Wednesday, March 26, 2014

News::5 Things We Want From Titanfall 2

Richard Bailey Jr. of The Koalition writes: Earlier this month, Respawn Entertainment launched their promising new IP on both the Xbox One and PC platforms. Approximately one week after Titanfall proved to be a huge financial success, EA secured the rights to a sequel and guaranteed that the next installment in the mech-inspired FPS series wouldn't remain an Xbox and PC only exclusive.



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News::Tropico 5 Trailer - Every Presidente Was Once A Pirate

Kalypso has released a new cinematic trailer for upcoming city-builder Tropico 5, which is due to hit shelves later in the year for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox 360.



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News::CCP Remains Committed to Oculus Rift Post-Facebook Sale

VRFocus - CCP Games has confirmed that it will still be bringing its upcoming EVE Valkyrie to the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset following news of Facebook purchasing makers Oculus VR. News of the $2 billion USD acquisition was followed by Minecraft creator Markus Persson pulling out of Oculus Rift development, but this will not be the case with CCP Games' title, which is hoping to launch with the consumer version of the device.



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News::Loading Human Producer Talks VR Stories and Creating Intimacy

VRFocus - Last month indie developer Untold Games announced Loading Human, a story-driven first-person experience that uses the Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset. It's the brainchild of Italian actor and filmmaker Flavio Parenti, who wrote the story in which an Alzheimer's patient relives past memories in order to store them to a digital brain and reunite with his wife. VRFocus recently had the chance to sit down with Parenti to talk about the project.



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News::Sakurai shows off 3DS Smash Bros. with and without outlines

Super Smash Bros. director Sakurai has once again taken to the Miiverse to show off the 3DS version of the game. In his newest post, he displays both visual filters -- without outlines (on the left), and with outlines (on the right). Sakurai also confirms 3D effects, which is one of the first times they've even been confirmed or mentioned.


The response to the outlines seems to be about 50/50 -- some love them, some hate them. I guess it's a good thing they're optional then!


Sakurai [Miiverse]


Sakurai shows off 3DS Smash Bros. with and without outlines screenshot






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News::Facebook, Oculus Rift and the virtual reality arms race


Oculus was already a well-funded company, but with the arrival of Facebook’s finances it can afford to dream even bigger.



Suddenly, Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus makes Sony’s entry into the virtual reality race seem quaint by comparison. Last week, we heralded the first sighting of Sony’s Project Morpheus headset as the mainstream validation VR needed for it to truly thrive – a popular platform, the backing of a large corporation, a ready-made audience. Facebook’s buyout means that Oculus now has all of these things in its corner, and on a much, much larger scale. The social media giant’s financial muscle has the ability to turns Oculus’ dreamers into doers overnight, setting in motion plans for the medium that were once a faraway aspiration for Palmer Luckey’s team.


Last week at GDC, we spoke to a handful of key game developers about VR’s potential in relation to Morpheus and Oculus, conversations which have taken on new relevance after the Facebook deal.


Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney is a big believer in the tech. “When I look at this market I see this as version one – this is the first iPhone,” he told us. “Which is cool, but it’s not the endgame. I think you’ll see a continual stage of companies leapfrogging each other and if you extrapolate out to the endgame it’s going to be astonishing.”


David Reid of Eve Valkyrie developer CCP also spoke in glowing terms of what the emergence of Morpheus means for the medium – an effect that’ll surely be multiplied with the arrival of Facebook. “It’s an entirely different thing altogether when a company like Sony enters, and it does suggest this VR thing is going to be a big deal,” he told us. “All developers and all publishers should really seriously look at it and not just sort of say ‘well, this doesn’t fit into our core strategy and portfolio right now’. It really feels like this is where a big piece of the industry is going to go and there’s nothing to validate that better than the entrant of a strong incumbent who has been in games for a long time like Sony.”



Sony’s Morpheus prototype is able to track your head and two Move controllers beautifully, but that’s just the start.



What Morpheus brought to VR that Oculus hasn’t is some impressive Move tracking, halfway solving the disconnect between the player’s physical movements and their avatar’s actions in game. With its Facebook dollars in tow, Oculus can also now set about solving that problem.


“What makes Valkyrie work so well is that the experience you have of being in the cockpit of a fighter plane is very similar to the feeling of sitting in your chair,” said CCP’s Reid. “You’re not experiencing that cognitive dissonance of some of the early VR demos I’ve been able to see, where it is a first person experience and you’re actually walking in the game. It just feels a little off right now. I am confident that the technology is going to get there, but it isn’t quite there yet.”


Epic’s Tim Sweeney agrees. “The thing that still sucks – the limiting factor when you’re playing games – is that you’re sitting in front of a monitor and you’re using a mouse and keyboard or a gamepad and your inputs and outputs are really limited. There are orders of magnitude of improvement to be had there.”


Ironically it’s Microsoft which seems to have a ready-made solution to this problem: technology similar to the new Kinect could one day replicate your every movement in virtual reality. Former Microsoft executive, dreamer and 22Cans founder Peter Molyneux described something similar in conversation with us at GDC last week, as he lamented the lack of VR inputs besides a gamepad. He wants complete body tracking. “The only problem with VR for me is that I want total immersion,” he said. And trust Molyneux to also offer an entirely new idea, a virtual reality alternative which sounds even more like science fiction than Morpheus or Oculus. ”There’s a piece of tech which I’ve seen and experienced which fires a laser on the back of your retina and creates an image which is ‘in the world’ in a way that makes it feel way beyond 3D,” he told us. “I’m under several billion NDAs so I can’t say anything more, but it’s awesome.”



Oculus Rift’s latest tech adds head tracking, but it’ll be with the advent of Kinect-style full body tracking that the sense of immersion will become even more powerful.



Outside of games, in VR’s potential uses for work and leisure, there are wider implications for game developers here. As hinted at by Zuckerberg himself in the Facebook post (what else) he used to announce the news: virtual reality could play its part in the rise of a new virtual economy, and game designers with plentiful experience in creating virtual assets will be the ones creating these virtual people, places and things. “It’s part of a trend to move more and more of the economy away from physically manufactured, energy consuming stuff to just virtual stuff – there’s an unlimited supply of that,” Epic’s Tim Sweeney told us last week. “It’s much more economical to see things that way than to get on a jet to travel to some far-off place to see something.”


Facebook’s investment can mean many things for Oculus. Its technology can now improve at an even faster rate and it will surely quicken the arrival of the headset on shelves and in homes. It might even buy a studio or two, or give John Carmack a chunk of that $2 billion to go and make the virtual reality game that’ll define the platform. The stage is set for Facebook and Oculus Rift to transform the nature of virtual interaction as we know it.


And of course it could all end in disaster. The backlash came quickly on social media, Notch leading the charge by cancelling development of an official Minecraft release on the Rift, saying: “Facebook creeps me out”. Indies that had invested time and money in developing Rift games suddenly reconsidered their efforts, their support soured by Oculus’ new owner and all that it represents. Facebook is considered by some as the The Bad Guy: a corporate monster appropriating and stifling VR’s potential to help its nefarious surveillance and money-making schemes. It’s an extreme view; all we know right now is that Zuckerberg saw the tech and acknowledged its undoubted potential by buying the company for $2 billion.



Virtual reality’s biggest investor, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg.



Whatever you think of VR’s newest big-money backer, as a new medium – or rather, a much-improved revival of an old one – its potential is undeniable. Portentiously, last week Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney described to us a virtual reality arms race, with several well-backed companies duking it out to make VR cheaper, more accessible and less intrusive. With its acquisition of Oculus, Facebook has joined that arms race – and suddenly, it’s in the lead.


“It’s the trajectory of this that’s really exciting,” said Sweeney. “Each major generational improvement will expand the audience until it goes to hundreds of millions of gamers and potentially billions of consumers when you have something that’s so lightweight that it doesn’t interfere with your normal life.


“Just imagine when it’s reduced from this big headset to just a pair of sunglasses you can turn on or off or introduce computer graphics over your view. It will change the world.”


The post Facebook, Oculus Rift and the virtual reality arms race appeared first on Edge Online.






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News::Titanfall: Fix Low Framerates and Stuttering Guide

Respawn's patch isn't out yet, but you want to play your game. This guide should help you get things working now.



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News::These 6K Screenshots of Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag Are Incredible

T1 - Reddit user K-putt has just posted some 6K screenshots of Assassinss Creed IV: Black Flag, and the results are graphic card-melting levels of awesome.



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News::Assassin's Creed: Unity game promises to have the incredible graphics

Although the first Assassin's Creed: Unity trailer is quite short, but even in this period of time the players have managed to evaluate the incredibly high-quality graphics of the future project, have found out where the events of this action-adventure will unfold and who will become its protagonist. But the main thing, which has greatly surprised the fans of the series, is an incredibly realistic graphics. Many people did not believe that this game will have the same quality of the graphics, as it was shown in the video. But the developers have tried to assuage the fans doubts, having said that the first Assassin's Creed: Unity trailer was made on the base of the games alpha version (without any further treatment) and in the future, when there will be the beta and the final versions of the project, they intend to maintain the same quality of the graphics. In addition, taking into consideartion that Assassin's Creed: Unity game is being developed only for next-gen consoles and PC,...



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News::Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z Review | Esperino

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is a spin-off of the Ninja Gaiden series, replacing Ryu Hayabusa with a new protagonist and stripping away almost all its ninja ways. The game may have the Ninja Gaiden name, but none of the legacy from the franchise. If you were hoping Yaiba would be the game to write all the wrongs after the dismal Ninja Gaiden 3, you could be in for an extended wait.



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News::[CN vs. KR Tournament] Hearthstone Handlock Nuclear Warlock Deck - Burst Deck

In last weekend CN vs.KR Hearthstone Tournament, CN beat KR with 3:0. One of the decks they played is called Handlock Nuclear Warrior Deck which combines Handlock, deck control and OTK spells together, and works extremely well in mid and late stage



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News::MagicalTimeBean Secretly Releases Escape Goat 2 From Double Fine Productions Spare Office

The sequel to one of the most off-the-wall puzzle platforming games to come out of the indie gaming community, Escape Goat 2 developed by MagicalTimeBean, officially launched for Windows, Mac, and Linux with publishing support from Double Fine Productions. While that may not seem like anything out of the ordinary; Double Fine's Founder and CEO, Tim Schafer had no clue the development was happening inside his own studio. At least, according to the most hilarious news release that has ever graced our inbox.



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News::Matrix Games Announces Scourge Of War: Waterloo!

NorbSoftDev and Matrix Games have announced a new title today in the Scourge of War series. While other titles in the series have always been based during the American Civil War, we head over the Atlantic in Scourge of War: Waterloo!



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News::Double Fine Promotes Escape Goat 2 in this Hilarious Video

For the first time ever Double Fine has published a game, MagicTimeBean's Escape Goat 2. They decided to promote it in a humorous video. -- Report by Colton Steury of SpawnFirst.com



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News::Frugal Gaming Review | Diablo III Reaper of Souls

Somewhere in the lowest echelons of humanity, nestled in between the child abductors and Michael Gove, there is a special place for the rubberneckers and those who cant wait to glory in the misery of others - Writes Karlos Morale



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News::An Army Of LEGO Simpsons Invades America In May

News::This Young Woman's Video Might Surprise Your Heart

News::The Gamers Lounge Podcast Ep 9: "Bookoo Loads of Money"

Join John, Erik and Nathanael this week where they talk Battlefield, Facebook, PS4, Titanfall and more!



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News::TitanFall Review I GoodGameHR

Former creators of Call of Duty games have brought us something new, but somehow we expected even more..



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News::Assassin's Creed 5 Story Details Leaked

Thing is, we have two sets of rumors and don't know what to believe (although I know which one I want to be true).



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News::Review: Dark Souls II Is A Brutal But Rewarding Playground [eGamer]

Quote: "Dark Souls II is a really good RPG that is trying to be things it doesn't need to be. One might liken it to a brutal playground for three reasons; it has an engrossing open world that allows players to do as they please with minimal hand-holding, it allows players to learn for themselves and feel rewarded in the process, but ultimately it bullies its players into submission by being wholly unfair. If this is okay with you, then go for it. "



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News::Age of Civilization Combat Trailer Released

NGames has today released a trailer showcasing the frenetic combat action of new free-to-play strategy MMO, Age of Civilization, which is available on the Game321.com games portal.



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News::PreOrder-IQ | Unboxed - Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Collector's Edition

PreOrder-IQ writes: Blizzard are known for offering some of the best collectors editions in the business and their treatment of Diablo IIIs first expansion, Reaper of Souls, doesnt disappoint. The set isnt quite as impressive as the collectors edition for Diablo III , but for just shy of £48.97 via Gamestop UK, it still represents good value for money. Weve taken pictures of everything in the set, apart from the digital goodies of course, to give you an honest appraisal of everything in this collectors edition.



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News::Where Angels Cry (SteamFirst Review) Weeping

SteamFirst: There is a famous evil creature in the sci-fi show Doctor Who called a weeping angel. In the show, the angel is a stone statue posing with its face in its hands as if crying. But when you look away for a split-second or even blink it attacks. In a similar way, playing Cateia Games 2014 adventure title Where Angels Cry with careful attention to detail will result in heartbreak.



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News::A Final Goodbye To A User Unfriendly War of the Vikings

From the article - It boils down that War of the Vikings is an insult to consumers. Its sort of that mentality Adam Orth pleaded to users when the Xbox One deal with it controversy came to pass. Theres quite the team behind the game. It should be better. It shouldnt be this crippling.



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News::Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z - Unreal Engine 4 Rendering Demos Showcased

Nvidia has released a video, showcasing the UE4 rendering demos that were presented running on its latest - and most expensive - GPU, the GeForce GTX Titan Z.



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News::Dark Deception - First Person Freaky Pac-Man

Dark Deception may look like a horror game, but its actually Pac-Man, the creepiest, freakiest Pac-Man game youre likely to play. Youre tasked with roaming the corridors of the maps, collecting all the shards (Pac-Mans dots) to complete the level. This is easier said than done though as its much harder to do from a first person perspective than a top-down view. Not knowing where the enemies are means there are some real jump scares as enemies pop out from behind corners just in-front of you.



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News::Rise of the Dark Spark: What Does the Amalgamation Mean?

It was announced recently that the next Transformers game would be a cross-gen title that will accompany the film and shall be released in time for the movies release in June. The press article alone would have us believe this is a direct tie-in to the movie and most likely a low quality movie tie-in game, rather than any sort of sequel to High Moons fantastic Fall of Cybertron, sequel to middling War for Cybertron. The trailer would reveal that its neither one of those things, but both at the same time, sort of.



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News::1954 Alcatraz Review - Gaming Nexus

From the review: "An innovative approach the adds a degree of non-linearity to the game play combined with a compelling story line and great visuals make Daedalic's Alcatraz 1954 a game that is hard to walk away from."



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News::Linkin Park Launches Music Video In Project Spark

Linkin Park has launched a new video for "Guilty All The Same" in Project Spark that lets fans and players remix it or make their own.



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News::Heroes of the Storm - Tyrael Trailer

The Tyrael Trailer of Heroes of the Storm.



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News::Gaming Soon March 25 2014

Today on Gaming Soon We talk about the remake of an arcade classic Gauntlet, a new One Piece gaming adventure known as Unlimited World Red. and the upcoming Old-School inspired RPG Child of Light. All this and more on todays Gaming Soon



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News::MXGP Exclusive First Look Gameplay Coverage - TeamVVV

As the days count down to the launch of Milestones MXGP The Game, Team VVV will be busting the game wide open and laying all of the content bare as we delve into the package and deliver our extensive range of video content. But first its time for that initial hands-on; no practice, just an instant race to get the ball rolling.



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News::Mordheim: City of the Damned video game emerges from the mists

Mordheim: City of the Damned was a 1999 board game set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe that pitted players against each other in small skirmish groups. It had customization in the vein of classic Warhammer, with players choosing their unit composition and upgrading their gear and skills over time.



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News::Titanfall DLC Wishlist Hacking, Cores and More

Barry writes,"You can guarantee there will be maps as part of these DLC packs. I am quite okay with this, though. The level design in Titanfall is some of the best Ive seen in an FPS, not to mention its just perfect for the mobility of the game. But what Im hoping for is a little change, a little spice added to an already incredibly fun game."



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News::STR CAST EP14: The Yetis Three Assemble

For the first time ever, all three Yetis have assembled! Join Moe, Spike and Samson along with Brian & Sal as they discuss: The Last of Us Movie, Retro Remakes, Gaming Hell and much more! All in front of a live studio audience.



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News::League of Legend's Team Builder is here to stay

Earlier this month MWEB GameZone covered the League of Legends, Team Builder beta launch. The beta was a testing phase for community response with a strong focus on player choice when it comes queuing. It turns out the response was overwhelmingly positive, thus resulting in the full release of the game mode for everyone to enjoy.



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News::Notch scraps Minecraft plans for Oculus Rift

Minecraft developer Notch has announced that his studio Mojang was in talks about "maybe" bringing the world-builder to Oculus Rift, but following this morning's deal, the idea's been scrapped.



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News::Action-packed Mercenary Kings Launch Trailer marks PC release

Tribute Games 2D sidecrolling shooter is out now for the PC, and so we have a new trailer for Mercenary Kings marking its release on that platform; the game will arrive on the PS4 later on 1 April in the US.



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News::BioShock Infinite Burial at Sea Episode 2 All Audio Diaries and Voxophones Collectibles Guide

Guide4GameS: The second and last episode of BioShock Infinite Brutal at Sea features collectibles like Audio Diaries and Voxophones. The episode 2 contains total 25 Audio Diaries and Voxophones.



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News::WindForge Review | Gamereactor UK

GR-UK writes: "First impressions - as in the impressions we'd collected of the game before we had pressed a key or clicked a mouse - were promising. The game's central premise, the lore surrounding the concept, the aesthetic, the buzz words used in promoting the game and pushing it through Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight; it all pointed to something special on the horizon. Sadly, that's not quite how WindForge has turned out. In short, not enough of the game's potential has been realised at this stage, and it's still a tantalising prospect rather than the finished article that's worthy of your time and money."



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News::Ubisoft bringing Watch Dogs, Child of Light, more to PAX East

Ubisoft is the first major player out of the gate to reveal their lineup of content for PAX East next month. On the AAA front, fans can't play it, but they can watch Watch Dogs be played in a never-before-seen demo. Plus there will be an experience where you can see "through the lens of a hacker," and you can get a free t-shirt if your pre-order the game from the booth.


On the playable front, you can get your hands on The Crew, Trials Fusion (but why would you want to do that when the game is out a few days after PAX), Child of Light, Might & Magic Duel of Champions Online Card Game, Ghost Recon Phantoms, and The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot.


If you were to wait for anything here, go with Child of Light . It's such a wonderful little gem.


Ubisoft bringing Watch Dogs, Child of Light, more to PAX East screenshot






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News::Developer Adds Buying Oculus Back as Kickstarter Stretch Goal

VRFocus - Twinbeard Studios, the developer behind maths-based videogame Frog Fractions 2 has added an option to buy back Oculus Rift makers Oculus VR from Facebook on its Kickstarter campaign after yesterdays acquisition. The developer, who had already jokingly added a stretch goal of $350,000 USD to add virtual reality (VR) support back way of the Oculus Rift, asked for the same amount of money Facebook bought Oculus VR for ($2 billion) to make this possible.



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News::Titanfall Review "Doesn't Live Up to the Hype" | Pure|News

A new first person shooter created by the minds behind Call of Duty 4, a game that was believed by many to bring new and refreshing features to the online FPS, but did it in fact succeed?



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News::Dark Souls 2 Review | gamrReview

gamrReview's Karl Koebke: "Dark Souls 2 exemplifies everything that is great and everything that is lacking in this series. If you've ever been intrigued by all of the hype and interest surrounding the franchise then this is a great time to dive in, as the online community is currently at its most active. Just be prepared for some screaming at the TV and long nights with little sleep."



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News::MWEB GameZone Review| Ether One The dark caverns of the mind

Ether One is a masterpiece, a love letter to the pen and paper genre, an anthem to puzzle games. Once you step into the world of Ether One and start unraveling the tangles of your patients demented mind, you will struggle to tear yourself away.



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News::GamerHome: Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Review

GamerHome: "In short, this addition to the series should satisfy fans in more ways than one."



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News::Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 2 Review | Tech Heads

Tech Heads' Gabe Gurwin writes: "As the follow-up to my current favorite game of all-time, the first episode of Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea left me scratching my head. Sure, players finally returned to Rapture with Booker and Elizabeth to discover just how the city was connected to the floating Columbia, but many of its most intense moments also felt ham-fisted into a DLC that struggled to stand on its own. A late twist in the first episode left me thoroughly confused as to how Ken Levines team would resolve its puzzling new thread in the overarching Bioshock narrative. Fortunately and perhaps unsurprisingly the DLCs second half is a tremendous conclusion to the Bioshock Infinite saga."



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News::Let's Build in Minecraft - Team Nice Dynamite's Secret Room Part 2

Team Nice Dynamite continues building in Achievement City in Let's Build in Minecraft.



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News::Listen to 25-mintues of Goat Simulator music insanity


So when I watched the Goat Simulator trailer I was so focused on the actual gameplay that I glazed over the soundtrack. Thankfully I came across the extended version of the trailer song and I haven't been able to stop replaying it.


Yes, I know. I'm not right in the head.


Listen to 25-mintues of Goat Simulator music insanity screenshot






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