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The Four Core Concepts That Guild Wars 2 is Built Upon

Yesterday’s Q&A with Guild Wars 2 content designer Mike Zadorojny painted the development of next month’s blockbuster MMO in broad strokes. Today ArenaNet releases a series of videos that break the game’s design down to four core components: dynamic events, player versus player, personal story and combat. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game is much…

The Heavy-Metal Art Of Darksiders II

Every corner of the Darksiders world is laced with art. There’s art on art, more art than you can shake a stick at. That makes sense, given the fact that Vigil, the studio behind Darksiders and this August’s Darksiders II, is headed up by well-known comic artist Joe Madureira. I spoke with Madureira last week…

Bubble Witch Saga Pops In On the Future of Cross-Platform Social Gaming

Today players of King.com’s popular Bubble Witch Saga can continue their Facebook-based quest on the iPhone and iPad. To some a free-to-play puzzle game that seamlessly synchronizes between Facebook and smartphone might not sound like that big of a deal. To others it’s another step on the path towards a future of platform-free gaming. Nearly…

Report: Microsoft Starts New Studio in London

Microsoft’s new London studio is believed to be focused on creating casual and free-to-play games for the Xbox 360. [MCVUK via CVG via Polygon]

How Warcraft Was Almost a Warhammer Game (and how That Saved WoW)

Ever since the first Warcraft game was released in 1994, fans of the series have been saying, some with kinder words than others, that the series feels similar to Games Workshop’s Warhammer universe. It’s a sentiment that only intensified after the release of World of Warcraft, ushering in millions of new fans to Blizzard’s games…

So, Minecraft Might Actually be Able to Teach us Some Serious Stuff

Those who already know all about Minecraft, stick with this past the intro, because even if you agree with the theories put forward or not, it’s still an interesting new way to look at the game. Put together by PBS, it examines how the game can serve as a model for what happens when we…

A Game About Debauchery, Wine, Loose Women and Space Bombs

I’m not really sure exactly what upcoming indie action/adventure game Descension is all about, especially after such a vague trailer. But when it opens with the question: “What does it take to ruin what started as a luxurious cruise of debauchery, wine, and loose women? How about falling out of the sky, sitting in a…

When Professionals Get Their Hands on Valve’s Film-Maker, Good Things Happen

It’s not that the current offerings have been terrible, far from it, but ever since Valve released the Source Film-maker there’s been the quiet expectation that it would really start to shine once professional animators, and not just dedicated fans, got hold of it. Well, here’s what it looks like when a professional gets their…

OK, That Halo 4 Console Doesn’t Look as Bad as I Thought

Let’s be honest: most people’s reaction to the upcoming Halo 4 Xbox 360 console was probably somewhere between “oh” and “oh God my eyes”. Which may explain why some new pictures of the console have turned up on Halo’s official site looking, well, a lot better. It’s all down to that transparent effect. Not really…

A Guy’s Mother Previews 2012’s Biggest Video Games

You’ve probably got a very idea of what to expect from 2012’s biggest games. You see the trailers, you see the gameplay and you figure, yeah, I can get into this. But could your mother? GamesBeat writer Mike Minotti sat down with his mum and showed her some big trailers for some big games, like…

Darksiders II Environmental Concept Art

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Darksiders II Screenshots

The Inside Story of the Making of Warcraft, Part 1

Luke’s Note: I’m handing the reins over tonight to Patrick Wyatt, a games development legend and former Blizzard executive who has played a big role in the success of games like StarCraft, Diablo and Guild Wars. This is the first part of his insider’s story of the making of Warcraft, which he knows a thing…

What a New Mario Game Could/Should Look Like

Part of the reason I’m not exactly thrilled about the Wii U isn’t because of its hardware, it’s because of the games. I want to see what a new Zelda game or a new Mario game looks like on the console. And when I say new, I mean new So I like what artist Luigi…

Razer Has a Fancy New Keyboard and VERY Fancy New Mouse

Razer today took the wraps off a few new products, including several models of its BlackWidow line of mechanical keyboards and a mouse that looks, and moves, like an evil Transformer. The first keyboard is the BlackWidow Ultimate 2013, going on sale next month and costing $130. Razer says the improvements include “green backlighting and…

Building The Art Of Darksiders II

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What the Average PC Gamers’ System Looked Like in June 2012

We haven’t checked in on a Steam system survey in a while, so let’s fix that today. Every month, Valve publishes the results of a survey that drags in all kinds of information on its customer’s computers, from what graphics card they’ve got installed to the kind of browser they’re running. If you want to…

Why Your Games Have That Stupid “Don’t Turn Off While Saving” Notice

If you play video games on a console, you will have seen it. Upon booting a game up for the first, tenth or thousandth time, a screen warning you to never, ever switch off your machine while a game is saving. It’s sound advice, because turning a console off while it’s writing the data can…

Covering The Westminster Dog Show While On Acid

“That dog is crazy.” Oh, man. Sometimes, as a reporter, you have these ideas to do something crazy. It isn’t that often that we get to follow through on those ideas. But every now and then, it pays off—as it does when Vice photographer Braydon Olsen covers the famous Westminster Dog Show while tripping his…

The Never-Ending Battle of PlanetSide 2 Becomes Three Minutes of Stunning CGI

Premiering live today at the 2012 China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference, PlanetSide 2‘s ‘Death is No Excuse’ CGI trailer takes the spirit of Sony Online Entertainment’s upcoming massively multiplayer online first-person shooter and dresses it up in a fancy coat of blood-splattered CGI. If only the game were so pretty. That’s not saying PlanetSide…