With many of our favorite franchises returning soon, the Qore team caught up with the folks responsible for these highly anticipated sequels in order to bring you the most recent developments.

Renaissance Man

The action/adventure game that focused on simulated ancestral memories now shifts locales to Italy in Assassin’s Creed 2. Audrey Cleo takes a look at the new tale of power, revenge and conspiracy that lets you put Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions to good use.

Special Ops

Acclaimed developer Infinity Ward returns to the Call of Duty franchise with a direct sequel to 2007’s Modern Warfare. So how do you make one of the most popular games of this current generation even better? Add snowmobiles, of course!

Hell, (Un)frozen Over

Ten years after the events of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, the ice and snow have finally melted—but that doesn’t make the planet any more hospitable! Capcom shows Veronica how players can team up to take down the enormous Akrid.

Sky, Land and Sea

The popular PC franchise is coming to the PlayStation Network in the form of Battlefield: 1943 – a fast-paced online shooter with multiple vehicles, 24 player combat, and environmental destruction in WWII Pacific Theatre locales.

Subscription Renewal Update

Initial subscribers from June 2008 can now take advantage of a special renewal offer. Please check your e-mail for details. You’ll need to visit the PlayStation Store and, under the Media category, find and select the special renewal ‘thumbnail’ to avoid missing an episode.

All annual subscribers and single episode purchasers will receive an exclusive Battlefield: 1943 theme this month, and don’t forget to look for a new mini-game in the Qore Arcade. Also, in celebration of Independence Day, check out your very own fireworks launcher built into the What’s Hot section where, of course, you’ll also find Audrey Cleo’s Blu-ray round up.

Look for Episode 14 tomorrow.

Battlefield 1943 is back again on the PlayStation.Blog and we’re proud to announce a community challenge for YOU to unlock a 4th location, Coral Sea. That’s right, there are actually 4 destructible battlegrounds in Battlefield 1943 and Coral Sea comes with a new game mode, Air Superiority!

Here are the details for the battle plan: this summer when Battlefield 1943 launches, every kill recorded by a PLAYSTATION 3 will go towards the total, community objective of 43 million kills! The more time you spend putting lead in the bodies of your sworn enemies, the quicker everyone will be able to play Coral Sea. To find out more and keep track of the progress, keep constant surveillance of the Battlefield 1943 website to get real time updates of how you and your fellow soldiers are progressing towards the goal of 43,000,000.

Coral Sea is the ultimate online multiplayer dog fighting map! Two aircraft carriers supply your team with all the F4U Corsair and Zero fighters you’ll need as your conquest to control the skies, and secure your name in history as an Ace pilot of Battlefield 1943. Prepare to fire your questions at DICE’s own Red Baron, Gordon Van Dyke, one more time – he’s got his guns pointed your way!

Today is a really exciting day, first it’s Walpurgis Night here in Sweden celebrating the start of summer’s approach with bonfires, yes I said bonfires, and this is done all over the country. It is quite the sight to see from atop the DICE studio. Another really exciting thing for me today is the release of the Battlefield 1943 trailer for the first time on PSN (later today) and seeing it in full glory on my PS3.

Now before you watch the video, imagine with me flying your Corsair airplane over the tropical Wake Island engaged in a dogfight with a Japanese Zero, you take him down and notice your squad mate’s tank about to be flanked by the enemy in another tank. You quickly bank to the left, swoop down, and drop two bombs perfectly on the enemy, saving your friend and helping him capture a critical control point.

After watching the video, I’m sure you will have a lot of questions about the game so instead of guessing, fire away! I’ll be around for as long as I can to answer them in the comment section. Thanks for taking the time to read this, now write your questions or just give a shout out! :-)

I can beat up Ashton, follow me on Twitter.