News::This Yoshi's New Island trailer just makes me sad

I had thought that, with time, I'd come to accept -- or at least not outright despise -- the art direction of Yoshi's New Island . That's looking like a lost cause. Granted, the game doesn't hit 3DS until March 14, and supposedly "different worlds feature a variety of art styles, including oil, watercolor and crayon." Regardless, it's not merely the art that's off here.

The music in this trailer isn't doing much for me either and Yoshi's vehicular transformations look to be the opposite of fun. I'm hoping the gyro controls are optional but that functionality is touted as a feature on the game's website, so who knows.

While it's my intention to avoid judging too harshly without hands-on time, that's proven impossible for me -- I adore Yoshi's Island too much. At least there's still Yoshi's Epic Yarn .

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News::Jonathan Blow's The Witness Will Support Valve's New VR Tech

iGR: "A while back we'd posted an update from Jonathan Blow's The Witness. If you recall, back in November, Blow made a vague post about possible VR support for the title. As of then he'd just begun getting to know Valve's new approach to VR, today he confirmed that The Witness would support Valve's new VR tech."



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News::Sony hints at slim announcement for next week

The thinner, lighter PlayStation Vita Slim may finally leave Japan if an invitation for a briefing happening Thursday morning is any indication. "Following the biggest launch in PlayStation history, join us for an introduction to the slimmest," reads an invite sent to IGN.

Alternatively, this could be a tease for the coveted PS Vita TV, another product that hasn't yet arrived in North America or Europe. That thing is ridiculously compact.

I'm mostly curious about the price point, if this is the Slim. The move away from the standard PS Vita's OLED screen has all but guaranteed I won't ever pick one of these models up.

PS Vita Slim Set For Release in Europe and North America? [IGN]

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News::IrrationalPassions: Samuari Gunn Review

Jarrett from IP writes: "At its best times, playing Teknopants arena brawler is like playing your favorite Wu-Tang Clan cd. At its, albeit few, worst times, its like playing the Wu-Tang Clan video game, Shaolin Style."



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News::Middle-Earth: Shadows of Mordor Preview | Gamereactor UK

GR-UK writes: "Monolith's (Gotham City Impostors, Guardians of Middle-Earth) reveal of Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor last November was received with mixed feelings. Could this finally be a game worthy of the source material or will it be a cynical ripoff of a truly awesome license. The first pictures did not help. Who or what was this almost comically sinister main character with blue glowing eyes, and how on Middle-Earth would he faithfully join the world of Tolkien?"



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News::DayZ On SteamOS? Dean 'Rocket' Hall Hopes So

One of the big questions about the upcoming Steam Machines is what sort of software will they get to help set them apart from standard, end-user PCs? Well, some people believe that Valve will unleash exclusive SteamOS software, others are simply hoping that every big game they enjoy in Windows will be available via SteamOS (natively).



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News::Will World of Warcraft's new character models change the game's system requirements?

Blizzard is updating World of Warcraft character models for the games upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion, but how will the significant rise in polygon counts and animation effects affect system requirements? We dont know yet, World of Warcraft community manager Bashiok explained in a forum post this week.



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News::Daily Quest News Roundup: Rift Crafting, GuildWars 2 PVP, and Defiance DLC

A new crafting profession is making its way to Rift with update The Dream Weaver crafts special effects, lighting, and special items for use in player made Dimensions. As well they alone can craft the keys to gain access to 15 new dimensions being introduced in the update. But Trion knows that not everyone has a dimension addiction and that is why the Dream Weaver can create Dream Orbs. These special armor enhancements have a variety of bonuses and stack with current runes. All of these are made using artifacts broken down into Dream Ribbons.



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News::How Thief has changed, for better and for worse | Eurogamer

Eurogamer writes: Thief is going to be different. Of course, the series is being rebooted, reimagined after ten years in the shadows, so it's bound to step forward cloaked in a very different mantle, and it's unreasonable not to expect some substantial changes. Nevertheless, pull that hood back and you may not recognise the face that stares back. Thief is going to be different.



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News::Battlefield 4: Top 5 Obliteration Tips Video

Bill Lavoy (Prima Games): While Conquest and Rush might have been the bread and butter of the Battlefield franchise in the past, there's a new game mode on the block. Obliteration features some of the most intense action that Battlefield has ever seen. Teams must fight over a single bomb, constantly engaging in a back and forth battle to push the bomb into opposition territory. The game ends when one team destroys all three of their opponents objectives. Should time expire, the team that destroyed the most objectives wins. In the case of a tie, the team with the highest accumulated points is declared the winner.



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News::Rusts Garry Newman says Valve VR makes the Rift feel like torture a device

During the Steam Dev days developers were ushered into a room to test out Valves prototype VR system and feedback that was coming from the event was very positive. Rust and Garrys Mod creator shares his thoughts on the Valve system.



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News::Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PC) Review | GameDynamo

GameDynamo - "Officially, the title of this game is in all caps because it wants to take action and throw it at you in spades until you feel like youve satisfied every known action trope under the sun. Despite being a sharp departure from the familiarity of the rest of the Metal Gear series, this game managed to literally carve out its own nice within the canon and rests there comfortable and with all audacity."



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News::Chill paper-folding puzzle title KAMI is now on Steam

Despite initial impressions, State of Play's recent iOS puzzle game KAMI is not about folding colorful pieces of paper into three-dimensional figures that resemble animals. Aesthetically, it does involve origami paper being folded, but mechanically, it has more in common with a rudimentary image editor's fill tool. With zoomed in "pixels," players in KAMI try to fill the screen with only one color in as few moves as possible. I'm not the only person who did that with MS Paint, right?

After its well-received iOS launch late last year, the title is now on Steam and Android as well. At $3.99, the Steam version costs a bit more than the original, but it includes all of the currently available premium levels, which exist as in-app purchases for both the iOS and Android versions.

I really dig the art style, despite its simplicity. More papercraft-based games, please!

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News::Don't look up: New screenshots of The Forest

First off, if you've not seen this trailer for Endnight Games' open-world survival horror title The Forest, you're going to want to spend a minute and a half doing so.

There are new screenshots, viewable below, which show a dead shark, a dead stewardess, and what's bound to be a dead you. As a stranded survivor of a plane crash, you'll need to scavenge and set up a defensive structure with traps to fend off against cannibalistic mutants who come out at night to do creepy things. I'm so ready to be creeped out.

The studio is aiming to release an alpha build of The Forest on Steam in the coming months. I don't usually go for alphas but that rule may be undone by my desire to be genuinely frightened by games. And from everything I've seen here, that potential exists.

Read more...



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News::Tomb Raider For $9, Black Flag for $30, iPad Air [Deals]

News::Uh-Oh: GameStop Is Canceling Watch Dogs Wii U Pre-Orders

News::Top 5 Single Player Survival Games

OnlySP: Survival games have been gaining huge amounts of popularity in recent times. The genres popularity comes from its ability to tap into the most basic needs of collecting resources, finding shelter and protecting yourself; all from the comfort of your home. Heres the Top 5 Single Player survival games.



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News::Thief Preview | GameRevolution

GR: Last I saw Thief, in October of last year, it was in a playable state that focused on the open-world city hub and glossed over the story with a vague, non-spoilery brush. Now that this stealth-action title is silently inching closer to release, Square Enix thought it best to fill in some of the gaps, along with access to several opening missions to better understand the laconic, furtive Garrett.



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News::Diablo III Ultimate Evil Edition - Offscreen Footage

Want to see how good Diablo III Ultimate Evil Edition looks on PlayStation 4? Here's some offscreen footage from Taipei Game Show.



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News::Everything You Wanted to Know About Garrisons in Warlords of Draenor |Elite Monster

Elite Monster has your extensive preview on one of the most hotly anticipated features of World of Warcraft's next expansion. Better read up now, because knowing Blizzard, the closed beta should be coming "Soon".



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News::Toki Tori Review | RGN

Jermain of RGN writes, "Toki Tori is a fun little puzzle platformer from developer Two Tribes. Originally released for the Gameboy Color back in 2001, it now finds a home in HD on the PlayStation Network for Sonys PS3. The game stars Toki Tori, an adorable little yellow chicken on a quest to collect eggs that are scattered across four unique worlds."



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News::Slender: The Arrival Review | RGN

DJ Killzown Jones of RGN writes, "Slender: The Arrival is a survival horror game from Blue Isle Studios. The game is the sequel to 2012s Slender: The Eight Pages and adaptation of the Something Awful Form Story The Slender Man. The player assumes the Lauren who is traveling to the countryside to find out the whereabouts of her sister Kate and she quickly realized she is being followed by The Slender Man."



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News::The Mysterious Cities Of Gold Secret Paths Wii U Review | RGN

Tristan of RGN writes, "This is a game based off a Japanese-French anime series from a long time ago. It started out as a kick starter project turned successful by longtime fans and people who thought it looked really cool. At first glance it does have that nostalgia effects from when almost everything was good. The history surrounding this game is wild and deeper than I realized. Due to the fact that it is apart of something much larger that appeals mainly to the anime fan-base."



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News::Indie developer claims King cloned its game

Not that people who have been following the news about Candy Crush Saga maker King trademarking "Candy" and causing issues over The Banner Saga's use of the word "Saga" in its title need any more fuel for the fire, but here goes: developer Matthew Cox has accused the company of cloning a browser-based game he worked on called Scamperghost.

His team was in talks with King to license this game but "before the deal was closed (and certainly before any contracts were signed) MaxGames.com made a better offer so we thanked King for considering our game and politely ended our negotiations." As a result, King sponsored "a similar game," in the words of their contact Lars Jörnow, titled Pac-Avoid (really).

Allegedly, the team working on Pac-Avoid was told to "clone the game very quickly, and [King] even wanted to beat the release of the original game." This comes directly from an email correspondence with one of the developers contracted by the company, according to Cox.

"Scamperghost isn't the most original game in the world," wrote Cox. "It's obviously inspired by Pac-Man but we at least took it in an original direction by making it a mouse avoider with no walls. King.com, however, showed no respect for other people's intellectual property when they made a direct, blatant clone of Scamperghost. Now they've trademarked "Candy" and are using their massive legal power against other small competing developers. A bit of a double-standard, eh?"

King.com, makers of Candy Crush Saga...Trademark Trolls with a Double Standard?[Junkyard Sam -- Thanks, OpiumHerz]

Read more...



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News::Resident Evil 4 - Wii Version versus PC Ultimate HD Edition Comparison

Steam's member 'MarkfromTheRoom' has made a comparison between the Wii version and the PC Ultimate HD Edition of Resident Evil 4.



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News::Titanfall critics are "assuming things" based on older shooters, says Respawn

If there's one thing everybody fears, it's the unknown. Oh, and not finding enough people to kill in a multiplayer game. Speaking to OXM as part of a massive, exclusive feature you'll read in our very next issue, Titanfall designer Justin Hendry has commented that concerns about certain of the game's more eccentric features are understandable in the absence of hands-on experience.



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News::KickBeat Steam Edition Review | TwoDashStash

The best way to describe KickBeat is to refer to it as Guitar Hero with martial arts. To be honest, thats not a bad comparison. Much like in Guitar Hero, you have to match button presses with visual cues, but instead of delivering an awesome note, youre delivering a knockout punch or kick.



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News::Europa Universalis IV Conquest of Paradise DLC Review | IncGamers

Taking the lonely out of colonial, with your new overseas pals in Conquest of Paradise. EUIV's latest piece of DLC.



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News::The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Launches on Steam for Mac With Sale

"It's time for celebration for XCOM fans, as the latest game in the series known as The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is now available via digital download on Steam for Macintosh computers."



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News::SteamFirst First Impressions: Ocean City Racing

SteamFirst: Ocean City Racing is an open world racing game that allows players to freely explore an open city or race other cars and features both a first person and third person views as well as a variety of vehicles to drive. Ocean City Racing is available on Steam Greenlight and Desura for 4.99$



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News::Nidhogg Review | HAL

Ross Hartley: "Nidhogg is a unique game where two pixelated swordsmen get to take part in an epic fight in order to achieve victory... which involves being eaten by the eponymous Nidhogg. It is technically a fighting game but it's unlike anything else out there. Nidhogg is a fast-paced game where each stab, jump and crouch can be the difference between victory and failure. Overall, the core gameplay is a lot of fun but the focus on local multiplayer combined with the relatively high price of $15 is going to put people off, which is a shame. Still, Nidhogg is definitely a game worth keeping your eye on."



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News::Most Anticipated Games of 2014- Titanfall

Titanfall is launching on Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC on March 11, 2014. The Xbox One will be the definitive version with use of the Microsofts Cloud for processing power and use of dedicated servers. With the obvious graphical and frame rate improvements being on the Xbox One version, Respawn has also hinted at more differences to the 360 version besides graphics but are yet to be announced.



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News::Shadow of Mordor arch enemy is "procedurally created" | Gamereactor UK

GR-UK writes: "Most interestingly, de Plater revealed how the story and procedural Nemesis system would work together: "At certain points we really bring the story and procedural gameplay of the Nemesis system together. At some points, to advance the story, you have to eliminate/assassinate the war chiefs in this area. So we're sort of handing you from the story into the sandbox, and then playing in the sandbox and that advances the story and then we come back." That even goes as far as the player's "arch enemy", who'll be created in reaction to how the player progresses: "We try to not make the two things totally separate [story and sandbox], but make them integrated and make them support each other. Ultimately out of the Nemesis system we really want you to make your ultimate arch enemy and take this guy who's actually procedurally created but put him back into the story in a way that's meaningful."



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News::Net Neutrality and Gaming: Things Can Get A Lot Worse

News::Team Fortress 2 has implemented an Update

SteamFirst: Steam fan favorite Team Fortress 2 has just released a new update. When you reboot your game the update will be implemented. Within you will find all of the changes / fixes that are included in this update. Enjoy.



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News::The eSport Report: League of Legends and Starcraft Kick Off 2014 Seasons

Elite Monster has the details on the early returns in the League LCS and Starcraft II WCS. Will the changes made by Blizzard and Riot lead to more excitement and fairer play this year?



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News::Review: Broken Age: Act 1

The game formerly known as "Double Fine Adventure" has finally made it’s debut -- or should I say, half-debut. Broken Age: Act 1 is the culmination of almost 100,000 backers, over 3.5 million dollars, and nearly two years of waiting. The project, once asking for a mere $400,000, broke Kickstarter history and subsequently forged high expectations for Tim Schafer and his team.

Broken Age follows the lives of Shay and Vella, two young teenagers yearning to escape from their predestined paths. Although the description sounds coming-of-age generic, the stories and puzzles are anything but. Broken Age follows its point-and-click adventure predecessors while forging its own path -- and what a compelling path it is.

Read more...



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News::All The Ways To Compare The Banner Saga

GG3 goes back to putting connections with games and some of their peers that might seem recognizable for newcomers. Relations with all sorts of games and movies can put into context just what to expect from this particular saga.



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News::Thief: The Hardcore Options of Infiltration | IGN

IGN writes: Garrett is a terrible thief. Invariably, each of his big jobs ends with the Master Thief getting caught red-handed. He is, however, a phantom during infiltrations and formidable during escapes. At least, he has the potential to be, if your skills are up to the task.



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News::Sanctum 2 Developer To Publish A Story About My Uncle

Sanctum 2 developer Coffee Stain Studios are lending their expertise to indie project A Story About My Uncle.



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News::Blood of the Werewolf Review | PixelPerfectGaming

Blood of the Werewolf by Scientifically Proven evokes so many emotions that its difficult to pinpoint them all. It could be that its protagonist, Selena, is a woman scorned by the recent death of her husband and the kidnapping of her son, Nickoli. Selenas family comes from a thinning line of werewolves who have managed to somehow integrate themselves into society, while keeping their full moon curse a secret.



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News::Deadly Premonition: The Directors Cut Review | PixelPerfectGaming

Deadly Premonition is a PlayStation 3 release that has made its way to the Windows PC platform. To the dismay of gamers, this port had a very rocky launch on Steam. Gamers went to the official Steam forums to complain about in-game glitches that affected gameplay. Some of these glitches include unexplainable crashes and poor performance on high-end gaming rigs.



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News::DayZ Early Access Preview | MMOGames

DayZ is a survival horror MMO currently under heavy development by Bohemia Interactive and creator of the original mod, Dean Hall. Awakening on a shoreline in a fictional post-soviet country, players must survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland known as Chernarus.



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News::New Screens Detail the World of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Kraven

Activision has released three new screenshots and a shot of Kraven the Hunter for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game, which is being developed by Beenox, the same studio behind the original The Amazing Spider-Man.



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News::Top 50 Most Badass Gaming Characters of all time

Top 50 Most Badass Gaming Characters of all time



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News::Vita RPG Demon Gaze stares down an April 22 launch date

We knew that a localization was in the works, but now we have solid dates. NIS America has announced that Vita dungeon crawler RPG Demon Gaze will be released on April 22 in North America and April 25 in Europe, with both digital and retail versions available.

This game follows Oz, a guy that takes up artifact hunting as he can't quite recall his past. His newfound Demon Gazer abilities help him explore dungeons and hunt down the details of his past.

In the batch of new screenshots you'll see the 3D dungeons and the anime artwork of Demon Gaze.

More Vita RPGs? Yes, please.

Read more...



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News::The Patch #36

The Patch Discusses DR3 DLC



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News::US Gamer - Middle-Earth: Shadows of Mordor: Walk Right in and Kick Orc Ass

US Gamer - Seemingly inspired by elements from Assassin's Creed, Batman and Skyrim, Middle-Earth: Shadows of Mordor combines them into something you really need to see.



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News::IGN - Kickbeat Review

IGN - After debuting on the PS Vita months ago, Zen Studios kung fu-themed rhythm fighter KickBeat has finally landed on Steam. The discrete, one-song-at-a-time setup arguably makes a lot more sense on Sonys portable system, but the crisp, colorful visuals pop more than ever on a larger monitor. The rest of the games core elements remain largely intact, which means the flashy fighting visuals still arent quite enough to compensate for the limited content and demanding yet basic gameplay.



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News::Interview: Eidos Montreal talks Thief with The Black Panel

The Black Panel interviews Thief game director Nicolas Cantin about the games early announcement and long gestation, as well as its stealth bona fides, and the involvement of the Thief community. Oh, and the interviewer is ambushed by a chicken sandwich.



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