Written By Kom Limpulnam on Sabtu, 30 November 2013 | 21.51
Beneath the surface of Mars lies tranquility. The exotic planet houses valuable minerals amid the impenetrable rocks, and as you survey the vast subterranean world, a serenity washes over you. It's not the treasures that drive you many leagues below the surface, nor is it the promise of unraveling a mysterious conspiracy. No, it's the desire for solitude that serves as your motivation. A calm that can only exist when the tight spaces surrounding you provide comfort, rather than claustrophobia, and every clump of dirt you push aside puts you one meter further from civilization. There's pleasure in Super Motherload's excavation duties, and it's that escape that pulls you ever deeper into this alien world.
Of course, you weren't set to Mars to unwind from the everyday toils of life on Earth. The unquenchable greed of a starving corporation shuttled you to this distant oasis. The Solarus Corporation craves money, its very existence dependent upon expanding its already bursting coffers. And so you dig for gold and silver, trigger explosions, and circumvent magma, all to keep the powers that be happy. It's a thankless job, so you find respite where you can, but their presence is a constant reminder. The dreamy contentment of rhythmic mining is shattered when voices scream in your ear, extolling you to dive ever deeper. As if there was any other direction to travel. Hints of psychotic episodes infecting those already stationed below ground, of alien civilizations threatened by your largesse, offer more distraction than intrigue, and never blossom into fulfilling tales.
So you tune out the noise. Your capable driller eliminates debris as quickly as it can soar up vertical passageways. Carve tunnels beneath the two-dimensional landscape, shifting away dirt in strategic paths to ensure that whatever mineral you desire becomes yours. Smart planning leads to copious rewards. As mobile as your driller is, it's unable to burrow while hovering, so if you're not careful, troves of platinum and emeralds might rest within sight but out of reach, repeatedly lecturing you for being so sloppy. A feeling of accomplishment washes over you as you scoop up the many minerals that populate this world. There's little guidance in how best to proceed, so when you figure out how to make the many gems and minerals yours, you feel as if you earned whatever spills into your purse.
There's pleasure in Super Motherload's excavation duties, and it's that escape that pulls you ever deeper into this alien world.
Your driller is agile, yes, but also fragile. Without enemies to fear, it's your own carelessness that provides the biggest danger. Even with this knowledge, it's easy to forget about your own vulnerability. The lone propeller atop your craft provides surprising lift, and as you careen joyfully toward the surface, smashing into an ill-placed rock can lead to a quick grave. However, punishment won't leave much of a mark. Your cargo is unceremoniously taken away, but you're allowed to carry on undeterred. It's your driller's other failings that provide the most distress. Fuel is as valuable as anything on Mars, and your cargo hold is quite small. As you quickly eat away at your gasoline and extra space, your driller soon becomes useless. So you must resurface to the nearest station, where you unload your goods and refill. This is a frequent and unsatisfying necessity of life underground. And though you can purchase expensive teleporters, you spend too much time drifting between your base and the excavation site.
At least you can make use of all of the money you're accumulating. Upgrade your driller when you return back to base to extend its life ever so slightly. Expand the cargo hold and fuel tank, strengthen your hull, and improve the speed of your craft. Sink money into a radar to be able to identify which debris is desirable, and what's just dirt. Unfortunately, the radar isn't much help. The more money you spend on it, the more focused it becomes, but it's rarely detailed enough to provide information that you couldn't gleam from just using your eyes. At least the other upgrades offer more tangible rewards. The option to smelt materials provides the most interesting upgrade. Your smelter unlocks combinations that can earn you money much quicker. By nabbing materials in a specific pattern, you automatically forge alloys, which adds a dose of strategy to your shoveling duties.
What devilish person set up such intricate traps a mile below Mars' surface?
As you dive deeper below the surface, the terrain becomes more difficult to navigate. Rocks and magma halt your progress, so you must find clever ways to avoid them. That's where bombs come in. By either picking up bombs while digging or purchasing them at shops, you gain an invaluable way to borrow deeper. Be careful, though, because a sizable C4 blast could eliminate nearby pockets of gold even though you were trying to disintegrate some rocks. So, just like in real life, you should do a bit of planning before you detonate your explosives. T-shaped blasts are perfect for carving out a niche to dig while vertical strikes can clear an entire column in a snap. Charge certain blocks with an electromagnetic jolt to turn them into magma, and then either use a bomb to clear that lava out of the way, or drill through it yourself while taking some damage. Super Motherload hides its puzzle elements in the early going, but if you want to become the richest person on Mars, you have to become a thoughtful and willing arsonist.
There's beauty in loneliness. Super Motherload is at its best when you're miles below Mars' surface, lost in the peaceful rhythm of excavation. But if that solitude frightens you, three of your friends can join you in your quest for minerals. Just don't get your hopes up for online friendships to blossom; Super Motherload is offline only. No matter if you're alone or with friends, there's an uncommon appeal to your extraterrestrial exploits. There's no excitement here, nothing that will make you whoop or yell. The draw comes from the slow satisfaction of carving intricate paths, of razing rocks and planting bombs. It's thoughtful desolation. Super Motherload somehow makes alienation feel like a warm embrace.
Update: Sony has temporarily disabled the option to redeem vouchers through PlayStation Network in a bid to ensure a smoother service.
"To minimise the inconvenience we have suspended the 'redeem voucher' functionality whilst we investigate further. Unfortunately this means that money cards, product vouchers, PlayStation Plus vouchers, PS3-PS4 upgrade vouchers and any other vouchers for digital content are not redeemable at this stage," said Sony. "Other PSN features such as log-in, online multi-player gaming, PlayStation Plus trial, PS Store (excluding voucher redemption), trophies, messages, friends etc. are all available."
Original story: PlayStation Network in Europe has collapsed under the weight of users attempting to connect their new PlayStation 4 consoles to the service, following the launch of the machine in the region today.
The service is struggling to cope with the traffic generated by the amount of people returning home from a day at work/school armed with the new console. The same thing happened when the machine launched in the US earlier this month.
"We are aware some users are experiencing issues logging into PSN on PS4 due to the heavy traffic we are receiving, we're investigating," said Sony on the PlayStation Europe Twitter account.
"Thanks for your patience."
Sony attempted to lessen the potential outages yesterday by disabling the What's New and Content Information screens on PlayStation Network in Europe, but Twitter and the Sony forums are currently awash with tales of people unable to connect.
One of the main things people will be looking for is the initial update for the PlayStation 4, which enables many of the machine's services and features. Anyone looking to manually install the machine's day one update can do from Sony's site, provided they have some USB storage handy.
The 1.51 update weighs in at 308mb, so any stick made in the 21st century should suffice.
I agree with you entirely: "It's hard to say no to more Star Wars." Sums up my philosophy toward it fairly well, though the idea of the third Battlefront sounds enticing.
As far as KOTOR goes, I think that The Old Republic delivers a few fairly well-written stories (the class quest line for the Imperial Agent comes to mind) and is satisfactory enough -- until they can write something else as epic as the original Knights. I feel that if they learn from their mistakes and take what they have gotten right in the past, they may be able to deliver something that surpasses even that.
That said, The Old Republic fails to be a game that's worth playing *as much* as KOTOR...
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Jumat, 29 November 2013 | 21.50
Beneath the surface of Mars lies tranquility. The exotic planet houses valuable minerals amid the impenetrable rocks, and as you survey the vast subterranean world, a serenity washes over you. It's not the treasures that drive you many leagues below the surface, nor is it the promise of unraveling a mysterious conspiracy. No, it's the desire for solitude that serves as your motivation. A calm that can only exist when the tight spaces surrounding you provide comfort, rather than claustrophobia, and every clump of dirt you push aside puts you one meter further from civilization. There's pleasure in Super Motherload's excavation duties, and it's that escape that pulls you ever deeper into this alien world.
Of course, you weren't set to Mars to unwind from the everyday toils of life on Earth. The unquenchable greed of a starving corporation shuttled you to this distant oasis. The Solarus Corporation craves money, its very existence dependent upon expanding its already bursting coffers. And so you dig for gold and silver, trigger explosions, and circumvent magma, all to keep the powers that be happy. It's a thankless job, so you find respite where you can, but their presence is a constant reminder. The dreamy contentment of rhythmic mining is shattered when voices scream in your ear, extolling you to dive ever deeper. As if there was any other direction to travel. Hints of psychotic episodes infecting those already stationed below ground, of alien civilizations threatened by your largesse, offer more distraction than intrigue, and never blossom into fulfilling tales.
So you tune out the noise. Your capable driller eliminates debris as quickly as it can soar up vertical passageways. Carve tunnels beneath the two-dimensional landscape, shifting away dirt in strategic paths to ensure that whatever mineral you desire becomes yours. Smart planning leads to copious rewards. As mobile as your driller is, it's unable to burrow while hovering, so if you're not careful, troves of platinum and emeralds might rest within sight but out of reach, repeatedly lecturing you for being so sloppy. A feeling of accomplishment washes over you as you scoop up the many minerals that populate this world. There's little guidance in how best to proceed, so when you figure out how to make the many gems and minerals yours, you feel as if you earned whatever spills into your purse.
There's pleasure in Super Motherload's excavation duties, and it's that escape that pulls you ever deeper into this alien world.
Your driller is agile, yes, but also fragile. Without enemies to fear, it's your own carelessness that provides the biggest danger. Even with this knowledge, it's easy to forget about your own vulnerability. The lone propeller atop your craft provides surprising lift, and as you careen joyfully toward the surface, smashing into an ill-placed rock can lead to a quick grave. However, punishment won't leave much of a mark. Your cargo is unceremoniously taken away, but you're allowed to carry on undeterred. It's your driller's other failings that provide the most distress. Fuel is as valuable as anything on Mars, and your cargo hold is quite small. As you quickly eat away at your gasoline and extra space, your driller soon becomes useless. So you must resurface to the nearest station, where you unload your goods and refill. This is a frequent and unsatisfying necessity of life underground. And though you can purchase expensive teleporters, you spend too much time drifting between your base and the excavation site.
At least you can make use of all of the money you're accumulating. Upgrade your driller when you return back to base to extend its life ever so slightly. Expand the cargo hold and fuel tank, strengthen your hull, and improve the speed of your craft. Sink money into a radar to be able to identify which debris is desirable, and what's just dirt. Unfortunately, the radar isn't much help. The more money you spend on it, the more focused it becomes, but it's rarely detailed enough to provide information that you couldn't gleam from just using your eyes. At least the other upgrades offer more tangible rewards. The option to smelt materials provides the most interesting upgrade. Your smelter unlocks combinations that can earn you money much quicker. By nabbing materials in a specific pattern, you automatically forge alloys, which adds a dose of strategy to your shoveling duties.
What devilish person set up such intricate traps a mile below Mars' surface?
As you dive deeper below the surface, the terrain becomes more difficult to navigate. Rocks and magma halt your progress, so you must find clever ways to avoid them. That's where bombs come in. By either picking up bombs while digging or purchasing them at shops, you gain an invaluable way to borrow deeper. Be careful, though, because a sizable C4 blast could eliminate nearby pockets of gold even though you were trying to disintegrate some rocks. So, just like in real life, you should do a bit of planning before you detonate your explosives. T-shaped blasts are perfect for carving out a niche to dig while vertical strikes can clear an entire column in a snap. Charge certain blocks with an electromagnetic jolt to turn them into magma, and then either use a bomb to clear that lava out of the way, or drill through it yourself while taking some damage. Super Motherload hides its puzzle elements in the early going, but if you want to become the richest person on Mars, you have to become a thoughtful and willing arsonist.
There's beauty in loneliness. Super Motherload is at its best when you're miles below Mars' surface, lost in the peaceful rhythm of excavation. But if that solitude frightens you, three of your friends can join you in your quest for minerals. Just don't get your hopes up for online friendships to blossom; Super Motherload is offline only. No matter if you're alone or with friends, there's an uncommon appeal to your extraterrestrial exploits. There's no excitement here, nothing that will make you whoop or yell. The draw comes from the slow satisfaction of carving intricate paths, of razing rocks and planting bombs. It's thoughtful desolation. Super Motherload somehow makes alienation feel like a warm embrace.
Lead Designer Eric Boltjes discusses the challenges in readying Killzone: Shadow Fall in time for the PlayStation 4 launch, changes in art direction due to technological advances, and future DLC plans.
PS4 launch shooter Killzone: Shadow Fall has received its 1.05 update.
The end of chapter 7 in the single-player campaign has been shortened, and chapter 8 has been made easier due to a raised collision ceiling. These two sequences had previously been criticized by players as being some of the more unenjoyable parts of the campaign.
The patch notes also say that 1.05 fixes "several" UI issues, produces clearer error messages in multiplayer, and fixes up the game's patching system as well as crashes due to the PS4's friends list.
Finally, the game now features left-handed support on the analog sticks, swapping the movement and aiming sticks. Triggers remain unaffected in left-handed mode.
The patch should download and install automatically, although in some cases users will be required to reset their PlayStation 4.
For more information, check out GameSpot's Killzone: Shadow Fall review.
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Kamis, 28 November 2013 | 21.50
Beneath the surface of Mars lies tranquility. The exotic planet houses valuable minerals amid the impenetrable rocks, and as you survey the vast subterranean world, a serenity washes over you. It's not the treasures that drive you many leagues below the surface, nor is it the promise of unraveling a mysterious conspiracy. No, it's the desire for solitude that serves as your motivation. A calm that can only exist when the tight spaces surrounding you provide comfort, rather than claustrophobia, and every clump of dirt you push aside puts you one meter further from civilization. There's pleasure in Super Motherload's excavation duties, and it's that escape that pulls you ever deeper into this alien world.
Of course, you weren't set to Mars to unwind from the everyday toils of life on Earth. The unquenchable greed of a starving corporation shuttled you to this distant oasis. The Solarus Corporation craves money, its very existence dependent upon expanding its already bursting coffers. And so you dig for gold and silver, trigger explosions, and circumvent magma, all to keep the powers that be happy. It's a thankless job, so you find respite where you can, but their presence is a constant reminder. The dreamy contentment of rhythmic mining is shattered when voices scream in your ear, extolling you to dive ever deeper. As if there was any other direction to travel. Hints of psychotic episodes infecting those already stationed below ground, of alien civilizations threatened by your largesse, offer more distraction than intrigue, and never blossom into fulfilling tales.
So you tune out the noise. Your capable driller eliminates debris as quickly as it can soar up vertical passageways. Carve tunnels beneath the two-dimensional landscape, shifting away dirt in strategic paths to ensure that whatever mineral you desire becomes yours. Smart planning leads to copious rewards. As mobile as your driller is, it's unable to burrow while hovering, so if you're not careful, troves of platinum and emeralds might rest within sight but out of reach, repeatedly lecturing you for being so sloppy. A feeling of accomplishment washes over you as you scoop up the many minerals that populate this world. There's little guidance in how best to proceed, so when you figure out how to make the many gems and minerals yours, you feel as if you earned whatever spills into your purse.
There's pleasure in Super Motherload's excavation duties, and it's that escape that pulls you ever deeper into this alien world.
Your driller is agile, yes, but also fragile. Without enemies to fear, it's your own carelessness that provides the biggest danger. Even with this knowledge, it's easy to forget about your own vulnerability. The lone propeller atop your craft provides surprising lift, and as you careen joyfully toward the surface, smashing into an ill-placed rock can lead to a quick grave. However, punishment won't leave much of a mark. Your cargo is unceremoniously taken away, but you're allowed to carry on undeterred. It's your driller's other failings that provide the most distress. Fuel is as valuable as anything on Mars, and your cargo hold is quite small. As you quickly eat away at your gasoline and extra space, your driller soon becomes useless. So you must resurface to the nearest station, where you unload your goods and refill. This is a frequent and unsatisfying necessity of life underground. And though you can purchase expensive teleporters, you spend too much time drifting between your base and the excavation site.
At least you can make use of all of the money you're accumulating. Upgrade your driller when you return back to base to extend its life ever so slightly. Expand the cargo hold and fuel tank, strengthen your hull, and improve the speed of your craft. Sink money into a radar to be able to identify which debris is desirable, and what's just dirt. Unfortunately, the radar isn't much help. The more money you spend on it, the more focused it becomes, but it's rarely detailed enough to provide information that you couldn't gleam from just using your eyes. At least the other upgrades offer more tangible rewards. The option to smelt materials provides the most interesting upgrade. Your smelter unlocks combinations that can earn you money much quicker. By nabbing materials in a specific pattern, you automatically forge alloys, which adds a dose of strategy to your shoveling duties.
What devilish person set up such intricate traps a mile below Mars' surface?
As you dive deeper below the surface, the terrain becomes more difficult to navigate. Rocks and magma halt your progress, so you must find clever ways to avoid them. That's where bombs come in. By either picking up bombs while digging or purchasing them at shops, you gain an invaluable way to borrow deeper. Be careful, though, because a sizable C4 blast could eliminate nearby pockets of gold even though you were trying to disintegrate some rocks. So, just like in real life, you should do a bit of planning before you detonate your explosives. T-shaped blasts are perfect for carving out a niche to dig while vertical strikes can clear an entire column in a snap. Charge certain blocks with an electromagnetic jolt to turn them into magma, and then either use a bomb to clear that lava out of the way, or drill through it yourself while taking some damage. Super Motherload hides its puzzle elements in the early going, but if you want to become the richest person on Mars, you have to become a thoughtful and willing arsonist.
There's beauty in loneliness. Super Motherload is at its best when you're miles below Mars' surface, lost in the peaceful rhythm of excavation. But if that solitude frightens you, three of your friends can join you in your quest for minerals. Just don't get your hopes up for online friendships to blossom; Super Motherload is offline only. No matter if you're alone or with friends, there's an uncommon appeal to your extraterrestrial exploits. There's no excitement here, nothing that will make you whoop or yell. The draw comes from the slow satisfaction of carving intricate paths, of razing rocks and planting bombs. It's thoughtful desolation. Super Motherload somehow makes alienation feel like a warm embrace.
Tesco will offer PlayStation 4's on a first come, first served basic at 150 of its Extra stores for the machine's European launch tonight.
No preorder is required, but stock will be limited to one per customer, and Tesco has its own postcode checker to help potential customers work out their nearest store.
London outlets with day-one PlayStation 4 stock include Tesco stores in Surrey Quays, Lea Valley, and Purley. Other major branches in the UK include Stretford, Stockport, West Bromwich, Shoreham-by-sea, and Bournemouth.
Alongside Tesco, Asda is offering walk-in stock at 155 branches, and Sony themselves are offering to sell machines at midnight if you can make it to Covent Garden.
The PlayStation 4 will launch across Europe tomorrow. In the UK, the machine will cost £349.
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Rabu, 27 November 2013 | 21.50
Gamespot's Site Mashup"There's a lot of life left" in Gears of War, says MicrosoftHow to record gameplay on your Xbox OneEVE Online Review
http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Wed, 27 Nov 2013 06:22:32 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/there-s-a-lot-of-life-left-in-gears-of-war-says-microsoft/1100-6416425/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/6/5/7/1/2036571-672902_20130419_003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2036571" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/6/5/7/1/2036571-672902_20130419_003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2036571"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/mig/6/5/7/1/2036571-672902_20130419_003.jpg"></a></figure><p style=""> </p><p dir="ltr" style="">The Gears of War franchise has a lot of life left in it, according to Microsoft Studios executive Phil Spencer. Speaking with <a href="http://kotaku.com/whats-next-for-the-xbox-one-1471212785" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">Kotaku</a>, Spencer said Microsoft is in "active" discussions about the future of the franchise, but stopped short of confirming a new entry in the series.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">"I'm a huge fan of the franchise," Spencer said. "I want to continue to work with Gears. I think there's a lot of life left in that franchise. We had an internal discussion on it even yesterday. It's something that's active in discussion about what we can do with Gears."</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Gears of War fans eager for a follow-up to this year's <a href="/gears-of-war-judgment/" data-ref-id="false">Gears of War: Judgment</a> may want to get comfortable, as Spencer said "there's nothing even pending that I'm holding to announce." That said, he explained that the importance of the franchise to gamers is not lost on him.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">"I understand the importance of the franchise to the Xbox platform and to gamers--I'd say gamers first. It'd be great to do something forward with that franchise."</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Since its inception, the Gears of War franchise has been exclusive to Xbox and PC. Spencer declined to say if this status would change going forward, deferring to Epic for that question.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">"It's Epic's franchise," he said. "You and I both know that. I can't make any assurances about anybody else's franchise. It's Epic's game and we have to talk to them about a partnership and what they want to do. As you know, you probably know right now they're more focused on other areas of their business right now."</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Gears of War creator Epic Games has no announced projects beyond the PC-exclusive <a href="/fortnite/" data-ref-id="false">Fortnite</a>. Gears of War: Judgment was principally developed by Poland-based subsidiary Epic Games Poland (<a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gears-of-war-judgment-dev-renamed-epic-games-poland/1100-6415921/" data-ref-id="1100-6415921">formerly known as People Can Fly</a>).</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Also in the interview, Spencer discussed the Xbox platform's status in Japan, a region where the system has never been hugely popular. He said Microsoft has closed deals for new titles, described as "full Japanese games" that are more substantial that downloadable projects.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">We have signed some things in Japan that we haven't announced that we'll announce in... '14 so that people get to hear about support in Japan," Spencer said.</p><p style="">Spencer also teased that Microsoft is potentially interested in older franchises, including a reboot of Phantom Dust. "It's a discussion right now; there's nothing signed. But we're talking. It does seem like there's a lot of interest around that."</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6405701" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6405701/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Wed, 27 Nov 2013 05:45:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/there-s-a-lot-of-life-left-in-gears-of-war-says-microsoft/1100-6416425/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/how-to-record-gameplay-on-your-xbox-one/2300-6416354/ Chris Watters takes you through the steps of how to record and upload gameplay on your brand new Xbox One! Tue, 26 Nov 2013 19:29:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/how-to-record-gameplay-on-your-xbox-one/2300-6416354/ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/eve-online-review/1900-6415576/ <p style="">Tranquility. I've always puzzled at the name of EVE Online's single server. It's an ironic moniker to lend to a world where hundreds of thousands of players jockey for resources, scheme, spy, and blow each other up. On that one server, wars wage in perpetuity. Scammers ply their trade outside crowded space stations. Fortunes are made and lost amid the bustle of a full-fledged economy. None of it feels particularly tranquil.</p><p style="">And yet, Carl Sagan once noted that from space, Earth--for all its chaos--is nothing but a pale blue dot. So it goes with EVE: step far enough back from CCP's sci-fi massively multiplayer online game, and a picture of tranquility begins to emerge. Ten years of steady growth. The recent release of a 20th free expansion, Rubicon. Throughout all, consistency of vision, commitment, and support. It's no small achievement in the winter of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, when young games are born, live, and die, all in World of Warcraft's shadow. In the face of such competition, EVE's languid pace would seem a detriment, and yet, like the universe, EVE is ever expanding outward.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6416351" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6416351/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style="">EVE cultivates an appreciation for scales, vectors, and inertia, because it makes their mastery a matter of life and death. The game supports a healthy variety of pursuits, including nonviolent options like building, trading, or mining, but at some point almost all players must hazard a jaunt around EVE's tangled network of interconnected solar systems. Each system is a room of sorts connected by stargates that act as metaphorical doorways. They're spacious chambers, big enough to fit planets, asteroid belts, and space stations with a few trillion miles to spare, but danger always has a way of finding you in EVE. If you're lucky, it'll only come in the form of pirates or warring fleets that open fire on sight. If you're unlucky, it'll be a scammer, spy, or saboteur playing EVE's tacitly sanctioned metagame against you.</p><p style="">Conflict runs tangential to even the most pacifistic careers in EVE. After all, it's easier to maintain a lively spaceship market if players are always blowing each other up. But when things come to blows, it's actually a tidy affair. Ships can be piloted by clicking about in space, but most actions in EVE hinge on more mechanical commands like "maintain distance" or "warp to". It's a math-oriented system that hinges on numbers like distance, radii, and acceleration. Once the enemy has been targeted and the keys for weapons have been pressed, battles ebb and flow according to who can dictate range as their ships circle. Large-scale battles are as chaotic and complex as any sci-fi war scene, and skirmishes are thrillingly staccato. Victory in either is less a product of reflex than of strategy. The prelude to war--proper equipment, communication, teammwork, and patience--is usually the deciding factor. As often as a good fight seems to find the unwilling in EVE, it can prove elusive for those seeking it out. For every minute of battle or plunder, there are hours spent as prey eludes capture, as fleets circle and dance to the reports of their forward scouts.</p><blockquote data-align="center" data-size="large"><p style="">Almost every player is an annalist of some sort, contributing anecdotes on forums, reporting from battle lines, issuing propaganda, or mapping political boundaries.</p></blockquote><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387761-0005.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387761" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387761-0005.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387761"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2387761-0005.png"></a><figcaption>It takes some acclimating, but EVE's interface is packed with functionality.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Indeed, EVE's pace is glacial indeed...right until it isn't. A dominant alliance might hold a third of the world in an iron grip for ages, until a spot of corporate espionage dispels it into the digital ether overnight. An interstellar bank could compound every investment it's entrusted with for years, until it suddenly absconds with billions. The universe's first Titan-class ubership may be a world-beater, until it's destroyed because the pilot chooses an inopportune moment to log off. They're the kinds of stories that make headlines outside of gaming circles, the kind that EVE is uniquely equipped to tell. Whether you're speaking to the allure of exploring EVE's vast universe, the machinations of its political scene, or even the prospects of the game's next expansion, that capacity for upheaval is a draw unto itself.</p><p style="">What's refreshing about EVE is how much of that change is user-driven. Player characters in the game are canonically immortal, their consciousness tied to clones that are awakened whenever they find themselves on the wrong end of the metaphorical photon torpedo. So-called pod pilots are the movers and shakers of the EVE universe, and enjoy a privileged position as mercenary demigods (consider for a moment the level of desperation that would drive a non-player character to enlist under a commander who, by definition, never goes down with the ship, and you'll begin to grasp the morbidity of EVE's lore). What gets moved or shaken is a matter of taste. It might mean battle, as a soldier or pirate. It might mean cleaning up after said battles, and pawning the salvage. Or it might mean moving goods from one place to another, and shaking whenever outlaws start eyeing your loot. Each endeavor can be pursued in the name of EVE's four hawkish NPC empires, a smattering of lesser powers, or the great host of player corporations.</p><p style="">Picking what banner to fly is always an important decision in an MMORPG, but in EVE, the decision can make or break the experience entirely. Should you have no allies, the vast reaches of space can be brutally lonely and unforgiving. Sure, there are hundreds of space stations to rest in, nominal communities strewn about the network of solar systems that dot EVE's pointillistic map. But though the game now allows you to walk the interiors of these structures, there's little humanity to be found inside. NPCs are still just portraits in the interface that proffer textual missions. Other players are just smaller portraits in your chat feed. The resultant sense of disembodiment impinges on every interaction in EVE, and it helps to explain the popularity of extra-game forums and meet-ups. Absent a few friendly faces, it's just not that easy to make regions with names like The Bleak Lands or Stain feel like home. Go figure.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387765-0006.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387765" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387765-0006.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387765"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2387765-0006.png"></a><figcaption>Forgot to bring any guns to this fight. Guess how that went.</figcaption></figure><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387767-0002.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387767" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387767-0002.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387767"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2387767-0002.png"></a><figcaption>The ability to step outside your ship is a welcome addition, if a bit aimless.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Actually, Stain seems like Shangri-la compared to 0FZ-2H. That's the naming convention of zero-security systems, which fall outside the protection of NPC guards, and where EVE's player alliances battle for control of the game's open territories. Zero security also sees CCP's most brilliant and nefarious contribution to player-versus-player gameplay: regions, and the distribution of resources therein, are asymmetrical. Zero-sec space tempts with its more lucrative opportunities, but making the trip means leaving the safety of the empires. Inequalities exist among the lawless regions, too. The imbalance creates further incentives for players to band together, if only for the express purpose of evicting those ahead of them at the table.</p><p style="">Asymmetry must be in CCP's mission statement somewhere. It's certainly visible in the designs of EVE's spaceships: intricate, inventive crafts that range in scale from small yacht to small state. Asymmetry colors the use of those ships as weapons, too. At first blush, the more expensive, upper-echelon crafts seem overpowered. That perception holds true, until you develop an appreciation for asymmetrical warfare. There are no restrictions--mechanical or moral--on the size of fleets corporations can bring to the field, and with enough cheap frigates and cruisers, most foes can be felled. Barring that, there's always sabotage, as legitimate a tactic in EVE as any.</p><p style="">Big, expensive ships are also big, expensive targets, either for rival corporations or pirates that operate on the fringes of high-security space. Being blown up might not mean as much if you just wake up in a distant clone vat, but it can take a serious toll on your supply of ISK, EVE's currency. Ships that get destroyed are gone for good, along with all the expensive and rare equipment they've been kitted out with. That can include PLEX, an in-game item that represents real playing time in EVE (and a viable alternative to the game's $9.99 a month cost for dedicated players), meaning some losses can hurt a player's real wallet, too. Like most aspects of EVE, death is harsh and unforgiving, but the risks magnify the highs and lows in kind. A venture into the borderlands is a tense, calculated gamble, where every jump to a new system might expose you to predation.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387768-0004.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387768" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387768-0004.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387768"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2387768-0004.png"></a><figcaption>Day traders, rejoice.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Truth be told, it ought to be even riskier. To get a feel for what dangers lie in wait in the system you occupy, you need only glance at your local chat channel. Every present player is listed therein, from the most genteel miner to the scurviest pirate. After a decade of patches and fixes, it's strange that local chat has managed to avoid the axe. It has always felt like a temporary solution that has taken root, an anachronism so entangled in the rest of EVE's systems that it has become difficult to excise. The illusion that you're an interstellar explorer, or that there are unknown dangers around every corner, breaks a bit when every lowlife in the solar system is your Facebook friend.</p><p style="">Perhaps that's just CCP's vision of the future, some kind of acerbic commentary on our subservience to the computer. Considering the rest of EVE's interface, though, that's unlikely. The game, oft-labeled "spreadsheets in space," is still as impenetrable as ever, a technophile's fever dream of 3D overlays, extension lines, charts, and impossibly tiny fonts. It's clean and eminently customizable, and it leaves a lot of room for breathtaking views of nebulae and stars, but even 10 years in, I'm still unsure about some of its more esoteric functions. Yet with some practice, it's undeniably useful, even more so now that CCP has made improvements to wayfinding and interaction. </p><blockquote data-align="left" data-size="medium"><p style="">Player characters in the game are canonically immortal, their consciousness tied to clones that are awakened whenever they find themselves on the wrong end of the metaphorical photon torpedo.</p></blockquote><p style="">All that considered, it's probably unsurprising that EVE seems to attract a, let's say, bookish sort of clientele. Almost every player is an annalist of some sort, contributing anecdotes on forums, reporting from battle lines, issuing propaganda, or mapping political boundaries. It all contributes to one of the most exhaustive and fascinating repositories of lore to be found in gaming, one that's created by developer and player alike. Heck, the game's most anarchic alliance--the aptly named Goonswarm--is also home to its most ardent archivists, members who log the minutiae of nearly every battle and political play. Even the most disengaged players sign their marks in EVE's ledgers, with purchase histories and entries on the "killed by" reports automatically generated when they die.</p><p style="">I've been on the wrong end of a fair number of those reports over the years. I remember the first time I quit EVE, so many expansions ago, before the arrival of opt-in high-security warfare that helped to fill the gaps between pirate raids and alliance battles. I was bored: in the wrong corporation, in the wrong part of space, and growing frustrated and restless. Unable to rouse a raiding party, I took my best ship and went looking for trouble alone. I found it in the form of two vigilantes. They locked me down and laid siege to my ship, whittling away my defenses while my guns struggled to track their speedier crafts. I pulled out every trick in my bag. I feinted, scrapped, and stalled desperately, but I was doomed.</p><p style="">It took a full hour and a half, but my vessel eventually succumbed. As klaxons blared and the hull of my prized ship rocked with the impact of missiles, I scrolled my mousewheel and zoomed out--zoomed out until it was just a pale dot, and tried not to think about all the ISK I'd just lost.</p><p style="">I was back within the month.</p> Tue, 26 Nov 2013 17:30:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/eve-online-review/1900-6415576/
Gamespot's Site Mashup"There's a lot of life left" in Gears of War, says MicrosoftHow to record gameplay on your Xbox OneEVE Online Review
http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Wed, 27 Nov 2013 06:22:32 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/there-s-a-lot-of-life-left-in-gears-of-war-says-microsoft/1100-6416425/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/6/5/7/1/2036571-672902_20130419_003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2036571" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/6/5/7/1/2036571-672902_20130419_003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2036571"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/mig/6/5/7/1/2036571-672902_20130419_003.jpg"></a></figure><p style=""> </p><p dir="ltr" style="">The Gears of War franchise has a lot of life left in it, according to Microsoft Studios executive Phil Spencer. Speaking with <a href="http://kotaku.com/whats-next-for-the-xbox-one-1471212785" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">Kotaku</a>, Spencer said Microsoft is in "active" discussions about the future of the franchise, but stopped short of confirming a new entry in the series.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">"I'm a huge fan of the franchise," Spencer said. "I want to continue to work with Gears. I think there's a lot of life left in that franchise. We had an internal discussion on it even yesterday. It's something that's active in discussion about what we can do with Gears."</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Gears of War fans eager for a follow-up to this year's <a href="/gears-of-war-judgment/" data-ref-id="false">Gears of War: Judgment</a> may want to get comfortable, as Spencer said "there's nothing even pending that I'm holding to announce." That said, he explained that the importance of the franchise to gamers is not lost on him.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">"I understand the importance of the franchise to the Xbox platform and to gamers--I'd say gamers first. It'd be great to do something forward with that franchise."</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Since its inception, the Gears of War franchise has been exclusive to Xbox and PC. Spencer declined to say if this status would change going forward, deferring to Epic for that question.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">"It's Epic's franchise," he said. "You and I both know that. I can't make any assurances about anybody else's franchise. It's Epic's game and we have to talk to them about a partnership and what they want to do. As you know, you probably know right now they're more focused on other areas of their business right now."</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Gears of War creator Epic Games has no announced projects beyond the PC-exclusive <a href="/fortnite/" data-ref-id="false">Fortnite</a>. Gears of War: Judgment was principally developed by Poland-based subsidiary Epic Games Poland (<a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gears-of-war-judgment-dev-renamed-epic-games-poland/1100-6415921/" data-ref-id="1100-6415921">formerly known as People Can Fly</a>).</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Also in the interview, Spencer discussed the Xbox platform's status in Japan, a region where the system has never been hugely popular. He said Microsoft has closed deals for new titles, described as "full Japanese games" that are more substantial that downloadable projects.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">We have signed some things in Japan that we haven't announced that we'll announce in... '14 so that people get to hear about support in Japan," Spencer said.</p><p style="">Spencer also teased that Microsoft is potentially interested in older franchises, including a reboot of Phantom Dust. "It's a discussion right now; there's nothing signed. But we're talking. It does seem like there's a lot of interest around that."</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6405701" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6405701/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Wed, 27 Nov 2013 05:45:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/there-s-a-lot-of-life-left-in-gears-of-war-says-microsoft/1100-6416425/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/how-to-record-gameplay-on-your-xbox-one/2300-6416354/ Chris Watters takes you through the steps of how to record and upload gameplay on your brand new Xbox One! Tue, 26 Nov 2013 19:29:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/how-to-record-gameplay-on-your-xbox-one/2300-6416354/ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/eve-online-review/1900-6415576/ <p style="">Tranquility. I've always puzzled at the name of EVE Online's single server. It's an ironic moniker to lend to a world where hundreds of thousands of players jockey for resources, scheme, spy, and blow each other up. On that one server, wars wage in perpetuity. Scammers ply their trade outside crowded space stations. Fortunes are made and lost amid the bustle of a full-fledged economy. None of it feels particularly tranquil.</p><p style="">And yet, Carl Sagan once noted that from space, Earth--for all its chaos--is nothing but a pale blue dot. So it goes with EVE: step far enough back from CCP's sci-fi massively multiplayer online game, and a picture of tranquility begins to emerge. Ten years of steady growth. The recent release of a 20th free expansion, Rubicon. Throughout all, consistency of vision, commitment, and support. It's no small achievement in the winter of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, when young games are born, live, and die, all in World of Warcraft's shadow. In the face of such competition, EVE's languid pace would seem a detriment, and yet, like the universe, EVE is ever expanding outward.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6416351" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6416351/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style="">EVE cultivates an appreciation for scales, vectors, and inertia, because it makes their mastery a matter of life and death. The game supports a healthy variety of pursuits, including nonviolent options like building, trading, or mining, but at some point almost all players must hazard a jaunt around EVE's tangled network of interconnected solar systems. Each system is a room of sorts connected by stargates that act as metaphorical doorways. They're spacious chambers, big enough to fit planets, asteroid belts, and space stations with a few trillion miles to spare, but danger always has a way of finding you in EVE. If you're lucky, it'll only come in the form of pirates or warring fleets that open fire on sight. If you're unlucky, it'll be a scammer, spy, or saboteur playing EVE's tacitly sanctioned metagame against you.</p><p style="">Conflict runs tangential to even the most pacifistic careers in EVE. After all, it's easier to maintain a lively spaceship market if players are always blowing each other up. But when things come to blows, it's actually a tidy affair. Ships can be piloted by clicking about in space, but most actions in EVE hinge on more mechanical commands like "maintain distance" or "warp to". It's a math-oriented system that hinges on numbers like distance, radii, and acceleration. Once the enemy has been targeted and the keys for weapons have been pressed, battles ebb and flow according to who can dictate range as their ships circle. Large-scale battles are as chaotic and complex as any sci-fi war scene, and skirmishes are thrillingly staccato. Victory in either is less a product of reflex than of strategy. The prelude to war--proper equipment, communication, teammwork, and patience--is usually the deciding factor. As often as a good fight seems to find the unwilling in EVE, it can prove elusive for those seeking it out. For every minute of battle or plunder, there are hours spent as prey eludes capture, as fleets circle and dance to the reports of their forward scouts.</p><blockquote data-align="center" data-size="large"><p style="">Almost every player is an annalist of some sort, contributing anecdotes on forums, reporting from battle lines, issuing propaganda, or mapping political boundaries.</p></blockquote><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387761-0005.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387761" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387761-0005.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387761"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2387761-0005.png"></a><figcaption>It takes some acclimating, but EVE's interface is packed with functionality.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Indeed, EVE's pace is glacial indeed...right until it isn't. A dominant alliance might hold a third of the world in an iron grip for ages, until a spot of corporate espionage dispels it into the digital ether overnight. An interstellar bank could compound every investment it's entrusted with for years, until it suddenly absconds with billions. The universe's first Titan-class ubership may be a world-beater, until it's destroyed because the pilot chooses an inopportune moment to log off. They're the kinds of stories that make headlines outside of gaming circles, the kind that EVE is uniquely equipped to tell. Whether you're speaking to the allure of exploring EVE's vast universe, the machinations of its political scene, or even the prospects of the game's next expansion, that capacity for upheaval is a draw unto itself.</p><p style="">What's refreshing about EVE is how much of that change is user-driven. Player characters in the game are canonically immortal, their consciousness tied to clones that are awakened whenever they find themselves on the wrong end of the metaphorical photon torpedo. So-called pod pilots are the movers and shakers of the EVE universe, and enjoy a privileged position as mercenary demigods (consider for a moment the level of desperation that would drive a non-player character to enlist under a commander who, by definition, never goes down with the ship, and you'll begin to grasp the morbidity of EVE's lore). What gets moved or shaken is a matter of taste. It might mean battle, as a soldier or pirate. It might mean cleaning up after said battles, and pawning the salvage. Or it might mean moving goods from one place to another, and shaking whenever outlaws start eyeing your loot. Each endeavor can be pursued in the name of EVE's four hawkish NPC empires, a smattering of lesser powers, or the great host of player corporations.</p><p style="">Picking what banner to fly is always an important decision in an MMORPG, but in EVE, the decision can make or break the experience entirely. Should you have no allies, the vast reaches of space can be brutally lonely and unforgiving. Sure, there are hundreds of space stations to rest in, nominal communities strewn about the network of solar systems that dot EVE's pointillistic map. But though the game now allows you to walk the interiors of these structures, there's little humanity to be found inside. NPCs are still just portraits in the interface that proffer textual missions. Other players are just smaller portraits in your chat feed. The resultant sense of disembodiment impinges on every interaction in EVE, and it helps to explain the popularity of extra-game forums and meet-ups. Absent a few friendly faces, it's just not that easy to make regions with names like The Bleak Lands or Stain feel like home. Go figure.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387765-0006.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387765" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387765-0006.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387765"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2387765-0006.png"></a><figcaption>Forgot to bring any guns to this fight. Guess how that went.</figcaption></figure><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387767-0002.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387767" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387767-0002.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387767"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2387767-0002.png"></a><figcaption>The ability to step outside your ship is a welcome addition, if a bit aimless.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Actually, Stain seems like Shangri-la compared to 0FZ-2H. That's the naming convention of zero-security systems, which fall outside the protection of NPC guards, and where EVE's player alliances battle for control of the game's open territories. Zero security also sees CCP's most brilliant and nefarious contribution to player-versus-player gameplay: regions, and the distribution of resources therein, are asymmetrical. Zero-sec space tempts with its more lucrative opportunities, but making the trip means leaving the safety of the empires. Inequalities exist among the lawless regions, too. The imbalance creates further incentives for players to band together, if only for the express purpose of evicting those ahead of them at the table.</p><p style="">Asymmetry must be in CCP's mission statement somewhere. It's certainly visible in the designs of EVE's spaceships: intricate, inventive crafts that range in scale from small yacht to small state. Asymmetry colors the use of those ships as weapons, too. At first blush, the more expensive, upper-echelon crafts seem overpowered. That perception holds true, until you develop an appreciation for asymmetrical warfare. There are no restrictions--mechanical or moral--on the size of fleets corporations can bring to the field, and with enough cheap frigates and cruisers, most foes can be felled. Barring that, there's always sabotage, as legitimate a tactic in EVE as any.</p><p style="">Big, expensive ships are also big, expensive targets, either for rival corporations or pirates that operate on the fringes of high-security space. Being blown up might not mean as much if you just wake up in a distant clone vat, but it can take a serious toll on your supply of ISK, EVE's currency. Ships that get destroyed are gone for good, along with all the expensive and rare equipment they've been kitted out with. That can include PLEX, an in-game item that represents real playing time in EVE (and a viable alternative to the game's $9.99 a month cost for dedicated players), meaning some losses can hurt a player's real wallet, too. Like most aspects of EVE, death is harsh and unforgiving, but the risks magnify the highs and lows in kind. A venture into the borderlands is a tense, calculated gamble, where every jump to a new system might expose you to predation.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387768-0004.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387768" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2387768-0004.png" data-ref-id="1300-2387768"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2387768-0004.png"></a><figcaption>Day traders, rejoice.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Truth be told, it ought to be even riskier. To get a feel for what dangers lie in wait in the system you occupy, you need only glance at your local chat channel. Every present player is listed therein, from the most genteel miner to the scurviest pirate. After a decade of patches and fixes, it's strange that local chat has managed to avoid the axe. It has always felt like a temporary solution that has taken root, an anachronism so entangled in the rest of EVE's systems that it has become difficult to excise. The illusion that you're an interstellar explorer, or that there are unknown dangers around every corner, breaks a bit when every lowlife in the solar system is your Facebook friend.</p><p style="">Perhaps that's just CCP's vision of the future, some kind of acerbic commentary on our subservience to the computer. Considering the rest of EVE's interface, though, that's unlikely. The game, oft-labeled "spreadsheets in space," is still as impenetrable as ever, a technophile's fever dream of 3D overlays, extension lines, charts, and impossibly tiny fonts. It's clean and eminently customizable, and it leaves a lot of room for breathtaking views of nebulae and stars, but even 10 years in, I'm still unsure about some of its more esoteric functions. Yet with some practice, it's undeniably useful, even more so now that CCP has made improvements to wayfinding and interaction. </p><blockquote data-align="left" data-size="medium"><p style="">Player characters in the game are canonically immortal, their consciousness tied to clones that are awakened whenever they find themselves on the wrong end of the metaphorical photon torpedo.</p></blockquote><p style="">All that considered, it's probably unsurprising that EVE seems to attract a, let's say, bookish sort of clientele. Almost every player is an annalist of some sort, contributing anecdotes on forums, reporting from battle lines, issuing propaganda, or mapping political boundaries. It all contributes to one of the most exhaustive and fascinating repositories of lore to be found in gaming, one that's created by developer and player alike. Heck, the game's most anarchic alliance--the aptly named Goonswarm--is also home to its most ardent archivists, members who log the minutiae of nearly every battle and political play. Even the most disengaged players sign their marks in EVE's ledgers, with purchase histories and entries on the "killed by" reports automatically generated when they die.</p><p style="">I've been on the wrong end of a fair number of those reports over the years. I remember the first time I quit EVE, so many expansions ago, before the arrival of opt-in high-security warfare that helped to fill the gaps between pirate raids and alliance battles. I was bored: in the wrong corporation, in the wrong part of space, and growing frustrated and restless. Unable to rouse a raiding party, I took my best ship and went looking for trouble alone. I found it in the form of two vigilantes. They locked me down and laid siege to my ship, whittling away my defenses while my guns struggled to track their speedier crafts. I pulled out every trick in my bag. I feinted, scrapped, and stalled desperately, but I was doomed.</p><p style="">It took a full hour and a half, but my vessel eventually succumbed. As klaxons blared and the hull of my prized ship rocked with the impact of missiles, I scrolled my mousewheel and zoomed out--zoomed out until it was just a pale dot, and tried not to think about all the ISK I'd just lost.</p><p style="">I was back within the month.</p> Tue, 26 Nov 2013 17:30:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/eve-online-review/1900-6415576/
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Selasa, 26 November 2013 | 21.50
Gamespot's Site MashupShakespearean DLC comes to The Typing of the Dead: OverkillHouse of Horrors - Resident Evil 4 HDPowerstar Golf Review
http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Tue, 26 Nov 2013 06:44:10 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/shakespearean-dlc-comes-to-the-typing-of-the-dead-overkill/1100-6416400/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/536/5360430/2389580-2013-11-21_00003_1385115785.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389580" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/536/5360430/2389580-2013-11-21_00003_1385115785.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389580"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/536/5360430/2389580-2013-11-21_00003_1385115785.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">SEGA's <a href="/the-typing-of-the-dead-overkill/" data-ref-id="false">The </a><a href="/the-typing-of-the-dead-overkill/" data-ref-id="false">Typing of the Dead: Overkill</a> has received a chunk of DLC that replaces the default dictionary with the lexicon of Renaissance playwright William Shakespeare.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The Shakespeare of the Dead DLC costs $2.99/£1.99, and swaps out its phrases to those that feature in Shakespeare's collected works.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The DLC arrives alongside a free update which introduces a two-player co-op mode and additional minigames.</p><p style="">The Typing of the Dead: Overkill was released for PC in October and is a typing-based spin on lightgun shooter <a href="/the-house-of-the-dead-overkill/" data-ref-id="false">The House of the Dead: Overkill</a>, which is contained as a bonus mode within the new game.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6204718" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6204718/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Tue, 26 Nov 2013 06:23:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/shakespearean-dlc-comes-to-the-typing-of-the-dead-overkill/1100-6416400/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/house-of-horrors-resident-evil-4-hd/2300-6416340/ Jess gets very shrill while Ed varies between having his head sawn off and shooting down flying axes in mid-air. Warning: cartoon animals were harmed in the making of this highlights reel. Mon, 25 Nov 2013 19:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/house-of-horrors-resident-evil-4-hd/2300-6416340/ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/powerstar-golf-review/1900-6415579/ <p style="">Golf might be the very definition of a game that is simple conceptually, but exceptionally difficult to master. It's this mix of simplicity and challenge that makes golf video games so captivating, when they get it right. Which Powerstar Golf does--mostly. There's nothing revolutionary here, but Powerstar Golf is an absorbing game in the tradition of the Hot Shots Golf series, with some fun competitive features and a loot system that offers you enticing rewards for your progress, but can also be stingy with the goods.</p><p style="">When you first fire up Powerstar Golf, you have access to only two golfers and one course, the leisurely City Park. Each golfer has his or her own unique ability that can be used a set number of times in each event. Scientist Reiko Kobayashi's Tesla field, for instance, puts just a teensy bit of magnetic pull on the hole, giving you a slight edge when putting, while retired astronaut Frank Weaver's rocket launch ability lets him send balls flying farther than they would otherwise. These characters and the others you can unlock have a fashion sense and an angular look that make the game feel as if it takes place in some idealized vision of the 1950s.</p><div data-height="100%" data-width="100%" data-ref-id="2300-6416336" data-embed-type="video"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6416336/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style="">It's at City Park that you learn the basics--how swings are performed by tapping to start, tapping again to set the swing's power, and tapping one last time for accuracy. It's a straightforward approach to swinging, and just tricky enough that nailing the power and accuracy of a shot never stops feeling great. Simple as it is, though, it becomes quite complicated when you realize you have to take factors like wind and terrain into account. It's your struggle against these factors that makes success on the links so satisfying, but Powerstar Golf doesn't go far enough in helping you to understand the tools at your disposal. Brief tutorial videos introduce you to concepts like putting spin on the ball to curve your shot and to the properties of pitch shots and chip shots. But at no point does the game illuminate the difference between a 3 wood and a 5 wood, or explain why you might want to use a 9 iron for certain shots and a 4 iron for others. Since the game doesn't shy away from many of the complexities of real golf in its mechanics, it's a shame that you can't say the same about the tutorials.</p><p style="">Though the game doesn't go far enough in its efforts to help you succeed on the golf course, it does make your successes, large and small, feel like a cause for celebration. On every shot you take, you can see markers on the course indicating your previous personal best, as well as the best performances among your friends, and even the world record. The game tracks things like the longest drive, the closest approach within 75 yards, and the closest approach beyond 150 yards. And each time you beat your own personal best for longest putt or anything else, the previous marker for your performance vanishes and is replaced with a new one as the game celebrates your achievement. The game finds little ways to make you feel good, even when you're having a bad day on the course.</p><figure data-ref-id="1300-2389876" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2389876-ci14569228830337597.jpg" data-size="medium" data-align="left" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2389876-ci14569228830337597.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389876"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/78/787590/2389876-ci14569228830337597.jpg"></a><figcaption>You don't know anguish until you get a triple bogey.</figcaption></figure><p style="">It's on the green where most of your dreams are realized or shattered, where your heart sinks as a chance at a birdie turns into a double bogey when you miscalculate the left slope in the terrain or overcompensate for an uphill climb. But if the game of golf (and of Powerstar Golf) couldn't conjure such heartbreak, the victories wouldn't be as sweet, and the difficulty of putting properly means that when you do sink that birdie from a distance, you feel like a champ.</p><p style="">As you play, you level up, unlocking new courses and new career events, though the process can take a while. You may be eager to see what challenges await in the lush Emperor's Garden course or in the tropical and volcanic Burning Sands course while you're still stuck only having access to City Park and the autumnal Rocky Ridge. Leveling up isn't enough, in and of itself, to get you access to additional golfers. For that, you must defeat each of them in career events on their home course, and these events can be devilishly difficult. Two-thirds of the game's playable characters require you to win tough events before you can access them, and you might tire of playing those nine-hole contests over and over again in a bid to unlock them.</p><p style="">You can improve your performance with gear that you purchase using credits you earn during play, but you can't just pick out a more precise putter or a more powerful set of irons. Instead, you buy packs that contain five items, and each item could be gear, or a onetime-use booster (a 20 percent boost to the experience you earn, for instance), or a new equippable perk for your caddie (a 50 percent chance for the ball to skip on the surface of a water hazard, perhaps), or even just a new outfit for a golfer or caddie. The element of chance makes it exciting to fork over your credits and see what you end up with, and the color coding of items in the green-blue-purple-orange tier system familiar from so many loot-driven role-playing games makes getting the rare, high-end stuff especially exciting.</p><figure data-ref-id="1300-2389881" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2389881-ci-121386771230337596.jpg" data-size="medium" data-align="right" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2389881-ci-121386771230337596.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389881"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/78/787590/2389881-ci-121386771230337596.jpg"></a><figcaption>To spend, or not to spend?</figcaption></figure><p style="">At least, until you rack up enough credits that you can buy packs guaranteed to contain nothing but orange-colored "extreme" gear. Acquiring that many credits, however, would take an extremely long time, given the slow pace at which the game doles them out. As it is, you can purchase a pack of blue "pro" gear after every few events and purple "elite" gear after every several, and there's always a chance these packs will include a few items from the next tier up. But the game is just stingy enough about doling out credits to nudge you toward purchasing them with real money. This option isn't yet active in the game's online store, but there's already a button prompt for it, so it's likely coming very soon.</p><p style="">Thankfully, Powerstar Golf makes your time on the links enjoyable, whether or not you have any interest in sinking money into microtransactions to get some extra goodies. This game covers well-trodden territory, but the way that it tracks your performance and the performance of your friends makes it a fine fit for the Xbox One's launch lineup, and a pleasant way to spend some time. So long as your idea of pleasant doesn't preclude the anguish that can come with a missed putt or a miscalculated swing that sends your ball plummeting into the water.</p> Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:30:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/powerstar-golf-review/1900-6415579/
Gamespot's Site MashupShakespearean DLC comes to The Typing of the Dead: OverkillHouse of Horrors - Resident Evil 4 HDPowerstar Golf Review
http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Tue, 26 Nov 2013 06:44:10 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/shakespearean-dlc-comes-to-the-typing-of-the-dead-overkill/1100-6416400/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/536/5360430/2389580-2013-11-21_00003_1385115785.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389580" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/536/5360430/2389580-2013-11-21_00003_1385115785.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389580"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/536/5360430/2389580-2013-11-21_00003_1385115785.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">SEGA's <a href="/the-typing-of-the-dead-overkill/" data-ref-id="false">The </a><a href="/the-typing-of-the-dead-overkill/" data-ref-id="false">Typing of the Dead: Overkill</a> has received a chunk of DLC that replaces the default dictionary with the lexicon of Renaissance playwright William Shakespeare.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The Shakespeare of the Dead DLC costs $2.99/£1.99, and swaps out its phrases to those that feature in Shakespeare's collected works.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The DLC arrives alongside a free update which introduces a two-player co-op mode and additional minigames.</p><p style="">The Typing of the Dead: Overkill was released for PC in October and is a typing-based spin on lightgun shooter <a href="/the-house-of-the-dead-overkill/" data-ref-id="false">The House of the Dead: Overkill</a>, which is contained as a bonus mode within the new game.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6204718" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6204718/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Tue, 26 Nov 2013 06:23:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/shakespearean-dlc-comes-to-the-typing-of-the-dead-overkill/1100-6416400/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/house-of-horrors-resident-evil-4-hd/2300-6416340/ Jess gets very shrill while Ed varies between having his head sawn off and shooting down flying axes in mid-air. Warning: cartoon animals were harmed in the making of this highlights reel. Mon, 25 Nov 2013 19:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/house-of-horrors-resident-evil-4-hd/2300-6416340/ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/powerstar-golf-review/1900-6415579/ <p style="">Golf might be the very definition of a game that is simple conceptually, but exceptionally difficult to master. It's this mix of simplicity and challenge that makes golf video games so captivating, when they get it right. Which Powerstar Golf does--mostly. There's nothing revolutionary here, but Powerstar Golf is an absorbing game in the tradition of the Hot Shots Golf series, with some fun competitive features and a loot system that offers you enticing rewards for your progress, but can also be stingy with the goods.</p><p style="">When you first fire up Powerstar Golf, you have access to only two golfers and one course, the leisurely City Park. Each golfer has his or her own unique ability that can be used a set number of times in each event. Scientist Reiko Kobayashi's Tesla field, for instance, puts just a teensy bit of magnetic pull on the hole, giving you a slight edge when putting, while retired astronaut Frank Weaver's rocket launch ability lets him send balls flying farther than they would otherwise. These characters and the others you can unlock have a fashion sense and an angular look that make the game feel as if it takes place in some idealized vision of the 1950s.</p><div data-height="100%" data-width="100%" data-ref-id="2300-6416336" data-embed-type="video"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6416336/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style="">It's at City Park that you learn the basics--how swings are performed by tapping to start, tapping again to set the swing's power, and tapping one last time for accuracy. It's a straightforward approach to swinging, and just tricky enough that nailing the power and accuracy of a shot never stops feeling great. Simple as it is, though, it becomes quite complicated when you realize you have to take factors like wind and terrain into account. It's your struggle against these factors that makes success on the links so satisfying, but Powerstar Golf doesn't go far enough in helping you to understand the tools at your disposal. Brief tutorial videos introduce you to concepts like putting spin on the ball to curve your shot and to the properties of pitch shots and chip shots. But at no point does the game illuminate the difference between a 3 wood and a 5 wood, or explain why you might want to use a 9 iron for certain shots and a 4 iron for others. Since the game doesn't shy away from many of the complexities of real golf in its mechanics, it's a shame that you can't say the same about the tutorials.</p><p style="">Though the game doesn't go far enough in its efforts to help you succeed on the golf course, it does make your successes, large and small, feel like a cause for celebration. On every shot you take, you can see markers on the course indicating your previous personal best, as well as the best performances among your friends, and even the world record. The game tracks things like the longest drive, the closest approach within 75 yards, and the closest approach beyond 150 yards. And each time you beat your own personal best for longest putt or anything else, the previous marker for your performance vanishes and is replaced with a new one as the game celebrates your achievement. The game finds little ways to make you feel good, even when you're having a bad day on the course.</p><figure data-ref-id="1300-2389876" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2389876-ci14569228830337597.jpg" data-size="medium" data-align="left" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2389876-ci14569228830337597.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389876"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/78/787590/2389876-ci14569228830337597.jpg"></a><figcaption>You don't know anguish until you get a triple bogey.</figcaption></figure><p style="">It's on the green where most of your dreams are realized or shattered, where your heart sinks as a chance at a birdie turns into a double bogey when you miscalculate the left slope in the terrain or overcompensate for an uphill climb. But if the game of golf (and of Powerstar Golf) couldn't conjure such heartbreak, the victories wouldn't be as sweet, and the difficulty of putting properly means that when you do sink that birdie from a distance, you feel like a champ.</p><p style="">As you play, you level up, unlocking new courses and new career events, though the process can take a while. You may be eager to see what challenges await in the lush Emperor's Garden course or in the tropical and volcanic Burning Sands course while you're still stuck only having access to City Park and the autumnal Rocky Ridge. Leveling up isn't enough, in and of itself, to get you access to additional golfers. For that, you must defeat each of them in career events on their home course, and these events can be devilishly difficult. Two-thirds of the game's playable characters require you to win tough events before you can access them, and you might tire of playing those nine-hole contests over and over again in a bid to unlock them.</p><p style="">You can improve your performance with gear that you purchase using credits you earn during play, but you can't just pick out a more precise putter or a more powerful set of irons. Instead, you buy packs that contain five items, and each item could be gear, or a onetime-use booster (a 20 percent boost to the experience you earn, for instance), or a new equippable perk for your caddie (a 50 percent chance for the ball to skip on the surface of a water hazard, perhaps), or even just a new outfit for a golfer or caddie. The element of chance makes it exciting to fork over your credits and see what you end up with, and the color coding of items in the green-blue-purple-orange tier system familiar from so many loot-driven role-playing games makes getting the rare, high-end stuff especially exciting.</p><figure data-ref-id="1300-2389881" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2389881-ci-121386771230337596.jpg" data-size="medium" data-align="right" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2389881-ci-121386771230337596.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389881"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/78/787590/2389881-ci-121386771230337596.jpg"></a><figcaption>To spend, or not to spend?</figcaption></figure><p style="">At least, until you rack up enough credits that you can buy packs guaranteed to contain nothing but orange-colored "extreme" gear. Acquiring that many credits, however, would take an extremely long time, given the slow pace at which the game doles them out. As it is, you can purchase a pack of blue "pro" gear after every few events and purple "elite" gear after every several, and there's always a chance these packs will include a few items from the next tier up. But the game is just stingy enough about doling out credits to nudge you toward purchasing them with real money. This option isn't yet active in the game's online store, but there's already a button prompt for it, so it's likely coming very soon.</p><p style="">Thankfully, Powerstar Golf makes your time on the links enjoyable, whether or not you have any interest in sinking money into microtransactions to get some extra goodies. This game covers well-trodden territory, but the way that it tracks your performance and the performance of your friends makes it a fine fit for the Xbox One's launch lineup, and a pleasant way to spend some time. So long as your idea of pleasant doesn't preclude the anguish that can come with a missed putt or a miscalculated swing that sends your ball plummeting into the water.</p> Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:30:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/powerstar-golf-review/1900-6415579/
Written By Kom Limpulnam on Senin, 25 November 2013 | 21.50
Gamespot's Site MashupLego: The Hobbit officially announced for 2014New Releases: Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Tearaway and State of Decay DLC!Mario Party: Island Tour Review
http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Mon, 25 Nov 2013 06:43:45 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/lego-the-hobbit-officially-announced-for-2014/1100-6416376/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389401-goblintown_09_rev.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389401" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389401-goblintown_09_rev.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389401"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1493/14930800/2389401-goblintown_09_rev.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Following the emergence of artwork for the game leaking last week, Warner Bros. has officially announced Lego: The Hobbit for release in spring 2014.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The game will be coming to Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Vita, Wii U, 3DS, PC, and Mac.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The game will be set around the first two films of Peter Jackson's <em>The Hobbit</em> trilogy, <em>An Unexpected Journey</em> and <em>Desolation of Smaug</em>. Playable characters include Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, alongside all of the dwarves: Thorin, Fíli, Kíli, Óin, Glóin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, and Ori. Warner Bros. adds that each dwarf will have his own unique ability, mentioning that Bombur can use his belly as a trampoline.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Locations visited will include Bag End, Hobbiton, The Misty Mountains, Goblin-town, Mirkwood, and Rivendell.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Players "will also be able to mine for gems, discover loot from enemies, and craft powerful magical items or build immense new LEGO structures," according to the game's press release, suggesting that Minecraft-esque elements could make their way into the next Lego adventure.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Lego: The Hobbit follows Lego: Lord of the Rings, which was released in fall 2012 and followed the three <em>The Lord of the Rings</em> films.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Lego regular TT Games is handling development of Lego: The Hobbit.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Two additional screenshots for the game were also released:</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389402-hub_01.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389402" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389402-hub_01.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389402"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1493/14930800/2389402-hub_01.jpg"></a></figure><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389403-trollcamp_rev.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389403" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389403-trollcamp_rev.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389403"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1493/14930800/2389403-trollcamp_rev.jpg"></a></figure><p dir="ltr" style=""> </p><p style=""> </p> Mon, 25 Nov 2013 06:26:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/lego-the-hobbit-officially-announced-for-2014/1100-6416376/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/new-releases-zelda-a-link-between-worlds-tearaway-/2300-6416329/ This week in New Releases we go back to revisit a few games that didn't get enough love; Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Tearaway. We also talk about the new State of Decay DLC and Nether. Sun, 24 Nov 2013 12:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/new-releases-zelda-a-link-between-worlds-tearaway-/2300-6416329/ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/mario-party-island-tour-review/1900-6415575/ <p style="">When you hear "minigame collection," the first game that usually springs to mind is Mario Party. The series has been responsible for hilarious memories and strained relationships since the Nintendo 64 era, though the series hasn't always set a good example: some of the installments, like the miserable Mario Party Advance, have dragged you to the dregs of party hell. Fortunately, Mario Party: Island Tour is a raucous portable entry in the series that adds some refreshing new elements.</p><p style="">Island Tour adheres to the same structure as many of the other Mario Party games: two to four human or AI players move around a traditional board-game-style map in a competition, playing minigames for prizes and attempting to hinder other players throughout. Most Mario Party games have focused on the collecting of coins and stars to determine a winner at the end of a game, but Island Tour's boards feature different objectives and modes of play. Some, like Perilous Palace Path, simply require that you be the first to reach the goal, while others have you collecting items to see who can end the game with the most stuff. Even if the boards have a similar objective, there are other factors at play that alter gameplay significantly: Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain might let you summon a giant bullet that sends everyone in its path back several spaces, while Kamek's Magic Carpet Ride forgoes dice and assigns movement to an inventory of numbered cards, making your selections about how far to advance a strategic consideration. There's a nice bit of variety here, and the game helpfully gives ratings to luck, skill, and minigame categories when you're choosing a board to play on (though their accuracy is debatable). Most of the boards don't take too long to run through, but that's probably for the best given that the 3DS is a battery-based console, and nothing kills a party like running out of juice mid-game.</p><figure data-ref-id="1300-2386419" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2386419-0001.jpg" data-size="medium" data-align="left" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2386419-0001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2386419"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/78/787590/2386419-0001.jpg"></a><figcaption>What would a race game be like if you drifted ALL THE TIME?</figcaption></figure><p style="">It's pretty easy to get things hopping, thanks to the 3DS Download Play feature. Much like Mario Party DS, Island Tour allows up to three additional players to access and enjoy the full game in multiplayer, even if they don't have their own copy. It takes a few minutes to send the game to other 3DSs--and, of course, they can't keep it once the host disconnects--but after the wait is over, the players have access to the entire game (though the host player controls all the settings and selections). It's a nice way to ensure that there's always an opportunity to get a party started as long as everybody has a system. Unfortunately, there's no way to play online. Yes, Mario Party is more fun in a local, group setting, but the omission of any sort of online option is puzzling, especially given that the 3DS supports friends lists and voice chat.</p><p style="">If you've got a party of one, however, Island Tour has a special single-player mode called Bowser's Tower. In this mode, your chosen character scales a tower, playing a minigame on each floor and winning to proceed. On every fifth floor, you face a boss character, and these fights are minigames in themselves. Compared to the single-player story mode in Mario Party DS, Bowser's Tower is weak: there's no variation on events depending on character choice; it takes a long time to complete a runthrough (and, if you're really unlucky, a bad roulette spin can send you back to the start); and you have to finish it more than once to unlock everything. Yet Bowser's Tower is a nice diversion, and as you play and complete board runs, Bowser's Tower, and individual minigames in either single- or multiplayer, you earn points that you can spend on unlockable content. </p><figure data-ref-id="1300-2386420" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2386420-0004.jpg" data-size="medium" data-align="right" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2386420-0004.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2386420"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/78/787590/2386420-0004.jpg"></a><figcaption>You can't always bite the bullet. Sometimes you just gotta run.</figcaption></figure><p style="">But the meat of any Mario Party is its minigame menagerie, and Island Tour has more winners than duds in its mix. While you have the expected minigames of the "collect stuff," "knock other players off a platform," and "dodge things coming at you" varieties, there are some more inventive offerings that make good use of the 3DS hardware. Since the 3DS offers a variety of control methods--controller, buttons, stylus, microphone, and gyroscopic motion--the minigames can use one or more of these elements to make more interesting snack-size experiences. This leads to some neat outings, such as Buzz a Fuzzy (a motion- and circle-pad-controlled archery minigame) and Match Faker (a memory-type game that lets you use the stylus to take notes). The game takes advantage of the fact that each player has their own display, resulting in things like the third-person, arena-based blasting in Tanks a Lot and the hyper-gliding ice racing in No Traction Action. There are even a few auxiliary minigames that use the oft-forgotten 3DS AR cards. Unlike in Wii Party, where only one player could use the GamePad, everybody is on equal footing with the same controls and view, and many of the minigames do a good job of both recognizing and taking advantage of that in their design.</p><p style="">But there are still some stinkers in the mix. Strictly luck-based minigames turn up in the rotation frequently, and they're not any fun. A few others feature sluggish controls that hamper your ability to move well. (In minigames that involved moving the system along with another control method, I found that the game had an obnoxious tendency to lose calibration when it shifted back to motion controls, which required an experience-interrupting recalibration.) Though you can switch between preset standard and easy minigames and turn mic-using games on or off, you still can't disable individual minigames or make a custom set, which is a disappointing oversight.</p><p style="">It's not a perfect party by any means, but some good design considerations, better-than-average variety, and always-enjoyable Mario thematics put Mario Party: Island Tour a few notches above your average video game bash-in-a-box. It's nicely portable, uses the hardware well, and has a mostly good minigame mix, making this the easy-to-play multiplayer vacation you've been looking for.</p> Fri, 22 Nov 2013 11:37:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/mario-party-island-tour-review/1900-6415575/
Gamespot's Site MashupLego: The Hobbit officially announced for 2014New Releases: Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Tearaway and State of Decay DLC!Mario Party: Island Tour Review
http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Mon, 25 Nov 2013 06:43:45 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/lego-the-hobbit-officially-announced-for-2014/1100-6416376/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389401-goblintown_09_rev.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389401" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389401-goblintown_09_rev.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389401"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1493/14930800/2389401-goblintown_09_rev.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Following the emergence of artwork for the game leaking last week, Warner Bros. has officially announced Lego: The Hobbit for release in spring 2014.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The game will be coming to Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Vita, Wii U, 3DS, PC, and Mac.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The game will be set around the first two films of Peter Jackson's <em>The Hobbit</em> trilogy, <em>An Unexpected Journey</em> and <em>Desolation of Smaug</em>. Playable characters include Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, alongside all of the dwarves: Thorin, Fíli, Kíli, Óin, Glóin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, and Ori. Warner Bros. adds that each dwarf will have his own unique ability, mentioning that Bombur can use his belly as a trampoline.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Locations visited will include Bag End, Hobbiton, The Misty Mountains, Goblin-town, Mirkwood, and Rivendell.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Players "will also be able to mine for gems, discover loot from enemies, and craft powerful magical items or build immense new LEGO structures," according to the game's press release, suggesting that Minecraft-esque elements could make their way into the next Lego adventure.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Lego: The Hobbit follows Lego: Lord of the Rings, which was released in fall 2012 and followed the three <em>The Lord of the Rings</em> films.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Lego regular TT Games is handling development of Lego: The Hobbit.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Two additional screenshots for the game were also released:</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389402-hub_01.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389402" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389402-hub_01.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389402"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1493/14930800/2389402-hub_01.jpg"></a></figure><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389403-trollcamp_rev.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389403" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1493/14930800/2389403-trollcamp_rev.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2389403"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1493/14930800/2389403-trollcamp_rev.jpg"></a></figure><p dir="ltr" style=""> </p><p style=""> </p> Mon, 25 Nov 2013 06:26:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/lego-the-hobbit-officially-announced-for-2014/1100-6416376/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/new-releases-zelda-a-link-between-worlds-tearaway-/2300-6416329/ This week in New Releases we go back to revisit a few games that didn't get enough love; Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Tearaway. We also talk about the new State of Decay DLC and Nether. Sun, 24 Nov 2013 12:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/new-releases-zelda-a-link-between-worlds-tearaway-/2300-6416329/ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/mario-party-island-tour-review/1900-6415575/ <p style="">When you hear "minigame collection," the first game that usually springs to mind is Mario Party. The series has been responsible for hilarious memories and strained relationships since the Nintendo 64 era, though the series hasn't always set a good example: some of the installments, like the miserable Mario Party Advance, have dragged you to the dregs of party hell. Fortunately, Mario Party: Island Tour is a raucous portable entry in the series that adds some refreshing new elements.</p><p style="">Island Tour adheres to the same structure as many of the other Mario Party games: two to four human or AI players move around a traditional board-game-style map in a competition, playing minigames for prizes and attempting to hinder other players throughout. Most Mario Party games have focused on the collecting of coins and stars to determine a winner at the end of a game, but Island Tour's boards feature different objectives and modes of play. Some, like Perilous Palace Path, simply require that you be the first to reach the goal, while others have you collecting items to see who can end the game with the most stuff. Even if the boards have a similar objective, there are other factors at play that alter gameplay significantly: Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain might let you summon a giant bullet that sends everyone in its path back several spaces, while Kamek's Magic Carpet Ride forgoes dice and assigns movement to an inventory of numbered cards, making your selections about how far to advance a strategic consideration. There's a nice bit of variety here, and the game helpfully gives ratings to luck, skill, and minigame categories when you're choosing a board to play on (though their accuracy is debatable). Most of the boards don't take too long to run through, but that's probably for the best given that the 3DS is a battery-based console, and nothing kills a party like running out of juice mid-game.</p><figure data-ref-id="1300-2386419" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2386419-0001.jpg" data-size="medium" data-align="left" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2386419-0001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2386419"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/78/787590/2386419-0001.jpg"></a><figcaption>What would a race game be like if you drifted ALL THE TIME?</figcaption></figure><p style="">It's pretty easy to get things hopping, thanks to the 3DS Download Play feature. Much like Mario Party DS, Island Tour allows up to three additional players to access and enjoy the full game in multiplayer, even if they don't have their own copy. It takes a few minutes to send the game to other 3DSs--and, of course, they can't keep it once the host disconnects--but after the wait is over, the players have access to the entire game (though the host player controls all the settings and selections). It's a nice way to ensure that there's always an opportunity to get a party started as long as everybody has a system. Unfortunately, there's no way to play online. Yes, Mario Party is more fun in a local, group setting, but the omission of any sort of online option is puzzling, especially given that the 3DS supports friends lists and voice chat.</p><p style="">If you've got a party of one, however, Island Tour has a special single-player mode called Bowser's Tower. In this mode, your chosen character scales a tower, playing a minigame on each floor and winning to proceed. On every fifth floor, you face a boss character, and these fights are minigames in themselves. Compared to the single-player story mode in Mario Party DS, Bowser's Tower is weak: there's no variation on events depending on character choice; it takes a long time to complete a runthrough (and, if you're really unlucky, a bad roulette spin can send you back to the start); and you have to finish it more than once to unlock everything. Yet Bowser's Tower is a nice diversion, and as you play and complete board runs, Bowser's Tower, and individual minigames in either single- or multiplayer, you earn points that you can spend on unlockable content. </p><figure data-ref-id="1300-2386420" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2386420-0004.jpg" data-size="medium" data-align="right" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/78/787590/2386420-0004.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2386420"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/78/787590/2386420-0004.jpg"></a><figcaption>You can't always bite the bullet. Sometimes you just gotta run.</figcaption></figure><p style="">But the meat of any Mario Party is its minigame menagerie, and Island Tour has more winners than duds in its mix. While you have the expected minigames of the "collect stuff," "knock other players off a platform," and "dodge things coming at you" varieties, there are some more inventive offerings that make good use of the 3DS hardware. Since the 3DS offers a variety of control methods--controller, buttons, stylus, microphone, and gyroscopic motion--the minigames can use one or more of these elements to make more interesting snack-size experiences. This leads to some neat outings, such as Buzz a Fuzzy (a motion- and circle-pad-controlled archery minigame) and Match Faker (a memory-type game that lets you use the stylus to take notes). The game takes advantage of the fact that each player has their own display, resulting in things like the third-person, arena-based blasting in Tanks a Lot and the hyper-gliding ice racing in No Traction Action. There are even a few auxiliary minigames that use the oft-forgotten 3DS AR cards. Unlike in Wii Party, where only one player could use the GamePad, everybody is on equal footing with the same controls and view, and many of the minigames do a good job of both recognizing and taking advantage of that in their design.</p><p style="">But there are still some stinkers in the mix. Strictly luck-based minigames turn up in the rotation frequently, and they're not any fun. A few others feature sluggish controls that hamper your ability to move well. (In minigames that involved moving the system along with another control method, I found that the game had an obnoxious tendency to lose calibration when it shifted back to motion controls, which required an experience-interrupting recalibration.) Though you can switch between preset standard and easy minigames and turn mic-using games on or off, you still can't disable individual minigames or make a custom set, which is a disappointing oversight.</p><p style="">It's not a perfect party by any means, but some good design considerations, better-than-average variety, and always-enjoyable Mario thematics put Mario Party: Island Tour a few notches above your average video game bash-in-a-box. It's nicely portable, uses the hardware well, and has a mostly good minigame mix, making this the easy-to-play multiplayer vacation you've been looking for.</p> Fri, 22 Nov 2013 11:37:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/mario-party-island-tour-review/1900-6415575/
What devilish person set up such intricate traps a mile below Mars' surface? 
