Visit the Real Princess Mononoke Forest

Lush green. Magnificent cedars. Moss-covered rocks. The setting looks like something out of the acclaimed 1997 anime Princess Mononoke. Turns out, it is. Appealing to hikers and anime fans alike, the Japanese island of Yakushima is a World Heritage site, famed for its unique beauty, wildlife, and trees that are thousands of years old. The…

EndWar Returns As A Surprisingly Fun Tower-Defense Game

Of the following facts, I’m not sure what’s more surprising: Tom Clancy’s EndWar, the decidedly odd, voice-controlled console real-time strategy game, is making a return. It’s coming back as a free-to-play tower defense game. And what do you know, it’s pretty fun. Last week at Ubisoft’s Digital Day press expo, I was surprised to see…

It’s Easy To Fall In Love With This Wistful WWI Adventure Game

Everyone, meet Valiant Hearts. Valiant Hearts, meet everyone. I think you guys are gonna get along pretty well. Of all the games that Ubisoft had on display at last week’s “Digital Day” event, Valiant Hearts: The Great War was the most welcome surprise. Out of nowhere comes a gorgeous, hand-illustrated tale of lost souls finding…

The Far Cry 3 Guys Are Making A JRPG, And It’s Gorgeous

Behold Child of Light, an upcoming JRPG from the creative minds behind Far Cry 3. It looks just lovely And… wait… did I just type “JRPG” and “Far Cry 3″ in the same sentence? Yep, I did. This game is the work of Far Cry 3 creative director Patrick Plourde and lead writer Jeffrey Yohalem,…

Is That A Cutlass In Your Pocket, Or Is It Assassin’s Creed: Pirates

Alongside the playable demos at last week’s Ubisoft press day stood a lone television looping a trailer for something called Assassin’s Creed: Pirates. It’s a new Assassin’s Creed game for mobile devices, and what do you know? It features pirates. According to press materials, the game will cast you as Alonzo Batilla, a pirate (drink!)…

A Revamped Assassin’s Creed: Liberation Is Coming To Consoles

I really did want to play Assassin’s Creed: Liberation. New Orleans! Creole accents! Bayous! A badass black lady protagonist! And yet… I never did. Finally, it looks like that’s going to change. At Ubisoft’s “Digital Day” event last week, I had a chance to check out a bunch of Ubisoft’s upcoming download-only games. The first…

Battlefield 4’s PC Specs Prefer Big Rigs And…Windows 8?

EA and DICE have released the specs for the PC version of Battlefield 4. And hey, guess what. It’s demanding. Let’s ignore the minimum specs, and head straight to the more interesting stuff: what the developers think you’ll need to really get the game singing Seems you’ll need a 3GB video card, a 4/6-core CPU,…

Oh Look. Another Gorgeous Indie Game On The PS4.

Pavilion is a game that, having been first announced last year for phones and PC, will now be making the jump to Sony’s PS4 (and Vita!) “sometime next year”. Described by the two-man dev team as “a fourth person exploratory experience about guidance, influence and subliminal control”, it’s got some stunning hand-drawn art and a…

In A Perfect World, This Is The Only Game I’d Ever Play

It would be a mobile game. A 2D “port” of the Persona 4 experience. Side-scrolling, but with all the dialogue, characters and battles from the 3D version in place. And that sweet art style. Like P3P’s paring down of the series’ essence taken to its most extreme conclusion, basically. If you’re wondering who to thank,…

A Genesis Cult Classic Is Coming Back (For The PC)

General Chaos was a Genesis game that, in the grand scheme of things, few people played and even fewer remember. Which is a shame, as it was one of the smartest and most innovative games on the platform, one whose DNA can still be seen today in games like Team Fortress 2. So it’s fitting,…

You’ve Played as Master Chief. Why Not Try Playing As Cortana?

The Fall is an upcoming indie game that, as you might have guessed by the headline, flips a famous gaming convention on its head. It’s not an official Halo game, of course, but the inspiration is clear, in that you’re assuming the role of an AI that helps control the armoured combat suit of a…

Beyond: Two Souls Looks Very, Very Sad

Which shouldn’t surprise you. It’s not like Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain were a laugh-a-minute. But there’s something all this concept art from the game that just bums me out. Well, the parts with the children’s rooms and sad little girls, that part does. The rest reminds me that this game is really weird, because…

Catchy Tune Made Entirely Using…Game Console Sounds

Not the sounds from games, the sounds of actual consoles. Start-ups, menus, that sort of stuff. This is crazy. If you look closely, you’ll see some other effects are a Dark Souls box opening, using the 360’s vents as a washboard, flicking some thumbsticks and…slapping a PS3. So catchy! Console Wars [liltommyj, via Gamefreaks]

Are You Man (Or Woman) Enough To Try 23 Year-Old Mario Food?

$450. That’s all that stands between you and a date with destiny. And, most likely, a hospital bed. An eBay seller is trying to offload a box of Super Mario Bros. 3 “Assorted Real Fruit Snacks”. From 1990. Sure, they’re mint in box – somehow -but 23 years is a long time, even taking preservatives…

Capcom, A Game This Pretty Needs A Better Name

Deep Down looks like what happens when Capcom figures “let’s put Dark Souls and Assassin’s Creed together!”. It sounds like “I’ll have a Deep Down, potato & gravy and three pieces of original recipe chicken, thanks”. Ah well. We don’t really know much about the PS4 game, but the clip shown at Sony’s pre-TGS presser…

Paypal Won’t Give Indie Devs Their Money

The small team behind indie fighting game Yatagarasu Attack on Cataclysm have a problem. Despite raising nearly $120,000 on crowdsourcing site Indiegogo – twice what they asked for – they can’t get their hands on over half the cash. Online shopping intermediaries Paypal have emailed the team and told them: The email from PayPal advises…

Watch The Forging of a League of Legends Champion’s Blade

Man At Arms’ master swordsmith Tony Swatton returns, this time forging what may be the most complicated weapon he’s made yet: the Zenith Blade, from League of Legends. Bonus: not only does a Leona cosplayer get involved in the “smash stuff” portion of the show, we also get to see the reaction that Riot Games…

It’s Hard Not To Get Pumped About This PS4 Feature

Watching this PlayStation ad, it really sunk in for me: it’s one thing to hear about the ability to play/stream PlayStation 4 games remotely on your Vita, should you own one. It’s another thing entirely to see that feature in action and realize, holy crap, it’s like I have a portable PlayStation 4 in my…

When are we getting Final Fantasy XIV on PlayStation 4? Today Square Enix announced the beta for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will launch on February 22 for the PS4. Even better, owners of the PlayStation 3 version will be able to upgrade for free.

Holy Walking Dead, Batman! That’s One Massively Ugly Action Figure

Standing 13 inches tall and sporting a removable chest piece that reveals his internal organs, DC Collectibles’ $90 Arkham City Solomon Grundy figure is the most hideous rendition of the character yet. With DC’s resident mutant zombie set tomake a return in the portable installment of Batman: Arkham Origins, now is the perfect time for…