Player created content. The land where the developer’s concepts are hopped up on a unique internet blend of creativity inspired by Red Bull, Jack Daniels and Ritalin. Whether in the form of Half-Life 2 mods, storylines in WWE 12 or levels in Little Big Planet 2, giving players a customizable aspect to their game has become a proven asset to developers to extend the life of their game. Portal 2 was lauded as having some of the most creative and inventive puzzles of 2011, taking game physics and concepts to the next level. Allowing for this kind of creative freedom to fans of the series is the logical next step.

Announced last October, the puzzle editor will be a part of the free DLC pack releasing to PCs and Macs on May 8th known as the Perpetual Testing Initiative. Using the Steam platform, players will be able to create, upload, download and rate creations from the player community. What could this mean? It means that you are giving PC gamers, the most “hardcore” gaming audience, free reign inside the most complicated but approachable world in gaming today.

While Portal focused mostly on creativity using gravity puzzles, Portal 2 took things to a whole new level using light bridges, propulsion gel and launching platforms. Now, players will be able to assemble their own Test Labs using these.

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In 2010, Jerry Holkins, aka Tycho, posted chapters for what he hoped would become the third installment of Penny Arcade’s steampunk RPG game series, but then much to the dismay of fans, not much else was heard of about the game.

Cut to 2012 and not only does the game have a developer, indie devs Zeboyd games, but it should be released sometime this summer. I got a chance to sit in on the panel where the game’s creators, plus Holkins himself, discussed how the game resurfaced and came to be.

What is obviously different right from the start in On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 is the SNES-style art and graphics. The previous two games looked a bit more like one of Mike Krahulik’s comics, but this third game is less comic, more Final Fantasy. The battle system and dialogue boxes are reminiscent of all my favorite RPGs growing up, but combined with the snarky, sometimes foul dialogue always present in the Penny Arcade games, it’s more like an R-rated version of Dragon Warrior.

During the Q&A portion of the panel, fans asked a lot about the other apparent difference in On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, which is the absence of a customizable protagonist. In this third installment, players take on a party of Gabriel, Tycho, and Ann. The developers mentioned that they may wrap up the story of the previous protagonist, but you won’t be able to play as him. However, there will be enemies in tiny hats, and tiny hats make everything funnier, so it all balances out.

On The Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 will be available this summer on PC, Mac, Xbox, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android.

When it comes to image manipulation tools, the granddaddy of them all has to be Adobe Photoshop. Go to pretty much any company that spends any time manipulating images and they will have Photoshop. It is, to all intents and purposes, the standard against which all others are measured.

It’s been quite some time since Adobe launched a new version of its Photoshop software but finally, that time has come. Well, at least in the form of a new Beta.

Late yesterday, the company released Photoshop CS6 beta into the wild. It features a new, faster and more modern user interface, re-engineered design tools and content-aware patching.

“Photoshop CS6 will be a milestone release that pushes the boundaries of imaging innovation with incredible speed and performance,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “We couldn’t wait to share this beta of Photoshop CS6 with our customers and are looking forward to hearing from them and seeing the ways they are incorporating the beta into their daily creative workflows.”

If you want to check out the new beta it would help to have fast internet. The file weighs in at about 1GB. PC users need to have a 2GHz or faster processor with at least 1GB of RAM and be running Windows XP SP3 or Windows 7. Mac users need multicore Intel processor, 1GB of RAM and OS X 10.6.8 or newer.

The Photoshop CS6 beta is available now from Adobe’s website. Expect the final version sometime in 2012.

If you want to know more, click through for the full press release from Adobe.

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With all the speculation and hype surrounding Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iOS, it’s nice to actually get some concrete details about the company’s next version of the OS that powers its Mac hardware. That’s right, the cat-themed software is back and this time around it’s called “Mountain Lion.”

Apple today released details of the next version of its Mac OS, also known by the more technical name as Mac OS X 10.8, and they are going to be good news for those of you wishing your Mac was more like your iPhone or iPad. Some of the highlight of the new release include the arrival of iMessage on the Mac as well as Notification Center.

Other new features include Game Center integration, AirPlay mirroring, enhanced iCloud support and a number of redesigned apps. A developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will be released on Thursday of this week and the updated OS will become available to end users this summer.

For more, check out the full press release from Apple after the break.

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Telltale Games is known for working on some of the most revered point and click games in PC gaming, with many of its key contributors coming from the famed LucasArts team that created Tales of Monkey Island. Since splitting off from LucasArts, the team at Telltale was able to take their credentials and acquire more well known mass market properties like CSI, Jurassic Park and Back to the Future. Though this is the fifth Law & Order game to be released, Law & Order: Legacies it is the first to come from the team at Telltale.

Gameplay:

When talking about a point and click adventure game, many people recall instances of being left in a world where they must click on or pick up objects in a certain order to achieve a specific goal. Instead, the aspect of the point and click adventure that carries over to Law & Order: Legacies is that of a cerebral experience which players are carefully lead through, almost too carefully at times.

The focus of Law & Order: Legacies’ gameplay is on remembering the facts presented at crime scenes, interviews with witnesses and cutting off the tactics of defense attorneys.

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You have to give Apple credit, they do release updates to their OS X and iOS operating systems pretty frequently. And when they do, the updates usually fix quite a few issues.

Case in point this week is the company’s most recent update to Mac OS X, the other operating system that doesn’t run the iPhone or iPad. This latest update brings the software to version 10.7.3 and sports a slew of enhancements and bug fixes.

Here’s a list of the major ones:

• Add Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian language support
• Address issues when using smart cards to log into OS X
• Address compatibility issues with Microsoft Windows file sharing
• Address an issue printing Microsoft Word documents that use markup
• Address a graphics performance issue after sleep on some earlier iMacs that use ATI graphics
• Resolve a Wi-Fi connection issue when waking from sleep
• Address an issue that may prevent Safari from opening before joining a wireless network
• Fix a potential issue authenticating to an SMB DFS share
• Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras

OS X 10.7.3 is available now via Software Update. However, we recommend downloading the larger, but usually far more stable, Combo Updater and using that. It usually works out better.

One of the most useful applications I use every day on the Mac has now arrived for Windows. That’s right Windows-using writers Scrivener is now available to you.

No matter if you’re writing the next great American novel (something for National Novel Writing Month perhaps?), research paper, script or any long-form text document that involves more than hammering away at the keys until you’re done, Scrivener, made by the fine folks at Literature & Latte, can help you get your work done. The multi-featured program excels at helping you collect research, bring order to fragmented ideas and avoid shuffling index cards in search of that elusive structure.

Scrivener can help you from the moment an idea comes into your imagination until the final finished pages are output. In short, it pretty much does everything for you except the actual writing.

Unfortunately, that will still be up to you. The rest you can leave to Scrivener.

As someone who uses this app daily (the Mac version) I can safely say it really helps me get my work done. Without it, I would be back to posting index cards to cork boards and trying to make things work that way. I like the 21st Century’s technological advancements and I like Scrivener.

Scrivener requires Windows XP, Vista, or 7 (32 or 64 bit). 1GB RAM; 1ghz Processor; 100mb disk space; 1064 x 786 screen.

NYCC this year saw the debut of one of the most nostalgia filled MMO gameplay trailers since Star Wars: The Old Republic. Though we can’t show you the trailer we can tell you about what we saw and what information we were able to get about the game. Transformers Universe is being developed by Jagex, the makers of the free to play fantasy MMO Runescape. Jagex promises an experience meant to appeal both to the masses as well as the Transformers hardcore fan.

Transformers Universe will be a browser based MMO for both the PC and Mac which means no downloads are necessary. It will take place using real world looking cars on a diverse landscape and will be a planet-based experience. So what does that mean? Don’t expect boats or planes just yet for this game. PR people were very careful to only mention driving and not piloting. It may be possible that they may exist in the future but the character creator screen we saw only gave options for cars, trucks and motorcycles thus far.

We have also been promised that Transformers Universe will be a constantly evolving world with huge character customization options. This means that when players pick their side as either Autobot or Decepticon, they will have a massive level of creative control over their character and that the world around them won’t be static. Areas, characters and missions will change and allow for new gameplay experiences instead of repetitive gameplay. Additionally, players will be granted the ability to play alongside iconic characters like Optimus Prime. Similar to the vein of DC Universe Online, players will fight with or against some of the recognizable faces from the Transformers Universe, helping make that individual’s story feel bigger and more important.

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The nice folks at Feral Interactive who make sure cool games get to the Mac announced this week they will be bringing one of our favorite games to the Mac platform. That game? Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Sure, those of you who’ve played it already on PS3 or XBox 360 may scoff and say “Who cares?” But those who love the Mac and don’t have a console gaming system (yes, those people exist) will now be able to enjoy one of the cooles games around on their beloved Macs.

The game features a story by Paul Dini, Batman writer and Emmy Award winner. It also features the voice talents of Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy, who reprise their roles as The Joker and Batman from the animated TV series.

The game will reportedly cost $39.99 and will be available in stores or via download. Recommended system requirements for the game are as follows:

2.8 GHz or faster Intel-based Mac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later and a graphics card with at least 512 MB. Nvidia 7xxx series, ATI 1×00 and Intel GMA graphics chips are not supported.

Batman: Arkham Asylum will be available for the Mac on October 13th.

Let’s face it, we are on the cusp of the podcast generation. Nine out of ten average internet users either listen to daily podcasts if not record one themselves. That means that prosumer audio tools need to be simpler and more cost effective than ever.

Nobody who records a podcast, voiceover, or even voicechats online with friends or family wants to lug around an expensive XLR or headset mic place to place so that they can sound good. That’s where Blue Microphones’ Snowball USB microphone comes in handy.

This simple, science fiction-looking USB mic isn’t your normal USB mic. The #1-selling wired condenser mic out there, the Snowball has a high-quality dual capsule design that enables recording in three settings: cardioid, cardioid w/pad, and omni-directional.

For those who aren’t in it for the high-tech lingo and want simplicity, you can expect nothing simpler than the fact that the mic is plug-and-play for both Mac and PC, so even your grandparents could use this guy with ease and no concern of “drivers” or annoying instructions.

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The time we all knew was coming has arrived. Today, in an open letter to the Apple board, CEO Steve Jobs officially announced his resignation from Apple, effective immedietly.

Here’s the text of the letter:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

Steve

In addition, Tim Cook has been promoted to CEO to replace Jobs and Jobs will assume the role of Chairman of the Board.

I wonder what this will do to the price of Apple’s stock tomorrow morning. As for what the future holds for the company, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

It’s gold baby! That’s right, the next version of Apple’s flagship operating system for Macs has just gone Gold and been seeded to developers.

The next version, known as OS X 10.7 Lion, is now at build number 11A511 and the download is available immediately on Apple’s developer website. Of course, that’s only if you’ve paid your $99.00 to be an Apple OS X developer. If not, no Lion for you — at least not yet.

Due to this being the GM and barring any major glitches with it, we should expect it to be the final version before the update is released in the wild for everyone.

That launch will be sometime next month with the update being available in Apple’s Mac App store. It will cost $29.00, which seems pretty reasonable.