Earlier this week, Apple started removing games from the iTunes App Store "because [they] include images of the Confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways." Yesterday, the developer of the critically acclaimed Civil War game Ultimate General: Gettysburg announced that it was allowed back in the the App Store.
"Ultimate General is back! Unchanged," developer Games-Lab said on its official website. "After several late night phone calls with Apple yesterday and today the game has returned to AppStore the way it was... in 1863."
Though Apple originally said it would only remove apps from the store that used the Confederate flag in an offensive ways, even games about the Civil War that included it to be historically accurate were removed.
"We accept Apple's decision and understand that this is a sensitive issue for the American Nation," Games-Lab said after its game was removed. "We wanted our game to be the most accurate, historical, playable reference of the Battle of Gettysburg."
An Apple spokesperson later said that the company would reinstate some games that were wrongly removed, and given the news about Ultimate General: Gettysburg, it seems like it is.
3D Realms and developer Interceptor have released the E3 2015 trailer for Bombshell, an upcoming top-down action role-playing game.
Bombshell was originally conceived as Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, and would have starred the titular, cigar chomping protagonist. However, a lawsuit from Gearbox Software, the current holder of the Duke Nukem IP, made Intercept put that game on hold and eventually reintroduce it as Bombshell.
This is the first look we've had at Bombshell gameplay since March, and in this video the game's Duke Nukem roots are pretty obvious. Last month, a court document from the Gearbox lawsuit showed us some early images of Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, including one of Duke standing next to a black Global Defense Forces truck. You can see the same truck at the 0:09 mark in the video above.
Bombshell will be released in 2015 on PC, PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One. 3D Realms that it will let people play the game for the first time at QuakeCon, which takes place in Dallas, Texas in July.
Welcome back to GameSpot Q&A a weekly section where we ask our staff and readers an interesting discussion question about video games. Look at this as a forum where you and others can discuss and compare your opinions of this beloved hobby of ours. Let us know what your answer is to this week's question in the comments below!
This week's question is:
What's the first game you bought with your own money?
Money wasn't an easy thing to come by when you were younger. If you had any, you most likely didn't have much. This didn't bode well for us being young gamers at the time. That's why buying a videogame, which seemed to cost a fortune back then, was a pretty big deal. So what was the first game you ever bought with your own money? Whether it was bought with a Toys "R" Us giftcard or the hard earned cash from a first part-time job, here are all the first game purchases we've ever made!
Pokemon Yellow | Eddie Makuch
I think the first game I bought with my own money was Pokemon Yellow. My mom took me to KB Toys (RIP KB Toys) on Black Friday and it was a madhouse. I think I also bought a skateboard that day for some reason. As for the game, I definitely got my money's worth, as I certainly sank over 100 hours into the now-classic RPG.
Crash Bandicoot | Mary Kish
I received most of my games as gifts when I was a kid, but I do remember getting a gift card to Best Buy and making a decision to buy Crash Bandicoot on PlayStation. I was drawn to the colorful box art and I always liked playing as an animal. I will always remember the xylophone intro music with the Naughty Dog doghouse logo. Good purchase decision, little Mary.
Crash Bandicoot (1996)
...A bunch of PC Games | Daniel Hindes
It wasn't a single game, but rather a whole bunch of games all at once. I remember receiving about $100 for a birthday (I don't think any 12-year-old kid had ever seen so much money at once) so I went to the local games store and bought, all at in one purchase: Blade Runner, FreeSpace, FreeSpace 2, Wing Commander: Prophecy, and Dune 2000.
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? | Kevin VanOrd
I am so old that it's hard to remember! My mother bought most of the Commodore 64 games I pleaded for, even though we scraped by through most of my childhood and teenage years. If my declining mind is to be trusted, however, it was Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, which I would have bought with money earned from my high-school job. I worked as a dietary assistant in a nursing home!
Body Harvest | Rob Crossley
If we're talking about money I earned from my first ever job (making sandwiches all day long), as opposed to pocket money, then I think the first game I actually bought for myself was a second-hand copy of Body Harvest on the N64. It was actually the very same cartridge that I had traded in a few weeks prior. There was something about this game--which was technically Rockstar North's first GTA-style 3D action title--that lured me back.
Body Harvest (1998)
Comanche: Maximum Overkill | Ty Root
Most of the games I purchased were through gift cards for Christmas and my birthday, for Toys "R" Us for my NES back in late 80s. However, I do remember that the first game I ever bought with my allowance was Comanche: Maximum Overkill. (1992) I believe the game was published or developed by NovaLogic. It was a military helicopter simulator. I even bought a flight stick for it. It was one of my first PC games. I played the crap out of it.
The Sims | Lucy James
The first game I bought with my own money was The Sims: Collector's Edition, which included the base game and the first expansion pack Livin' It Up (Livin' Large in the US). I became utterly besotted with The Sims after playing it at a friend's house, so I saved up my birthday and pocket money to buy it myself.
Quest for Glory IV: Shadow of Darkness | Edmond Tran
Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness. As a kid, I spent lots of time at my friend's place continually marathoning this life-defining Sierra RPG/adventure game series over and over. When I started getting an allowance, the first thing I saved for was the CD-ROM version of QFG4. It was my favorite installment, and it was enhanced with some great voice acting which wasn't in the floppy disk version I was used to. The John Rhys-Davies narration was the bomb.
Quest for Glory IV: Shadow of Darkness (1993)
Jurassic Park | Chris Watters
Jurassic Park for the Sega Genesis is the first one I really remember. My friends and I were SUPER into Jurassic Park, so when I brought the game home and invited them over, it was a big event. I put the game in the system and draped a tissue over it, and when we were all assembled, I whisked the tissue off dramatically. Obviously, that move wasn't as cool as I thought it would be, but we had fun with the game!
Star Control | Peter Brown
The first game I ever purchased with my own "money" was Star Control on the Sega Genesis. With a Toys "R" Us gift certificate that I got for Christmas in hand, I perused the aisles looking for anything that jumped out at me. Being six or seven at the time, I didn't know better than to judge a game by its cover. Looking back, I have no idea why I chose Star Control. The cover features a clawed hand clutching a galaxy, which means as little to me today as it did back then. So, I bought Star Control and tried to play it, but being too young to understand what a sim was, I played it like a shooter. I can appreciate the game now, but at the time, I thought it was a complete waste of an opportunity to get a new game.
Star Control (1991)
SimCity 3000 | Zorine Te
I'm actually having trouble remembering this. I think it was SimCity 3000, which I purchased from my local EB Games at a discounted sale price of $50. It was a lot of money to spend, particularly because my parents didn't believe in giving out pocket money. I feel like I got every cent's worth out of that game! Prior to that, I practically lived off the demo discs that came with the PC PowerPlay and PC User game magazines. When a full game was included, it was like Christmas.
The Fallout 4 special edition includes a replica Pip-Boy that can hold your phone, allowing you to run the Fallout 4 companion app as you play. But if you're going to spend $120 on the special edition, you better make sure you have a phone that can fit inside the Pip-Boy first.
A post to the Bethesda Blog confirmed that the replica Pip-Boy will have foam inserts that fit iPhone 6, iPhone 5/5s, iPhone 4/4S, Samsung Galaxy 5, Samsung Galaxy 4, and most smartphones of a similar size. Larger smartphones like the iPhone 6+ will still let you run the companion app, but won't fit inside the Pip-Boy.
"As we wanted to stay faithful to the dimensions of the in-game model, any smartphones larger than the models listed will not fit inside the wearable device," Bethesda said. "For these larger devices, our Pip-Boy companion app will still be available."
If you've been trying without luck to sign in to PlayStation Network this evening, you're not alone. Large portions of Sony's online system seem to be currently offline.
While at the GameSpot offices we're currently able to access the PlayStation Store from a web browser, the system's storefront is inaccessible by console. And multiplayer games such as Destiny are currently unplayable.
The official PlayStation Twitter account says, "We are aware that you may be experiencing issues with PSN. Thanks for your patience as we investigate."
The PlayStation Service Status page lists affected areas as including account management, gaming and social, and the PlayStation Store.
We'll update this story with further details as they're made available.
This weekend's PlayStation Network Flash Sale just went live, and it slashes the prices of a lot of different fantasy games.
From now until Sunday at 11 AM PDT, you can grab several games on sale. Some of the highlights include Telltale's Game of Thrones, which is reduced by 50% to $12.50 on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3; Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen which will cost you only $13.20 on the PS3, a discount of 67%; and Tales of Xillia 2, which is down to $14 on the PS3.
Several PS4, PS3, and Vita games are included in the flash sale. You can see the full list below.
PS4:
Game
Sale Price
Original Price
Bound by Flame
$14.00
$39.99
CastleStorm Definitive Edition
$5.25
$14.99
Game of Thrones
$12.50
$24.99
Hand of Fate
$8.00
$19.99
How to Survive: Storm Warning Edition
$3.80
$19.99
Lego The Hobbit
$10.00
$19.99
Never Alone
$6.00
$14.99
Omega Quintet
$24.00
$59.99
Rack N Ruin
$4.50
$14.99
Road Not Taken
$5.25
$14.99
Shadow Warrior
$7.50
$29.99
Ziggurat
$6.00
$14.99
PS3:
Game
Sale Price
Original Price
Blood Knights
$4.50
$14.99
Bonk's Adventure
$1.20
$5.99
Bound by Flame
$10.50
$29.99
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
$3.75
$14.99
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
$13.20
$39.99
Dungeon Explorer
$1.20
$5.99
Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
$4.50
$14.99
Elminage Original
$3.75
$14.99
Game of Thrones
$12.50
$24.99
Lego The Lord of the Rings
$5.00
$19.99
Might and Magic: Duel of Champions Forgotten Wars
$3.50
$9.99
Myst
$2.40
$11.99
New Adventure Island
$1.20
$5.99
Of Orcs and Men
$5.00
$19.99
Risen 3: Titan Lords
$12.00
$29.99
Sacred 3
$12.00
$29.99
Tales of Graces f: Knight Edition
$16.50
$54.99
Tales of Xillia
$9.00
$29.99
Tales of Xillia 2
$14.00
$39.99
Vandal Hears: Flames of Judgment
$3.00
$14.99
Vita
Games
Sale Price
Original Price
Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment
$14.00
$39.99
Hyperdimension Neptunia ReBirth1
$6.00
$29.99
Tales of Hearts R
$14.00
$39.99
Mind Zero
$10.00
$24.99
Fate/EXTRA
$6.99
$9.99
Monster Monpiece
$4.00
$19.99
New Little King's Story
$5.00
$19.99
Soul Sacrifice
$4.50
$14.99
Valkyria Chronicles 2
$5.00
$9.99
Pocket RPG
$5.25
$14.99
Dungeon Hunter Alliance PS Vita
$6.75
$26.99
Warriors of the Lost Empire
$1.20
$5.99
Which games interest you? Let us know in the comments.
Well, the end of the story that began with the original StarCraft, anyway. When StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void is released later this year, we will know the fates of Jim Raynor and Kerrigan, along with Artanis, the Protoss leader desperately trying to unite his race in the face of Amon's threat. Before then, however, we will also get a taste of what's to come: Blizzard will be releasing a free standalone trio of missions called Whispers of Oblivion, which will focus on Zeratul, the Dark Templar who was last seen giving a piece of The Prophecy to Kerrigan. Expect to hear more about Whispers of Oblivion sometime in July.
At E3 2015, I sat down with a quartet of Blizzard talent: Matt Morris, Lead Story Designer; Jason Huck, Lead Designer; Tim Ismay, Design Producer; and Tim Morten, Lead Producer. It takes a village to birth a story as big as StarCraft II's, of course, and I asked the team a number of questions about Blizzard's storytelling approach.
GAMESPOT: What's the story development process like for this? How much does mission design lead where the story goes, and how much does story lead what kind of mission you create?
ISMAY: I would say there's a lot of back and forth on that. You know, when we announced that we're going to take StarCraft II and make two or three games out of it, we still had a concept or an idea as to how the whole story would end. Even across all the games, we've always had, "Here's the big moments that we want to show, here's the big moments." Working with Jason [Huck], working with Chris Metzen and the lead writer, James Waugh, we sat in the room and just kind of hashed out the big story. And then we take those story points and we come back to the design team. Jason and I work with all the designers, and we sit in a room and say, "Hey, here's some big pieces. How do we want to create that journey?" And sometimes along the journey we'll come up to a point where we're like, "This really is not going to work for the game change," and we'll go back to the writer and say, "Hey, can we get some changes here," and sometimes they'll look at the story and say, "Hey, I need to make a change." So it's very collaborative in that sense.
One of my favorite missions in Wings of Liberty is the one where the supernova is coming across the planet and you have to work really hard to finish fast. How does something like that come about?
MORTEN: Lucky for you, the designer that built that map is right here!
HUCK: That's a good case of us saying we really want this awesome mechanic, and so in regards to the story with that then, it wasn't really a critical story moment in there. I mean, you were getting a piece of the artifact. It's kind of critical, but how you got it was left up to the designers to come up with the game plan. The most important story point there was that Claire must get another piece of the artifact, so we're like, "Cool. What are we naming this mission?" And so this falls right in there. Get the piece of the artifact before we are destroyed by the wall of fire.
With the prologue and with Legacy of the Void in general, how do you match the excitement levels of the story with the excitement levels of the mission? What have you done on Legacy of the Void to make these pieces more or less match as they move along?
MORRIS: The team that built Wings of Liberty is for the most part still the team that's building Legacy of the Void, so we've got a lot of practice. We've been doing this for a while now, and so when we came across these story points, we were able to look at a lot of mistakes that we might have done in the past. We're able to refine this moment and say, "Hey, here's a good mechanic that really matches those story points. Why don't we give this a try?" We're very aware of making sure that the story is on point with the game designers, but we're always wanting to make sure that the gameplay is something that drives the story. So I would just say at this point, because we've been doing this for so long, we've got a really good knack, and so a lot of the missions you'll see in Legacy and in Whispers of Oblivion are going to show good story and good gameplay, merging them together.
MORTEN: And I'll say because I observed this from the production side: There's a feedback loop that happens, so Jason described how to add those story objectives that get set up around a mission. The mission will get implemented and the writers will go back and look at it and think about, "What's the dialog that should happen around this," and that might have some influence on the finer points of how this story plays out. After that, they keep going back and forth until it all gels.
ISMAY: Like Matt was talking about, they kind of lay out these tempos of what we want to hit. We want the player to be feeling like, "I'm really winning right now," or losing, or things are really desperate right here. Sometimes even people that have never played the campaign before will grab someone else and ask them, "How is this vision to you? How do you feel from the audience?" We actually get feedback that says, "I feel like I'm just getting destroyed right now. You know, I won, but I feel like it's really desperate and I didn't actually accomplish that much." Then we'll talk to the writers and we'll actually ask, "Is that where we should be in the story, should we be winning right now? Should things be a little dark right now?"
I typically don't like the opening missions of RTSs. Like, "Here's one unit, lead it around, like you've never played an RTS before." But with StarCraft II, I love those missions, because they engage in world-building. Can you give me any examples in Legacy of the Void where you teach the player something, but you're actually doing more than just teaching?
MORRIS: [The opening mission of Wings of Liberty] went through a lot of different iterations. This has been a long time since people have been introduced to StarCraft. The fantasy that we were selling from the very first opening cinematic scene, Jim Raynor sitting there at the bar and he's seeing Arcturus Mengsk up on the screen saying, "Jim Raynor, you're a rebel. You're an outcast." And it put him in a place of motion as to what is this character all about.
He's got a small group of guys. He's just Jim Raynor. So most of those missions are always developed from the idea that he couldn't go head to head against Arcturus. So that first mission set up that vibe as you went through the whole campaign. He's very strategic in the way he was attacking those missions. The propaganda was another point in selling the fantasy that, "Oh, the big, bad emperor is brainwashing the backwater civilization here," and saying, "Jim Raynor's bad," and [Raynor] is saying, "No, I'm not bad. Look: I'm helping you out."
Do you use that same kind of thought process for Legacy of the Void in terms of establishing Protoss characters? There's something more mystical about the Protoss than "space cowboy" or "evil hive mind."
MORRIS: We're definitely in a different spot now, because in Heart of the Swarm, you had to have Wings of Liberty, so we could start missions differently. But we still had to teach you how to play Zerg. We wanted to make sure that was successful. Now that Legacy of the Void is going to be standalone, we now have to think about how there might be a huge audience coming in that haven't played StarCraft. So there is this thought process of distilling it down to something that's manageable, and it doesn't overwhelm the player, so they can understand what it's like to play Protoss, and what the Protoss want to do. We are taking that path to make sure that it's successful in that sense, and it's a very easy transition to a new race that you might not be familiar with.
MORTEN: There is a story mechanic that may be worth touching on in relation to this. There's one character who's the engineer on the ship, like the "Scottie." He's a mechanic through which new technologies and advancements can be spoon-fed to the player in a way that's digestible but hopefully still interesting, because as you're suggesting, it's story relevant. It's not just, "Here, learn this mechanic."
ISMAY: I think it's something the writers have struggled with as well. We want the characters and the story as a whole to be very relatable, something that you can understand, that you can empathize with these characters. But we actually want it to feel alien, to feel kind of weird. So you don't want to push it too weird because then it becomes unrelatable, but you make it too human and now it doesn't feel cool and alien anymore. So that is actually a line that we ride, and I think we ease you into it pretty well.
Is there a danger in losing the player when you write something in which the stakes are so big? I think of something like, when I watch Star Wars, I don't really feel anything when Alderaan is destroyed, but I do feel something when Luke Skywalker and Vader meet. Is there a danger in losing a personal element?
MORRIS: I think you absolutely said it right, which is that these big moments can be kind of cool, but how's that impact you as a player being invested in these characters? James Waugh, the writer on this, has done a fantastic job of getting this information to the players pretty quickly without making it too sophisticated. You will be invested in these characters, so when these big galactic moments happen, you're like, "How did this impact this character?"
MORTEN: This is still Raynor and Kerrigan's story, so ultimately that does factor into this. Legacy of the Void focuses on the conflict against Amon and the Protoss as a race, but there is still as a backdrop, Rainer and Kerrigan's story left to resolve.
You're not saying this is the end to StarCraft forever or anything like that, but obviously you're bringing this particular story to a close. I'm curious about the mood of the team in general now that this story is reaching its finale.
MORRIS: It's a good thing for me. I'm actually super excited. Reading reactions to fans as they played Wings of Liberty, and reading the reactions to Hearts of Swarm, there's a lot of questions that the forums and the general fans have been asking that I wish I could just go in there and answer for them, but I can't because we haven't finished the story yet. So I'm really excited to see the story finally come out and people go, "Oh my gosh, that is the story."
MORTEN: Yeah, I guess it's kind of a bittersweet ending for me. Like working on a game that I've played as a child and now working on it, and being part of the ending, being part of the people to come up with the ending for everything, it's really awesome at the same time. It's like, "Wow," but sad at the same time. We want to give you a really great final ending to the story, to these characters, because we we're done with StarCraft II. The game's going to go on, but bringing that closure for everyone is a really good ending.
Star Wars: Battlefront, DICE's upcoming reboot of the Star Wars shooter series, is getting an alpha test, and you can now apply to be a part of it.
According to Battlefront's website, players with both a PC and an EA Origin account can apply for entry into the closed alpha. You simply log into Origin and the website will immediately tell you whether or not you've gotten into the test.
If you didn't get in, EA's website states more chances to play Battlefront early will be announced through the EA social media channels and newsletter.
There's no information currently about how long the alpha test will last, or if EA will open it up to more people soon. Check back on GameSpot for more news as it becomes available.
Tetsuya Nomura, known for his work on the Final Fantasy series, has done several redesigns of comic book characters in the past. Now, you can check out the first official images of his version of Catwoman.
Designed for Final Fantasy developer Square Enix's Variant Play Arts line of toys, this Catwoman has received quite the overhaul. In this redesign, she's equipped with a purple visor, a segmented, spiky metal tail, and some vicious-looking claws on her fingers.
You can check out a few images of the figure below, courtesy of Toy Ark:
Last year, Nomura announced that he had stepped down from his role as director of Final Fantasy XV to focus full-time on Kingdom Hearts III. Square Enix is generally known for its Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Deus Ex series of games, but also has a robust merchandise branch that's responsible for these toys.
Nomura has done a bunch of other awesome character redesigns for the toy line, including Iron Man, Batman, Star Wars characters, and Thor. Square Enix has yet to announce a price for his Catwoman figure. We'll likely see more of the figure next week at San Diego Comic-Con.
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