News::World of Warcraft Gains 200K Subscriptions in Q4 2013, Up to 7.8 Million

Blizzard's flaghship title picks up steam heading into Warlords of Draenor expansion



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News::Review: Jazzpunk [Broken Cartridge]

Broken Cartridge: "You will laugh, you will cry, but mostly you will be confused. Jazzpunk is an avant-garde comedy adventure inspired by spoof films and old slapstick cartoons."



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News::Kerbal Space Program Interview with Mike Geelan, game and tools developer | Pure|News

Pure|News had recently the chance to interview Mike Geelan, game and tools developer of Kerbal Space Program about it's current status and future content!



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News::Activision: Destiny Will be the Best-Selling Game in History

Activision believes Destiny will be the biggest game in history.



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News::Sledgehammer leading development of next Call of Duty

Activision has just reported on their financials for the last quarter, and among the news they've announced that Sledgehammer Games will be leading the development of the next Call of Duty coming out this year. In the past, Call of Duty development has jumped between Infinity Ward and Treyarch in two year cycles.

With Sledgehammer now developing the next game, the Call of Duty series will switch into a three year development cycle. Sledgehammer has worked on Call of Duty in the past, specifically they assisted Infinity Ward with the development of Modern Warfare 3.

The only thing I took away from this is that we have to wait another year now for Treyarch to make a good Call of Duty game again.

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News::Ghost writer: Fraudulent Resident Evil composer not deaf

Yesterday, we found out famed deaf Japanese composer Mamoru Samuragochi (Resident Evil Director's Cut: Dual Shock Version, Onimusha), known as "Japan's Beethoven," has actually had someone writing his compositions for the last 18 years, including his most famous and successful works.

The ghost writer has revealed himself today. Part-time music school teacher Takashi Niigaki has come forward to reveal that he's been writing Samuragochi's work for the last 18 years, saying "I am an accomplice of Samuragochi because I continued composing just as he demanded, although I knew he was deceiving people." Niigaki says he was paid only $70,000 over almost two decades for over 20 compositions. Niigaki also claims that Samuragochi "cannot even write musical scores." And that he's not deaf.

"I've never felt he was deaf ever since we met," he said. "We carry on normal conversations. I don't think he is (handicapped). At first he acted to me also as if he had suffered hearing loss, but he stopped doing so eventually. He told me, after the music for the video games was unveiled, that he would continue to play the role (of a deaf person)." Samuragochi has not responded to this claim, but in yesterday's mea culpa he maintained that he was deaf.

Niigaki said he finally wanted to end the ruse when he found out Winter Olympics medal hopeful, figure skater Daisuke Takahashi, was planning to skate to a piece attributed to Samuragochi. Prior to that, "I told him a few times that we should stop doing this, but he never gave in. Also he said he would commit suicide if I stopped composing for him."

'Japan's Beethoven' not even deaf: ghost composer [AFP]

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News::Six Reasons You Should Be Playing Hearthstone

Even still in Beta, Blizzard's Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a fantastic digital card game. Here are the reasons you should get on board.



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News::TitanFall Composer Stephen Barton Calls Game An Immensely Fast, Kinetic Experience

As part of their upcoming Feb. 2014 magazine, Skewed and Reviewed have posted selection of their interveiw with composer Stephen Barton. Barton talks about the multiplay only game and expalins how fast and dynamic it is and says it is very different from Call of Duty and other shooters. Barton also talks about his working on the upcoming game TitanFall as well as his career in the interview.



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News::Gamers-Association: Beatblasters III Preview

Gamers-Association: "Most rhythm games boil down to the same basic, simple gameplay mechanic. Just keep pressing the button that corresponds with the shiny thing on screen. This concept has started to grow old recently, and the genre is largely on the decline because of it. Chainsawsome Games debut title Beatblasters III is doing something to change that. Beatblasters III takes elements from the rhythm or music genres and combines them with platformer and puzzle elements to find a new, unique experience."



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News::Humble Weekly Sale Goes Double Fine

Hardcore Gamer: You can pay what you want for Psychonauts, Costume Quest, and Stacking. Paying $6 or more gets you Brutal Legend, while spending $17 gets you early access to Spacebase DF-9.



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News::Ghosts No. 1 Best Selling Title On Next-Gen, Destiny To Be Next Billion Dollar Franchise

MP1st - For the publishing companys fourth quarter, Activision announces Infinity Wards Call of Duty: Ghosts as the No. 1 best selling title in aggregate across all platforms in the U.S. and Europe combined and No. 1 best selling title on both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.



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News::The Five Most Underrated Platformers of all Time

Ray Porreca of Entertainment Buddha writes: "Within the platforming genre as a whole, the robust selection of games available led to a variety of options. Starting from more simplistic 2D platforming games, the genre continued to grow all the way into massive, fully 3D games such as the Nintendo 64s Super Mario 64. As platformers became more abundant, some of the best offerings quickly became out shadowed by games featuring company mascots that dominated the market."



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News::NaissanceE Release Date Set for February 13

Hardcore Gamer: If youre a fan of independent games and have not yet heard of NaissanceE, nows your chance to read up!



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News::Bible Game Call of Abraham Is Possibly A Crowd-Funding Scam

Hardcore Gamer: Call of Abraham, a third-person adventure game in which you travel across the middle-east as part of Abrahams caravan, launched a Kickstarter campaign last month.



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News::500k The Elder Scrolls Beta Keys Available Only At Curse

Curse has partnered exclusively with Bethesda and Zenimax to bring you 500,000 beta keys for their new MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online. The beta key giveaway will be performed in two rounds: Round 1: February 4th and 5th. Beta keys available for Curse Premium subscribers. Round 2: February 6th to 10th. Beta keys are available to everyone with a Curse account. All you need to do is sign up for a Curse account and claim your key!



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News::Killzone: Shadow Fall patch adds framerate lock option

The update that introduces Guerrilla Games' early work in supporting clans in Killzone: Shadow Fall is available for download as of today. Players can now display their tags as part of their name in-game and invite clan members to a party, among other things.

Another new feature is the option to lock the framerate in at 30 frames per second in the campaign mode for people who want consistency, and extra save points have been added to the single-player. Lastly, the range-increasing flashlight exploit for the VC30 has been addressed.

Good. Great. Grand! Anyone still actively playing Shadow Fall? How's it been treating you?

Killzone Shadow Fall Patch v1.09 is out [Killzone]

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News::Save me: The symbolism of Silent Hills save points

Jody Macgregor via GamesBeat: Silent Hill: Downpour the eighth game in the horror series that defines brown trouser time had no save points. Instead, it autosaved for you. Im normally not a fan of save points in horror games, where artificial, mood-breaking reminders that youre playing a game are especially out of place. But when they were gone in Silent Hill, I missed them. The save points in this series arent just places to breathe easy and decide whether youre too scared to go to sleep yet. Each of them says something about the themes of that particular game or gives insight into its protagonist.



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News::There Wont Be Any Plasma Rifles, Launchers and Electric Guns in Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation is shaping up more and more like its film counterpart, 1979s Alien, and unlike 1986s Aliens, the more action-oriented film on which last years Aliens: Colonial Marines was based upon. Much like Alien, there will be no complex firearms at the disposal of the player in Alien: Isolation, and the developers have confirmed this fact.



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News::World of Warcraft currently has 7.8 Million Subscribers

It was revealed today during Blizzard's Earning Call the current subscribers numbers of World of Warcraft.



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News::Attack On: John Carmacks Departure From id A Small Rant On Zenimax

Attack On Gaming seem to be raging because of John Carmacks decision to leave id Software. They believe that Zenimax is to blame.



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News::Not the Robots Review| Twinfinite

Not the Robots is a roguelike stealth game available on Steam. In it, players control some sort of futuristic vacuum that can suck up furniture with ease. It seems robots of the future use furniture as fuel. Throughout their various runs, players will be weaving in and out of office floors, dodging sentries, sucking furniture, and collecting power-ups to further help them reach the floors below. The story is minimal, almost non-existent if you arent a competitionist. Broken up into audio logs strewn throughout your various playthroughs, the story slowly unveils what building you are in, and who or what you are.



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News::10 Video Game Heroes To Root For In 2014

CCC Says: "From the moment that video games, comics, and movies were first introduced to the world, audiences of all three mediums have had the distinct pleasure of seeing strong protagonists take center stage in some of their most beloved franchises. Iconic characters like Link and Nathan Drake are clear-cut examples of memorable protagonists who have stayed in our hearts and minds since day one. Now that we are in the second month of 2014 and a flurry of new game releases are right around the corner, I felt the need to elaborate on 10 standout video game protagonists that we should keep our eyes on as the year goes on. These picks are based on characters that I feel will be the most memorable and impactful to both the industry and gamers everywhere for the next 11 months."



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News::Jazzpunk Review - Mode486

Jazzpunk is a beautiful example of a comedy game. It's hilarious and has tons of references to 90s video games and culture, and overall is just so wacky and offbeat that you have to love it.



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News::The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 Smoke and Mirrors Review | Unigamesity

The second episode of Wolf Among Us, Smoke and Mirrors, was released two days ago and new content exposes a stunning reality. The narrative has suffered a major overturn and most leads set in the first episode have been erased. The Wolf Among Us is now facing a different perspective regarding the murdering cases suspects and allies are now mixed in a myriad of speculation and guilt. Whos really at fault? The truth seems to be crystal clear now but cant it be another deceitful illusion? Telltale Games already taught us that not all you see is what it seems to be and honestly, this entire second episode pointed towards Crane as the one and only murderer doesnt it seem all too obvious and simple?



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News::Oniken Review | Leviathyn

Leviathyn reviews JoyMasher's boisterous homage to 80s and 90s console platformers and beheads a few hundred robots along the way.



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News::Microsoft to find a new dev partner for Killer Instinct

Amazon's purchase of Killer Instinct developer Double Helix Games as part of its "ongoing commitment to build innovative games for customers" came out of nowhere. We know the company is getting into gaming, sure, but Double Helix? Huh. Never would've seen that coming.

For fans worried about the future of the fighting game, Microsoft has spoken about the next steps. "We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Double Helix and wish them success in their next endeavor," reads a statement given to Eurogamer.

"We want all of our loyal fans to know that the Killer Instinct team at Microsoft is not changing and that the franchise will remain with Microsoft Studios. We remain dedicated to delivering a great experience and plan to announce our new development partner soon. We're excited about the future of this popular franchise."

On Twitter, Microsoft Studios' Phil Spencer said the internal team's size will remain the same and that "[Killer Instinct] was planned [internally] before [Double Helix] was brought into dev. Other [external] devs will do work but [the internal] team leads."

Microsoft promises to support Killer Instinct after Amazon buys its developer [Eurogamer]

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News::Octodad: Deadliest Catch Review - Paste

Its a game where youre an octopus in a business suit, inhabiting a world in which everyone, including your wife and kids, is delicately unaware that you are an octopus in a business suit. If that doesnt infer the general tone of Octodad: Dadliest Catch, Im not sure what will. Originally built by a couple students back in 2010, Octodad is meant to befuddle, beguile, flabbergast, and delight. It is more gag than game, a borderline troll job with its heart in the right place. Whether thats worth your monetary investment really comes down to your particular definition of genius.



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News::Ubisoft's gorgeous RPG Child of Light releases April 30

Ubisoft has been killing it lately with its UbiArt Framework. Take a look at this new trailer for Child of Light , Ubisoft Montréal's upcoming Japanese-style RPG about fairytales. Just, wow.

It's been priced at $14.99 for PS3, PS4, Wii U, Steam, Xbox 360, and Xbox One with an April 30, 2014 release date.

I'm rarely able to get into turn-based combat but I think that's something I can learn to accept in order to experience everything else Child of Light is bringing to the table.

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News::Final Fantasy XIs Records of Eminence to Receive New Objectives

Final Fantasy XIs fairly new experience points and currency based objective system, Records of Eminence, will be receiving brand new objectives in the upcoming version update including rewards for hunting in more areas, synthesis, and weapon skills. The biggest piece of this update includes the addition of Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promathia areas to the list of objectives. Currently RoE is only active in the Original and Seekers of Adoulin areas.



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News::Respawn On Titanfall Beta: "Would like to make sure pre-orders get codes, but not sure if we can"

Respawn On Titanfall Beta: "Would like to make sure pre-orders get codes, but not sure if we can"



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News::Nevermind: A Horror Game That Reacts to your Fear

GamerFitnaation: Horror games have come a long way. I still have horrifying memories of Silent Hill 2, but more modern games like Amnesia are scaring the pants off of people around the world. And as if that wasnt scary enough, game developer Erin Reynolds has a vision for a new horror game that knows how scared you are as you play, and then it gets scarier.



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News::Call of Duty: Ghosts - Interview with Distiny: a look behind the facade of the anti-cheat system

Interview with the Cheater Distiny: a look behind the facade of the anti-cheat system of Call of Duty: Ghosts Example (you can find the original and english version of the interview in the spoiler): "As I said before previous experience taught me that IW makes it very easy for us cheaters thus I waited until game launch and wasn't surprised I was able to change my squadpoints, xp, etc only a few minutes after I launched the game for the first time. In the cheating community I'm also active in atm I shared my findings, released hacks, source coded etc because I believe that when I can teach others something new they in their turn will eventually find something that I can learn from and use. I was happy that the game was x64 since VAC doesn't have a 64 bit version yet (though some claim it's already in Nether I haven't seen proof yet only the foundation) thus didn't have VAC to protect itself. So that only left their own new protection Live Anti Cheat. While reversing the ga...



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News::The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 Review | Hardcore Gamer

Smoke and Mirrors is a solid continuation for The Wolf Among Us. A lot of seeds were planted in Faith, and while a few have borne fruit, most of this episodes running time is spent tending to them.



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News::PlayStation Reveals Thief Hardcore Settings and Customizable Options on the PS4

PlayStation Access has been releasing guides left and right for the upcoming Thief release such as walkthroughs, trailers and demos. However, many gamers still feel like the game may be a little bland and easy from the videos. Therefore, gamers are going on yet another adventure through the customizable options menus and even some of the hardcore settings for those who feel like the game may be a breeze.



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News::Sega reveals new Sonic Boom sub-franchise and game

At the "Year of Sonic" event, Sega has revealed Sonic Boom -- a new sub-franchise in the Sonic world. The new brand will not only sport the previously announced TV show, but two new games on the Wii U and 3DS. This is the last part of the exclusive deal with Nintendo.

The Wii U game will be headed up by developer Big Red Button (led by a former Naughty Dog art director), and the 3DS version will be handled by Sanzaru Games (the studio that developed the new Sly Cooper). The games will serve as a prequel to the CG TV show.

We didn't get hands on, but based on the footage we've seen of the Wii U version, the worlds look massive, and projectile combat seems to be in. In other words, Sonic Boom is looking a lot like Ratchet & Clank right now. It's also important to note that the CryEngine 3 will be used on the Wii U, and that this version is confirmed to support co-op play.

Sega of America president and COO John Chen stressed that "Sonic Boom will not be replacing the original franchise."

Read more...



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News::The Wolf Among Us Smoke and Mirrors Episode 2 Review - SegmentNext

Daav from SegmentNext takes a look at the second episode of The Wolf Among Us, called "Smoke and Mirrors." It has a similar engaging story and powerful atmosphere, but it doesn't have a similarly amazing momentum to back it up.



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News::The Wolf Among Us Episode One | Start Replay Review

Delve into the world of fairy tale characters, depicted in a quirky modern day setting. Can Telltale make episode one of their new episodic series shine enough to warrant a purchase?



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News::[Continue Play] Retro Review - Ys: Oath in Felghana

Ys: Oath in Felghana is mishy-mashy-boss-smashy fun for the hard of mettle. Unfortunately, difficulty is also its biggest weakness.



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News::Tomb Raider: quality graphics comparison between old-gen, next-gen and PC

"As we will see later in the article, though, Tomb Raider on Xbox and PS4 One is not superior to the PC version, indeed." "The increased processing capacity available on PC, it allows you to Crystal Dynamics have on this platform environments even more dense and detailed textures. " "The PC, however, refers to the best effect of tessellation and for the presence of texture in higher resolution. But it also allows you to enable anti-aliasing filters of much higher quality than their counterparts present on the console, as SSAA (super-sampling anti-aliasing), as well as 4K resolution."



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News::EA Mythic responds to Dungeon Keeper criticism

Speaking with TabTimes about the new Dungeon Keeper for mobile, senior producer at EA Mythic Jeff Skalski said the team is "very aware" of the criticisms its free-to-play title has received.

"One of the important data points we're looking at is our store ratings and downloads," he explained. "At the time of this interview, App Store ratings currently sit at 4 out of 5 stars and Google Play ratings sit at 4.5 out of 5 stars. We're also seeing a lot of game downloads and in-game engagement so that tells us there is a large group of people who are playing and enjoying the game. Obviously, this is counter to some of the angry reactions we've seen around the internet, so we’re still trying to look at all of these data points."

It's worth pointing out that the Android version of Dungeon Keeper has a rating pop-up which some have deemed questionable. For what it's worth, Skalski says "Mythic is committed to continuously fine tuning the player experience based upon fan feedback. We're looking at a ton of data right now to help inform that: media reviews, comments, and reviews from players, and a bunch of in-game data like downloads, and engagement."

Would this game have garnered less (or any?) negative attention if it weren't based on Dungeon Keeper? Undoubtedly. But that's not the reality we live in. Instead, what we got is a heartless game designed for an audience who in all likelihood isn't remotely familiar with this historic IP which has been revived only to represent the worst of free-to-play gaming.

EA responds to fevered 'Dungeon Keeper' paywall criticism [TabTimes]

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News::Regimental Chess' "Brutal Intellect" Game Introduces Chess Like Never Seen Before

Some people say Chess is boring. Those people have probably never played Regimental Chess, which looks to revitalize the game not with new skins or design themes, but a completely new way of playing chess.



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News::Top 5 cues developers should take from Dark Souls

Simon O'Neill of Unigamesity.com shares his in-depth opinion of the top 5 things other video games should take from Dark Souls.



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News::Dark Souls II Preview | TheGamersPad

We send our new writer Toby to check out the latest Dark Souls II. He returns alive to give us his opinion on the game so far.



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News::[Continue Play] Review - Strike Vector

Remember the All-Range Mode of Lylat Wars? Battling it out with giant mech bosses but also sat down, leant forward rubbing shoulders with your friend from down the street, staring at the bubble glass window of the colossal, ten-tonne heavy, 22-inch TV. Take that memory and send it seventeen years into the future with a plasma gun on one side, and a carbine on the over, and a barrel roll to avoid a rocket launched by a enemy VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) tearing across the floating slum. And you can only say to yourself, should have barrel rolled?.



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News::DICE is on Thin Ice

Critically Sane's Chris discusses the issues with Battlefield 4, problems experienced during Player Appreciation month, and his loss of faith with DICE.



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News::New Alien: Isolation screens spill the android fluid

If you came here looking for more images of Creative Assembly's terrifying Xenomorph in Alien: Isolation , no such luck. And if the Alien isn't in front of you, that means that he's either behind you, or above you, or in the vents, or oh god, I just want to go home.

No, what you get is a glimpse at the hacking system and an android that met an untimely fate. Probably because he didn't leave a note. That's why you always leave a note.

Read more...



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News::Could AMDs new Mantle work on SteamOS and Steam Machines?

Could AMD's new Mantle API provide even better game performance in SteamOS? The technology has already shown improvements in Battlefield 4.



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News::2014 Video Game Power Rankings: February

Critically Sane: "Here we sit, a month into 2014, and speculation is still the name of the game but things will start to fall into place in the coming weeks. With that said, we bring you the 2014 February Power Rankings."



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News::DayZ Standalone has new experimental build, should be live 12 February

The DayZ experimental branch is having changes rolled out to it in the form of a couple of new builds, one scheduled today and one tomorrow (7 February) according to a new post on the games forums. By the looks of things, Dean Rocket Hall and the rest of the developers intend to have these changes rolled out to the stable build on 12 February.



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News::Dead Island Epidemic - Register Now for the Closed Beta

Worlds first ZOMBA heads into Closed Beta! Register now at www.playdie.net and take advantage of exclusive bonuses Full details, plus some new screenshots, are here



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