It will include tweaks and features that BioShock fans will not experience in a standard play-through of BioShock Infinite, no matter the difficulty level.

“We want to give our oldest and most committed fans an option to go back to our roots,” said Ken Levine, Creative Director of Irrational Games. “In 1999 Mode, gamers face more of the permanent consequences of their gameplay decisions. In BioShock Infinite, gamers will have to sweat out the results of their actions. In addition, 1999 Mode will demand that players pick specializations, and focus on them.

“I’m an old school gamer. We wanted to make sure we were taking into account the play styles of gamers like me. So we went straight to the horse’s mouth by asking them, on our website, a series of questions about how they play our games. 94.6 percent of respondents indicated that upgrade choices enhanced their BioShock gameplay experience; however, 56.8 percent indicated that being required to make permanent decisions about their character would have made the game even better.”

In addition to these permanent decisions, 1999 Mode will feature demanding weapon, power, and health management. The mode also takes a much harder stand on player respawning, sending the gamer directly to a “Game Over” screen if he or she lacks the resources to be brought back to life. It’s not for the faint of heart.

Strategy Informer posted some highlights from Paradox CEO Frederik Wester’s speech at the Paradox convention. Wester believes that the next generation of consoles will be the last. In the future, brick and mortar game stores will be barely remembered fragments from the halcyon days of our youths. Instead, the future will be dominated by digital platforms like the PC, mobile gaming, and social networks. Unfortunately, Mr. Wester didn’t use his clairvoyant powers to discuss when we’ll get flying cars, nano augmentations, or a mars colony.

According to the Strategy Informer article, Wester does have a very good reason to be optimistic about the future of digital distribution.

Paradox have personally seen their digital revenue increase from 1.5% in 2006, to 97% in 2011. That year also saw them beating their 2010 statistics, with a 75% growth in revenue, and a 250% growth in profit.

I wonder how much of that growth in revenue is due to Magicka's success.

Paradox Interactive’s 2012 Convention has started. The company has occupied a Swedish castle for this year’s affair, no doubt in celebration of their upcoming game about taking over other people’s castles and marrying your cousin.

The first news to come out of this event, reported by Strategy Informer, is that Magicka has sold 1.3 million copies since its release last year. Its Vietnam expansion sold half a million copies and various other DLCs have sold some 4 million copies.

Naturally, this means that we’ll be seeing more Magicka in the future. Here is the scoop from Strategy Informer.

To celebrate the good news, Paradox also announced that a new expansion pack is in development for Magicka, which will be named 'The Other Side of the Coin', and allows you to try out the game from the bad guys perspective. That's all we know at the moment, but expect more details later today.

Edit: A visit to Paradox’s press assets site revealed a PDF file and some concept art related to the Magicka expansion. The Other Side of the Coin will ship in autumn of 2012 and will cost $3.99/€3.99.

Another most pulchritudinous Thursday to you all. Side note, don't you think the word pulchritudinous is rather superfluous? Bullshit really. Anyways, I've been playing some Dustforce, which you'll be seeing a review for shortly, as well as poking around the Diablo III beta some more.

After hearing about some of the release date news I decided to play around a little bit more in the world of Sanctuary. Since I had beaten the beta at least 10 times over, and had leveled each of the five classes up to at least level 12, I hadn't been paying much attention to the Diablo III beta going ons. When I logged in I was surprised to see all of my characters had been erased. I started a new Witchdoctor and set off in the world. I'm not 100% sure what all the changes are but it definitely felt tightened up a bit. One change in particular I like - you have to wait to change your skills at a special shine now instead of being able to change them willy-nilly whenever and wherever you want. Another that I noticed is that they increased the variance you see in the randomly generated dungeon areas, making it somewhat less predictable and cumbersome. Overall (I’ve only played to level 7 this time so far) it still feels a bit too easy still, either that or I'm just too masterly for normal difficulty anymore. In any case, I can't wait until 'early 2012' when Diablo III finally gets released!

Now that I've re-gained that 'ol Diablo itch, I know I'm going to need an understanding girlfriend with a good sense of humor to put up with me, and I think I've found the perfect way to winnow out the right one.

Update: For those of you interested, here are some of the latest updates to Diablo III.

The first few sequences of the video, more contemplative, let us appreciate the diversity and richness of the game’s levels and environments. These sequences quickly turn into pure action, while the 3 heroes of the game face swarms of creatures and huge bosses. All the power they have been granted, their powerful spells and devastating abilities will certainly not be too much for them to complete their grand quest!

In Star Trek Online, the Star Trek universe truly comes to life on a massive scale. Players captain their own starships as part of the Federation or Klingon Empire in a persistent online universe, journey to strange new worlds and take part in epic ground and space missions.

• The Universe is Your Only Limit - Play as much as you like for as long as you like at no cost. No subscription is required, nor is payment of any kind required.

• Episodic Gameplay - Experience new weekly episodes that feature story-based gameplay and put your captain's ability to command to the ultimate test.

• Your Captain, Your Crew, Your Destiny - Become a captain, seek out new life and new civilizations and encounter hostile beings as you advance to maximum level for free.

• Familiar Places, New Experiences - Travel to Starfleet Academy, Deep Space Nine, The First City of Qo'noS and many other iconic locations and notable worlds from the beloved Star Trek universe.

• The Foundry - Create and build brand new missions and stories to share with the entire Star Trek Online community. Use the specialized toolset to create missions in space or on the ground. Create custom missions, or design an entire series of episodes from the ground up.

Part two of Rockstar Games’ Design and Technology series dives into Max’s targeting, weapons, and tactical movement, explaining how each of these systems works to create a totally seamless and believable cinematic experience. Through advancements in physics technology and animation, developer Rockstar Studios is able to capture the precision targeting of a first-person shooter and retain the strong characterization and story elements intrinsic to a third-person perspective. This same technology provides a greater sense of realism to all of Max’s actions and reactions, allowing the character to adjust naturally to the on-screen position of the reticule, even while in a prone state. Thanks to these gameplay innovations, players will enjoy total control over Max’s movements and actions - paired with fluid and precise targeting - at all times.

The extensive demo will allow players to experience the all-out galactic war against an ancient alien race known as the Reapers from multiple fronts, including the mind-blowing opening attack on Earth that kicks off the single-player campaign. Players will go deeper into the campaign and also get a taste of the franchise’s new co-operative multiplayer mode as they preview the epic story, adrenaline-pumping action and deep customization options that lie ahead when Mass Effect 3 launches on March 6, 2012.

So we've been asked if we're participating, and here's the answer. It's been talked about, but the truth is we lack the ability to actually take part. That, and there's the risk of conflicting with the interests of our parent companies considering that IGN is owned by News Corp, and News Corp is a sponsor of the bill. Despite that I think I can speak unanimously for the VE crew in that we're equally as unhappy as you guys are with SOPA as is, and view it as the potential destruction of the internet as we know it. Hell, it'd probably even kill our ability to do our jobs, especially when it comes to hosting or even embedding media.

With that said, we will be covering game related news today. I've even got a giveaway planned, but I'll reserve that for a dedicated post just in case this one explodes with SOPA related comments. In the mean time, here's a little SNL clip for you guys featuring Jube's favorite wizard playing spin the bottle. Oh and if you missed it, here's a link to their dead on jab at Ricky Gervais just before the Golden Globes.

Edit: Youtube Video Mirrors - Spin the Bottle, Gervais