A Slightly More Convincing Reason For The Xbox One’s Forced Online

There’s a very good argument that Microsoft’s biggest failure this week was not its Xbox One policies, but its messaging. The way gamers were lumped with obligation, instead of opportunity Take the console’s mandatory online check-in. For nearly every single one of you, that will never be a problem, at least on your end (should…

We’re Slightly Less Than a Year Away From the Next E3

As is tradition, show organizers wished E3 attendees farewell on this final day of E3 with a banner to tell them when to come back. Mark your calendars. Please note: the excitement always begins the day before E3, on the day of the big Microsoft, Sony, EA and Ubisoft press conferences . That’ll be June…

The Witcher‘s Anti-DRM Studio Finds Itself in a Bind with Xbox One

Few major developers could be as publicly anti-DRM as CD Projekt Red, makers of the Witcher series. Yet there they were with The Witcher 3, getting a good five minutes of stage time with the Xbox One, the face of console DRM going forward. The studio is committed to releasing on Xbox One but none…

This Is The Most Confusing Game I Saw At E3

It’s called Hohokum and it’ll be out on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and Vita (though what you see here is on the PS4). You control a snake-like character while you explore worlds and discover new ones. You help in-game characters and creatures locate items and other characters and creatures. Sometimes, you turn lights on…

Here Are A Couple of Cool Uses For The Wii U Controller

It might lack the charm of Mario Party, but Wii Party U manages to make good use of the Wii U game pad judging by what I saw on the E3 showfloor today. The mini game above, for instance, asks players to guess why the person holding the game pad made a certain facial expression…

The New Smash Bros. Characters Blew Up The Internet

Smash Bros. got introduced for the Wii U and for the 3DS on Tuesday, during Nintendo’s E3 direct and we had the chance to see the Villager from Animal Crossing, the Wii Fit Trainer and Mega Man among others. People liked them a lot and they can’t get away without some Internet attention. Especially the…

Jonathan Blow Thinks Adventure Games Are Bad. So He’s Making One.

Behind The Witness—Jonathan Blow’s next puzzle-esque game after Braid—is a mission. To solve all those awful adventure game tropes. Adventure games can be tricky. Most either love or hate them. Personally? Flaws and all, I love them. But Blow, an independent designer whose games are published on Sony’s platforms, thinks he can solve some of…

The Mad March Of The PlayStation Mascots

When we think video game mascots, PlayStation isn’t the first console that comes to mind, but Sony has quite a few iconic heroes and villains in its ranks, as proven by both PlayStation All-Stars and this series of Vine vids our fearless leader capturing during his E3 travels. Can you name them all? No, you…

Dammit, Avengers Alliance Is On iOS Now

Avengers Alliance, the oddly-compelling Marvel-themed turn-based role-playing game that I had serious trouble tearing myself away from on Facebook, is now a free iOS game. This is not good. It’s good for those of you who’ve avoided playing the game on Facebook or Playdom. It’s really a nifty little social game, all things considered, with…

Look, no one’s actually expecting that more characters and critters died in this week’s Nintendo Direct broadcast than in Sony or Microsoft’ E3 presentations. But, still, the question remains: just how many folks kicked the bucket while the House of Mario showed its cuddly brand of carnage? More than you’d guess? Or less? Watch The…

Man Of Steel Is Not A Bad Game. Just A Bad Superman Game.

If Phosphor Games Man of Steel featured some generic superhero character — if I weren’t meant to be stepping into the red boots of a comic book icon with three-quarters of a century of history — I would probably love it. I don’t hate it. In fact, I quite like the fighting engine, a riff…

Delightful? Yes. Creepy? Yes. This Is Capybara Games’ Below.

Dodging shadowy tentacle monsters left and right is probably really, really hard when you’re busy staring wide-eyed at the absolutely sublime world around you. Wow. Capy’s Below, a game in which you Explore, Survive, and Discover, is set to come out for the Xbox One

Take a Peek at What’s Inside the New Xbox 360

Sure, everyone’s talking about the Xbox One this week. But it’s not the only new piece of Xbox hardware MIcrosoft showed this week. The tech giant also announced a newly-redesigned Xbox 360 e model, one that’s styled to match the Xbox One’s shiny/matte exterior. But what’s underneath the hard plastic shell? iFixit set out to…

Here’s What The New Handheld Zelda Looks Like In Action

At E3, our very own Jason Schreier had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with the new handheld Legend of Zelda game, A Link Between Worlds. There’s a little bit of everything: exploration, combat, and Jason even demonstrates the new Merge feature for us, which lets Link become a wall painting to sneak by…

AT E3, You Can Have a Cool (and Slightly Weird) Convo With Luigi

The Nintendo booth at E3 has a curious station featuring a screen with its most iconic characters, Mario and Luigi. The booth let people go up to the characters and hold a conversation with em (which you can see above)—which is cute, but also kind of eerie for some reason. I’m curious as to how…

A black Samsonite backpack belonging to Rami Ismail, co-founder of Ridiculous Fishing and Super Crate Box developer Vlambeer, disappeared during Sony’s E3 mixer at the Figueroa hotel last night. According to Joystiq the bag contains an Asus laptop, two Vitas, the iPads, power adapters — Ismail says it’s “pretty much my entire company.” Information on…

Retro Studios Wants To Expand The Metroid Prime Universe

Retro Studios, makers of the legendary Metroid Prime series, is currently busy creating the next generation of Donkey Kong Country, much to the chagrin of a lot of Metroid fans. That doesn’t mean, however, that they abandoned Metroid. On the contrary, Samus’ world might be getting bigger in the future. IGN spoke to Nintendo’s Kensuke…

The Next Smash Bros. Will Balance Casual And Hardcore, Creators Say

If Super Smash Bros. Melee was for hardcore players, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl was for casual players, the next Smash Bros. game will fall somewhere in between, creator Masahiro Sakurai says. This time around, Sakurai is going for the best of both worlds. This morning, Sakurai and I had a long chat about all…

There’s Already My Little Pony Movie Content In The Game

With a limited release of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Equestria Girls movie this coming Sunday, Gameloft has gone ahead and slipped a little something special into the official mobile game of the hit show. This is Sunset Shimmer. She has issues. So many issues that she steals a crown from the Crystal…

Don’t Expect A Lot Of Third-Party Characters In The Next Smash Bros

The people behind Smash Bros. say not to expect a lot of third-party characters in the next incarnation of their fighting game. Mega Man is an exception. While chatting with Smash designer Masahiro Sakurai this morning, I pointed out that fans are very psyched about the Blue Bomber making an appearance in his next game.…