Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition comes to the PC tomorrow
More than three years after the release of Darksiders 2 , the Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition is just about upon us.
, the Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition is just about upon us. It includes the original Darksiders 2 plus all DLC, an improved graphics engine with 1080p support, and "reworked and tuned game balancing and loot distribution." Nordic Games is also offering three "franchise loyalty program" discount tiersfor owners of the original game.
Those who own the Darksiders Franchise Packon Steam will be given the Deathinitive Edition automatically and free once it goes live—after which, by the way, the Franchise Pack will be removed from Steam. Owners of the original Darksiders 2 will be given an 80 percent discount code, usable during the first week of release. And if you've never even looked sideways at the game, you can still snag it at a 20 percent discount, also for up to a week after it's out.
It sounds like a pretty good deal, but not everyone is happy. Some owners of the game are complaining on Steam that they own all but one or two of the DLC releases included in the Franchise Pack but purchased them separately, and are thus not eligible for the free upgrade. Nordic explained in a forum postthat it wanted to extend the offer to everyone who owns all the DLC, regardless of how they acquired it, but said it simply wasn't possible to do so.
"We had to bind tier 1 to one single SKU, which was and is the Franchise pack. 80% off isn't too bad either, right?" it wrote. The Deathinitive Edition will sell for $30, it added, so the final cost at the second discount tier will be about $6.
The Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition comes to the PC on November 5.
Go freestyle with Rock Band
Rock Band , the stunning new rhythm action game from Guitar Hero creator Harmonix, will give you the chance to polish off a track with your own twiddly guitar lick or skin-beating drum solo. All the note bars will fill with color, and you can bash out anything you like. Songstrels won't be left out of the noodling madness, though. As a Rock Band singer, you'll be able to "call out the crowd" by ad
Video: 9 trends for the next decade of games
"This idea that I can play anywhere or any time, you're not going to be able to get away with not supporting it." In this free GDC Vault video from GDC Next 2013, 20-year game industry veteran and former Ultima Online director Starr Long explores future trends and how they are already changing the way we make and consume games, during his talk 'Nine Trends for the Next Decade of Video Games.'
About the GDC Vault In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent GDC events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent GDC events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers. Those who purchased All Access passes to events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Online already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription Beta via a GDC Vault inquiry form.
Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available via an online demonstration, and interested parties can send an email to Gillian Crowley. In addition, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault admins.
Be sure to keep an eye on GDC Vault for even more new content, as GDC organizers will also archive videos, audio, and slides from other events like GDC China and GDC 2013. To stay abreast of all the latest updates to GDC Vault, be sure to check out the news feed on the official GDC website, or subscribe to updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS.
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Darksiders 2 remaster is a way to gauge interest in Darksiders 3, says publisher
Darksiders 2 got the remaster treatment last week in the form of the dubiously titled Deathinitive Edition .
. It was a welcome move for Darksiders fans as it demonstrated that Nordic Games – the publisher that acquired the IP from THQ when it shuttered in 2012 – hasn't abandoned the series. Indeed, according to new comments made by Nordic Games executive producer Reinhard Pollice on Steam, the company has further plans for the Zelda-like adventure.
"Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition was just the start," Pollice wrote on the Darksiders 2 community forum. "Since we acquired the franchise we were looking for options for doing a DS3. The remaster was just a way to get some spotlight on the franchise again, reactivate the community and have a better starting position for DS3."
Despite technical issues at launch, Darksiders 2 reviewed reasonably well when it released in 2012. "Darksiders II offers a rewardingly deep system of combos that must be exploited with intelligence and precision," Marsh Davies wrote in his review. "It's this that makes the lack of challenge in platforming or puzzling an amiable respite rather than a bore."
It's been 3 years since Supergiant Games released Bastion in the summer of 2011 to remarkable critical and commercial success.
The indie studio's debut title went on to sell over two million copies across all platforms, and Supergiant's Greg Kasavin tells me its success was both unexpected and affirming.
How Supergiant hopes to avoid the sophomore slump with Transistor
The indie studio's debut title went on to sell over two million copies across all platforms, and Supergiant's Greg Kasavin tells me its success was both unexpected and affirming. It validated the team's decision to quit their various jobs in AAA development and essentially lock themselves in a house to work on something they were passionate about.
It also set a high bar for Transistor , the follow-up to Bastion that Supergiant is releasinglater this month.
"Nobody knew who we were and we had nothing to lose. If no one liked [ Bastion ] it would have just come and gone," says Kasavin. "There are a lot of people with high expectations of us this time."
Act casualI point out that lots of creators struggle a bit when following up a successful debut -- whether it's a second album or a second novel, the "sophomore slump" phenomenon isn't unique to game development. Kasavin admits that he feels a bit of pre-release pressure, but it's not so different from what it felt like to release Bastion -- though Transistor has the benefit of a bit more development time.
"We didn't really have a preproduction phase at all on Bastion , whereas this game did," says Kasavin. He claims the team appreciated the extra time to work on fleshing out the game's setting, its core characters and its gameplay systems before formally revealing it, but he also makes it sound as if they floundered a bit without validation from the outside world that the concept was sound. "It actually wasn't until we revealed the game, in March of last year, that we felt like we were on the right track."
It's a sentiment many developers can sympathize with: Kasavin claims he and the folks at Supergiant have been working on Transistor so closely, for so long, that they don't
"Nobody knew who we were and we had nothing to lose. If no one liked [ Bastion ] it would have just come and gone. There are a lot of people with high expectations of us this time." really know if it's good any more -- they just know that they like it.
Kasavin says Supergiant used all that time to challenge "every aspect" of their new project -- from the camera angle to the use of voiceover -- to try and avoid retreading the path blazed by Bastion . To hear him tell it, one of the tougher challenges was working out how to make the isometric real-time combat of Transistor satisfying over long periods of play.
Combat in Transistor plays out in real time, but the protagonist Red can freeze time and activate a strategic planning mode when her energy bar fills up that allows the player to queue up a series of actions. Each action saps a bit of energy from the bar, and when time unfreezes she executes them all instantaneously. It took Supergiant a good bit of time to get that system working, but once they were happy with it the question became: what keeps that core combat loop engaging over the long haul?
"We really wanted the game to encourage player experimentation," says Kasavin, who laments the fact that Bastion players tended to select a favorite combination of weapons and upgrades that they would stick with throughout the game. This time Supergiant wants to encourage Transistor players to experiment with their abilities, so they themselves experimented with a systems of drawing and discarding powers that were inspired by collectible card games.
"The CCG analogy sounded cool, it held up in conversations, but in practice there was just too much contrivance in making players discard powers they were using," says Kasavin. "We tried a lot of systems, and nothing really felt right."
Eventually the team landed on the "combinatorial" system that's in the game now, which is designed to encourage players to experiment with different power combinations by ensuring that powers can be combined with each other to affect the game world in interesting ways.
Those development changes didn't require anyone to rewrite the game's master design document, because it doesn't have one. Neither did Bastion , for that matter.
"We’re small enough as a team that we can iterate ad hoc, and we like to work on a more intuitive level," says Kasavin. "When Darren is creating a piece of music, for example, he's just gonna go off and make that music. No one is gonna micro-manage him on that."
Don't plan aheadI press Kasavin a bit on how Supergiant manages to work together harmoniously; now that the studio has swelled to twelve people it seems to be stretching the limits of what we might call "small team" development.
"We're pretty quiet; the word 'monastic' has been used to describe us," says Kasavin. "We don't over-schedule, and we plan in a tactical way; we have plans of what we're going to do over the next week or two, and that's pretty much it."
It helps that Transistor is (mostly) built on the same tech that Supergiant used to
"We have no plans for what comes next." build Bastion . The engine -- which was originally developed to use XNA and later modified to use a fork of Monogames so they could run it on platforms like iOS and PlayStation 4 -- is a pure 2D affair with a bunch of custom stuff running on top, including a unique animation and lighting system. They also recently switched to using Lua for scripting and Fmod for audio work, including lots of dynamic music layering and what Kasavin excitedly refers to as "neat audio tricks."
All that work has been self-funded. If Transistor doesn't do well for them, Supergiant will have to reevaluate whether it can continue to operate the same way. Kasavin tells me he likes to joke that the game's May 20th release date is like the end of the Mayan calendar for the studio: "there's nothing beyond that date. We have no plans for what comes next."
It sounds dire, but when I tell Kasavin that he's quick to put a positive spin on the situation. "We didn't plan too far ahead before Bastion was out, and a lot of interesting opportunities came up after the fact that we never could have expected," he says. "If we'd had firm plans in place beforehand it actually would have handicapped us a bit....since we're small, I think we can move fast and take on stuff as it comes."
Valve shows new Dota 2 VR spectator mode
To promote the launch of the HTC Vive this week (our review is on the way ), Valve has put up a few montages of different demos and games on the SteamVR page .
. Most of these excerpts are stuff we've already played, but one of them stands out: a glance at what appears to be a VR spectator mode in development for Dota 2.
In the clip, a Vive user watches a professional match with audio commentary on a virtual screen. The screen is flanked by life-sized hero statues corresponding to the players participating in that match. The viewer activates Razor's statue, then swipes the Vive motion controllers horizontally to summon translucent UI panels that show graphs for 'Difference in Experience Gained' and 'Difference in Team Net Worth,' which are overlaid above a virtual 3D map. It's only a quick glance, but enough to give us a sense of what Valve has in mind for Dota 2 in VR. No release date for the spectator mode, if that's how it will be packaged, is mentioned in the video.
Although a lot of us enjoy watching esports events passively, while we're doing work or even playing another game, offering functionality not present through Twitch could lure hardcore Dota 2 fans to the VR platform Valve supports. "At first I was like 'VR will never be implemented in Dota,' now I want it so bad," writes one of the higher comments on the Dota 2 subreddit.
A text overlay on the video reads "Look forward to more VR features coming to your favorite games," a hint perhaps that games like CS:GO (which had more than a million spectators of its most recent major tournament last week in Columbus, OH) could adopt similar VR functionality. Loyal readers of Chris' Three Lane Highway column will recall his predictions about how VR could make a big impact on Dota 2. Those who attended The International last year were treated to a different kind of a Dota 2 VR experience, a Secret Shop showcaseon the Vive.
Is this the end for Guitar Hero?
Guitar Hero - a game we love to the bottom of our hearts. Rock Band - a game that could change all that, and tear us away from our former videogame beau like a raven haired seductress peeling away an otherwise committed lover from a... look, we're just excited about this first image of the Rock Band controller, okay? For this gig, Harmonix has hooked up with Fender, and this gorgeous Stratocaster
Holiday gaming guide roundup
The great thing about vactions is having all of the free time to catch up on your unplayed game pile of shame and play through all of the new releases. You don't have all the time in the world though, and the last thing you want to do is spend extra time stuck on a puzzle or hunting down a collectible. That's why we've been putting together guides and walkthroughs for all of the year's games, and the
Hearthstone Help: Tips for overcoming Ladder anxiety
Here's a strange confession for you.
Here's a strange confession for you. Often, before I begin a Hearthstone Ladder session, my stomach starts churning and my heartbeat races. I actually feel the same sort of nerves you might get before an exam. Or a date. Back when I used to do either of those things. And because what, I might not have an answer to that concealed Gadgetzan Auctioneer? I might lose a couple of ranks in one night? Who cares? It's hardly like I'm near Legend anyway. Well, dumb though it is, I do care. I've got the Ladder yips, and I want to overcome them.
First, I had to recognise the real problem, which is actually that although I love Hearthstone, as one loves one's own kindly crack dealer, but I actually don't like competitive gaming at all. And, ironically, the reason for that is because I am incredibly competitive. If I can't win consistently, then I'd rather not play at all. And as I don't have the time or inclination to get even close to being the best at any game, the chances are I'm not going to win consistently. And especially not in a card game where even the best players might expect to lose 30-40% of their matches due to inherent randomness. (“I renounce you and all your works, RNGesus”)
The other part of my pathology is that losing to actual humans—even ones I'll never meet, who'll only ever exist to me as a jaunty usernames and the occasional unsquelched emote—is infinitely worse than losing to any AI opponent. My dumb fury at being beaten is amplified by the sure knowledge that someone, somewhere, is drinking my salty tears. This inability to regulate my emotions more effectively made me feel immature and stupid to the point that I actually considered quitting the game.
But then I came across this excellent and candid piece on Hearthstone Playersin which the authordescribes using the game to battle his own fear of failure and other anxiety issues. Searching around that I found this Reddit threadin which more players admitted to feeling overwhelmed by the fear. Here are a few sample posts:
“I get this all the time. So annoying. I hardly play ranked because I get so nervous and so mad I lose.”
“I just tell myself I'm not a good enough player, and that I only got lucky to get to rank 9. I know I could probably push for legend if I wanted but I don't want to lose, ughh it sucks.”
“When I play ranked with competitive decks, my mindset completely changes. So now I just play against the AI until Naxx comes out. You are not alone bud.”
That last one made me smile guiltily. I've also spent many an hour beating up on the poor old Innkeeper, safe from the stress of real people and their brutally-tuned strategies. It felt a relief to know others were secretly doing the same thing. Without wanting to get too hippy dippy about it, these similarly-minded players made me re-enthused about diving back into Ranked play. Because it wasn't just me wigging out. There were loads of us.
My mood was further improved by this piece on luck and tilt—the poker concept which sees you making more misplays the more you try to chase your losses—over at I Hearth U. It helped me focus on the basic maths of Hearthstone. Play regularly enough, and you're going to lose quite a bit. But however bad it gets, you're also not going to keep losing forever. What I realised was that I needed to re-frame my approach. This is the system I settled on:
1. Decide how much you're going to play in advance
Without a pre-set limit, I found I would keep playing until I got pissed off. Effectively it meant every session would ultimately end in failure. Rather than the great wins along the way, I'd remember the more recent frustrating losses. So now I decide in advance how many competitive games I want to play. I go in with a mindset that I will play these games whatever happens, and if I lose the lot, (unlikely), then hey, I gave it the old college try, and I'll come back tomorrow, refreshed, and hope things go better. If I do find myself on a big win streak I'll keep riding it, but as soon as it's over I'll stop, and make sure to focus on the games I won rather than the one I didn't.
2. Analyse, but don't blame
Rather than bleat about getting a shitty draw, or your opponent having an OP deck, after losses now I take a brief pause to think about the one thing I might have been able to do differently to have improved my chances of winning. Even if the result still would have been a loss, identifying any misplays—was I too greedy when I attacked face rather than cleared the board, or should I actually have gone on the offensive even earlier?—helps take the pain out of losing, because I feel like I'm learning. Slowly, but surely. Speaking of which…
3. Watch streamers
As noted in last week's column, watching pros play, and hearing them explain their thinking, can really up your own game. Particularly if you take the time to compare what decisions they make with what you would have done in the same situation. But there's another reason I like to watch, and that's to see them lose. Watch tournaments in particular and you'll see how even the best players, piloting the most effective decks, will get snuffed by a lucky top deck or find themselves holding an unplayably clunky hand. Enjoy it. Revel in it. And then note that there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it. Sometimes the cards just hate you.
4. Remind yourself of the MMR maths
The consolation I offer myself when on a bad run of losses is that each one brings me closer to worse players. (Hey, they're my people.) When I go on a losing jag now, I know that at some point I'll be paired against someone having an even tougher time of it, or maybe with a disastrous hand, and then I'll win again. Failing that, I tell myself that there's no way Blizzard are going to let a whale like me who's been crazy enough to sink this much money into cards keep losing. Even if they have to start secretly throwing me bots to beat up on. I joke. (I don't.)
5. Chat with a friend
I've recently started chatting to a chum from the Hearthstone UK Facebook groupwhile I play. I think we prefer not to actually play each other, because we'd most likely end up becoming nemeses, but being able to bitch and make jokes about how our games are going takes some of the solitariness out of it. Plus you get to celebrate together too.
6. Listen to music
Even if you ignore the rest of my ramshackle advice, take this onboard. Fire up a playlist before you start queuing for an opponent, and I guarantee (note: not binding) that your results will improve. I don't think the music needs to be particularly soothing or inspirational, just whatever you enjoy. You'll instantly feel more comfortable, and have something else to focus on while your opponent is using every single second of rope time to decide how to spend one point of mana on turn one.
The system has definitely helped—if not entirely cured—my case of the yips. Given my love for administering beatings to the AI, it will be interesting to see if the imminent (no, really) release of the Curse of Naxxramas expansion provides a more permanent solution to having to play actual meat bags. I'd also be interested in hearing any of your tips for dealing with game-related performance stress in the comments. And no, there's not a prize for being the first one to call me a baby.
Back To Basics: Animating South Park: The Game
Shon Stewart is an animation geek.
Shon Stewart is an animation geek. He animated some 2D projects while in college but quickly learned the art of 3D animation for projects like Fallout: New Vegas. Now he's the lead animator on South Park: The Game and his primary directive is to dissect the animation of South Park and recreate it for Obsidian Entertainment's new RPG: every geek's dream. Watch the video to learn how the team at Obsidian analyzed movement on South Park, how closely they work with the animators of the show, and why Shon Stewart has the perfect job.
To learn more about South Park: The Game, click on the link to our hub below.
Rock Band screens debut
Are you ready to rock... without Guitar Hero ? The first images of thrash-metal-contender Rock Band have finally strutted out on stage and all we can say is "damn that still looks a lot like Guitar Hero ." Similar visual stylings aside, Rock Band hopes to one-up its predecessor in every conceivable way, offering different music tracks for drums, vocals, bass and lead guitar, plus the ability to play online with three other rock wannabees. Topics Rock Band We recommend By Zergnet Load Comments
Games of the Year giveaway: Call of Duty Black Ops 2
To celebrate GamesRadar's Game of the Year awards , we're giving away copies of some of the biggest games of the year! All you need to do is head on over to our Facebook page to win. The Giveaway will run from 12/11/12 (8 a.m. PST) till 12/20/12 (5 p.m. PST), it will be US only. We'll be giving away 10 games each day for 10 days, fans can enter on a daily basis (10 opportunities to win). Scheduled Day 1 - Mass Effect 3 Day 2 - The Walking Dead: The Game Day 3 - Dishonored Day 4 - XCOM: Enemy Unknown Day 5 - Darksiders II Day 6 - Hitman: Absolution Day 7 - Call of Duty: Black Ops II Day 8 - ??? Day 9 - ??? Day 10 - ???
Insomniac: No one does PS3 better than us [update: not exactly]
[Edit: In a show of class that demonstrates exactly why he's one of the most respected people in the games industry, Ted Price has responded to and corrected the quotes upon which this story was based. And because he's Ted Price, he also managed to turn it into a call to action for gamers who haven't yet added their voices in protest to California's pending law restricting the sale of violent games
Nature’s Revenge: The Environments Of The Last Of Us
Gaming is no stranger to post-apocalyptic worlds, but Naughty Dog wants to deliver something you’ve never seen before with The Last of Us .
Photo courtesy of Marchand and Meffre
. The game takes place in a world where a deadly fungal disease and widespread strife has wiped out most of humanity. As the years tick away, nature begins to reclaim the buildings, roads, and other man-made structures our race has erected to keep it at bay. Straying from the dull grays and browns of many games that follow a catastrophic event, Naughty Dog looks to real life ruin photography to capture the haunting beauty of a world reclaimed by the elements.
Naughty Dog has cited numerous pieces of literary and film inspiration for The Last of Us, but the most relevant to shaping the game’s physical world is arguably The World Without Us . Both the non-fiction book and documentary paint a picture of a future world where tree limbs burst through office buildings, vines ensnare the pavement, and huge structures crumble without human maintenance. While the imagery described in The World Without Us may seem fantastical, you don’t have to look further than the American Rust Belt for a glimpse into modern decay.
A style of photography focused on capturing this degradation has cropped up over the last few years. Naughty Dog has studied these impactful images of present day ruins to inspire the world of The Last Of Us. While the developer has not named any specific muse, I’ve found striking parallels between the decayed scenery of The Last of Us and The Ruins of Detroit , by photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.
Packard Motors Plant
Fort Shelby Hotel
Fisher Body 21 Plant
Ballroom, American Hotel
Donovan Building
Classroom, St Margaret Mary School
Naughty Dog isn’t content with simply popping main characters Joel and Ellieand some bad guys into these interesting environments. The developer is paying careful attention to the composition of every location to elicit different emotions from the player. For example, the lush greenery and open air of an overgrown highway may evoke a sense of calm. Conversely, the underpass of the same road may have support beams crossing at rigid angles and prominently feature the color red to instill fear and claustrophobia.
During The Last of Us demo we saw when visiting Naughty Dog, we were shown an attack made on Joel and Ellie by a band of desperate hunters. The color script below distills the locations featured in this assault down to their basic colors and geometry.
Color script from The Last of Us
Now that you’ve seen how much careful planning Naughty Dog is putting into the locations in The Last of Us, it’s your turn. Try applying what you learned from the concept art to the photos of real life ruins. Would the mellow colors and rectangular shapes of Fort Shelby Hotel make a player feel comfortable or tense? Is there an opportunity for an ambush among the green trees and open road in Packard Motors Plant? Take a moment to apply the lens of Naughty Dog’s game design to these photographs and perhaps you’ll notice something different. It only takes a little bit of imagination to see just how much potential Naughty Dog has to deliver an end of days world unseen in games.
Be sure to check back and visit the huball month long for more on The Last of Us.
Thanks to Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre for permitting use of all photographs found in this article. Visit their website by clicking here.
Rock Band the most expensive game ever?
EBGames is suggesting that the prices of peripherals for EA's recently announced Rock Band game will range from $39.99 to $79.99. Specifically, the 'Rock Band Wireless Guitar Controller' will retail at $79.99, the standard 'Rock Band Guitar Controller' at $59.99, the 'Rock Band Drum Set' $79.99 and the 'Rock Band Microphone' at $39.99. The game itself, which is heading to PS3 and Xbox 360, is listed with a $59.99 price tag. Assuming these prices are accurate, starting your own rock band is going to prove a little expensive. However, Xbox 360 owners who have bought Guitar Hero II will save some money,as the controller for the 360 title has been confirmedas being compatible with Rock Band on Microsoft's console. April 4, 2007 Topics Rock Band We recommend By Zergnet Load Comments
Game of the Month, November 2012
Winner: Halo 4 Read the Halo 4 review November can always be relied upon to have way too many games worth playing, and this year was no different. However, rising to the top--and a sure Game of the Year contender in its own right--is 343 Industries' Halo 4. The first non-Bungie installment in Microsoft's exclusive FPS franchise hits all the right notes: a satisfying single-player campaign, a sprawling
Closed beta begins for Bethesda's Elder Scrolls-themed Hearthstone rival
The Elder Scrolls: Legends , a free-to-play strategy card game that might remind you of another certain F2P game that's popular with lapsed slot machine addicts, is now in closed beta.
, a free-to-play strategy card game that might remind you of another certain F2P game that's popular with lapsed slot machine addicts, is now in closed beta. “Selected registrants” will begin playing the game today—and may already be doing so!—while additional players will be invited behind the velvet rope over the next few months.
Bethesda said TES: Legends is “built with all levels of players in mind,” with easy accessibility for beginners and plenty of depth for the more competitive cardslingers among you. It features a single-player campaign which will serve as a tutorial and “jump-start your collection” of cards, as well as multiple online modes. Decks will actually have “ classes,” based on the RPG-style attributes used to craft them: Strength and agility will give you an Archer deck, for instance, while intelligence and willpower combine to make a Mage deck.
Legends also brings plenty of eye-candy to the card table, which despite its strategy underpinnings will be an important part of elevating it to the status of full-on Hearthstone competitor. And that's really what will make or break it: Legends may be very good in its own right, but making meaningful headway in a field that's already so thoroughly dominated by a well-established (and, superficially at least, very similar) competitor is inevitably going to be an uphill fight. But hey, it's not like Bethesda hasn't been down that road before, right?
To be fair, I think it looks promising. TES: Legends offers enough uniqueness, like the Sol Forge-style "lanes" on the game board, to at least potentially differentiate itself, and Bethesda is one of the few game dev outfits that has both a property of sufficient standing—The Elder Scrolls—and the development muscle to compete with Blizzard on an equal footing. You can find out more about The Elder Scrolls: Legends, and sign up for the beta, at legends.bethesda.net.
Activision ends the Guitar Hero franchise, axes True Crime: Hong Kong
Activision's 2010 financial report has revealed that the publisher is ceasing production of new Guitar Hero games and canning True Crime: Hong Kong. "Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011," said the report. "These decisions are based on the desire to focus
Agent 47's most preposterous costumes in Hitman's assassination-filled history
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Obsidian's Favorite South Park Episodes
Ever since we decided to put South Park: The Game on the cover of the January issue of Game Informer, we here in the office have been sharing and reciting our favorite moments from the show.
Ever since we decided to put South Park: The Game on the cover of the January issue of Game Informer, we here in the office have been sharing and reciting our favorite moments from the show. From the Asspenepisode to the commercial for the "Wild Wacky Action Bike", there are too many incredible episodes from the show's fifteen seasons to choose from. While we were visiting Obsidian Entertainment, we wanted to pick the minds of the team behind South Park: The Game to discover their favorites as well. We hope you enjoy the video, but head on over to the official South Parkwebsite to see these episodes in their entirety.
Disclaimer: This is South Park we are talking about here, so this video has some explicit language and images.
To learn more about South Park: The Game, click on the link to our content hub below.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
At first it all seems like familiar territory, only much, much prettier. The hub world, Showdown Town, is typical Rare – a lush, bustling area filled with strange characters, cute animals and oh-so-British humour. It’s tough not to raise a smile as you wander round reacquainting yourself with Banjo, his birdy buddy and the cast of familiar faces making a comeback from the older titles. In fact, there
Seemingly unrelated games you probably didn't know were set in the same universe
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Capturing Joel And Ellie For The Last Of Us
Naughty Dog's Uncharted trilogy received plenty of praise for the natural performances from the actors and the all-encompassing method of capturing that performance.
Naughty Dog's Uncharted trilogy received plenty of praise for the natural performances from the actors and the all-encompassing method of capturing that performance. The same techniques are being applied to Naughty Dog's new IP, The Last of Us. By capturing both the motions and vocal performance of the actors, the characters in the game feel more unified and real. Watch the video below to learn more about the actors behind Joel and Ellie and to see their raw performances.
To learn more about The Last of Us, click on the link to enter our content hub for the game below.
9 things you didn't know about Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts
Above: Remember this teaserfor 'Banjo Threeie'? Neil's right, it does look dull 2) Banjo's waaay out of shape. To get around the switch in gameplay, the game is set in the present, so ten years have passed for the characters too since their N64 heyday. As a result, they've gottoo fat sitting down and eating pizza to go around collecting icons in the usual platforming manner. While the duo do get back
How fast can you die in... Hitman Absolution
First we showed you how long it takes to find a fail screen in Assassin's Creed III . Turns out it was a looong time, over 20 minutes in fact. So let's see if Hitman: Absolution can do any better. Once we've got a few more entries, we'll start a league table. But let's see if Agent 47 will be leading it. And whether he gets twung into a tree at any point in the video. Just to be clear on the rules, we're judging this from the moment we press the button that starts the game itself, so that's after the usual storage device selection, etc. But hey - perhaps you can do better? Let us know if you can kill Agent 47 any quicker in the comments. And no, turning off the machine doesn't count, smartypants.
Resistance fracas a blessing for Church
Last summer saw a top-drawer clash between The Church and Sony, thanks to Resistance: Fall of Man. One gun battle in the game took place in the hallowed surroundings of Manchester Cathedral, which prompted the Bishop of Manchester to bash Sony in the media-face for promoting gun crime. Fast forward to 2008, and the titanic face-off appears to have been a blessing in disguise for the iconic building
The Return Of Rainbow Six
Ubisoft Montreal discusses the Rainbow Six legacy and how it's bringing the Tom Clancy tactical shooter up to speed in the highly competitive shooter market.
In the three years since Rainbow Six Vegas 2 released, the first-person shooter genre has exploded to an unprecedented level of popularity. To storm back into contention, the team at Ubisoft Montreal knew it had to raise the bar of expectation for its tactical series. In this video, creative director David Sears discusses the Rainbow Six legacy, his past working on the SOCOM series, and the improvements his team hopes to bring to the series with Rainbow 6 Patriots.
To read more about Rainbow 6 Patriots, please visit our cover story hub by clicking the link below.
Resistance 2 revealed
Jan 14, 2008 The sequel to the PS3's first must-have shooter has been revealed with the first (real) images of the game, published today on semi-official PlayStation blog ThreeSpeech . The images - accompanied by new details on the game - appear to have been scanned from the February issue of Game Informer, in which the game will be previewed, along with the first gameplay details. Boosts to the multiplayer
Introducing Rainbow 6 Patriots
Creative director David Sears unveils a prototype video of the revamped tactical series.
When pitching projects internally, development teams frequently create a target video to illustrate their vision for the game. Rarely does this footage see the light of day outside the confines of the publisher, but today you get a chance to see a prototype of the bold approach Ubisoft Montreal is taking to moving single-player shooter campaigns away from the Call of Duty "follow me" template and into uncharted territory. Watch the video and you'll understand why we chose to feature the game on the cover of our December issue.
For more information about Rainbow 6 Patriots, check out our cover story reveal hereor visit our hub by clicking on the link below.
Xbox 360: All the new game details
Yesterday's Microsoft event in San Francisco was the biggestspurt of Xbox information we'll see until E3. So to help you you mop up the messy splatter of facts, we've pulled out the nets and harpoons - don't ask why we keep such things in the office -rounded up all the new details, screens and video, and arrangedthem delicately on this directory page for your perusal and delight. Just look below, find
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition story missions guide
Looking for more help with Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition ? Check out our wardrobe , health shrine locations and jade statue locations guides. All Story Missions Walkthrough As the game starts, you’ll have to follow Naz as you both run away from the police that are chasing you. Once the introduction is over, you will then be able to start on the 30 missions that tell the story of Sleeping Dogs.
Resistance 2 revealed
Jan 14, 2008 The sequel to the PS3's first must-have shooter has been revealed with the first (real) images of the game, published today on semi-official PlayStation blog ThreeSpeech . The images - accompanied by new details on the game - appear to have been scanned from the February issue of Game Informer, in which the game will be previewed, along with the first gameplay details. Boosts to the multiplayer
Rainbow 6 Patriots: Advancing The Narrative In Shooters
For many shooters, the story campaign by default takes a backseat to the destination multiplayer modes.
For many shooters, the story campaign by default takes a backseat to the destination multiplayer modes. Not so with Rainbow 6 Patriots. Given the storytelling pedigree of its namesake, Tom Clancy, the team at Ubisoft Montreal wants to raise the bar of expectation for shooter narratives and force you to think about the moral repercussions of your actions on the battlefield. Are you comfortable in your role as a counter-terrorist if it means stooping down to the level of the terrorists you're after?
Here creative director David Sears and narrative director Richard Rouse talk about their motivation for the new plot:
To achieve its goals, the dev team is taking a new approach to narration by moving away from cutscenes and embracing shifting perspectives. In this video, Sears and Rouse discuss the inspiration for this new direction and shed light on the collaborative process of game storytelling.
To read more about Rainbow 6 Patriots, please visit our cover story hub by clicking the link below.
Best of GR videos: GamesRadar's 24 Hour Marathon encapsulated in 2 glorious minutes
For two years now we’ve thrown health, sleep and sobriety to the wind in order to bring you GamesRadar’s 24 Hour Marathon ! If you’ve missed out on the shenanigans thus far, the wholepoint of this video is to make you feel horrible about it. With the exception of StarCraft II, I sacrificed my hard drive to record everyone playing everything with me, intentionally doing the stupidest shit imaginable
Sony issues statement over Church row
In case you slept right through the weekend, the Church of England has threatened legal action against Sony after it used Manchester Cathedral as the backdrop to Resistance: Fall of Man . Sony has now released the following statement: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is aware of the concerns expressed by the Bishop of Manchester and the Cathedral authorities about the use of Manchester Cathedral
Transformers: High Moon Studios Tour
We were lucky enough to be invited by High Moon Studios to come visit their offices near San Diego, California, where we got a close look at Transformers: Fall of Cybertron in action.
We were lucky enough to be invited by High Moon Studios to come visit their offices near San Diego, California, where we got a close look at Transformers: Fall of Cybertron in action. From an unassuming exterior, visitors enter a near-museum of Transformers goodness. Transformers toys litter the tables and work spaces, and the walls are plastered with character and environment art, both from War for Cybertron and from this newest game.
Take a tour with High Moon president Peter Della Penna as he explains the history of the studio. Keep your eyes peeled, and you may see some hints of some unannounced characters on the way in Fall of Cybertron.
For all our coverage of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, click on the banner below to visit our game hub. And make sure to swing by next week for some big reveals about the actual game.
A tribute to all who played in GamesRadar's 24 Hour Marathon
In case you missed the games, the tweets , the Ustream , and all around ridiculous badassery of GamesRadar’s Second Annual 24 Hour Gaming Marathon , this video recap’ll make you feel like a silly goose for not participating. To the proud many who joined in the shenanigans for the entire 24 hours, this video is our way of saying “Thank You!” Oh, andit just so happens to STAR YOU . The whole thing was
Resistance: Fall of Man 2 in production
Oct 15, 2007 Resistance: Fall of Man 2 is being "tentatively" prepared for launch next November, relocating the World War II-era alien-bashing action to American locations like San Francisco and Chicago as the Chimera invasion hits US shores. Sergeant Nathan Hale, star of the original game, will allegedly return - though not necessarilyin the leadingrole. Want more? Alright, multiplayer matches will
Fall Of Cybertron: The New Optimus Prime
As the most iconic Transformer to ever roll out, High Moon Studios spent a lot of time rebuilding Optimus Prime from the ground up for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.
As the most iconic Transformer to ever roll out, High Moon Studios spent a lot of time rebuilding Optimus Prime from the ground up for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. The war on Cybertron is coming to a dramatic climax, and Optimus has proven himself both a leader and a mighty warrior. His new look is battle-scarred, powered up, and ready for action. Check out the video to see the in-game model for Optimus Prime, complete with commentary from the High Moon team on creating a new look for the leader of the Autobots. Keep in mind that this footage is pre-alpha and was shot in a test area for the new game, so it does not represent the final appearance of the character. Enjoy!
To learn more about Transformers: Fall of Cybertron throughout the month, click on the link to our coverage hub below. Check back later this week for more features as they post.
Blind Man’s Dungeon’ Brings On An Original Crawl
‘Blind Man’s Dungeon’ Brings On An Original Crawl
Despite already being several decades old, many of us miss the old days and keep a traditional ASCII roguelike in our modern superpowered smartphone.
Despite already being several decades old, many of us miss the old days and keep a traditional ASCII roguelike in our modern superpowered smartphone. Sometimes, we get a really good one, like 100 Rogues . Some other times, we get something quite fresh and original, like how you get Blind Man’s Dungeon today.
Describing Blind Man’s Dungeon in a few words is a bit hard, considering how quite different it is from the most of the crowd. While most dungeon crawlers get you to be the hero/villain, this game grants you the divine power of a fairy. While the main character is indeed a hero, he’s also a dumb blind dude who will turn right upon any obstacle. With divine intervention, you will summon blocks as you move, manipulate the path of the hero as well as his enemies. Use those same powers to keep him safe from traps as long as possible, while guiding him towards loot as much as you can, and rack up as high a score as possible. It isn’t a brand new gameplay mechanic, it’s actually reminiscent of something like Snake , but it’s a great a great concept that comes together in this fun little arcade-styled package.
Inspired by the ancient dungeon crawlers, the adorable retro pixelated graphics and a chiptune soundtrack compliment one another quite nicely. The theme of each dungeon is randomly generated, providing a slightly different feel every time you play. The game is rather easy though, leaving quite a bit of room for error with its huge health bar, not befitting of the challenging era of games it seems to be attempting to evoke.
Did I mention it was free? The only catch I have seen so far is a not-so-intrusive ad on the main menu, which isn’t bad after all.
Blind Man’s Dungeon is available on the iOS App Storeand Android Google Playfor free. For more information, visit the developer’s website, which is in Japanese, but that’s what kids have Google for these days, right?
Animating The Transformers
Get a fascinating glimpse into the biggest challenge facing the Fall of Cybertron animation team: transforming robots.
Get a fascinating glimpse into the biggest challenge facing the Fall of Cybertron animation team: transforming robots. Watch Optimus Prime, Grimlock, and Jazz change form in the videos ahead.
The team at High Moon is laser-focused on creating an authentic vision of the Transformer characters -- one that is true to the roots of the character concepts, while still moving the fiction and visual treatment forward in exciting new directions. That philosophy is on display in a big way through the animation work that is going into Fall of Cybertron. Each character's unique transformations is built to represent the nature of the character. Optimus Prime pounds the ground with the force of a gorilla. Jazz flips and twists like a break dancer. Grimlock morphs into a destructive monster like an uncontrollable hulk bursting forth from a smaller form.
The development videos below offer a close-up look into the technical and artistic challenges facing an animator, not to mention some early glimpses of these characters in action.
Enjoy!
Optimus Prime
Jazz
Grimlock
Expressing the Transformers
For more on Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, check out game hub by clicking on the banner below.
First Banjo Kazooie story details
UK developer Rare has revealed the first story details of its upcoming Xbox 360 only adventure, Banjo Kazooie. The only problem is, the cheeky monkeys have buried it amongst a load of hoax plotline untruths and we've no idea which one be the real deal. There are five Banjo 3 'rumours' in total and you can check them out at Rare's 'Disinformation Central' or simply cast your eyes down the page. We're
Podcast: TalkRadar UK #45
Listen now... Ladies and gentlemen, BEHOLD, a brand-new episode of TalkRadar UK featuring Messrs Cundy, Walter, Towell and Irvine. What kind of bullshit will they be talking about this week? Read on to get a small taste of what to expect... A discussion about whether Kinect's Milo will ever be allowed out to play, which quickly devolves into sinister chat about 'grooming'. Justin has another rant about
Diablo 3 game designer makes a case for slower combat
In the dark depths of Blizzard's forums , the Senior Technical Game Designer of Diablo III , Wyatt Cheng, suspended his soul-reaping rampage to answer few questions players had regarding Diablo III's soon-to-be slower combat.
to answer few questions players had regarding Diablo III's soon-to-be slower combat. His main point: A combat system emphasizing shallow health pools and high DPS is toxic to strategy.
“A health pool that quickly goes from full to nearly empty implies that there's not a lot of room for variance in incoming damage,” Cheng wrote in his lengthy forum post. “When incoming damage is that high, a 15% increase in monster damage would result in death. This leads to comments like 'As soon as I turn up the Monster Power I get 1-shot.' I'd like to see a game where a clever player can handle a higher Monster Power by reducing incoming damage through good play.”
Cheng also pointed to lightning-fast health regen as another problem that plagues a game's pacing. He argues that small attacks or negative status attributes that slowly chip away at your health lose their significance when every swing of your dagger returns you to full health. This twitch-based, “winner shoots first” play-style strips tactical thinking from the game, according to Cheng. There's no time or reason to plan when everything can be solved with a few clicks of the right mouse button. Cheng admits there's no easy solution to this problem, though he has a few ideas on how to make things right.
“I will say that the first line of defense is reducing the rate at which players heal,” Cheng said. “After we pull in the rate of healing, next we analyze the patterns in which monsters deal damage. Ultimately, defensive stats will play a role in all of this. If some life regeneration, damage mitigation or (gasp) life on hit lets me play a little more aggressively, that's a good thing.”
Cheng didn't say when we'll see Diablo III's updated combat pace, though I imagine it'll nestle somewhere in the free updatethat's rolling out with the Reaper of Soulsexpansion set to come out sometime next year.
SimCity expands its borders to Cities of Tomorrow in November
SimCity's upcoming expansion should give you the chance to create a utopian paradise, or maybe a dystopian nightmare, if that's more in line with how you see the world.
upcoming expansion should give you the chance to create a utopian paradise, or maybe a dystopian nightmare, if that's more in line with how you see the world. Cities of Tomorrow launches November 12, according to aby developer Maxis.
As you can see in the trailer above, the expansion's content focuses on the choices you can make about clean energy, corporate responsibility, and industrial decay. Want to create William Gibson's Sprawlmegalopolis? This expansion might give the keys to re-imagining that particular urban fantasy.
Thanks to a preview from IGN, we know that expansion owners can play alongside the standard version of the game. There'll be garbage atomizers, wave-power generators, and magnetic monorail trains, according to the preview. Much of the way the expansion's new additions affect a city will depend on whether or not you side with the game's OmegaCo, a vast and powerful entity that may lead a city more in the direction of "gluttony and consumerism," rather than green technology, according to Maxis.
SimCity is obviously trying to moving on from its troubled launchearlier this year. The new expansion looks like it will expand player choice, rather than work to undermine it.
Hat tip, PCGamesN.
Transformers: Resurrecting The Dinobots
Two things unite every sane person in the world: pumpkin pie and the unrivaled awesomeness of dinosaurs.
Two things unite every sane person in the world: pumpkin pie and the unrivaled awesomeness of dinosaurs. In the '80s, Hasbro capitalized on the popularity of these beasts by creating the memorable team of elite Transformers called the Dinobots. Once a pillar of Transformers fiction, the proud Dinobots went the way of the dodo as the series chose to emphasize other characters. Thankfully, High Moon Studios couldn't let them go, as the Dinobots return to the fight in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Led by the robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex named Grimlock, these five transforming robots will be an intricate part of the story. Check out the first video below to learn how High Moon Studios built a new origin story that logically allowed for robotic dinosaurs on the alien planet of Cybertron.
Watch the video below to hear from the art team at High Moon Studios about the creating the new look of the Dinobot team.
Want to learn more about Transformers: Fall of Cybertron? Click on the link to our hub below. For more high-quality images of the Dinobots, explore the media gallery below.
Banjo Kazooie "still on target" for 2008
Amid rumours circulating the net, Microsoft UK has confirmed that the Xbox 360 edition of Banjo-Kazooie is "still on target" for 2008, and will be out later this year. "As announced at E3 last year, the next installment in the popular Banjo franchise is still on target for 2008," a Microsoft spokesperson tells us. "We share the excitement of Banjo fans worldwide as anticipation 'builds' for the game
Win a copy of Blur almost instantly
The picturebelow is a clever bit of viral advertising for Blur (released today) painted on to the wall of a Magistrates Court in the shabby but trendy Hoxton area of London, UK. If you fancy grabbing a copy of Blur we've got a challenge for you. The first person to find the mural in London and take a picture of themself in front of it wins. We've got two copies of Blur to give away (one PS3 and one
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Our Verdict
A sublime blend of fighting, puzzling and exploration, but the unforgiving difficulty may be too much for some.
By Matt Thrower.
NEED TO KNOW
What is it? A first person dungeon-crawler with sedate real-time action and nefarious puzzles
Influenced by: Chaos Strikes Back, Eye of the Beholder 2
Play it on: Dual Core, 4GB RAM, 1GB Graphics Card
Alternatively : Ys: Origins, Dark Souls 2
Copy protection : Steam
Release: Out now
Developer: Almost Human Games
Publisher: Almost Human Games
Multiplayer: None
Price: £16/$24
Link: Official site
Legend of Grimrock was the triumphant resurrection of a long-dead genre. Twenty years ago, first-person roleplaying games with real-time combat were the height of sophistication. I remember: I was there, playing them and having an amazing time. The question is whether this sequel can bring fresh creativity to grid-based dungeon crawling.
Instead of a dungeon, your team of four prisoners is shipwrecked on a mysterious island. You can run the default party, or build your own from an expanded range of character options. These include the disease-immune Ratling, and the Farmer, who improbably gains experience from eating instead of battle. I was frustrated by the original's long skill trees, which forced me to specialise before I understood the game, but there are now more skills with fewer levels, so I felt safe experimenting without fear of spoiling my character builds. It's enough flexibility to satisfy those who enjoy optimising statistics, but it's not necessary for success.
When ready, you're released into one of the new outdoor areas. The beaches and bogs, forests and foggy graveyards all look spectacularly atmospheric in the improved engine. But it's an illusion. You're still moving around a grid on a one-tap, one-square basis. The oddly geometric riverbanks give the game away: it's just a dungeon without a roof.
There's still plenty of underground action too, to please the purists. No longer limited to single storeys, the design kindles a wonderful desire to explore. With so many novel environments, it's easy to lose track as you wander down every path and staircase. Several times I'd be scouring a new area for clues, then stumble over some hidden dungeon. Unable to resist the lure of discovery I'd emerge hours later, clueless as to what I'd been doing in the first place.
To see it all, you'll need to get past the puzzles that often control access to new areas. The diabolical mix of logic, riddles and hidden objects that characterised the original remains intact. Sometimes the solution is a distant pressure plate or secret button, sometimes it's experimenting with diverse switches and levers. There's little handholding: just you, your brain and the uncaring pixels. Getting stuck made me feel anxious and alone. The payoff for cracking the answer was a fleeting moment of being the cleverest gamer in the world.
With so many novel environments, it's easy to lose track as you wander down every path and staircase.
That extra map space has been used to up the ante. Now, some puzzles demand you piece together clues and objects scavenged from the far corners of the island. Opening one stubborn door required me to untangle a cryptic riddle hidden in a library at the bottom of a distant dungeon. It's sometimes overwhelming: faced with some fresh conundrum, I was never certain if the answer was under my nose or hours further into the game. The problem is exacerbated by limited facilities for note-taking, buried in the automap.
If you do get stumped, you can always take a break with the new dungeon builder. Creating your own environments is time consuming, with lots of options to play with, but the simple interface makes it relatively easy. No doubt we'll soon see plenty of fan-made dungeons to download—many less vexing than their progenitor. It hardly bears imagining that some might be worse.
Some puzzles require real-time dexterity, such as the spike trap that requires precise timing to navigate. Combat is the bigger test of reflexes. You launch attacks by clicking, either on weapons or rune combinations for spells. Often you'll also need to quaff a potion or use a magic item in the melee. Monsters often seem to be one step tougher than your party, so even with the relatively sedate pace of the action, overcoming foes demands a skilled frenzy of coordinated clicks.
In the original, fights devolved into a slow-motion circle strafe of backing off and looping round, trying to land blows while avoiding pain. But many new monsters have new moves to thwart this trick. Some have ranged attacks, some assault all adjacent squares and others tumble sideways faster than you can run. This makes combat more tactical affair, where you have to use the scenery as a shield. It also encourages experimentation with the expanded palette of spells and missile weapons. The latter include primitive firearms that are almost as dangerous to the heroes as the monsters. One new class, the Alchemist, minimises this risk by reducing the chance of malfunctions.
Grimrock's greatest strength has always been the seamless stitching of diverse elements. By adding new angles in exploration and tactics, this sequel brilliantly expands the synthesis of puzzles and twitch action that made the original so memorable. Existing fans will love it. But by continuing the unwavering dedication to difficulty, it's unlikely to win new converts to this neglected genre.
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The Verdict
Legend of Grimrock 2
A sublime blend of fighting, puzzling and exploration, but the unforgiving difficulty may be too much for some.
We recommend By Zergnet
Behind The Scenes Of Darksiders II
We'd like you to meet the team behind Darksiders.
We'd like you to meet the team behind Darksiders. The crafting of heaven, hell, and everything in between takes place in a relatively small studio based out of Austin, Texas called Vigil Games. With Tim Donley the development director of Darksiders II as your tour guide, we invite you to watch the video to get a better idea of what daily life is like in a game studio as well as catch a few sneak peeks at never before seen content from the game. Enjoy!
Click on the link below to enter our information-filled hub for Darksiders II.
10 games to watch in '08
Page 1 of 10: Page 1 Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Sept 5, 2007 10) Fable 2 It's what we've always wanted out of life - grow a 'stache, embark on epic adventures, bag yourself a lady friend and er... raze entire villages to the ground. After Pete Molyneux shocked the gaming world by revealing a pet dog, he described the potential of a next gen, living, breathing Albion. We bought the dream, wholesale. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Current page: Page 1 Next Page Page 2 Topics Action Role Playing Too Human Alan Wake Grand Theft Auto IV Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Fable II Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction We recommend By Zergnet Load Comments
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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Chaotic frenzied multiplayer combat Substantial single-player component 20 racers on one track Cons Weapons are mostly Mario Kart rip-offs Racing mechanics feel insubstantial Sits in a limbo between hardcore and kart racing Go to page: Page 1 Page 1 Page 2 Who exactly do developers Bizarre Creations see as the perfect audience for Blur? If you consider yourself
StarCraft 2 Starter Edition offers free maps and missions to new players
The StarCraft 2 demo is dead!
is dead! It has been reborn as the bigger and better StarCraft 2 Starter Edition, which includes four single player missions, two challenge maps and four skirmish maps that will let you play as Terrans against AI opponents. That's a great big slobbering shank of free StarCraft 2 for new players.
The starter edition has no time limit, the missions and maps can be replayed as often as you like. All you need to get your chunk of free StarCraft 2 is an internet connection and a Battle.net login. You can set up an account and download the starter edition from Battle.netnow.
In a Q&A on the StarCraft 2 blogBlizzard say they plan to rotate the available skirmish maps, and will make a limited selection of custom maps available to Starter Edition players, including the Blizzard-made StarJeweled mod. You'll even be able to play the custom maps with friends. Read on for the full list of features currently included.
The first four missions of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty single-player campaign, including Mar Sara 1-3 and the choice to embark on Tychus's first mission or Dr. Hansen's first mission. The first two Challenges: Tactical Command and Covert Ops. Access to the terran race in Custom Games and Single-Player vs. AI. Access to the following custom maps (map selection may rotate over time): Xel'Naga Caverns Shattered Temple Discord IV High OrbitWhy should you try StarCraft 2? Well, it boasts one of the biggest and most entertaininge-sports scenes in the world at the moment, and the new trial will give you a better opportunity to find out why. There's no multiplayer skirmish in the trial , but the AI is powerful enough to provide a good challenge and teach new players the basics. You can also play a selection of custom maps with your friends, but only as the Terran race. Beyond that, the lengthy, branching single player campaign features some fantastic missions, and many units you'll never see in multiplayer matches. Read our StarCraft 2 reviewfor more.
In a similar move, Blizzard recently made the first 20 levels of World of Warcraftfree to play. The WoW trial can also be downloaded from Battle.net.
Super Replay – The Legend Of Zelda
[This Super Replay was originally posted in 2011 but we're republishing it to commemorate the 30th anniversary of The Legend Of Zelda.]
For our 200th issue a couple years ago, the staff at Game Informer met for hours to debate on the top 200 games of all time.
For our 200th issue a couple years ago, the staff at Game Informer met for hours to debate on the top 200 games of all time. Many factors were involved in our decision-making process, and at the end of the day one game stood above the rest. The Legend of Zelda has influenced the world of gaming like no game before it, and we named it the #1 game of all time. All month, we've been giving you tons of Zelda coverage to commemorate the upcoming release of Skyward Sword as well as the series' 25th anniversary. We're ending this month of coverage with a complete playthrough of the game that started it all.
I'll be hosting throughout this Super Replay, and Jeff Cork will be at the controls as we hunt down Ganon. We'll have several editors stopping by to join us on our quest, and you can see it all below.
Episode 1 (Guest: Bryan Vore):
Episode 2 (Guest: Tim Turi):
Episode 3 (Guest: Andrew Reiner):
Episode 4 (Guest: Jeff Marchiafava):
Episode 5 (Guest: Ben Reeves):
Episode 6 (Guest: Andrew Reiner):
Episode 7 (Guest: Andrew Reiner and Ben Reeves):
Episode 8 (Guest: That Jerk Joe Juba)
Episode 9 (Guest: Andrew Reiner and Phil Kollar)
Episode 10 (Guest: Andrew Reiner and Phil Kollar)
Enjoying Replay? Catch up on all the old episodes at our Replay hub. If you want to chat Replay, head on over to the awesome (and very active) fan-created " I Watched The Entire Overblood Super Replay" Facebook group.
Banjo-Kazooie to return on 360
The long-rumoured third episode in Rare's Banjo-Kazooie series has indeed made the jump to Xbox 360, with Microsoft announcing the as-yet-untitled game at its X06 conference. With Kameo (like Banjo , another N64 holdover) and Viva Pinata showing that Rare can work 360's visuals like no other, it's a welcome addition to the otherwise guns-and-ammo 360 line-up. The original games' cast and typically Rare sense of humor are said to have been transplanted intact - so the new Banjo could well be the first great Xbox platformer. Er, no offense, Lara Croft, yours was good too. September 28, 2006 Topics Action Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts We recommend By Zergnet Load Comments
Rage of Bahamut’ Climbs to Top of App Store and Google Play Sales List
‘Rage of Bahamut’ Climbs to Top of App Store and Google Play Sales List
So you’ve grown up, moved out of your parents’ house and you’re ready to put away those childish reminders of your past like trading cards forever.
So you’ve grown up, moved out of your parents’ house and you’re ready to put away those childish reminders of your past like trading cards forever. But before you trash your deck upon deck of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, consider checking out Rage of Bahamut . The game has climbed to the top of both the App Store and Google Play grossing lists, staying on the latter for six weeks straight, so it must be doing something right.
What separates Rage of Bahamut from the scores of other virtual trading card games is its serious developer involvement. The game boasts more than 700 different cards to collect and bring to battle, and that number is only growing. Mobage also regularly organizes special events which allow players to test their mettle and walk away with a fistful of rare cards for their trouble.
Even if you’ve never been a fan of trading card games, Rage of Bahamut is definitely worth a look. It’s addictive, engaging and, best of all, free. You can download the game from the App Storeand learn more about it from its (quite sparse) official website.
When Richard Lemarchand left Naughty Dog in 2012 , he did so while at the top of his field. A lead designer
on the studio's flagship Uncharted franchise, Lemarchand departed triple-A game development to join the faculty at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, within the Interactive Media and Games Division. At the time it seemed a puzzling career move - at least for those who didn't know him. "I’ve always had an indie kid’s soul, I think," he says.
Leaving AAA: Why Naughty Dog's star designer became a teacher
"I’ve always had an indie kid’s soul, I think," he says. "I grew up in the 80s. So whether it was the New Wave with its connections to punk music and the whole DIY scene... I always had a sense that what a big studio did was often amazing, but the cultural products of regular folks were often equally amazing and were very relevant to me and my life - the kind of place that I’ve come from and the things I was interested in."
Now coming to the end of his first academic year at USC, the school which produced the likes of Journey developers Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, Lemarchand has a few moments to reflect back on his transition from developer to educator. Gamasutra caught up with the newly minted professor at the conclusion of a semi-private exhibition of some of his students' term projects.
"I expected there to be a big, even jarring shifting of gears to have to deal with," Lemarchand tells Gamasutra, in reference to his professional transition. "I actually find that working with young game designers here at the USC games program is a lot like working with other game designers and developers at Naughty Dog, really."
Lemarchand cites the work philosophy of his former studio for the easy adjustment. "Naughty Dog works in a very smart, pragmatic way," he says. "They’re always focused on solving the current problems in the implementation of the design of the game in the right ways, by really talking honestly about the game that we’re working on. And that’s the kind of approach that I think is useful in the classroom, especially for a young, artistic form like ours."
"We don’t think about how we’re going to monetize this game"For his Experimental Game Design course, Lemarchand asked his students to think of their projects not so much as something to "finish" but to "competently abandon." After all, under Lemarchand's philosophy, "no artwork is finished, only abandoned."
The students' final projects are all varying degrees of rough-around-the-edges, with many projects being broad strokes of an idea rather than a finished concept. One project leads its players through a series of puzzle doors before confronting them with a wall of philosophical truisms from conceptual artist Jenny Holzer. Another explores both the rhythm and culture of violence of a popular rap song.
"We’re very lucky in academia that we have complete freedom of thought and practice in the games that we make," Lemarchand enthuses. "We don’t think about how we’re going to monetize this game. And that means that we can really focus on the artistic aspects of game development. For example, the games that have come out of [this class] have been incredibly varied in terms of the approaches to the player, to controls, the representation, the integration of sound and music, even the question of what a game is. It’s just a big creative free-for-all and I find that tremendously exciting."
The class may be exploratory in nature but it remains critically rigorous. "[In game design] you should give each other a longer rope to say constructively critical things that might even sound harsh, knowing that we’re working together on making the game better," says Lemarchand. "As a professor you need to honor the hard work that your students do, but at the same time you’re doing them a disservice if you’re just telling them what they might want to hear. You have to find ways to allow a student to hear your constructive criticism by framing it in the right way. And those are skills I really feel I learned at Naughty Dog."
" Run towards your nearest academic institution and start getting involved"What would Lemarchand say to other developers thinking of testing the academic waters?
"My advice would be that, definitely, game developers should not walk but run towards their nearest academic institution and start getting involved," he says. "It's incredibly enriching to students... I also think that doing that benefits the industry, because those refreshed perspectives you can take back to the work you do on the game that you're building."
But, Lemarchand says, it's not a matter of simply dropping one's work and looking for a new position.
"If you want to make a change in your life like changing careers... you should just start doing things in the sphere that you want to move towards whenever you can. Evenings and weekends."
Lemarchand first became directly involved in the independent game scene in 2009, organizing GDC's first-ever microtalks panel, and later that year attending IndieCade in Culver City.
"The next year saw me co-chairing [IndieCade] with John Sharpand I haven't looked back," says Lemarchand. In 2011 he found himself with an opportunity to pursue a career in academia, and when USC department chair Tracy Fullerton offered him the chance to work on experimental games in addition to teaching, he leaped at the opportunity.
For Lemarchand, participating in IndieCade and the Game Developers Conference Microtalks was the real turning point. "That just further cemented my interest in this world," he explains. "It helped me to realize that this emerging scene - indie games and art games - was something that I'd been longing for very intensely for a very long time, even before I joined the console game industry."
Watch this spaceDespite protestations that he's getting on in his years - too much to put in the 100 hour work weeks asked of him in triple-A - Lemarchand seems to radiate youthful exuberance in whatever he does, be it running a class or DJ-ing alongside Fez developer Phil Fish at GDC ("It's loads of fun, DJ-ing with Phil. It's a bit like playing Exquisite Corpse"). In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he's working on a new game in collaboration with one of his department's graduate students.
"I'm bursting to talk about it," says Lemarchand. "I've been working on it now for the whole academic year with my friend Julian Kantor, who is currently a first year in the MFA program... We're hoping we'll have something to show by the beginning of next academic semester."
There is a light in his eyes whenever the topic veers close to the professor's side project, but he contains himself. The game, like the works of his students in the Experimental Design class, is most likely well off the beaten path from what Lemarchand worked on in console game development.
"He's been doing amazing work," Lemarchand says of his co-developer Kantor. "So watch this space!"
What You'll Find In South Park
Find out what you'll be collecting and using to bash other kids with in the world of South Park.
When Obsidian first began creating items, armor, and weapons for South Park: The Game, the team made all kinds of fancy swords and impressive garb. When South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone saw these, they immediately told them to "make it crappier." The idea is that most of the items are things that the kids found and/or made themselves, imagining that they are a gallant knight or wizard. In early demos we saw, weapons included golf clubs, tack hammers, suction cup arrows, wooden swords, and more. Costumes ranged from bathrobes to towel capes to oven mitt gloves. We're told that the game will eventually go beyond the live-action role playing style to a more serious threat – well, as serious as things get in South Park, at least.
Either way, the kids will actually be smacking the crap out of each other. Anyone who's seen the episode "Good Times with Weapons"has an idea of the tone of the combat. The kids will have fantastical, imagination-enhanced battles, but people will still get hurt (think Butters with a throwing star in the eye).
Plenty of collectibles will be strewn about the environment in South Park, as well. The most prominent items we saw were various Chinpokomon, known from an episode of the same name in season three of the show. These Pokémon parodies took the town of South Park by storm, but there were plenty of the toy designs left on the cutting room floor. Obsidian has access to all of the legacy assets from all 15 seasons, including never-before-seen Chinpokomon.
As anyone who's played an Obsidian RPG already knows, we've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to loot. Just keep your eyes peeled for these small details when THQ releases new screens and trailers down the road.
Click on the banner below to access more South Park content.
Best of GR videos: Bionic arm charms, destroys San Francisco
Thanks to your irrational love of loud, opinionated games coverage, GamesRadar has now thrived online for five (!) full years. We%26rsquo;ve got several celebratory plans in motion, but we also wanted to take this time to present some of our older video hits that may have slipped by in the past 60 months. Enjoy these %26ldquo;best of%26rdquo; hits and THANK YOU for allowing our stupidness to invade
Blur advert makes fun of Mario Kart, we giggle like schoolgirls
Blur you beautiful, sarcastic son of a bitch. The power up laden racing game that lets players 'race like a big boy' has just taken a not so subtle swipe at Mario and his fellow cuddly karting chums in a new ad. Watch the video below, laugh and feel good about life. Awwww, c'mon Mazza, mate. We're clearing laughing with you. Yeah, definitely with. Like the above advert? Want to see more games take the piss out of competitors? Regale us with your opinions in the comments section. May 21, 2010
Watch Disney's latest interactive experiments
Disney has been experimenting with some new and exciting ways for kids to interact with books and movies through video games, including "Paper Generators" that can send signals to games on a computer.
These Paper Generators use a combination of Teflon and conductive sheets to generate electricity. When the sheets are rubbed, tapped or touched, energy is generated and can be used to light LEDs, create noises, or cause motors to move.
The generators can also be used to send a signal out to a computer, potentially allowing for interaction between a video game and any sort of material that a generator is wedged between, such as a kids' book.
The above video explains this technique more fully, while a blog post on the Disney Research websitegoes into more depth.
Meanwhile, the company has also been experimenting with mobile games at the movies. Dubbed "Second Screen Live," children are encouraged to download a special Disney app for iPad, which can then listen to a movie that is currently playing, and bring up minigames that are related to the current scene.
As reported by Mashable, the company is currently experimentingwith the classic movie The Little Mermaid , showing special viewings in locations around the U.S. that can interact with a The Little Mermaid game collection.
The company also plans to release a Second Screen Live version of The Nightmare Before Christmas in theaters soon.
The Legend Of Obsidian: The Game
When embarking on the trip to Obsidian Entertainment, we never could have guessed that we'd actually be getting two exclusive game reveals.
When embarking on the trip to Obsidian Entertainment, we never could have guessed that we'd actually be getting two exclusive game reveals. Upon entering the studio, our eyes were immediately drawn to the modest arcade cabinet sitting in the dining area. From the mind of South Park: The Game programmer Dan Rubalcaba, we are proud to show you gameplay footage of Obsidian: The Game. A dungeon-crawler based on the founders of the studio, Obsidian: The Game is a simple yet addicting experience that can only be found within the Obsidian Entertainment studio. Watch the video below to learn more.
Note: Music in the game and in the video was composed by 8 Bit Jin.
Click on the link below to enter our content hub for South Park: The Game.
Remember when GamesRadar had a Shark Week?
In what must be the strangest turn of events for all games media, GamesRadar engaged in a futile display of shark-related coverage to coincide with the annual hysteria that surrounds The Discovery Channel's Shark Week . Turns out only SOME of you are in that oh-so-desireable crossover demographic, but those who stuck around were treated to the finest vaguely shark-related content the games press has
Intense Blur trailer bound to trigger epilepsy
Check out the video below, but don't stare into the light. We accidentally did and lost our short-term memory. May 6, 2010 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lizzie Cuevas GamesRadar Verdict: [ 8 ] Great You'll love: + Stunning graphics + Impressive AI + Replay value You'll hate: - Getting your ass beat at Halo - Jealousy - Heartbreak Topics Racing Blur We recommend By Zergnet Load Comments
Master Heroes of the Storm's Dragon Shire map
There are a couple of maps in Heroes of the Storm characterised by player-controlled behemoths, and Dragon Shire is one of them.
There are a couple of maps in Heroes of the Storm characterised by player-controlled behemoths, and Dragon Shire is one of them. When captured, the key objective lets a player become the Dragon Knight, a beast that tears through structures and enemies for a limited time. Given the static placement of objectives, it’s a map that can be won with some strategic planning.
The basics
Dragon Shire has three lanes, with each team usually splitting into two groups. The first is usually one player sat in the top lane, while the others rotate back and forth between the middle and bottom lanes. Being a medium-sized map, a team that can move intelligently between lanes will be at an advantage, but the top lane is just that bit too far away for any regular movement between it and other lanes.
The main objective, a statue of the Dragon Knight sat in the middle lane, is activated by capturing two shrines, one on the top lane, one on the bottom lane. After a team captures both shrines by standing on them for a few seconds, a teammate can initiate a short channel to become the Dragon Knight. The opposing team can either try to recapture those shrines or interrupt the players trying to take control of the Dragon Knight.
Picking your hero
There’s one major factor to be taken into account when choosing a hero for Dragon Shire: someone is probably going to be sitting on their own at the top of the map. It’s helpful, therefore, for one player to pick a hero that can both survive a surprise attack from someone attacking up midlane and dominate the lane one on one. Strong heroes for this role would be Zagara, Tassadar, or Chen. Controlling the lane means controlling the shrine, putting your team one step closer to capturing the Dragon Knight.
Laning
Once you’re in the game and sat in your lanes, your primary objective should be to establish lane dominance without pushing too far forward and putting yourself at risk of being flanked. While taking structures is a huge bonus, preparing for the Dragon Knight is your main focus when laning.
If you’ve got a strong team composition to set up kills, such as the deadly combo of Diablo’s Overpower into Tyrande’s Lunar Flare or strong divers like Muradin, you might want to look for opportunities to roam between lanes. Keeping up (or ahead) in experience is key, however, so don’t put yourself in danger. This period doesn’t last long, though, as the shrines will activate 1 minute 20 seconds into the game.
Once the shrines activate
If you’ve had a strong start, try to capture the shrines. Make sure you’ll be safe, though—it’s very easy to get boxed in while capturing, so watch out to see if the enemy team is looking for your blood. Just stand in the outlined area to capture the shrine, but if there’s an enemy in the area too, the bar above it, indicating control, won’t budge. You’ve got to have the shrine all the way at your end to make it yours, and it’s possible to delay an enemy just by standing on it.
When you have both shrines, a couple of members of your team should make their way to the statue in midlane. If possible, try to get a specialist or tank to take it—the Dragon Knight itself fulfils a similar role to those two, and so momentarily losing them won’t break your team composition apart.
It will be clear if the statue is active for you, as beams of light will travel from the shrines to the statue in the middle if both are owned by one team.
If you’re losing the battle for shrines, try to just delay them from taking the Dragon Knight for as long as possible. If they bring more people to the middle lane to take it, have a teammate take back the undefended shrine. This is where those poking heroes can be a lifesaver.
The great red dragon
Let’s do a quick run through of the Dragon Knight’s abilities:
Passive: It deals 50% more damage to structures, takes 50% less damage from structures, all crowd control effects are halved in their duration, and, upon death, it explodes and deals damage around it.
Q: Flame Breath: it spews fire in a cone that deals some initial damage and burns anyone standing in the cone for a few seconds.
W: Savage Charge: after a short channel, it charges an enemy and knocks them across the map.
R: Leave Dragon: does exactly what it says on the tin, the player leaves the Dragon Knight.
Flame Breath is on a short cooldown, so it should be used whenever available to whittle down enemy minions, structures and heroes. Savage Charge is useful for removing an enemy from a fight or interrupting channeled abilities (like Li Li’s Jug of 1,000 Cups). You won’t typically use Leave Dragon ever: it’s simply there as an option.
When you’re playing as the Dragon Knight, barrel down middle lane. Forget minions—your allies should clean them up behind you, or your Flame Breath can clear them up if needs be. Wail on those turrets like they’re second breakfast, but try to stand in the position below. If a teammate is the Dragon Knight, try to keep the enemy team from focusing them down, let your ally do the work on structures while you push heroes away.
From here, only one turret will shoot you. While the Dragon Knight is strong it’s not invincible, so try not to take unnecessary damage.
If the enemy has captured the Dragon Knight, your team needs to group together and defend against its onslaught. While you’ll lose experience by leaving lanes, losing structures is worse. Work together to disrupt and delay or kill the enemy Dragon Knight as fast as possible, and once it’s down, return to soaking up experience in lanes.
When the Dragon Knight dies the person inside pops out wherever it fell, finding themselves at the mercy of the enemy. Make sure to watch where you are if you die or the timer runs out, as it’s easy to be caught behind enemy lines.
Using your mercenaries
Mercenaries
In each map there are neutral mercenaries between the lanes that only attack in retaliation, and can be killed to force them into joining your team.
There’s a 30 second warning before the shrines become active, and this is a good way to ensure that you’re using the mercenaries right. Rather than being used to siege directly, mercenaries are an efficient way of forcing the enemy team to move away from the shrines. By capturing them as the shrines become active, the enemy will be forced to choose: contest the shrine or defend their structures from imminent doom.
Closing out
After the Dragon Knight dies, it’s back to controlling the lanes and the shrines. While they won’t activate again for a few minutes, keeping the pressure on ensures you’ll be ready for when they do. Continue to outwit, outmaneuver, or overpower your enemies when contesting shrines, and make sure you’re aware of when they’ll respawn. If you’re ahead, make sure not to die at the wrong moment through cockiness. If you’re behind, play defensive and wait for enemy mistakes.
Make sure to stay flexible, though. If you’ve got a team that’s strong at teamfighting, you might want to let the enemies take shrines, bait them into the statue and start a fight. If you’re full of lane-dominating heroes, just focus on keeping control of the shrines and stay sharp. You can win Dragon Shire without committing to a single big fight as long as you maintain map control, so that should be your goal. After all, there’s few wars that can’t be won if you can control a dragon.
Find all of our other Heroes of the Storm map guides below: