The best pro gaming to watch this weekend

Happy Lies Day, everybody!

Happy Lies Day, everybody! Hope you’ve enjoyed a wonderful day of lies. It’s time to bring the festivities to an end, however, and settle in for a weekend of extremely serious and definitely happening digital sports. CS:GO is hosting the week’s highest-profile clash, but there’s plenty of LoL, Dota 2, Smite and fighting to go around. If any of the below tournaments turn out to be April Fools jokes, I will not be accountable for my actions. Haha! A cheeky Lies Day lie. It’ll be fine! Nobody need get hurt.

League of Legends: NA and EU LCS quarterfinals

There's an awful lot of League of Legends this weekend. The EU and North American scenes are both getting stuck into their quarter finals, with EU playing at 16:00 BST/08:00 PDT on both days with NA following at at 20:00 BST/12:00 PDT. You can find the stream at LoLesports. China's LPL and Korea's LCK are also playing this weekend: once again, check out LoLesports for stream details and a schedule.

Dota 2: Epicenter Qualifiers

There's top and mid-tier Dota 2 going on all weekend in the Epicenter Qualifiers running around the world. In particular, check out Invictus Gaming vs. Vici Gaming at 18:00 BST/10:00 PDT on Saturday. The easiest place to find a schedule and English-language stream is on Gosugamers' hub pagefor the tournament.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: MLG Columbus 2016

CS:GO has evolved a MOBA-style prize pool for this $1m Major tournament. It's been running for a while already, but this weekend is your opportunity to catch the dramatic final rounds (or just sit in chat and complain that you haven't had any loot drops.) Play starts at 08:00 EDT (13:00 BST/05:00 PDT) on Saturday and 10:00 EDT (15:00 BST/07:00 PDT) on Sunday, running throughout. Find the livestream on MLG.

Capcom Pro Tour: Hypespotting

As our FGC man Andi Hamilton reported earlier this week, the Capcom Pro Tour is coming to the UK this weekend at Hypespotting in Glasgow. There's competition across the fighting game scene, from Street Fighter V to Mortal Kombat X to Smash. The Hypespotting websiteis down, at the time of writing, but this tweethas more information about the schedule.

Smite: Spring Split

Smite's new season has begun and the round robin continues this weekend in both Europe and North America. Play begins at 15:00 EDT (20:00 BST/12:00 PDT) and runs for a couple of hours. The best place to find information on the teams and format is on Smite Esportsand you can find the livestream on Twitch.

is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

A single mistake started the largest space battle EVE Online has ever seen

I'm treading through unfamiliar waters here, having played exactly 10 minutes of EVE about four years ago.

Over the weekend, a massive battle erupted in everyone's favorite extremely complicated space simulator/MMO, EVE Online. Thousands of players joined what became the largest battle in EVE's history.

I'm treading through unfamiliar waters here, having played exactly 10 minutes of EVE about four years ago. However, the nice people at Explain Like I'm Fivehave a nice summaryall lined up for me: somebody accidentally warped all alone to a place he wasn't supposed to go. He called for backup, the backup called for backup and things escalated quicker than Europe after Archduke Ferdinand's assassination.

But does it really matter to us why this war happened? No, the thing that matters is how cool it looked. Over 4,000 players piled into a region of space named 6-VDT to slug it out, causing EVE's servers to automatically slow things to 10 percent real-time speed to normalize lag spikes. Enormous warp bubbles piled on top of each other as more fleets came barreling through to join the fight. Estimates say that short of 3,000 ships were destroyed along with millions of tiny virtual lives. The carnage was reported by the BBCand Huffington Post.

There's a war on in EVE, and this is just the latest scrap in the ongoing hostilities. It's the kind of thing that makes me want to jump and try the game again. Then I see a picture like this of what the battle looked like for players:

Maybe it's better if I just write about it.

Images from The Vergeand redditors Dr_Sandvichand emccrcknin r/eve.

Pokémon Go Was A Force At San Diego Comic-Con 2016

This week's San Diego Comic-Con is behind us, and while we received a ton of trailers , teasers , and even some cool announcements , the one inescapable element of San Diego Comic-Con 2016 was Pokémon Go.

, the one inescapable element of San Diego Comic-Con 2016 was Pokémon Go. No matter where I went or what I was doing, the Pocket Monster app was somewhere close by.

Aside from the obvious fact that the app has far transcended the typical Pokémon audience and the fact that I was going to one of the largest nerd culture gatherings in the world, the first indication that Pokémon Go was going to be the biggest thing at Comic-Con was the abundance of lures placed on the Wednesday night before SDCC opened its doors. The Gaslamp Quarter around the San Diego Convention Center is full of PokéStops, and the SDCC attendees took full advantage of that fact. That's when I knew that devoted trainers would not be shirking their duties in the name of SDCC.

All throughout the week, you couldn't walk any distance without hearing someone talking about Pokémon Go. People stopped in the middle of the show floor to catch monsters, attendees sought out WiFi and areas with strong reception to try and pick up a GPS signal to play, and one of the most common conversations on the floor revolved around how poor the cell service was and how disappointed they were that they couldn't catch Pokémon between their other SDCC activities. In my final moments on the show floor I heard a vendor sadly tell another that because the service was so bad on the show floor, he missed out on a Dratini and a Magneton. Again, these instances weren't me walking up to people and asking them about Pokémon Go; this was just what you heard as you walked from booth to booth.

The lure scene on any given night in downtown San Diego during SDCC

I also noticed an increased interest in all things Pokémon at the show. Collectibles related to the franchise seemed to sell out faster than other adjacent products, while some booths took advantage of the new interest and charged a premium on some Pokémon merchandise. On multiple occasions during parties, I heard people cry out that a coveted Pokémon was present. Of course, that led to the majority of party-goers to whip out their phones to catch the nearby Squirtle or Pikachu.

By now, we've all seen businesses cater towards Pokémon Go players, but it was even more intense in San Diego this past week. Restaurants had Pokémon Go-themed food specials, promises of lures being thrown down with every purchase, and even discounts for those who show the waitstaff their Pokédex. Of course this is nothing new, but the number of participating restaurants and bars participating in such specials skyrocketed during this time. We've been saying that this is a smart business move since the app first appeared, and with so many people who are predisposed to love Pokémon Go in San Diego for the convention, it only made sense that a ton of restaurants would take advantage of that to help them stick out from the crowd.

But I get it: SDCC is a huge convention focused on nerd culture. This is all to be expected. But what about the fact that nearly every interview or panel that I attended had some discussion about the app? In addition, it actually caught me off-guard when I took an Uber and the driver didn't make a remark like "Did you catch anything good?" The answer was almost always "yes," seeing as how lures were everywhere. I remember arriving at a bar looking distraught. When my friend asked me what was wrong, I angrily said, "The Kadabra got away because the stupid app froze."

When I spoke with Gears of War 4 lead voice actor Liam McIntyre, we spent five minutes discussing how to be more effective at collecting creatures and the ins and outs of gym battles. Before he jumped on the Gears of War 4 panel, Gears of War co-creator Rod Fergusson made a quick remark that McIntyre was playing Pokémon Go backstage, to which McIntyre joked, "I don't mean to alarm anyone, but there are several Doduos in this room."

During the South Park panel, a question was asked during the Q&A session about whether we'd be seeing a Chinpokomon Go episode of South Park . Series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone laughed and said that they actually felt they already did given that the premise of the Chinpokomon episode was that the Chinpokomon brainwash children to travel around and catch all of the creatures while Japan collected data on us.

I spoke with voice actors Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke (SpongeBob and Patrick on SpongeBob Squarepants ) and we spent their first five minutes with me talking about the app. Kenny joked that we could talk about Pokémon Go all night instead of the interview.

My favorite moment on this topic came when I encountered a small group of cosplayers who were dressed as PokéStops. Even before I ran into them, I had heard about them from three or four different people on the show floor. Anything that was Pokémon Go-related seemed to get amazing traction at the show as the app and franchise sit comfortably in the front of everyone's mind.

The craze surrounding Pokémon Go at SDCC 2016 was most evident during the final day when the panel was so in-demand that hundreds of people were unable to enter before the talk concluded. This was already after Comic-Con International bumped up the room size for the panel to its biggest area: the massive Hall H. Prior to the panel kicking off, rumors swirled about what would be announced at the talk. Speculation and rumors that the first Legendary creature was going to be revealed were so prevalent, many thought them to be fact. Some even asserted that not only would the first Legendary monster be revealed at the panel, but everyone in attendance would be given the opportunity to catch it. It was amazing how many times I heard these rumors.

Of course, those rumors never amounted to anything, but it was amazing to watch it all unfold. It was fun to be a part of the experience, just as it was fun to witness how this cultural phenomenon reached its fever pitch during the enormous celebration of nerd culture that is San Diego Comic-Con.

Hi-Rez's Stew Chisam on pro Smite in 2016

STEW CHISAM
At the Smite World Championship last week I sat down with Hi-Rez president Stew Chisam to discuss the future of competitive Smite, including its potential return to Europe—something that seems more likely now that the game has its first European champions .

Stew is the president of Hi-Rez studios and one of the company's founders. He is extremely tall.

PCG Chris: It seems one of the themes over the last year, in terms of the competitive side of what Hi-Rez does, has been centralising things around this part of the world. Holding the Super Regionals here, starting your new esports studio here to handle that stuff. Do you guys anticipate moving back out into the world at some point?

Stew Chisam: I think we will, yeah. Maybe not [SWC]. I think there's a lot of advantages to having this event here in Atlanta. It's so motivating and inspiring to our employees to be able to come to an event like this and bring their families. It takes so many people from our company to pull this event off, so logistically and cost-wise it really helps to have it here. But in terms of doing other events out in the world I think you'll see a bit more of that next year.

Although it's been really fantastic having our own studio. That's allowed us to do some neat things. The problem when we go somewhere else—and we did run a small event at GamesCom this year—you get really constrained on time. What has been nice about the studio is being able to have some fun, cool events simply because we had more time.

In the spring we ran a big charity event where players got pies thrown in their face and other things which helped raise a lot of money for charity. That's hard to do on the road.

The NA guys being able to see the EU guys was really fun for them.

PCG Chris: I guess I'm thinking as a European fan, but I also know that Smite is really big in Europe. I think it's the biggest region?

SC: Yeah. I think you'll see a lot more from us in Europe this year. We're starting up an office in Europe. Part of our problem in Europe is that we haven't had the right feet on the ground to help us execute the things we need to do to drive the scene there. So that will help a lot.

PCG Chris: This might be too early to call, but do you think the Super Regional might work differently in the future? Can you imagine a future where the regionals are actually separate again?

SC: I think so, yeah. Y'know, the Super Regionals were awesome this year but there were some pros and cons. Six days of esports is a long time, a lot of matches, it was really constrained. What drove us to the Super Regionals this year was, one, there was a scheduling conflict—we had to run two regionals in a tight period of time and we had some other things going on. Two, we had a fifth team that we had to bring to Worlds, so we had to have the Wildcard.

It was a cool experiment, it was a lot of fun. We haven't decided what we're going to do next year, but that's not necessarily a permanent structure. Although we polled the players, after the event, and most of the players were like 'I loved the Super Regionals, it was great, please do it again.' Because they love being around each other, and they can learn so much from that experience. The NA guys being able to see the EU guys was really fun for them.

PCG Chris: The trade-off there is against the fan experience.

SC: That's right, absolutely.

PCG Chris: Speaking of which, one of the things that has come out from this tournament is that regional skill and experience discrepancies are very much still a thing. People came in thinking that this was maybe the year that Avant do surprisingly well, or one of the Chinese teams really shows up—and, well, nope. NA and EU is where Smite is best played.

SC: At the moment it's hard to deny that. I think you did see some incremental improvements in the other regions, but the NA and EU teams keep getting better as well. I think you see that in the quality of some of the plays.

Being able to play against other exceptional players is one of the advantages that NA and EU have right now.

PCG Chris: Is that something that you perceive as a problem? Or is that simply the reality of esports for a lot of different games, so you mitigate it where you can but accept that there are going to be discrepancies?

SC: There's only so much you can do, realistically. We made a cool investment alongside Level Up who does our publishing in Latin America this year where we had the Smite Masters tournament in São Paulo. We brought teams from both Brazil and Spanish-speaking Latin America and brought the winner of our Spring Finals to that to help with some cross-region play.

We've been working with TenCent, and they’re just starting over the next few months to ramp up the Chinese scene to the next level. I think the best thing we can do is encourage more cross-region events. The hardest things for the teams in the other regions is that you have some exceptional players but, but being able to play against other exceptional players is one of the advantages that NA and EU have right now.

PCG Chris: I guess you need an even bigger Super Regional. Hm. What would you call a global Super Regional?

SC: Worlds!

There's a lot of calendar to fill out, though, obviously, between each year's Worlds. I think we can do some things in the middle of the year that'll be exciting.

PCG Chris: Is that a case where you go out and work with partners again? I know when you started in Europe you worked with ESL.

SC: Yeah, and we still work with ESL—we ran an Xbox tournament in the UK. We ran a GamesCom event that ESL helped sponsor. Our regional finals in Australia was through ESL. So we definitely work with partners, especially when we travel.

I consider that to be the best decision we've made all year in terms of esports.

PCG Chris: For other developers that have the problem of maintaining a strong scene around the world, some of the slack is picked up by tournaments happening autonomously—DreamHack, StarLadder or whatever. What can you do to encourage that, do you think?

SC: We worked some in the Xbox scene this year to help us learn some of that. MLG ran a nice event in Columbus, there were a few others. We have lots of conversations with lots of people. One of the great things about both Smite growing and esports growing is that there's so many more people coming into the scene now wanting to have conversations with us and other studios. It's getting easier to easier to arrange those types of things.

PCG Chris: You made the decision earlier in the year to limit the prize pool for this event in order to better distribute money throughout the year. Are you content with how that's working out?

SC: I consider that to be the best decision we've made all year in terms of esports. I think it was an essential decision in terms of the long-term sustainability of the scene. You talked earlier about how to encourage other players and teams to come in rather than having a few dominant teams. Having 90-something percent of your prize pools go to four teams doesn't leave enough incentive, so we needed to make sure there was enough money on the table to make it worth it for other people who can come in at that level.

PCG Chris: Thanks for your time!

is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

The Making of EVE Online

Ingólfr Arnarson left Norway in a flimsy boat made of wood and beaten metal in 874 AD.

Ingólfr Arnarson left Norway in a flimsy boat made of wood and beaten metal in 874 AD. He left to find somewhere colder, harsher, more unforgiving than his cold, harsh, unforgiving homeland. He found Iceland. A millennium and a century later, in the country Ingólfr forged, another set of pioneers got an idea in their heads. It was an idea of similar insanity and danger, one that demanded they brave high water to create a new existence. Like Ingólfr, they sailed off in the darkness of the Arctic winter for a new home. They found EVE.

The Reykjavik head office of CCP, creator of the galactic bastard sim, EVE Online, feels like an outpost on the edge of the world. Look at the right angle from the main boardroom's giant windows and you'd swear human beings had never laid foot in Iceland – if it wasn't for the few CCP staff members mid smoke-break gripping solid steel railings on the balcony outside and bracing against the wind.

Inside the boardroom, the only wall that isn't made of glass has an image of two men in a room half a world away. They're Reynir Harðarson and Hilmar Pétursson – CCP's co-founder and creative director, and CEO respectively – and they're trying to explain why they created EVE Online, sat in their company's Atlanta office. Hilmar begins.

“I was playing Elite when I was 11 on my BBC, and I wished the other ships were real people.” Reynir nods – his justification is the same: “I was playing Elite when I was 12, and that dream stuck. I had a dream of making this game – to be called Cosmos.”

Hilmar speaks quickly and plainly, demystifying his colleague's frequent dips into the philosophical and theoretical with solid reasoning. They interact like old friends, Hilmar as the reliable buisnessman, Reynir as the dreamer-with-a-work-ethic. Their sensible demeanours belie quite how insane the decision to make EVE was.

“Iceland the country was connected to the internet via a modem at the time. You had to wait for the country to dial in.” Hilmar laughs at his own joke, but stresses how near this absurdity was to the truth back when EVE first germinated as a concept. A volcanically unstable rock equidistantly far from both of gaming's biggest markets, Iceland is not a country anyone would peg as a development opportunity. Until 874 AD and Ingólfr, nobody even wanted to call it home. “We didn't know anyone who had even worked at a game company,” says Reynir.

“People asked us when I told them our plan for EVE, 'Why even try? You're going to compete with Sony and Microsoft and EA. Who do you think you are?' I don't know, but I just really wanted to do it.” He turns to face the video camera, and smiles. “And we did.”

Cold as ice

Bars in Iceland stay open until six in the morning, but the streets look deserted. If you can brave the wind and stand on Reykjavik's main street, you'll see an evolved dance of humanity: the Icelandic intra-pub sprint-huddle. It's a strange penguin shuffle that takes people through the bitter cold to their next source of booze. It's bloody-mindedness on a national scale. I first saw it 12 hours after my interview with Reynir, and connected it immediately to the discussion I had earlier in the day.

“Why did we need to do it? It was the impossible thing to do.” Another smile. Reynir knows the universe he helped found existed in the heads of players and developers across the globe. “It was kind of inevitable – it's a common cultural thing to dream about this type of space opera.” Break EVE down to the one-line pitch – multiplayer spaceships in space – and it's not a unique concept. What was unique was CCP's ability to actually pull it off.

When Reynir and his friends found their minds consumed by plans for EVE and not their day jobs, they quit. “I thought I could easily hire all the guys from my previous company. The problem was we had no money.” Reynir was drifting without financial propulsion. “'Where are we gonna get money?' We decided to make a board game.” They thought it would give them the capital required to jumpstart EVE's thrusters. Reynir explains how they got that first cash injection. “We mortgaged my friend's grandmother's house.” Their game was getting more dangerous, yanking in outsiders on an optimistic theory.

Astoundingly, it worked. “We published the board game in Christmas 1998, and it sold about 10,000 copies, enough to get us programming on EVE and hiring people.” Its name? Hættuspil. 'Danger Game.'

Hard graft

That was where the hard work began. Reynir recalls the early days. “The blood and sweat – and especially blood – that went into creating EVE was monumental. We almost killed ourselves in the process. We lived at the office for almost three years, we worked 15 hours every fucking day. We slept under desks.” He turns to stare at me, eyes haunted across the ocean. “It was absolute madness.”

Later, I speak to Torfi Frans Ólafsson, EVE's creative director and fellow survivor from the company's inception. I bring up this early development period and he slumps back in his chair. “We used to work 80-hour weeks. Sometimes we went without salaries for months and didn't make any money.” From the outside, EVE was ticking along in its first years. From the inside, employees were being stretched by a vociferous fanbase. “All we had was an internet forum full of extremely angry gamers who were pissed off at how bad our game was. All you got for it were players who were furious because of random defects. That was our life.”

Of course, the internet was a different land back in 2003, when wild lollercopters still patrolled the sky. I ask Torfi what would happen to EVE, launching today. “The market is less tolerant of lower quality products. You can't ship with as many defects as we did in 2003.” But they still had their pressures. The only way to hold them off was dogged persistence. “Sometimes you'll hit hard times and you'll just have to weather them.”

EVE was a project born of love – but also of manic, traumatic focus. There's video evidence of this, Reynir explains. “On the website there's videos of me and Hilmar trying to do a marketing sell on the game two weeks before launch, and you can see we were emotional wrecks. You should watch it, it's terrible.” (If you want to see them, the videos are here of Hilmarand Reynir).

Gears Of War 4's Liam McIntyre On Going From Spartacus To Fenix

Gears of War 4 marks the return to the main storyline of the franchise.

Gears of War 4 marks the return to the main storyline of the franchise. The story brings us our first in-game glimpses of life after the war with the Locusts. We experience this post-Locust War world through the eyes of JD Fenix, son of war hero Marcus Fenix.  Much like new developer The The Coalition with Gears of War 4, JD Fenix must live up to his namesake and step out of the shadow of those who came before him.

Luckily for voice actor Liam McIntyre, that situation is nothing new. He stepped into the role he's perhaps best known for as the title character in Spartacus after original actor Andy Whitfield became too ill to perform and eventually passed away. Whitfield was a fantastic fit for the role, but even under unfortunate circumstances, McIntyre took to the role and delivered exceptionally strong performances to wrap up the series after two more seasons.

I recently spoke with McIntyre about his thoughts on the similarities between his situation with Spartacus and JD's situation following in his father's footsteps. We also discuss his favorite weapons in Gears of War, as well as the differences in the exercise regimen between the two roles.

You're jumping into this role and taking on a character, JD Fenix, who is filling some pretty big shoes in his father, Marcus.

Liam McIntyre: Oh my God, man. I seem to have this thing where I get given these incredible, honor-filled positions of massive responsibility, I had to fill in for Andy [Whitfield] when he got sick and now I get to be the son of the great Marcus Fenix. That kind of seems to be my thing. And how amazing is it to be able to be the son of Marcus Fenix? Like, in a game that I used to play as a younger man all the time, it's just one of those dream come true kind of jobs. It's so amazing.

So you can probably relate to the character with living in the shadow of the one who came before you.

Totally! Absolutely. Especially with Spartacus . Everyone is always like ,"What was it like following Andy?" and it sucks. It's just so sad. JD, in a much more fantasized and dramatic way, has got that thing where he's got the absolute legend of the franchise – the war hero everybody knows and there's statues of and stuff like that. He's the kid, and it's a tough role to play. It's kind of a really smart decision by Rod [Fergusson, series co-creator and head of The Coalition] and the team because for all of the fans of Gears of War, Marcus is the guy. So you've got this kid who's following in his father's footsteps both in the game world and the real world essentially. You've got this guy who's proving himself to his dad, to the world, to the fans... it's exciting. It's the right place to bring a character in, and it's great!

Obviously Spartacus was an intense role. This doesn't look like it's letting the foot off the gas pedal very much.

No, it's great! Obviously it requires a few less stunts in the booth – a little less jumping and a little less wire-work – but in terms of the frenetic pace and the high-drama and the violent, action set-pieces, and stuff like that, it's in the same kind of spiritual universe. It's a very stylized, exciting, violent, brutal, tough, but still very well-plotted game. It's an exciting thing to play through and it's exciting for us to do because if you're in something that you love you kind of turn every page as the actor like, "Oh my God! This is going to happen! Oh my God! Wait until people see this!" It's nice to be in something where this is happening.

Above: Watch our video interview with Liam McIntyre and Gears of War 4's other actors.

How did this opportunity come about? You've been a big fan of the series and they just suddenly came up to you, and said they wanted you to do Gears 4?

Yeah, pretty much! Or rather "We want you to audition for Gears 4 and then see if we like you," which is fair. It's something I told my agents a while back: "I know you guys... TV and all that... yes, but I'm a huge gamer and if that's a thing that's around, please let me know." So, they did, fortunately, when this opportunity came around and I knew a couple of the guys, so I got to audition for them. Fortunately, they liked what I was putting down, and it just kind of worked out and it was just fortunate.

Is this the first game that you're voicing?

Yeah, technically. I was doing something that didn't go and then I did a couple of voices on Star Trek, which is like the Star Trek Online game, which is really fun. Yeah, in terms of this scale and a full character, yeah, this is the start.

Then how did having a veteran cast of voice actors help you make that jump?

Oh man, they're so good! Like John [DiMaggio, voice of Marcus Fenix] and Laura [Bailey, voice of Kait Diaz] are so good at what they do. I've had that experience in movies where you get to stand beside Sir Ben Kingsley or Antonio Banderas and go, "Wow! You are so good at your job!" To be able to stand next to John DiMaggio and hear him do his thing is like "Oh my God!" You watch this guy who has such control and such ability to communicate with his voice... and Laura as well. Really just so talented. We were a trio some of the time, Eugene [Byrd, voice of Del Walker], myself, and Laura. You know, Eugene and I are both actors on TV shows and that sort of stuff, and this was sort of one of our first forays into voice. We would just sort of sit back and watch her do her thing. She'd just turn up at the mic and bang, bang, perfect line-read and step back. We're like, "How does she do that?" It was a great honor. And Futurama is like one of my favorite shows of all time, so part of me is sitting there like, "Don't freak out. Don't freak out. It's just Bender. No big deal!" It's been an amazing journey.

When you came into the project, were you wondering where they were going to take the story next?

Yeah! Well having played through all of it; the trilogy has its own ending. I think Rod and the team were smart to sort of reboot it, but in a progressive way. Rod didn't go, "Let's restart at the beginning and pretend this never happened or go to a different planet or anything like that. Let's keep it in this same reality and see what happens next." And what they're doing with it, I think it's really great. I like to hope that this is the best story of the Gears franchise. It's got incredible emotional beats and a really interesting plot with so much going on. I truly love it so I hope people really get on-board with it.

What's your favorite weapon?

I would say the Lancer, except for the fact that a couple of the new weapons are pretty sweet. I mean, when you can chop people down with saw blades like a pinball machine, it's pretty badass. Everybody else probably goes with the Boomshot, but I don't know. I'm more of a range guy; I don't have the reaction time. So I'll jump around a corner and die, so my multiplayer skills are not there. I won't be eSporting too well [laughs]. Don't know that I'll be making a bunch of bucks from that. But you know, you can chainsaw people and it's Gears... you can chainsaw people in half! Nothing wrong with that! [Laughs]

I'd probably go Lancer or Hammerburst myself .

Yeah, Hammerburst! If it was CoD, I'd always do the three-shot like "dun-dun-dun" and it feels like I have more control and less recoil. I don't know, the Lancer's just more iconic.

How does the exercise regimen for Gears of War 4 compare to that for your role in Spartacus?

You know, it's not as brutal! The boot camp for Gears of War was not as hard. There were less sit-ups. [Laughs] I'll tell you what, doing games is a lot easier on the body. Unless I can convince them to do mocap for the next one... and then it may be much harder on the body! So we'll see. But yeah, exercise way, I would probably say that the Spartacus workout probably has the edge on the Gears of War 4 workout. Unless you're talking about the characters who are ridiculously massive! There is some serious benching going on there! The real, actual characters of Gears of War 4 would probably have a legit workout program that would be brutal. There'd be a lot of chicken in there, a lot of low-carb diets, and there would be a lot of heavy weights. [Laughs]

So who wins in a fight?

Out of Spartacus and JD? Well, JD has a gun. I don't know if you noticed, but it's going to be a lot easier to win when you have a gun and a chainsaw than a guy with a sword.

What if it's just fisticuffs?

Fisticuffs... probably Spartacus. That's going to be rough... JD just doesn't have the speed. He's heavy. He's strong and he's like a tank, whereas Spartacus will probably get around the back and shank him.

Gears of War 4 launches on October 11. Are you looking forward to it? Let us know in the comments below!

Smite Oceania Pro League has a $100,000 prize pool in 2016

The Oceania region is back for season three of the Smite Pro League, and this time there's a $100,000 prize pool for contestants.

Pro League, and this time there's a $100,000 prize pool for contestants. Teams in Australia and New Zealand will compete across three major splits, with the first of two qualifiers kicking off on February 27.

The first prize pool in split one is $10 grand, which is split between the six competing Pro League teams. The best of those two will be flown to the CGPL Autumn LAN in April, which takes place in Sydney.

Smite's Pro League debuted in the Oceania region last year, with team Avant Garde taking the crown and competing at the Smite World Championships. Full details on the first split can be read over here.

Chris Thursten was at the 2016 Smite World Championships, where European team Epsilon emerged as winner.

EVE Online video outlines Odyssey expansion, parodies like it's 2001

You have to watch this wonderfully goofy video for Eve Online's upcoming Odyssey expansion, which is set to deploy in just two days.

for Eve Online's upcoming Odyssey expansion, which is set to deploy in just two days. In addition to redoing the hanger interiors and a load of other stuff, Odyssey improves the game's atmospheric audio, changes the way resources are handled, and even adds a hacking minigame. But more importantly, it's inspired this development video, which parodies Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut2001: A Space Odyssey to the brilliantly discordant strains of the Portsmouth Sinfonia. So watch, learn, and try to steer clear of any giant space-embyros. Those guys are just the worst.

A-ha! This is where I would normally embed the relevant video, but CCP/HAL have disabled it for some reason. So here's that link again- and here'sthe story of how Eve Online got started in the first place.

Ta, Shack News.

The Awesome Suicide Squad VR Experience At SDCC Shows You All Angles Of A Scene

During San Diego Comic-Con, Samsung joined up with the team behind Suicide Squad for the Samsung Experience.

for the Samsung Experience. The exhibit at SDCC features several Suicide Squad -themed stations where you can do things like get a custom shirt made, create a personalized temporary tattoo, or even take a 360 degree photo in a jail cell from the film. The highlight of the exhibit, however, is the Task Force VR station, which gives you a completely unique look at the upcoming supervillain movie.

As I strap on the Samsung Gear VR, I'm greeted by a scowling Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. She lays out the stakes and the mission at-hand. She informs me that we either succeed and get time taken off our sentences or we die trying. From there, I'm teleported to the middle of a big room in an office building. The crooked heroes are greeted by a huge group of enemies, and they spread out to take them on.

I'm positioned in the middle of the room, so I'm able to turn a full 360 degrees to catch all of the action. I look to my left to see Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn bashing in a guy's head with her bat before wrapping her weapon of choice around the throat of another enemy to strangle him. I look to my right to see Will Smith's Deadshot doing what that character does best to take out his fair share of enemies. I continue looking around at this massive action scene happening all around me. The Squad convenes in the middle, directly below me. I look down to see the group fighting off enemies back-to-back in a circle. The scene ends and I marvel at how they could have possibly pulled that off.

Thankfully, I'm not left wondering. As quickly as my headset faded away from that scene, I'm greeted on-screen by director David Ayer. He talks briefly about how much work goes into a scene such as that, but the real thrill comes with what he tells me next: I'm going to see the scene again, but instead of sitting in the middle of the action, I'm going to be put in the shoes of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn to see what she sees.

The screen cuts back into the beginning of the scene once again, only this time, I'm in the first-person view. I look up to see the colorful tips of Harley Quinn's pigtails, then look down to see that I'm donning her signature outfit. The scene kicks off and I suddenly feel like I'm along for a ride in a first-person action game. I hear Robbie exhale sharply as she swings her bat at an enemy's skull. I see her hair flop in my face as she maneuvers around an enemy to get into position to smash another one. It's an incredibly visceral experience, and one I definitely won't forget as I go to see the film in a couple of weeks.

Suicide Squad hits theaters on August 5. To see the explosive new trailer that debuted at SDCC, head here.

Smite has its new world champion

European second seed Epsilon have lifted Thor’s hammer as 2016’s Smite world champions.

European second seed Epsilon have lifted Thor’s hammer as 2016’s Smite world champions. They defeated North American underdogs Enemy 3-0 in a run of tense, exciting games.

A confident first win suggested the Epsilon had figured out the North American metagame after their 3-2 victory over returning champions Cloud9 yesterday. Once again, captain iRaffer’s Ymir—a support character that isn’t valued in the US—proved to be a vital playmaker, while jungler Adapting turned in a brilliant performance as Thor.

Enemy fought back convincingly in game two, particularly jungler Adjust on Serqet—where Epsilon had a good hold on the map in the first game, here repeated pickoffs prevented them from mustering the same control. However not everything went Enemy’s way: Epsilon solo laner Dimi, who has been struggling with flu throughout the later stages of the tournament, went on an absolute tear as Tyr, soloing Saltmachine’s Bellona and acting as his team's unstoppable frontline in crucial later engagements. Along with a brilliant performance by Epsilon midlaner Yammyn as Isis, he was instrumental in turning a late teamfight that tipped a losing game in Epsilon’s favour.

Enemy once again came out ahead in game three, but Adapting once again had Thor—and, once again, Enemy couldn’t quite win the battle of the junglers. Enemy's Adjust fell behind on Hun Batz (the same character he fell behind with in game one) while Adapting played an even better game than he had previously. Epsilon captain iRaffer proved that Geb shields win Smite championships, and a great late kill on Adjust by Yammyn’s Medusa tipped another close game Epsilon’s way. As Enemy fought for their lives, Adapting landed the Thor dunk to end all Thor dunks—and, in this case, to end Worlds. With Enemy wiped off the map, Epsilon stormed through the Phoenix and right onto the Titan, ending the tournament and earning $500,000.

Afterwards, Yammyn was awarded tournament MVP for his consistently powerful performances, the second time the accolade has been granted to a midlaner—last year, it went to Cloud9’s MLCSt3alth. This is however the first time a European team has won worlds, something that many believed wasn’t possible when Epsilon fell behind against Cloud9 in the semi finals. This is also a notable result for British esports: iRaffer is now among the highest-earning British players ever, across all games.

This has been a really entertaining, positive-feeling tournament: the crowd cheered for both sides, and chants of ‘USA USA’ gave way, as the trophy was lifted, to ‘Epsilon! Epsilon!’ (‘EU’ is hard to chant, it turns out. Also, three members of Enemy are Canadian.)

Smite will now enter its post-championship break period, but expect bigger things from season three: including, hopefully, a return to European soil for the game’s LAN circuit. After all, the game has a lot of fans in the region—and now, a trophy.

is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

EVE's Odyssey expansion will bring much requested Starbase improvements

EVE's Starbases (or Player Owned Stations) are supposed to be useful orbital structures that give corporations the ability to create a rest-stop in strategically important locations.

Starbases (or Player Owned Stations) are supposed to be useful orbital structures that give corporations the ability to create a rest-stop in strategically important locations. Think motorway service station, but in space. Unfortunately, given that their acronym is POS, even CCP admit that the feature is "in need of several changes to bring them up to the usability standards of modern EVE". With that in mind, they're embarking on a series of improvements due to dock with the free Odyssey expansion in June.

"We're working hard to get as much of the backlog as possible done for the June 4th Odyssey release," writes 'CCP Fozzie' in a dev blog

Even so, he warns that not every planned feature will make the expansion's launch. "This is our educated estimate of what we think we can deliver based on this time period, but we cannot rule out roadblocks arising including but not limited to: unforeseen technical hurdles blocking a feature, the starbase code gaining self-awareness, seizing the building's climate control system and roasting us all alive, and/or emergency response tasks taking developer time from feature work." All seem like valid concerns.

CCP are giving the highest priority to the number one item on the CSM's list of requirements: private starbase hangers. Both an item storage and ship storage version of the structures are being developed, although CCP are currently unsure whether the ship storage will be ready in time for Odyssey. "We are aware that for wormhole residents especially the ship storage version of a personal hangar would be the most valuable addition, but we are starting with the simpler implementation task before tackling the more complicated personal version of the Ship Maintenance Array." Here's what they have planned:

"Similar fittings to a Corporate Hangar Array, but higher build cost. "Normal members viewing the structure only see their own items, in the same way as when someone views the contents of a planetary customs office. "Corp directors have the ability to see what members have items in the hangar, but do not have the ability to take or place items from/in the hangars. "No limit on the number of characters that can use the structure, but storage is limited per character. The exact per-character volume is undecided but we are currently considering a range from 10,000m3 to 40,000m3. "If a member leaves the corp, his or her items are left in the structure but cannot be accessed unless the player rejoins. "If the structure is destroyed, it drops some but not all of the loot contained within. "If the structure is unanchored, all contents are destroyed. A confirmation box warns the player if the structure is not empty, and ensures that the items are not destroyed by accident."

Other changes include repackaging of undamaged modules and drones for stacking, the ability to swap and fit a Strategic Cruiser's subsystems, access to all Starbase structures from one location inside the shield, UI improvements, and the removal of the sovereignty requirement from Capital Ship Maintenance Arrays. As a non-EVE player, my face would struggle to look any blanker right now. Fortunately, EVE fans can get a detailed overview of what these changes will involve from the update post.

You can read more about Odyssey's planned features here.

Dungeon Defenders Eternity bundles game, DLC and new content on Steam

Nearly three years after Dungeon Defenders came to the PC, the "definitive version" of the game is available as Dungeon Defenders Eternity, an all-in-one package offering "previously released material, new content, redesigned gameplay balance and cross-platform play." It is not, however, the sequel, which is still in the works.

A tower defense/RPG hybrid, Dungeon Defenders didn't knock it out of the park in our review, but it was a big success nonetheless, moving more than one million copies across all platforms by early 2012. That was enough to spur a sequel, announced in 2013, and while work continues on that, developer Trendy Games has made it a little easier to pass the time by bundling up the original with new features, new options and new levels.

"As we get closer to the arrival of Dungeon Defenders 2, we're thrilled to revisit the title that forged the franchise," Darrell Rodriguez, CEO of developer Trendy Entertainment, said in a statement. "Dungeon Defenders Eternity is in many ways a product of our players, built around feedback from fans. Having an open dialog with our fans is core to all our efforts at Trendy, and that same philosophy is being actively applied to our work on the sequel as well."

While it's essentially the same game as the original, it's been "rebuilt from the ground up," with rebalanced heroes, a redesigned loot system and more tools for players to use in defense of their dungeons. It also adds visible armor, a new dashing system, consumable boosters, increased security by way of dedicated servers and four new missions, with more planned as free add-ons in the future.

Dungeon Defenders Eternity is available now from Steamfor $15, a launch week promotion of $5 off the regular price. Gamers who already own Dungeon Defenders will get 45 percent off the regular price until September 22, and anyone who buys it will also get exclusive items, titles and pets in Dungeon Defenders 2 when it launches.

Titan disbands following funding collapse

As of January 13, competitive gaming group Titan is dead.

As of January 13, competitive gaming group Titan is dead. Founder and CEO Damien Grust announced the disbandmenton Titan's website, releasing all players and staff on its roster, which included Smite and CS:GO teams.

The group previously placed in the top 10 at The International 4, won in Quake at two DreamHacks and a QuakeCon, claimed a CS:GO Title at the DreamHack Invitational 2 and placed second in the 2015 Smite World Championships. However, as Grust details in his farewell post, the VAC bandealt to CS:GO team member Hovik ' KQLY' Tovmassian in November 2014 would mark the beginning of the end.

"All the bad press that this brought and the major hit the image of an otherwise respectable brand took was too much," Grust writes. "Sponsors and partners with whom we were about to sign understandably backed out of deals, not wanting to be associated with a company that had just been tarnished. Needless to say, our budget for 2015 had gone up in smoke from one day to another."

It was a financial hit from which Titan has been unable to recover—a catastrophically high price for one member's cheating.

EVE Online: Retribution expansion releases with tons of new features, new ships and rebalances

The 18th EVE Online expansion, Retribution, is now being transmitted to subscribers.

The 18th EVE Online expansion, Retribution, is now being transmitted to subscribers. Retribution rebalances EVE's ships, introduces new destroyers and an industrial frigate, and adds many new features, such as safeties to prevent accidental crime, greater potential consequences for committing crimes, and improved enemy AI. All of Retribution's new hardware and deep space tweaks are described in detail on EVE's official site.

They're all notable, but I'm most interested in the reworked bounty system. Prior to Retribution, bounties just didn't work. They were notoriously used to transfer currency between alts with self-placed rewards, and even legitimate bounties could just be claimed by a target's friend. As long as the reward covered the minor damages, it was a win for the target.

To squash these exploits and make bounty hunting a legitimate occupation, the new systembases payouts on how much monetary damage is done to the target, so hunters will never receive more than they cost their victim, and targets can be killed as many times as it takes for the payouts to deplete the bounty pool. The change should prevent exploitation and make bounties more meaningful: they're now about inflicting monetary losses, and money matters to EVE players way more than easily-replaceable clone bodies.

Retribution also makes UI changes, adds new sounds and situational music, and according to Executive Producer Jon Lander, will make EVE "feel revitalized" as it enters its second decade. For me, the last EVE expansion had the following effect: Oh, right, I have an EVE account. I guess I should log in, but do I really want to--well, that does look cool. Alright, I'll play for a bit. *Logs out of life for two months.*

In this case, Retribution has to fight PlanetSide 2 for my time. It's going to be a tough battle.

Humble Bundle for Android 5 is out - beat the average for Super Hexagon

Don't worry, the Humble Bundle for Android 5 may name-check Google's telephonic operating system but, in typically Humble fashion, the latest round-up of pay-what-you-want indie games is available for PC, Mac and Linux too.

may name-check Google's telephonic operating system but, in typically Humble fashion, the latest round-up of pay-what-you-want indie games is available for PC, Mac and Linux too. This version of cross-platform indie pick 'n mix includes four games as standard, with another two available to those who beat the average. Among them is the excellent Super Hexagon.

Joining Terry Cavanagh's geometric avoid 'em up are music based schmup Beat Hazard Ultra, 2D action adventure Dynamite Jack, physics toybox Solar 2, and atmospheric puzzle platformer NightSky. You'll also get Dungeon Defenders plus its DLC for paying more than the current average.

As always, your payment can be split a variety of ways between the individual developers, the charities EFF and Child's Play and the Humble Bundle organisers. Pay over $1, and you'll also receive Steam keys for all of the games.

Get ready for a dramatic Smite World Championship final

For the first two days of the Smite World Championship, everybody seemed to agree on the script.

For the first two days of the Smite World Championship, everybody seemed to agree on the script. European and North American teams put paid to the tournament hopes of less well-established regions, victories were clean and comebacks simply didn’t happen. I wrote yesterday that I hoped that the semi-finals would mix things up: it was time for an upset, something that has been a staple of competitive Smite in the past. In the end, we got two of them. The second SWC grand final is only hours away, and nobody would have expected this matchup going into the tournament.

What happened in the semifinals?

Everybody expected Paradigm vs. Enemy to mark the end of the latter’s tournament run—but then again, people always assume that Enemy is about to finally lose, and they have a habit of upsetting pundits. Support and captain PainDeViande’s decision to fire his entire team and build a new one earlier in the year has made him one of the scene’s villains, more or less, but results are results: he might have made a cold decision, but it clearly paid off.

Every game in the set was extremely close at first. Paradigm and Enemy had been scrim partners earlier in the week, and knew each other well enough to avoid obvious mistakes early. Paradigm countered PainDeViande’s dangerous Khepri with Thanatos in game one, with jungler QvoFred picking up a triple kill in an explosive early fight. Enemy outmanoeuvred them after that, however, building up a lead that Paradigm struggled to overcome. A brilliant comeback teamfight bought Paradigm a bit of breathing room, but they decided to gamble it all on an attempt at the Fire Giant that PainDeViande was able to repel by himself. This was a disaster, ceding all of that hard-won momentum to Enemy and ultimately costing them the game.

Paradigm let PainDeViande get Khepri again in game two, and without the Thanatos counter Khepri’s ultimate—which resurrects an ally on death if timed correctly—foiled them in teamfight after teamfight, particularly when coupled with strong skirmishers like Serqet. Soon, Paradigm found themselves in a position they clearly didn’t expect to be in: a single game from elimination.

Paradigm targeted Enemy’s support hard in game three, locking out Khepri, Athena and Geb. Paradigm support Trixtank, who had a rough second game, brought out the tournament’s first Ares—an unusual choice that Enemy didn’t expect. Ares’ teamfight impact is mitigated by the use of Purification Beads, which is why you don’t see him much at the top level, but this nonetheless forced Enemy’s hands in terms of playstyle. Paradigm took the lead, repeatedly targeting Enemy’s solo laner Saltmachine and converting this map control into a brilliant, sneaky Fire Giant kill. After a run of smart fights, they took the win and kept their hopes alive.

The supports really were the story here, however, and PainDeViande got his Geb in game four. This game was extremely close and extremely passive for a long time, with both terms clearly dealing with a lot of nerves. A massive teamfight victory at the 30 minute mark tipped the scales in Enemy’s favour, however, and Paradigm never quite recovered. The European first seed looked utterly defeated at the press conference afterwards, while their opponent—the NA dark horse that had just won a place in the SWC grand final—made it sound like everything had gone according to their design. Perhaps it had.

Cloud9 vs. Epsilon is likely to be remembered as one of the best series in the history of professional Smite. In any other context, this could have been a grand final match in and of itself—and a memorable one. C9 are the defending champions and they barely broke a sweat in their quarter finals match. Epsilon fell just short of becoming European first seed, and have an incredible record in season play. This one was impossible to call, one way or the other.

It started very well for Epsilon. Extremely well, actually. The start of this match took place during the Paradigm press conference, and I figured I was safe to pay attention to the players for the first few minutes. I looked, and the score line was 0-0. I looked back, and it was 4-0 in Epsilon’s favour: early lane pressure created the perfect conditions for a devastating early rotation that resulted in a triple kill to Yammyn’s mid Zeus, while emilitoo took a vital early kill for himself on Chiron. This advantage became an early Gold Fury, and that translated into an advantage that no other team at SWC had come back from.

You should watch this match, which is why I’ve embedded it above, but here’s the short version: miraculously, and to the delight of the hometown crowd, C9 came back. After a run of good teamfights they maintained brilliant cross-map pressure on Paradigm, breaking the Europeans apart inside their own base to end the game. This wasn’t just a game-winning upset, it looked like a series-ending one: I fully expected Epsilon to tilt themselves inside-out. 3-0 to C9 seemed possible, and an all-NA final looked likely.

Epsilon are made of chilled steel, however, and they were able to shrug off their defeat in game one as a mistake that they wouldn’t repeat. Indeed, they didn’t: they once again secured an early kill lead in game two (4-1 this time) and made an intelligent series of rotations that applied pressure where C9 wasn’t expecting it. No throw was forthcoming this time, and Epsilon evened out the series after a brutal teamfight inside C9’s base.

C9 made a major strategic change in game three, switching midlaner MLCSt3alth from his traditional mages (he earned tournament MVP last year for his performance on Scylla) to a hunter, Neith. Epsilon didn’t account for the amount of physical damage C9 were putting out in their itemisation, and despite a close start—in no small part because St3alth was adapting to a new playstyle—they turned in a series of devastating teamfight performances to secure the lead, and ultimately the game.

One game from elimination, Epsilon changed things up themselves. They locked Fenrir for jungler Adapting, the wolf’s first appearance in the tournament and the beginning of a devastating tear. It was clear to everybody—including C9—that they’d need to play carefully to avoid getting picked off, and this helped them rebuff Epsilon’s aggression early in the match. Fear gave Epsilon map control, however, and this helped them develop a gold lead off the basis of multiple successive Gold Fury kills.

It looked more and more likely that Epsilon would even out the set, and then one of the tournament’s best powerplays made it seem certain. Check it out in the embedded video above, from around 24:00 on the in-game clock. Having taken down Neith, Dimi’s Sobek tosses Jeffhindla’s Athena backwards into the maw of Adapting’s Fenrir, who ults, grabs her, and runs back towards iRaffer’s Khepri. As the Fenrir ult wears off, iRaffer immediately grabs her with Abduct, securing a vital kill on a slippery support. It was the moment Europe’s hope returned, the goddess of wisdom wiped off the map by nature’s deadliest combo: crocodile, wolf, beetle. Shortly after that: game four to Epsilon.

In the press conference afterwards, C9 would admit to feeling low (and very ill, in BaRRaCCuDDA’s case) going into the fifth game. Adapting’s Fenrir got through the pick/ban phase, and Yammyn felt confidence to break out a relatively unusual Medusa mid. An early double kill going his way buoyed them up, but it was impossible to forget that first game when C9 came back from an even bigger disadvantage. There were echoes of Enemy vs. Paradigm too, however—and once again, it was Geb who made the difference. In the hands of Epsilon captain iRaffer, the guardian god secured teamfight after teamfight. Around the ten minute mark, an extraordinary blind Stone Shield allowed Yammyn to escape what seemed like certain death.

Their lead secured, Epsilon let the wolf off the chain. There’s this story about what happens when Fenrir gets loose, as you might be aware—it concerns the end of the world. As C9 launched a heroic offensive to get themselves back in the game, a massive Sol ultimate by emilitoo momentarily eclipsed the real danger: Adapting’s big bad wolf on the back line, in their base, killing their dudes. The returning champion’s world ended, and Epsilon advanced. Once again, Smite will have a NA-EU grand final.

The grand final

Epsilon vs. Enemy will begin at 15:15 EST (12:15 PST/20:15 GMT). Given how both teams got here, this is a tough match to call—but definitely not a match to miss. Both teams have incredibly good individual technical skill, as well as broad god pools and willingness to experiment and upset their opponents in the draft phase. It’s worth saying that Epsilon is the team that Enemy would prefer to be facing in the final: they know C9 extremely well, and have lost to C9 many times. Then again, Epsilon is the team that ended C9’s tournament. The crowd here in Atlanta will want the trophy to remain in North America, but Epsilon have earned a lot of fans of their own over the last year. Having missed out on SWC inclusion last year, this is their chance to make things right. It’s going to be a big day for Smite. Tune in on Twitch.

is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

EVE Online producer: "I don't ever want EVE to be nice and fluffy"

EVE Online's Retribution expansion increased accessibility to the spacefaring MMO with its interface adjustments for guiding new players to their untimely death—er, their first few steps.

for guiding new players to their untimely death—er, their first few steps. But speaking to Eurogamer, CCP Executive Producer John Lander stressed the importance of retaining EVE's mystique in the wake of Retribution's release, saying, "I don't ever want Eve to be nice and fluffy."

“I want to try and reduce that barrier of entry to playing Eve," he said. "I think there's a place in the MMO world for a dark and dangerous, really good sci-fi world where you can be the goodie, the baddie, a criminal, or the Good Samaritan. But it's very important we allow as many people as possible to get access to that game.”

Retribution implements a number of major additions to EVE's starry sandbox such as a hard logout, a no-crime toggle, and a bounty system overhaul. Lander hinted at further expansion content in the works to supplement EVE's small mountain of add-ons.

“We will put in some really good big expansive things we've been looking at," he said. "We've done a lot of prototyping over the last year, but also we've got a backlog of things which could probably take us through another 20 years. There are some good things coming. We almost have too much choice, which is a great first-world problem. As soon as we've prioritized what it is we want to do, we'll start communicating that out.”

Dungeon Defenders 2 announced: free-to-play with a MOBA mode in closed beta now

Dungeon Defenders is a fun co-op action tower defense game.

Dungeon Defenders is a fun co-op action tower defense game. Dungeon Defenders II, announced todayby Trendy Entertainment, is that idea give or take everything that's happened in PC gaming over the past three years. It's free-to-play with cross-platform multiplayer (PC, Mac, iOS, Android, and Web), and it's launching in two parts: a new competitive MOBA mode that's in closed beta now and will be playable at PAX East this week in Boston, and an update to the cooperative defense mode of the original, which is scheduled for beta late this year or early next. So, not much has changed.

The competitive mode, which Trendy happily labels a MOBA, is taking beta signupsright now. It will initially feature just one 5v5 map, but on the hero side Trendy anticipates it will have amassed 24 to choose from by launch. Some of those will be paid heroes, but the rotating selection of free heroes is expected to match "similar free-to-play games." Meaning League of Legends, of course.

And, as is now standard practice when announcing F2P games, Trendy already has an answer for the question: "Is the game pay-to-win?"

"Of course not!" reads the official FAQ. "As of this moment in development, everything sold in the game is obtainable through play. Furthermore, all stat giving items are awarded only through play, not pay. Like many other games in the genre though, you will be able to purchase boosts that will let you level faster or find better cosmetics."

But why make a cooperative game into a MOBA in the first place? Answer us that, Trendy!

"During the development of Dungeon Defenders we constantly tried different multiplayer modes. Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, you name it. None of them really fit. When planning the sequel, we couldn't drop the idea that a MOBA in the Dungeon Defenders universe would rock. Maybe it was all the after hour games of League we played in the office. We don't know. But it fit well into the storyline and achieved a core goal of helping Dungeon Defenders players meet new players, so we went all in."

Oh, well that makes sense. But what makes it different from League of Legends and Dota 2? Don't have an answer for that , do you?

"Our take on the MOBA genre is more rpg-esque, with more hero customization, persistent hero leveling, loot and a town square where players can socialize, manage their heroes, shop, trade, and queue for matches. We've drastically simplified the item system, to reduce the learning curve for new players and are aiming for shorter total match times. We're also experimenting with some other unique twists that you might find out about later (if they work!)."

Alright fine , announce your game with plenty of details and jump straight into closed beta like some kind of indie game studio that communicates frankly and only when it has something to show. See if that works. And while you're at it, why not promise a gameplay reveal in the announcement post? Schedule it for this Friday, maybe? Yeah, I thought you would, and now I guess have to get real excited about it with no need for sarcasm, because it actually is pretty exciting.

I'm not a big MOBA fan, so I'm more excited to see more of Dungeon Defenders' original co-op, but I'm willing to give the competitive mode a chance while I wait. What say you?

Star Trek Online three-year anniversary beams up guest appearance by Denise Crosby

Star Trek Online is about to boldly go into its third year since engaging back in early 2010, and from January 31 through February 14, players can take part in a celebratory episode called "Temporal Ambassador" where they'll cross paths with the late Enterprise Chief Tactical Officer Tasha Yar, played in-game as she was in The Next Generation series by Denise Crosby.

Yes, Lieutenant Yar was cruelly offed at the end of the first season by the mean tar monster Armus in "Skin of Evil," but we're guessing her appearance has something to do with " Starfleet transponder codes dating back to the mid-24th century" emanating from a temporal anomaly created by the highly territorial Tholians.

Stick around, and you can also expect to be partying with no less than the omnipotent space troll Q, who'll be hosting a special in-game event that will bag you a special Federation Ambassador Class or Klingon Kamarag Class ship.

Crosby's appearance in Star Trek Online will follow other appearances by veterans of the series, including Leonard Nimoy (Spock from the original series), Chase Masterson (Leeta from Deep Space 9), and Zachary Quinto (Spock from J.J. Abrams' Star Trek film) who have lent their characters' voice and appearance within Perfect World's space-voyaging MMO. Still no sign of Wesley, but considering the ensign earned his own death parody video, we're probably better off not letting him on our bridge.

Star Trek Online saw a fair bump in player count since going free-to-playin January of last year. Earlier this week, Executive Producer Dan Stahl announced that more than 2 million captainsare continuing to ply the galaxy's warp-ways after the transition. But that's just a fraction of the 4 billion Tribbles stowing away on everyone's ships, as shown in the milestone infographic below.

EVE Online: Retribution adding hard logout system, no crime toggle

Whoops.

Whoops. I accidentally discharged my cargo of extremely sharp eating utensils through my missile tube right at a nearby police frigate. As I yet again contemplate my utter incompetence at playing EVE Online, I can't help but look forward to the noob-friendly services the incoming Retribution expansion provides. In a dev blog Massively), CCP Designer Greyscale detailed the safe logoff and criminal action toggle systems deploying alongside Retribtution's bounties and new shipson December 4.

"We are adding a couple of new features to ensure that, when you inevitably lose your ship in a very silly way, it is very definitely 100 percent your fault," Greyscale began.

Safe logoff immediately removes your ship from the game world upon the termination of a 30 second timer. This prevents marauding pirates or malevolent asteroids reaping a free kill from idling ships after the player exits the game. "If, while you're in the process of logging off, you see some dastardly pirate/noble upholder of justice flying over to end your ship's meager existence, you can abort the process and defend yourself," Greyscale explained. "This should ensure that you'll never (again) die because you logged out a minute too soon and got podded while the client was closed."

You can't simply instantly vanish at a single click, however. Safe logoff only works if you avoid the following activities:

You have active modules You're ejecting from a ship You have aggression from players or NPCs Your ship is exploding or self-destructing You're issuing movement commands You're launching or jettisoning objects You're joining a fleet You're deploying or reconnecting with drones You have a target lock or are targeted You're warping You're decloaking or under gate cloak

The three-tiered crime warning system is particularly interesting. Switched on, the system ensures "you cannot commit illegal behavior without deliberately switching off your safeties first," paving the way for far more blunder-less sessions and space cowboy chest-bumps of "Imma burnin' my safeties."

At maximum safety, the game simply disallows you from performing any action constituting a crime in secure areas. The partial setting flags you for suspect activities—blowing up ships in low-security space, for example—while turning everything off jets you right into stealing-from-babies territory. You rogue.

"The upshot of all this is that you can never just do something illegal by accident," Greyscale wrote. "You always have to deliberately go and disable your safety settings first. On the other hand, if you're out to cause trouble, you'll never be bothered by last-minute pop-ups again."

President Obama and Mitt Romney fight demons, each other in free Dungeon Defenders DLC

http://youtu.be/HgcMahEe490
What better way to break open today's toughest campaign issues than the imminent threat of becoming demon food?

What better way to break open today's toughest campaign issues than the imminent threat of becoming demon food? The just-released President's Day Surprise DLC for Dungeon Defenders unlocks four new skins, including President Obama and Mitt Romney, then sets you up to battle for points while avoiding a giant patriotic demon. Of course you'll also be fighting your fellow players, and at some point Michelle Obama will probably use a machine gun to rain lead pain down on George Washington. If only every presidential debate was this entertaining.

The free DLC unlocks more than just democratic mayhem. Two new pets (a Democrat Donkey and Republican Elephant) and two new weapons are also added. Would-be dungeon debaters can pick up their boxing gloves via Steam.

Pre-patching has begun for Star Trek Online's next expansion

The epic sci-fi MMO's introduction of the Romulans has been in the making for quite awhile, and it looks like the time's finally come.

The epic sci-fi MMO's introduction of the Romulans has been in the making for quite awhile, and it looks like the time's finally come. Due to launch next Tuesday, the next Star Trek Online expansion, Legacy of Romulus, is already available for current STO players to preload. Here are some screenshots of what the Legacy has in store for intrepid starship captains.

Meanwhile, posted over at the STO blogis an in-depth look at the planet of Nimbus. Once an intended symbol of peace, the planet's inhospitable atmosphere instead turned the place into a crime hotspot. What does that mean for you? Why, a personality-stuffed new questing zone, of course! It's accessible any time after level 19 (and high-level players will have their level automatically adjusted to the max of 26 upon their arrival). An episode series will take you on a sightseeing tour of Nimbus' most legendary must-visit destinations, including the poverty-stricken Paradise City and a destroyed ship-turned-crime-stronghold.

Meanwhile, daily missions rewarding Dilithium Ore can be completed, and—as one is surely wont to do when visiting a third-world planet—there's also the daily dance mission to participate in. The things one must do to survive, y'know?

Nimbus becomes available for all factions to play upon Legacy of Romulus' launch on May 21. Beam yourself up to the STO sitefor the full details on the expansion's offerings.

Eve Online Retribution site shows new Destroyers, details bounty system overhaul

Eve Online's next expansion is on the event horizon, bringing promised NPC AI upgrades, four new Destroyers, a new ORE frigate, rebalanced ship classes and new "tactical combat features," which equates to some UI streamlining.

Eve Online's next expansion is on the event horizon, bringing promised NPC AI upgrades, four new Destroyers, a new ORE frigate, rebalanced ship classes and new "tactical combat features," which equates to some UI streamlining. The bounty hunting system will get an interesting makeover as well. Major bounties will scroll across Eve's floating space-billboards and the reward system for successful hunts has been tweaked to make bounty hunting a valid career choice for budding Boba Fetts.

A detailed run-down of Retribution's features can be found on the new Retribution site, which even has an interactive preview utilityfor the new ships that lets you rotate them in space and tickle their bellies, because spaceships love it when you do that. For deeper detail regarding the December 4 update, check out the CCP dev blog.

Dungeon Defenders review

The real heroes of the realm have gone off on a crusade, and only their young pupils are left behind to defend the Eternia Crystals from monsters.

The real heroes of the realm have gone off on a crusade, and only their young pupils are left behind to defend the Eternia Crystals from monsters. That's the premise of Dungeon Defenders, a tower defence game where you place turrets to stop streams of AI-controlled enemies as they work their way around a maze to attack your base.

So instead of a Knight, there's a tiny Squire in an oversized helmet and no trousers, and Huntress, who expresses her character by turning around and wiggling her buttocks. The intro warns that “these heroes-in- training will have to grow up quickly” – this might be too quickly.

Playing alone, it's a strange game. Each hero type can place a different type of defensive structure, but you have to do loads of running around to intercept all the enemies. Placing structures costs mana, and that has to be scavenged from dead monsters. It takes a long time to scrounge up enough to set up a good defence, a long time to place those defences, and a long time to walk between all the places you want to put them.

Dungeon Defenders only really works in multiplayer: it's co-operative, so you can each focus on one particular stream of enemies, or one particular aspect of defence.

I like to play Squire, and set up a killzone on one particular path. I place a harpoon catapult off the beaten track so it can penetrate whole lines of enemies. Then, to keep them in the field of fire as long as possible, I lay spiky barricades to block and damage them just before they leave its arc. If there's room, I add a bouncer turret right in the middle of the chokepoint, which shunts them back or into the spikes.

These abilities are unlocked at regular intervals as you level up, and you can enhance either your fighting skills or your defensive structures. You also find randomly generated items, and can 'invest' in your favourites: pay gold to boost one of your weapon's magical properties. It's all smart and effective stuff to keep you engaged early on. After that, it relies more on you enjoying the matches themselves.

None of the individual interactions are especially fun, though – combat is stiffly animated and unconvincing, turret projectiles don't have much weight, but there's a definite pleasure in deciding where to concentrate your efforts and resources, while others do the same around you.

Strangely, Dungeon Defenders doesn't have any good systems for encouraging players to work together. Mana, the most crucial resource, is hogged by the first player to snatch it from the battlefield. You have a shared maximum for how many structures you can build, but no individual player limits: the jerk who squanders it by overbuilding his own stuff is ultimately rewarded with a higher score.

It's also tough to get into a good game. The browser tells you the character level of the host but not the other players, so you're usually in a game with at least one hero too high or too low level to have fun with.

The core idea is good, but right now it's too hard to get into a good game, or work effectively with other players once you do.

Star Trek Online Season 7: New Romulus trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V1E-PBMLuI
The next chapter of Star Trek Online's ongoing voyages is set to engage next Tuesday.

The next chapter of Star Trek Online's ongoing voyages is set to engage next Tuesday. Players will be able to explore New Romulus, the largest ground exploration zone in the game to date, as they aid the Romulans in building a new home. Check out the trailer above, and read on for more intel.

New Romulus is the centerpiece of the new content, representing STO's largest continuous planetary zone so far. Max level Federation and Klingon officers will gain access to new daily quests, a new reputation progression system that unlocks unique ground and space combat perks, and the ability to establish an embassy for your fleet that will level up and unlock now rewards as you complete cooperative objectives.

Season 7 will also launch with new fleet actions and special task forces (STO's end-game instanced content.) Notably, you will be able to face off against the Borg Queen in "Into the Hive." We can only hope that this ends with a "snap robotic spinal cord" objective.

Last but not least, players will be able to purchase the Vesta ClassFederation starship from the Destinynovels. I'm not knowledgeable enough on the Star Trek expanded universe to know why that's significant, but it looks slick and a lot of people seem pretty psyched.

Barring any sort of catastrophic and somewhat hilarious disasters (looking at you, Wesley), you should be able to boldly go into Season 7 beginning next Tuesday, November 13th.

LittleBigPlanet Reaches 1 Million User Levels Milestone

Dungeon Defenders update fixes bugs, is bad news for super fast clickers

The tower defence action-RPG, Dungeon Defenders exploded onto Steam recently, and has picked up quite a following already since launch.

The tower defence action-RPG, Dungeon Defenders exploded onto Steam recently, and has picked up quite a following already since launch. You pick one of four classes and then dive into a dungeon to start throwing down defences against the incoming hordes of enemies. Kills mean experience, which means more creative ways to hold back the hordes. A massive update has just landed, bringing with it a wealth of balance changes and bug fixes.

Bad news, superfast mouse clickers, the update has "fixed potential double-upgrade bug with superfast mouseclicks," you might want to try and find a way onto the Diablo 3 beta where your clicking prowess will serve you better. There have also been some chunky nerfs to the Spooktacular "Van Wolfstein" weapon, the Huntress' piercing shot, the bowling ball turret and the harpoon turret. Nyooo! Get the full patch notes below, as seen on Steam.

Bug fixes / Feature Additions:

Rebalanced/redesigned Spooktacular spawns and added Leaderboard & Stats collection – Thanks Tsuda! Made Spooktacular skins unlockable by beating Spooktacular on hard (per hero class), though second set of weapons remain Insane-only Fixed various Spooktacular mission bugs Fixed chatbox getting stuck during level transitions Make costume unlock requirements clear in the costume selection Allowed mission unlocking/downloads at the mission selection screen Reduced self-heal mana cost ramp (cheaper to heal at high HP's now) Added “Drop All Mana” key, default “M” key, and keybinding added to configuration tool Fixed problem with Familiar attack rate being effectively capped (there was indeed a bug with this), and renamed the Familiar Attack Rate stat to “Attack Speed Bonus”. Now high-Attack-Rate familars are way, way, way more effective. Made practice dummies average DPS over 5 seconds for a more accurate reading Fixed potential double-upgrade bug with superfast mouseclicks Moved bonus-item crates back into the main section of the Halloween Tavern, out from the Secret Room Added Pause menu option to “Hide Game”, which delists the game and prevents anyone else from joining it. Useful for turning public match into a private match, or making a private match totally unjoinable even by your friends. Fixed bug in algorithm to determine gear stat allocations, that was making high-end gear less likely to have Defense Damage and Defense AoE stats. Removed Non-Infinite Build Time Option for Easy, Medium, Hard Fixed bug where Squire would turn around when entering block in Chase Cam Pets will now attack one of the Practice Dummies in the Tavern so you can check your Pet DPS Added button (Default “G”) to remote-activate your Eternia Crystal so you can begin the Combat phase from wherever you are

Balancing Changes:

Made Genie pet's “Grant Mana Bonus” upgradeable, and made him grant more Mana proportionate to how much its “Grant Mana Bonus” is upgraded Nerfed Spooktacular “Van Wolfstein” weapon about 40%, and Huntress Ability 'Piercing Shot' about 30% Increased speed of Apprentice Staff “knockback” animation by 40%, and increased its maximum (fully charged) damage output by 50% Nerfed Bowling Ball & Harpoon Turrets a bit more: bowling ball & harpoon damages reduced by about 33%, attack rate reduced by about 25%, bowling ball projectiles now limited to 6 hits before breaking, harpoon projectiles now limited to 12 hits before breaking. Slice and Dice Tower no longer has such a vertical sweep to be effective against enemies above it Reduced Energy Drain rates on Electric and Ensnare Monk Auras Increased Insane/Post-Insane Kobold Damage by 20% and Kobold Explosion Damage radius by 20% 20% increase to Spike Blockade HP & its exponential HP ramp 30% better exponential damage ramp on Squire Circular Slice 40% reduction on Imp/Engy repair costs

ArenaNet hiring designer for Guild Wars 2 "raid content"

"Do you have passion and experience for creating repeatable epic game play experiences?" I don't, but I could go in for playing some repeatable epic game play experiences, should they crop up.

"Do you have passion and experience for creating repeatable epic game play experiences?" I don't, but I could go in for playing some repeatable epic game play experiences, should they crop up. It's likely some are planned for Guild Wars 2, if the job listingresponsible for the opening quote is anything to go by. It's for a "Raid Content" designer, suggesting that raids could be on the roadmap for ArenaNet's MMO.

"ArenaNet is looking for a Game Designer to work on some exciting content and features," the job listing continues, before going on to talk about boring employment specifics. Here's a thing, though: one of the "desirable" features mentions previous experience creating "large scale bosses and encounters, repeatable group content for a live game, large scale rewards systems, combat systems for multiple players."

Guild Wars 2 already has some large scale bosses, but even the toughest are more tests of organisation and endurance, rather than skill. Raids could be an exciting direction for the game to take—assuming they worked. Implementing difficult, large scale raids in an MMO that doesn't adhere to the typical "Trinity" combat system must be an interesting challenge. The question is whether they mean traditional 40-person raiding, or bosses like GW2's previous Twisted Marionette.

Further confirmation comes via a couple of forum posts by ArenaNet's Chris Whiteside, who makes multiple references to "Guild Raids". "I can’t wait to talk about raids with you," he writes. "It will be a phase soon!"

Thanks, PCGamesN.

Atomic Sees Layoffs As Controversial Fallujah Fails To Find Publisher

Dungeon Defenders gets TF2 cameos and the Portal gun... if you pre-order

Let's be honest, Dungeon Defenders does not look like an iPhone port.

Let's be honest, Dungeon Defenders does not look like an iPhone port. We mean that in the nicest possible way. But the multiplayer tower defence game was originally on iPhone. And the PC conversion will let you play with iPhone users when it gets released next week. Weird eh?

Pre-order Dungeon Defenders and, as is tradition these days, you'll get a bunch of Valve goodies in-game including The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device for the Huntress hero class and four Team Fortress 2 familiars. We're not familiar with how familiars work yet, but their roles sound very familiar...

The Heavy uses his Gatling gun to shoot at enemies from afar, The Engineer repairs groups of nearby towers while you're on the offensive, the Medic heals nearby allies and the Pyro sets dudes on fire with a flamethrower.

Dungeon Defenders lets you defend your dungeon as one of four classes, which range from ranged sharp-shooters to magic users and close-up, bashy sorts. Killing invaders lets you level up and gather materials with which to forge more powerful weapons. You can show those off in four-player PvP and survival co-op modes to earn bonus experience XP and GLORY. It's out on October 19, and will cost £9.99 / $14.99. It's now available to pre-order on Steamat a 10% discount.

Wildstar trailer reveals Sabotage update, brings new PvP Battleground

What's next for Wildstar?

What's next for Wildstar? After the bio-terror of the Strain update, Ultradrop 2: Sabotage is based more on the act of hitting fellow players with sharp weapons, or shooting fellow players with laser pistols... Or, as shown by the new DevSpeak video, exploding fellow players with sabotage-enabling bombs.

So listen up, 'cause you can't say nothing: Sabotage is the new Battleground—a 15-a-side PvP map. The objective here is to destroy the enemy's core, done by capturing uplinks to call in airstrikes, or by planting bombs. Those bombs are transported by players, and so can just as easily be used on grouped up opponents—anything detonated adds points to your team's total.

Don't worry if you're not into PvP, Carbine say the next content drop is designed for PvE players.

For more details, head to the Sabotage micro-site.