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Why Mortal Kombat X Is So Gory
If you, like me, were in the front few rows of Sony’s E3 press conference when they showed off Mortal Kombat X on stage, you would also have been deafened by the loud cheers of excited gamers. They were oohing and aahing at decapitations and exposed organs and lost limbs. This isn’t new for a…
By Tina Amini Published June 24, 2014 -
CultureWhy Phantom Dust’s Xbox Comeback Matters
Most folks never got a chance to play Phantom Dust the first time around when it came out for the original Xbox in 2005. So, when Microsoft announced it was getting a remake at E3, a lot of people were confused. “What is Phantom Dust?,” I heard a lot of people say. Well, wonder no…
By Chris Person Published June 23, 2014 -
Wait. There’s A Female Assassin In Sunset Overdrive?
The makers of Sunset Overdive are proud that you’ll be able to make playable characters of different genders and ethnicities. So, of course, they decided to have some fun at the expense of Assassin’s Creed Now, you won’t hear the word Assassin or any mention of Ubisoft’s hit period-piece action series in the latest promo…
By Evan Narcisse Published June 20, 2014 -
Watch Dogs Patch Promises Fixes for PlayStation, Xbox, PC Players
Watch Dogs ‘ first major patch is coming soon, says publisher Ubisoft. As soon as next week, players on various platforms will see improvements in the way the hit game looks and plays. Details on the patch appeared the company’s support forums today, listing fixes for players on PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms. The update…
By Evan Narcisse Published June 18, 2014 -
One iPhone Game That’s Worse With An Xbox Controller
When it comes to mobile gaming, there’s one complaint that has bubbled up for years now, and never seems to go away: touchscreen controls are a pain in the ass. See, for a lot of games, those touch-based controls are just straight-up inferior to buttons and joysticks, and to many gamers, recent iOS ports like…
By Jason Schreier Published June 18, 2014 -
Watch Me Take Down Two Bosses In Destiny
It’s hard to get much done in Destiny as a lowly level eight, but that’s what friends are for. Bungie’s soon-to-be-released next shooter is, after all, all about interacting in a shared world. I spent somewhere under 10 hours playing through Destiny‘s alpha build, exploring Russia, playing a few steps through the main storyline, listening…
By Tina Amini Published June 17, 2014 -
What Xbox One Games Gain And Lose With The New Kinect-Free Option
Microsoft recently said that game developers will be able to get a little more power out of the Xbox One to make their games more visually impressive if they choose to forgo some Kinect features. What’s the actual trade-off? As previously indicated by Microsoft, developers willing to go forgo Kinect sensor support for their games…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 16, 2014 -
GTA V Looks Better On PS4—Or At Least The Trailer Does
Now that the inevitable has happened and versions of Grand Theft Auto V for PS4, PC and Xbox One have been announced, it’s time to discuss what’s on everybody’s minds: how’s the 2014 version going to look? Pretty good if the trailers are any indication. Digital Foundry spliced together footage from last year’s GTA V…
By Evan Narcisse Published June 16, 2014 -
How The Alien In Alien: Isolation Works
The best kind of horror game doesn’t need any guns. It doesn’t need to scare you with difficult enemy encounters and shock value. Sometimes, silence is scarier than all of that. That’s a lot of what Alien: Isolation is about. Creeping through dark hallways of a mostly-abandoned space station called Sevostopol, you have to try…
By Tina Amini Published June 16, 2014 -
One Of The Show-Stoppers At E3 Was An Awesome Kinect Game. Not Kidding.
We’ve covered Fru before, and we’ll cover Fru again, because Fru isn’t just the best game I’ve ever seen on Kinect (sorry, Dance Central, though you’re pretty good, too)…it’s a game I really want to play. I shot a short video of it in action at E3 with developer Mattia Traverso at my side. Fru…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 13, 2014 -
Payday 2 Coming to Xbox One, PS4
The super-popular criminal heist game is making its way to Microsoft and Sony’s newest video game consoles. During a livestream session on Twitch showing off the upcoming Big Bank expansion, members of the Overkill developer studio confirmed an earlier tweet that said that the team-based co-op shooter would be going next-gen. No time frame was…
By Evan Narcisse Published June 12, 2014 -
Five Things BioWare Wants You To Know About The Next Dragon Age
If I had to explain what BioWare’s RPG, Dragon Age, is all about, I’d easily cram it all into one word: relationships. But that’s my personal experience, and I’m not developing Dragon Age: Inquisition, so I couldn’t tell you what the next Dragon Age will be all about. BioWare’s executive producer, Mark Darrah, however, can.…
By Tina Amini Published June 12, 2014 -
The New Crackdown Will Use The Cloud A Lot
The newest game in Microsoft’s open-world crime series, Crackdown, has been in development for about a year, Xbox chief Phil Spencer told me during an interview here at E3. It’s early, but Spencer didn’t want to have to keep quiet about it any longer. “Certain people say, ‘Why do you announce it? It’s not a…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 12, 2014 -
Report: Xbox Making Show About A “Bastion Of Bro-Fueled Debauchery”
Or, how not to smash a console stereotype. Deadline is reporting that Xbox Studios, the group responsible for bringing original programming to Microsoft’s consoles, is working on “scripted comedy East Of Exurbia”. It is based on…a story that was written on…Brobible. If you’re unfamiliar with the site, it is exactly what it sounds like. That…
By Luke Plunkett Published June 11, 2014 -
Pleasant E3 Surprise: A Game Called White Night
You might think you know what you’ll see in a big E3 booth like Microsoft’s: some Forza, some Fable, some shooters, some indies, but there still always some surprises. Case in point: White Night. Black-and-white, Hitchcock-esque, and very cool. Where did this thing come from??? We don’t have a lot of detail on the game…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 11, 2014 -
Looks Like a Mutant Xbox One To Me
This is not a new model of the Xbox One. (Nor is it a paper-cutter.) It’s Microsoft’s console bedecked with peripherals from Nyko. On the left, a “modular power station” ($29.99, fall) that plugs into a USB port on the console and charges your controller batteries. On top, an intercooler ($24.99, holiday) to keep the…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 10, 2014 -
Xbox One Controller’s Rainbow Lights Are So Pretty
Watch the PDP company’s new Xbox One Afterglow controller cycle through the rainbow. It’s art! The PDP people say they’re using a new peripheral lighting technique instead of having the glow emerge from the center of the controller. Price: TBD. Out early 2015. Correction: We originally reported that the controller would cost $24.99, but PDP…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 10, 2014 -
Assassin’s Creed Unity‘s Paris Is Huge. Really Huge.
The city of Paris in Assassin’s Creed Unity will be the largest city in the series’ history, the game’s developers told me yesterday as we played the game and I grilled them with tons of questions. Unity’s Paris will be bigger than the combined island landmasses of Assassin’s Creed IV. It’s rendition of the famous…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 10, 2014 -
A Handy List Of Yesterday’s Big E3 Moments
Now wasn’t yesterday quite something? Phantom Dust, GTA V for current-gen, dragons from the new Dragon Age and elephants from the new Far Cry… It’s hard to keep track of everything that happened. So let’s take a look at yesterday’s events, as told by our headlines, in (a mostly) chronological order. Microsoft Microsoft did the…
By András Neltz Published June 10, 2014