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Minecraft Creator Shelves His Space Game, but Fans Want to Revive It [Corrected]
0x10c (often pronounced “ten to the c”) was for a time the next big thing from Mojang and Markus “Notch” Persson, creator of Minecraft. It was to be a sprawling sandbox space adventure, but Persson put the project on hold back in April, citing creative difficulties, and then this week said he’d shelved it altogether.…
By Owen Good -
Source: EA’s Next College Football Game Will Only Lose One Team
The next edition of EA Sports’ embattled college football series will lose only one school from a lineup of more than 120 next year, though two conferences will stop licensing their trademarks to the game, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. The Southeastern Conference, which yesterday told ESPN it would opt…
By Owen Good -
NBA 2K14 Calls the Crew Back to the Court
My Crew—the cooperative multiplayer mode introduced in NBA 2K10 but absent from the series for the past two years—will return for NBA 2K14, 2K Sports said today. The mode will be available only on current-generation versions of the game. In My Crew, gamers could take their created basketball player from the game’s career mode (“My…
By Owen Good -
Three Major College Conferences Will Stop Licensing EA Sports Games
The Pac-12, the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference—cornerstones of major college football—will no longer license their league’s symbols or trademarks to EA Sports. While the 40 members they represent may still appear in future video games, the departure of these leagues is a painful blow to the series. The Southeastern Conference is home to…
By Owen Good -
The Latest Call of Duty Sends You a Squad to Fight With—or Against
Multiplayer in Call of Duty: Ghosts will introduce the “Squad,” a group of up to ten soldiers with unique loadouts and appearances, with one level of prestige per character. These guys will also join you, as AI teammates—or adversaries—in a new mode called, of course, Squads. This video does all of the explaining, but the…
By Owen Good -
Two Modes Offer New Twists on Call of Duty‘s Multiplayer
“Cranked” and “Search and Rescue” will join the playlist in Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ multiplayer this year, offering variants on the game’s team deathmatch staples. As discussed at today’s multiplayer event in Los Angeles, in Cranked, a kill will boost a player’s speed and other attributes but it’ll also start a countdown clock; get another…
By Owen Good -
Call of Duty: Ghosts Features Female Soldiers in Multiplayer
At the big multiplayer event for Call of Duty: Ghosts underway right now, the mode’s hype reel closed out with a close-up shot of a female character, which would be a first for the franchise. Women have not been featured in multiplayer before but one was playable in the campaign of Call of Duty: Finest…
By Owen Good -
See the New Call of Duty‘s Multiplayer for the First Time Right Here
We’ve heard about its campaign. We’ve heard about its story. We’ve heard about dogs and fish. But we haven’t heard what Call of Duty: Ghosts has planned for multiplayer. That changes at 1:30 p.m., when Infinity Ward reveals what’s in store for us there. The news is streaming live, and you can watch it all…
By Owen Good -
NFL’s Sunday Ticket Pulled from PlayStation 3
DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket, the service delivering all over-the-air NFL games broadcast on Sunday afternoons during the league’s regular season, will no longer be offered on the PlayStation 3. IGN reports that Sony has confirmed the end of the arrangement. For the past two years, Sunday Ticket had been offered over PlayStation Network through an…
By Owen Good -
Running with Madden’s ‘Anti-Turbo’ Button is an Imprecise Task
Everyone sits on the turbo button in a sports video game. Its use was so ubiquitous, Madden‘s makers even removed turbo, before bringing it back. If the Madden NFL 25 demo is any indication, players will now clamp on two triggers: good old turbo, or a “precision modifier” that didn’t exactly win me over when…
By Owen Good -
In Saints Row, Everyone’s Beautiful in Their Own Way—Except ‘Big Bob’
Saints Row IV is rather proud of the fact that its character creation options are 100 percent sex-unrestricted. You want to give a dude the Karlie? Go for it. Lady with a chinstrap beard? All in a day’s work. The price of such freedom, however, are some hideous creations taking place in the “Inauguration Station.”…
By Owen Good -
Creators of the ‘StarCraft MMO’ Seek $80,000 to Make It Free-to-Play
StarCraft Universe, the “StarCraft MMO” concept that got a bunch of Blizzard’s lawyers itchy and nervous a couple of years ago, is aiming toward a full fledged release—with Blizzard’s permisson—and is looking for $80,000 in Kickstarter funding to do so. StarCraft Universe did release a version—SCU: Chronicles of Fate—over Battle.net earlier this year, but the…
By Owen Good -
Get a League of Legends AmEx (It’s a Debit Card, Though)
Typical credit or debit cards offer incremental rewards for purchases—frequent flier miles, cash back, etc. American Express and Riot Games will offer a debit card that returns points for in-game purchases in League of Legends, the New York Times reports. The arrangement will be announced Wednesday, says the Times, and the incentive currency it returns…
By Owen Good -
PC Game Helped NASCAR Driver Dominate Its Famous Road Course
NASCAR, commonly derided as turning left for 400 miles, does feature a couple of road courses in its top circuit. Reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski has had unusual success at one of them, Watkins Glen International, and he attributes it all to playing a PC video game as a teenager. Keselowski won the Nationwide…
By Owen Good -
A Huge Roster Delivers ’30 Years of Wrestlemania’ to WWE 2K14
WWE 2K14 will deliver more than 45 all-time great bouts and a roster loaded with Wrestlemania’s greatest superstars in a showcase mode that pays tribute to three decades of wrestling’s premier spectacle. “30 Years of Wrestlemania,” is the title of the mode, and the big takeaway for gamers is what it mean to the game’s…
By Owen Good -
The First 151 Pokémon, Drawn by 151 Different Artists
Three weeks ago, freelance animator Justin Chan put out a call over Twitter for 151 different artists to draw the 151 Kanto Pokémon. Yesterday, Chan published a wallpaper (full-size version here) of their labor, all signed by the artist’s Twitter handle. A collaboration for the Johto Pokémon will begin in September.
By Owen Good -
Live in California? You Can Rent Arcade Cabinets for $75 a Month
If you’ve got $75 a month to burn and live in California, you can get a 250-pound arcade cabinet running a 30-year-old game delivered to your door. This is the service offered by All You Can Arcade, a San Francisco business that opened shop last month. If all goes well, it’ll expand to the east…
By Owen Good -
Esports
See StarCraft‘s World Championship Series’ Semifinals and Finals Live
The final day of competition for StarCraft‘s World Championship Series, America region—begins now, and you can view all of it here live. The day will feature two semifinal matches in a best-of-five format: Jaedong (Korea) against Scarlett (Canada) and TaeJa against Polt (both Korea.) The finals will be contested afterward. Three regions are sending players…
By Owen Good -
Someone’s Making a $90,000 Metroid Movie Without Nintendo’s Permission
Didn’t we just go through this with Final Fantasy VII? Someone wants to make a Metroid fan film. They’re raising $90,000. They don’t have any agreement with Nintendo. Of course they don’t. Metroid: Enemies Within launched on Kickstarter on Friday and seeks to fund a 10-minute film pitting Samus against Sylux, the antagonist from the…
By Owen Good
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