The Boston Festival of Indie Games has announced that its keynote speaker will be Robin Hunicke, former executive producer of Journey. Hunicke's talk, Finding Meaning in Gameplay, will "focus on how developers can create games that inspire new feelings, by looking inward and examining the everyday experiences of their own lives," according to the festival's site.

Hunicke left thatgamecompany in late March 2012 for Tiny Speck, before co-founding indie studio Funomena in September 2012 with former thatgamecompany programmer Martin Middleton.

The Boston Festival of Indie Games, which is in its second year of existence, will be held on September 14. Its planners are raising funds on Kickstarter to improve the event, and are currently $2,414 shy of their $15,000 goal with 11 days left in the funding campaign. Incentive for those pledging $25 or more (aside from a warm, charitable feeling) is a PC bundle that includes Fieldrunners and Go Home Dinosaurs.

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Costco UK is selling an FMCG International F1 racing simulator for £89,999.89 (including delivery and installation!), or $138,338.83, which is still significantly cheaper than owning an actual Formula 1 car. We also assume it's probably a tiny bit safer and easier to maintain, but that's just a hunch.

The body is available in "your own choice of colour" and is made out of various combinations of composite materials, alloys and carbon fiber, with real wheels, tyres, chromed-out exhaust tips and everything. There's no engine or transmission, obviously, but it does come with one of those totally awesome detachable steering wheels.

The gaming portion of the rig is powered by an Intel Core i7, an SSD of unknown capacity, 16 gigs of RAM and a non-specified graphics card outputting to three 23-inch adjustable TFT monitors. Meanwhile, sweet jams are pumped through a 5.1 audio system into both the car's body and your body, since the subwoofer is located directly behind the driver's seat.

EA recently provided us with a producer walkthrough video for The Sims 3 Island Paradise DLC, an upcoming expansion pack for the game. The DLC takes players to the Isle Paradiso where, as seen in the video, they can cruise on houseboats from port to port.

Players will also get to build their own resort on the island when the expansion launches June 28. Before that, however, The Sims 3 Dragon Valley world will open on May 30.

Next week marks the Steam debut of Humble Heart's XBLA darling, Dust: An Elysian Tail. Dean Dodrill, animator and creator of Dust, took to Twitter to announce the May 24 launch date; though there is currently no Steam product page.

Dust: An Elysian Tail is a 2D action platformer in the vein of Metroid and Castlevania, featuring beautiful hand-drawn sprites throughout. Aside from being visually appealing, it's also a delight – a game our review said "doesn't do much to innovate the platform-adventure sub-genre, but it does manage to look and play beautifully throughout, and sometimes that's enough."

The first community-created updated for Team Fortress 2 has rolled out: 'Robotic Boogaloo.' Continuing the robot theme of previous Team Fortress 2 updates, Robotic Boogaloo adds 57 new artisanal hats, helmets, bonnets, turbans, crowns, toppers and other headgear – all created by the community.

Robotic Boogaloo isn't all hats but, naturally, it's mostly hats. Each new Team Fortress 2 item can be found within RoboCrates – rare drops after June 3 – that can be opened with a key from the Mann Co. store, each costing $2.50. The revenue from these items will then be shared amongst all creators responsible for Robotic Boogaloo content.

[Rough translation of the above dialogue: "...whatever."]

The ever-sullen Squall and his friends are set to make a high-resolution return, as Famitsu reports that Square Enix is developing a remastered PC version of Final Fantasy VIII.

Final Fantasy VIII was originally released for the PlayStation in 1999, and PC players saw a no-frills Windows port one year later. News of Final Fantasy VIII's forthcoming rerelease follows up on last year's upgraded PC port of Final Fantasy VII, which added cloud saving and unlockable achievements. While the new version of Final Fantasy VIII boasts a graphical update, no further details are known, and a release date has not been announced.

The next generation of Microsoft's Xbox console will be revealed next Tuesday, May 21. Swing on by here (and set those calendars, Siri reminders) to join us at 1PM Eastern (10AM Pacific, 6PM UK) for whatever happens.

What's everyone playing this weekend?

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Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Business Chief of Staff Aaron Greenberg recently stopped by the Major Nelson podcast to discuss next week's Xbox reveal event and how Microsoft will show its "vision for the future of games."

"We're really going to tell one story across two events. So we're going to start on the 21st and really that's about revealing the next Xbox platform, really our vision for the future of games, the future of entertainment. We definitely have a lot of surprises planned." Greenberg then specifically called out Call of Duty: Ghosts, which will have its next-generation engine demoed during the Microsoft event.

"People are going to get a great inside look at really the making of the new platform and the team that's brought it to life," Greenberg added. "I mean, to be honest it's really about the team, the people here. That's why we're inviting people to campus, we're going to bring them behind the scenes a little bit. We've never done this before and so it's really exciting to be able to do that. But I think it's a lot of laying the foundation - probably the best way to describe it - and then just a couple of weeks later we go to E3."

Greenberg concluded that more will be shown at E3 and after, leading into this holiday season. "E3 is all about the games. At E3, I mean, if you're a gamer, it's going to be tons of exclusives, world premieres and obviously even beyond that we have a lot to share between then and this holiday."

The Xbox event takes place on May 21 at Microsoft's Redmond campus, located in Washington state. Be sure to have your browser locked to Joystiq starting at 1pm ET (6pm UK, 10am PT) for all of the scoops, commentary and neatly organized words you've come to expect.

Fable series developer Lionhead Studios is currently seeking a gameplay programmer and an automation engineer for an upcoming unannounced project, emphasizing that knowledge of Epic's Unreal Engine 3 or 4 is required for consideration.

The company additionally seeks a core technology programmer and an animation director. Lionhead notes that the animation director position requires a "background working on new franchises or reimaginings of existing franchises."

Previous Lionhead job listings sought online multiplayer level designers, hinting that the developer was working on "an MMO-like title for next generation consoles." Ex-Cryptic CEO John Needham was recently named Lionhead's Studio Head following the departure of co-founder Peter Molyneux.

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.

Scurvy Scallywags, the upcoming game from Ron Gilbert and DeathSpank co-creator Clayton Kauzlaric, is a little different from most match-three puzzlers. As we learned in March, players can influence the direction in which the board collapses after making a match. This, in turn, can move their character around the board and allow them to engage in combat with other characters.

The concept is a bit difficult to put down on paper, so thankfully there's a new trailer! Take note of the end of the video, as we're fairly certain this is the first sea shanty in history to feature a theremin.

Killzone: Mercenary, the upcoming PS Vita installment in Sony's shooter series from Guerrilla Cambridge, has had its release bumped up a week. Previously pegged for a September 17 launch in North America, Killzone: Mercenary is now due on September 10.

In addition to moving up the date, Sony has revealed some pre-order incentives for Killzone: Mercenary over on the PlayStation Blog. The first perk is a 48-hour double XP boost, which spans all in-game contracts, bonuses and payouts. Joining that is additional in-game cash at the outset and a pre-order exclusive machine gun, the M224-A1.

With this morning's revelation that EA does not have any Wii U games in development comes the outright confirmation that FIFA 14 will not be appearing on the system as well.

"Although FIFA 13 on Wii U featured our award-winning HD gameplay and innovative new ways to play, the commercial results were disappointing," an EA representative told Joystiq. "We have decided not to develop FIFA 14 on Wii U. We have a strong partnership with Nintendo and will continue to evaluate opportunities for developing FIFA for Nintendo fans in the future."

The game was initially announced for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, so while Wii U was never in the picture for the game, it still marks a noticeable absence for a series that launches on every major platform each year. It's not the only EA Sports title to avoid the system, as EA confirmed earlier this month that the Madden series will not see a release in 2013 on Wii U either.

Confirmed Lulzsec members Ryan Cleary, Jake Davis, Mustafa al-Bassam and Ryan Ackroyd have been sentenced for their part in the great hack of 2011, which saw Lulzsec targeting notable companies such as Sony, EA and Nintendo.

The four were initially charged nearly a year ago. Davis, as leader, was sentenced with two years jailtime, while Cleary was sentenced to 32 months for producing malicious software, Ackroyd for 30 months for his role as press secretary of the group and Al Bassam, who posted the stolen data online, was given a 20-month suspended sentence.

"The harm they caused was foreseeable, extensive and intended," Andrew Hadik, lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service told BBC. "Indeed, they boasted of how clever they were with a complete disregard for the impact their actions had on real people's lives. This case should serve as a warning to other cybercriminals that they are not invincible."

Lulzsec carried out many high-profile hacks in 2011, starting with the Sony Pictures hack that eventually led to a lengthy PSN outage. Lulzsec also attacked Nintendo, EVE Online, Minecraft, The Escapist and Battlefield Heroes before calling it quits.

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!

In our 2010 review of Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii, our own JC Fletcher admitted a terrible truth: He had used the Super Guide. Nintendo gave us the nefarious innovation a few years ago, ostensibly a tool to help less experienced players navigate the trickier parts of its games. Seasoned players recognized it for what it really was: A taunt, a gently whispering devil on your shoulder.

Resisting the shiny, candy-like allure of the Super Guide is still a major component of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, Monster Games' 3DS rendition of Retro Studios' Wii platformer. A new difficulty setting tries to soften the Wii version's sharp edges, but the brutal structure of its levels remains intact, and no amount of extra health is going to change that.

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