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Blizzard Is Giving You One Final Chance To Change Your Ironic My Little Pony BattleTag
It’s a tricky thing, choosing an online handle. You’ve gotta stick with it forever, so the dumb inside joke or ironically stupid insult you choose will be your name forevermore. As a general rule, Blizzard gives users a one-time-only chance to change their mind on their “BattleTag.” But, given that a good number of people…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 18, 2012 -
UncategorizedThe Games that Got Me Through the Worst Year of My Life: Playboy: The Mansion
My worst year on earth may well have been 2005. I had gone from a blood-and-guts newspaper writer to headcount hire sitting in a cubicle with nothing to do for weeks on end. I’d once been the coolest guy at the cocktail party, now I was just another stiff with a badge around his neck…
By Owen Good Published May 18, 2012 -
UncategorizedHitler Recaps the Week in Video Games: Special Diablo III Edition
Godwin’s Law states that “as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” As basically all video game discussion takes place online, let’s just cut to the chase and give der fuehrer’s take on recent topics of interest to gamers. I wanted to rage about Blizzard’s indefensibly…
By Owen Good Published May 18, 2012 - Uncategorized
I Despise You, Xbox 360 Eject Button
Today I had to move my Xbox 360 console out of the way while I fooled with cables going through the back of my entertainment center. This happens frequently because of how I have to do video capture. As I grabbed the 360 and shifted it, I guess my thumb got within 5 millimeters of…
By Owen Good Published May 18, 2012 -
UncategorizedHow a Pro Athlete’s Video Game Studio Came To Owe Rhode Island Millions
In a week filled with video-game related drama, one of the main stages has starred 38 Studios. The developer, based in Providence, Rhode Island, is evidently out of money, and can’t repay their loans. Worse, the loan in question was from the state of Rhode Island, potentially leaving taxpayers footing the bill for incomplete MMO…
By Kate Cox Published May 18, 2012 - Uncategorized
The Missing Mario Link for Game of Thrones’ Littlest Lannister
Game of Thrones‘ Tyrion Lannister may be a small man, but he’s got a big heart, huge ambition, and is surprisingly good at killing people, all things considered. He’s also got something in common with Mario, if this goofy image floating around the internet is to be believed—one bite of a magic Mario mushroom and…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 18, 2012 -
UncategorizedLike Any Good Army Training Film, This One for Sniper Elite Features Grotesque Damage to the Testicles
The series “13 Ways to Die” just took up the subject of Sniper Elite v2 and, though we’ve seen exploding testicles and other grisly slow-motion demises already, they weren’t presented in the form of a propaganda film from dubya-dubya-eye-eye, with a jaunty ragtime accompaniment. It’s a cracking good morale booster for our boys over there.…
By Owen Good Published May 18, 2012 -
UncategorizedWhen a Briton Announces the NBA, the Result is Comedy Genius
When I run my mouth about international soccer, I sound like a complete and total imbecile. When a Brit does the same thing about basketball, it is 100 percent comedy gold. Riffing on the American tendency to force catch phrases into sports commentary, CPU vs. CPU comes up with a bathtub full of lines that…
By Owen Good Published May 18, 2012 -
UncategorizedNHL‘s Gameplay Upgrades Sound Rather Similar to FIFA‘s
Going on about five years now, EA Sports’ FIFA and NHL series have been reliably acclaimed, strong-selling titles, a remarkable run for a video game genre and publisher so henpecked by hardcore gamer criticism. Both games have smart, motivated, multinational communities that greatly value evangelizing for their sport in North America and appreciate what these…
By Owen Good Published May 18, 2012 - Uncategorized
Now This Is Some Serious Borderlands 2 Loot
No, it’s not the result of a customizable weapon. It’s just 2K community manager Elizabeth Tobey‘s dachshund, Pancake. Isn’t Pancake just adorable? The real Borderlands 2 collector’s edition won’t come with a dachshund to sit pretty in your loot chest, but it does come with a bunch of other goodies. Pancake is famous [dahanese via…
By Tina Amini Published May 18, 2012 -
UncategorizedA First Look at the Kingdoms of Amalur Studio’s New MMO
While they may be having their share of financial problems lately, Kingdoms of Amalur creators 38 Studios have still been working on at least one new game. That game is a massively multiplayer project dubbed Project Copernicus; just today, the governor of Rhode Island announced that the game will be released in June 2013. The…
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 18, 2012 - Uncategorized
You’ll Be Happy to Note That None of Our Gaming Apps This Week Were Diablo III
Oh give us a break, it was the first time any of us got to cover the launch of a Diablo game. And hey, we did manage to spotlight five mobile games that have almost completely nothing in common with Blizzard’s game. Almost. I mean sure, Tower of Fortune is a dark role-playing game of…
By Mike Fahey Published May 18, 2012 - Esports
Racist Comment Leads DOTA 2 Commentator To Apologize To Community
Toby “Tobi Wan” Dawson is a professional commentator for esports site JoinDOTA. He covers DOTA and now DOTA 2 matches and tournaments, and is considered to be quite entertaining. Unfortunately, the commentary he was caught making while playing in a live-streamed public match over the weekend is not so much entertaining as it is inexplicably…
By Kate Cox Published May 18, 2012 - Uncategorized
Which PC Hardware Works Best With Diablo III?
After 11 years in the making and more setbacks than we care to count, Blizzard has finally unleashed a third installment to its cult classic dungeon crawler. Having waited over a decade, the arrival of Diablo III was a bittersweet moment for eager fans. In what must’ve felt like a cruel joke, missteps in Blizzard’s…
Steven Walton | Techspot Published May 18, 2012 - Uncategorized
EA Offers Crowdfunded Games Three Months of Free Distribution on Origin
So, you’ve successfully rallied hundreds of strangers to pay for your brilliant game idea on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo or some other crowdfunding site. Now you need to make the damn thing. But an even bigger problem looms after you develop and test Amazing Game X: getting it to everyone who wants it, including backers. EA, of…
By Evan Narcisse Published May 18, 2012 - Uncategorized
38 Studios Begins Paying Back the State of Rhode Island
Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios, who have been mired in financial troubles lately, have successfully repaid $1.125 million of their $75 million debt to Rhode Island after withholding pay from employees.
By Kirk Hamilton Published May 18, 2012 - Uncategorized
What Makes RPG Dialogue Great (And How It Can Go Wrong)
We spend a lot of time watching video game characters talk. Sometimes they’re perched in dimly-lit inns, plotting out their next moves over frosty mugs of Genuine Medieval Ale. Other times they’re exchanging snarky quips between rounds of troll-hunting or alien-squashing. Or sharing awkward pleasantries after robotic sexual encounters. Japanese role-playing games are especially dialogue-heavy.…
By Jason Schreier Published May 18, 2012