By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 11:47 pm
Graphics cards manufacturer Nvidia has posted a new video which highlights the kind of special effects you'll see in Batman: Arkham Knight if you have an Nvidia card that supports its GameWorks modules. Batman: Arkham Knight has looked graphically impressive in every gameplay video we've seen, but GameWorks adds additional effect, like smoke and fog that react to movement in fight scenes, paper debris that gets kicked up, enhanced rain effects, and more. According to Nvidia, this is the GameWorks technology you can see in the video in the video: - Interactive Fog and Smoke
- Interactive Paper Debris
- PhysX Destruction
- Enhanced Rain
Nvidia recently touted the power of its GameWorks technology with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which similarly takes advantage of enhanced effects. After multiple delays, Arkham Knight launches for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on June 23.
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 11:16 pm
It's been four months since we've wondered about the current state of EverQuest Next in our "Games Gone Missing - where are they now?" video feature. Yesterday, the game's senior producer Terry "Fairan" Michaels gave us the latest update in a Producer's Letter posted to Landmark's official site. Landmark, a standalone game that lets players create their own buildings with a powerful creation tool, was always designed to test some systems that will be incorporated into EverQuest Next. Michaels said that after taking care of a recent character and claim wipe and issues associated with it, the team is shifting its focus to those features. "As the team has wrapped up the various pieces related to the wipe and the bugs associated with it, we have been shifting our focus and resources over to work on the highest priority tasks and systems that will be used in EverQuest Next," Michaels said. "While we do this, we're working in areas with high amounts of creative risk. This means that while we know what we want to do, we know it will take an unknown amount of iteration, tweaking and sometimes drastic direction changes to get these in game and working the way they need to. Because of this, we simply cannot commit to any dates, because until we get much closer, even our best estimates are educated (but still fairly wild) guesses." Michaels guaranteed that Landmark will still get updates, but on a less regular scedule than players have been used to over the past year. He also clarified that though the team is shifting its focus to EverQuest Next, that doesn't mean the game will be coming out this year. Development on EverQuest Next and Landmark began under Sony Online Entertainment, but earlier this year the company announced that it was breaking away from Sony to operate as an independent company known as Daybreak Game Company.
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 09:07 pm
A player who goes by the handle Rydou has set a new speedrunning record for Fallout: New Vegas, beating the sprawling post-apocalyptic role-playing game in a mere 27 minutes. Rydou used a few tricks to hit that time that not might be clear just by watching the video below. Rydou skips dialogues at the beginning of the game by quicksaving and quickloading, and the player character isn't taking much damage because the game is set to the very easy mode. Rydou also takes advantage of an interesting glitch to get a speed boost. "When you cripple your leg, you get slower, and then when you heal it, you're supposed to get your speed back," Rydou says in the description to video above. "By quickloading just before getting crippled, you can confuse the game into giving you the speed back without actually ever losing it ( because we don't actually really get crippled). So you get a huge speedboost, and walk at 165% of your walking speed." The other big Fallout news this week, of course, is the release of the first Fallout 4 trailer, which you can watch here.
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 08:30 pm
Just before Bethesda aired the world's first Fallout 4 reveal trailer on Wednesday, you could sense an almost carnival-like atmosphere sweeping through online games communities and social media. Finally, they were all saying. At long last, we can see it. Six years since the release of Fallout 3 (a game that critics still discuss with a tinge of reverence) Bethesda was ready to greet us with its successor. Three minutes and four seconds later, however, the mood had changed. No longer was there unanimous enthusiasm. Instead, comments generally fell into three categories: Those whose exhilaration reached an all-caps climax, those who complained about the graphics, and those who complained about those whom complained. It would be insincere to address this topic without confessing that, yes, I found the trailer to be fairly unmoving. And yes, it was hardly an oil painting. But I wasn't as deflated by the looks as I was with the direction. Retracing the narrative of Fallout 3, and skipping across a world that closely resembles it, could hardly be described as an inspiring choice for a brand new game. Fallout 4's visuals have become a matter for debate - see more of the game's art for yourself by clicking on the thumbnails below.         That's the reason, I think, why people's views on graphics had split and envenomed once the trailer dropped. Quite simply, there was little else worth discussing. For now at least, what we understand about Fallout 4 is that it offers the same kind of hero, with the same kind of story, in the same kind of wasteland. Observe that the most enduring blockbuster franchises (Zelda, GTA, Metal Gear, et al) always shuffle these elements with each new release. So, faced with apparently little else than a next-gen upgrade of an old idea, what else would you discuss other than the merits of the upgrade? But, as much as I understand why some might be disappointed by the graphics, I also think they should keep an open mind about Fallout 4's potential. If it even comes close to what its predecessor had achieved, it will be an intoxicating open-world RPG that is laced with choice, consequence, and character. Fallout 3's inherent ugliness (most of which was designed by choice) never once lowered the game's status as a modern masterpiece. Faced with apparently little else than a next-gen upgrade of an old idea, what else would you discuss other than the merits of the upgrade?
We also need to draw a line under what we really want from trailers. Most of us like to occasionally partake in the drug of hype, but not when the promise becomes unrealistic, with smoke-and-mirror trailers running on ultra-high-end PCs that no console could emulate. If a company like Bethesda provides a realistic graphics target for its game trailers, does that really deserve such scorn? On that point, I'll confess this too; There's always been a bankrupt logic to pre-release game trailer analysis, because it's entirely feasible that the final build will be dramatically different to what the reveal trailer depicts (this would hardly be a first, as demonstrated here, with the first non-cel shaded trailer for Borderlands). All negative assumptions about Fallout 4, and its opening trailer, could easily fall apart once Bethesda shows the E3 build in action. Until then, let's keep the faith.
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 08:30 pm
What are GameSpot's Editors Looking Forward to at E3 2015?
E3 2015 is only a few days away, and it looks set to be one of the biggest shows we've seen in several years. There'll be plenty of exciting news and first looks at some hotly anticipated games, but which ones are GameSpot's editors looking forward to the most? We've asked them to pick their favorites from the gamut of previously announced games (no non-confirmed titles allowed).
Fallout 4
Obsessions over in-game graphics tend to reach their peak-zeal during the early stages of a console cycle, with fans measuring (and, indeed, mocking) the technological gains made when shelling out for pricey new hardware. So it's high time that Fallout 4 puts an end to this charade, because if turns out to be anything like its predecessor, it will deliver an opportune reminder that the defining games of a generation will be about cherished memories and shared stories, not texture density and polygon counts. So far, only a short trailer of Bethesda's new flagship RPG has been showcased, and while it was no Sistine Chapel, it signalled a return to that powerfully fascinating post-war world gone nuclear. Expect it to be as open as a jar of pickles in the hands of The Rock, offering an unbelievably broad range of options to draw your own narrative path through its wasteland. -- Rob Crossley
Halo 5: Guardians
After getting a taste of Halo 5's multiplayer during the Christmas beta, I'm quite excited to see and learn more about the next chapter in Master Chief's saga at E3. There is still so much to learn. What is the story? Who is Agent Locke and why is he hunting Master Chief? How will large-scale multiplayer work? Will we finally see Steven Spielberg's Halo TV series? After the struggles of The Master Chief Collection, I'd also like to hear Microsoft talk about why that won't happen again this year. Being one of Microsoft's crown jewels, you can bet Microsoft will spend a lot of time on Halo at E3 this year. I can't wait. -- Eddie Makuch
Star Wars Battlefront
There's more than just the personal geek appeal of Star Wars that makes me excited to see Star Wars: Battlefront at E3. It's the fact that for me, the modern military fatigue is real, and I can't wait to see what DICE does with a setting that's instantly more appealing than another war-torn urban environment. This is the first time that we're going to see iconic Star Wars locations and battles rendered with the kind of extreme attention to detail that DICE has demonstrated with Battlefield, and I imagine playing the game will invoke a strange combination of nostalgia and awe. It's rare to get that kind of a reaction during the chaos that is E3, but it's exactly the kind of thing that would make a game like Battlefront memorable. -- Daniel Hindes
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
With the map boundaries of modern-day shooters extending further and further outwards, there's nothing more exciting to me than a multiplayer experience designed to keep players within knifing distance of each other at all times. The likes of Battlefield and Call of Duty may capture the shock-and-awe of modern warfare, but they don't hold a candle to the anxiety felt during a one-on-one hunt in the tight corridors of Counter-Strike's cs_office. The drip-feeding of XP is a fleeting satisfaction compared to the euphoric oh-my-god-I-forgot-to-breath moment when you successfully defuse a bomb as bullets criss-cross over your head on de_dust. And let's not forget the horror of leading a conga line of nervous (and prone to getting stuck behind obstacles) hostages from one side of a map to the other as enemies comb the map for your location. Ubisoft's Rainbow Six Siege isn't Counter-Strike, but the core design principles at the heart of Valve's shooter clearly inform it. By confining the action, creating destructible maps, and placing a heavy emphasis on objectives, Siege aims to put tension back into shooters. Set your palms to sweaty. -- Tamoor Hussain
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has been a long time coming. Not just because it was unveiled back in 2012, but because it fills in the last major gap in the Metal Gear saga. It will finally give us insight into how Big Boss, aka Naked Snake, transforms into the character we encountered in the very first Metal Gear game all the way back in the late 80's. The name "Big Boss" may not have had much meaning when it was assigned to the seemingly generic character back then, but for people like me who've gone to great lengths to keep up with the ever expanding Metal Gear story over the years, his name carries a lot of weight. That's not to mention that Phantom Pain also looks great in action. The variety of set pieces that we've seen in trailers is promising, and the open world seems to create a new set of challenges. The prologue released last year, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, was an appetizer; I'm ready to dig into the main course. -- Peter Brown
Kingdom Hearts III
When the credits rolled on Kingdom Hearts II in 2005, we already knew a Kingdom Hearts III was imminent. We've gotten four main series games and four remastered editions of series games since then, and Kingdom Hearts III has yet to happen. We've been teased with trailers and small bits of news the past two E3s, but nothing can compare to good old-fashioned hands-on time. Now that director Tetsuya Nomura is no longer splitting his time with Square Enix's other massive in-development RPG--Final Fantasy XV--we're hoping this will be the E3 we get a little more face time with the latest entry in the beloved Disney-meets-FF series. -- Alexa Ray Corriea
Guitar Hero Live
After five years off, Activision is finally getting the band back together for another gig. While I definitely enjoy Rock Band (which is also coming back this year), nothing beats Guitar Hero in my book. The tracklist so far has been impressive (everything from Ed Sheeran to Mastodon), and the new first-person perspective and live crowd visuals certainly change things up in an exciting way. On top of that is the new controller (no more pinky stretching!) that should make things feel fresh again. And further still, I'm eager to learn more about Guitar Hero TV, the new online mode that basically guarantees that I'll play the game every day. Rock on! -- Eddie Makuch
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
It's not due out until next year, but it's unthinkable we won't see more of Uncharted 4 at E3. Uncharted 4 looks like it'll be the final entry into Nathan Drake's story, as its title, A Thief's End, suggests we'll be bidding the dashing bandit who popularized the half-tuck goodbye as its credits roll. As one of our most hotly anticipated E3 games, we're making a beeline for Sony's booth the second we get to the show floor. -- Alexa Ray Corriea
Street Fighter V
It's been six years since Capcom first released Street Fighter IV, and although the game has been treated to several tweaks and re-released multiple times since then, I think both the series and fighting game scene would benefit greatly from a new numbered entry. Street Fighter II gave us combos, Street Fighter III introduced parries, and Street Fighter IV debuted Focus Attacks. I want to see what new system Street Fighter V will give us. Producer Yoshinori Ono has promised that Street Fighter V will be "something that nobody is expecting" while also encompassing "all that Street Fighter has become." I am hoping this means a fresh new mechanic which makes matches more hype and puts emphasis on good decision making. I'm excited to see where the fighting game genre goes next, and where better place to do that than with the series where it all began. -- Zorine Te
Persona 5
Atlus swears Persona 5 will launch worldwide this fall, so why wouldn't they show us the game in detail at E3? We've briefly seen its main character, its Personas, and it's gorgeous UI, but we know very little about the story. Pandering to a niche audience with a love of sci-fi/fantasy and in-game relationship simulators, Persona 5 is one of the bigger 2015 games tailored to RPG fans. We want to learn more about heros, fuse some Personas, and maybe figure out how we can romance that cute guy in the spandex suit... -- Alexa Ray Corriea
Tom Clancy's The Division
I've been waiting for The Division for a long time. I expressed my excitement for it as one of my Most Anticipated games back in 2013, interviewed the director in 2014 when I was shown a new build of the game, and I'm back again in 2015 to remind Ubisoft that there are people who have been patiently waiting for this third-person shooter since it was first revealed. The Division may have faced multiple delays, but my attention on it still remains undivided. I am still ready to take a squad of friends into post-apocalyptic New York and carve a path through the open-world. I still want to watch more of the game's dynamic weather in action. I still want to find out whether the behaviour of the AI-controlled enemies is as adaptive as I hope it is. I still want to see if Ubisoft will delay this game one more time and shatter my hopes to play it next year. If that happens, then that's when my feelings will be divided.
No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky is the anomaly to nearly every industry trend you can think of. It's a new IP with the same gravitas as an established triple-A franchise; It's a game with an imponderably vast universe built by a team the size of a twinkle; It's a sci-fi epic that replaces the infinite blacks of space with bright bursts of colour; And it's an impossibly ambitious endeavour that everyone still believes can arrive in our lifetime. Here's to the crazy ones, Jobs said. -- Rob Crossley
Mirror's Edge
Revealed at E3 2013, absent from but teased at E3 2014, and the lusty object of every first-person speed-running game lover's eyes, Mirror's Edge 2 needs to be at E3 2015. It just needs to be. We need to see it. We need to touch it. We don't know how we survived the past seven years without another Mirror's Edge, and we don't want to know what it's like going another year without it. -- Alexa Ray Corriea
Doom
It's been a long time since I've played a pure first-person shooter. Wolfenstein: The New Order, the latest iteration of Doom's own ancestor, came close. But its focus on narrative, while accomplished, made it a different experience. Purity, in this case, means the kind of run-and-gun gameplay that the original Doom is known for. It's about simple pleasures: the shuck of a shotgun reloading; the crunch of a demon exploding into gibs; the wild visual palette that melds science-fiction locales with hellish, otherworldly intrusions. Doom itself was a sensory overload, and if this reboot is returning to style and design of the original, then the sensory overload that is E3 will be the perfect place for me to experience the game for the first time. -- Daniel Hindes
Mario Maker
Chances are you've already experienced that boredom-induced epiphany, when trudging through a particularly bad video game, that you become certain you could have done a better job yourself. Mario Maker is an opportunity to test whether those assumptions were correct, only, in this instance you'll be making your own version of perhaps the most important video game franchise of all time. No pressure then. Since Mario Maker was first used as an internal game design tool at Nintendo, chances are that the apparatus at your disposal will be rather powerful, and for that matter, something that legitimately works well with the Wii U GamePad touch-screen. The option to upload creations to an online community will inevitably bring with it a wave of copyright takedowns and irreverent levels designed as phalluses and related appendages. But likely within this sea of smut and Green Hill Zones, the next Miyamoto might be making their mark. -- Rob Crossley
Rock Band 4
I've spent an embarrassing amount of money on Rock Band DLC over the years, and while I don't regret having blown all that cash on songs, I assumed that all of that content was gone now. Forever lost to the digital aether where all of our last-gen downloaded games go. But Rock Band 4 promises to bring those lost tracks back from the dead. Not only that, the plastic instruments packaged away in my closet will see life once again--provided I remembered to take out the batteries and they didn't leak out that horrible, crusty acid everywhere. As a party game, Rock Band was incomparable; a place for friends to get together and show off their respective musical strengths. Belting out karaoke, mashing rhythms on guitar and drums. And if your friends were terrible, No Fail mode ensured that everyone had a great time. I look forward to reliving all of that again, but also to new customizations for my rocking avatar. a new progression through the game with RPG-like elements. and the ability to become a complete sell-out. -- Justin Haywald
Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem
The Odd Couple of video games, or the perfect peanut butter and chocolate-esque combo of RPG bliss? Atlus and Nintendo announced their Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem crossover in January 2013. We heard absolutely nothing about the game for two years, before it re-emerged in a Nintendo Direct with a lengthy trailer and release window. We know next to nothing about this Wii U exclusive, other than it melds the two series' worlds in a way that blends the borders of the real world and a more fantastical one--one filled with sweet, sweet Fire Emblem character goodness. This would be the developer's time to show it off and show us what it's made of. Literally, what's in it? We still don't know. -- Alexa Ray Corriea
Star Fox Wii U
Star Fox is one of my favorite Nintendo series, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to see Star Fox for Wii U announced at last year's E3. It came out of nowhere! Justin Haywald was lucky enough to take a spin in the new Arwing, but I was not. His account left me optimistic however, so I'm hoping this year is my year if it's playable at the show. Nintendo's focused on integrating the GamePad's unique functionality into new games at the moment, and I think it's started to find its groove; Splatoon is a great example this. Given that Star Fox is mostly on-rails, with the camera moving forward automatically, using the GamePad's screen for the cockpit view makes sense, and it could work really well if Nintendo's level design ultimately strikes the right balance between flight- and combat-based obstacles. -- Peter Brown
Untitled Mass Effect
We've been teased and tortured with small leaks and news bites for over a year. For a series so beloved, so critically acclaimed, there's no reason BioWare wouldn't give its fans what they want: another Mass Effect. In April, a survey sent from BioWare to select fans included some very specific details that could possibly be plot points for the next game. Humanity desperately searching where to place its next colony? Dozens of solar systems to explore? A brand new hero AND the ability to still pick the companions you take on missions? This all sounds great, and with tension at all time high, an E3 reveal would be a logical next step. -- Alexa Ray Corriea
The Last Guardian
We want to believe. -- Alexa Ray Corriea
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 08:03 pm
Elite: Dangerous yesterday got a free major update called Powerplay, which add faction gameplay to the space simulator, developer Frontier Developments has announced. Each faction, or "Power," is an organization that controls a section of human-occupied space. Each is led by a different figurehead, and comes with a different biography, political leaning, and faction-specific perks. Players can join one of these Powers, guide their strategy and take on special mission to earn valuable perks, reputation bonuses and credits. Players can take combat-oriented missions or work to expand a Power's trade monopoly. Frontier Developments said that the changes to the mission system are so comprehensive that any incomplete missions you have in progress at the time of the update will be removed from your mission list. You can find out more about the update in the complete patch notes here. Frontier Developments also released a training video for the Powerplay update, which you can watch below.
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 07:27 pm
 Amazon Game Studio is now hiring top talent for an ambitious new PC game project. According to the job posting on Gamasutra, the new game will be using the latest technology, and whoever gets the job will work in Seattle with a team whose previous credits include Half Life 2, Left for Dead, Dota 2, Halo, Infamous, Shadows of Mordor and The Last of Us. "Amazon is committed to gamers, and building great teams who are excited to use Twitch, the AWS cloud, and technical innovation to radically evolve gameplay," Amazon said. "We believe that games have just scratched the surface in their power to unite players and will produce some of the future's most influential voices in media and art." It'll be interesting to see how exactly Amazon's PC game will "use Twitch," the gameplay streaming platform Amazon acquired last year in a $1 billion deal. The giant online retailer has been developing free-to-play Facebook games since 2012, but seemed to get more serious in 2014, when it hired Portal developer Kim Swift and Far Cry 2 and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory developer Clint Hocking. In 2013, Halo writer Erik Nylund joined Amazon as its director of narrative design. If you're interested, you can find out more about the positions Amazon is hiring for here.
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 06:58 pm
Developer Tripwire Interactive released its cooperative first-person shooter Killing Floor 2 in Steam Early Access back in April, and by all accounts it was a great success. In its Early Access review, GameSpot said that Killing Floor 2 was awesome, even if it launched with just three maps and seven characters. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Tripwire Interactive VP Alan Wilson said that Killing Floor 2's Early Access was successful because the developer treated the fact that players were paying $30 for it very seriously.  "We do not subscribe to the view that things that go into Early Access should be broken," Wilson said. "Yeah, there's probably going to be the odd, lurking bug. But at that point, we're asking people to part with their money, and they should not be getting a broken product. I think that's where a number of people are going wrong with Early Access. They're treating it like a paid beta." As Wilson explained, and as we've seen with cases in which Early Access games were in such a poor state Valve had to be pull them from the Steam Store, not everyone takes Early Access as seriously as Tripwire interactive. "I think when they threw Early Access out there, Valve were expecting developers to be... mature about it--let's put it that way--to be mature about it and respect their clients and get it through their skull that you're asking for money at this point, so you do not piss about." Killing Floor 2 hit Steam Early Access on April 21, and is slated for a final release on PC and PlayStation 4 in 2015. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 05:30 pm
THE BIG STUFF:Fallout 4 Announced: After so many rumors, Bethesda finally officially announced Fallout 4 this week. And the news will keep on coming, as Bethesda will talk about and show more of the game at E3 next week. XCOM 2 Announced: 2K this week announced the sequel to its acclaimed turn-based strategy game. It's launching this November only on PC. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Announced: This new bundle for PlayStation 4 will launch in October, featuring remastered versions of the first three games. There's no multiplayer, but it does come with access to the upcoming Uncharted 4: A Thief's End multiplayer beta. THE OTHER STUFF:Video game media veterans Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb will host the first-ever Bethesda E3 press conference, the publisher announced this week. Bethesda kicks off E3 this year, holding its event the evening of Sunday, June 14. Expect Fallout 4 news and more. Oculus VR, the company behind the Rift headset, has an internal VR movie production studio and they announced their next project today--a movie called Harry. It stars a hedgehog who just wants to hug people, but he doesn't get many takers for obvious reasons. Watch a trailer here: DomiNations, the new mobile game from the new version of Big Huge Games, is off to a hot start. 60 days after launch, the game has now seen 7.2 million downloads, as players have trained 1.6 billion troops and battled 50 million times. Open-world Wii U game Xenoblade Chronicles X is huuuge. It takes 31 minutes to run across the entire map, according to a recent playthrough. Disney already has Disney Infinity, but Playmation sounds potentially even more exciting. It morphs real toys with video games and more. Read all about it here.  The Kickstarter campaign for We Happy Few, a drug-fueled psychedelic game from Compulsion Games (Contrast), has now gone live. Pledge at least CAD $60 and you'll receive access to an early build of the game. What's We Happy Few all about? Here's the synopsis. "In We Happy Few, just about everyone but the player is high on a drug called Joy, and they're not fond of Downers. Avoid attracting too much attention to yourself, and you may find a way to escape the eerie city of Wellington Wells." For more on We Happy Few, check out the Kickstarter. The developer of This War of Mine, the intriguing game that showed war from a different perspective, is branching out for its next project. Thanks to the success of This War of Mine, developer 11bit is hoping to make a AAA-style project next. Read all about it here. Following its release for consoles, Ubisoft's Tetris Ultimate is now available on PlayStation Vita. You can buy the game today on Sony's handheld for $30 at physical retailers and $15 through the PlayStation Network as a download. It supports up to two players across nine modes: Battle, Battle Ultimate, Marathon, Endless, Ultra, Sprint, Time's Up, Landslide, and Haunted. Curious about the history of potions in video games? This video, from Curse, acts as a nice primer. The Harvest Moon franchise is expanding to new platforms. Natsume has announced that the next game in the series, Seeds of Memories, will be the first available for Wii U and PC. What's more, Natsume will release a new, as-yet-untitled Harvest Moon game for iOS and Android, the company announced. June's Forza Horizon 2 DLC has been announced and released. The content is called the Duracell Car Pack and it's out now on Xbox One for $5. It comes with five new cars, while everyone gets a free car. Get all the details here. World of Warcraft is a hugely popular, enduring, exciting game. But if there's one critique over the years, it's been that it doesn't look so hot. But what if the game were developed in Unreal Engine 4? It might look something like this totally amazing render. The folks behind the epic video series Man at Arms have published their latest project, and it's amazing. Their challenge was to build Narsil, Aragorn's sword from The Lord of the Rings without using modern blacksmith methods. Amazing. Watch the process here. Big-name game studios Sega and Daybreak (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) have left the Entertainment Software Association. That's the group that represents the video game industry's interests in Washington. They also put on E3 every year. Read the full story here. For the Love of Spock. That's the name of a new Kickstarter documentary from Leonard Nimoy's son, Adam. It's a movie primarily based on Spock, and is hoping to launch next year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. Check out the Kickstarter here. Oculus has announced the winners of its latest VR Jam. Check out the blog post with all the winners, including the $200,000 grand prize, here. Mistwalker's new mobile RPG, Terra Battle, has announced some impressive milestones following the game's release earlier this year. Check out all of the marks here. Cristiano Ronaldo will star alongside a troll named Hugo in a new endless runner game due out for mobile devices. This is not a joke. Check out the first footage of the game, which is called Ronaldo & Hugo: Superstar Skaters, here. Have a great weekend! One more week until E3...
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 05:48 am
 Rejoice vault dwellers, Fallout 4 has a trailer! But do you think it's trying to tell us something? Danny returns to the wasteland to unearth what he believes are secrets hidden within it's frames.
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 05:36 am
1. Back to the Future
It's hard to imagine a film more synonymous with blasting through time than this absolute classic of the genre. It's 2015, and we've yet to see a time travel movie top this big-hearted staple of 1985.
2. Terminator 2
The first Terminator film deserves a lot of cred for kicking off our fascination with time-traveling doomsday robots. But the sequel, along with the fierce Linda Conner, kicks so much ass it makes the competition look like a pile of T-1000 metallic goo.
3. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K, and it takes two rightous dudes with a love for Van Halen to navigate gnarly time paradoxes and save History Day at San Dimas High. Bill & Ted will always be excellent.
4. Donnie Darko
A demonic bunny mysteriously haunts Jake Gyllenhaal, while sketchy teachers and strange talk of cellar doors fill the hours at local schools. Time travel is also involved, in some some not-quite-comprehensible way, but it's best to just let the movie's bizarre tone wash over you. It's a perfect sci-fi treat for Halloween, or any other night of the year you want to be creeped out.
5. 12 Monkeys
Bruce Willis finds himself in a mental institution, along with an amped-up conspiracy theorist played by Brad Pitt, in this oddball thriller. This film easily ranks as one of the best in Terry Gilliam's uneven catalog. Is Willis on a mission from a dystopian future, hoping to prevent a deadly virus from wiping out humanity? Or is he just as delusional as his asylum associates?
6. The Terminator
In addition to putting Arnold Schwarzenegger on the action star map, the first Terminator film is also a "breathlessly kinetic, near-brilliant piece of metaphysical Ludditism," according to author David Foster Wallace. If you like your time travel shootouts laced with intellectual subtext, The Terminator is ground zero for the explosion of the genre.
7. Groundhog Day
Most time-travel films sweep our heroes off to dystopian futures, or deep into iconic historical moments. Unfortunately for weatherman Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray, he's stuck traveling back in time to repeat the most boring day of his life. Over and over and over. As we follow Phil's Sisyphean struggle against mundanity, Groundhog Day unfolds as one of the funniest and most inspirational films of all time.
8. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Often described as the anime film for people who don't like anime, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a surprisingly moving tale of a teen who gains the ability to manipulate time. It's an unexpectedly thoughtful coming-of-age story that offers a unique look at the unintended moral consequences of tinkering with fate.
9. Primer
Primer may take the crown for the most ambitious low-budget feature ever made. This indie film was produced for only $7,000. And yet, it deftly delves into the complicated branching timelines created when a pair of engineers accidentally make a time machine. Prepare to feel thrilled and confused in equal measure.
10. Edge of Tomorrow
It's about time someone took the delightfully comic conceit of Groundhog Day and added breakneck futuristic warfare. Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise are on a suicide mission to defeat alien invaders. The catch: When they die, they awaken, again and again, at the beginning of the same day. With luck, they'll learn from their past mistakes and survive for a moment or two longer. Don't let the blockbuster effects fool you; Edge of Tomorrow is a smart roller coaster ride with a sardonic edge.
11. Looper
Just when you think every sci-fi concept has been wrung dry, Looper arrives with a fun twist. In the future, time travel is exploited to send targets back in time, where they're met by contract killers, effectively enabling the "perfect crime." Of course, it wouldn't be a time travel film if there weren't unpredicted consequences. Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon Levitt star in this fascinating and futuristic game of cat and mouse.
12. Run Lola Run
This movie is in far too great of a hurry to stop and explain how its time travel works. Our red-headed heroine, Lola, races through endless miles of danger against a ticking clock to save her boyfriend's life. It's a kaleidoscopic collage of alternate timelines and catastrophic coincidences, and it never lets up across its 81 action-packed minutes.
13. Superman
Who would have guessed Superman's greatest super power was actually time travel? In a ludicrous, but oddly rousing, last-ditch attempt to save a murdered Lois Lane, Superman flies around Earth at near relativistic speed, rewinding time, and setting right past wrongs. It's both completely silly and triumphant at the same time.
14. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Save the whales! In the fourth Star Trek feature film, Kirk and Spock do just that. After a slingshot maneuver around the Sun flings the Enterprise into 1986, the crew follow the song of near-extinct humpback whales and transport the creatures to safety. You know you've got a charming cast when it can pull off the Free Willy of time-travel movies.
15. Back to the Future II
While the first Back to the Future focused on the recent past, Back to the Future II plunges Doc and Marty head first into a dystopian future ruled by holograms and hoverboard gangs. Its predictions of 2015 may have missed the mark, but the flick still makes for a hilariously campy re-watch.
16. Interstellar
Christopher Nolan's recent outer space epic features Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as astronauts seeking a new home for humanity. The duo faces a host of time paradoxes with serious consequences for the people they love. Interstellar came nowhere near to living up to Nolan's grand ambitions, but the movie is still alright, alright, alright.
17. Galaxy Quest
Galaxy Quest may have the tiniest use of time travel in any film: An Omega bomb sends Tim Allen a mere 13 seconds back in time in an attempt to save his murdered space crew. Galaxy Quest is a manic comedy sendup of cheesy sci-fi tropes, as well as a tribute to all the genre fans who love them.
18. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
It's nearly universal: Most fans love Harry Potter's third film the best, and it's easy to see why. The Prisoner of Azkaban is a redemption story with stakes that feel real, thanks to the young cast's growing acting chops. Harry and Hermione travel back in time in a race to stop the devious Dementors and right past wrongs.
19. Planet of the Apes
A planet where apes evolved from men? Yessir, Mr. Charlton Heston. That's the warped future you landed in after your spaceship crew experienced time dilation. A cult classic that spawned seven sequels and spinoffs, Planet of the Apes is the monkey's paw of time travel films, with an unforgettably iconic closing shot of a broken Statue of Liberty.
20. Source Code
Jake Gyllenhaal returns to the time travel genre with a movie about a personality-hopping solder trying to save a train from a terrorist attack. It's both a fun detective story and a riveting action movie as JG winds back time, looking for the perfect clue. It's also good palette cleanser after his recent turn as a creepy sociopath in Nightcrawler.
21. The Philadelphia Experiment
When a radar program goes awry, an entire naval destroyer gets sucked through time. Come for the fun nuclear physics, stay for the LSD-induced light show straight out of 2001.
22. Star Trek (2009)
Leave it to J.J. Abrams to turn what could have been complicated fan fiction into a grand adventure. He artfully split the canonical and new casts of Star Trek into alternate timelines that actually made sense. If only he could have used those skills to save the last few seasons of Lost.
23. Peggy Sue Got Married
This is a goofy and charming film featuring one of our most common fantasies: What if you could go back to high school for a do-over with your adult knowledge of the future? Watch it in a double feature with Back to the Future for a "his and her" time travel night in.
24. Time Bandits
A renegade band of time-traveling dwarves take an 11-year-old boy through a demented tour of history. The setup sounds like a bad trip at Burning Man, but Time Bandits is actually a highly inventive family film that went onto become Terry Gilliam's first big hit in the US.
25. Flight of the Navigator
If you can remember Flight of the Navigator, you're either ancient, or someone ancient made you watch it. When it came out in 1986, it had a sci-fi premise every kid could get behind: A child wakes up 8 years in the future and must commandeer an alien spacecraft to get back home. See you later, navigator!
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 05:35 am
July 17, 2015: Ant-Man
Featuring Paul Rudd as a thief taking on the ultimate heist, Ant-Man looks like it will include the actor's laid-back charm and some hilarious action set pieces. After a tumultuous development that saw original director Edgar Wright replaced by Peyton Reed, the director of Bring It On, Ant-Man is finally set to release this summer.
May 5, 2017: Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Director James Gunn set Twitter on fire recently when he announced he had completed the first draft of the new Guardians screenplay. Star Chris Pratt has even confessed that the concept for the second film brought tears to his eyes when he heard it. Two years is too long of a wait for the follow up to this awesome new franchise!
July 6, 2018: Black Panther
The upcoming Black Panther film is still shrouded in mystery, but we do have that lovely official concept art above from Marvel to get our imaginations running. Chadwick Boseman, the actor who played James Brown in "Get On Up," is set to star as the iconic first black superhero in mainstream American comics.
May 6, 2016: Captain America: Civil War
The next Captain America film takes place immediately after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which means you can expect to see a broad roster of characters from the Avengers lineup, including Iron Man. Just as the title implies, the new film will feature a showdown between Avengers who find themselves on opposing sides of dangerous new legislation.
November 4, 2016: Doctor Strange
While this won't be the first time Doctor Strange has starred in his own movie, here's hoping it will be significantly better than the low-budget, made-for-TV version that came out in 1978. Now that Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast for the lead role, we can at least count on the black magic neurosurgeon to be charmingly handsome this time around.
July 28, 2017: The Spectacular Spider-Man
Spider-Man has been reset so many times that it seems like the poor guy's had an identity crisis. Marvel is hoping to right the ship with a story rumored to be set around a high-school-age Peter Parker. Marvel's got a great track record, so here's hoping Spidey will be slinging webs with style soon.
November 3, 2017: Thor: Ragnarok
If the third Thor film follows any of the storyline from the Ragnarok comics, prepare for some earth-shattering changes in the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe soon. With any luck, this story will have the same intense impact it had in print.
November 2, 2018: Captain Marvel
With the popularity of "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "The Hunger Games," movie studios are finally realizing that badass women can headline a hit. Fans have been clamoring for Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica to play the leading role. Please, Lords of Kobol. Let's make this happen.
July 12, 2019: Inhumans
If you haven't heard of the Inhumans yet, don't let that put you off. Ever since Marvel turned its lesser-known Guardians of the Galaxy property into an entertaining blast of sci-fi silliness, we've had no worries about this upcoming adaptation. If you want an early glimpse at the Inhumans, check out their storyline in the second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
May 4, 2018: Avengers: Infinity War
A story so nice they had to tell it twice. The next chapter of The Avengers is actually coming in two parts, with the first film hitting in 2018. It'll be exciting to see how Marvel interweaves complex storylines from its vast universe into what looks like the ultimate showdown with Thanos.
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 05:00 am
 Steam Machines, Steam controllers, and Batman: Arkham Knight made Top 5 this week, but you'll never guess the top story of the week.
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 03:31 am
The era of plastic musical instrument is set to return in a big way this year with new hardware-focused rhythm games from Guitar Hero and Rock Band. But while Rock Band is taking a more traditional stance and incorporating both instruments and DLC from previous games, Guitar Hero Live is starting over from the beginning. We'll likely learn more at E3 about exactly how the song system will work, and what the balance will be between on-disc and online music. But in the meantime, we've gotten weekly updates on songs that will be available on the Guitar Hero roster. To learn what goes into choosing those songs, and possibly get some clues as to what additional songs we'll learn about next, we talked with FreeStyle Games studio head Jamie Jackson in the Q&A below. GameSpot: Earlier GH games were very much guitar-focused, but you're branching out into pop and even electronica/dubstep with GH Live. How come? Jamie Jackson: In the past five years since the last Guitar Hero game launched, there has been a complete musical renaissance. I think if you look at the way people now discover music--whether it be through Pandora, Spotify, Soundcloud, or what have you--you find that genres have evolved and diversified so much in the past few years alone. At FreeStyle Games we are insatiable about all different types of music, and we really want that to shine through in Guitar Hero Live. And of course, we're still staying very true to rock. You'll still have the mind-melting heavy metal, both new and classics, and many favorites from the past. You'll also see a ton of new songs that have never been in previous Guitar Hero games. We can't wait for fans to check them out. Are there any core tenets that every song in the game needs to have? At the very base, the song has to have the type of energy that makes it fun to play. With the new six-button layout of the guitar controller, we try to find music that really takes advantage of the design, whether it be through a particularly challenging chord progression or a killer guitar solo. What makes a good Guitar Hero song? I'd say a lot of what I described above. Anything that takes full advantage of the new guitar controller layout. There's that one Gary Clark Jr. song, "Don't Owe You a Thang," that's just so fun to play because your fingers are all over the fret board at a super fast rate. When you get into a flow and you hit all the notes, it's a total rush. How do you balance accuracy and getting that "feel" of playing a guitar versus making something that's just plain fun to jam on? I think that's the beauty of the new guitar controller. Like we've said before, we found in research that there was a barrier to entry with songs that required you to use your pinky finger, or as we affectionately call it, the "danger pinky." So while we wanted to mimic the feel of playing a guitar by altering the button layout to better resemble a chord-playing experience, we also wanted to make the game more accessible through various difficulty levels for those who don't want such a huge challenge. Still, at the top level, all the notes are marked up, so it's gonna be a challenge. Have you focused on different songs because of the button layout (more chord-based tunes versus songs that require lots of work up and down the neck)? Well, the goal is to have a variety of both, and certainly there are some songs that have great catchy hooks and others that have just mad crazy solos. But then you have a bunch of songs that have a mix of both. Take for instance "Cry of Achilles" by Alter Bridge. That song starts with some heavy chords, but then towards the end you have some really interesting tempo changes and a great solo, which we think just makes for a really well-rounded Guitar Hero experience. Why no rhythm guitar? For Guitar Hero Live we really want to make the guitar the star. You are the one anchoring the band with your skills; you are the heart and soul of the song. Have any artists come to you, or have you been doing all the pitching to artists/labels? It's been a good mix of both. We've been working closely with major labels as well as indie ones to get music that we love in the game. It's not uncommon for us to talk to the labels about a certain artist, but then they'll present us with another band and we say, "Yes, get them in this game." We can't wait to announce more songs in the coming months. How are negotiations going with Led Zeppelin? But seriously, have you talked to them? Unfortunately there's nothing I can really say on that front…
By Anonymous on Jun 06, 2015 02:21 am
With just a week left before the end of the Kickstarter campaign for his new game, Bloodstained, Castlevania veteran Koji "IGA" Igarashi and Mega64 have teamed up to release a new video wherein IGA shows off his vampire-hunting skills. The video focuses on the Mega64 guys' encounter with a vampire. Igarashi shows up, whip in hand, to take care of him, but not before embarking on a truly daunting quest to collect the vampire's worldly belongings in order to summon him. The video follows below, but beware there is a bit of NSFW language. Although the video itself doesn't mention the game, this is meant to promote the Kickstarter for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night that began last month. The project has already far exceeded its $500,000 goal, and currently sits at just over $3.4 million. All of that extra money will go toward funding the development of extra content, from additional modes to new levels, music, and more. By surpassing $3 million, it'll now come to Wii U in addition to PS4, Xbox One, and PC; should $3.5 million be raised, a Vita version will be developed, too.
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