The Witcher 2 was one of the biggest games released last year for the PC, and is certainly one of those games that made console owners feel more than a little green eyed. Its blend of deep story, robust combat and destiny-affecting decisions made for a truly great RPG adventure.

Luckily for Xbox 360 owners, this slice of fantasy pie is now heading to Microsoft's box later this year. And, it's not a mere port, but a new adaptation, with a slew of tweaks and redesigns to improve upon the already excellent game. Well, it's not called the Enhanced Edition for nothing.

This latest developer diary outlines some of the changes we can expect from the console incarnation, such as reworked controls and camera and a tweaked graphic engine to make the game run as smoothly and look as good on the Xbox's aging architecture.

It's certainly looking very impressive so far, and what's even better is that existing PC players will also be provided with the enhancements too.

It's safe to say that we're just a little excited about the upcoming release of Aliens: Colonial Marines here at DoG. Whilst the AvP games were okay, and offered some interesting takes on the legendary movies, there was always something missing.

What we really wanted was not to play as the Alien, as cool as they are, or to play as the overpowered Predator. By far the most entertaining aspects of all of the AvP games was the Marine. Man with cool guns against an alien army equals good times.

Well, Gearbox software is going to give us just that, and with Aliens: Colonial Marines it's all about the struggle between man and xenomorph, all set in perhaps one of the most iconic deep space outposts committed to film, LV-426's Hadley's Hope.

Continuing directly after the events of Aliens, the game will see another Marine detachment deploy to LV-426 to see what happened to Burke, Hicks, Ripley and Co. Of course, we all know what to expect.

Finally this looks like the game we've wanted for a very long time, and if this latest trailer is anything to go by, then we're in for one hell of a ride. Packed to the rafters with genuine Aliens style, everything from the colony design, lighting, voice work, and Pulse Rifle SFX are spot on, and the Aliens are looking very tasty indeed.

Aliens: Colonial Marines isn't set to arrive until late in the year, but this trailer should help keep you going for now.

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As Clarence Boddicker once said, "Guns, guns, guns!" Rockstar isn't being too shy of late about the upcoming Max Payne 3, and here we get to see Max toting Dirty Harry's favourite calibre hand cannon, with particularly satisfying results.

Along with this insta-kill action comes word of the official website launch. So, be sure to head over to the Max Payne 3 website for everything Payne-related.

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Following on from yesterday's post about the troubles at THQ, GameTrailers has reported some more information coming from the publisher, which is heavy on as yet unnamed titles, but promises a bumper crop of releases.

The sequel to the post apocalyptic shooter Metro: 2033, Last Light, has been pushed back to early 2013, and will release around the same time as Devil's Third from Tomonobu Itagaki.

Alongside this news is a list of release, many currently unknown, including "two unannounced core titles for release in fiscal 2013," These supposedly include a title by Turtle Rock Studio, who worked on such titles as Left 4 Dead and CS: Condition Zero, and an original game by THQ Montral and Patrice Desilet (ex-Assassin's Creed producer).

Also announced for the 2014 fiscal period (April 1 2013-Mar 31-2013) are the Warhammer 40K-themed MMO, Dark Millennium Online, Guillermo del Toro-assisted horror title, inSANE from Volition, and Homefront 2, which is being developed by Crytek.

So, despite the obvious issues facing the company, there's still no shortage of releases in the pipeline, and this doesn't even include four as yet unannounced core games slated for sometime in 2014. Let's just hope the money troubles don't get the better of the publisher. 

GameTrialers

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Dropping off the radar of most gamers due to both delays and a general lack of interest, the Ghost Recon series of Clancy-themed games has been on a prolonged hiatus of late.

Ever since Advanced Wafighter 2 rolled out onto consoles back in 2007, and aside from a jaunt on the 3DS last year, the series hasn't exactly been on active duty, with the next instalment being delayed more than once.

Now, it seems, there's some light at the end of the tunnel, and here we can see the single player trailer for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier show off its core gameplay in style.

The eventual release looks to return to its tactical co-op roots, but this time has far more in the way of high-tech gadgetry up its sleeve. Cloaking devices, magnetic x-ray scopes, drones, remote sensors that can show enemies through walls, and more are set to feature in gameplay where "Only the dead fight fair."

Its certainly a different move, putting the slant on making your tactics focus on fighting dirty, with all sorts of high-tech advantage, but there looks to be plenty of traditional running, gunning and cover shooting in there too, with, of course, plenty of room for stealth.

What's clear is that the game is certainly shaping up nicely, and the inevitable multiplayer co-op matches we'll be involved in could be very enjoyable indeed. Future Soldier has just pinged on our radar again.

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Already flashing his torch around on Xbox for a while now, and about to arrive once more in DLC-only Alan Wake's American Nightmare, the original Alan Wake is finally set to arrive on the PC, ending the several year long development, and giving some love back to the PC gaming community.

The darkness is set to attack your hard disks on February 16 via Steam for around $30, and will eventually be available on Origin. If you're looking for a physical boxed copy, you'll have to wait until Remedy decides when to make it available, and there's no date just yet.

PC players may be irked at the long wait, especially since their Xbox-owning friends have probably played through it already, but don't despair too much. The PC version will come packaged with the DLC The Signal and The Writer, and will also boast the expected higher resolution visuals, enhancements to take advantage of the latest multi-core CPUs and 3D functionality.

Alan Wake was an underrated gem in our opinion, and offered some truly great horror-themed action with a novel (get it?) twist. PC owners should certainly give this a go when it arrives.

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Although Rage was originally planned for release on the Apple Mac, being in development at the same time as the PC, it never surfaced, and instead the PC and console community got the post-apocalyptic joyride first. Well, now Mac owners can get their hands on the game, or at least part of it.

Available now via the US App Store for $39.99, the Mac edition of Rage features only the single player campaign (including the bonus content from the Anarchy Edition), but lacks all of the multiplayer, meaning no online racing or Wasteland Legends for you.

To be fair, although the multiplayer modes were enjoyable enough, it's safe to say that most bought Rage for the single player story anyway, and that's where the meat of the game lies, so Mac users aren't too hard done by. However, paying the same price as everyone else for only a part of the game is a little bit of a kick in the teeth, and a reduced cost would have sweetened the deal a little.

Still, Rage is a great, if somewhat overrated game, and if you hanker for some FPS action that only id can deliver, now's your chance.

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David Blair’s Best Laid Plans is a film that suffers from something – a nagging, pervasive ambivalence  - that leaves a taste lingering in the mouth, and not necessarily a pleasant one. There’s a tiny chance that could have been that unexpected peanut Revel, sure, but it was almost certainly the film.

One of the things to like, as with most things in which he appears, is the performance of the borderline-ubiquitous Stephen Graham, who seems utterly incapable of being anything less than excellent in anything. Hell, he even came out of Doghouse with pride and career intact, and that was crap.

Graham’s Danny is the small-time chancer – the sort of archetypal yet loveable Scouse rogue that blends indiscernibly into his oeuvre, much as piss disperses evenly into the shallow end of a swimming pool – who finds himself indebted to psychotic gangster Curtis (David O’Hara).

Initially Curtis’ heavies - sent after Danny to collect his debt – are seen off by Danny’s best friend Joseph (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbajeå – Lost’s Mr Eko), for whom Danny is surrogate carer. Joseph is mentally disabled, his hulking frame belying the innocent, childlike personality within. Yet his furiously clinical reaction to seeing Danny threatened doesn’t escape the notice of Curtis, who gives Danny a chance: convince Joseph to participate in a bout of bare-knuckled boxing, and the debt is waved. Fail to do so, and they’re both dead.

That Danny manages to convince Joseph to fight through a cocktail of lies, manipulations and half-truths doesn’t come as a surprise, given the options. Danny isn’t exactly a stand-up citizen, though - Joseph simply doesn’t recognize the corrosive nature of Danny’s cocaine, booze and hooker proclivities, instead seeing his friend through the selective prism of loyalty and love.

Danny is selfish, scared, weak and - occasionally – cruel, yet his dedication to Joseph is the constant in his life, and it is the threat to this this that drives him to go to such extreme lengths. Danny’s just trying to protect Joseph from things he doesn’t understand, yet Danny is the one to blame for them.

Once the fights inevitably begin it’s hard not to be affected somehow by the tragedy and intrinsically uncomfortable nature of them, and Blair doesn’t try to milk any joy from seeing Joseph tear strips off a procession of bulldog-faced bruisers.

He’s no One-Punch Mickey, there’s no joy or triumph here – it’s tears, resentment and pain. The fight scenes aren’t realistic enough to devastate, and yet, due to the nature of the film, aren’t fun to watch either. So, considering that they are regular occurrences, are they entertaining? Hmm.

The title of the film isn’t exactly trying to disguise the source of the story. In many ways, Best Laid Plans is an interesting interpretation of John Steinbeck’s novel. A modern setting certainly does it no harm, and the friendship between the two men is one we don’t need to see the beginning of to believe in. The fact is, however, that mental illness is an extremely tricky subject matter to pull off, and a scenario in which a man with severe learning difficulties is forced into violence doesn’t seem like a particularly good approach to try.

Akinnuoye-Agbajeå’s performance is earnest and sweet, yet something about it doesn’t quite ring true. It’s a niggling failing from which the film never really recovers. Joseph’s emergent friendship with Isabel (Maxine Peake, in an oddly chosen and thankless role), who has difficulties similar to his, yields a fair amount of tender enough moments, yet it’s odd for a film about exploitation to feel quite so exploitative, not to mention a little reductionist towards the problems it conveys.

Don’t misunderstand - there’s nothing worse than those ostentatiously over-reactionary arseholes who, from a position of unearned moral superiority, take offence on behalf of others (usually for the benefit of their Twitter followers). No subject is taboo, and anyone who thinks films cannot be made about mental illness that aren’t solely and piously about mental illness is both an idiot and part of the problem.

Yet even the most reasoned amongst us might take slight umbrage when a film such as this revels in the line ‘two mongs don’t make a right.’ This line stands out (and is therefore mentioned here) solely because it sits so at odds with what the rest of the film seems to be trying – and sometimes succeeding - to do.

The dramatic scenes, inevitably, work best, despite subplots occasionally pulling in unwelcome directions, with Stephen Graham once again emerging utterly unscathed. He makes Danny more human than his actions deserve - nuanced, affable, unhinged - and, as he’s shown before (see This Is England’s Combo), he plays these morally conflicted characters better than anyone else.

It’s just that the film doesn’t hang together well enough to earn a recommendation or to provide enough reason, besides his performance, to part with your cash. Especially sitting as it does in the odd little no man’s land between a sensitive drama, a gangster thriller and an exploitation film. It’s interesting, generally well acted and probably well-intentioned, yet it’s also morally muddled, saggy in the middle and narratively contrived.

Listen, Chronicle’s out this week. Why not go and see that instead? It’s really good.

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This site has been going for nearly five years now, and it feels like chatter about a potential Short Circuit remake stretches back that far, too. Thus far, the project hasn’t made it to the screen, and so we can, er, all bring up idyllic memories of Steve Guttenberg in his prime. However, get ready for those memories to be tainted: the remake is back on the cards.

See how we’ve avoided the ‘it’s alive’ gags out of respect? That, and we figured you wouldn’t find them funny.

Anyway: Matt Lieberman has now been hired by Dimension Films to pen the script for the new Short Circuit movie. And, what’s more, a director is attached to the project (and has been since last year, to be fair).

That director is Tim Hill. The director of Hop, of Alvin And The Chipmunks, and of Muppets From Space (the only Muppets film not worth watching, might we add).

The plan, too, seems to be for lots of Short Circuit films. According to Bob Weinstein, who’s basically stumping up the cash for it,  “Dimension has had great success with the Spy Kids family series which grossed over $500 million worldwide."

He continued: “We are looking for Short Circuit to be our next family franchise and are excited to be working with Matt Lieberman and Tim Hill, who has had great International success with Hop and Alvin and the Chipmunks”.

We have nothing to add to this story by way of reaction that you haven’t already thought of yourselves.

If you've seen the trailer for Dream House, you've seen way too much. In fact, the film's deceptive advertising campaign disappointed the film's stars so much, they didn't end up doing press rounds for the film when it came time to release it. After all, if you've seen the trailer, you already know ...