The Agency was supposed to be an MMO based on spies and a worldwide theater of covert ops. It was hugely ambitious with real-world cities to be used as hubs for missions and teams defending the world against other players determined to steal it. It sounded awesome.

Unfortunately, it seemed to exist only as vaporware with the occasional screenshot or video released every few months to remind players that it was barely alive. And now we'll never know if we could have been in like Flint, or as slick as James Bond.

That's because the project was canned along with most of the people working on it. According to the news over at the Hollywood Reporter, Sony Online Entertainment had also announced shuttering three studios - all of which were involved with the Agency along with a number of other projects.

Over 205 employees are to be laid off in the restructuring as Sony focuses more on two other MMOs: reviving the action shooter MMO, Planetside, as Planetside: Next, and continuing to build atop one of the oldest MMORPGs out there, Everquest.

It's not the first time that a promising project like the Agency has been shuttered. The game industry is, unfortunately, filled with more than a few stories of canceled titles due to a number of reasons ranging from a lack of funds, corporate restructuring, or simply losing focus or interest in the project. Hopefully everyone affected will be able to quickly land on their feet elsewhere.

Network World has an ongoing story broken by Mohamed Hassan, an IT expert, who reported the discovery of a keylogger program on two new laptops bought from Samsung. When Samsung was initially asked about it, they had first pointed fingers at Microsoft.

Later, however, when the incident was escalated upwards, a supervisor at Samsung admitted that the software was knowingly put there to "monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used." Examining the program, a keylogger called "StarLogger", it records every keystroke made - even the ones that you think are safe when you type in passwords. It runs in the background, silently, and can email the results back without the user knowing.

If this is widespread across more than the two Samsung laptop models that Hassan investigated (an R525 and an R540), it's a blatant security vulnerability evidently sanctioned by the company. The supervisor's answer is telling because that's exactly what it implies.

If you're not familiar with what a keylogger like this can do, just imagine inviting someone to look over your shoulder while you do your banking or email who then reports your keystrokes and password back to a total stranger. It would also be as if Toyota or Ford secretly installed video cameras inside their cars to monitor just how people use them, sending the data wirelessly to wherever.

When I first heard about this, I was amazed that a company would even think that this kind of thing was okay. It's not the first time this has happened, either. Sony was caught a few years back for rootkits that secretly installed on PCs when you played any of their music CDs on them, rootkits that were found to inadvertently open security holes and cause problems for Windows machines in general, forcing a huge recall of all affected discs.

People already have a lot to worry about when it comes to protecting their information online. The last thing they need to do is to worry about whether the company they're buying a new PC from is also trying to get it...and leave the door open for everyone else to do the same.
 
UPDATE (3.30.11): Samsung has launched an investigation and is working with Mr. Hassan and fellow security expert, M.E. Kabay

UPDATE (3.31.11): It turns out that in the end, it was a false positive. Samsung is completely in the clear, though as Network World has commented, odd that an employee would admit that there was a keylogger on these laptops when asked by Hassan. Nevertheless, it turns out that the virus scanner used to detect the software, VIPRE, mistakenly identified another piece of software for the keylogger. VIPRE has since been updated and GFI Labs, the developer of the scanner, have issued apologies all around.

I have played five regular season games in Major League Baseball 2K11. In all but two, I have lost a starting pitcher (Clayton Kershaw, Hiroki Kuroda and Ted Lilly) to injury. I also lost left fielder Xavier Paul to an injury in another game. This does not happen in real life.

Are other players experiencing the same problem? I was able to give the game a qualified recommendation of sorts when I first reviewed it, but if this problem is widespread, I cannot recommend this title for purchase unless and until this gets patched.

• Shift 2 Unleashed (EA Sports) Racing title for PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.
  
• Tiger Woods PGA 12: The Masters (EA Tiburon). Golf title for Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.
• WWE All Stars (THQ San Diego) Wrestling title for Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, and XBox 360.
• NASCAR The Game 2011 (Eutechnyx/Activision). Racing title for PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.
  
• Country Dance for Wii (High Voltage Software/GameMill Entertainment). Dance title for Nintendo Wii
• Mayhem 3D (Zoo Entertainment/Rombax Games) Demolition derby title for PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.
  

Rockstar Games announced today that upcoming release "L.A. Noire" will be an official selection of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

"We're thrilled that L.A. Noire is being recognized by the Tribeca Film Festival in this way," Rockstar Games founder Sam Houser, said in a press release. "It's a real honor, and another step forward for interactive entertainment."

The obvious big deal contained in that announcement is that L.A. Noire is a video game, not a movie. But it's no secret that many video games, especially Rockstar titles like the Grand Theft Auto series and Red Dead Redemption, have incorporated many cinematic aspects into their games.

Games are now cinematic enough for filmmakers to take them seriously, or at least wonder if they should do so. As Tribeca reports on its website, the film festival will on April 30 show a demo of L.A. Noire, to be followed "by a special discussion exploring the cinematic elements of filmmaking that have crossed over into the gaming industry."

In years past, cinematic would mean cut scenes. L.A. Noire, however, has been getting a lot of press for the face capture technology game developers are using to give characters lifelike facial expressions. In terms of gameplay, the idea is that the player controlled detective will be able to tell if game characters are lying or telling the truth.

But in terms of cinematic arts, this kind of technology means L.A. Noire and future games may put honest-to-goodness acting in video games. Last year's Red Dead Redemption, in this writer's opinion, featured some of the best voice acting in video game history, but even though many well-known actors have given their voices to games, games are not really considered to be an actors' medium.

L.A. Noire may change that. Players may not always agree if it's a good thing that many games are becoming "interactive movies," but this game's selection for the Tribeca Film Festival represents a new step for games' fascinating evolution. Aside from CGI and an overabundance of superheroes, the films of the 1980s were not so different from the films of today. Video games are almost an entirely different medium.

Is that medium art? Gamers have perhaps unfairly singled out film critic Roger Ebert for asserting that games are not art, if only because he is surely not the only person to hold that view. But this writer agrees with the many gamers who say games are art, or at least they can be.

Many movies are terrible, and do not deserve to be called art, or even entertainment. Many games deserve equal criticism, yet as is the case in cinema, many games are the products of outstanding craftsmanship and artistic vision. If film score can be called art, so can game music. If painting is art, so can be the work of graphics experts who develop beautiful vistas or cityscapes from ones and zeroes. If screenwriting is art, so can video game writing. Yes, really.

The argument against games as art seems to be that games do not have a singular story. In writing "Network," for example, Paddy Chayefsky was able to tell the world exactly what he thought about the media and American society, and every character behaved according to his  vision. Games, especially RPGs, challenge the player to make their own choices. Some may say when the audience can determine if a story's protagonist is good or evil, aggressive or diplomatic, suave or a clown, the writer's vision is lost. I disagree.

Even when the audience is playing what may be essentially a high-tech "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, the writer(s) still determines the outcome of the players' choices. In deciding what choices lead a character down a good or evil path, the writer is able to express a personal view on morality. I don't know if humanity has ever really agreed on what "art" is, let alone good art, but if games provide a means for creative people to express ideas and emotions to an audience, they deserve to be considered in that discussion.

Crysis 2 won't bring your reasonably aged system to its knees. At least it spared my dual-core from humiliation.

The Nintendo 3DS is scheduled to be available at 12:01 a.m. Sunday morning. If you have $249.99 to spend and insomnia, you've been notified.

As far as games go, here's what is set to be available on launch date:

• Pilotwings Resort
• Steel Diver
• nintendogs + cats: Golden Retriever & New Friends
• Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition
• Asphalt 3D
• Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
• Madden NFL Football
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2011: 3D
• Ridge Racer 3D
• Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
• Bust-a-Move Universe
• Super Monkey Ball 3D
• Samurai Warriors Chronicles
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars
• The Sims 3
  

In what 2K Games calls "the shortest delay in the history of 'Duke Nukem Forever,' the title's release date has been postponed from May 3 to June 14 in North America.

"In case you haven't heard, Duke never comes early," said 2K Games president Christoph Hartmann, said in a press release Thursday. "We're committed to deliver a laugh-out-loud, politically incorrect experience that people will talk about for years to come. We thank Duke's fans for their continued patience - I promise this won't take another 15 years."

Duke Nukem fans who have been patient enough to wait 15 years for the title have matured aged bit since 1997. The game appears to have more than enough violence, profanity and nudity to warrant an M for Mature rating, although the word "mature" may not be the best word to describe anything related to Duke Nukem.

Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to be released in 1997, but that didn't happen. Games that actually came out in 1997 included "Starfox 64" and"GoldenEye 007" for Nintendo 64, "Star Wars: X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter," "Fallout," "Grand Theft Auto" and "Age of Empires" for PC and "Gran Turismo," and "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" for PlayStation.

Crysis 2 is in stores today, which should be of interest to gamers interested in shooting at aliens in scenic New York City.

Developed by Crytek and published by EA Games, Crysis 2 is out for PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 and Rated M for Mature.

Red Dawn, a film released in 1984, channeled Cold War thrills with an invasion of America by the Soviets and their allies. While it might have stretched the limits of plausibility, it was still a fun piece of fiction that imagined how it could have gone down and how ordinary people became heroes in defense of their homes.

Games have also gotten into the act ranging from IO Interactive's third-person shooter, Freedom Fighters, to Massive's RTS epic, World in Conflict. But there are no more Soviets, right? Well, there are always ultranationalist Russians if you follow Modern Warfare 2.

Instead, THQ has settled on North Korea to take on the United States.

Here's some new footage of "Batman: Arkham City." I had some technical difficulties posting it (ironic, right?) but the good people at IGN were kind enough to put the trailer on YouTube.

Here ya go:




I have to say I dig The Heavy's "Short Change Hero" on the soundtrack. Batman: Arkham City is scheduled for an Oct. 18 release for PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360. The game is being developed by Rocksteady Studios for WB Games.

EA Games and Bioware plan to release the final DLC mission for Mass Effect 2 on March 29.

Dubbed "Mass Effect: Arrival," the DLC once again puts players in the role of Commander Shepard. This time, Shepard's mission is to travel across the Milky Way to save an undercover agent who may have evidence of an "imminent Reaper invasion." Anyone who has played through the Mass Effect franchise knows what that means.

Mass Effect: Arrival will retail for  560 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360, $6.99 on PlayStation Network and for 560 BioWare Points for PC Gamers.

Top Spin 4 is an enjoyable tennis game that left this player with a surprisingly positive first impression.

I use the word "surprisingly" because I know next to nothing about tennis. I know Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are good players, I know John McEnroe had a temper and I know Ana Ivanovic is one of the world's best female players but probably gets more attention for her appearance. As far as tennis video games go, the last one I played featured Mario in the umpire's chair.

Despite my tennis ignorance, 2K Sports has succeeded in designing a game in which it is easy to learn the basics and play the game out of the box. What's more, the title seems to have enough of a learning curve to keep players coming back.

Major League Baseball 2K11 is an acceptable, if sometimes flawed, baseball title that won't elevate 2K Sports' franchise above its reputation for falling short of greatness. The game is like a journeyman player who can play a role in the big leagues, but is not ready to start any All-Star Games.

But for some gamers, 2K11 is the only option for a baseball title. PlayStation 3 owners can try the beloved MLB: The Show franchise, and The Show's 2011 edition is also in the marketplace. I've played a little bit of MLB 11 and it works. I'm approaching this review, however, from the point of view of an XBox 360 owner whose choice is between 2K11 or nothing.

From that perspective, 2K11 is OK for gamers who really want an MLB title, but frustrating moments and an over-complicated control scheme prevent the game from being as stellar as it could have been.

Former Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age singer Mark Lanegan has recorded a new song for Rage, an upcoming FPS.

The song, "Burning Down Jacob's Ladder,"  can be streamed or downloaded on Rage's website. Rage is an id Software/Bethesda Softworks release scheduled for a Sept. 13 release in North America for PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.

In other Bethesda news, the publisher has a new video out for Brink, another shooter scheduled for May 27 release on the same three platforms. The company also announced Prey 2 for a 2012 release.

Microsoft is expected to stop producing its Zune MP3 player, although the software is expected to live on in smartphones running Windows operating systems, Bloomberg News reported.

Zune, introduced in 2006, never managed to break the iPod's grip on the music-player industry and became the brunt of late- night talk-show jokes. Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPod led the market with 77 percent of unit sales last year, while the Zune failed to crack the top five, according to NPD Group Inc. By adding the Zune features to the Windows Phone software, Microsoft aims to gain ground in another challenging area -- mobile phones -- where it's lost market share to Google Inc. (GOOG) and Apple.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., declined to comment on plans for the Zune.

I would comment if I have an opinion as to whether the Zune was or was not actually superior to the iPod, but I have a Sandisk Sansa, which it totally OK.

The MIcrosoft Zune, shown here in many versions, is reportedly leaving the marketplace.

By Brittany Vincent
Contributor

I never thought I'd see the day where dance games would become so popular. As a Dance Dance Revolution vet, I've gleefully accepted the Kinect revolution with open arms. Dance Central, then Dance Masters, and now Dance Paradise -- it's a regular fantasy land for those of us who like to get our groove on.

Dance Paradise is the newest addition to the Kinect library, though quite far from the best. It's a light, fluffy dance game with few complex elements and surely nothing that could give Dance Central "hard" vets a run for their money...in fact, one might go so far as to say that this is more like an Xbox Live Arcade offering for the Kinect, except is comes saddled with a hefty price tag and a "real" box.

Funcom has released a new trailer for their upcoming MMORPG, "The Secret World". If you're wondering whether it's something you want to play other than World of Warcraft, that depends on whether you want to fight for the fate of the modern day world as a member of one of three secret societies who know the truth of what goes bump in the night. From New York City to Seoul, South Korea, players will get to shoot it out or use the kind of magic Harry Potter can only dream about to fight this secret war.

I've been keeping an eye on this one for awhile and it's been shrouded in, well, "secrecy" since the start, but it looks like Funcom is getting ready to show off more than just a few fancy trailers with a little taste of the gameplay.

For more info, check out the press release right after the jump below.

OnLive has sent some news our way on a new contest that they're holding for the PC version of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. It's going to be served up on OnLive's service the same day that the PC version hits the shelves, either as a digital download or on retail shelves. If you're not familiar with what OnLive is, it's all about the "cloud" - cloud computing.

The way OnLive works is that instead of having to buy a PC built by the gods or a console like the Xbox 360 or the PS3, you can play the game through a browser using OnLive. OnLive does all of the heavy lifting - the graphics, sound, etc. - and beams the game to you, allowing you to play it without worrying about anything more than your skill. You can find out more at their official site here. For contest details, hit the jump below.

 2K Sports' "Major League Baseball 2K11" and EA's Dragon Age II are available in stores as of today.

MLB Baseball 2K11 is 2K Sports latest baseball title. (Surprise.) I have to confess that I missed 2K9 - which was panned - and 2K10, which I heard was better. But I'm going to check this one out, so expect a review soon after I get a chance to evaluate the title on its own merits.

The title is available for Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 3 Sony PSP and XBox 360.

"Dragon Age II" is the Bioware-developed sequel to "Dragon Age." (Surprise, surprise.) If you're the type of player who likes fantasy RPGs or Dragon Age, you're probably already excited about this one. Expect to see a write-up on this one after our reviewer gets a chance to explore its world.

This one is released for PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.

The Tomb Raider movies were alright. They weren't "great", but they were entertaining. Even though there were only two Tomb Raider movies, there have been a number of games to help carry on the legend of Lara Croft, give or take a dud or two. I'm still trying to forget that Angel of Darkness had ever happened. It was bad, but I'm not so sure it was to blame for the soft box office returns on her second film, Cradle of Life, which Paramount did. Cradle just wasn't that great.

A safe eight years later, it looks like someone is thinking about bringing Lara back to the silver screen. According to Inside Movies, it seems that Graham King (producer of films such as The Departed and The Town) has snagged the rights through his company, GK Films, to do a reboot.

It also means that you can likely forget Angelina Jolie returning to the feature role, though I wouldn't be surprised if she does a small cameo for her fans of the character. After seeing her in Salt, she still has the chops to beat anyone down.

King apparently intends for the heroine to return to the screen in 2013. As for what direction it will follow, that's anyone's guess. If the heroine is going to be anything like the new Lara Croft in her own upcoming video game reboot, you can probably expect her to be darker, grittier, and a lot less glamorous - which is fine by me.

"Homefront," the upcoming FPS that puts players in a world where the Communist "Greater Korean Republic" occupies the United States has gone gold. In other words, the game is now in production.

It would probably be impossible for any military to execute a transpacific invasion of the United States - given that this country has satellites and missiles that can be shot at big surface ships or transport jets carrying troops - but who cares about realism? "Red Dawn" screenwriter John Milius wrote Homefront's single-player campaign, and anyone who ever saw Red Dawn knows the movie asked its audience to believe that a Soviet-invasion of the United States would result in Soviet paratroopers attacking a small town in the Colorado Rockies, thousands of miles from supply lines or the military realities of the 1980s.


But  ... Red Dawn was still an entertaining movie with a relatively high quotability quotient, so Homefront may turn out to be a fun game. The under-rated Freedom Fighters (2003) featured an equally unlikely Soviet-invasion scenario in New York City, but it was fun to play the role of a patriotic urban guerrilla fighting commies alongside heavily-armed NPCs.

Homefront, developed by KAOS Studios and published by THQ, is set for a March 15 release in North America for PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.

The Pokémon franchise's never-ending quest to keep the 1990s alive continued today with the release of "Pokémon Black Version" and "Pokémon White Version" for the Nintendo DS.

The twin games boast 150-plus new Pokémon to catch and train. The in-game environments are timed to coincide with actual reality, so different Pokémon are said to be more difficult or easier to find during different seasons. Additional advertised features include broadband and infrared communications features for Pokémon battles and trades.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Blade Runner may be making a "multiplatform" comeback if Alcon Entertainment manages to get the rights to the classic sci-fi icon.

If you don't know what Blade Runner is, you owe it to yourself to watch it especially if you like science fiction and action in the same film. Directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven) and released in 1982, while it wasn't so much of a box office smash, it regularly tops lists today on being one of finest "dirty tech" thrillers to have ever been made.

Starring Harrison Ford as a 'Blade Runner' - a cop who specializes in hunting down renegade cyborgs that look just like humans - the film is set in a dystopian 2019 ruled over by corporate empires towering over crowded streets, bad fashion, cigarettes, and endless, dirty rain. A game even came out years later from Westwood Studios which followed the story in parallel and featured quite a bit of cutting-edge CGI for the nineties.

So that begs the question: is a game in the offing? Maybe, maybe not. All that I'm hoping for at this point is that if Alcon does get the rights, they quash some of the chatter about "rebooting" Blade Runner. The original was a solid piece of work that doesn't need to be remade, but the world that it takes place in is filled with a lot of possibilities.

After all, this is a future where fresh eyes are ordered up like sunglasses and which had also acted as inspiration to one particular up-and-coming games designer by the name of  Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid series). Now if only he'd come up with a new Zone of the Enders...

UPDATE (3.4.2011): io9 landed an interview with the producers and it sounds like they're not doing a remake, period. More like an expanded set of stories around the whole Blade Runner universe which could be awesome. Check out what they have to say at this link.

A little late on this one, but 2K Sports released demos for Major League Baseball 2K11 and Top Spin 4 on Tuesday.

The demos are available for XBox Live and PlayStation Network players.

Major League Baseball 2K11's demo features a three-inning scenario between last season's World Series opponents, the San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers.

Top Spin 4's features tennis pros like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Ana Ivanovic and Serena Williams in settings like the U.S. Open and French Open.

Nintendo has released some remarkable screenshots from "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D," which obviously is a remake of one of the best video games ever made.

OOT came out waaay back in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, when this writer was still in high school. Although it's not hard to find players badmouth N64-era graphics on current-day gaming sites, it's hard to overestimate how amazing the game appeared during the Clinton Years.

After years of 2D gaming, OOT gave players a chance to control Link, the Zelda series' famed protagonist, in 3D environments that featured water that looked like water, ice that looked like ice, and fire that looked like fire. OOT's polygons may look blocky by today's standards, but there were few - if any - games in 1998 that had so many visually dramatic moments as the first time players could see the vast sweep of Hyrule Field, journey inside a volcano or travel into a sandstorm while Spanish guitar music played in the background.


Playing


Playing OOT was the first time I ever thought a video game could be art, as opposed to an amusement. The game was beautiful, had an arresting story, and different sound effects depending on whether Link walked on a hard or soft surface. That last part may seem silly, but I was struck by an attention to detail I had previously only expected to see in movies. But that's old stuff. The new is that OOT is being re-released for the Nintendo 3DS, a portable capable of 3D images. The 3D re-release is not scheduled to be in stores when the 3DS comes out on March 27, but is possibly getting more press coverage than any title set to be available on launch date.

I've rambled enough. Here's the first screenshot, I'll let more images speak for themselves after the jump:

Nintendo officially announced today that a new Mario title is in the works for the 3DS, the company's soon-to-be-released portable 3D system.

Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president, made the announcement today during a speech at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. Tech-Out didn't get to be there, but we did get Nintendo's bulletin.

In Mario news, Nintendo revealed the same team behind "Super Mario Galaxy" and its sequel are at work on the new game.

The 3DS is scheduled to be released March 27 in the United States at an MSRP of $249.99.

Other Nintendo 3DS news includes the following:

• Netflix customers will be able to stream content to the 3DS, which is also possible with the Nintenod Wii. This service is expected to be offered by summer.
• Nintendo has a deal with AT&T owners to provide 3DS owners with free access to more than 100,000 AT&T hotspots nationwide.
• Customers will be able to download Game Boy, Game Color, TurboGrafx-16 and Game Gear titles to the 3DS. (Anybody out there ever own or play a TurboGrafx -6? This writer never got to see one in action, but remembers the Bonk's Adventure commercials.)
• A "3D Classics" line will include select games to be remastered in 3D.
  

Apple customers will have a chance to spend more money this month when the Cupertino firm releases the iPad 2. The sequel to Apple's popular tablet device is set for a March 11 release in the United States. The price? $500 to $830.

Ailing Apple CEO Steve Jobs appeared to introduce the new project. For more coverage, please check out the San Jose Mercury News' reporting on Apple's new offering. Here's an excerpt:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, officially on medical leave, received a standing ovation as he stepped on stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts here at a press event at which he announced the second generation iPad.

The new device represents an upgrade from the first one, which has been a runaway hit. The iPad 2 will have a new dual-core processor, front- and rear-facing cameras and will be both thinner and lighter than the original iPad.

And it will get some new features. Thanks to the cameras, the new iPad will be able to make video calls using Apple's FaceTime software. And Apple will include with it its PhotoBooth program that allows users to take self-portraits and customize them with all kinds of goofy filters.

Apple is also bringing two programs familiar to Mac computer users to the tablet: video editing program iMovie and GarageBand, a music editing application. iMovie was previously available for the iPhone; the new version that will be compatible with both the iPhone and the iPad will be available on March 11 for $5.

EA Games' new multiplayer demo for "Crysis 2" went online today for PC and XBox 360 players, the game publisher announced.

From the game's website:

Players will compete in six vs. six matches set against a war-torn Manhattan in two maps: "Skyline", set on top of the rooftops and interiors of skyscrapers, and "Pier 17", an open environment with limited cover. The demo also features two modes: "Team Instant Action" pits two teams against each other as they kill as many opponents as possible to win the round and "Crash Site," where players will battle for control of alien drop pods, earning points by guarding their pods and keeping enemies at bay.

Lucy Lawless, formerly of "Xena: Warrior Princess" and currently appearing on "Spartacus: Lords of the Arena," will voice a character in the forthcoming "Hunted: The Demon's Forge," Bethesda Softworks announced.

Lawless' new character is Seraphine, an "adventurer-turned-temptress" who leads game protagonists Caddoc and E'lara "into a dark and twisted adventure with promises of great wealth and power."

Hunted is scheduled for a June 1 release on PC, PlayStation3 and XBox.

Additionally, a Lucy Lawless news item gives me an excuse to embed this clip.


Lisa: Xena can't fly.
Lucy Lawless: I told you, I'm not Xena. I'm Lucy Lawless.