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Battlefield 3 I love Battlefield 3. I love it almost as much as it seems to hate its players. At least, that's the way it feels sometimes, trying to get into a game, trying to get correctly squaded up, trying to find a server with room, having to use a server browser on consoles in 2011, downloading 2 GIGABYTE patches ... y u no luv me, BF3? But when it does love me, it loves me so well ... and there I go, into that cycle of abuse again.
Read MoreSkyrim is going to get tons of accolades all over this year, and deservedly so, but Deus Ex: Human Revolution pulled me into its world more effectively than any other game in 2011. It didn't do everything right. Obviously, there were the boss battles. They required a narrow combat approach, playing to some of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's weakest elements. But those encounters were only disappointing insofar as they contradicted the fluidity of gameplay styles and approaches the rest of Human Revolution offered.
Read MoreAt this point, the "Diablo III is probably coming to consoles" thing is like a joke without a punchline. We just keep building and building on the premise, but there's no release in sight. Still, Blizzard keeps giving us material for the setup, this time in the form of another job posting on Gamasutra for a Console Network Senior Software Engineer. In English, Egon? According to the job listing, "this position is responsible for ensuring the best implementation of sophisticated networking systems on consoles." Last time we checked, Diablo III game director Jay Wilson said "we don't want to announce something until we're sure." Blizzard sure does hire a lot of people without being sure!
Read MoreWhen Viacom sold developer Harmonix in November of 2010 for $50, it was really only the beginning of the drama to come. Almost exactly a year ago, ex-shareholders in Harmonix prior to Viacom's buyout of the music game developer sued the conglomerate for failing to pay performance based bonuses, which were agreed upon when Viacom bought the company back in 2006. Then, earlier this year, Viacom sued those same stockholders for $131 million for "contractual overpayment." With us so far? Well, take a deep breath. It gets better. That lawsuit triggered a mandatory arbitration clause in the original contract, and now Viacom has revealed to the LA Times that the private arbitrator in question has ordered the company to pay the former Harmonix shareholders $383 million. The story is still developing, and this isn't the last you'll hear of it: Viacom has filed in a Delaware Court to have the judgment overturned, because of "improperly excluded" evidence and testimony.
Read MoreWe liked Saints Row: The Third. Like, an awful lot. And this time around, after an awful port of Saints Row 2, Volition even went the extra mile, developing the PC version of Saints Row: The Third in-house, leading to much rejoicing over what's generally considered the best version of the game. But, as is often the case, not everyone is having a great time. It seems there's a rather vocal group of users on the official Saints Row: The Third forums and the official Steam threads for the game having major performance issues in outdoor areas. This is a problem, given that the open-world parts of open-world games tend to, you know, be in the open areas of the world. Outdoors. The performance problems appear to be spread across AMD and Nvidia hardware. Volition is soliciting users for their configurations and dxdiag files (don't ask!), and is working with with the GPU manufacturers on possible solutions. Having perused some of the message board threads in question, a more common configuration aspect for those affected is an overclocked CPU or GPU, which can cause negative performance issues on certain titles. Meanwhile, Volition has stated that it's still looking into the issue, one patch later.
Read MoreDid that almost reasonable 24-month turnaround time between Final Fantasy XIII and the just-released-in-Japan Final Fantasy XIII-2 rock your understanding of reality? Who could blame you? The development time of the last "direct" sequel was also pretty short -- two years between Final Fantasy X and X-2 -- but it was five years between Final Fantasy XII and XIII. Did Square-Enix make some dark sacrifice to summon the new game so quickly? You'll probably need to talk with Tri-Ace about that. According to Tri-Ace programmer Yuichiro Kitao (courtesy of Twitter), the Star Ocean/Valkyrie Profile developer assisted with design, programming, and art on the all-too-rare Final Fantasy sequel. Animal sacrifice may have also been involved, but that's not the kind of thing you talk about on Twitter. That's okay, Square-Enix; even Santa had the elves for help with that Christmas(ish) miracle.
Read MoreHigh profile iOS developer (and, er, taker of inspiration) Gameloft probably thought players would be excited by its character action homage Hero of Sparta 2 going free to play. And they were! They were very negatively excited. Unfortunately, the iOS update to Hero of Sparta 2 affected everyone who downloaded it, including those poor souls who had already paid for the game. That update introduced advertisements to support Hero of Sparta 2's new free-to-play business model, which understandably annoyed paying players, and, by Gameloft's own admission, "deteriorated the gaming experience." Luckily for those paying players, Gameloft issued a formal apology on their Facebook page, blaming "the craziness of the Christmas period" and stating that "this game update didn't go through our usual quality assurance process." Gameloft also pushed out a new update removing all ads from the game, and has switched Hero of Sparta 2 back to a paid app.
Read MoreThere's a thing that most licensed games just don't get. The license association, the premise, really, is the bait, but it's the gameplay that's the hook. The game is the thing. For just a few minutes, let's strip away the goofy exterior surrounding Gotham City Impostors. Take away the Batman references, the Joker allusions, the bright colors, the bonkers aesthetic. Dress it all the way down to the only thing that matters: the game. When you do that, you've got something more surprising than a weird Batman game without Batman, with lots of guns: a candidate for the best downloadable console shooter since Battlefield 1943.%Gallery-130941%
Read MoreGears of War 3 warranted some pretty enthusiastic adjective usage: "polished," "well-paced," "fantastic," even. I'd go so far as to call it the most refined, well-put-together shooter of 2011. So when the first piece of add-on campaign DLC, RAAM's Shadow, was announced, I was excited for it. More Gears 3, but set before the first game? It sounded great. Unfortunately, RAAM's Shadow elicits some different adjectives: "sloppy," and "underdeveloped."%Gallery-141261%
Read MoreEA and 38 Studios have been showing Reckoning (Kingdoms of Amalur) for more than nine months now, and I still don't think they've figured out how to explain what it is. We've heard comparisons to God of War and character action games because of its combat system. We've heard comparisons to the Fable series by virtue of its character customization and imagery, and I've even heard Skyrim and Oblivion comparisons thrown in there for good measure because of the size of the world, and because of Ken Rolston's involvement. But Reckoning (Kingdoms of Amalur – hey, EA, 38, can we talk about that naming convention some time?) isn't any of those things at all. There are comparisons to be made, though, namely to Secret of Mana and Diablo II.%Gallery-141585%
Read MoreThe hand-wringing tweets and posts about the possible direction for BioWare's unannounced game have proven all for naught, as EA and BioWare announced the Frostbite 2.0 powered Command and Conquer: Generals 2 at tonight's VGAs. The game is set to be released in 2013. Update: We've got the official PR from Electronic Arts, found at the Source link below. Most notable is this line: "Command & Conquer Generals 2 is being developed by a new BioWare studio, BioWare Victory, and is coming exclusively to the PC in 2013." So Victory Games is now BioWare Victory and its plans for a PC-exclusive C&C game are still in place. Wow! %Gallery-141548%
Read MoreWith Gears of War 3 concluding Epic's flagship franchise this year, it's on to something new for the developer. It was kind enough to show just what that is tonight at Spike's VGAs: Fortnite. Fortnite sees characters building forts and emplacements against monsters and other terrors of the night. Platforms were not announced.
Read MoreAt tonight's VGAs, Sony and Spike finally quit teasing us and formally announced The Last of Us, the next game from Uncharted developers Naughty Dog. Set in an America ravaged by a horrifying fungal infection that has left a few survivors in a desperate struggle for survival, it's super unique and you never would have guessed I wrote this before it was officially announced or anything. The trailer indicates a very Uncharted-looking bunch of people running from some very 28 Days Later(-meets-demonic-broccoli) looking infected. Color us excited. The Last of Us is due exclusively for the PlayStation 3 in 2012. Update: The press release is out, linked at the Source link below, and the official site is up at www.lastofus.com. There's not much in the way of information, but the presser does note that "The Last of Us is developed by some of the industry's most talented game designers including Bruce Straley, game director, and Neil Druckmann, creative director." The plot description goes something like this: "Abandoned cities are being reclaimed by nature and the remaining survivors are killing each other for food, weapons and whatever they can get their hands on. Joel, a ruthless survivor, and Ellie, a brave young teenage girl who is wise beyond her years, must work together to survive their journey across what remains of the United States."
Read MoreThe long-awaited "Metro" update to the Xbox 360 dashboard is finally launching this week, but you might not want to make any popcorn just yet. A number of Microsoft's recently announced content partners won't be showing up to the party on time, most notably Comcast's Xfinity on-demand library, Verizon's Fios live-tv service, and the HBO GO app. Microsoft has given a nebulous "early 2012" release window for HBO and Xfinity, though Verizon should be bringing Fios to Xbox Live "later in December" - along with SyFy, UFC, and a number of others. A full list of partners, and when to expect them, is available after the jump.
Read MoreAs I'm sitting down in Ubisoft's San Francisco office for a two hour presentation on the recently announced Rainbow 6: Patriots, there's one thought running through my mind before it even starts: What the hell is Ubisoft thinking?%Gallery-140401%
Read MoreIt's been more than a year since I've seen Spec Ops: The Line. In fact, I'm one of the few people to have played Spec Ops, back at a pre-E3 event in Los Angeles in 2010. It was an unofficial session, as previews were limited to eyes-on impressions, so I won't go into too much detail about it. But even then, it was clear that Spec Ops: The Line had a long way to go. Now, 18 months later, I've played more than an hour of a Spec Ops that feels solid and functional -- current, even. But now that The Line seems well on its way to relevancy as a game, developer Yager faces what might be an even bigger obstacle. In a quest for a literary sort of statement and message, Spec Ops: The Line has the baggage of the entire medium to overcome.%Gallery-140044%
Read MoreNeed for Speed: The Run has a prologue level of sorts that establishes protagonist Jack's situation – a guy in trouble with the wrong people, looking for a way out. He finds it in a cross-country race with a purse of 25 million dollars. But where The Run really begins is in a warehouse garage off the Embarcadero in San Francisco. You pick a car and roar out onto the street, greeted by the light of an early morning in the city. It's not exact, by any means, but developer Black Box nails the feel of San Francisco's streets well. And then crazy sh*t starts happening all around you, in the best way possible, as more police cars than I think San Francisco actually has are chasing you and dozens of other cars toward the Golden Gate bridge, and... It makes an impression. Need for Speed: The Run starts out so well that I coasted on that high for about 45 more minutes before I realized the game I was playing just wasn't very good.%Gallery-135978%
Read MoreAssassin's Creed: Revelations, a third sequel in as many years, is asking a lot. Ubisoft has been remarkably clear that another game is coming next year, and that it will advance the story of Desmond, the series' main character. This leaves Revelations in an awkward position, serving as a coda of sorts to the stories of Ezio Auditore de Firenze and his Crusades-era forbear Altair Ibn-La-Ahad, stories that seemed competently told already. It doesn't seem like Assassin's Creed: Revelations needs to exist -- but then, neither did Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, which nonetheless turned out to be great. Surprise or no, Ubisoft has managed it again. By introducing an interesting new cast of characters, making additional refinements to the free-running and combat systems, and providing closure to characters we've gotten to know for their entire lives, by defying all logic, Assassin's Creed: Revelations is another great Assassin's Creed game -- mostly.%Gallery-136270%
Read MoreAh, gaming. There's always something new to be excited about! Last year, it was the online pass, which has become standard practice for almost any game with a meaningful multiplayer component released in 2011. But publishers are always looking to innovate, and this year has seen the rise of the Season Pass. The newest game to boldly ask for your money in advance? Saints Row: The Third! Offering a full fifteen percent off of the DLC if you were to buy all four releases separately, the Saints Row: The Third season pass will get you three mission packs – "Genkibowl VII," "Gangstas In Space," and "The Trouble With Clones" – and the Nyte Blayde DLC pack, which comes with a sweet "vampire-hunting sports car." No word on if the car does the hunting by itself, but with Saints Row there's no way to be sure. The DLC covered by the season pass will release between January of 2011 and "Spring 2011." You can find the full details and press release after the break.
Read MoreI hope you like Battlefield 3, because based on my trip to EA's Redwood Shores offices yesterday, you're going to be getting a lot more of it. In a brief presentation prior to some extended time with next month's Back to Karkand DLC, the word "service" was used more than once. EA sees Battlefield 3 as a platform to deliver more content and Back to Karkand is the first salvo in that strategy.%Gallery-137898%
Read MoreAccording to a tipster, some Xbox Live users who received access to the Dashboard Preview Program today had another surprise waiting for them: early access to the Mass Effect 3 Beta. We haven't gotten official confirmation from EA yet, so we can't confirm with one hundred percent certainty whether or not this is really-real. The picture is, um, pretty convincing, though. EA announced the Mass Effect 3 Beta/demo a short time ago, specifying that it would eventually be open to all, but available early to purchasers of Battlefield 3. We guess it didn't mean available earlier-est. Update: Well, that didn't take long. Lightning fast posters over at NeoGAF have downloaded the client and have started posting pictures.
Read MoreAt this point, you'd be forgiven for not knowing up from down with regards to early copies of next week's Modern Warfare 3. Is it safe to play online? Will you be banned? Where could you even find a copy of Modern Warfare 3 early? We can't blame you. Even we haven't even been sure – after some vaguely foreboding comments from Xbox Live's Stephen Toulouse earlier today, we felt compelled to warn you all that maybe, just maybe you should put that $1700, three-day early copy of Modern Warfare 3 on the shelf until Tuesday. But, in the event your neck isn't sore from all the back and forth over the last 36 hours, we've got the final definitive word from Activision itself... we hope: "We value and appreciate the community's support. We have no interest in banning legitimate copies in these last few days. We just ask for everyone to wait for Tuesday when everybody can play the game together." So, we guess you can play Modern Warfare 3 – assuming you've committed the dark retail magic necessary to acquire it early that it. Us? We'll be over here in the corner, where we don't have to look right or left for a while.
Read MoreFor a game set in the aftermath of a disaster of enormous magnitude, I Am Alive looks to be composed of small triumphs and intimate terrors. Every ledge climbed is an achievement. An unloaded gun might be as useful as a full magazine. And the scariest thing around isn't the crumbling remains of a fictional US city – it's the people that are left to pick up their own pieces.%Gallery-137722%
Read MoreIt was just a week ago when the Korean Game Ratings Board kind of, sort of implied that PSN hit Joe Danger was on its way to Xbox Live. While everyone involved was maddeningly silent amidst requests for confirmation or denial, developer Hello Games announced this morning that Joe Danger: Special Edition is in fact on its way to Xbox Live – and published by Microsoft, no less. This is unusual, given Microsoft's generally restrictive policies with regards to first-party publishing on Xbox Live. Development duties on the port are being handled in-house at Hello Games, but it's not a simple translation. Hello have, in the words of Studio Managing Director Sean Murray "revisited the original," in an attempt to sand off some of the rough edges. "I think we knew that Joe Danger was a hard game, but it could be frustrating [too]," Murray continued. "I think we've really changed that, it's a much more joyous game now, through like a thousand changes big and small." Hello Games has also spent time adding "new environments, gameplay modes, characters – lots," said Murray. "I'm not sure it would be possible for someone to complete in under 30 hours now... the game is huge." %Gallery-138305%
Read MoreAre you getting into games of Battlefield 3, but still having issues? Are you finding yourself dying before you think you should possibly be dead, or seeing an absurd delay between when you pull the trigger and when bullets come out of the end of your gun? Are you screaming at your television about how fast your network connection is and how bad your lag in Battlefield 3 should not be? We might be able to help. You got to open your ports, dawg.
Read More(Disclaimer: The bulk of this review appeared earlier this week when we published our final word on Battlefield 3 for PC. This review includes that text, as well as specific comments about the console versions of the game.) Let's sit down for a few minutes and talk about Battlefield 3. Let's step outside of the hype, the constant back and forth between fans of the series and fans of, you know, that series. Let's leave the baggage attached by EA's masochistic desire to sidle right up against that game, and we can ignore that beta too. I know it's hard. But let's do it anyway. Instead, let's talk about what we've been told is DICE's most ambitious, biggest game ever. And let's talk about how Battlefield 3 is simultaneously disappointing in that respect, and brilliant in others, and why that might be OK anyway -- maybe even great.%Gallery-137343%
Read MoreWhile we're working on getting you a review of the console versions of Battlefield 3, we're in the same boat as many of you this evening: the Xbox 360 version is currently unplayable online due to server difficulties. Developer DICE has commented on the situation via Twitter, stating that they're working on the problem and will have the game running as soon as possible. Hopefully the issues are resolved soon - we've got unlocks to, uh, unlock.
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