The Dramatic Opening Moments Of Blade & Soul

Wildly popular Korean fantasy MMOBlade & Soul finally launches in North America and Europe this Tuesday. Check out the thrilling opening sequence players in the early head start are experiencing over and over right now. Rather than speak over the action, I went ahead and recorded the opening sequence of the game without commentary, as…

TMNT: Mutants In Manhattan Screens Leak, Because Of Course They Do

Add cel=shaded screenshots to the Australian rating, achievements and cover art for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants In Manhattan. The still unannounced gamehas leaked so much I’m beginning to suspect Activision is trying out a new viral marketing technique. Perhaps last year’s pre-E3 leak of Transformers: Devastation worked out so well that somewhere behind-the-scenes there’s…

This Week In The Business: Digging Just The Right-Sized Hole

QUOTE | “We don’t want to dig too big a hole.” – Oculus VP of product Nate Mitchell, explaining why the company isn’t selling the Rift hardware below cost, at least for now. Elsewhere in the business of gaming this week… STAT | 38% – GameStop’s year-over-year increase in holiday software sales for Xbox One…

Report: Iran Frees Imprisoned American Game Developer

Amir Hekmati, the former U.S. Marine and one-time game developer, has been freed from an Iranian prison after more than four years in captivity, according to an Iranian news report. The Iranian-American was serving a 10-year prison term, reduced from a death sentence, related to charges of espionage against Iran. His family and the U.S.…

After Years Of Injuries, One Of The UFC’s Most Intriguing Fighters Is Back

This weekend’s UFC fight has been four years in the making. Dominick Cruz pioneered a nigh-untouchable Matrix-like fighting style and dominated a whole division with it. Then he got injured. For years. While he was away, TJ Dillashaw claimed his belt with remarkably similar moves. Now, they’re finally gonna fight. I’ve written about TJ Dillashaw…

ARK: Survival Evolved On Xbox One Gets First Big Update, More Servers Coming

The absurdly popular Xbox One early access game ARK Survival Evolved is supposed to be getting more than a hundred extra servers, according to a press release today. They’re not live yet, as the game’s several hundred servers remain stuffed. The promise of added support should give people a slightly better chance to get into…

Slime Rancher Is A Very Cute Game About Ranching Slimes

Slime Rancher is a popular new Steam game where you adventure around, vacuum up smiley little slime creatures, plop them in a cage, and harvest their, um, poop. All the while, you try to stop them from growing miserable. It kills me to see them frown. A well-crafted start screen, I think, can provide a…

Oh Hey, A Bunch Of People Played The Division 

A few days ago a bunch of members of the gaming press went and played Ubisoft’s upcoming tactical shooter/RPG Tom Clancy’s The Division. Let’s see what they thought of it. We didn’t attend the preview event (obviously) but the embargo lifted this morning and there are enough substantive hands-on demo videos out there that I…

Some Of The Coolest Stuff That Was Cut From Fallout 4

Fallout 4 was not always the game that we actually got to play. Like most games, it changed and morphed during development—and it’s fun to look back on what could have been. In this video, I show a few things that never made it into the post-apocalyptic trash collecting game, from quests to alternate character…

Nintendo Is Deleting People’s Mario Maker Stages Without Telling Them Why

When Mario Maker launched, Nintendo warned players it could remove stages from the game for a variety of reasons, including ones that were merely unpopular. Nintendo has made good on that threat, but folks in the Mario Maker community are upset because it’s not really clear what “unpopular” means. Here’s what Nintendo originally outlined: Notice…

John Romero Releases First DOOM Level In 21 Years

One of the creators of DOOM is back with something special. Romero released “Tech Gone Bad” out of the blue this morning, which he described as a “warm-up.” A warm-up to what, though? Hmm. Here’s how Romero describes the setup for this stage: After exiting the Computer Station you knew the worst was up ahead.…

Does Obama Collect Amiibo Or What [UPDATE: Wait]

This afternoon, U.S. president Barack Obama took interviews with a few YouTube celebrities, and hey wait a minute are those Amiibo? Does Obama collect Amiibo? Which do you think is his favorite? Does he really have TWO Luigis? UPDATE (4:37pm): Wait a minute. As our commenters have pointed out, these aren’t in fact Amiibo but…

OK Katana Zero, you have my attention. The game is being billed as a “a fast paced neo-noir action platformer,” and it looks equal parts slick and brutal. Among other things, the game will let you slow down time and interrupt characters during conversations. It’ll be out sometime this year. Watch the full trailer below.

What Made Final Fantasy VII Special

As the new year rolls on, so does Worth Reading, our weekly collection of the best games writing around the web. Here’s what I’ve found. Hey, You Should Read These “The afterimage of Final Fantasy VII” by Christian Nutt A remake of Final Fantasy VII, despite Square Enix’s public reservations about the project over the…