker and an excellent bullet-sponge before a certain dude became available. Oh, gosh, now we feel real bad about that. Sorry, Tali.

Via Destructoid

Unless Capcom pulls some crazy-stupid move between now and February 23, Lost Planet 2 is going to be one of next year’s most enjoyable co-op games. The development studio hasn’t exactly been known to do a silly thing like that, so I think we’re mostly in the clear here.

Without warning, a huge amount of boss-centric screenshots have been tossed our way on today of feasting. One’s named Red Eye, while the other baddie goes by Akrid X. I’ll let you figure out which one is which.

Recognizing some of the many images as being previously used, I tried to filter through the mess and only upload ones I thought were relatively new, or at the very least, looked pretty effing cool.

The fact that you fight the worm-looking fellow on a moving train has me thinking we aren’t even close to figuring out most of Lost Planet 2’s numerous surprises yet.

Via Destructoid

As we mentioned last week, Left 4 Dead 2 had a less than brilliant launch on the Xbox 360 thanks to the fact that it lagged out horrendously once it got on the internet. Fortunately, Valve has dropped a Thanksgiving Day gift on our grateful heads, having just boosted the servers for Xbox Live.

“We have upgraded our network infrastructure to superior accommodate the big response to L4D2,” blogs Valve. “360 players will now have lag-free servers. We’ve also added more dedicated servers.”

Great stuff! There’s nothing more frustrating than lining up your reticule on a witless survivor, letting your Smoker’s tongue fly, and then waiting five seconds for him to actually attack, by which time the survivor is now onto you and pumping your tumor-riddled face full of bullets.

I have many fallen Smokers to avenge this night.

Via Destructoid

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Cody, Guy and Adon are the latest official additions to the Super Street Fighter IV roster. We got a peek at Famitsu’s reveal yesterday, and now IGN has gotten their hands on the first trailer featuring these new badasses.

You can watch each one beating the crap out of somebody above, complete with footage of their ultras and backed by what may or might not be a new theme. Watch the trailer, cringe at the English voice acting, and get ready to try what’s on display for yourself this Spring.

When you’re done, you can hit the gallery for a load of new screenshots to get a better look at all three.

[Update: The video is now included above.]

Via Destructoid

Divinity II — Ego Draconis went gold a day or so ago, but don’t anticipate to see it in a GameStop in the near future. The title is still slated for a January 5th release. That means you a bit of time on your hands before it hits, so why not check out the above? It is, after all, a fresh trailer for the cdv Software-developed RPG.

This is the first of nine planned trailers set to hit before the game arrives in stores. Focusing on the Dragon Slayer, it illustrates that this character can be whatever he wants to be. Kind of like Clayface from Batman, minus the whole clay thing. Also, minus that changing on a dime bit. In fact, scratch all of that Clayface business — DII is an RPG where you (presumably) select to have your Dragon Slayer be a mage, ranger or whatever. I don’t think Clayface sticks to a specific class.

Also, dragons.

Via Destructoid

Are you a betting man? If so, popular discount Web site My Voucher Codes has a hot tip for you. The site has been looking at the sales data from its various retail partners and has confidently claimed that the Xbox 360 is primed to defeat the PS3 by an eyebrow-raising 3:1 ratio this holiday season.

“A couple of months ago, little separated the two in terms of units being sold through our site, but November has seen a huge surge by Microsoft’s budget friendly console, backed by a stellar PR campaign,” states My Voucher Codes founder Mark Pearson. “The PlayStation 3 is undoubtedly a fantastic console, but Brits are still extremely mindful of their bank balance due to the recession, and although they want Christmas 2009 to be memorable, are seemingly more than happy to choose the cheaper option.

“If sales stay at their current rate, the Xbox 360 will outsell Sony’s console by three units to one, a marked defeat. Both companies want their console to be under the Christmas tree this year, but there can only be one winner.”

The PS3 price cut was a welcome gesture and has surely seen a lot more PS3s find their way into people’s homes. However, with the Xbox 360 able to wriggle out a cheaper price, it’s definitely more attractive to the average consumer who doesn’t care as much about Blu-ray and free PSN services as we do. We’ll have to wait until the Christmas dust has settled, but this is an early swing in favor of the 360 so far.

Via Destructoid

Red Dead Redemption was among the list of games Take-Two Interactive pegged for distribution in their fiscal 2010 line-up during a memorable financial conference call earlier this year. Not much has been stated of the game’s release date since until a recent Rockstar Games press release, which revealed that the videogame western is slated for to hit retail in April 2010.

Oh, and a fresh trailer is set to hit the first of December.

We haven’t seen much of RDR yet, but we’re always excited for a game with horses and funny accents. It’s a problem, and yes, it is being investigated by professionals. Blood test and urinalysis are expected to come back from the lab next week. Doc said we looked “fine” otherwise, though.

Via Destructoid