Infinity Ward issuing Modern Warfare 3 bans that last 5000 days

Infinity Ward is issuing its version of a "permaban" to offensive Modern Warfare 3 players, in the form of a ban lasting 5000 days. "If you see this message," IW Creative Strategist Robert Bowling confirmed on Twitter, "it means you've been Permabanned (for something bad)."

Really, when you think about it, IW is being charitable to cheaters and other malcontents by issuing bans lasting only 13 and a half years. That's not reallypermanent at all! Maybe you should thank Infinity Ward for its beneficence by not hacking your game or being outrageously racist.

Otherwise, you'll be thinking about how to live your life until you turn 26.

The Last of Us concept shots depict a game of sneaky survivalism

We don't know much about The Last of Us just yet, but the first several concept shots offer a sneak peek into what we can expect to learn in the coming months. Protagonist duo Joel and Ellie sneak their way past a mean-looking couple of gentlemen in a wrecked 7-11, hang out with deer on their way out of what looks to be San Francisco, and stop to rest by a fire while cracking jokes, all the while escaping from whatever those humanoid ... things were in the trailer.

The latest line from Naughty Dog on The Last of Us puts the duo in a world where the US population was "decimated by a modern plague," leaving only the most hardened survivors behind while nature reclaims man's crumbling structures. The relationship between Joel and Ellie is unclear, though Joel is only referred to as a "ruthless survivor" while Ellie is depicted as "a brave young teenage girl who is wise beyond her years." The gameplay repercussions of those characterizations seem to put Joel in the aggressor role while Ellie handles strategy and puzzles -- we're still not sure how that will play out in terms of player control, unfortunately. Single-player with an NPC partner? Switching off between the two? Co-op? We'll have to wait and see.

And though we're not sure why the two are doing so, they'll be trekking "across what remains of the United States" throughout The Last of Us. Here's hoping they find a good shower somewhere in the process! Head over to OPM for all the (rather gorgeous) concept shots.

Max Payne 3 multiplayer to have 'Gang War' narrative, Bullet Time

The multiplayer component of Max Payne 3 is shaping up to be absolutely insane, provided the oodles of ambition outlined in this recent IGN preview is fully realized. The competitive branch of the game will focus on "Gang War" mode, an objective-based team mode which sees player's goals change dynamically based on the events of the previous round. For instance, the player with the most kills in the last round may have a bounty on their head in the following match, while a certain territory your team stole in the previous game will have to be fended off in future encounters.

Players will customize their loadouts using Bursts -- usable perks which become more powerful the longer the player goes without using them. These include intriguing abilities like Paranoia, which makes the opposing team see their teammates as enemies, simultaneously enabling friendly fire. There's also the series' trademark Bullet Time, which works by slowing down foes caught in the user's line of sight. Check out IGN for more info about how Multi-Max's abilities break down.

Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances headed to browsers, mobile

EA continues the expansion of its "play4free" portfolio with the announcement of Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances, developed by Phenomic. The browser- and mobile-based strategy MMO will begin a closed beta on December 15. Interested generals can sign up at the game's official site.

The mobile Command and Conquer comes hot on the heels of last weekend's announcement of Command and Conquer: Generals 2, currently in production at BioWare Victory for launch on PC in 2013.

Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances

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The Last Of Us: Third-Person Confirmed And Story Details

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Yeah, we know. You want to have every last detail concerning Naughty Dog's new project, The Last Of Us.
Well, you'll probably have to wait a bit for full disclosure, but at least we have some baseline information from the developers, which is a start.
According to USA Today, the two characters you see in the trailer - Joel and Ellie - meet at the start of the adventure and team up. Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann says Joel sees Ellie as "his one chance at redemption." This comes from an idea for a graphic novel Druckmann had back in 2008; it involved a father and daughter in a zombie tale. The idea had potential, after all.
But just to be clear, Naughty Dog has confirmed to other sources that The Last Of Us is definitely not a "zombie game." As for how the studio approached the new project, Naughty dog co-presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra said they had guys who "wanted to be challenged." After Uncharted 2: Among Thieves shipped, a few members moved over to work on The Last Of Us while others stuck around to work on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.
Lastly, we learn that their new project will be played in the third-person perspective, like the Uncharted series. And in regards to the progressive nature of the project... Said Balestra:
"We're trying to move the medium of video games into an area elevated in the same manner of respect of film. We want to redefine what our medium is even called. 'Video game' is not an accurate name anymore. It is not necessarily a game with rules and a winner and a loser. It's an experience."
Man, we can't wait to hear and see more.

PSA: Battlefield 3's 'Back to Karkand' now on PC, Xbox 360

Battlefield 3's "Back to Karkand" has been deployed on PC and Xbox 360. The maps for the expansion were buried in a recent PC update, so the mouse and keyboard crew should be good to go. Xbox 360 users have a 2.07 gigglebyte update ahead of them, so that's something to get going on ASAP. The PS3 version was updated last week.

"Back to Karkand" is free for those who picked up the "Limited Edition" version of BF3 at launch -- otherwise it's $15 (the standard for FPS map packs).

The mega Xbox 360 download doesn't just add Karkand maps, however, as there's also a ginormous list of changes made to single player, multiplayer andBattlefield 3's general balance. Check it out after the break.

Get in touch with Vita launch titles with ten new trailers

Sony sent out a bunch of trailers for first-party launch Vita games, focusing on the Vita-specific features each game uses. The good news: we see clever combinations of controls here, like Escape Plan's "pinch" of both the front and back touch panels. And Gravity Rush looks really neat regardless of how it's controlled.

The bad news: we're not nearly mature enough to see ten references to "front touch" and "rear touch" without giggling. If that's how Sony is going to refer to those features permanently, we're going to have a problem at press events.

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