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War Thunder: The best PS4 launch game you're probably ignoring

Pre-ordered a PS4? (Read our PS4 review if you haven't.) Or maybe you’re going to take your chances with retail stock, and try to grab one after Christmas. Either way, if you have any experience of console launches whatsoever, you already know that if you land a machine in the next couple of months, you’re pretty quickly going to run into a conundrum. And that conundrum is the inevitable new-console

Warface now live in Europe and North America, launch trailer mostly about Chess

As this cinematic Warface trailer makes clear, online multiplayer shooters are a lot like Chess.

trailer makes clear, online multiplayer shooters are a lot like Chess. You remember Chess, the game about the panicked movement of pieces around a board that's being assaulted by grenade spam and AK47 fire. Every time you take a piece, it respawns after a few seconds, leading to advanced tactics like surrounding the resurrection spots until the arbitrary round timer has elapsed. No wonder it became the game of choice for some of history's greatest minds. Esteemed tacticians like Custer, Napoleon and, er, Michael Bay. Probably. In non-Chess related news, Warface is now out in Europe and North America.

The free-to-play FPS caused controversy the other week thanks to its questionable introductionof disproportionately skimpy women. At the time, Crytek's Joshua Howard said the gender imbalance reflected "how we see how culturally the different regions approach the same game in different ways."

"The skins we're showing right now are the skins that basically came out of our Russian region," he continued. "They're not what our players at first requested in the Russian region. They tended to be considerably more extreme that what we ended up shipping with."

What does the newly released European client ship with? I downloaded the game and visited its shop:

If you'd like to shoot a selection of body-armoured meat tanks and their lightly dressed, devil-may-care counterparts, Warface can be downloaded now.

We've known about Ubisoft's downloadable adventure game Valiant Hearts since the company brought it

to the Ubi-Art Developer Days event last fall, but it wasn't until the game cropped up in Ubisoft's bombastic E3 press conference this month that I came to appreciate what a significant anomaly this somber downloadable title is amidst the company's 2014 lineup. It's no surprise that the game is built on the Ubi-Art Framework, Ubisoft's proprietary 2D toolset that previously powered Rayman Origins and Child of Light .

Q&A: Telling human stories of the Great War with Valiant Hearts

. Ubisoft's Xavier Poix told Gamasutra that it was built to allow Ubisoft developers a chance to refresh themselves by creating small, "profound and intimate games" with unique visual design, and Valiant Hearts appears to be just that.

What's more surprising is the trio of Ubisoft Montpellier developers who successfully sold their CEO on Valiant Hearts and guided the project from prototype to full-blown production have a history of working on major franchises across multiple genres: Yoan Fanise, Paul Tumelaire and Simon Chocquet-Bottani have credits on everything from Assassin's Creed and Rayman to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter , so Valiant Hearts -- which is being advertised as a story about letters, love and sad dogs in snow during the First World War -- was a new challenge for all of them.

The game comes out this week, so Gamasutra caught up with both Simon and Yoan via phone to learn more about how Valiant Hearts was made and what challenges they faced in tackling a completely new genre with a drastically smaller team.
How did Valiant Hearts come together? Yoan: First it was all Paul; Paul [Tumelaire] started the project three years ago by drawing some characters, making some concept art, and in fact the project was very small, it was more of a solo project at the beginning. About a year and a half after that, we really started the project in earnest when Simon and I joined Paul to start building the story and start thinking about the gameplay. But it started as just art.

Simon: After the end of Rayman Legends , which Paul and I both worked on, we really wanted to start this project because we knew that 2014 would be the centenary of the Great War. But at first the direction of the project wasn’t that story-driven; we thought that building on the early artwork would be a good opportunity to create a unique game that was driven as much by history as by story and gameplay.
It seems like a sharp departure from your previous work. Why make the switch? Y: Because Paul's artwork was really intense and filled with real emotion. World War I is something we really, how you say...we really care about. It’s really intense for us, this subject, because we live in France and a big part of World War I happened in France. It’s something that really touched us, because most of our families were involved in that war. So this subject is really close to us because it happened to our families. It happened to our great-grandfathers.

S: For me, I was already working on Rayman Origins and then Rayman

"Moving to something new and discovering something about our past made this project really special for me." Legends , so I saw an opportunity in this game to really challenge myself. Before both Rayman games I’d been working on From Dust , and before that I was working on the Michael Jackson dance game ( Michael Jackson: The Experience ), and I really like trying new challenges.

Y: It’s funny to notice that Simon and Paul were coming from Rayman , and one of the design decisions we made while making Valiant Hearts was to not allow you to jump. So that was...interesting.

S: Yes Rayman was really focused around gameplay skill: dexterity, that kind of stuff, but I really like the idea of jumping into something really different, something that was really more story-driven, more centered around emotion, where the gameplay should really be focused on adding to the story, rather than focusing on challenging the player’s dexterity, alacrity and skill.

And of course, the First World War, for a lot of French people, is something we learned about from our grandfathers and our great-grandfathers. We also learned about it at school, but only certain parts of it -- so having an opportunity to discover more of it by working on this game, reading letters, doing research, is really weird because you learn a lot of things you never saw when you were a kid -- you know a few stories, you know about a few fights, you know some names, but when I started to do some research about the project, I found a lot of information I didn’t know about, and it really feels like I learned more about my own story. I think that moving to something new and discovering something about our past made this project really special for me.
Was it tough to work around a subject that’s this serious, and this close to your own family history? Y: I think for us, it was something positive. The goal of the game was to help people remember this war, so it felt like a sort of duty to help them remember that. It was important for us not to create a game that was only fun; it couldn’t be a first-person shooter without emotion, because of course the subject is more real for us.

But it’s true, when we were reading all those old letters and documents, sometimes you read some letters that are really deep and very sad, and sometimes you feel not very well. But you have to remember your purpose.
Did you bring any of your own personal history into the game? Y: No, in fact the characters are all fictional in the game. We drew inspiration from everything we learned, especially from our families, but we wanted to keep the game fictional to not cross the line between reality and fiction. But some of the collectibles you will find, they are based on the real objects and the real letters that we found. So for example, my great-grandfather’s real dogtag is in the game.
So why make this a cartoonish puzzle game, instead of a more serious narrative-driven experience like, say, Gone Home ? S: Well, we had a few reasons. We decided the game was going to revolve around human beings, and the game will focus on the fact that you play a normal human, not a superhero; a farmer, a husband, a son, who has to fight in the war. To do so, we had to find a kind of gameplay that wouldn’t feel overly powerful. So that’s how we came to decide on a puzzle game -- though of course it’s more of a puzzle adventure, since you always have direct control of the character. It’s a slow-paced game where you control a character and you have to feel this character is human -- for example, we really based the gameplay around immersion. When you have to use a lever or a wheel, you have to hold the button and mimic the motion with your fingers to make the object move. So the puzzle game was the genre that allowed us to focus best on this kind of feeling, which is ‘I’m a normal human being, with no special abilities. I can’t make three-meter jumps, I can’t shoot two hundred bullets,’ and so on.


Also, we noticed that when you focus on puzzles, it only takes a small amount of action to make the player feel like something huge is happening. So when you play an action sequence right after a small puzzle, the action sequence feels much stronger than it really is. We knew from the very beginning that the pacing was very important, and we wanted the game to cause the player to really take their time and understand the surroundings, because we chose to add an encyclopedia so that with one button press you have access to information about the place where you are and what really happened there on that specific date.

To allow access to that, we had to allow the player time to see what’s around them and time to understand things. It’s really a choice we made to help the character feel like they’re living the story of this normal human, a farmer or a student, having no choice but to fight in the war.
This seems like a bit of a dramatic jump from Rayman and Assassin's Creed . Y: In Montpellier, we already have this spirit of umm...not-so-big video games, and we have this culture of being a bit crazy and a bit artistic. We really aren’t afraid of challenges, and this project was particularly challenging.
How come? S: With every project we try to bring something new to it. But this was the first time, at least for me, that I tried so many new things. We have the historical aspect, the narrative aspect, the gameplay aspect, and four characters with four different stories. So it was challenging for a variety of reasons, this project. Usually when we try to make a game we try to bring something new, but...not this much.

Y: We really started from a blank page. We had some key artwork, but that’s it -- we had to build everything else from scratch. It was hard.
And how did your past affect your work on Valiant Hearts ? It seems like neither of you have worked on a puzzle game like this before. Y: For me it was very difficult, because I was coming from the audio side; I was director of audio on Assassin’s Creed , which was quite different. But the idea was to tell a story, and the three of us are not script-writers but we still wanted to tell a complex story, so we had to discover how to to do so.

We had to discover very many things, really, including how to design this kind of game, so we read a lot of documents for research. All of the documents from LucasArts, for example! Because they were very interesting in terms of how they built their games, those old adventure games. I think I found one of them on Gamasutra, actually.

S: On the design side, we had those documents and also of course I’m a gamer so I already play a variety of games, and I really like diversity. When I was working on Rayman I had a lot of game ideas, so when I had the opportunity to work on Valiant Hearts I really tried to find a type of gameplay that could fit with what we wanted. I think in my mind, my inspiration came from games like The Cave , Machinarium , Limbo ...the kinds of games that most of us play on the team.

So we got all this inspiration from what we read, what we played, and we wanted to build our own experience, so we tried to start with that and match it up with a story that’s historically

"We decided the game was going to revolve around human beings...a farmer, a husband, a son, who has to fight in the war." accurate. The story in our game, it’s based on real history with real locations and everything. Real events were a huge source of inspiration for us -- you just have to do some research in some historical documents, read about people’s real accounts, and it will give you a lot of good ideas about things like how gas masks were used, how the bullets and the rifles felt, that sort of thing. It was a huge source of inspiration.

Of course, we didn’t really pull direct inspiration from any one game -- we really wanted the experience to fit the emotion we wanted the player to feel. So we took our gameplay sequences and we fit an emotion to them -- fear, emotion, sadness, happiness, we decided to set an emotion for every sequence in the game and in terms of design, we tried to make gameplay that fit with that emotion. We would set emotions and say ‘well, in this sequence, I want the player to be happy. I want the player to be sad. I want the player to be fearful, I want the player to feel powerful,' and so on.

So emotion was one of the central parts of the game that we used to build the gameplay. We really tried to make the mechanics adaptable, so the gameplay will never radically change -- you control things the same way, you pick up objects the same way, that kind of thing -- but contextually, it can really adapt to a situation. You can have stories, you can have an action sequence, you can have a puzzle, and the core gameplay stays the same but the feeling around it will be more emotionally-driven towards one emotion or another, depending on how you use it.
What challenges did you face in applying all that research to actual design? Y: For me, on the story, the main advice I remember from my research was that they all say you have to start at the end. So basically, we agreed on the end of the script, then we worked backward to the very beginning of the game.
How did you build that within the limits of the Ubi-Art Framework? Any custom middleware or workarounds? S: We have some specific things we developed to emphasize the comic book aspects of our art style -- we have systems that allow us to add comic book-style transitions on the screen that can show you things that are happening far from what you see, because of course a 2D game is very restrained in terms of what you can show on the screen. So by adding these kinds of...I don’t know what you’d call them in English…

Y: Viewports, sort of like comic viewports.

S: Yeah! so we can show you things that are happening in other places on the map and it appears with a kind of comic book aesthetic. We also developed a kind of dialogue system with animated bubbles, because in the beginning we didn’t want people to talk. As soon as you make people talk you have to make them talk in their own languages -- German, French, English, that sort of thing -- and we felt that it would be weird for the player to understand one army and not the the other armies, and even weirder if they did speak more than one language -- so if we made the player French he’s not supposed to understand the Germans, but if he is a German player then of course he will say ‘ah, I understand the Germans!’


So we created a gibberish language, and what everyone says is actually represented in a comic book speech bubble with icons -- like an arrow to say go this way, that sort of thing.

We also have a tool that allows us to quickly generate a lot of soldiers with different faces. So an artist only has to draw like ten different faces for an army, and when we generate them in the scene every soldier has a different face. So we can quickly build a landscape with army variety, because they won’t have the same face but they’ll have the same outfit, the same waypoints, that sort of thing.

The Ubi-iArt framework is very interesting because it’s a very low-level engine, which means you can really control a lot of things. So it helps us easily build a wide variety of puzzles with really simple systems and mathematical logic. It’s not very restraining -- it’s not like we can only do a few types of puzzles. It’s really open-ended.
So how are you feeling, here at the end of the project? Y: I can’t speak for everybody, but for me I’m just watching Twitter and every forum post about the game. And of course, nobody has played the game yet, so it’s...very strange.

S: I’m very happy, and very proud. But I’m still very stressed, you know; in this game we tried a lot of new things, and it’s very difficult to anticipate how people will react to that. I hope they will enjoy it, because then they will also enjoy a history lesson -- every place you go, every event you see, is something that actually happened. So even if you don’t know it, you’re learning something. That’s one of the goals we had at the beginning of the game -- it was to be a kind of hidden educational game. It’s our first experience really writing a real narrative experience too, so I’m really stressed out right now.

Crytek explains sexualized female soldiers in Warface

Crytek's Warface isn't even out of beta, but is already drawing controversy.

isn't even out of beta, but is already drawing controversy. The developer created sexualized female characters after listening to feedback from players in various regions, despite that men in the game are depicted much more realistically.

"[The players] were very comfortable with the fact we have these very realistic-looking men but they wanted the women to be not what we would think of as realistic at all," said Executive Producer Joshua Howard in a Wired article. "Up to and including running round in high heels which is just silly, right?"

While Crytek backed off of those more extreme designs, women still run around showing more skin than an on-field combatant should. The men don't reflect that design philosophy. The decision to design the women's outfits this way reflects "how we see how culturally the different regions approach the same game in different ways," Howard says.

You can't make a creative work with blatant gender misrepresentation anymore without scrutiny. And that's a good thing. It challenges artists to maneuver out of dishonest tropes and create something different. This is not different; this is the same kind of pandering design style that makes my eyes roll. Howard specifically mentions "authenticity," but this isn't authentic at all.

In our preview, executive producer Peter Holzapfel mentioned that Warface is designed to be a little exaggerated, at least in terms of gameplay. An argument could be made that this philosophy of exaggeration applies to the female character skins, but why can't it apply to the men as well? Why do the women have to singled out in this context? And if Crytek really wants a level of authenticity, then this design completely undermines that ambition.

Halfbrick buys mobile-to-web tech dev, will bring Jetpack Joyride to browsers

Top 7... things you probably didn't know about Half-Life 2

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Dujanah is an Islamic-infused Adventure That Everyone Will Be Talking About

How does the idea of revenge manifest itself within someone?

How does the idea of revenge manifest itself within someone? Is it from a desire to seek justice? Or is it from something more basic, something primal; does it come from hatred or anger? This is the question players will seek to answer in developer Jack King-Spooner’s new game Dujanah .

Players follow the story of a woman named Dujanah, in this interactive narrative.  Dujanah lives in a fictional Islamic country that is currently being occupied by a military force. This occupation has caused a strain on the protagonist. Throughout the story, players will encounter political, moral and psychological dilemmas. Players will explore a world where filled with magical realism and fantasy, inhabited by strange creatures and machines. The art style of the game is comprised of claymation, photo-collages, hand-crafted objects that draw inspiration from Islamic culture.

Dujanah is currently looking for funding on Kickstarter. To learn more about the game and developer Jack King-Spooner visit his website, and follow him on Twitter.

Warface goes liveface next Monday

Crytek's free-to-play shooty shooting game Warface is already open for business in Russia and China, and after a long Western beta period, it will very soon open shop over here too.

is already open for business in Russia and China, and after a long Western beta period, it will very soon open shop over here too. Monday 21st October is the launch date to write on your face in military crayon, though you can sign up in advanceif you already know what online handle you're going to use. (Something with the word 'face' in it, presumably.) To mark the occasion, Crytek have released a 'going live' trailer, below, though they've neglected to include Philip Schofield and Gordon the Gopher.

Warface, of course, recently came in for a kicking over its dismally designedfemale soldier avatars. Have Crytek come up with some more fitting attire for the game's Western launch?

Papers, Please country recreated in Civilization V

As spotted on Reddit , anyone who owns Civilization V and the expansion Brave New World on Steam can immediately download the Arstotzka mod for free .

Newsbrief : A Civilization V modder has put together a wonderful video game mashup, recreating the country of Arstotzka from the IGF-nominated Papers, Please as a playable nation.

. It comes with its own unique units, buildings and custom dialogue, all inspired by the Lucas Pope game.

Creator Snakeeater337 has even put together an orchestral version of the Papers, Please theme tune -- check out the video above to hear it.

The many ways Half-Life 2 changed gaming forever

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Crashlands Spoofs Star Wars With Release Date Poster

Crashlands now has a totally awesome Star Wars-esque release poster and a release date (January 21 for all three listed platforms).

Crashlands now has a totally awesome Star Wars-esque release poster and a release date (January 21 for all three listed platforms). What news could be better?

Oh, the news that Sam Coster’s fight with canceris over. He beat the cancer and made a video game. What did you do today?

Before you start to re-evaluate your life, checkout the Crashlands game trailer and follow Butterscotch Shenanigans on Twitterto keep up with the game as we approach its January 21st release on PC, iOS, and Android.

World of Warcraft 5.4 trailer makes pandas more endangered

Whatever your opinion of World of Warcraft , a Blizzard cinematic trailer is usually something to behold.

, a Blizzard cinematic trailer is usually something to behold. That proves to be the case here, as Garrosh Hellscream transports the dark essence of the Old God Y'shaarj. That orcish cad. The dramatic attempt to stop him might be slightly undermined by the fact that his assailant is a kung-fu panda, but let's not get speciest - it's still an enjoyable slice of dramatic posturing.

Of course, the reason for the trailer is the MMO's 5.4 update, which will bring a new raid against Garrosh's Orgrimmar stronghold, new Proving Ground solo trials, and a new zone. Details below:

"New Raid: The Siege of Orgrimmar - The Siege of Orgrimmar is a 3-wing, 14-boss raid for max-level players, which will call you to take down Warchief Garrosh Hellscream at the head of a host of Azeroth's finest. "New Raid Mode: Flexible - Raid with a group of friends and guild mates regardless of server, and with any group size from 10 to 25, and the difficulty will automatically adjust to provide an appropriately challenging experience. "New Feature: Proving Grounds - Undertake solo trials to practice or learn a new class role (Tank, Healer, or Damage). Each trial is available in multiple difficulties -- Bronze through Gold and the challenging 'Endless' mode. "New Zone: The Timeless Isle - Giant outdoor zone promoting open-world adventuring with tons of hidden treasures, giant creatures to defeat, five world bosses, a pet battle tournament, and much more! "Legendary Quest: Judgment of the Black Prince - The epic conclusion to the Legendary quest line will see players rewarded with unique cloaks imbued with powerful new abilities. "New Feature: Connected Realms - Lower population realms will be permanently and seamlessly "linked." Players on the same Connected Realm will be able to trade, send and receive mail, join the same guilds, access a single Auction House, run the same Raids and Dungeons, and join other adventurers to complete quests. "PvP: Redesigned Arena System - Arenas are no longer tied to specific Battlegroups, and players no longer need to create or join an Arena team to compete. Similar to the Rated Battleground system, players in a party of the appropriate size can queue."

You can find the full patch overview here. 5.4 is currently on the Public Test Realm. A full release date is still to be announced.

Oculus' Carmack, Abrash, Luckey, and Binstock debate the future of VR

Last month, Oculus VR hosted its inaugural Oculus Connect developer event in Hollywood, and all of the company's biggest names were there -- and gathered together for a discussion of the future of the nascent medium.

The video embedded above is a roundtable discussion between CTO John Carmack, chief scientist Michael Abrash, chief architect Atman Binstock, and co-founder Palmer Luckey -- moderated by co-founder Nate Mitchell.

The wide-ranging conversation gives a peek into what Oculus' top minds think -- and don't think -- will be the future of virtual reality.

It's not the only videofrom the event Oculus as posted; John Carmack's improvised 90-minute keynote speech is also availableto watch at any time. Abrash's keynote -- which received rapturous applause from attendees -- explores the implicationsof the coming revolution in VR technology that Abrash expects.

Gamasutra was live on the scene at Oculus Connect and prepared a number of reports on the event, which you can read here. While there, we also had a chance to speak to Oculus VP of mobile Max Cohen about the company's expectations for Gear VR.

Why Half-Life 2 is still the greatest FPS ever made, 10 years on

A decade after Half-Life 2’s release, the masses are still obsessed with the release date/announcement/vaguest hint of existence of its currently-nebulous sequel. This is no mere case of fans chasing down leaks, scouring LinkedIn profiles, and hanging on the odd hint dropped in a developer interview. The search for Half-Life 3 is more akin to the actions of the heavily grieving bereaved. A single-minded

Sunless Sea dev Failbetter offering funding for narrative games

World of Warcraft patch 5.3 to significantly alter PvP gear

Blizzard has kept up its focus of "narrowing the PvP gap" for World of Warcraft players in the last few major patches, and changes on the way along with a new battleground and arena in patch 5.3 are perhaps the strongest steps taken to lessen the gear disparity between hardcore PvPers and more casual combatants.

In an articleon its official website, Blizzard describes its intentions to address "significant challenges" in smoothing out the abrupt boost in power provided by high-end tiers of PvP gear. "In PvP, we want gear to matter, but we don't want gear to become the overwhelming reason someone wins a match," Community Manager Nik Gianozakos writes.

He continues: "We think that most players would be okay with going into PvP with lower damage if they were a bit more durable. We believe that a broader population of PvPers will offer a better experience for everyone, and also provide a better pool of players as we introduce refinements to how Battleground queuing works in the future. One of the best ways for us to increase the number of players that participate in PvP is to reduce the barrier to entry for those who play World of Warcraft regularly but don't participate in PvP. Specifically, we're referring to PvE players that spend a lot of time gearing up in PvE but feel that PvE gear is a severe liability in PvP."

I'm glad Blizzard is finally examining gear discrepancy in PvP. I enjoyed both raiding and fighting other players during my time in Azeroth, but the sheer effort required to construct a powerful enough gear set to go toe-to-hoof against others in battlegrounds and arenas meant I often fell behind in clearing major progression content.

Base Resilience will be set to 65% for all characters level 85 and higher Resilience will be removed from nearly all PvP gear Players will still be able to use Resilience gems and enchants PvP power will remain exclusively on PvP gear PvP set bonuses that currently provide Resilience will now provide PvP Power Healers and hybrid-casters will benefit to a greater degree from PvP Power, and Battle Fatigue will increase to make PvP gear superior for healers Conquest gear will be increased to item level 496 (up from 493) Elite gear will be decreased to item level 496. This gear will essentially become a prestige upgrade The Big Change: We will be adding an item level ceiling to all gear in unrated Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas All gear with item levels higher than 496 will be scaled down to 496 (Conquest gear item level). This includes even Conquest items that exceed the ilevel ceiling, such as weapons In patches that don't include a new season (including patch 5.3), the seasonal currency requirement of 7,250 Conquest Points earned will be lifted from weapons. The seasonal currency requirement must always be met to purchase Elite items, though Once the 27,000 Conquest Point seasonal currency requirement is reached, players will be able to purchase Tyrannical Gladiator's gear with Honor Points

The official website also lists the rest of patch 5.3's lengthy notes.

Video: Balancing the metagame in eSports and fighting game design

Characters, factions, classes, and decks: we often embrace asymmetry in competitive games, yet one overpowered option can wreak havoc among a game's player community.

Sussing out such imbalances in your metagame is typically done through intuition and lots of playtesting. But at GDC 2015, designer and data scientist Alex Jaffe offered a fresh approach, developed during his time spent balancing PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale .

Jaffe's method uses game theory and matchup charts to describe the possible metagames that can form among expert players. Through examples from modern games, his talk shows the value in carefully reasoning about - and even quantifying - metagame balance.

It's worth watching if you're at all curious about the practical challenges of balancing a competitive game, and now you can watch Jaffe's entire talk for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel .

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vaultand its new YouTube channeloffers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. 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 by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech

All the Borderlands games are about to be backwards compatible on Xbox One

If you got Borderlands: The Handsome Collection on Xbox One, you might have noticed its one glaring omission. Gearbox justified leaving the original Borderlands out because it didn't have an appearance from Handsome Jack (who is a central character in Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel), but narcissistic nemeses aside, you can now play the whole series on your current-gen console… ...if

PS4 set for digital focus, multiple subscription models

It looks like PlayStation Plus was just the start. Head of Sony Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida has stated, speaking to The Guardian , that a content subscription model built around multiple tiers might become integral to the PlayStation 4's business model, with digital downloads certainly being the dominant software format. "We’re shifting our platform more and more to the digital side – PS4 will

World of Warcraft patch 5.2 brings back "missing" old-school vibe, says Blizzard

Last week, the massive stormed across Pandaria and the World of Warcraft servers, bringing a new raid, daily quests, gear, and a questing island area using a server-wide content unlocking system.

stormed across Pandaria and the World of Warcraft servers, bringing a new raid, daily quests, gear, and a questing island area using a server-wide content unlocking system. The patch marks the 16th major update for the reigning champ of the MMO genre and its nearly eight years of activity. After a prolonged focus on balances and the endless content churn, Blizzard Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street feels (via IGN) the patch is a return to the sense of wonder and danger of Azeroth's early years.

"Since Cataclysm, we felt like we'd lost our way a little bit," he says. "We had some really epic quests and we've told some great stories, but the second-to-second combat out in the field wasn't as interesting. So we made an effort with the launch of Pandaria and we redoubled it with this most recent patch to make a lot of cool stuff for players to do out in the world. We still have great dungeons and other instance content, but we also just have fun things to do out in the world with your friends."

The new questing zone, the Isle of Thunder, recalls the faction-wide events of old—such as the gate-opening ceremony for the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj—by unlocking one time as the Horde or Alliance progresses deeper into the island after establishing a beachhead. It's ripe for hotspots of open-world PVP—another pined-for memory from classic Warcraft—especially because of the zone's interesting no-fly restriction.

Street explains it's all an intentional throwback to the game's roots. "Somewhere along the way, we'd lost the sense that being outdoors in the world was kind of a dangerous thing," he says. "Walking around and fighting mobs is basically the heart of World of Warcraft, and we had lost a little bit of that and wanted to make it fun again."

"It's great to give ex-players a reason to come back and try it again, and appealing to their nostalgia is a good way of doing that," he adds.

For those enjoying the Thunder King's good graces, what do you think of the new island? Is it a valid return to the Warcraft of yore?

Top Android game apps: Cut the Rope overtakes Angry Birds Space

Top iPhone Game Apps: Angry Birds, Cut the Rope Back on Top

Crashlands Brings Sass to Adventure RPGs

The three brothers who make up Butterscotch Shenanigans are looking for some interested players to join the Beta test army for their newest title.

, as Butterscotch member Sam Coster puts it, is “so gargantuan and full of sass, no words we type can describe it.”

In Crashlands , the player character is a galactic delivery truck driver named Flux Dabes. Accompanied by her “trusty sidekick/supervisor/robotic cargo pallet,” JuiceBox, Flux is on a shipment run when she’s interrupted by Q, an unfriendly alien who tears apart Flux’s ship for useful technology. Flux and JuiceBox end up crashing and becoming marooned on the planet of Woanope. Flux needs to contact the Bureau of Shipping and make sure that the packages reach their destination; but with no way to deliver them at hand, she must instead turn her attention to surviving in the vast, wild, and colorful Crashlands.

Flux will need to “fight, tame, craft, quest, bossfight, and adventure [her] way to domination of all things.” Construction is done in a manner reminiscent of finger painting, making it something of an art project, and the inventory of items collected and scavenged is both infinite and self-managing, meaning that players need not worry about having to throw away potentially useful items to make room for others. With more than 450 crafting recipes to find and utilize, Flux can create tools, housing, furniture, and increasingly ludicrous weapons like harvest bombs and laser clotheslines.

The story behind Crashlands is quite a tale. It came about in late 2013, when Sam Coster was diagnosed with Lymphoma. As he fought his way through chemotherapy, he and his brothers decided to scrap their then-current project and instead make Crashlands . The nonsensical game provided a wonderful distraction for Sam while he underwent months of painful treatment to save his life. His fight continues, and so does the work on his legacy. “Working on Crashlands has been my outlet, my catharsis. This game has been my defense against blood dragons, poison, stab wounds and baldness. It stands as my family’s translation of adversity into something that will spin joy for thousands of people for thousands of hours.”

Crashlands was a finalist at the Reboot Indie Game Awards, and was Greenlit on Steamwithin 42 hours of its listing. PC and Mac players can sign up to preorder the game from the official website for $15 USD. Players will be able to move their saved games between desktop and mobile devices, and by creating a “BscotchID,” they can take advantage of the modding tool that allows them to “do horrible, wonderful things” to the game. Find Butterscotch Shenanigans on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, their devlog, or the official forums.

Blizzcon returns November 8 and 9, 2013

2012: The Year Without a Blizzcon.

2012: The Year Without a Blizzcon. It was also the year I was finally ready to attend, which made the absence of Blizzard's annual blow-out all the more poignant. But at last, we've been told that the life-sized-Thrall-statue-shaped hole in our hearts will be filled once again on November 8 and 9 in Anaheim.

What we might see, we're not entirely sure yet. Chances are good we'll be getting a look at the first Diablo 3 expansion, leaked on the same project slate that revealed the top-secret upcoming MMO we know only as Titan. Whether or not we might find out more about the latter is anyone's guess, but it's our biggest hope. It's also possible we might hear about a new WoW expansion, considering the team has expressed their wishes to reduce the time between such expansions for Blizzard's juggernaut.

The official release lists the following (mostly to be expected) items:

Hands-on play time with the latest versions of Blizzard Entertainment games Global finals for Blizzard eSports, featuring top pro gamers from around the world In-depth discussion panels with Blizzard game developers and artists Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents Community contests with great prizes Commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainment's game universes More activities and attractions to be announced

What are you most hoping to see at BlizzCon this year?

Christmas 2013 looks good for the 3DS, thanks to Pokemon X and Y

Nintendo today revealed the next generation of titles in the Pokemon series, with a pair of games for Nintendo 3DS due for release later this year.

Pokemon X and Pokemon Y are set for launch this October, and Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was keen to stress that the games will release worldwide at the same time, rather than receiving a Japanese launch first as per usual.

These new titles mark big changes for the franchise on Nintendo handheld systems, as the visuals and battle scenes have been completely revamped to take advantage of the Nintendo 3DS's capabilities.

And as you'd expect, Iwata's short Nintendo Direct presentation -- which only lasted around 10 minutes, and spent the majority of that time listing the history of the Pokemon series -- showed off new Pokemon creatures that will be introduced alongside the titles.

The last Pokemon RPG titles in the main franchise were Pokemon Black and White 2 , released for the Nintendo DS late last year. Pokemon X and Y will be the sixth generation of titles for handhelds.

Pokemon Black & White still stand as the fastest-selling titleson a Nintendo handheld to date, selling 5 million units in their first three months on sale in Japan.

Borderlands 2 DLC discounted 25% for those who commit to four-pack

After Gearbox Software's Borderlands 2 releases on September 18 this year, four story campaign add-ons, featuring more missions, enemies, weapons, and locations, will begin trickling onto online distribution platforms at $9.99 a pop. But, those who are planning to pick up these four add-on packs are in luck. 2K Games announced today that it will be offering a Borderlands 2 Season Pass, which will get

Indie Intermission – ‘I Can’t See S**T’ Seeing Is Not Always Believing

To round off the week I thought it only appropriate to bring a game in which you cannot see anything and must relay on your echo location to figure out the safe path to the exit.

To round off the week I thought it only appropriate to bring a game in which you cannot see anything and must relay on your echo location to figure out the safe path to the exit. This is another game from the highly talented guys over at Butterscotch Shenanigans who have been running a game jam all week and have generated several awesome games, this being one of them.

I Can’t See Shit is exactly how it sounds, it’s a game about not being able to see anything and using your mouse you must try to figure out the levels as best you can to somehow manage to work your way to the levels exit.

Although most of the levels are really not that taxing they offer some interesting ideas and you can see that this game was mainly created to come up with some new and interesting ideas and it does succeed on that.

Average play time – 15 minutes

I Can’t See Shit is fun if not a lot easier than you may expect to just finish the levels. I suppose the real challenge does come in when you try to collect all of the hidden extras on the level as these can be rather tricky. However in the current build it does feel like these items carry next to no incentive to collect, I’m just not sure how much they add to the game.

I Can’t See Shit is fun for the duration and offers a suitable level of challenge which is great. If you would like to give it a go head over to the Butterscotch Shenanigans siteand download it.

If you are a developer with A fun indie game that can be played over a coffee break, we want to hear from you! Private message us on twitter @IndieGameMag or shoot us an email at editors@indiegamemag.com with the subject “Indie Intermission” and you could be our indie intermission pick of the day!

World of Warcraft video celebrates 8th anniversary with nostalgic trip through time

I've only ever dipped into World of Warcraft, so I can only imagine how the past eight years have felt for those who fell in love with Blizzard's new online world back in 2004.

I've only ever dipped into World of Warcraft, so I can only imagine how the past eight years have felt for those who fell in love with Blizzard's new online world back in 2004. Maybe they passed quickly, in a flash of boss fights, raid wipes and ding explosions. Maybe it feels as though it's been around forever. Mists of Pandaria seems to have rekindled the post Cataclysm subs slump somewhat, so WoW will be a long while yet. But if WoW were to die, the sequence that would flash before its eyes in its final moments might look a bit like this celebratory 8th anniversary video, which revisits many of Azeroth's well-trodden lands.

November 23 is the precise anniversary date, but Blizzard say that "players who log in to World of Warcraft between November 18 and December 1" will automatically get a "unique Feat of Strength achievement and Celebration Package item.

"Using your item will kick off the celebrations by shooting off fireworks*, applying a (cosmetic only) tabard to your character, and granting an 8% bonus to experience and reputation gains from any enemies defeated while active," they add.

Assassin's Creed III was a massive project to undertake, which is probably why you couldn't walk down

any city street without seeing the game's logo on the side of a bus when it launched in October last year. It took hundreds of developers across Canada, France, China, and Singapore to get the game completed on time.

Q&A: Making waves in Assassin's Creed III

It took hundreds of developers across Canada, France, China, and Singapore to get the game completed on time. Interestingly, along country lines, you can find some specific signature stamps. At Ubisoft Singapore, for instance, they ruled the water -- this relatively new Ubisoft studio was in charge of ACIII 's massive ocean battles.

How does one create a puzzle piece that fits into a whole? How does one go about creating a new style of play on a scale that hasn't quite been realized before, without taking the player out of the existing universe? How much realism is too much? After all, real galleons don't turn on a dime, and they certainly don't reload their cannons in seconds.

We spoke with senior producer Hugues Ricour in the company's Singapore office to discover, from a design standpoint, how this new mode of play was created.

Where do you start, with a new feature like this?

Hugues Ricour: We focused on the ocean simulation and the impact of the wave physics on the boat for two aspects of gameplay. The first was the navigation of the boat, and the feeling that it's an element that is being impacted by the world it is in; the weather, the wind, and the waves. You will feel that during the navigation sequences, during the storm. But also you might have a rogue wind just behind that rock, because there are wind pockets coming up, just like in the ocean. And all this was the first thing we wanted to recreate. So, most of the work has been physics and of course visuals and dynamic weather with transitions from movement to stoppage.

All of this has an impact in the second phase, which is the combat. So, the idea was that we don't just do this to look pretty or for just navigational changes, but it has to impact the gameplay and combat, adding layers of difficulty or layers of interest as you progress into the game.

When fighting against the environment, like turning against the wave and changing your firing pattern if your ship is on uneven keel, how did you balance the realism of that versus how fun that is? I could see fighting against the elements being initially frustrating.

So, that was a constant concern for the last eight months, as you can imagine. [laughs] The first big one to tackle was the boat speed. These ships, if you look at the reality, they were very, very slow. They would take minutes to turn. And obviously cannons would take minutes to reload as well. So this naval combat in reality was lasting several hours, sometimes up to several days.

One of the references is Master and Commander, and if you look at the story, there are some fights that last for days in the movie. So, obviously we had to approach this slightly differently. We made a lot of tests with the boat speed, with how fast you can turn, with the impact of the wind direction, how much you're penalized when you're facing the wind or not, reload speed of the cannons, and so on. I've read so far very few comments that mention, "Aw, it's arcade-y and not realistic."

Actually, a lot of the comments from the fans and the press are that we reached a nice balance. There is a level of unrealism in Assassin's Creed when you climb and so on. We tried to recreate, I think, an immersion that’s as realistic as possible.

I feel like there may be an extra learning curve for players because the understanding of boats in general is not as high as it was for, say, our grandparents, who might actually have to use that as a method of travel. So, things like headwinds and that sort of thing might be new information to people. Did you have to do some research to figure out how much you actually needed to communicate to players about what boats can and can't do, at least within your universe?

Yes. We did a few field trips. One of our designers even took sailing lessons. Obviously, that was to understand basic mechanics of sailing. The largest part of the effort was based on the tutorials and the first time you put Connor at the wheel. Once [players] passed that, our fans are super sharp, and very, very quickly they do things that even surprise us.

But these first few moments require handholding. We do things to introduce difficulty very progressively. So at first, you learn how to navigate, and the [ship] Aquila has no cannons. Then we immobilize the Aquila once you equip it with cannons, and then we just teach you how to shoot. It's in a bay, so very calm waters. What you shoot at is actually shipwrecks, so they aren't moving as well. And the next mission is small boats that are moving but are fairly easy to destroy. As you progress, you're going to have a first storm. And then at one point, you're going to meet your first man-of-war, and that's a gradual increase of difficulty...



I'm curious about figuring out how to do targeting -- because you couldn't really aim all the cannons at one specific area in reality -- and also the decision to stick with a third-person perspective for the character on the ship. That seems very challenging to undertake when you're trying to communicate a massive scale battle, to keep the camera behind the guy.

About the third-person view, it's a very conscious decision. We did a lot of tests which showed the number one rule is we want you to feel that you're playing Connor, and experiencing what Connor would experience on his ship. So, staying close to him, and using the third-person camera view was very critical and very important to us.

In several moments, you get an amazing feeling that you can only get by being on the boat, like a man-of-war charging at you and hitting your boat, or when a rogue wave hits and splashes on the deck, or when hear your cannons firing, and the experience of seeing your crew right in front of your eyes, maneuvering to make that happen.

You're positioned quite low compared to the ocean, so you actually see these waves and the 3D movement of these waves and all the water effects and so on. So, all these for us required this specific camera.

The shooting is interesting. First you have the reload times, which are a bit tricky because in reality it would take probably longer to wield these guns. Then you have the accuracy, where we had to find the right mix of distance [to the target] and how far [the projectile] goes. So you can even play with the waves, and if you have the right inclinations, they're going to go further and higher. We had to play a lot with that [targeting] line that you've seen when you play on the ocean.

Also, as you're progressing within the game, you buy more cannons, and they provide this firepower that gets very impressive. We needed something else, and that something else has been added with the swivel guns. The swivel guns allow us to break the pace of the reloads of your regular cannons. You can shoot at any moment. They reload much faster, and they are much more... It's not a targeting system. We thought about a first-person shooting type of mechanic, but again we wanted to stay as Connor as the captain of the ship, so we wanted to do a sort of auto-target cannon system. And it adds pacing to the experience, especially when you're trying to be accurate when you shoot.

Editor's note: Ubisoft provided travel accommodations in order to facilitate this interview.

Borderlands coming to PS Plus users for free

Sony announced a partnership with Gearbox Software today that will bring the original Borderlands to PlayStation Plus subscribers free of charge (other than, y'know, the price of PlayStation Plus.) Borderlands will be coming to the Instant Game Collection feature which will allow subscribers to download the game instantly. The promotion is being timed to coincide with the upcoming release of the highly

Video: Crafting emotional themes in Dragon Age: Inquisition 's Trespasser DLC

Writing interesting, meaningful characters and plot lines, then weaving them together to build meaningful emotional themes in a game, is tricky work for all developers -- even BioWare.

For example, at GDC 2016's Game Narrative Summit Dragon Age franchise lead writer Patrick Weekes and lead narrative designer John Epler took the stage to walk through the challenges they faced in developing the core narrative and thematic moments in Dragon Age: Inquisition 's Trespasser DLC.

What's interesting about this talk is the pair's frank discussion of the creative team's initial ideas that made it to ship in more-or-less the same shape as well as those that were born, lived, and died within the space of a day - and how they were able to tell the difference when it was still early enough to make the necessary changes.

It was a neat talk, and if you missed it in person don't miss your opportunity to watch the whole thing for free via the official GDC YouTube channel.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vaultand its new YouTube channeloffers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. 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 by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech

The MMO of the Year 2012: Guild Wars 2

The launch of Guild Wars 2 had the energy of an election night.

The launch of Guild Wars 2 had the energy of an election night. The candour of ArenaNet's original tradition-defying mission statement gave way to a year of rising expectations, tempered by the trickle of information from the beta and the gloomy subscription forecasts battering its rivals. It was a relief when the game turned out to be something special.

Guild Wars 2 is a generous and thoughtful MMO. It supports a huge range of playstyles – from exploration and crafting to PvP, dungeoneering, and the pursuit of prestigious loot – by rewarding the player liberally for almost anything they choose to do. On the shorter end of the scale, its combat system injects satisfying mechanical complexity into the basic act of interacting with the world. The events system, while not fully supplanting traditional questing, creates life and variability where it was lacking before.

Reality, however, has turned out to be more complicated than that mission statement made it seem. Many players, unconcerned by the lack of a subscription fee, have bemoaned the absence of an 'endgame'. Then when ArenaNet introduced mathematically superior Ascended equipment – a step that suggested a backslide into treadmill MMO design – the community suspected a bait and switch and responded accordingly.

What we're seeing now is the revolutionary become a statesman. The average player trusts an MMO developer about as much as they trust a politician, and the onus is on ArenaNet to stay the course. If they can expand the game without betraying the principles that made it great, then its importance needn't be confined to a summer of hope.

Read More: Our Guild Wars 2 review.

Runners Up: Planetside 2 and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria.

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Comments
Our Verdict
Both land and space combat lack punch, but there's a fun if predictable 4X game waiting underneath.

need to know

What Is It? A space-themed, turn-based 4X strategy game with real-time elements
Play It On: Intel Core i5 @ 3.5 Ghz, 8GB RAM, GTX 660/Radeon HD 7850
Reviewed On: Windows 7, AMD 2.80 GHz processor, 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti
Price: $30 / £23
Release Date: Out now
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Developer: Zero Sum Games
Multiplayer: None
Website: Official site

I never thought about it this way, but I suppose if I were a space admiral responsible for the colonization of dozens of worlds, I'd prefer to do it as a sentient bear in samurai armor with a katana strapped to his back. I have StarDrive 2 to thank for that little revelation. My race's girth and resulting lack of subtlety mean we make god-awful spies while checking off StarDrive 2's four Xs, but by Ursa Major, none of the hippie plants and races of reckless wolfmen we've encountered come close to matching our prowess in ground combat.

StarDrive 2 has the spirit of a memorable 4X strategy game, and it competently mixes old standards such as space exploration and turn-based colony management with real-time space battles and XCOM-style ground battles. Its customization is especially generous—if I decide, say, that I don't like how my space bears have "ponderous spacefighters," I can easily make their ships more powerful than those of other races. That extends even to the intuitive ship building component, where I have to weigh considerations such as armor versus engine power alongside decisions about where to place newly researched weapon technologies in the allotted grid. A total of nine races in all vie for domination of the galaxy here, but they're so open to pre-game tinkering that their differences could be merely cosmetic should I wish.

But that's just one aspect of StarDrive 2, and like so many other 4x games, it occasionally veers close to overcomplexity. Great pains have been taken to overcome the most obvious danger zones, though, as tooltips wait behind almost every onscreen feature and extensive automation removes the need to micromanage tasks such as trucking food back and forth between colonies. In emergencies, I can easily change some of my scientists into farmers or laborers by dragging and dropping them on the appropriate screen, and they don't even whine about their degrees not going to good use. On the occasions when I started the game with a good random map with nearby resource-rich habitable planets, such decisions allowed StarDrive 2 to chug along as an entertaining if by-the-books 4X strategy game.

Diplomacy, Schiplomacy

The complications arise when you inevitably run into one of the other eight civilizations floating about the galaxy. They're an aggressive lot, and up until a recent post-launch patch, they were prone to colonizing planets within my own space when I'd slacked in my exploration efforts. Even now, the best my space bears can hope for is a non-aggression pact with folks like the Cthulhu-inspired Ralyeh, but the absence of mutual armed support means that my they always have to fight their own battles without any aid. What's worse, my population's tolerance of them went down with every trade of technology, usually leading to a wild tangle of claws and tentacles. On the bright side, StarDrive 2's commitment to relative simplicity comes in handy even here, as the menus list the success chance of each offer before I have to consent to them.

But StarDrive 2 has little patience for peace, and even the most promising first contacts lead to war in time. The resulting space battles take place in real time instead of in turns as in the core civilization building game, and I generally enjoy ordering simple tactical commands with my mouse after I amass a fleet of powerful fighters. It's a shame that the battles tend to bog down as they near completion, though, as the larger ships are plodding things that adjust to new commands with all the alacrity of a gelatinous cube. I once spent almost two minutes trying to knock out a sole remaining enemy fighter, and it didn't help that the busiest battles sometimes caused my GTX 780 to stutter.

At least it's better than the XCOM-inspired ground combat, which looks like it was tacked on from a lesser, unrelated game. That's a pity, since this is where my space bears shine. I can't deny that I got a kick out of sending my ursine troops tearing through gun-toting enemies with only their blades, but the fights always took bland, gridded rooms that seem more related to Q*bert than to XCOM. It's the only element of StarDrive 2 that feels as though it's barely past the drafting phase.

It's a good thing, then, that StarDrive 2's other elements rarely suffer so thoroughly, although its drive for 4X accessibility occasionally leaves it in danger of slipping into mere adequacy. What we're left with is an ambitious, sprawling admiralty sim that reaches for the stars but rarely achieves more than a comfortable orbit. But with space bears? For me, that makes it more than worth it.

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StarDrive 2 looks serious, but it lightens the weighty themes with its cast.

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If only making scholars into workers were as easy as dragging and dropping in real life.

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You could spend hours building your ships, but presets simplify the process.

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Battles look impressive, but most of the strategy takes place in the ship building mode.

The Verdict

StarDrive 2

Both land and space combat lack punch, but there's a fun if predictable 4X game waiting underneath.

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Borderlands 2 video preview - Defending a deadly tea party

We recently got a chance to explore Borderlands 2's new hub city, Sanctuary, chat with some of the locals, and play through a few quests in the Tundra area of the Wasteland. Sanctuary is the center where you'll be making your weapons purchases, gathering quests from familiar NPCs like Dr. Zed, and accessing some new features like Claptrap's super secret stash. Check out our video preview below for more details on our demo. Borderlands 2 hits stores on September 18 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC For more information on Borderlands 2 check out our Borderlands 2 game page .

The coolest Ghostbusters toys ever – and what it'll cost you to buy them now

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World of Warcraft WOWkemon add-on turns pet battles into Pokémon punch-outs

Tossing spheres at vocabulary-strapped monsters sounds like madness, but Blizzard certainly must enjoy Pokémon's idea, with its pet battles minigame stepping through the Mists of Pandaria in World of Warcraft.

stepping through the Mists of Pandaria in World of Warcraft. If you don't already have a certain songstuck in your head, then the player-crafted WOWkemon add-ondispenses with all subtlety and turns your critter conflicts into full-blown Pokémon rumbles.

When entering a battle after installing, WOWkemon launches a short tutorial by Professor Birch describing the Pokémon-ified battle screens and ability menus. Sounds, screen effects, and even the font closely resemble the style of the handheld game family. Sadly, it lacks the occasional bout of terrible translationfor true authenticity.

Ready to be the very best (like no one ever was)? Head over to WOW Interfaceto download the add-on.

Why Ubisoft must make Rainbow Six Siege moddable

We're only a day in, but Rainbow Six Siege may stand up as the most pleasant surprise of E3.

We're only a day in, but Rainbow Six Siege may stand up as the most pleasant surprise of E3. We'd heard that Ubisoft was moving away from the direction we initially saw in the now-cancelled Rainbow Six: Patriots, but we weren't sure what to expect from its second crack at rebooting the franchise. What Ubisoft showed at its E3 press conference was absolutely encouraging, but here's the catch: if players can't build their own content in what is presumably a systems-driven, multiplayer-focused shooter (we do know that it'll have a campaign), can we really expect Siege to have a long lifespan?

Ubisoft's gameplay video suggests that aspects of Siege are randomized, like the hostage location, number of enemies, and what weapons or tools they bring to the encounter. We can see enemies (AI or players, we're not entirely sure) barricading doors and windows. Remote-controlled gadgetry is used to find the hostage, which would be pointless if NPCs were holed up in the same location each time you loaded that level. There's a cooperative planning mode that precedes each mission, hinting at replay value. And there's seemingly fully-modeled penetration on basic firearms, with walls that rip apart under small arms fire. If I hadn't been sitting at an Ubisoft conference, I would've sworn I was watching the second coming of SWAT 4.

I'll get a better sense of how these systems hold up when I see Rainbow Six Siege later this week, but even if this randomization is well-designed and facilitates a ton of variance, there's only so far it can go. Ultimately, you'll still be storming the same location and probably a very similar scenario. Left 4 Dead 2 players can speak to the wonderful spontaneity that takes place when you load up a custom campaign for the first time—it's a pure experience that FPS players cherish, one of not knowing what's around the next corner and having to manage threats as you learn an environment. That's an experience that Ubisoft can duplicate in Siege, but not by cranking out individual DLC mission packs, if that ends up being its post-launch plan for the game.

Only by opening the Rainbow Six up to modders can Ubisoft expect Siege to live beyond the six or eight months of attention that most conventional FPSes earn these days. Ubisoft should look to Left 4 Dead 2's longevity as an example. The half-decade lifespan of what was essentially a quick sequel from Valve is entirely owed to the thousand-some campaigns and countless other content that players published to Steam Workshopand other community sites. When Crash Course, Dead Stream, or a re-released No Mercy got boring, there was a ridiculous Crash Bandicoot campaign waiting. Or an insane re-creation of Silent Hill 2 in Source. Even Valve's official post-release content, like The Sacrifice, paled in scope, detail, novelty, and difficulty to the excellent levels that the community put out for free.

Siege seems like the PC's first chance in years for a proper, systems-driven Rainbow Six game. Ubisoft doesn't have a great history of making its franchises moddable, but Siege is the instance where they'd benefit most from opening up creation of future content to the public. The last thing we (and hopefully Ubisoft) would want is for Siege to end up like the dozens of other FPSes that hold our attention for three or four months before being put down forever. If they aren't willing to make it moddable, at the very least a level editor that'd allow players to construct their own scenarios by placing enemies, objects, and hazards would be an incremental step toward prolonging the life of the new Rainbow Six.

Borderlands 2 hands-on one hour with the Siren, the Gunzerker and an army of acid-drooling dogs

What is it? Borderlands 2 is the highly anticipated, and seemingly much improved, sequel to 2009’s “role-playing shooter” hybrid. Just as in the original, you wander a Western wasteland-themed sci-fi planet, grinding through waves of nasty mutant animals and robots with an insanely large arsenal of guns at your disposal. And we use the word “grinding” very purposefully here, as RPG elements continue

Beat Da Beat Is A Bullet Hell, Rhythm Game Hybrid

There’s a flow to life; a rhythm to it.

There’s a flow to life; a rhythm to it. Developer Nekki Indie’s newest game, Beat Da Beat, is a rhythmic action shooter. Movement, shooting, and actions that happen on the screen are based on musical composition. The game’s soundtrack is composed of a variety of Dubstep artists like TheBiocide, J-Broadway, Levitate, and more.

Players embark on a story filled with action, adventure, heartbreak, and revenge while steering their spaceship through eight chaotic levels. . Players can choose from 10 different starships, each with their own unique fire modes and special abilities that players can use against the game’s 4 bosses. The game offers 4 levels of difficulty: Casual, Normal, Hard and for those looking for a serious challenge, Badass.

Beat Da Beat is out now on the App Storeand Google Playfor free. To learn more about the game and developer Nekki Indie, visit the game’s official websiteand Facebook page.

What's Hearthstone like on iPad?

The iPad version of Blizzard's all-conquering card-'em-up has just arrived on Apple's US and UK App Stores, having already been soft launched in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The iPad version of Blizzard's all-conquering card-'em-up has just arrived on Apple's US and UK App Stores, having already been soft launched in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. You can get it by clicking here. But is the mobile version any good? And why, as PC gamers, should you care?

In short: yes, and for two reasons. Firstly, the fact you can port across all your progress—custom decks, card collection—using your existing PC Battle.net account, is definitely good news. Maybe you want to continue tearing up Ranked Mode while on holiday. (Or sat on the toilet at work.) If so, then the mobile version is, well, more mobile.

Perhaps more interestingly, PC gamers and iPad owners will be able to play each other. In fact, you won't even know which type of player you're playing. So, what's likely to be a sudden and substantial influx of new players may have interesting implications for Hearthstone's 'meta' game.

Will currently unpopular heroes and deck builds suddenly become trendy? Will these new finger-swiping players get mown down by seasoned mouse wielders? Probably not if Blizzard's matchmaking algorithms have anything to say about it, but we're certainly expecting the community to grow fast.

One point of order worth noting about the iPad version is that, like the PC game, it requires a constant internet connection. So you can't browse your cards, create decks, or practice against the AI offline. Presumably because Blizzard wants to be tracking your stats (and selling you new packs) at all times, but that feels like a misstep for the iPad version. You can see managing editor Cory Banks and I discussing the differences, and the implications for PC players, in the video above.

Essentially, this is very much the Hearthstone you know and, in my case, have developed a worrying addiction to. It soon becomes apparent that the game was built from the ground-up with touchscreen interfaces in mind. The UI is full of fat buttons, and dragging cards around the board is easy enough. Only once has my greasy fingered slipped and played the wrong move.

We've got more Hearthstone guide coverage on the way, but in the meantime I previously wrote about how Blizzard needed to do moreto keep players interested in the game. And, as if by magic, they are, with the forthcoming release of a single player mode, which was just announcedat PAX East.

Takedown: Red Sabre weighed down by launch-day bugs

The much anticipated Takedown: Red Sabre finally released last Friday, but has unfortunately been beset by launch bugs.

finally released last Friday, but has unfortunately been beset by launch bugs. Problems with server connections and the enemy AI have marred the launch of the Kickstartedhardcore tactical shooter created by the designer of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2.

I really hate having to relay this news; I got to play Takedown at QuakeCon, and it was my favorite thing at the show. However, this list of known launch bugsis as long as it is disappointing. We've got weapons disappearing out of players' hands, “disconnected from host” messages during single-player games, and crippling server connection problems that cause the game to crash. From all indications, the game could have used some more time in testing and the best bet now is to wait for patches.

We'll be sure to keep you up to date as the developers work to straighten out these bugs. You can also keep an eye on the game's website.

Borderlands 2 to have six to ten times more dialog than the original

The original Borderlands didn't really have the deepest story. Though it had some cool characters and dialog, it really wasn't weaved into the narrative all that well, leaving the plot a little dry. With Borderlands 2, Gearbox is looking to expand the narrative dramatically. We recently had a chance to chat with Borderlands 2's lead artist Jeramy Cooke, and lead writer Anthony Burch, to find out what

Locomalito’s Latest Free Retro-Styled Game, The Curse of Issyos, Is Out Now

Locomalito likes making games that look like they’re 24 years old.

Locomalito likes making games that look like they’re 24 years old. And that’s not a bad thing. Going through his collection of released games you’ll see titles like Gaurodan a Godzilla-inspired horizontal shooter where players control a giant Pterodactyl that is destroying a city, and, a medieval action platformer inspired by Ghosts ‘n Goblins .

Wanting to share his passions with other gamers around the world, Locomalito releases his games for free as soon as he is done developing them. His latest game, The Curse of Issyos , is an action platformer that draws from his interest in Greek mythology.

The Curse of Issyos’s protagonist, a fisherman named Defkalion, gets a heavenly warning from Athena that his home island of Issyos has fallen under a dark curse. Fearful for his daughter’s life and not wanting to lose the only family member he has left, Defkalion returns home as fast as possible. Upon arriving back home, Defkalion finds the lands tainted by evil, skeleton soldiers form together out of the bones of the deceased and sand monsters rise up to attack him with little warning. This is where the player’s adventure begins.

Currently The Curse of Issyos is only available for Windows, but Locomalito stated that there may be additional versions coming in the future.

Pick up The Curse of Issyos for free on Locomalito’s websiteand follow him on Twitter.

Edge iPad edition is a very pretty fusion of web and mag

Our hyper-chums at Edge have created something very clever.

have created something very clever. They've launched a new iPad version of their mag. It's a bit like the PC Gamer iPad version, but extra special. The Edge iPad edition has been designed from the ground up to be read on a tablet and comes complete with galleries, videos and other interactive elements.

Here's what's included. Beware, console news lies within.

If you're interested, you can get it for half price (£1.99/$2.99/€2.49) until July 18th, get it here. We've included some pictures below to give you an idea about how the new system works.

Do any of you read our magazines on the iPad? Would you be interested in a similar version of PC Gamer? Let us know in the comments.

Space Marine trailer has Titans and an Ork train

[bcvideo id="1103275114001"]
This cutscene-ridden dev diary for Space Marine can be divided into "whaaa-?" moments and "waaagh!" moments.

This cutscene-ridden dev diary for Space Marine can be divided into "whaaa-?" moments and "waaagh!" moments. For example: "whaa? - is that Space Marine free falling through a fleet of exploding capital ships?" and "Waaagh! ORK TRAIN!" Also featured: Titans, deamons and enormous shoulder pads. Space Marine is out on September 6 in the US, and September 9 in Europe.

Gearbox casting for real-life Lilith actress

Calling all Borderlands cosplayers! Well, all red-headed and impossibly proportioned female cosplayers, to be specific. Gearbox Software has issued a casting call for a Lilith look-alike to join the studio for some live-action filming for its upcoming Borderlands sequel, with the possibility of getting some extra promotional work if you can fit the part and – more importantly – fit into skin-tight

The Human Gallery – Find Inspiration in the Mind of a Psychopath

Horror lovers, I have an announcement that comes all the way from Jesse Makkonen in Finland.

Horror lovers, I have an announcement that comes all the way from Jesse Makkonen in Finland. Makkonen is the sole developer of The Human Gallery , a 2D psychological horror game for PC, which crawled its way into IGM’s inbox recently,

The Human Gallery , which from the trailer alone looks to be quite a surreal, unnerving experience, has gamers play as a painter in search of inspiration for their next piece of art. However, inspiration doesn’t come easy, and so the choice is made to venture into the psyche of a psychopath. Once there, it isn’t long before the protagonist realizes that getting out again won’t be anywhere as easy. It seems that the only way out is to head even deeper into the depravities of the psychopath’s mind, in the hope that the painter will find their way back to reality.

According to Makkonen, “ The Human Gallery is not a game about fancy mechanics, it is a game about the atmosphere,” with simple side-scrolling gameplay that allows the gamer to truly focus on the disturbing atmosphere. The gamer can interact with objects and their surroundings, and also collect sound recordings that will give further insight into the ‘history’ of the game – presumably the history of the psychopath in question.

While there isn’t much yet known about The Human Gallery , or when it will be released beyond its 2016 placeholder, it is one that I will personally be keeping a watchful eye on. Makkonen currently states that the progress of the game’s development is at 7%, and if you’d like to see what that percentage has revealed so far, you can head over to the website, or check the game’s Facebook, Twitteror blog page. How far would you go for inspiration?

Company of Heroes 2 demo now available

Demos, eh?

Demos, eh? A lovely feature, if you're prepared to wait a couple of months in the hope a developer will maybe cut out a chuck of game and post it online. Of course, barring multiplayer betas and the occasional generous indie, you're not going to get to trial a game's singleplayer mode before its release. What do you think this is, the '90s? Wait, is it the '90s? I ask because Company of Heroes 2has just released its E3 demo to the public.

The campaign snippet lets you try part of the mid-game mission "The Land Bridge to Leningrad". In it, you have to cross a frozen lake under heavy German fire. That sounds like a really bad idea. But then hey, I'm not a World War 2 general.

Before you take to the streets in celebration of Relic's resurrection of the demo; keep in mind that it's still tied to the currently running open beta. You'll need to grab that from Steamto try this singleplayer missionette, and it will disappear, along with the beta, this Tuesday, the 18th of June.

Company of Heroes 2 will be released the week after, on June 25th.

Gearbox immortalizes fallen Borderlands fan with Claptrap message and sequel role

You probably don't know the late Borderlands fan Michael John Mamaril, but thanks to Gearbox Software, his is a name destined to become part of Pandora lore. This October, Michael lost his life to cancer at the absurdly young age of 22, motivating his friend Carlo to approach the Gearbox team for help in honoring his memory with a personalized eulogy from the game's sassy robotic mascot, Claptrap.

Interstellar Marines Update 15: Stealth Suppressed

The popular FPS, Interstellar Marines , that attempts to bring the best elements of Half-Life , Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six , and System Shock together, just got a little stealthier after the release of an update to its artificial intelligence, featuring a stealth scripting that offers new devices to deceive the opposition.

together, just got a little stealthier after the release of an update to its artificial intelligence, featuring a stealth scripting that offers new devices to deceive the opposition. The team over at Zero Point Software has implemented an often overlooked AI element that has been rarely utilized in the development pipelines of the last few generations of games: AI reaction to lights. This is not by any means a new element, with an example that can be traced as far back as Rareware’s Perfect Dark in 2000, where you could shoot out a light and the AI would react and have trouble finding you.

With the addition of this feature in Interstellar Marines , the Early Access title has upped the tactical stealth approach to missions in-game. It is available on Steam Early Access for $18.99and has built up quite a following since its release in July of last year. For those that are not familiar with it, the tactical shooter brings together gameplay elements often seen in games like Socom , Splinter Cell , or Rainbow Six, and ties them together in a universe that feels more like Half Life or Binary Domain . These references don’t do it justice however, as this unique FPS with tactical, stealth, RPG elemental co-op is storming its way through development and making waves for PC, Mac, and Linux.

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Comments
At A Glance
Tablet
Extremely powerful; great gaming accessories; beautiful screen; fantastic speakers; exclusive Android games.

Phablet
Essential peripherals sold separately; Android games suck; Gamestream doesn't work with all controller-enabled games.

Updated: Now with video review!

Despite its problems, we actually liked Nvidia’s original Shield Android gaming handheld. Our biggest issue with it was that it was bulky and heavy. With rumors swirling around about a Shield 2, we were hoping to see a slimmer, lighter design. So consider us initially disappointed when we learned that the next iteration of Shield would just be yet another Android tablet. Yawn, right? The fact of the matter is that the Shield Tablet may be playing in an oversaturated market, but it’s still great at what it sets out to be.

We've updated our review to include the video review above.

At eight inches, the Shield Tablet features a gorgeous 1900x1200 display, which shares the same resolution as Google’s flagship Nexus 7tablet. At 13.1 ounces, the Shield Tablet is about three ounces heavier than the Nexus 7 but still a lot lighter than the original’s 1 lb. 4.7 ounces.

Part of the weight increase with the Shield Tablet over the Nexus 7 is due to the extra inch that you’re getting from the screen, but also because the Shield Tablet is passively cooled and has an extra thermal shield built inside to dissipate heat. It’s a little heavier than we like, but isn’t likely to cause any wrist problems. On the back of the Shield is an anti-slip surface and a 5MP camera, and on the front of the tablet is a front-facing 5MP camera and two front-facing speakers. While the speakers are not going to blow away dedicated Bluetooth speakers, they sound excellent for a tablet. In addition to the speakers, the Shield Tablet has a 3.5mm headphone jack up at the top. Other ports include Micro USB, Mini HDMI out, and a MicroSD card slot capable of taking up to 128GB cards. Buttons on the Shield include a volume rocker and a power button, which we found to be a little small and shallow for our liking.

The guts of the Nvidia Shield Tablet.

All of this is running on the latest version of Android KitKat (4.4). Nvidia says that it will update the tablet to Android L within a few weeks of Google’s official release. If Nvidia’s original Shield is any indication of how well the company keeps up with OS updates, you should be able to expect to get the latest version of Android after a couple of weeks, if not a months, after release. Regardless, the Shield Tablet is running a pretty stock version of Android to begin with, the main difference being that Nvidia has pre-loaded the tablet with its Shield Hub, which is a 10-foot UI used to purchase, download, and launch games.

Arguably, the real star of the tablet is Nvidia’s new Tegra K1 mobile superchip. The 2.2GHz quad-core A15 SOC features Nvidia’s Kepler GPU architecture and 192 CUDA cores along with 2GB of low-power DDR3. K1 supports many of the graphical features commonplace in GeForce graphics cards, including tesselation, HDR lighting, Global illumination, subsurface scattering, and more.

In our performance benchmarks, the K1 killed it. Up until now, the original Shield’s actively cooled Tegra 4 is arguably one of the most, if not the most, powerful Android SOC on the market, but the K1 slaughters it across the board. In Antutu and GeekBench benchmark, we saw modest gains of 12 percent to 23 percent in Shield vs. Shield Tablet action. But in Passmark and GFX Bench’s Trex test, we saw nearly a 50 percent spread, and in 3DMark’s mobile Icestorm Unlimited test, we saw an astounding 90 percent advantage for the Shield Tablet. This is incredible when you consider that the tablet has no fans and a two-watt TDP. Compared to the second-gen Nexus 7, the Shield Tablet benchmarks anywhere from 77 percent to 250 percent faster. This SOC is smoking fast.

In terms of battery life, Nvidia claims you’ll get 10 hours watching/surfing the web and about five hours from gaming with its 19.75 Wh battery. This is up 3.75 Wh up from Google’s Nexus 7 equivalent, and from our experiential tests, we found those figures to be fairly accurate if not a best-case scenario. It will pretty much last you all day, but you'll still want to let it sip juice every night.

The new wireless controller uses Wi-Fi Direct instead of Bluetooth for lower latency.

Of course, if you’re going to game with it, you’re going to need Nvidia’s new wireless Shield Controller. Sold separately for $60, the 11.2-ounce Shield Controller maintains the same button layout as the original Shield controller, but feels a lot lighter and is more comfortable to hold. While most Android game controllers operate over Bluetooth, Nvidia opted to go with Wi-Fi Direct, stating that it offers 2x faster response time and more bandwidth. The extra bandwidth allows you to plug a 3.5mm headphone into the controller and also allows you to link up to four controllers to the device, which is an appreciated feature when you hook up the tablet to your HDTV via the Shield Tablet’s Console Mode. Other unique features of the controller include capacitive-touch buttons for Android’s home, back, and play buttons. There’s also a big green Nvidia button that launches Shield Hub. The controller also has a small, triangle-shaped clickable touch pad which allows you to navigate your tablet from afar. One quibble with it is that we wish the trackpad was more square, to at least mimic the dimensions of the tablet; the triangle shape was a little awkward to interface with. Another problem that we initially had with the controller was that the + volume button stopped working after a while. We contacted Nvidia about this and the company sent us a new unit, which remedied the issue. One noticeable feature missing from the controller is rumble support. Nvidia said this was omitted on the original Shield to keep the weight down; its omission is a little more glaring this time around, however, since there's no screen attached to the device.

The controller isn’t the only accessory that you’ll need to purchase separately if you want to tap into the full Shield Tablet experience. To effectively game with the tablet, you’ll need the Shield Tablet cover, which also acts as a stand. Like most tablets, a magnet in the cover shuts off the Shield Tablet when closed, but otherwise setting up the cover and getting it to act as a stand is initially pretty confusing. The cover currently only comes in black, and while we’re generally not big on marketing aesthetics, it would be nice to have an Nvidia green option to give the whole look a little more pop. We actually think the cover should just be thrown in gratis, especially considering that the cheapest 16GB model costs $300. On the upside though, you do get Nvidia’s new passive DirectStylus 2 that stows away nicely in the body of the Shield Tablet. Nvidia has pre-installed note-writing software and its own Nvidia Dabbler painting program. The nice thing about Dabbler is that it leverages the K1’s GPU acceleration so that you can virtually paint and blend colors in real time. There’s also a realistic mode where the “paint” slowly drips down the virtual canvas like it would in real life.

The Shield Controller is a lot lighter and less blocky than the original Shield Portable.

But that’s probably not why you’re interested in the Shield Tablet. This device is first and foremost a gaming tablet and even comes with a free Android copy of Trine 2. Trine 2 was originally a PC game and it’s made a great transition to the Shield Tablet. While the game was never known to be a polygon pusher, it looks just as good as it ever did on its x86 debut.

With gaming as the primary driver for Shield Tablet, you may wonder why Nvidia didn’t bundle its new controller. The company likely learned from Microsoft’s mistake with Kinect and the Xbox One: Gamers don’t like to spend money and getting the price as low as possible was likely on Nvidia’s mind. Of course, not everyone may even want a controller, with the general lack of support for them in games. Nvidia says there are now around 400 Android titles that support its controller, but that’s only a small percentage of Android games and the straight truth is that the overwhelming majority of these games are garbage.

Nvidia is making a push for Android gaming, however. The company worked with Valve to port over Half Life 2 and Portal to the Shield and they look surprisingly fantastic and are easily the two prettiest games on Android at the moment. Whether Android will ever become a legitimate platform for hardcore gaming is anyone’s guess, but at least the Shield Tablet will net you a great front seat if the time ever arises.

Luckily, you won’t have to rely solely on the Google Play store to get your gaming fix. Emulators run just as well here as they did on the original Shield and this iteration of Shield is also compatible with Gamestream, which is Nvidia’s streaming technology that allows you to stream games from your PC to your Shield. Gamestream, in theory, lets you play your controller-enabled PC games on a Shield.

At this point, Nvidia says Gamestream supports more than 100 games such as Batman: Arkham Origins and Titanfall from EA’s Origin and Valve’s Steam service. The problem, though, is that there are hundreds more games on Steam and Origin that support controllers—but not the Shield Tablet’s controller. For example, Final Fantasy VII, a game that we couldn’t get to work with the original Shield, still isn't supported even though it works with an Xbox controller on the PC. When Gamestream does work, however, it’s relatively lag-free and kind of wonderful. The one caveat here is that you’ll have to get a 5GHz dual-band router to effectively get it working.

Nvidia Shield Video demo.

Would we buy the Shield Tablet if we owned the original Shield (now renamed the Shield Portable)? Probably not. If we were looking for a new tablet and top-notch gaming performance was on the checklist, the Shield Tablet is easily the top contender today. We’d take it over the second-gen Nexus 7 in a heartbeat. While we understand why Nvidia decided to separate the cover and controller to keep the prices down and avoid the Kinect factor, we think a bundled package with a small price break as an alternative would have been nice. All things considered though, consider us surprised. The Shield Tablet is pretty dang cool.

$300

Update: The original article incorrectly labled the Shield Portable benchmarks with the Nexus 7 figures. The issue has been resolved and both benchmark charts are listed below.

Nvidia Shield Tablet Specs

Nvidia Shield Portable vs Shield Tablet Benchmarks

Nexus 7 (2013) vs Shield Tablet Benchmarks

We recommend By Zergnet

Jump to Section:Best Price

Comments
At A Glance
Tablet
Extremely powerful; great gaming accessories; beautiful screen; fantastic speakers; exclusive Android games.

Phablet
Essential peripherals sold separately; Android games suck; Gamestream doesn't work with all controller-enabled games.

Updated: Now with video review!

Despite its problems, we actually liked Nvidia’s original Shield Android gaming handheld. Our biggest issue with it was that it was bulky and heavy. With rumors swirling around about a Shield 2, we were hoping to see a slimmer, lighter design. So consider us initially disappointed when we learned that the next iteration of Shield would just be yet another Android tablet. Yawn, right? The fact of the matter is that the Shield Tablet may be playing in an oversaturated market, but it’s still great at what it sets out to be.

We've updated our review to include the video review above.

At eight inches, the Shield Tablet features a gorgeous 1900x1200 display, which shares the same resolution as Google’s flagship Nexus 7tablet. At 13.1 ounces, the Shield Tablet is about three ounces heavier than the Nexus 7 but still a lot lighter than the original’s 1 lb. 4.7 ounces.

Part of the weight increase with the Shield Tablet over the Nexus 7 is due to the extra inch that you’re getting from the screen, but also because the Shield Tablet is passively cooled and has an extra thermal shield built inside to dissipate heat. It’s a little heavier than we like, but isn’t likely to cause any wrist problems. On the back of the Shield is an anti-slip surface and a 5MP camera, and on the front of the tablet is a front-facing 5MP camera and two front-facing speakers. While the speakers are not going to blow away dedicated Bluetooth speakers, they sound excellent for a tablet. In addition to the speakers, the Shield Tablet has a 3.5mm headphone jack up at the top. Other ports include Micro USB, Mini HDMI out, and a MicroSD card slot capable of taking up to 128GB cards. Buttons on the Shield include a volume rocker and a power button, which we found to be a little small and shallow for our liking.

The guts of the Nvidia Shield Tablet.

All of this is running on the latest version of Android KitKat (4.4). Nvidia says that it will update the tablet to Android L within a few weeks of Google’s official release. If Nvidia’s original Shield is any indication of how well the company keeps up with OS updates, you should be able to expect to get the latest version of Android after a couple of weeks, if not a months, after release. Regardless, the Shield Tablet is running a pretty stock version of Android to begin with, the main difference being that Nvidia has pre-loaded the tablet with its Shield Hub, which is a 10-foot UI used to purchase, download, and launch games.

Arguably, the real star of the tablet is Nvidia’s new Tegra K1 mobile superchip. The 2.2GHz quad-core A15 SOC features Nvidia’s Kepler GPU architecture and 192 CUDA cores along with 2GB of low-power DDR3. K1 supports many of the graphical features commonplace in GeForce graphics cards, including tesselation, HDR lighting, Global illumination, subsurface scattering, and more.

In our performance benchmarks, the K1 killed it. Up until now, the original Shield’s actively cooled Tegra 4 is arguably one of the most, if not the most, powerful Android SOC on the market, but the K1 slaughters it across the board. In Antutu and GeekBench benchmark, we saw modest gains of 12 percent to 23 percent in Shield vs. Shield Tablet action. But in Passmark and GFX Bench’s Trex test, we saw nearly a 50 percent spread, and in 3DMark’s mobile Icestorm Unlimited test, we saw an astounding 90 percent advantage for the Shield Tablet. This is incredible when you consider that the tablet has no fans and a two-watt TDP. Compared to the second-gen Nexus 7, the Shield Tablet benchmarks anywhere from 77 percent to 250 percent faster. This SOC is smoking fast.

In terms of battery life, Nvidia claims you’ll get 10 hours watching/surfing the web and about five hours from gaming with its 19.75 Wh battery. This is up 3.75 Wh up from Google’s Nexus 7 equivalent, and from our experiential tests, we found those figures to be fairly accurate if not a best-case scenario. It will pretty much last you all day, but you'll still want to let it sip juice every night.

The new wireless controller uses Wi-Fi Direct instead of Bluetooth for lower latency.

Of course, if you’re going to game with it, you’re going to need Nvidia’s new wireless Shield Controller. Sold separately for $60, the 11.2-ounce Shield Controller maintains the same button layout as the original Shield controller, but feels a lot lighter and is more comfortable to hold. While most Android game controllers operate over Bluetooth, Nvidia opted to go with Wi-Fi Direct, stating that it offers 2x faster response time and more bandwidth. The extra bandwidth allows you to plug a 3.5mm headphone into the controller and also allows you to link up to four controllers to the device, which is an appreciated feature when you hook up the tablet to your HDTV via the Shield Tablet’s Console Mode. Other unique features of the controller include capacitive-touch buttons for Android’s home, back, and play buttons. There’s also a big green Nvidia button that launches Shield Hub. The controller also has a small, triangle-shaped clickable touch pad which allows you to navigate your tablet from afar. One quibble with it is that we wish the trackpad was more square, to at least mimic the dimensions of the tablet; the triangle shape was a little awkward to interface with. Another problem that we initially had with the controller was that the + volume button stopped working after a while. We contacted Nvidia about this and the company sent us a new unit, which remedied the issue. One noticeable feature missing from the controller is rumble support. Nvidia said this was omitted on the original Shield to keep the weight down; its omission is a little more glaring this time around, however, since there's no screen attached to the device.

The controller isn’t the only accessory that you’ll need to purchase separately if you want to tap into the full Shield Tablet experience. To effectively game with the tablet, you’ll need the Shield Tablet cover, which also acts as a stand. Like most tablets, a magnet in the cover shuts off the Shield Tablet when closed, but otherwise setting up the cover and getting it to act as a stand is initially pretty confusing. The cover currently only comes in black, and while we’re generally not big on marketing aesthetics, it would be nice to have an Nvidia green option to give the whole look a little more pop. We actually think the cover should just be thrown in gratis, especially considering that the cheapest 16GB model costs $300. On the upside though, you do get Nvidia’s new passive DirectStylus 2 that stows away nicely in the body of the Shield Tablet. Nvidia has pre-installed note-writing software and its own Nvidia Dabbler painting program. The nice thing about Dabbler is that it leverages the K1’s GPU acceleration so that you can virtually paint and blend colors in real time. There’s also a realistic mode where the “paint” slowly drips down the virtual canvas like it would in real life.

The Shield Controller is a lot lighter and less blocky than the original Shield Portable.

But that’s probably not why you’re interested in the Shield Tablet. This device is first and foremost a gaming tablet and even comes with a free Android copy of Trine 2. Trine 2 was originally a PC game and it’s made a great transition to the Shield Tablet. While the game was never known to be a polygon pusher, it looks just as good as it ever did on its x86 debut.

With gaming as the primary driver for Shield Tablet, you may wonder why Nvidia didn’t bundle its new controller. The company likely learned from Microsoft’s mistake with Kinect and the Xbox One: Gamers don’t like to spend money and getting the price as low as possible was likely on Nvidia’s mind. Of course, not everyone may even want a controller, with the general lack of support for them in games. Nvidia says there are now around 400 Android titles that support its controller, but that’s only a small percentage of Android games and the straight truth is that the overwhelming majority of these games are garbage.

Nvidia is making a push for Android gaming, however. The company worked with Valve to port over Half Life 2 and Portal to the Shield and they look surprisingly fantastic and are easily the two prettiest games on Android at the moment. Whether Android will ever become a legitimate platform for hardcore gaming is anyone’s guess, but at least the Shield Tablet will net you a great front seat if the time ever arises.

Luckily, you won’t have to rely solely on the Google Play store to get your gaming fix. Emulators run just as well here as they did on the original Shield and this iteration of Shield is also compatible with Gamestream, which is Nvidia’s streaming technology that allows you to stream games from your PC to your Shield. Gamestream, in theory, lets you play your controller-enabled PC games on a Shield.

At this point, Nvidia says Gamestream supports more than 100 games such as Batman: Arkham Origins and Titanfall from EA’s Origin and Valve’s Steam service. The problem, though, is that there are hundreds more games on Steam and Origin that support controllers—but not the Shield Tablet’s controller. For example, Final Fantasy VII, a game that we couldn’t get to work with the original Shield, still isn't supported even though it works with an Xbox controller on the PC. When Gamestream does work, however, it’s relatively lag-free and kind of wonderful. The one caveat here is that you’ll have to get a 5GHz dual-band router to effectively get it working.

Nvidia Shield Video demo.

Would we buy the Shield Tablet if we owned the original Shield (now renamed the Shield Portable)? Probably not. If we were looking for a new tablet and top-notch gaming performance was on the checklist, the Shield Tablet is easily the top contender today. We’d take it over the second-gen Nexus 7 in a heartbeat. While we understand why Nvidia decided to separate the cover and controller to keep the prices down and avoid the Kinect factor, we think a bundled package with a small price break as an alternative would have been nice. All things considered though, consider us surprised. The Shield Tablet is pretty dang cool.

$300

Update: The original article incorrectly labled the Shield Portable benchmarks with the Nexus 7 figures. The issue has been resolved and both benchmark charts are listed below.

Nvidia Shield Tablet Specs

Nvidia Shield Portable vs Shield Tablet Benchmarks

Nexus 7 (2013) vs Shield Tablet Benchmarks

We recommend By Zergnet