BioShock Infinite "Clash in the Clouds" DLC revealed

2K Games today announced "Clash in the Clouds," the first of three expansions coming to Irrational Games' first-person shooter BioShock Infinite.

Clash in the Clouds is available today on Steam for $5 and will come to Xbox Live and PlayStation Network later in the week.

The combat-focused Clash in the Clouds features 4 "brand new" maps with increasingly difficult enemies, as well as optional extended challenges. The expansion features 60 challenges in all, as well as new achievements and leaderboard support. Players can also unlock concept art, voxophones, kinetoscopes, and more by completing challenges.

Lead level designer Forrest Dowling told GameSpot that he doesn't expect all BioShock Infinite players to latch on to Clash in the Clouds, saying the content is aimed more at people who enjoyed the game's combat over its narrative.

"Clash in the Clouds was definitely made intentionally…we knew that it wasn't going to be for 100 percent of people out there," lead level designer Forrest Dowling told GameSpot. "It was going to be for people who were really into the gameplay experience and that's what they want more of."

"This is a meta experience. It is not part of the BioShock story. It is just for fun."

Following in 2014 will be new BioShock Infinite expansions "Burial at Sea - Episode One" and "Burial at Sea - Episode Two." The content is narrative-driven, set in the original game's Rapture, and meant to tie the story of Elizabeth and Booker together.

Gameplay has been modified to give players an "original BioShock combat experience" that aims to meld the best parts of BioShock and BioShock Infinite. It will also include new weapons, new Plasmids/Vigors, Tears, Sky-Lines, and Big Daddies.

Finally, Burial at Sea - Episode Two will have gamers playing as Elizabeth "as she seeks to bring closure to her story" and the overall BioShock Infinite narrative. This content is also set in Rapture.

Episode One and Episode Two will sell for $15 each when they launch in 2014. All three expansions are included with the $20 BioShock Infinite DLC season pass.

GameSpot recently visited Irrational Games in Boston, Mass. and spoke with creative director Ken Levine. Check back later this week for more.

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BioShock Infinite DLC Returns to Rapture

Ken Levine explains why he wants to return to the setting of the original BioShock and retool our understanding of the series at large.

SPOILER WARNING: This feature discusses major plot details of BioShock Infinite.

The reveal of the second and third DLC packs for BioShock Infinite, Burial at Sea - Episode 1 and Episode 2, is a major announcement for anyone who traveled to the dystopian underwater society of Rapture in the original BioShock. It was a sinister yet captivating world, and how Booker and Elizabeth are critical to its tale isn't clear, but BioShock Creative Director Ken Levine sees a return trip as the appropriate way to give the entire BioShock series greater context. On top of it all, in Episode 2, you'll finally wield the most powerful force in BioShock; Elizabeth.

What was the spark that made you want to revisit Rapture?

Levine: We really didn't know…even when we had the Rapture bit in Infinite, we had no idea. We were thinking about what to do for the DLC that would make it feel very special for the fans. We kicked around a lot of different notions, and I sort of had this image in my head of Elizabeth walking into an office in Rapture, dressed like Veronica Lake, and that was a powerful image, and we're working from there. I kind of can't resist that.

I generally work that way, when we come up with something that is exciting, and go…"well, how do we make that happen?" I never wanted to do the midichlorian thing. A lot of people ask me, well why don't you tell the fall of Rapture? To me, that just seems rote.

So, we have a certain story with a new perspective: "What's going on here? Why is Booker there, why is Elizabeth there, and why don't they know each other? What is this about?" That's the only way, to me, to tell an interesting story, is to start out with questions, not with answers.

It takes place before the fall of Rapture, but the goal isn't to retell what you already know from the audio logs, it's to give you a new perspective. We knew it was going to be more expensive and more time consuming. We had some people who wanted the information and wanted it to be quicker, but if it's quicker, you can't rebuild giant chunks of Rapture, or even conceive new chunks.

You've said before that you're a slave to a story. Now that you're revisiting one, presumably that you were done with, how do you feel going back to it now?

Levine: To me, it is a love letter to the fans, but it started with something I wanted to do, when I saw this image of Elizabeth. Of course, Elizabeth evolves as a character throughout the course of BioShock Infinite. She goes from a kid to something much darker and more complex. To see her really as a woman from the very beginning, as a full-grown woman, really driving the narrative with a sense of control, is something very appealing to me. And then, thinking about Rapture, and what stories we could tell and how that story could tie into what takes place on New Year's Eve, 1958, the day the bomb went off that set off the revolution in Rapture, is what's going to be interesting to me.

Does Elizabeth's ability to create tears into alternate dimensions give you freedom to create inside a world that already exists?

Levine: You have to be careful about the freedom that gives you, and you have to constrain yourself to a degree. It's that Superman problem, right? Elizabeth ends BioShock Infinite incredibly powerful, to the point that the whole ending sequence…is that something that's actually happening, or is that just her way of explaining to Booker what her perception of the universe is? She has this cosmic awareness. To some degree, you have to figure out what your constraint set is. If everything is possible, nothing is interesting. We want to make sure there's a rule set, and that we stay within that rule set, and we continue to challenge ourselves not to solve our problems with a deus ex machina, but to give people an actual emotional story.

How do you bridge the gap from opening up to the expanse of Columbia for BioShock Infinite, to then return to the confines of a place like Rapture?

Levine: The first part of Burial at Sea is split into two halves. One is a quest that takes place at Eden, the pristine part of pre-fall Rapture. If you remember the original story in BioShock, Andrew Ryan takes over Fontaine's business; a literal hostile takeover. You learn in this that Fontaine's cronies are stuck in Fontaine's department store at the bottom of the ocean, in like an Escape from New York prison. They can't escape; they're in the bottom of the ocean. So the second half takes place in this ruined department store. You have both experiences of Rapture, the sort of pristine and the non-pristine.

In terms of the environments, we have a little more freedom in terms of scale just because of the engine we have. There's a lot of things, for instance: the vista in the trailer, the outside, in the original BioShock is a 2D image wrapped against a wall, and this is actual 3D geometry because we have those sorts of draw distances, and so we can have much more range and scale in space, but we also did want to pull back a little bit. Something I missed about making BioShock was hearing splicers in the distance and being able to plan some strategies ahead of time before combat started. We wanted to tweak the awareness levels, and tweak the balance in Burial at Sea - Episode One, more towards BioShock, in terms of the types of combat and the ability to plan for combat.

In the Elizabeth DLC (Burial at Sea - Episode 2), we're going to push it even further, to an almost survival horror place so she feels different from Booker, where for her, the ability to be stealthy and get a drop on the environment is much more about who she is. She's very powerful, in terms of tears, but she can't sit there and go toe to toe with a Big Daddy.

Is there anything about Rapture that lends itself to her powers and abilities?

Levine: We'll see.

To be able to play the role of Elizabeth sounds fun, but how do you take someone who's the deliverer of a story, and put yourself in her shoes, without feeling that disconnect from switching to a first person role?

Levine: It's hard to say without spoiling a lot of things, but to me, BioShock Infinite and the DLC is about the evolution of Elizabeth as a person, for good and bad. She's not necessarily in a great place in this DLC. She's the woman you met when you pulled torture devices from her body, and when she drowned Booker at the end. This is a woman who's evolved and grown, and she's very much her own agent. But there's maybe some darkness that comes with that as well. To be her is going to be very interesting after seeing what happens in the first part of the Burial at Sea DLC.

Does the survival horror aspect have anything to do with her internal struggles, or is it imposed upon her?

Levine: She chooses to take something on, because she feels she has to. But it's a reaction to what happens in the first one. She doesn't expect to be where she is at the start of the second DLC.

Can Elizabeth and Booker's story be wrapped up, or is it a situation that's ultimately open-ended because of the lack of physical limitations within the world?

Levine: It's always hard to say, because I never know what ideas we'll come up with. But as I see it right now, this is a very deliberate goal to give people a perspective on every BioShock game they've experienced. I think it's going to give people a proper perspective of the whole franchise, and I think it does complete their story, at least where I'm sitting right now.

I think their story wraps in the end of BioShock Infinite, in one perspective. I think we've found this opportunity to tell a very different kind of story about the two of them, and their very different kind of relationship, to bring larger context to the whole franchise.

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Street Fighter producer does not want main series to stop at IV

Street Fighter series producer Yoshinori Ono has made it clear he does not want the main Street Fighter series to end at number IV.

An interview with 4gamer (translated by Siliconera) quotes the Street Fighter series veteran as stating, "Personally, I don't want to stop Street Fighter's main numbered series at IV,"

"Realistically speaking, developing a title for next-gen consoles requires a huge amount of staff members, and a large sum of money. The issue of money also applies to everyone else, as it'll be required to invest in a new console, game, and arcade stick." Ono said.

The issue of money has been brought up in the past, when Ono tweeted that he had no budget for a Street Fighter V on next generation consoles.

"I don't have R&D budget and staff," He said in response to a fan who asked if he was secretly working on Street Fighter V for next-gen. He further explained that his team is now focused entirely on Ultra Street Fighter IV, which was announced at EVO this year.

Ultra Street Fighter IV is in development for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC with no plans to bring the updated game to next-generation consoles. The game includes five new characters, six fresh stages, and a host of gameplay tweaks. For more information, check out GameSpot's interview with Capcom about the pack.

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Kingdom Hearts 3 will end story arc, but not overall series

Game director Tetsuya Nomura says that upcoming sequel's gameplay will take inspiration from Kingdom Hearts 3D.

Square Enix game director Tetsuya Nomura has said in an LA Times interview that the current Kingdom Hearts story arc will end with Kingdom Hearts 3.

However, the franchise will continue after the release of the third game. Nomura explained that Kingdom Hearts 3 isn't part of a "trilogy", but added that story elements that were introduced in 2002 will be wrapped up and come to a close.

"There was never a plan [at first]. As a core game, this is finally the third, and 10 years have passed. I couldn't call this a trilogy. There have been so many spinoffs. In 'Kingdom Hearts 3,' the battles that the characters have been fighting for the past 10 years will come to a conclusion. But the series will continue. Only the particular enemy they have been fighting the past 10 years will come to an end," he said.

Nomura hinted that Kingdom Hearts 3 will head in the direction of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance from a gameplay perspective. The game's combat system was an early guide for the upcoming PS4 and Xbox One action-RPG.

→ More coverage of PS4 on GameSpot.com

By Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor

Born and raised from a jungle-laden village in Sarawak, Malaysia, Jonathan Toyad has been playing games since the early 90s. He favors fighting games, RPGs, and rhythm titles above every other genre, and occasionally spaces out like Pavlov's dog to video game music on his iPod.

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Aliens: Colonial Marines was "kind of passionless" - actor Michael Biehn

The highly-panned Aliens: Colonial Marines struck Terminator and Aliens actor Michael Biehn as "kind of passionless" when he reprised his role as Corporal Hicks in the game, according to a Game Informer interview.

"I think in movies, television, and the gaming world, you get some people that are really, really passionate, and some people that are just going through the paces. [Sega and Gearbox Software] think that because they have a brand name they're going to get a hit game or hit movie out of it. That certainly was the situation on [Aliens: Colonial Marines]," he said.

The actor compared his role on A:CM with Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon in the piece. He described his work on the latter with the game's creative director Dean Evans as a great experience thanks to Evans' "interesting and creative presence".

"Dean is such an interesting and creative presence. He was talking to me about the game and the fact that it was an '80s throwback, and there would be a lot of lines that were Arnold Schwarzenegger-like, that were [Sylvester] Stallone-like, Bruce Willis, myself. Those kind of lines, that kind of vibe, and the fact that it was going to be a throwback to the '80s was something that I thought was interesting. But really it was his passion, man."

Aliens: Colonial Marines was heavily criticized for its campaign mode, dated visuals and in-game bugs. A lawsuit was recently filed against Gearbox Software and Sega, accusing the companies of misrepresenting the game to consumers with false advertising.

→ More coverage of PS3 on GameSpot.com

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UK Chart: Minecraft blocks Pikmin 3 from No. 1

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has denied the Wii U its first taste of the top of the UK charts, with a 74 per cent jump in sales securing it the lead over Pikmin 3.

Nintendo's GameCube predecessor, Pikmin 2, debuted at 32 in the UK chart back in 2004.

Another new release on Wii U, the disc-based edition of New Super Luigi U, debuted in the chart at 13. The game had previously been made available digitally on the Wii U eShop.

The Last of Us slips to third, ending its unbroken six-week run at the top of the charts.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros are in fourth and fifth, with FIFA 13 in sixth.

Far Cry 3 is seventh, Skyrim eighth, and Tomb Raider ninth. LEGO Batman 2 rounds out the top ten.

The top 20 UK chart for the week ending July 27:

1. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
2. Pikmin 3
3. The Last of Us
4. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
5. Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros.
6. FIFA 13
7. Far Cry 3
8. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Legendary Edition
9. Tomb Raider
10. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
11. Assassin's Creed III
12. Grand Theft Auto IV
13. New Super Luigi U
14. Max Payne 3
15. LEGO The Lord of the Rings
16. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
17. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
18. Dynasty Warriors 8
19. Battlefield 3
20. Need for Speed: Most Wanted

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Top Five Skyrim Mods of the Week - Colourful Tree Magic

July 27, 2013 12:00PM PDT

Join Cam and Seb as they make Breezehome enormous, build their own forest, and shoot forks from crossbows. That's right, forks.

Daian 5pts

I really liked "Name of mod" by  "Designer" at 3:15. Editing fail :))

noandno 5pts 1 Like

So... when are you doing the falskaar?

punksterdaddy 5pts

@noandno 

I was just thinking the same thing.

I seem to remember a post from Seb last week, stating that Falskaar was to be next?

I'm sure it's in the works. A mod of that size will need more time to put together... I presume?

punksterdaddy 5pts

@noandno @punksterdaddy 

I appreciate your answer. I do agree with you but I was actually meaning the show itself (in editing) in order to do the mod some justice.

We'll just have to wait and see... It should be worth the wait.

Adavanter 5pts

Most likeably guys in gaming IMO. Always fun to watch!

LordChavas 5pts 1 Like

Why does gamespot still have 720p videos? 1080p minimum please and 1440p would also be nice.

uglypinkmoose 5pts

That crossbow is bada--

I want a balcony

I always thought the people in snow areas should have warm clothing that's awesome

pyrojazz 5pts

Is there a masterlist of all mods featured?

ReadySebbyGo moderator moderatorstaff 5pts 1 Like

@pyrojazz Sort of, I could just take a screen grab of our Nexus window!

Saketume 5pts

@Neogenic I've had multiple problems getting to this page.

It's a problem that shows up every other day with some articles.

I know Dan has solved it before by flushing the cache. Maybe it's time to do that again.

jedicommand7 5pts 1 Like

I liked how mod 2 was "Name of Mod" by "Designer". oops. lol

guiplc 5pts

fork you hahahahahah... it was a funny one

SKaREO 5pts

This is the best news you can muster up? *yawn* this site is going to hell.

SteamyPotatoes 5pts 1 Like

Makes me want to fire up Skyrim right now but alas i'm caught up in a few other RPGs at the moment since completing the main story.

However i recall getting bored of playing a melee based character, so was wondering if you guys have covered respec mods or something similar in the past ? 

Thanks,  Great show guys :)

James Keefe 5pts

Actually, I own it for PC and have spent a few hundred hours playing it. It lost most of it's replay value after a while. Nice guess, though.

Ian Vance 5pts

Is it old and "not cool" anymore or something? You must own it on console. Once you beat it on a console it's pretty much done. Too bad you don't own it for PC. You would have much more content to play.

deadpen 5pts 1 Like

still waiting on the RoboCop mod!

6orange6 5pts 2 Like

well done Seb and Cam, a wonderful breath of fresh air after the usual click bait, console gamer tension that seems to dominate around these parts. 

I hope you guys can expand and do explore videos for GTA V, just record your reactions.

Vidpci 5pts

People still play Skyrim?

SKaREO 5pts

@Vidpci It's a bad RPG, I'm surprised anyone would even pay for it...

Garagorn888 5pts

@Vidpci 

 I tried to stop but then the Nexus exploded and I couldn't resist the salvage.

darius343 5pts

@SKaREO @pongley @Vidpci Morrowind is crap compared to Skyrim, I played them side by side last month. Morrowind was poorly made compared to Skyrim.

Ian Vance 5pts

Colorful Magic is awesome. I truly feel sorry for people that wasted $60+ DLC prices on the console version(s) of this game. So limited compared to the never-ending PC version + Mods.

pongley 5pts

The genial kind of evil is the one to watch out for.

Maverick6585 5pts

What ENB is that?
And what are the specs of the PC you guys use for these videos?

JimmyJumpy 5pts

Second notice I got for this one... but this is a "feature" while the other was a "video"... *jimmy kicks at a pebble and walks off...*

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Fez II canceled

Fez II has been canceled, developer Phil Fish has announced.

"Fez II is cancelled," reads an update on the Polytron website.

"I am done. I take the money and I run," he added. "This is as much as I can stomach. This is isn't the result of any one thing, but the end of a long, bloody campaign. You win."

On Twitter, Fish said he is getting out of the game industry entirely, "because I choose not to put up with this abuse anymore."

Fez II was announced in early June 2013 at the Horizon Indie Game Conference in Los Angeles. Outside of its existence, not much was known about the game.

The original Fez was released on the Xbox 360 in 2012, after five years of development, and saw a PC release in 2013. Fish's journey to release the game was chronicled in Indie Game: The Movie.

The game has sold 200,000 units on the Xbox 360.

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DARK Review

Can you imagine how deliciously powerful it would feel to be a vampire? Sustaining yourself on the blood of your victims, you could turn to mist and rush through the air, preying on the weak and hunting down the forces that would see the end of you and your kind. Dark hints at such an existence, but this vampire stealth game fails to make such bloodsucking dreams and nightmares come to life. Rather than pull you into the supernatural drama it tries to author, Dark devolves into unintentional comedy, the ridiculously bad dialogue and hilarious artificial intelligence inspiring fits of laughter. This game is both insane and inane, but at least its overall stupidity gives you something to cackle at.

That one guard will perform pirouettes forever and ever. He must be stopped at all costs!

The laughs start with the story, which casts you as Eric Bane, a half-vampire looking to suck the blood out of more powerful vampires before you turn into a mindless ghoul. You spend a lot of time in a nightclub called Sanctuary, where you might at first enjoy the colorful cel-shaded visuals and awkwardly dancing patrons before you start giggling at the bad dialogue. Says a vampire DJ about another powerful bloodsucker: "The women that work there for him are really f***ed up. I think he put some vampire s*** on them." Says another: "The guy more or less owns the city. He's like the vampire dictator, man." A Mass Effect-like dialogue wheel offers dialogue options, but not any actual choices, though you can string together different parts of conversation in ways that make the insipid dialogue even more nonsensical.

So off you go into the night to exercise your sneaking skills and do vampiric things, like knocking out dunderheaded rent-a-cops from behind when you aren't plunging your teeth into their necks. It's clear right away that something's amiss in Dark, however. Guards engage in conversation before beginning their patrol patterns, which is a typical atmospheric touch in stealth games, but some chats go on forever without unveiling any important truths or infusing Dark with any personality. When alerted, guards deliver canned lines that don't always make sense in context, the same snippets of recorded dialogue overlapping with each other and lone enemies calling out to nonexistent comrades. Bad animations, mediocre voice acting, jittery cutscenes, and disappearing sound effects round out the first impressions, though some nice audiovisual touches, such as the satisfying whoosh of your shadow leap ability, give you hope for the coming hours.

Unfortunately, Dark never capitalizes on its few strengths. The basic gameplay is bone-dry stealth--you crouch and hug walls, at least when the cover mechanic decides to work, while trying to avoid the none-too-watchful eyes of guards and attacking them when you need to. You may also drag corpses away if you have the opportunity, and need to avoid litter lest you call attention to yourself, though it isn't always clear whether or not nearby watchmen notice or care. There are a few visual references to Thief in the early levels, but you never need to keep to the shadows, in spite of the allusions (and in spite of this game's own name).

You also have some passive and active vampire powers that let you, for example, confuse enemies in the area for a short period of time, or rush across a good distance and assassinate a guard. You need to kill guards and read scattered personal digital assistants and emails to earn points to unlock and improve these abilities, and you drain blood from your enemies to power them. At first it's fun to fool around with these skills, since they're the only way of mixing up the generic sneaking. Flying through the air and felling the cookie-cutter character models can give you a sense of accomplishment, as can successfully sneaking through a heavily defended warehouse without alarming the sentries. But about halfway through the game, you realize that you can use your shadow leap ability to exploit your way through levels, propelling yourself onto ledges and other platforms and avoiding or eliminating entire swaths of patrols in the process.

The rotten enemy AI doesn't always hinder you; in fact, it often seems intent on assisting your efforts. For instance, you might hide in a bush, one guard after another approaching you, perhaps after seeing you lurk in the area. You can knock them out one at a time, the guards acting as if they can't figure out where that corpse came from, even after staring right at you as you performed the kill. To make matters worse, Dark draws out levels during such circumstances, spawning new guards when the AI is alerted until the supply runs out, which makes levels tedious. You even see some of these guards appear right in front of you out of nowhere, which completely corrupts the core design of a stealth game.

Elsewhere, enemies jitter in place or against each other before teleporting somewhere else--again undermining the very idea of a stealth game. Sometimes, guards get stuck standing and looking in one spot in a way that keeps you from reaching your destination. And what's really hysterical is when guards shoot at you so that you can see bullets landing on you, yet the shots don't register. The lack of continuity between checkpoints also annihilates Dark's design consistency. In certain locations, triggering a checkpoint causes all the enemies in the area you just left to disappear, only to have new enemies and characters materialize there without any explanation.

There are some good ideas in here, like machines that produce a field of UV rays that injure you and dull your vampire powers. And every so often, a level comes together, with enemy routines created in a way that allows you to satisfyingly slink by. But those bright spots are exceptions in Dark's poorly crafted areas. Some levels at first look open-ended, inviting you to experiment with different approaches, but actually push you down a single linear path, because it's the only path the AI and its rigid patterns can reasonably handle. Other levels feature a mishmash of enemies, alarms, and behaviors that seem thoughtlessly put together, inspiring you to exploit your way through rather than devise a clever plan of action.

Instead of ramping up the challenge and excitement, Dark actually gets much easier as it progresses, and the final boss fight (which involves walking around as its main mechanic) and subsequent moral choice (in which you have no emotional investment) aren't gut punches, but rather are gut-bustingly bad. In its favor, Dark mixes up its pace in the final levels, dropping some narrative surprises on you and depositing you into a few unexpected locales. But by then, you've endured too much banality for a few bewildering plot twists to suck any interest out of you, or for the stand-alone challenge levels to hold any appeal. In the dark is where this clumsy vampire game should remain.

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Zynga sheds daily users as it announces $15.8m loss

Farmville maker Zynga has announced a $15.8m loss for the second quarter of 2013, as daily users of its social games fell by 45 per cent over the last twelve months.

39m people now play Zynga titles on a daily basis, down from 72m this time last year. Alongside the drop in active daily players, the amount of people playing a Zynga game at least once a month also dropped 39 per cent year-on-year to 187m, down from 306m in the second quarter of 2012.

The social gaming giant announced revenues of $231m for the three month period ending June 30, down from $332m the year before.

Zynga released six new titles in the last quarter: Hidden Shadows, War of the Fallen, Draw Something 2, Battlestone, Solstice Arena, and Running With Friends.

Zynga has had rough time of late, and is embarking on a restructuring process that will remove 520 jobs from the company.

"The next few years will be a time of phenomenal growth in our space and Zynga has incredible assets to take advantage of the market opportunity," said former Xbox boss and now Zynga CEO Don Mattrick.

"To do that, we need to get back to basics and take a longer term view on our products and business, develop more efficient processes and tighten up execution all across the company. We have a lot of hard work in front of us and as we reset, we expect to see more volatility in our business than we would like over the next two to four quarters. I'm privileged to lead Zynga and I look forward to spending more time with our players, employees and shareholders."

Zynga previously announced a profit of $4.1m for the first quarter of the year.

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World of Warcraft subscribers drop to 7.7 million

World of Warcraft has lost 700,000 players in the last three months, with the MMO now down to 7.7 million active subscribers.

Activision Blizzard reported that 8.2 million people were subscribed to World of Warcraft in March, with CEO Bobby Kotick saying that the company expects to see the number fall further throughout the year.

The decline in World of Warcraft players numbers has been previously attributed mainly to Eastern markets, although Activision did not comment specifically on this latest subscriber decline.

Activision adds that World of Warcraft remains the most popular subscription-based MMO in the world.

Subscribers for the game peaked at over 12 million in October 2010. The gargantuan MMO was originally released in 2004, and has subsequently released four expansion packs: Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, and Mists of Pandaria.

A World of Warcraft movie will begin filming in 2014.

World of Warcraft's latest player numbers arrive as Activision Blizzard announces it has spent $5.83 billion on company shares to secure its independence from parent company Vivendi.

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F1 2013 arriving in October

Codemasters confirms an October 4 release date for this year's F1 tie-in game.

F1 2013 will launch for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on October 4, Codemasters has confirmed.

The headline feature of this year's Formula 1 tie-in is that classic cars from the 80s and 90s will be included in the game, with a larger garage available to those who purchase the F1 2013 Classics Edition, which will arrive at a higher price than the standard edition of the game.

Buyers of the standard edition will be able to purchase the additional content as DLC, Codemasters adds.

The game will also be updated to include the team and car changes for the 2013 season, including tyre changes and remodeled handling.

Codemasters recently released videos showing off hot laps of both Silverstone and the Nürburgring in this year's F1.

By Martin Gaston, News Editor

Martin Gaston has absolutely never at all had the song from Beauty and the Beast sung to him at any point during his life, ever.

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Frank Gibeau on next-gen transitions and mobile gaming

EA Games Label president Frank Gibeau has said that the Frostbite engine created by Battlefield 4 developer DICE had been the company's core difference in the transition to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Speaking in an interview with GamesBeat, Gibeau said "when you have a proven technology base with tools that work and you're able to move teams around, because they're all trained on the same engine, it makes for efficient and low-risk development. That was a critical decision, to invest in [the Frostbite engine] early on and put the resources in. It causes stress in other parts of the business because a lot of our top guys were working on next-generation behind the scenes. But that was a big breakthrough for us, for sure."

Gibeau added that EA is also experiencing an "unfair advantage" in the mobile market thanks to its big-name brands. "In the case of The Simpsons and The Sims, we're seeing some of the highest results we've ever seen in the revenue on those projects, and they've each been in the market well over a year. The fact that we can stitch [titles like FIFA, Madden, The Sims, and Plants Vs. Zombies] together inside a network gives us an unfair advantage in a world of proliferating titles."

He added that a combination of being "platform agnostic" and getting independent developers on board is the way to go for the mobile gaming business to thrive. "On mobile devices, that's never been more true than now. We're seeing console game levels of return, financially, on these projects. We're seeing audiences that are vastly bigger. Our creative teams are intrigued by designing games for mobile devices. The touch screen, the technology--the technology on the next wave of tablets is going to be near-console-level in terms of graphics performance. You have to design for a touch screen. You have to design for short sessions. You have to design with the mindset that it's going to be mobile."

"[In terms of indie developers, they] are driving a lot of the innovation in the mobile channel. And I don't think you can overstate how big that is. Mobile and tablets have lowered the barrier to entry for a lot of the most creative people in the industry. As a result, it's a really great time to be an indie. You'd have to go back to the early days of gaming to find a time when there was this much accessibility and creativity pouring into our art."

→ More coverage of PC on GameSpot.com

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Namco Bandai teases new worldwide arcade title

Namco Bandai announced that its new studio in Singapore is working on a new game IP.

The publisher told GameSpot Asia that the arcade title will be released worldwide on an unannounced date. So far, 15 people in the Singapore development office are working on it, including former developers from the LucasArts Singapore office.

Makoto Ishii, Namco Bandai division manager for amusement machine group 2, said that there are no current plans to release the mew arcade game on consoles. Ishii also did not clarify whether the new arcade title will be related to past Namco Bandai IPs like the Gundam, Tales, and Tekken series.

In related news, Namco Bandai Singapore president Hajime Nakatani clarified that the Singapore studio will be focused on game development, though the studio may have plans to set up a localization division in the future. Namco Bandai Singapore will also do game development work outsourced by the Japanese headquarters. The company set up the studio because past efforts that involved collaborating with Asian game development partners were successful.

Namco Bandai will reveal the new arcade IP "in the near future," as development for the title started last month. For more information on Namco Bandai's latest title, check out GameSpot's coverage on Gundam Breaker.

→ More coverage of ARCADE on GameSpot.com

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SimCity sales hit 2 million

Electronic Arts' city-building game SimCity has now sold 2 million units, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau told GamesBeat in a new interview. This is up 400,000 units from 1.6 million at the end of March.

Recalling the game's rocky launch in March, Gibeau said the first week was "really rough" and an "experience nobody wants to live through again."

Despite the initial struggles, Gibeau said the company sees SimCity as a positive achievement overall.

"Since then, we've sold more than 2 million units, and the number of people logging in and playing is holding steady. SimCity is a success," Gibeau said. "However, underestimating demand in the first month was a major miss. We hope that the game and the service we've provided since then meets the fans' high standards."

In addition, the feedback EA received from gamers following SimCity's launch helped inspire the company to make 2014's The Sims 4 an offline game, Gibeau said.

"In the last few months, we have started making changes to the business practices that gamers clearly don't like," Gibeau said. "In the spring, we dropped our online pass program for consoles--both next-generation and current-generation. We listened to the feedback on SimCity and decided that The Sims 4 would be built as a single-player, offline experience."

→ More coverage of PS4 on GameSpot.com

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Capcom: No new Darkstalkers game planned

July 23, 2013 12:30AM PDT

Low Darkstalkers Resurrection compilation sales given as reason for halt on franchise.

Capcom says that it has no plans for more Darkstalkers game in the near future.

According to a report on Siliconera, Capcom fighting game manager Matt Dahlgren said that the Darkstalkers Resurrection re-release did not meet sales expectation. "Darkstalkers Resurrection did not perform as well as we would have liked to hope. You never know what the future may hold, but Street Fighter is definitely not dead. There is nothing Darkstalkers on the immediate horizon for sure," he said.

Previously at New York Comic-Con 2012, Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono showed off a teaser for a new Darkstalkers game featuring the characters Demitri and Lord Raptor. Capcom also experienced lay-offs early this month, with senior vice president Christian Svensson leaving the company.

→ More coverage of PS3 on GameSpot.com

By Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor

Born and raised from a jungle-laden village in Sarawak, Malaysia, Jonathan Toyad has been playing games since the early 90s. He favors fighting games, RPGs, and rhythm titles above every other genre, and occasionally spaces out like Pavlov's dog to video game music on his iPod.

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Ouya devs open up on sales figures for new console

Developers for the recently launched Ouya console voiced their opinions on Edge and Gamasutra about how each of their various titles have sold so far.

Developer Matt Thorson, who created TowerFall, said that the game performed well, selling 2000 units at $15 each. "Sales have been surprisingly high for a new game on a new console. The game has definitely proven itself on Ouya, I think there's enough demand to warrant bringing it to PC," he said.

Developer NimbleBit's title, Nimble Quest, was downloaded 6,508 times and was purchased 122 times, bringing the total profit of the game to $427. Co-founder David Marsh said that he would recommend the Ouya for indie developers who are familiar with Android and are curious about the console. "It's probably not going to be a huge source of income compared to other platforms, but it's dead easy to submit a game and get it into the store. It's the only console right now with a truly open store, which makes it interesting and worth supporting if you want to see more open platforms. It's also a great device to have just to check out all sorts of neat experimental multiplayer games that are already popping up. I think it's a step in the right direction," he said.

Knife Media's co-founder Jack Shiels said that sales for the company's game, twin-stick shooter Red, was adequate at best. "We broke even within two and a half weeks, whilst sales are currently sitting at just below 400. Right now that doesn't seem like a whole lot, but there aren't a significant amount of Ouyas out in the wild right now. I reckon by year end we will have a clearer picture," he said.

Ryan Wiemeyer, co-founder of the team The Men Who Wear Many Hats, said that the game Organ Trail sold about half of what his low-end predictions were. "Last I checked we were at 501 purchases from 13,112 downloads (a 3.8 percent attach rate). This accounts for about 0.1 percent of our total Organ Trail sales to date (which is over 400,000.) So, I don't even know if it was worth the man hours yet. Then again… Organ Trail was a pain to add controller support to and that was the bulk of the port."

For more information on the Ouya, check out GameSpot's coverage on the console.

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Wasteland 2 delayed due to Kickstarter success

InXile Entertainment's Kickstarter-funded RPG Wasteland 2 will not make its intended October release, according to a post from the company on Kickstarter.

InXile CEO Brian Fargo attributes the delay to the crowd-funding project's huge financial success and subsequent scope changes, with the campaign raising almost three times its initial $900,000 goal. "This feature complete playable is about six weeks behind where I had wanted it to be, but I can't be too surprised, considering the increased scope. We have been able to accomplish so much in so little time by our experience, fantastic team, and tools," he said. As a result, Wasteland 2 will now go into beta testing in October this year.

The development team has also confirmed that it will be showing the game to media at this year's Gamescom expo, being held in Cologne, Germany, from August 21-25. While the game won't be shown to the public, the team will be creating a video for backers and fans, showcasing either the old prison or rail nomad camp stages.

InXile will announce a new release date for the game after it receives enough feedback from the beta testing phase. The fan-funded sequel to Wasteland received pledges of almost $3 million on Kickstarter when it ran in March last year.

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Dynasty Warriors 8 director: Xbox One needs simultaneous Japan launch to be successful

Dynasty Warriors 8 director Atsushi Miyauchi has said that Microsoft needs to launch the Xbox One in Japan at the same time as its North American release if the company wants to be successful in the region.

According to a report by Polygon during this weekend's inaugural PAX Australia event, Miyauchi believes that releasing both devices at the same time will make a big difference. "Looking at the recent announcements about the Xbox One--just looking at the numbers, the specs, and about what kind of things the Xbox One can do with its CPU--the gap between the PS4 and Xbox One, in terms of functionality, may not be that different. So, if the Xbox One comes to TGS and doesn't have a delayed release in Japan, Microsoft'll have a good chance [in the region]."

He also added that the reason why Microsoft's Xbox 360 console was so unsuccessful in Japan was because of the brand loyalty established by Sony and the PlayStation 2 console. "The PS2 was great, and they were used to it, so a lot of consumers just updated to the PS3," he said. "For example, if they have an iPhone and they like it, they'll probably just get the next one. Whereas, in the West, some may have an iPhone, but if the next Galaxy comes out, and it has more features, they'll get what has the better specs."

Miyauchi also added that Japanese game developers are still unsure as to what the Xbox One and PS4 can offer them, despite companies such as Konami and Square Enix showcasing what their new game engines can do on the next-generation hardware.

"Not a lot of information has come domestically to the Japanese game developers. So I think at this point now, we really don't have that much information on that until they actually make an official presentation to us; then they'll understand what they will be able to do. It seems a little bit prohibited, but maybe they are all waiting for Tokyo Game Show to share their plans with us," he said.

The Xbox One will be released in Japan in early 2014. The system is due to launch in North America in November this year.

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Xbox One will be playable at EB Expo

July 21, 2013 11:38PM PDT

Microsoft is bringing 100 Xbox One consoles to retailer expo; no confirmation of games to be shown.

Microsoft will be offering Aussie gamers a chance to get up-close-and-personal with its upcoming Xbox One console at the 2013 EB Expo.

During the Xbox Presentation held at the inaugural PAX Australia, a Microsoft representative revealed that the company will be bringing 100 Xbox One consoles to the event for hands-on play by consumers. No details have been confirmed on which Xbox One games will be made available.

In a statement posted on the retailer's EB Expo website, brand engagement and events manager Debra McGrath said, "We are thrilled that EB Games and Microsoft are combining forces to give gamers a chance to get hands on with the Xbox One at this year's EB Expo. We hope that this glimpse of the future is as exciting to the gaming public as it is to us. We can't give away too much just yet, but watch this space for more huge announcements in the coming weeks."

EB Expo will take place from October 4-6 at the Sydney Showgrounds. The Xbox One will go on sale in Australia this November.

By Dan Chiappini, Editor of GameSpot AU

Raised by the warm glow of arcade machine monitors and TV screens, Dan's lifelong passion has always been games. PC, console, mobile, handheld, you name it, he'll play it. He also enjoys photography, long walks on the beach, and clichés.

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A Look At The New And Brutal Guacamelee! DLC, El Diablo's Domain

It's the video debut of Asia's finest videogame podcast! Jonathan and Randolph cross uncharted territory as they tackle next-gen development with special guests from Boomzap Entertainment and Witching Hour Studios. Download the audio version here: http://bit.ly/10bph86

Posted May 3, 2013 | 56:27 | 6,101 Views

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Rich and Rob vs. Comic-Con 2013: 3D

Rich and Rob go 3D at comic-con 2013!

Live Comic-Con Event Schedule

• Day 1 Thursday July 18
• Day 2 Friday July 19
• Day 3 Saturday July 20

•  
• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
• 11:20am PDT
• 11:40am PDT
• 12:00pm PDT
• 12:20pm PDT
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• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
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Rich and Rob vs. Comic-Con 2013:Evel Fett, Walking Dead and 3D

Rich and Rob find the Evel Fett, visit The Walking Dead Chop Shop and go 3D.

Live Comic-Con Event Schedule

• Day 1 Thursday July 18
• Day 2 Friday July 19
• Day 3 Saturday July 20

•  
• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
• 11:20am PDT
• 11:40am PDT
• 12:00pm PDT
• 12:20pm PDT
• 12:40pm PDT
• 1:00pm PDT
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now

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• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
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• 2:20pm PDT
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now

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• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
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now

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Rich and Rob vs. Comic-Con 2013: SCA, NOT LARPing

Rich and Rob explore the world of SCA.

Live Comic-Con Event Schedule

• Day 1 Thursday July 18
• Day 2 Friday July 19
• Day 3 Saturday July 20

•  
• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
• 11:20am PDT
• 11:40am PDT
• 12:00pm PDT
• 12:20pm PDT
• 12:40pm PDT
• 1:00pm PDT
• 1:20pm PDT
• 1:40pm PDT
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• 2:20pm PDT
• 2:40pm PDT
• 3:00pm PDT
• 3:20pm PDT
• 3:40pm PDT

now

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•  
• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
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• 12:00pm PDT
• 12:20pm PDT
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• 2:00pm PDT
• 2:20pm PDT
• 2:40pm PDT
• 3:00pm PDT
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now

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• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
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Gearbox reveals first details on new Borderlands 2 DLC

Earlier this month Randy Pitchford revealed that Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep would not be the last piece of downloadable content released for Borderlands 2.

Today during its PAX Australia panel, Gearbox Software announced the first details for the game's fifth expansion pack, as well as outlining free feature updates on the way.

The new DLC pack, the Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2, will add 11 extra levels to the current player cap, and a new Digistruct Peak Challenge. The pack will also allow players to "over level" the game to make content more difficult for advanced players. No specific release date was given, but Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford confirmed that the pack will be out sometime before October 31 this year. The pack will not be included in the current season pass, and will cost $5. No previous DLC will be required to play.

A planned free update to Borderlands 2 is also set to increase the maximum amount of ammo players can carry, enhance the total number of available bank slots, and boost inventory capacity. All upgrades can be purchased using Eridium, the in-game upgrade resource.

The team also revealed upcoming DLC pack, T.K Baha's Bloody Harvest. The content will include throwbacks to The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC released for the original Borderlands. The pack will conclude with a boss battle against pumpkin creature, Jacques O'Lantern.

Pitchford confirmed that while some DLC has been in development since Borderlands 2 went on sale, beyond today's announcement, the team is aiming to release one or two more packs in the future.

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Gearbox working on HD remake of Homeworld series

July 20, 2013 12:24AM PDT

HD and classic versions of the space strategy series coming to Steam; no release date announced.

Gearbox Software has revealed plans to remaster classic space strategy series Homefront, and bring the games to digital platforms.

CEO Randy Pitchford announced that the successful acquisition of the licence from the now defunct THQ was the only bid made for the franchise by a developer during the process, with the other two competing offers made by unnamed game publishers.

The studio will bring both Homeworld and Homeworld 2 to Steam, and while the team is working to update the graphics for a more modern look, those who purchase the game will also receive classic, unaltered versions of the 1999 and 2003 games. No release dates were confirmed. The news came as part of the company's PAX Australia panel, where it also revealed it would be bringing new downloadable content to its hit RPG, first-person shooter hybrid, Borderlands 2.

In April this year a Kickstarter campaign to create Homeworld 3 was unsuccessful after developer TeamPixel was unable to secure the game's rights.

By Dan Chiappini, Editor of GameSpot AU

Raised by the warm glow of arcade machine monitors and TV screens, Dan's lifelong passion has always been games. PC, console, mobile, handheld, you name it, he'll play it. He also enjoys photography, long walks on the beach, and clichés.

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Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-Bit Land - SDCC 2013

Posted by Dan Mihoerck, Project Manager

Chris Watters has a look at Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-Bit Land at SDCC 2013.

Live Comic-Con Event Schedule

• Day 1 Thursday July 18
• Day 2 Friday July 19
• Day 3 Saturday July 20

•  
• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
• 11:20am PDT
• 11:40am PDT
• 12:00pm PDT
• 12:20pm PDT
• 12:40pm PDT
• 1:00pm PDT
• 1:20pm PDT
• 1:40pm PDT
• 2:00pm PDT
• 2:20pm PDT
• 2:40pm PDT
• 3:00pm PDT
• 3:20pm PDT
• 3:40pm PDT

now

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•  
• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
• 11:20am PDT
• 11:40am PDT
• 12:00pm PDT
• 12:20pm PDT
• 12:40pm PDT
• 1:00pm PDT
• 1:20pm PDT
• 1:40pm PDT
• 2:00pm PDT
• 2:20pm PDT
• 2:40pm PDT
• 3:00pm PDT
• 3:20pm PDT
• 3:40pm PDT

now

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• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
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Building Halo Worlds Panel - First 15 at Comic Con 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

 BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

 BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

 BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

 BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

 BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

 BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

BUILDING HALO WORLDS PANEL - FIRST 15 AT COMIC CON 2013

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Sideshow Collectibles Booth - SDCC 2013

Posted by Dan Mihoerck, Project Manager

Homer visits the massive Sideshow Collectibles booth at SDCC 2013.

Live Comic-Con Event Schedule

• Day 1 Thursday July 18
• Day 2 Friday July 19
• Day 3 Saturday July 20

•  
• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
• 11:20am PDT
• 11:40am PDT
• 12:00pm PDT
• 12:20pm PDT
• 12:40pm PDT
• 1:00pm PDT
• 1:20pm PDT
• 1:40pm PDT
• 2:00pm PDT
• 2:20pm PDT
• 2:40pm PDT
• 3:00pm PDT
• 3:20pm PDT
• 3:40pm PDT

now

‹

›

•  
• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
• 11:20am PDT
• 11:40am PDT
• 12:00pm PDT
• 12:20pm PDT
• 12:40pm PDT
• 1:00pm PDT
• 1:20pm PDT
• 1:40pm PDT
• 2:00pm PDT
• 2:20pm PDT
• 2:40pm PDT
• 3:00pm PDT
• 3:20pm PDT
• 3:40pm PDT

now

‹

›

•  
• Random Encounter
• Stage Show

• 11:00am PDT
• 11:20am PDT
• 11:40am PDT
• 12:00pm PDT
• 12:20pm PDT
• 12:40pm PDT
• 1:00pm PDT
• 1:20pm PDT
• 1:40pm PDT
• 2:00pm PDT
• 2:20pm PDT
• 2:40pm PDT
• 3:00pm PDT
• 3:20pm PDT
• 3:40pm PDT
• 4:00pm PDT
• 4:20pm PDT
• 4:40pm PDT

now

‹

›

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Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition Review

It's been a long time coming, but the PC version of Mortal Kombat is every bit the focused, gruesome, and ludicrously over-the-top fighter as its console counterparts, not to mention the best looking. It pushes the boundaries of taste to the extreme with eye-popping attacks that see you ripping your opponents in half, impaling them on spikes, and stamping on their chests while their internal organs bounce around like tetherballs. And, thanks to the inclusion of all the game's DLC to date, it's jammed full of great new content and challenges.

If you've got some suitably beefy hardware the PC version of Mortal Kombat looks fantastic.

Most fighting games have some kind of narrative backing up the action, but few do more with it than bookend their arcade modes with a few cutscenes. Not so in Mortal Kombat's Story mode. Each fight you have is punctuated by in-engine cinematics, taking you on a journey that reboots the narrative from the first three Mortal Kombat games. The story picks up where Mortal Kombat: Armageddon left off, with Thunder God Raiden under attack from Shao Kahn, an evil emperor hell-bent on merging Outworld with Earth Realm--a process that threatens to end all life on the planet. It's all a bit cheesy, but the story fits well with Mortal Kombat's outlandish action.

That action makes a return to the single-plane 2D fighting that the series is known for, albeit with 3D models in place of digitised sprites. You're given the usual range of kicks, punches, and special moves to perform, as well as a combo system that lets juggle your opponents by knocking them into the air and following up with additional attacks. Pulling off such moves is tricky, but responsive controls and a simple control scheme mean that you're only ever a few hours practice away from an impressive combo.

If you're used to playing the likes of Super Street Fighter IV, though, then the feel of Mortal Kombat does take some getting used to, because the animation is less fluid. Moves don't string together as smoothly, so if you try to perform a combo that isn't in your character's repertoire, there's a delay between each attack, which feels jarring if you're not used to it. This doesn't make the game any less fun, though; it's just a different approach.

New to Mortal Kombat is a super meter, which gives you few more options during a fight. Most notable are devastating super combos called X-ray moves, which treat you to a slow-motion X-ray view of your opponent's bones and organs being crushed in an excessive display of blood and guts that even the most hardcore of sadists will appreciate. Skulls are smashed, spines are broken, and knives are thrust into eyeball sockets, all accompanied by flying shards of bones and chilling sound effects that crunch and splat just right.

On the surface, then, subtlety and sophistication aren't Mortal Kombat's strong points, but spend some time diving into the underlying mechanics and it soon becomes clear there's a lot of depth to its combat. For example, you can integrate X-Ray moves into your existing combos--nothing screams pro more than launching your opponents into the air, landing a combo, and then, while they're completely helpless, smashing their skull with your boot in glorious X-Ray vision. And while X-ray moves are powerful, they're not unstoppable; some can be blocked if they're not performed as part of a combo, and others can be dodged.

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Ouya launches $1 million developer fund

"Free The Games Fund" will match Kickstarter funding provided game is exclusive to platform for at least six months.

Ouya today announced a new $1 million developer fund that will match funding for new games through Kickstarter provided the titles are exclusive to the platform for at least six months.

The new fund will match 100 percent of total funds raised up to $250,000 from Kickstarter campaigns that must conclude by August 10, 2014. All projects must adhere to Ouya's submission guidelines.

A full list of rules is below:

• Game projects must launch on Kickstarter on or after August 9, 2013, and conclude by August 10, 2014.
• Games must meet their Kickstarter funding goal and raise a minimum of $50,000 to be eligible for matching.
• Once successfully funded via Kickstarter, OUYA will match 100% of the total funds raised up to $250,000.
• Game creators must make their game exclusive on OUYA for a minimum of six months beginning on the date the title becomes available for download on OUYA.
• And, for the game that raises the most via Kickstarter by the end of the program, the developer will earn an additional $100,000 Rock Star bonus from OUYA.

In addition, Ouya will not provide matching funds all at once. 25 percent will be given when a Kickstarter campaign concludes, 50 percent when the title launches on Ouya, and the final 25 percent after the six-month Ouya-exclusive period is over.

More information about Ouya's new developer fund is available at the Free The Games Fund website.

The $99 Android-powered Ouya launched last month to the public and quickly sold out, though the microconsole is now again readily available.

By Eddie Makuch, News Editor

Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.

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Fatal1ty, Flash and Mvp three highest-earning pro-gamers in eSports

ESportsearnings.com lists earnings of up to $454,000 from 40 tournaments.

Website eSports Earnings has published a list of the highest-paid professional gamers as of 2013, with Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, Lee "Flash" Young Ho and "Jung "Mvp" Jong Hyun in the top three.

Fatal1ty, who is known for winning four player-of-the-year awards with the Cyberathlete Professional League and a championship title with World Cyber Games, earned a total of $454,544.98 from 35 tournaments. Renowned StarCraft II professional players Flash and Mvp earned $437,114.53 from 40 tournaments and $377,116.37 from 42 tournaments respectively.

The list does not take into account sponsorship deals and Twitch streaming income. For more on eSports, check out GameSpot's recent coverage on Evolution 2k13.

By Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor

Born and raised from a jungle-laden village in Sarawak, Malaysia, Jonathan Toyad has been playing games since the early 90s. He favors fighting games, RPGs, and rhythm titles above every other genre, and occasionally spaces out like Pavlov's dog to video game music on his iPod.

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Teen jailed after League of Legends argument hopeful for case dismissal

The Texas teenager jailed after comments made on Facebook following a League of Legends match is hopeful that his case will be dismissed. Speaking with Kotaku, Justin Carter's lawyer Don Flanary said he will file a motion for dismissal on August 12

"I think the law is definitely on our side," Flanary said.

Carter was arrested in March after he said on Facebook following a League of Legends match that he was going to "shoot up" a school and "eat their still, beating hearts," according to his father.

He reportedly followed up these comments with "LOL and "JK." A woman in Canada saw his comments and informed the police, who arrested Carter for making a terrorist threat.

Carter's comments came just months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed.

According to Flanary, Carter was charged without full context or understanding of his comments. "It's clearly sarcasm," Flanary said. "They charged him before looking at the entire thread."

An "anonymous good Samaritan" posted Carter's $500,000 bail last week. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

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