Thursday, May 16, 2013

News::David Jaffe attached to new car combat game Autoduel

Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe will serve as a creative adviser on Pixelbionic's debut title, a car combat game named Autoduel. The studio, co-founded by Maxx Kaufman (inXile, art director of Return to Castle Wolfenstein) and long-time producer Mike Arkin, will be going after that Kickstarter money, though the campaign has not been started yet.


Other notable people working on this online multiplayer PC game include the lead designer of Interstate '82, Scot Kramarich, and the creator of Interstate '76, Zack Norman, who will join Jaffe on the board. If you're going to make a vehicular combat game, these certainly seem like the people to get. Early details indicate that Autoduel will take place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where three competing factions of road warriors try to blow one another up.


David Jaffe attached to new car combat game Autoduel screenshot


Read more...



via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/david-jaffe-attached-to-new-car-combat-game-autoduel-253837.phtml

News::In the News | Seeking Absolution, EA Kills Its Obnoxious Online Pass Program

In the News | Seeking Absolution, EA Kills Its Obnoxious Online Pass Program

Electronic Arts says it will no longer include an Online Pass that makes used-game buyers pay extra for online game services.



via Game|Life http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/05/ea-kills-online-pass/

News::Sony Japan teases Panopticon with this trailer


A PlayStation Japan teaser website has culminated in the release of a trailer for a game called Panopticon which, to my eyes, looks like another take on the popular Monster Hunter formula. One in which fashionable young people (with robotic limbs?) battle in a destroyed city. I'm ... down!


Based on the website, we'll find out more about this project on May 21. I would very much like that. There's frankly not too much of real substance to go on with the teaser trailer other than the art direction and seeming numbered identification of Panopticon's inhabitants that could signify an interesting story direction.


Sony Japan teases Panopticon with this trailer screenshot






via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/sony-japan-teases-panopticon-with-this-trailer-253832.phtml

News::New Nintendo Direct for Wii U / 3DS games coming tomorrow

Nintendo has been promising a string of Nintendo Directs through the end of E3 week, and the first one will be arriving tomorrow, May 17, at 7:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM EST / 4:00 PM CEST. It will be available on the usual Nintendo Direct page.


President Satoru Iwata will once again be appearing on screen to discuss Nintendo's upcoming lineup, which will cover first-party Wii U and 3DS games arriving this summer. I expect we should be hearing more news about Pikmin 3, potential unannounced titles, and hopefully a release date for The Wonderful 101.


There will be an additional Nintendo Direct just before the start of E3 in June, covering titles for the fall and beyond.


New Nintendo Direct for Wii U / 3DS games coming tomorrow screenshot






via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/new-nintendo-direct-for-wii-u-3ds-games-coming-tomorrow-253831.phtml

News::God of War’s David Jaffe joins Autoduel team


God of War creator David Jaffe has joined indie action-game developer Pixelbionic to work on its first title Autoduel, shortly to announce its Kickstarter campaign.


I was super excited when I heard Pixelbionic’s vision for Autoduel,” said Pixelbionic creative advisor David Jaffe. “As a huge fan of the genre, I’m really looking forward to contributing to the game’s vision and design goals.”


Also on the team are pre-console veterans who’ve worked on many titles including The Bard’s Tale (Max Kauffman), Battlezone (Mike Arkin), Interstate ’76 (Scot Kramarich), Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Rafael Paiz), and more.


“Our mission is to assemble a team of car combat visionaries to deliver the game fans want to not only play but also help create,” said Pixelbionic co-founder and President Mike Arkin. “Autoduel pairs the vision of the best talent in the industry with the enthusiasm and support of gamers, a combination we are confident will set the bar for what can be achieved in a new PC vehicular combat game.”


Autoduel is an unlikely focus for such an all-star team, as it’s a PC-only multiplayer car combat game, in the vein of Jaffe’s own Twisted Metal, but most of the developers have worked on similar car combat games in the past.


The post God of War’s David Jaffe joins Autoduel team appeared first on Edge Online.






via Edge Online http://www.edge-online.com/news/god-of-wars-david-jaffe-joins-autoduel-team/

News::Machinima demanded payment for video views, claims Minecraft creator

Machinima demanded payment for video views, claims Minecraft creator, Markus Persson aka Notch.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256850/machinima-demanded-payment-for-video-views-claims-minecraft-creator

News::The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing Preview - Gaming Nexus

From the preview: "In the action RPG world, it appears as if there are two schoolsof fans. You have the traditional, Diablo-die hard and, in recent years, the Torchlight stalwart. The two games are very similar in many ways, but the fine details often separate the fans into these two schools of thought. When you first lay eyes on the Incredible Adventure of Van Helsing, you will undoubtedly be reminded of one (or both) of these two games. Over the past couple of weeks, I have had the pleasure of spending quite a few hours with a preview build of the game. I have managed to sink a couple of hours into the early portion of the adventure and think that fans of the genre are in for a treat when the game hits Steam later this month."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256824/the-incredible-adventures-of-van-helsing-preview-gaming-nexus

News::The Making of… The Walking Dead


Zombies are many things. They’re monsters, they’re us, and they haunt our waking nightmares in every medium around. They can be scary, they can be funny, but they’re rarely known for reducing adults to tears. Yet that is exactly how The Walking Dead’s creator, Robert Kirkman, uses them. However, if you don’t want to know exactly how he uses them for fear of spoiling his tale for yourself then now’s the time to look away.


“I have a thing I like to say about The Walking Dead,” Kirkman tells us. “It’s an emotional story and the ultimate goal is always to see if I can make readers cry. I love the idea of people reading what is traditionally an action-oriented, gory genre and finding something really heartfelt and character driven.”


When Kirkman first met with Telltale Games in late 2010, he told the team his theory of what makes his crossmedia zombie epic so successful. “He said, ‘I don’t know why no one else has copied this, but The Walking Dead is really just a bunch of people hugging and crying and shit…’” remembers co-project lead Jake Rodkin.


It’s a self-deprecating comment, but within it lies a kernel of truth. “It’s just his way of saying ‘Aw, shucks, there’s really not that much to it,’” believes Gary Whitta, story consultant on Telltale’s The Walking Dead. “For Robert, the zombie apocalypse is really just a framework for creating extreme parameters of human drama. It’s a cauldron where people get thrown in and pushed to the limits of their psychological extremes.”


But how do you make that into a game? Steven Spielberg once said games would be art when players cried on level 17, but the truth is that the majority of highprofile games don’t offer a broad palette of emotional experiences beyond thrills and shocks.


At best, Kirkman hoped that Telltale might elicit a few tears from players. What he didn’t expect was that this future winner of 80-plus game of the year awards would become a benchmark for storytelling in games. Nor did he guess it would reduce grown men to weeping, wailing, blubbering wrecks on YouTube.


But Telltale Games’ selling point isn’t just telling tales, even emotionally resonant ones, it’s putting players at the centre of them. “Telltale’s mission – that you’re actually going to play the story – is a very rare mission in this business,” says co-project lead Sean Vanaman.


“In an adventure game, you’re playing all the character and story elements that, in an action game, would traditionally be in a cutscene. I think the mission of Telltale Games as a company is [to ask], ‘How do you play these moments that are traditionally relegated to the in-between, very static, prerendered cutscenes of other games?’ Playing a story versus having a story told to you is where it breaks down [for] us.”



Over the past nine years, Telltale has tried to evolve the gameplay systems of the adventure games of the ’90s. Jurassic Park, released in 2011, was the most ambitious game in the company’s history and for it the studio upgraded its proprietary Telltale Tool engine so it could cope with quick-response movements and complicated rendering. But Jurassic Park’s reception was underwhelming and there were those who wondered aloud if the point-and-click adventure game was dead on its feet.


The Walking Dead changed all that. It opens with protagonist Lee Everett on his way to jail, convicted of a crime of passion, until the zombie apocalypse is unleashed. It’s a quick transition, and in the first 15 minutes you’ll have escaped from a crashed cop car, killed the soon-zombified officer who was driving you to the lockup, and dodged a pack of ghouls by taking shelter in a nearby house. It’s there you meet Clementine, the baseball-capped eight-year-old who becomes Lee’s charge for the rest of the five-episode opening season.


What’s noticeable right from the start is how carefully the game balances story, gameplay and dialogue trees. “It’s important to develop gameplay modes that are at the service of your theme,” explains Vanaman. “We paired a writer up with a designer on every episode so that both plot conception and gameplay conception are happening in a writer’s brain and a designer’s brain. Otherwise you can fall into telling a non-interactive story really easily.”


In the first episode, Lee’s panicked attempts to kill Clementine’s zombie babysitter with a kick to the head repeatedly end in failure until you realise that you can take a hammer from the young girl to bash the undead’s skull in. Pairing a tense gaming sequence with character development – Clem is consistently resourceful beyond her years – this moment encapsulates the game’s careful pairing of gameplay mechanics and storytelling.


This design principle ultimately forced Telltale to leave several of its dearest ideas to rot. For instance, a “shithouse-crazy shooting scene where everybody in your crew was unloading all of their guns at the same time into a wall of zombies”, in Vanaman’s words, didn’t make the cut. Because the shooting mechanic was torn between discrete success and failure, it couldn’t capture the sense of panic the designers were looking for. “You have to think about that sort of stuff as a storyteller in videogames. You have to think about the types of mechanics you have at your disposal and what types of moment they allow you to create.”


The Walking Dead isn’t a game about guns. It’s arguably not even about zombies. Instead, its core is emotion, morality and player choice. Everett’s journey is an escort mission that doesn’t simply ask you to keep Clementine physically safe, but poses questions about her psychological wellbeing while she’s in your care. An emotional escort mission, perhaps. Your decisions matter to her, and what you choose ultimately defines how good a man Lee turns out to be. But unlike most games, there is no binary split between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.


“It sounds like a marketing catchphrase, but the idea that there is no right or wrong choice was a guiding factor for us from the very beginning of the design of the game,” explains Rodkin. “The challenge was making players do something that they know has a cost and has risk, but then making them also feel OK with that decision and OK with experiencing the rest of the story and seeing the result of that.”


The key was to avoid making the player feel punished and thus stop them being tempted to rewind to a previous save to make the decision again. “All choices are equally wrong,” says Whitta with a mischievous chuckle.



Telltale also tracked the decisions players made, crunching the data to provide an overview of how your peers responded to the tough choices in each episode. Since the instalments were in live development during the first season’s nine-month release schedule, it meant the team could also react to players’ choices. What surprised the team wasn’t so much which decisions players made as why they made them.


“What’s fascinating is how players contextualise them,” says Vanaman. “My mom and my sister are in a feud over the last choice they made in the game. They both feel really ideological about it and believe that they did the best thing for Clementine in a really profound way. It’s not so much about, ‘Oh, did you drop Ben in the bell tower or not?’ It’s more like, ‘Why did you do that? And what emotionally compelled you, in those five seconds before you had to choose, to go the way that you did?’ That’s the thing that’s really interesting about the game.”


There’s no right choice, of course, but that doesn’t mean your decisions have a huge impact on the overarching path the story takes. There is, for example, no ending in which Clem dies. Rather, what you do defines how other characters see you and who lives in the supporting cast.


On a first playthrough, none of this is obvious. As in all good fiction, the player’s imagination does a lot of the heavy lifting. “Not necessarily everything that the player considered is going to happen in the game,” says Whitta, referencing the moment in episode four when you must decide whether to take Clementine to Crawford or not.


“People were worried that if they left her at the house, she wouldn’t be there when they came back. Now, the reality is that the way the game is designed that’s not something that can actually happen. All you need to do is create the illusion that it is something that could happen and it becomes something that will weigh on the player’s mind when they make the choice.”


Like stage magic, the suspension of disbelief is key. A second playthrough reveals the gears driving the story under the game’s hood and runs the risk of spoiling the show. It’s an inevitable downside of trying to convince players they have autonomy within a predetermined narrative.



“If people start being able to see the machinations, the goings on behind the curtain, then we’ll have to adapt,” says Vanaman. “Preserving the genuine feeling of ‘What the hell do I do?’ when you come to one of these moments [of choice] is paramount for the success of the game. I don’t know if the solution is necessarily making the narrative branch a million times, but preserving that suspension of disbelief and preserving the real genuine intensity of those dramatic moments is the focus.”


Player choice only has an impact if we are concerned about the wellbeing of the characters our decisions effect. What makes The Walking Dead so successful is its ability to make us care. In part, that’s thanks to Telltale’s art and animation teams, who brought these characters to life.


With their big eyes and asymmetrical features, the characters may lack realism but they have a definite humanity. “We asked Derek [Sakai, the art director] to make sure that no facial expressions were symmetrical from left to right,” recalls Rodkin. “There is never a point where both eyebrows on a character’s face raise by the same amount; when they get angry, the mouth always has a snarl on one side. We used that as a shorthand way to make it feel like there was more detail and more subtlety going on all the time.”


While Lee is the character you expect to identify with as the hero, it was Clementine who stole hearts. “Everybody at Telltale was just blown away by the degree to which players responded emotionally to Clementine,” says Whitta.


“It comes down to the idea that she is this one little gem of hope in a hopeless world. People really did relate to her almost like she was real. They weren’t roleplaying. Clementine was emotionally real for them. She became this virtual surrogate daughter that they wanted to protect. It wasn’t just enough just to shield her physically and prevent any harm coming to her, they also wanted to shield her emotionally.”


The casting process for her was arduous: Telltale auditioned a hundred actors – from young girls to adult women – to find her voice. But it was worth it. “She is the number one reason why players are making the choices they are making,” says Vanaman. “In a story that’s got hopelessness at its core, you need Clementine. It would be a very different story without her.”


After auditioning so many actors, though, he began to think they’d set themselves an impossible task. “You start to wonder if Dame Judi Dench was sitting there [and] trying to do this character because it was written for her, if she would be screwing it up because you screwed up, because it’s not good at its core,” Vanaman says. Then voice actor and Telltale regular Melissa Hutchison came in to read. “She just was the character. We were like, ‘Oh, there she is. She’s alive now.’”



At his keynote speech at DICE this year, Telltale co-founder and CEO Dan Connors beefed up his presentation with clips from YouTube Let’s Play videos. Players Morfar, PewDiePie and others weeped, raged and despaired as The Walking Dead’s first season reached its climax.


Serialised stories have a long history of creating such emotion. Back in 1841, US fans of Dickens crowded into a New York harbour to hear news of Little Nell in the latest instalment of The Old Curiosity Shop. Telltale, which had a near-revolt on its hands after delays hit the schedule, know how high passions can run.


Yet the episodic release schedule has been a huge part of The Walking Dead’s success as an event as well as a videogame. “You get these multiple bites of the apple and you sustain the conversation about your game over an entire year, not just over the release window of a $60 game,” Whitta says, comparing it to a TV show such as Mad Men. With its BAFTA Award for Best Story and more than 8.5 million downloads, it’s not hard to see his point.


But what about Kirkman? The man who asked Telltale to make gamers sad first saw the game in an early build and played 15 minutes from the middle of the first episode. “It was such a bleak, weird mess at the time,” says Vanaman. “I just remember him being like ‘Um, OK… Er, OK…’ To be perfectly honest, his response was just this sort of befuddlement, which is sort of the same thing you’d get if you picked up his comics in the book store and didn’t really settle down with them. It’s so hard to get in a short burst.”


Later, when it neared release, Telltale sat Kirkman down again with a finished build. This time, his response was less perplexed. “He just turned to us and said: ‘Holy shit guys, you did it,’” says Rodkin. “That was really the most fulfilling to hear.” Did the creator of The Walking Dead have tears in his eyes? Telltale isn’t telling.


The post The Making of… The Walking Dead appeared first on Edge Online.






via Edge Online http://www.edge-online.com/features/the-making-of-the-walking-dead/

News::Using science to reform toxic player behavior in League of Legends

Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasnt an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256770/using-science-to-reform-toxic-player-behavior-in-league-of-legends

News::Corsual's Panzar: Forged by Chaos Review

Corsual's EXP writes: "Where once the free to play game was an online, persistent world RPG with quests and dungeons and PvP arenas, it seems more and more these days that its evolving into something different; something more like the FPS. Short, sweet, round-based sessions filled with all the carnage and progression of an MMORPG. Thats the ticket, it seems, and Panzar: Forged by Chaos is offering exactly that - choose a class, create a character, join a match, beat a team of opposing players, gain experience and crafting materials, upgrade your character - rinse and repeat for eternity..."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256808/corsuals-panzar-forged-by-chaos-review

News::Nintendo Download: Mega Man 5 and Super Metroid

Today is not a particularly new Nintendo Download, as the bulk of it is retro-centric. The Wii U will actually be getting a few things this week, with Super Mario Bros. 2 on the Wii U Virtual Console, as well as Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. If you own Super Mario World, you'll get Mario 2 for a discounted price of $2.49. Also, Nintendo debuted Super Metroid for $0.30 last night. On May 21st, Resident Evil Revelations and LEGO Batman 2 will be getting full retail eShop releases. If you haven't checked out Runner 2 yet (it's excellent), it's on sale for $11.25 until May 30th.


On the 3DS side, Level-5's Guild02 debuts on the eShop with Starship Damrey, which I'm interested to check out. You'll also be getting Swords and Soliders 3D, Bowling Bananza, California Super Sports, and Dress to Play: Magic Bubbles. The 3DS Virtual Console will nab Mega Man 5 , as well as Harvest Moon. Strangely, the Wii Virtual Console is getting King of Fighters '99.


Nintendo Download: Mega Man 5 and Super Metroid screenshot


Read more...



via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-download-mega-man-5-and-super-metroid-253821.phtml

News::Here’s what’s going on Talk Among Yourselves, our reader-written blog: Ueziel runs down his progress

News::In Game Pop-up Scams Chinese Gamer

Pop-up ads are annoying; in-game ads are no better, but when in-game ads are pop-up ads, they can create a lot of mischief. Last week a Chinese gamer in Sichuan province was scammed by a pop-up ad within a popular online racing game.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256717/in-game-pop-up-scams-chinese-gamer

News::Metro: Last Light PC Performance Analysis

DSOGaming writes: "Weve been covering Metro: Last Lights launch this whole week, and its time now for our Performance Analysis. Metro: Last Light is the sequel to Metro 2033, and is powered by 4A Games proprietary engine, 4A Engine. According to the developers, the engine has been optimized and the game is said to be running better than its predecessor. Well, we are happy to report that 4A Games claims are true. Metro: Last Light performs better than Metro 2033, even though it is one of the most demanding titles available on the PC."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256726/metro-last-light-pc-performance-analysis

News::Defiance Is Hurting Defiance

Baden of WGB writes: "If nothing else Trion Worlds deserve kudos for attempting something very different, a blending of videogame and TV show to try and create one world wherein the events of either medium can affect the other. The result of this mad experiment was Defiance, a third-person shooter in MMO guise. But Im worried that Defiance is hurting Defiance."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256722/defiance-is-hurting-defiance

News::Anomaly 2 Review | The Controller Online

TCO writes: "Tower-Defense games are a dime a dozen these days, so the offensive twist in Anomaly Warzone Earth was a nice change of pace for whats becoming one of my favorite genres. This week, 11 Bit Studios released the sequel, Anomaly 2, for PC, Mac and Linux, with no console release in sight, unfortunately. To be honest, Im never excited about playing a game without my trusty Xbox controller, but being a fan of the original meant I had to suck it up and start clicking my way through the battlefields of Anomaly 2"



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256742/anomaly-2-review-the-controller-online

News::S.K.I.L.L.- Special Force 2 Announced - Free-To-Play FPS, Powered By Unreal Engine 3

DSOGaming writes: "Gameforge announced today its intention to release the online first-person shooter S.K.I.L.L. Special Force 2 in Europe. This new FPS promises to offer numerous weapons and equipment, individually customisable characters, varied maps and a grand selection of varying game modes."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256766/s-k-i-l-l-special-force-2-announced-free-to-play-fps-powered-by-unreal-engine-3

News::Zeno Clash II review | Thunderbolt

Jonas Jurgens, Thunderbolt writes: Exploring Zenozoik, the world Zeno Clash II, is a bit like wandering around inside a Surrealist painting. Nothing makes sense. You recognize things that are remotely like what you know in the real world, but theres something off about them. Humans, birdmen, and other strange creatures live alongside each other in the city of Halstedom, which itself seems completely illogical in its layout. Imagine the Mos Eisley cantina freaks, but spread out over a vast country. It feels like a feverish, inescapable dream, streets twisting in random directions, culminating in dead ends. Staircases twirl around towers, leading nowhere in particular. Instead of grenades, you toss flaming, exploding skulls. Its a colorful shock to the eyes and your mind, and a welcome relief from drab real world settings or generic fantasy locations.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256731/zeno-clash-ii-review-thunderbolt

News::Mars: War Logs review | Thunderbolt

Sean Kelley, Thunderbolt writes: Mars seems like an awful place to settle down. Time and time again, in movies, novels, or games, the red planet always seems to be at war with itself. Tales of rogue factions and leaders left unchecked have become the norm. Like so many resistance stories before it, Mars: War Logs paints a picture of a Mars divided by too many factions to name (and too ambiguously named to remember).



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256729/mars-war-logs-review-thunderbolt

News::RadarPlays - Beat Hazard Ultra

GamesRadar - In this week's RadarPlays Shuffle, Ryan, Lucas, and Greg are visually assaulted by pulsating lights as they attempt to clear the grueling stages of Beat Hazard Ultra to the backdrop of some new Anamanaguchi tunes. While they were mildly successful, the blinding barrage of neon colors has left all three of them temporarily incapacitated. Enjoy with caution.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256607/radarplays-beat-hazard-ultra

News::Suit up for this Batman: Arkham Origins teaser trailer


Batman battles the relentless Deathstroke in this new teaser trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins , and honestly, that's about all you're going to get. Batman scowls, the sword comes out, and he blocks it with his arm blades like a champion.


I'm not completely sold on Origins yet due to the fact that Rocksteady isn't involved, but I do have hope that it could be just as good as the first two in the franchise. As it stands, I'm more interested in the 3DS and Vita Metroidvania, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. In case you're wondering, Origins is coming on October 15th, 2013.


Suit up for this Batman: Arkham Origins teaser trailer screenshot






via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/suit-up-for-this-batman-arkham-origins-teaser-trailer-253819.phtml

News::Remember Me preview | Tech

Tech writes: Remember Me is sort of like a lot of things. Theres a splash of Uncharteds third-person platforming, the rhythmic combat of Ubisofts Prince of Persia and its colour palette is more than a little Mirrors Edge. Thing is though, all these disparate elements come together to form an action platformer thats very much its own - a fascinating, at times bewildering, journey through a dystopian future Paris and the power of memories. Its certainly lofty in its ambitions too - but is it much fun? We sit down with the game to find out more.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256752/remember-me-preview-tech

News::Batman: Arkham Origins - Teaser Trailer

Warner Bros. released the first teaser trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256713/batman-arkham-origins-teaser-trailer

News::Just Cause 2 dev has an open-world steampunk game 'on ice'

Avalanche Studios chief creative officer Christofer Sundberg has revealed that the studio has an open-world steampunk game in the works, though the project is currently on hold.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256609/just-cause-2-dev-has-an-open-world-steampunk-game-on-ice

News::Notion Games settles Super Ubi Land dispute

Notion Games, an indie developer for the upcoming Super Ubi Land ran into a pretty big roadblock recently -- you know, because of that other developer and mega-publisher that has the phrase "Ubi" in it. Yep, that's right, Ubisoft directly requested that the developer change the name of their upcoming game. As a result, Notion altered the title to Super Ubie Land, and all is well.


It's nice that this could be settled out of court, before it got nasty, like the Notch versus Bethesda situation. The name ultimately doesn't matter to me -- I just hope the game is good! Super Ubie Land is set to release on the PC, Mac, Linux, and Wii U eShop platforms later this year. Oh hey look! Another indie is hitting the Wii U eShop.


Twitter [Notion Games]


Notion Games settles Super Ubi Land dispute screenshot






via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/notion-games-settles-super-ubi-land-dispute-253814.phtml

News::The launch trailer for Fuse is sufficiently shooty and explodey.

News::The Incredible Adventures Of Van Helsing - Hunter's Lair Trailer

Dealspwn.com reports: "Every great vampire hunter needs a place to kick back and unwind, far from the trials and tribulations of battling gothic horrors beyond mortal imaginings. In The Incredible Adventures Of Van Helsing, players will have access to the Hunter's Lair: a convenient hub for item stashing, quests, NPC interactions and even some tower defence mini-games from time to time. It's all in the latest trailer."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256720/the-incredible-adventures-of-van-helsing-hunters-lair-trailer

News::The International 3 has the largest prize pool in the history of E-Sports

Earlier today, Dota 2 tournament The International 3 surpassed the League of Legends Season Two World Championship to become the E-Sports tournament with the highest ever prize pool, which currently stands at over $1,970,000.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1255341/the-international-3-has-the-largest-prize-pool-in-the-history-of-e-sports

News::Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows - Meet Raphael

As Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows prepares to launch this winter for Xbox LIVE Arcade and the PlayStation Network, Activision Publishing, Inc. and Red Fly Studio are shining a light on each of the varied personas that make up this formidable team of heroes in a half-shell.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256655/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-out-of-the-shadows-meet-raphael

News::Dead Island: Riptide Review | Ready-Up

Ready-Up writes: 'You should know how the story goes by now. After escaping Banoi Island the Dead Island crew get stuck on can you believe it another island. The four-piece band of the original return to form with Sam B on blunt weapons, Xian Mei on blades, Logan Carter throwing weapons and Purna rocking firearms. Theyre joined by newcomer John Morgan, whose speciality is hand-to-hand combat. Weapons are the name of the game so its best you figure out who suits your play style most before starting. Blunt weapons break bones, sharp weapons slice off limbs, thrown weapons are the only ranged option, guns pop heads and hand-to-hand weapons hit fastest; simple enough. There are also specials like chainsaws to boot, but youll probably find yourself sticking to just one or two of the aforementioned weapon classes after mucking around until you find your forte. Each character has three subtly different skill trees, focusing on one of the main weapon types alongside fury mode a...



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256708/dead-island-riptide-review-ready-up

News::Fuse Launch Trailer

Become one of the four specialized members of Fuse as they combat the corrupted powers of the world.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256714/fuse-launch-trailer

News::Primal Carnage: Review | FPSGuru

FPSGuru writes: 'Ok, so the above quote deals with dinosaur versus dinosaur violence as opposed to dinosaur versus human, but its always the first quote that comes to mind when Im thinking about anything regarding dinosaurs. But alas, poor Wash aside, I digress. What were here to talk about is the often dreamed about yet usually failed to realize battle between humans and dinosaurs. There have been many attempts over the years, with a couple successes, but mostly theyve ended in disappointment. Next up to the plate to give it a shot is Rverb and Lukewarm Medias Primal Carnage. Lets take it for a spin to see if it can give us the human versus dinosaur carnage weve long desired.'



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256701/primal-carnage-review-fpsguru

News::ShootMania Storm Review | Ready-Up

Ready-Up writes: 'ShootMania Storm is a bit of an odd product when you consider the previous game that developer Nadeo is famous for, TrackMania 2. Instead of a wacky, racing-lite time-trials experience one where players were often encouraged to flip their cars upside down while listening to Jurassic Park dub-step - ShootMania is a multiplayer first-person shooter, with a particular focus on strong competition and paid tournament play. How well can a developer transition to a completely different genre like that? Needless to say, I entered ShootMania with some trepidation, but I was willing to give the developer a chance.'



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256705/shootmania-storm-review-ready-up

News::Review: Thomas Was Alone (This Is My Joystick)

If you took to heart the superfluous ramblings of Quantic Dreams David Cage, then youd be led to believe that creating an emotional connection with a player is only about graphics. The argument makes sense; with beefier graphical power comes a more realistic character model, and with it a wider range of relatable facial expressions. Even so, the number of polygons youre able to shove into a virtual elderly-mans doughy-eyed face is not proportionate to the amount of emotion the player will feel.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256668/review-thomas-was-alone-this-is-my-joystick

News::Darkness and Despair Metro: Last Light Review [Gamer Living]

Gamer Living's Blair Hicks digs into the ruins of post-apocalyptic Moscow in Deep Silver's latest shooter.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256707/darkness-and-despair-metro-last-light-review-gamer-living

News::There Are Only 15 Subscription MMOs Left

With RIFT going free-to-play in June, that leaves the list of subscription MMOs at 15 games. The landscape of this genre has completely changed.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256670/there-are-only-15-subscription-mmos-left

News::Modern Family Is Already Enjoying Nvidia's Shield

News::These Monster Hunter 4 shots are magically delicious

We now have some new screenshots of Monster Hunter 4 , compliments of Capcom, and they show off a pretty cool looking ice world as well as two new monsters: Arselnus and Skuagil. I have a thing for frozen tundras, so I'm excited to explore the vast arctic regions of the game as I collect and forge endless amounts of loot.


Now, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is great, but I've played that game before -- twice. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Monster Hunter 4 can offer up, and if it will advance the series in any way. So far it's looking good.


Monster Hunter 4 [Capcom via Gematsu]


These Monster Hunter 4 shots are magically delicious screenshot


Read more...



via destructoid http://www.destructoid.com/these-monster-hunter-4-shots-are-magically-delicious-253811.phtml

News::Metro: Last Light - First Update Released - Adds FOV Support, Improves AMD Performance

DSOGaming writes: "4A Games was quick to react to the criticism surrounding Metro: Last Light and has released the first update for its title."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256662/metro-last-light-first-update-released-adds-fov-support-improves-amd-performance

News::EA Renames Danger Close As DICE LA And Gives It Some Star Wars

Expanding in Southern California, right near to Infinity Ward and Treyarch.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256654/ea-renames-danger-close-as-dice-la-and-gives-it-some-star-wars

News::In-depth Review: Worms: The Revolution Collection - Electronic Theatre

Few Xbox LIVE Arcade titles have managed to make the jump from digital store to retail shelf, and those which have are invariably the most popular titles their respective genre has to offer. Trials HD, Bejeweled 2 and From Dust have all made the jump, as well as most of Team17s digital Xbox 360 titles. The latest is a compilation of two of the most popular Worms titles a videogame that still stands tall in a genre of its own nearly twenty years after its debut released in recent years and all of the downloadable content (DLC) that has been offered for them.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256595/in-depth-review-worms-the-revolution-collection-electronic-theatre

News::New MOBA Characters And The Constant OP Debate

I consider myself to be quite a seasoned MOBA player. Ive played thousands of matches across multiple games including everything from League of Legends to SMITE but one thing I find common across practically every MOBA game, the constant complaints of over-powered abilities with brand new characters.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1255358/new-moba-characters-and-the-constant-op-debate

News::In-depth Review: Sacred Citadel - Electronic Theatre

The Sacred franchise may not be the biggest name in the videogames industry, but its developed enough of a following to support not only a third title, but also a spin-off in another genre. Sacred Citadel is the unlikely scrolling beat-em-up offspring of an action role-playing game, but Electronic Theatre is most certainly pleased that Deep Silver had such faith in the brand as here they offer one of the finest of its ilk on recent years.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256676/in-depth-review-sacred-citadel-electronic-theatre

News::Diehard GameFAN: Metro: Last Light Review (PC Version)

DHGF: Not as easily accessible plot-wise as a sequel could be to players who havent played the first, Metro: Last Light offers a solid and compelling first-person shooter and survival horror experience set in a post-apocalyptic Moscow and its Metro system. A unique and driving story along with a rich atmosphere keep you going through the game. It plays smoothly and invites you in with a minimalistic and inventive approach to eliminating any kind of interface like players had in Skyrim. The world of Metro is deep and rich and the polished end result was both exciting and engrossing and easily makes it one of the better games Ive played all year. While the moments of plot might not make it as fast paced as some shooters out there, its the plot and atmosphere that makes the game first rate and easily on my recommend list.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256673/diehard-gamefan-metro-last-light-review-pc-version

News::Wargame Airland Battle - Multiplayer Beta Preview - MKAU Gaming

Wargame:AB is a game specifically built for RTS experts as I found this game extremely difficult to understand and sink into with its lack of tutorials and basic stepping stones. You really need to read the manual and be a fan of previous titles in the series to really appreciate whats been done here.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256657/wargame-airland-battle-multiplayer-beta-preview-mkau-gaming

News::Indie Daily 05.15.13

News for Karateka Classic, Sanctum 2 and Anomaly 2 launching, and Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1255479/indie-daily-05-15-13

News::Amazon Digital Games Mayhem Blowout: 80% Off PC and Mac Game Downloads

Gamerdeals.net: "Amazon Digital Mayhem Blowout! From May 16-31, enjoy savings of up to 80% on PC and Mac game downloads, plus bonus offers on Free-to-Play items and $2.99 Casual game downloads. Highlights include:"



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256642/amazon-digital-games-mayhem-blowout-80-off-pc-and-mac-game-downloads

News::Flying Red Barrel: Diary of a Little Aviator released on Rice Digital

One of Orange Juice's finest doujin shooters makes it's way to Rice Digital today. Simple, colourful - but with a solid shmup heart in the spirit of the classic Raiden.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256635/flying-red-barrel-diary-of-a-little-aviator-released-on-rice-digital

News::New Video Game Releases June 2013

Welcome to The Reticules definitive roundup of gaming releases throughout June 2013. All release dates stated are for the EU, across all currently available platforms.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1256625/new-video-game-releases-june-2013

News::Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure Preview | GameInformer

GameInformer: "This week at a pre-E3 event in Santa Monica, 5th Cell and Warner Bros. announced the previously rumored, super-powered entry in the Scribblenauts series. Each entry in the series has allowed players to conjure up anything they can imagine, from zombie krakens to angry whales, to solve cute puzzles. Maxwells magic ability to summon up whatever he wants puts certain super heroes to shame. But Maxwell isnt interested in shaming comic-book heroes with his prowess, he wants to help them, and in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure, he will. The ambitious new game features more than 2,000 characters and objects from the DC Universe."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1255556/scribblenauts-unmasked-a-dc-comics-adventure-preview-gameinformer