We Are Going To Play As The Grim Reaper. And Spread The Bubonic Plague.

Don’t get weirded out by this, but I have a bit of a thing for the ol’ black death. Its various outbreaks are some the most fascinating events in centuries, an apocalypse tale straight from the history books. It’s the best part of one of the best movies ever made. Hell, one of my favourite…

The Last Of Us Has A Series, And It Looks Pretty Good

It’s not even out yet, but Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us is inspiring enough love from fans that a very slick-looking web series is about to kick off. Set in the same post-apocalyptic world as the game, it’s called What Remains, and regardless of how the acting or story turns out, boy, they’re using…

Activision Is “Somewhat Disappointed” With The Launch Of The Wii U

It seems that Activision, the biggest video game publisher in the world, wasn’t exactly thrilled with the Wii U’s launch. Why? Forget Call of Duty’s performance, it’s the console’s potential for Skylanders that has Bobby Kotick and co. worried. During the company’s latest earnings call, Kotick was asked about the future of the money-printing Skylanders…

The (Fake) Mass Effect Characters Of The Future Are An Amazing Sight

There’s currently a competition running over on CGHub, a big community of artists who (mostly) work in the entertainment industry. It’s to design a new Mass Effect character. Some of the entries are impressive, some especially so, but there are others which will absolutely blow your socks off The rules are simple: “create a character…

Cut the Rope‘s Latest Free Update is Magic

Available now in the iOS and Android versions of ZeptoLab’s candy-munching puzzle game, the Lantern Box adds 25 levels of teleporting magic to Cut the Rope in celebration of the Chinese New Year. Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes? Get Cut the Rope for iPad, iPhone, Android phone and Android tablet by clicking…

Watch The DICE Awards Live, Right Here [Update: Winners Announced]

The annual DICE convention brings a bunch of big-deal thinkers and video-game creators to Vegas to engage in high-minded talk about creativity and technology and innovation. There’s also lots of free food, or so I hear. There’s ALSO an awards ceremony, since events like this tend to have an awards ceremony. It’s happening tonight, actually,…

Life For A Grand Theft Auto Call Girl Kind Of Sucks

Nobody respects the sex workers in Grand Theft Auto, man. To most players they’re just an ongoing joke about what you really do in the GTA games (blow shit up and kill hookers, basically). Ever think about what it’s like for the call girl to have a psychopath John running around, though? Today, Something Awful’s…

Mad Men‘s Biggest Dork Guest Stars On You Don’t Know Jack

Part of the fun of the very fun Facebook-anchored version of You Don’t Know Jack is that because Jellyvision is constantly adding new questions and content, they can stay current. It also means, apparently, that they can have guest stars. Today, the company announced that they’ll be adding a new “Monthly Special Guest” episode featuring…

Sure, A More Open Steam Could Be Chaos. It Could Also Be Amazing.

When even Gabe Newell calls the approval process behind what content goes on Steam a “dictatorship,” hell, when even Gabe Newell calls the Steam storefront “boring”—well, that’s when you know there’s a problem. Judging from his recent talks, though, it sounds as if Valve hopes to change that—there is the possibility of Valve stepping back…

The Most Amazing Snow Levels And Zones In Video Games

Barring timed underwater escort missions, snow levels, with all their slippery ice and falling rocks (not to mention the fog), are probably the deadliest. Yet it’s easy to find enjoyable—or at least memorable—ones, even if we disregard games where the entire setting is snowy (We’re looking at you, Skyrim). Assault On The Control Room (Halo:…

Watch Heavy Rain‘s Creator Talk About How Gaming Needs To Grow Up

Yesterday at DICE, Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls creator David Cage gave a provocative talk titled “The Peter Pan Syndrome: The Industry That Refused to Grow Up.” Stephen’s already written up the salient points of the talk, and now you can watch the talk in its entirety online. So, sit back and watch one…

She Lost Her Father, But Journey Helped Her Cope

Last year’s standout PS3 game Journey was an emotional experience for many. That was certainly the case for Sophia, a 15-year-old who wrote the above letter to one of the game’s creators, Jenova Chen, about how Journey helped her cope with the loss of her father. Chen read the letter aloud today at the DICE…

Ancient Egypt? The Civil War? Pirates? It’s Time For Some Rampant Assassin’s Creed Speculation

Earlier today, Ubisoft announced that the Assassin’s Creed series would be getting a new game in “fiscal 2014” that would feature a new protagonist and a new setting. “Very interesting,” you may say, twirling your mustache and reaching for your prognostication hat. “Very interesting, indeed.” I’ve got my wild speculation hat on (it’s like a…

From the Director of Rush Hour and X-Men the Last Stand: FarmVille the Animated Series

Oh calm down, FarmVille fans, it’s not like Brett Ratner is directing the upcoming 30-minute cartoon series based on your Facebook obsession. According to the Wall Street Journal he’s just producing the show, so it might still be good. Now before everyone jumps to Ratner’s defense, let me just say that I admire the man…

This Catchy Devil May Cry Rap Won’t Brainwash You, Don’t Worry

Here’s KadeshFlow with a tribute to the new Devil May Cry—it’s pretty good! This song is but one of many gaming-themed flows he has up on his YouTube page, including another one where he’s cosplaying as Link while spitting about The Legend of Zelda. See below. You can check out more of his music if…

A Mind-Boggling 30-Year Collection of Video Games Can Be Yours for Only $550,000

Have you kept every video game, console or accessory you’ve ever bought or owned? You probably haven’t. But, try to imagine if you did. How many things would that be? A couple hundred? Somewhere in the 1000s, maybe? One guy in Italy has you, all your friends and probably a bunch of strangers you don’t…

Activision-Blizzard sold 12 million copies of Diablo III, the company said today in an investors’ report.

Warren Spector Doesn’t Think Lollipop Chainsaw Should Have Been Made

Warren Spector, one of the most respected game designers out there and the lead creator of the revered Deus Ex, did something unusual for a game designer today. At a talk at the DICE convention in Las Vegas, he named a name… or at least he let one of his slides name the name of…

The Latest Crysis 3 trailer has collapsing dams, space-explosions, and Muse’s wimpy Queens of the Stone Age impression.

Two Quotes That Help Warren Spector Assess Where He’s At Right Now

Legendary game designer Warren Spector was talking at the DICE convention in Las Vegas today, but didn’t want to talk about his departure from Disney and the shuttering of his studio. He wanted to talk about the “graying of gaming” or at least about his journey though gaming. But the elephant is in the room,…