Ubisoft has released a new trailer for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, showcasing gameplay from its co-op narrative campaign and some gruff banter between Sam Fisher and his partner-in-stealth Isaac Briggs.

Splinter Cell is beefing up its multiplayer offerings for the latest series entry, as Blacklist will feature both a two-player co-op campaign and the returning Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer mode. We had a chat with Blacklist's lead co-op designer Richard Carrillo earlier this month, in which he confirmed that teammates will need to adapt to multiple playstyles in order to survive.

Blacklist's co-op element spans four mission types and 14 maps, and is playable online and in local split-screen. Splinter Cell: Blacklist is set to launch for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC platforms on August 20.

Warner Bros. revealed Batman: Arkham Origins is fronted by two of gaming's most prominent voice actors. Roger Craig Smith is confirmed as the caped crusader, and Troy Baker is his nemesis, the Joker.

If you don't recognize the names, you'll definitely recognize their previous work. Craig Smith's immense portfolio includes Ezio Auditore from Assassin's Creed, Chris Redfield from Resident Evil, and he's the current voice of Sonic. While he's never starred in anything Batman related, he does have superhero experience. It is for the other side, however; he's played Captain America in both games and animations.

Baker is similarly prolific. While he recently graced our screens as Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite, his past work includes Sgt. Matt Baker in Gearbox's Brothers in Arms, Snow from the Final Fantasy 13 line, Kai Leng from Mass Effect 3, and Vincent from Catherine. When we profiled Baker around this time last year, he shared his love for all things Batman on the back of starring in Arkham City.

"Being a part of Arkham City was just incredible - because I'm a huge Batman fan," Baker told us, "And to play Two-Face and Robin after growing up watching The Animated Series was a banner moment for me."

The news follows apparent confirmation long-time Batman vocalist Kevin Conroy does star in Origins, but how he features remains to be seen. We know Origins deals with Batman's "initiation into that insane world" of the other Arkham games, so perhaps Conroy's role is something retrospective. Even if Conroy doesn't play the dark knight in any sense in Origins, to fans he's still the goddamn Batman.

Bat-click here to check out our preview and the new trailer.

Batman: Arkham Origins follows the world's most enduring vigilante after just two years on the job. The developers at Warner Bros. Montreal, taking over from Rocksteady Studios and their critically acclaimed construction of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, want to convey a "rawer, scarier Batman." He's all growl and grimace in the cutscenes, dangling squirming henchmen from clock towers until they turn verbose, but in play his rookie temper is more difficult to detect.

The prequel is a tricky proposition, especially when it concerns history that's been dissected again and again across comics, movies and games. It's harder to conjure narrative tension while it's colored by the inevitable outcome, and that draws greater scrutiny on mechanical expansion and refinement. Why does this younger Batman make for a better Batman game?

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It's another familiar week of UK cha-... oh wait, it isn't.

After Dead Island: Riptide sliced through its competition for three weeks, this time it's dethroned by another follow-up in the form of Metro: Last Light. By debuting in top spot, it does what Metro 2033 failed to do when it placed fifth in 2010.

Chart-Track says Metro 2033 sold stronger than Last Light in its launch week. Back then, Metro 2033 was fighting March megatons like Final Fantasy 13, God of War 3, and Battlefield Bad Company 2. In contrast, May 2013 has been dead quiet - emphasis on dead.

Having said that, this week sees another new release in the top ten via Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. The spinoff charts fourth this week. We expect the next 3DS Poke-game to do slightly better.

In other movers and shakers, Last Light only nudged Riptide into second place, making this week a 1-2 for Deep Silver and Koch Media. Tomb Raider drops out of the top five for the first time in its 11th week, slipping down to sixth. Meanwhile, Injustice: Gods Among Us and The Walking Dead (packaged retail edition) shuffle into eighth and seventh.

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A Batman: Arkham Origins pre-order image on Amazon offers Deathstroke as a playable character via DLC. Check it out in a rolling image header here.

Batman and Deathstroke went head-to-head in last week's teaser video, but there was no word on how the striker of mortality would be incorporated into Arkham Origins. This could be a Catwoman in Arkham City situation, where she got an entire spin-off campaign, or it might be something entirely new.

One aspect of Arkham Origins is confirmed today – Kevin Conroy will return as a voice actor.

This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity.

I had my World of Warcraft year. In 2007, when 'The Burning Crusade' came out, the game clicked with me and it became almost the only thing I played for months on end, to the point where I started raiding with an up-and-coming guild. I know many other people who've had that year, with WoW or some other massively multiplayer game, before they lost interest, burnt out, or continued out of habit more than joy. In the last year or so, I've tried several massively-multiplayer role-playing games – Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, The Secret World – and couldn't find that magic again. I could admire the design, but quickly lost interest in playing them. I was starting to think I'd never really like a massively multiplayer game again – and then, on a whim, I decided to check out Defiance.

Defiance is the main game I've been playing for two weeks now, and this may continue. It's not that it's less flawed than the other MMORPGs, but instead that the parts of the game that it focuses on hold much more appeal to me. To put it another way: Most games within this genre are focused on combat, and Defiance's combat is significantly more fun for me than its competitors'.

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Update: Kevin Conroy will be in Arkham Origins, but not as Batman, despite his storied career with that character. Arkham Origins stars Roger Craig Smith as Batman and Troy Baker as the Joker, Warner Bros. announced on May 20.

Original story: Kevin Conroy will be in Batman: Arkham Origins, and he's already spent 10 months in the studio recording those gruff-yet-dulcet tones. Conroy confirmed his involvement at Dallas Comic-Con, but didn't specify if he plays The Bat himself – not that he has to. He opened the panel with, "I am vengeance. I am the night. I am Batman." Because, you know, he is.

NAG magazine reported in April that Warner Bros. had passed on Conroy for Arkham Origins.

Conroy voiced Batman in both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, and he was the man behind Bruce Wayne in Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Beyond and subsequent DC universe cartoon spin-offs. Arkham Origins is scheduled to launch on October 25 for Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U.

Today's Gold Box deal of the day on Amazon is BioShock Infinite. Downloadable PC versions of the game are $25 off ($35), whereas boxed copies of the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are $20 off ($40) for today only.

Meanwhile, $35 Steam codes through Groupon for the game appear to still be available until the end of the day. What we're trying to say is, today might be a good day to buy a new game.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

The upcoming console/PC iteration of Resident Evil: Revelations will include a trio of confusing new costumes for Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield and Keith Lumley, Capcom has announced. As can be seen in the gallery, Jill and Chris both sport equally leggy nautical-themed outfits, while Keith channels his inner One Piece character as a shirtless sword-guy in hammer pants.

Costumes are unlocked by playing through the game's Campaign and Raid modes, in addition to "other unlocking mechanisms" that Capcom is keeping a secret. We're just hoping Capcom eventually rides this train of thought all the way to its logical extreme: Pretty Soldier Sailor Claire Redfield.

The once-delayed PlayStation Vita version of Insomniac's hybrid tower defense-action game Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault will launch next week as a downloadable PlayStation Network title in North America and Europe.

Full Frontal Assault was originally released as a retail and downloadable PlayStation 3 title back in November, boasting cross-play features with a Vita edition that was subsequently hit with a series of delays. Buyers of the retail version of Full Frontal Assault – and its renamed European counterpart Ratchet & Clank: QForce – will be able to download the Vita edition for free starting May 21 in North America and May 22 in Europe by accessing the game's "Disc Benefits" option.

Those who purchased Full Frontal Assault's retail edition will also receive an additional bonus after redeeming the PS Vita version when it launches next week. Ratchet Deadlocked HD, an Idol Minds-developed PlayStation 3 port of the fourth PS2 entry in the Ratchet & Clank series, will be available as a free download for Full Frontal Assault buyers when it launches in the PlayStation Store.

A release date for Deadlocked HD (also known as Ratchet: Gladiator in Europe) has not been announced.

Join Joystiq in the streets of Neo-Paris and the intricate pathways of the mind in this Remember Me video preview. Dontnod's memory-focused action game features strategic battle jeans, "remembrane buoys" and even more dubiously named plot devices, if you can believe it.

Remember Me launches for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on June 4.

Kevin Flynn, who's worked for the last two years as a senior product manager for EA's UK arm, has left to join Activision's UK side as a senior brand manager on Call of Duty. Flynn's previous efforts for EA include launching Battlefield 3 and its subsequent Premium DLC campaigns in the region.

Flynn enlisted with the Call of Duty squad this month, which we imagine must be the busiest time to sign on for an Activision paycheck. With Call of Duty: Ghosts launching on November 5 and next week's next-generation engine reveal during the Xbox event on May 21, we just hope Mr. Flynn is finding adequate time for his lunch break every day. A hungry worker is not a happy worker!

Originally scheduled for June, Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection will arrive via cardboard boxes to North and South America on July 9, publisher Konami announced this afternoon. The PlayStation 3 exclusive bundle includes Metal Gear Solids (or Metal Gears Solid?) 1-4, Peace Walker and VR Missions. The package is priced at $49.99.

The bundle also includes two Ashley Wood "digital graphic novels" and the 100-page art book featuring the series' marketing art over the past 25 years. The Legacy Collection was previously dated July 11 for Japan, and it appears to include the same items now announced for the Americas.

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The results are in, and fans have voted to make Beowolf the fourth new character in Lab Zero Games' little fighter that could, Skullgirls. An ex pro wrestler, Beowolf and his trusty folding chair (named The Hurting, naturally) have come out of retirement in order to test the true limits of his strength. Being a wrestler and everything, Beowolf's playstyle has been influence by Street Fighter's Rainbow Mika and El Fuerte, as well as Tekken's King.

Beowolf is the fourth new character to be funded by Lab Zero's wildly successful Indiegogo campaign, which raised over $800,000 for DLC production back in March. Three other characters, Eliza, Squigly and Big Band, are also currently in development. Squigly is expected to be the first released, dropping alongside the PC version of the game sometime this summer.

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The Last of Us launches on June 14, simultaneously on Blu-ray and as a download through PSN. Those who choose the latter route on PS3 will find the game playable once the download has reached 50 percent, Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann has told Game Informer.

It's our first taste of PS4-esque functionality, just on the PS3 – as you'll recall, one of the major features touted by Sony is the ability to play games as they're downloaded. This is accomplished on the PS4 through the use of hardware dedicated to background downloading and processing.

Update: This is in regards to the PS3. We've added more clear language to that effect.

Since Madden NFL 25 skipped 12 years is named to commemorate the series' 25th anniversary, it shouldn't be surprising that EA Sports recently unveiled a special Anniversary Edition. What is a little surprising are the contents of the special edition, which includes a free one-year subscription for DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket service, allowing fans to watch every out-of-market NFL game throughout the season.

EA Sports tells us that the subscription is limited to the NFL Sunday Ticket computer, tablet and mobile service. Additionally, those who are able to receive DirecTV service in their area can get $10 off per month for the service, which starts at $225, as well as a free subscription to the higher-tier NFL Sunday Ticket MAX.

The Anniversary Edition of Madden 25 is exclusive to Amazon, and limited to 50,000 copies on each of the game's platforms, Xbox 360 and PS3 (100,000 copies total). It will also include complimentary Madden Ultimate Team card packs every week of the NFL's 17-week regular season. Madden 25's Anniversary Edition is available to pre-order now on Amazon for $99.99.

The former Sony Liverpool devs at Sawfly Studios are bringing Men's Room Mayhem to Vita next week, via PSN. It should arrive on May 21 in North America, although as always with news revealed by the PlayStation Blogcast, dates can be subject to change.

If you're curious about the curiously named game, Phil Gaskell from publisher Ripstone describes it as "Flight Control meets Carry on at Your Convenience." – No, it's not the flight paths of... that stuff, but about getting patrons to where they need to go.

"In Men's Room Mayhem you're hired as the janitor of your very own chaotic men's room," said Gaskell on the PlayStation Blog. "You're responsible for directing patrons, keeping everywhere sparkling clean and steering patrons away from trouble! You need to get your customers safely to the urinals and cubicles in time – otherwise there'll be a few nasty accidents for you to clean up!"

The Blogcast also outed a wee (ahem) bit of other content in next week's PS Store update. A "smattering of DLC" is coming to Aliens: Colonial Marines, although the podcast wasn't any more specific than that. A digital PS3 version of Mugen Souls is also due.