VentureBeat » Dead Space 3

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, classic Valve games on sale

Dealzon — Wed, 08 May 2013 00:20:40 +0000

This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Last week’s release of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon brings back plenty of 80′s action-flick nostalgia and was well received by critics and gamers alike. Happily there’s a Gamefly coupon which takes 20% off the game, making the PC digital version only $11.99.

Fans of Valve Software will also want to check out some additional deals from Gamefly this week, with classic Valve titles on sale at up to 80% off (after coupon). They’re all Steam activated titles, so you can add to your steam library of 1,450 games (which you’ll totally start playing through this summer).

Note: We update our GamesBeat weekly deal post every Tuesday with the latest deals. For last week’s deals, check below the “Last Thursday” headline.

Tuesday New Deals

Last Wednesday’s release: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (PC Download) — $11.99 at GameFly after coupon. You’ll need a UPlay account to play but thats the DRM price we pay these days.

May 14: Metro: Last Light (PC Download) — $37.50 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Everywhere else is basically full price. Steam activated.

Gamefly Sale: Valve Classic PC Titles — Up to 80% off at GameFly after coupon. Some top picks from this sale:

Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 – $3.99 each
The Orange Box – $3.99
Counter-Strike: Source – $3.99

Last Thursday

Love them or hate them, Origin is having a “six days of action games” sale, with recently released titles discounted as much as 50% off. To add some much-needed irony to the mix, some of the titles in the sale are actually activated on Steam. So if you like to save money but don’t want to deal with having Origin as a DRM platform, you’re in luck.

Patient gamers will be happy to know that last month’s release of Tomb Raider for PC download is now only $20 at Green Man Gaming, and happily the title activates on Steam. (Update: we’ve previously listed this for $25 at Origin’s sale, but GMG’s new price decisively steamrolls the Origin deal). For a game rated as “???” by Conan O’Brien, this is an excellent deal.

For more Steam-activated deals, you’ll find a few other Square Enix titles such as Hitman Absolution and Sleeping Dogs (though both have hit lower prices in the past). If you don’t mind Origin or already have it installed anyway due to Battlefield, big EA titles like Crysis 3, Dead Space 3, and Assassin’s Creed 3 are all on sale (yep – all the ‘3’s).

Origin Action Sale

Origin Sale: Six Days of Action Games — up to 50% off at Origin. Tons of action/shooter PC and console games on sale. PC games tend to be 50% off while console prices are about 33% off. Sale ends Monday at 10am Pacific. Our top picks below:

Assassin’s Creed 3 (PC Download) — $24.99
Tomb Raider (PC Download) — $24.99 (activates on Steam).
The Walking Dead Game – All Episodes (PC Download) — $10
Dead Space 3 (PC Download) — $29.99
Full list of games activating on Steam from this sale can be found here.

360, PS3, and Wii U deals

Grid 2 (Xbox 360, PS3) — $49.99 at NewEgg. List is $60. Sequel to the well-reviewed motorsport sim Grid, which was characterized by IGN as “automobile erotica”…hmm. Releases May 28th.

Bioshock Infinite (Xbox 360, PS3) — $49.99 at Best Buy. Next best is $58 at Overstock.com. Best discount yet about a month after its release. Lowest price we’ve seen on the console versions by $2.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 (Xbox 360) — $39.99 at NewEgg. Fans of Naruto? You’ll be buying the game regardless of the reviews (which weren’t half bad, by the way).

Resident Evil: Revelations (Xbox 360, PS3) — $37.99 at NewEgg. The hit 2012 3DS game is getting its own console release. Release date is May 21st. Elsewhere $50.

Playstation All Stars Battle Royale (PS3) — $29.99 at Amazon, which ties lowest ever. Fight as everyone from Sly Cooper to PaRappa the Rapper. Next best is $40 at Best Buy.

Assassin’s Creed 3 (Wii U, Xbox 360, PS3) — $29.99 at GameStop. This is the lowest price we’ve seen on the PS3 and Wii U versions of the popular sandbox-style action-adventure game. Next best is $53 at Overstock.com.

Hardware

Alienware M14x r2 Laptop — $969.99 at Groupon. Yep, Groupon does more than sell spa packages now. Specs: Core i5-3210M, 8GB RAM, and GeForce GT 650M. List is $1,260.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y400 59371958 Laptop — $719 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Core i5-3230M and the new Kepler-based GeForce GT 750M 2GB. For $700, you’ll have a portable machine that runs most modern games without a problem.

Logitech G9X Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Edition Gaming Mouse — $37.99 at Amazon. It’s a Logitech mouse with CoD printed on it – now it’s $20 more than usual. We’re half joking, of course. (It’s actually cheaper than the unadorned G9X.)

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Filed under: Games

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BioShock Infinite preorder retailer rumble, bonus comparison

Dealzon — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:00:03 +0000

This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

For those that have been eagerly awaiting the release of next week’s BioShock Infinite, you’re in luck (if you’re a PC gamer) because the retailers are in a full blown preorder bonus slug fest. 2K has given additional incentives for the digital preorder, offering additional freebie games such as XCOM: Enemy Unknown across all retailers. The best offer is currently at Green Man Gaming (best value with credit and three free games). Check the table below to compare and contrast all the pre-order bonus offers.

BioShock Infinite Preorder Bonus Comparison

All digital preorder from retailers below will get:

Copy of the original Bioshock and XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Industrial Revolution DLC pack (3 gear items, 500 bonus in-game currency, 5 lock picks, and the Industrial Revolution puzzle game)

Upcoming Releases

March 26: BioShock Infinite + Preorder Bonuses (PC Download) — $59.99 at Green Man Gaming. Choose between $15 Credit or $14 Cash Back and three free games. This is probably one of the better BioShock Infinite offers on the market. Compare bonus here.

March 26: Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel (Xbox 360, PS3) — $59.99 at Amazon. Another next week Tuesday release. Like Bioshock Infiniteeverywhere seems to be charging full price but Amazon is offering the game with a $20 credit. Credit is good towards nearly everything on Amazon.

Recent Releases

God of War: Ascension + God of War Saga (PS3) — $59.99 at GameStop. This is a pretty stellar deal considering you’re getting GoW: Saga, which contains all previous God of War titles.

Dead Space 3 (PC Download, Xbox 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Origin. Thanks to EA’s “player appreciation sale” the recently released Dead Space 3 is now at lowest ever price.

Crysis 3 (PC Download, Xbox 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Origin. Along with Dead Space 3, Crysis 3 joins the rank of heavily discounted games. Some may say the IPs are being diluted in pricing, but we say, more discounts please.

Console game deals

The Amazing Spider-Man Ultimate Edition (Wii U) — $29.99 at GameStop. A pretty recent March 5th Wii U release just dropped $10 at Gamestop. Amazon decided to price match but elsewhere the game is the full $39.99 list price.

PC download deals

Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods and Kings (PC Download) — $7.49 at GameFly. Next best is $30 at Green Man Gaming. Thursday-only GameFly has a great price for Civ V’s Gods and Kings expansion pack. Ratings are consistently good with a 4/5 on Amazon and 80/100 on Metacritic.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition (PC Download) — $6 at Origin. Next best is $20 at GamersGate. The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition is one of the more notable “Player Appreciation” sale games out there. At only six bucks it’s actually cheapest ever by $4.

Borderlands Game of the Year Edition (PC Download) — $5.99 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Next best is $28 at Amazon. Another six dollar gem is Borderlands GOTY at GMG. It ties the previous low price only seen a month ago in a weekend sale. Otherwise the game has been around the $10-$30 mark. The current next best price online is $28 on Amazon. Game activates on Steam.

General sales

EA Player Appreciation Sale — More than 200 titles up to 70% off for one week only.

Gamefly Spring Break PC Sale — New round of deals each week, click-through to see today’s list.

Hardware deals

Wii U Console 32GB Deluxe Set with Nintendo Land — $349.99 at Target. Includes a $50 target gift card bnous.

PlayStation Vita 3G / WiFi with 8GB Memory Card — $249.99 at Sony. Next best is $280 at Walmart. Decent price for the 3G model with “proprietary” memory stick.

Samsung Series 7 Gamer Laptop — $1,399 at Microsoft. Model NP700G7C-S02US. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 16GB RAM, 1.5 TB 7200RPM HDD + 8GB SSD, GeForce GTX 675M, and Blu-ray. Next best is $1,600 at NewEgg.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y400 952325U Laptop — $799 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Ivy Bridge Core i7-3630QM, 8GB RAM, GeForce GT 650M 2GB, Blu-ray, and Windows 8.

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat weekly roundup: SimCity plagued by server issues, Ubisoft does not condone whaling

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:41:08 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, SimCity launches but suffers catastrophic sever issues, PETA claims Ubisoft is glorifying whaling in Assassin’s Creed IV, and Boy Scouts can now earn badges for game design.

You’ll also find reviews for SimCity, God of War: Ascension, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow — Mirror of Fate, and Dollar Dash, as well as previews for Dead Space 3 Awakened and Gears of War: Judgment.

News

Mobile News

Reviews

Previews

Interviews

Pieces of Flair

Filed under: Games

Electronic Arts’ digital revenue will surpass physical game sales this year (infographic)

Stephanie Carmichael — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:06:22 +0000

We toss around a lot of fancy words when talking about the future of the game industry. But now one of the biggest publishers around, Electronic Arts, is proving that when it comes to digital, it’s more than just buzz.

SuperData Research predicts that EA, the publisher of franchises like Dead Space and Mass Effect, will earn most of its revenue from digital games by the end of 2013. That means focusing more on streaming and downloadable content. Revenue from physical products has dropped below $500 million.

This trend isn’t just happening with EA. A January report indicated that the overall digital market improved 39 percent from the same time one year prior.

This quarter is the second-to-last period that physical content drives sales for EA, according to the online-games market research firm. A lot of revenue will come in from Battlefield 4, which is expected to release later this year and increase retail sales to an estimated $539 million. Then mobile revenue across consoles, PC, and mobile devices will overtake the physical side by Q3 2013, reaching roughly $2.1 billion.

Companies like EA, Sony, and Valve are now focusing on making digital more accessible through hardware — like with Nvidia’s Project Shield, the PlayStation 4, and Steam’s Big Picture. It’s all about enabling digital content to overtake the traditional console-based environment of the living room by introducing new technology, new platforms, and more ways to play.

“We do think there’s going to be more digital business and digital download business,” EA’s chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen told SuperData in a financial earnings call last week. “But a lot of it will depend on when we release titles, when Sony and Microsoft choose to release titles. And in no way do we want to see the retail channel disappear. We think that’s an important part of the overall industry, and we want to keep that a vibrant channel for us long term as well.”

It’s about balance, and with more digital business will come a wider availability and ease of digital gameplay components due to better storage capacity, Jorgensen added.

Joost van Dreunen, the chief executive officer of SuperData, told GamesBeat that Electronic Arts is coming into the “digital revolution” well prepared. So what does this mean for gaming?

“I think it’s positive when large incumbents adapt to a new environment,” he said. “Sure, there are critics, but the leaders in the game industry have moved a lot faster to accept new distribution and revenue models than, say, the music or film industry. Perhaps most importantly, this benefits gamers, who now have access to quality games on a platform of their choosing.”

EA hasn’t responded to our request for comment.

Filed under: Business, Games

EA: Rumor that we’re killing Dead Space is ‘patently false’

Jeffrey Grubb — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:57:23 +0000

A widely reported rumor claims Electronic Arts is pulling the plug on the Dead Space franchise, but that isn’t the case according to the publisher.

GamesBeat asked EA specifically about the rumor that Dead Space 3 sales led it to cancel the space-horror series going forward, and a spokesperson provided the following response:

[The rumors are] patently false. While we have not released sales data for Dead Space 3, we are proud of the game, and Dead Space continues to be an important [property] to EA.

The spokesperson went on to call the rumors “baseless.”

Videogamer.com claims to have an anonymous source that says Dead Space 4 was in preproduction at developer Visceral Games but that EA canceled the title due to disappointing Dead Space 3 numbers.

EA didn’t confirm Dead Space 4′s existence to GamesBeat, but it did confirm that it isn’t abandoning the sci-fi franchise.

Filed under: Games

Microtransactions and the future of console game business models

Community Writer — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 03:50:39 +0000

Traditional console gamers are vehemently resisting a major change in the business: the increasing influence of online integration and microtransactions. The closer we get to the next hardware cycle, the more game developers and publishers seem to defend this vision of the future. Like all advances forward, the industry is probably going to stumble a lot before it, as a whole, really figures this out.

For a little while now, it seems like we’ve been looking at an all-out assault on the very idea of a video game as a singular piece of content or as a creative work for that matter. The latest stated intentions come from companies like publisher Electronic Arts and developer Crytek, which are basically saying they’re doing away entirely with the old notion in an attempt to get people to stop trading in their games, with seemingly no room for coexistence.

EA wants all of their future games to include microtransactions. Forward-looking statements like this rarely end up being 100 percent true, but I also don’t like the idea of EA moving on with a blanket approach to every game they publish. I could only imagine what Need For Speed, all EA’s sports games, and Battlefield will look like laden with microtransactions, but I believe Dead Space 3 (pictured top) was the most egregious example because of its history as an atmospheric, isolated experience with the series’ game elements focused on a narrative instead of profit in and of themselves.

Crytek’s statement that single-player games are going to disappear is just as much of a speculative blanket proclamation as EA’s. That says that the developer isn’t really going to think about whether free-to-play is really a good thing for this particular game or that particular game. I have no idea how it’d implement microtransactions into a single-player Crysis game.

Former Epic Games designer Cliffy Bleszinski recently tried to defend companies like EA, and he’s right in regard to how varied the free-to-play and microtransaction-based business models are. But very few developers have really figured out good ways to implement them. He also makes a point that, apparently, people do buy these microtransactions. The market has generally accepted them, which brings forth the point that core gamers so vehemently against these new business models are a minority. It’s actually kind of scary when you think about how only a small portion of gamers actually care about the idea of a game being a singular creative work rather than a service with which to generate revenue.

One game that a lot of people (including Bleszinski) seem to bring up as a great example of melding single-player and multiplayer is Dark Souls (pictured below). But I actually see Dark Souls as a great example of not ceaselessly pushing forward with online-connected gaming in every single product a company makes.

Maybe a reason I’ve gravitated back towards Japanese games a little bit is because Japanese developers don’t seem to feel the need to cram online into each and every one of their games. When From Software made Demon’s Souls and later Dark Souls, the company didn’t just slam token multiplayer or microtransactions into the games in order to keep people from trading them in. From Software actually thought up a genuinely unique idea for a game that happened to require an Internet connection. People have probably given Nintendo crap for not making enough online-focused games for the Wii U already, but I applaud them for simply sticking to what makes their games fun whether they be connected or not.

Maybe, however, this is because online gaming isn’t as big in the Japanese market. What is big over there is local multiplayer for handheld games as well as passive communication between devices. That’s why so many handheld games have tried out Monster Hunter-style local multiplayer features and why Nintendo implemented Streetpass as a system-wide feature in the 3DS.

Still, I think market differences like that — as well as the continuing demand for wholly single-player experiences — will result in a landscape in the next-gen consoles that’ll be a hodgepodge mix of such games alongside the fully connected ones. We already have publishers like Nintnedo, Bethesda, and Rockstar that still primarily make single-player games.

Nintendo and Rockstar can do this because their games sell well enough already. You never seem to find used copies of Nintendo games, and their prices never seem to go down at retail — even five or six years after launch. With a game that sells as much as Grand Theft Auto, you don’t really see Rockstar complaining as much about the second-hand market, either.

Bethesda is the kind of company that can put out Skyrim – a game with no online features whatsoever outside of a few rather large pieces of downloadable content — and sell over 10 million copies. You never see Bethesda complaining about the used market — likely because it made a game that people can spend 100 hours playing. Plus, you’re also probably still going to have a lot of indies releasing games of all kinds, including those strictly based around single-player.

The appearance of microtransactions and free-to-play on consoles next gen is inevitable, but what’s also inevitable is that we’ll see a greater variance of business models and price points for console games.

Originally Posted on MultiPlatform.

Filed under: Games

Required Listening: Fire Emblem, Crysis 3, and interview with Tomb Raider composer Jason Graves

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:00:04 +0000

Without music, many modern video games would not resonate with us on such an emotional level. It’s possible we would not feel a pang of dread as we rounded a blind corner in Dead Space 3, and we likely wouldn’t feel such urgency to hack our way through baddies in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The sometimes abrasive yet compelling quality to even dissonant tones can change how we perceive virtual worlds.

This month we take a look at Fire Emblem: Awakening, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and Dead Space 3, and we discuss creating music out of non-musical items and the Tomb Raider soundtrack with composer Jason Graves.

Fire Emblem: Awakening
Composer: Yuka Tsujiyoko

Yuka Tsujiyoko’s music is the backbone of the Fire Emblem franchise. She’s the main composer for the series, which explains how organically music flows from one Fire Emblem to the next. Awakening’s score follows its predecessors with sometimes dreamy, often powerful orchestral melodies poised to elevate victorious highs and make us cry every time we lose a solider in battle.

Aliens: Colonial Marines
Composer: Kevin Riepl
Unlike the poorly received game housing it, Kevin Riepl’s score for Aliens: Colonial Marines is a true love letter to the film series. It plays with tonal similarities to both James Horner’s (Aliens) and Jerry Goldsmith’s (Alien) work on the film series while striking out on its own with gritty industrial sounds. You can feel the passion and dedication in every unsettling note and anvil strike Riepl uses. If you close your eyes and listen to the tracks linked to the picture above, you can imagine the much more frightening and generally more enjoyable game that Colonial Marines should have been.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Composer: Jamie Christopherson
In fine Platinum Games tradition, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance’s soundtrack is very unconventional. When Platinum hired Jamie Christopherson to compose, they already had a pumping, heavy-metal sound in mind. The result is a very energetic album full of well-crafted guitar rifts and a successful hybridization of metal and electronic tones. It’s hard to imagine that Christopherson hadn’t written heavy metal on this scale before this project, but as he says in a supplemental interview to this article, it was all new to him.

Dead Space 3
Composer: Jason Graves, James Hannigan
Echoing, overwhelming percussion and spine-tingling dissonance is a hallmark of all three Dead Space scores, but Dead Space 3 combines those signature tones with more enjoyable orchestral movements. The result is a creepy soundtrack that is actually pleasant to listen to when removed from its game. The music is definitely much less claustrophobic, much like its inspiration.

Filed under: Games

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Everything that’s wrong with Dead Space 3′s opening hours

Community Writer — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:53:07 +0000

I just got to Chapter 4 in Dead Space 3, and I’ve got to tell you — even as someone who played through the first two games multiple times, played all the spin-off games, and watched both of the animated movies, I just don’t get some things. Let’s start from the top.

And yes, there will be spoilers.

The premise

This is the part that’s bugging me the most. Dead Space 2 ended with Isaac and Ellie flying off into the sunset, heavily implying that the next game would feature the two as a Bonnie and Clyde-style duo, hunting down Markers and bringing the fight to the Unitologists. Dead Space 3 is not that game.

It opens with a weird little prologue set 200 years before Isaac’s time that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but hey, maybe it’ll click later, so I’ll withhold judgment for now. Then it switches to Isaac, two months after the events of the last game, who’s apparently retreated already from the Marker hunt and lost touch with Ellie. Oh, and he’s behind on his rent. It sounds like EarthGov has been reduced to a single squad, Unitologists are now in charge, and both sides want Isaac. The EarthGov sqaud gets there first and drags Isaac along by telling him that Ellie needs his help. They give the Unitologists the slip, fly out to Ellie’s location, and find her, and she gives one of the EarthGov soldiers a slip of her tongue in front of Isaac. That’s where I stopped playing for the night.

What is going on? This is nothing like what I would’ve imagined a sequel to Dead Space 2 to be. It feels like I’m playing Dead Space 4, the sequel to the Dead Space 3 that should’ve existed — the one where everything goes wrong for Isaac and Ellie, causing a disillusioned Isaac to retreat from the mission and the world at the end.

It feels like they skipped a game.

The biggest problem is with that two-month time frame. Think about everything that has to happen in the two months between the second game and this one: Isaac and Ellie have to embark upon and fail so miserably at both a mission to destroy the Markers and a romantic relationship that he exiles himself. EarthGov needs to collapse, and the Unitologists need to rise up in its place. Ellie has to get involved with the EarthGov soldier. Oh, and Isaac needs to get behind on his rent. In two months.

Now, I think it’s safe to say that in general, Isaac is a pretty unlucky guy. But when it comes to money, he’s the luckiest guy in the galaxy. He’s constantly finding spare credits everywhere he goes. The guy trips over credits on his way to the bathroom. So how is he already behind on his rent? It’s only been two months.

So yeah. I have no idea what’s going on so far.

Everybody sucks

This is the other big problem with the story so far: I don’t care about anyone involved. Everybody from the prologue is dead, Isaac has nothing going on and just yells a lot, the EarthGov guys are all assholes, the new Unitologist supervillain has barely been introduced yet, and Ellie’s too busy getting busy with one of those assholes.

Who am I supposed to be rooting for?

Dead Space opened with an emotional video log from Isaac’s girlfriend, which instantly established a sympathetic link for both of them. You got introduced to his crew, the interplay between their personalities, and the immediate danger they were in. Dead Space 2 opened inside Isaac’s mind, showing how haunted he was from the events of the first game — how fragmented — once again creating sympathy for him before throwing him into more danger.

Dead Space 3 opens with someone I don’t know or care about and then switches to Isaac, a guy I barely recognize anymore given the substantial story gap since we last left off. He’s withdrawn from the very fight that I willingly jumped back into by buying the game. And now he’s surrounded by dumb military brutes who only rope him in by invoking Ellie’s name — whose relationship with Isaac (and by proxy, me) has been severed since the last game.

So again, who am I supposed to be rooting for?

Human enemies

The first enemies Isaac fights in Dead Space 3 are just faceless dudes in armor taking potshots from behind chest-high walls. “Crouch behind cover by pressing R3,” the game tells me. I’m sorry, but when did Dead Space become Generic Cover Shooter?

In January, Arthur Gies of Polygon sat down with Steve Papoutsis, the executive producer of Dead Space 3, and asked him, “What’s the basic gameplay foundation of Dead Space that you’ve needed to be careful to not screw up or not change too much?” Papoutsis answered, “It’s really always been about strategic dismemberment.”

OK, Steve, then why am I hiding behind cover and using a submachine gun to shoot dudes in the face? This is not why I come to Dead Space. Leave the chest-high walls and headshots for Gears of War and Mass Effect.

I’m not saying that fighting humans in Dead Space couldn’t be awesome. Dead Space 2 had a fantastic scene where you fight humans by not fighting humans. Instead, you barely escape, and then you unleash Necromorphs on them. It’s awesome. But let’s say you wanted to have a scene where Isaac actually fights humans. Well, it should be a scene so brutal that it makes me cringe. Shooting another human’s leg off from the knee down with a plasma cutter shouldn’t kill him — it should leave him on the ground, screaming in agony and clutching what remains of his limb. Necromorphs don’t react in pain when you cut off a body part, but humans should.

And yet, that’s not what happens here. Blow a guy’s leg off, and he just dies immediately. It’s boring and totally contradictory to what the series has “really always been about,” in the words of its executive producer.

It’s so predictable

All right, stop me if you’ve heard this one before. You walk into a room and slowly make your way through it. On the floor, you find a lone Necromorph in pristine condition — well, in as pristine condition as a Necromorph can get, anyway. When you get close to it, the Necromorph jumps up and attacks you. It was never actually dead! It was only pretending! Who could have possibly foreseen this? Oh, noooooo!

Actually, you’d think Isaac Clarke would have foreseen this, having already gone through it twice before.

In the relatively short time I’ve spent with Dead Space 3 so far, the game already tried to pull that specific trick on me with three different Necromorphs in the same room. But I’m a Dead Space veteran, so that just doesn’t work on me anymore. If I find a lone, pristine Necromorph on the ground, I shoot it from a distance. Chances are, it’ll spring up and start charging at me, but I’ve already gotten a head start on dismantling him on my own terms.

Now the developers mix it up by hanging Necromorphs from the ceiling like bats, all balled up and ready to pounce. Except that that trick already doesn’t work on me because the first time they do it, it’s in a cutscene, and I know to look out for it.

The game needs to come up with new ways to scare me — and fast — because this just isn’t working. I can walk into a room and tell just by the layout that enemies are going to jump out and from where. I’m prepared any time I solve a puzzle for the inevitable rush of enemies afterward. It’s boring. And yes, I’m playing on Hard, so it’s not just a matter of not being scary because the enemies die too quickly.

The game just put me on an abandoned ship where some real nasty stuff went down, though, so I’m hoping it’ll start feeling more like Dead Space and get better from here. But these early hours have not been encouraging.

Filed under: Games

20 Dead Space 3 details you may have missed (gallery)

Samir Torres — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 18:00:07 +0000

Running frantically away from necromorphs in Dead Space 3 will keep you alive, but you’ll miss out on some cool details that developer Visceral Games scattered throughout Isaac Clarke and John Carver’s horrific adventure.

The world of Dead Space is dark and dangerous, but a slow pace rewards curious explorers. Flashing a light on your surroundings may reveal hidden messages, bizarre background objects, and inside jokes from the designers.

Check out the screenshots below to see how many of these peculiarities you accidentally skipped. Hover the cursor over the image to launch the gallery.

Filed under: Games

Dead Space 3 had to evolve in a new direction

Community Writer — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 04:01:28 +0000

Dead Space 3 did exactly what everyone expected it to do.

The series slowly outgrew it roots as developer Visceral Games transplanted it from the land of survival-horror to the more financially fertile soil of the third-person action shooter. Today, the franchise has completely abandoned that which helped it garner its popularity in the first place, only referentially acknowledging these traits in the item-dense lulls between polished action set pieces. Both literally and figuratively, we find ourselves an awfully long way from the Ishimura.

I don’t know that anyone held out hope for another outcome, but they would have faced a mountain of evidence to the contrary if they had. No survival horror franchise since the genre’s inception has been able to hold on to more than “survival” past the initial outing.

The original Dead Space came along at a time when survival-horror had become as lifeless as the creatures that haunted its murky corridors. The genre had long since become a victim of its own success and forced to cater to a bigger audience that required a more “broadly appealing” experience. As with the latest Dead Space, Visceral thickened some aspects of its gameplay, watered down others, and added and removed even more elements; the flavor changed. For the worse? Not necessarily. Different? Certainly.

Source: Capcom

Extrapolate, and this image not only explains Resident Evil’s progression as a franchise but why Chris started taking ‘roids.

At the outset of creating something “new,” an artist’s financial backers perceive him as a risk. And there will be financial backers. All ambitious creative pursuits require a budget, and the price of that budget is high expectations. Visceral had never truly released a proper “hit” when it began development of Dead Space. The studio was hungry — eager to prove itself. But it was still entering uncharted territory, and Dead Space certainly had some rough edges that, as brilliantly pointed out in the Ars Technica review of Dead Space 3, lent themselves to the game’s atmosphere and much of its appeal as a horror title.

This very appeal gave Dead Space the popularity that ultimately damned its inevitable sequels. It’s a phenomenon seen across the artistic spectrum. Self-titled debut vs. reunion tour. Episode IV vs. Episode I. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas vs. Hey Rube. Artists and even their concepts are like a tuning fork. When first struck, the tune is loud and steady, then it slowly fades to silence, a tone with all the inescapable allure of the siren’s call.

Falling in love with a new game idea is a dangerous affair. Someone is going to get hurt. Public relations catchphrases like “bigger and better,” “exciting new direction,” and “highly polished,” start to wither the corners of common sense, manifesting with the thinly veiled condescension of “let’s just be friends” from the scowl of a jilted lover. These phrases are ugly when laid bare. They represent the death of that which we fell in love with in the first place — that which established the relationship. This odd paradox is present in nearly all creative pursuits.

That does much to explain the fecund ire presently infecting nearly every game reviewer with a keyboard and a copy of Dead Space 3. While Dead Space 3 hasn’t fallen victim to many ratings below “good,” it doesn’t fare well when compared to its predecessors. The principle complaint is the aforementioned: Dead Space 3 lost touch with its roots. And truly, it is a fundamentally different experience. But when taken moment-to-moment, all the gameplay and environmental elements that fans of the franchise point to as evidence of Dead Spaces’s greatness are present and accounted for in the third one.

About halfway through the game, those elements are left behind for an admittedly less frightening environment, but why should Dead Space 3 endeavor to be Dead Space? Another ship? More narrow black corridors? Another game in which one could get by with nothing more than a plasma cutter? Visceral would be reviled for shoveling out a sequel that didn’t do anything to advance the franchise.

The first time a necromorph burst from a vent in Dead Space and snacked on Isaac’s jugular was unexpected and terrifying. The four thousandth necromorph an hour into Dead Space 4 can’t possibly have the same impact. The first blood covered room filled with supplies no longer needed by its deceased denizens created a palpable sense of dread. That same room four years and two-and-half games later delivers a far more cushioned blow.

Source: Visceral Games

In spite of Foreigner’s insistence, it will never “feel like the first time.”

Those moments are gone, and I can no more possess them than a sieve possesses liquid. First viewing, first listen, first kiss, first shot of heroin; the first time is always the best, and we can never get it back. We crave more from our love, demand more, and beg for more like a junkie on a dirty mattress. We want something that can’t be given, and god help the object of our affection should they attempt to deliver.

As a fan of Dead Space, I know that it will never scare me again. I know this, but I still enjoy the game. Perhaps the designers understood this concept, perhaps not. But anything less than a game that was fundamentally not Dead Space stood no chance of delivering the magic of the first.

Those slamming Dead Space 3 for stepping away from what the franchise was should avail themselves of the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt.” They’re mad because it changed, but they’d have been equally mad if it had stayed the same. They aren’t angry at Dead Space 3 or the game industry they claim is stale and devoid of original concepts. They’re mad at time, reality, and the insurmountable peak of their own expectations. They wanted to own that moment from the Dead Space, and god didn’t help the franchise when it attempted to deliver. Dead Space 3 could have done anything, everything, or nothing — it wouldn’t have mattered.

At least this proves that games are art: No object or performance or collection of words is truly a work of art until it triggers an emotion. With their unique means of conveyance (projection of the player on to his avatar), it seems that video games trigger an equally unique and specific emotion: frenzied, possessive, crushing, childish love. True love.

And no one has truly loved anything until they’ve absolutely fucking hated it.

Filed under: Games

ROUNDTABLE’D! Game characters buy into AAA-game microtransactions!

Rus McLaughlin — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:00:15 +0000

Once again, we pay attention to our panel of game characters and get change in return!

Microtransactions! They’re not just for free Facebook games you annoy your friends with until they un-friend you anymore! Paying a buck or two here and there sustains most of the major online multiplayer franchises at this point, and now the top-tier console games are cashing in as well. You can pay more in both Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and Dead Space 3 to skip ahead to the interesting weapons that other players earn through hard work and, y’know, actually playing the game.

But they’re only the tip of a very big wave. We could soon see every game include microtransactions on multiple levels, giving gamers the freedom to spend money whenever they like. What say you, panel of experts? Good thing? Bad thing? Thing?

Launch the gallery below to learn many things!

Filed under: Games

All-new images from The Art of Dead Space

Rus McLaughlin — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:59:07 +0000

You just can’t take your eyes off some things — emphasis on “things.”

The latest in Titan Books’ series of behind-the-scenes video game art books goes back to the ruins of the necromorph-infested Ishimura and forward to the frozen wastes of Tau Volantis for The Art of Dead Space. Martin Robinson, who also worked on Titan’s Halo: The Art of Building Worlds, has pulled together over 300 images focusing mainly on Dead Space 3 (available today for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC), but it has a few detours back to the first two games in the series.The tech of the Dead Space universe also gets a rare spotlight, including a two-page spread covering the various designs of the signature Plasma Cutter.

Titan handed us a few exclusive (and surprisingly gore-less) images from the book, which is also available now. Launch the gallery below and enjoy!

Filed under: Games

Dead Space 3 guide: Easy Hardcore mode, best weapons, exploits, and Peng

Sebastian Haley — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:00:28 +0000

Welcome to GamesBeat’s Dead Space 3 game guide. I’ll try to keep my not-so-subtle “Electronic Arts turned this amazing horror franchise into an over-the-top co-op action shooter turd with microtransactions” rants to a minimum while delivering the following tips, tricks, and exploits. Let’s begin!

Table of contents

Intro to Dead Space 3’s weapon crafting

Dead Space 3 is less survival-horror and more dungeon-loot crawl, which coincides with an all-new weapon crafting system. You’ll need resources, which are found on dead enemies, in containers and loot chests, and scattered around levels to craft weapons (and upgrade your suit).

Weapons can have up to two engines attached (so two guns in one), and then the type of tip you combine with that tool will determine its effect. For instance, a Pneumatic Torch engine will become a flamethrower with a Default Tip, and a Cryogenic Torch with a Precision Tip. Likewise, you can turn a Military Engine into one of several assault rifle, sniper, or shotgun variations.

Then you can add circuits to increase or decrease a weapon’s stats (damage, reload speed, clip size, firing rate). The type of frame you built your gun on will determine how many circuits are available (up to eight max). And finally, each gun has two attachment slots. Attachment modules add all types of unique effects to the gun, including elemental damage, increased ammo, automatic reloads, and more.

Resources and microtransactions

As you might have heard, Dead Space 3 features microtransactions because, obviously, all of the console gamers who played the first two games want to spend more money on top of their $60 retail purchases. The microtransactions revolve around earning resources for weapon crafting. You can buy a basic resource pack ($1), Ultra pack ($2), or Epic pack ($3). You’ll need to buy at least a few packs to really make a dent in any major weapon or suit purchases.

However, you can also use a scavenger bot to go out and find resources for you. You won’t get one of these bots until several hours into the game, and they’re only useful if you search for a specific area in each level to deploy them. By the end of the game, though, you’ll be swimming in resources if you’ve been using your bot(s) properly and regularly. They’ll also start bringing back Ration Seals, which you can use to purchase downloadable-content resource packs instead of paying real money.

Note: The Epic and Ultra DLC pack information seems to be switched in-game. So if you buy an Epic pack, you’re really getting an Ultra pack’s contents (a loss of a dollar). And the Ration Seals listed for the Ultra pack are twice the price of the Epic pack, but when you purchase an Epic pack with Ration Seals, you receive an Ultra pack instead. This is confirmed by a second party as of February 4, 2013.

Developer blueprints

In the blueprints section of the workbench, you’ll find a long list of developer-made weapons that you can purchase. These are all very resource-intensive, so you probably won’t be able to afford them until you can already make your own weapons. That said, they do come with some hard-to-find pieces, such as 3/3 circuits and other enhanced modules or weapon tips. So you may want to try buying some and breaking them down for parts.

The best weapons

Dead Space’s combat was originally built on the idea that Isaac was an engineer, not a soldier. So his engineering tools had to make due in the place of assault rifles and rockets and the usual space marine arsenal. It also fit well with the game’s enemies, the Necromorphs, who were best dismembered, rather than having a million bullets pumped into them until they ceased to come at you, bro.

Well, not anymore. Isaac’s signature Plasma Cutter is no longer his go-to weapon, as it is woefully underpowered next to some of the new guns you can craft in Dead Space 3. This sequel also adds a number of human and humanoid enemies to the mix, meaning dismemberment is no longer an integral part of gameplay.

Shotguns and grenade launchers

For short-range encounters in Dead Space 3 (of which you’ll have many), there is nothing better than a souped-up shotgun. Even at midrange, it can liquify most enemies with a single shot, or at the very least knock them back and remove their legs, allowing you to fire off a second fatal shot. The shotgun will also hit multiple enemies, so it’s good for small crowd control. As a general rule in Dead Space 3, you’ll want to crank up damage and rate of fire via circuit upgrades, but that’s especially true in building a beastly shotgun.

Next up, you’ll want to build a grenade launcher as soon as you can access the Survey Charge tool. For the most part, a single grenade will annihilate anything it hits, with the added effect of serious splash damage. However, that splash damage also applies to you, so make sure to equip a Safe Guard attachment to nullify any friendly fire. Then you’re free to run around and fire grenades point-blank without gibbing yourself. The only downside to explosive weapons is the limited clip, but since damage output is already high, you can focus on building up the clip (or possibly reload speed) via circuits.

Javelin and Ripper

If you’re looking for another solid set of weapons to diversify your gear, a Javelin and Ripper are second only to shotguns and grenade launchers. You’ll need to put a lot of emphasis on increasing their damage to make them worthwhile, especially against tougher enemies that become commonplace on harder difficulties or halfway through the game.

The Javelin can snipe enemies from afar, with the high probability of dismembering them and impaling them to a wall. Rate of fire can be vital with a Javelin as it may take a few shots to kill your target. For the Ripper, you’ll want to stick with the Default Tip so that the saw blades suspend in the air a few feet in front of you. Any enemies who come into range will get ground up. This is a little more risky than just blowing everything to shit, but it’s still fun and effective for the brave.

Stasis Coating module

Although there are lots of fun elemental attachments, you’ll want to have at least one weapon equipped with a Stasis attachment. This way, all of your shots will slow or freeze enemies down, allowing you to kill them before they reach you or prevent you from getting cornered.

That said, you may want to equip your saw weapon with the Electrocution module for the “Electric Lawnmower” Achievement (kill 30 enemies using an electrified Ripper blade) and any weapon with the Acid Bath mod for the Dropping Acid Achievement (dissolve 50 enemies with acid). Note that some enemies will die before being counted as “dissolved,” so you’ll probably have to kill more than 50 with that weapon.

DLC weapons

You can unlock a number of unique weapons before even starting up the game (by having a Dead Space 2 save file, preorders, etc.). These aren’t really anything special, except for the Evangelizer.

Purchases of the Dead Space 3 Limited Edition come with both the Evangelizer and Negotiator. The Evangelizer is a unique Carbine/shotgun hybrid. You’ll want to swap out the Carbine eventually, but the Evangelizer Shotgun tip is the best in the game, giving you an immediate advantage across all of your playthroughs. These weapons also include an Elite Heavy Frame, with all eight circuit slots open (something you wouldn’t normally see until the very end of the game if at all).

If you have a Dead Space 2 save file, you’ll also get the Planet Cracker, but despite its epic name, this is just a slightly more powerful plasma cutter. It’s immediately obsolete.

The RIG

Although there is a pretty large collection of “suits” to unlock in Dead Space 3, they are all aesthetic only. You can upgrade your RIG’s features at a suit kiosk, but the suit you decide to wear has no impact on gameplay whatsoever. I’m partial to the Witness suit (Limited Edition) and Hostile Environment Suit (complete all optional missions), personally.

Continue on to page two for more, including unlockables, special modes, secret Achievement locations, and glitches/exploits.

Filed under: Games

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Dead Space 3 is a disturbing ride from beginning to end (review)

Giancarlo Valdes — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:00:14 +0000

Dead Space 3 starts with a break up. You might think that’s weird for a game that involves meticulously cutting off the limbs of alien zombies who want to kill you. But the Dead Space series has seen more unusual changes over the last few years.

Available today for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, Visceral Game’s third entry of its sci-fi themed survival-horror franchise takes hero Isaac Clarke through a galaxy-hopping adventure as he tries to stop undead creatures known as Necromorphs once and for all. Fighting alongside him in the optional cooperative mode is John Carver, a soldier who has his own reasons for hunting down the origin of the Markers, spiraling structures that create the monsters out of corpses.

Much like with Capcom’s Resident Evil games, many fans mourn the transition of Dead Space from a slow-paced and eerie tale to a heavy emphasis on action and leaning on large, scripted sequences to tell its story. So I’ll make this simple: If you didn’t enjoy this change in Dead Space 2 at all, you won’t find a lot to like in Dead Space 3. But if you’re willing to dig in, you’ll find an entertaining shooter that will scare the pants off you.

What you’ll like

Addicting loot hunt

The limb-chopping combat receives a facelift with the new workbenches, which you can use to craft your own weapons. You start by picking a compact frame (one-handed) or a heavy frame (two-handed) and choosing an upper tool and a lower tool. These tools dictate what kind of firepower you’re using. If you attach the military engine, you can create standard weapons like machine guns, revolvers, and a sniper rifle. One of my favorite combinations early on was a rivet-shooting chain gun that I placed on top of a shotgun.

Different barrel tips, a variety of attachments, and modifiers known as circuits can alter the way your gun behaves — a generic plasma cutter can become a lethal killing machine by adding a few damage circuits to its frame. Or you can add an ammo-box attachment that’ll automatically reload your gun once you reach the bottom of the clip. You have a lot of flexibility in tweaking these weapons anyway you want.

The best way to find components is through exploration. Hidden containers and secret rooms contain the rarer stuff, but Necromorphs often drop resources (which acts as a type of in-game currency) that you can use to build other tools and items. Gathering these resources and looking for the nearest workbench to put them together is like a minigame of its own, as it encourages you to keep an eye out for more loot.

Dead Space 3 has a lengthy campaign — it took me close to 24 hours on my first solo playthrough — and I’m sure that at least a few of those hours came from tinkering around with the workbench. You can always recover any parts you’ve added to a gun, so it’s easy to test out your crazy weapon ideas.

If you’re impatient, you can buy more resources, space suits, and weapons through the optional microtransactions menu with real-world money. But I don’t know why anyone would even consider that. By the end, I had a huge pile of resources, and I never had to worry about running out.

An evolving threat

The Marker-corrupted creatures, many of whom we’ve seen before in Isaac’s previous quests, pack a few new skills that make sure you never really feel comfortable around them — no matter how much ammo you may have. They still love to pop out of air vents when you least expect it, with their scythe-like arms rapidly moving to greet you. But it’s their appearance on the planet of Tau Volantis, and the way they adapt to attacking you outdoors, that reminds you how deadly they can really be.

Only a small ripple of snow — as if they were swimming — will signal their presence before they suddenly emerge to attack you from the planet’s icy depths. The visibility outside isn’t always clear, especially with strong torrents of snow and sleet raining down. It’s typical to find yourself alone one second and then surrounded by Necromorphs the next. It’s unsettling.

Playing in the dark with headphones on accentuates this threat: The most dangerous Necromorphs are those you can hear but can’t see. Their guttural, animal-like roars and shrill high-pitched screams serve as a prelude to their inevitable anxiety-inducing appearance. The addition of new monsters toward the end — like the Twitcher, an extremely fast Necromorph that you have to slow down with your Stasis ability first — keeps the combat from being anything but routine.

Resolution

As we’ve learned with Mass Effect 3 and Assassin’s Creed III, it’s tricky to come up with an ending to an ambitious trilogy that’ll please everyone. The Dead Space plot isn’t convoluted, but it’s large enough to get lost in the details. To Visceral Games’ credit, it has managed to tie up many loose ends in Dead Space 3, whether through cutscenes or text and audio logs scattered throughout the levels.

I have a few issues (some being too spoilery to discuss here) with the direction it took the story in — such as the dumb romance subplot — but it was a satisfying ending. The developers do leave some room for future games or other forms of media to explore, but that’s also handled in a way that feels natural and convincing.

Filed under: Games

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EA narrowly beats expectations for holiday game sales

Dean Takahashi — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:13:00 +0000

Electronic Arts reported earnings today that narrowly beat expectations for the third-fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31. Given the news in the game industry lately, it could have been a lot worse.

Redwood City, Calif.-based EA reported non-GAAP earnings per share of 57 cents a share, compared to 99 cents a year ago. Non-GAAP revenues were $1.18 billion, just shy of expectations. A year ago, revenues were $1.651 billion. Analysts expected 56 cents a share and $1.294 billion in revenues.

EA is one of the biggest independent makers of video games. Since its revenues are so large and it is diversified across so many platforms, the company is a bellwether for the health of the overall game industry. It is, however, still making the transition to digital revenues.

EA’s earnings indicated that the holiday quarter was weak for the whole industry, which is in transition as Nintendo ramps up Wii U sales and Microsoft and Sony prepare to launch new hardware.

“Despite a challenging quarter, we were able to deliver non-GAAP EPS at the high end of our guidance range,” said John Riccitiello, chief executive at EA. “We are investing for the future wave of growth that we foresee in digital and console.”

In after-hours trading, EA’s stock is down 1.19 percent to $14.90 a share, probably because EA guided lower for the full fiscal year. In a conference call, Riccitiello blamed the revenue shortfall on poor Medal of Honor: Warfighter sales and “industry head winds.”

EA grew by driving high-profit digital revenues and expense controls, said Blake Jorgensen, chief financial officer. Peter Moore, chief operating officer, said that EA was the No. 1 publisher on Apple’s iOS devices worldwide in 2012. He also said EA had six of the top 20 games in Western markets i n 2012, compared to four in 2011.

For the fourth fiscal quarter ending March 31, analysts had anticipated earnings of $1.22 billion in revenues and 72 cents a share in non-GAAP earnings. Analysts are expecting full-fiscal year earnings of $4.079 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.02.

EA lowered its own full-year non-GAAP sales outlook from $4.05 billion to $4.2 billion to $3.78 billion to $3.88 billion. Earnings per share for the full fiscal year are targeted at 86 cents to $1 a share. For the fourth fiscal quarter, EA expects non-GAAP revenue of $1.025 billion to $1.125 billion. Earnings per share are expected to be 57 cents to 72 cents.

Before the earnings came out, analyst Arvind Bhatia said he was cautious about the stock in the near term, but he believes EA will benefit from new console launches and its diversified model in the long term. GameStop, the industry’s largest game retailer, had already reported weaker-than-expected earnings.

Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in a note before the call that he expected EA’s results to be driven by international sales of the FIFA Soccer and Need for Speed franchises. He had expected third-fiscal quarter results of $1.33 billion in revenue and earnings per share of 61 cents. EA’s big releases in the third fiscal quarter were Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and catalog sales of FIFA Soccer 13 and Madden NFL 13 (pictured).

FIFA 13 sold 12 million units in the third quarter, up 23 percent from a year ago. FIFA 13′s digital revenue was above $100 million, up 98 percent from a year earlier. Total FIFA digital net revenue in the first three quarters of the fiscal year were $230 million.

For the quarter ending March 31, EA has four major titles in the pipeline: Dead Space 3, Crysis 3, Army of Two: Devil’s Cartel and Sim City. EA said both Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3 preorders are ahead of the preorders for the previous games.

EA’s non-GAAP digital revenue was $407 million in the third fiscal quarter, compared to $377 million a year ago. EA said that Battlefield 3 Premium generated $108 million in the quarter in sales and it now has 2.9 million subscribers. EA said that The Simpsons: Tapped Out was a top-grossing game on iOS in the quarter, generating $23 million in digital revenue.

EA’s mobile games and services generated $100 million in the quarter, up 18 percent from a year ago. EA’s Origin game downloading service has over 39 million registered users, including 17 million mobile users. Trailing 12-month non-GAAP digital revenue was $1.5 billion, up 37 percent.

EA has $1.5 billion in cash, but 60 percent of it is held offshore. (There are tax consequences to bring it back).

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat weekly roundup: THQ asset auction, Legend of Zelda in HD, and Atari is bankrupt

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 18:30:37 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, THQ’s assets went up for auction, leaving Darksiders and its developer Vigil Games without a parent company. Nintendo threw a mini-E3 announcement revealing Wii U updates and an HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and the long-troubled Atari files for bankruptcy protection.

You’ll also find reviews for Tokyo Crash Mobs and The Cave, as well as previews for Phone Fight and Dead Space 3.

News:

Mobile News:

Interviews:

Previews:

Reviews:

Community Spotlight:

Pieces of Flair:

Filed under: Games

Dead Space 3′s opening hours feel strange yet familiar (hands-on preview)

Giancarlo Valdes — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:01:35 +0000

After playing through the first two Dead Space games, I thought I had the series figured out. Watch the vents, aim your weapon around dark corners, and have one finger ready to temporarily slow down enemies with the stasis ability.

I was wrong. The beginning chapters of Dead Space 3 plays with your expectations, setting you up in familiar scenarios only to throw you in an unexpected direction.

In developer Visceral Games’ Dead Space 3 (out Feb. 5 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC), the disgusting necromorphs and the mysterious “Marker” monuments from whence they came are back, bringing with them new monstrosities that can kill protagonist Isaac Clarke and his (optional) cooperative partner John Carver in brutal and horrific ways. Much like how sci-fi heroine Ellen Ripley couldn’t escape from the xenomorph threat across four different Alien films, Clarke is inextricably tied to the undead mutants that have plagued his life since the first Dead Space came out in 2008. Here’s what I learned after running through the first three hours of the campaign at a recent event in San Francisco.

Coming out of retirement

Isaac Clarke is not the same man he was in Dead Space 2. He managed to finally free himself from the dementia (and the eerie hallucinations that served as quick gameplay thrills) that the alien markers caused, though he can still interact with the artifacts if he needs to.

“He is very much an expert in Dead Space 3 on the effects of Markers,” explained David Woldman, the senior producer at Visceral Games, to GamesBeat. “And throughout the plot of Dead Space 3, Isaac [uses] that knowledge to directly help the party that he’s a part of [and] to help people understand what’s going on. He tries to impart some of that experience to the crew of the mission this time around.”

After an unspecified amount of time following the end of Dead Space 2, government soldiers literally pull Isaac from his apartment into a conflict he clearly doesn’t want any part of. Religious extremists known as Unitologists have been attacking all the Earth’s colonies because of the government’s experiments on the Markers, and they want to unleash its mysterious power to bring about a (probably disastrous) event called “Convergence.”

The first 20 minutes or so has Isaac running from these Unitologists. You shoot at them like in any other third-person shooter: by crouching down and taking cover. Historically, Dead Space is not a typical cover-based shooter, and I didn’t I didn’t really care for these moments — it didn’t have any of the fun experimentation you have when devising ways to take out the necromorphs.

From there, it quickly transitions to a setting all Dead Space fans will recognize: a derelict and abandoned spaceship. Wide corridors, anti-gravity rooms, and, yes, plenty of vents from which the creatures to attack you are there for you to explore. This is also where the new weapon crafting system appears (it’s only in designated areas), in which you use different pieces and materials you pick up to make your own, customized guns. Even if you aren’t satisfied with your creations, you can dismantle them and make a new one without losing any of the parts.

“We really wanted to reinforce Isaac as an engineer,” said Woldman. “We thought that sure, you could walk through a world and pick up a gun that’s on the ground and keep going. But we kind of wanted the player to be able to sort of MacGyver their way through it and really favor and cater to player choice. So if you wanted to have a shotgun, and I wanted to have a line gun, or an energy-based weapon or a flame thrower, there’s really nothing in our fiction that’s prohibiting that.”

The snow-covered planet of Tau Volantis from previous Dead Space 3 trailers wasn’t a part of the preview, but from the dialogue cues, it sounds like it’s the next place you’ll travel to.

Killing necromorphs in half the time

At the same event, I replayed through the first four chapters again with the drop-in/drop-out online-only cooperative multiplayer mode. Whether it was because my partner (taking over the role of grizzled soldier John Carver) and I already knew what was coming, or because of the extra help and firepower a second player brings, we blew through the demo much faster, finishing it in a little over an hour.

If you don’t play with someone on co-op, Carver just sounds like an asshole. He stands by in the background with other members of your group during cutscenes, shouting one or two snide comments to Isaac whenever they meet. He’s less of a dick when killing necromorphs alongside you in co-op, where the two characters actually have conversations that sometimes reveal small details about the plot or the situation they’re in. Woldman promised that by the end of the game, you’ll “really understand where [Carver] is coming from” and why he turned out the way he did.

One nice thing I noticed is that each player has their own inventory — while you can give items and weapons to one another, you don’t need to fight over for the loot dropped by necromorphs or found in various containers. When you see your partner pick something up, the item will still be there for you to grab as well.

The other major change in coop is puzzles. During my first run through, I had to turn on a power source by using Isaac’s telekinesis tool to pull down three large machines and then repeatedly twist their respective switches to turn them on. In coop, the couplings don’t lock down by themselves, so you must have one person hold it down while the other rotates the switches. But this leaves you vulnerable to a large group of necromorphs scurrying to your position, so you need to act fast and defend one another while completing the puzzle.

Stay tuned for GamesBeat’s full Dead Space 3 upcoming review.

Filed under: Games

ROUNDTABLE’D! Game characters vs. Dead Island: Riptide’s mutilated torso girl!

Rus McLaughlin — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:00:13 +0000

Once again, we tap our team of video game characters for lessons in good taste and proper etiquette!

We established long ago that video game special-edition packages are only any good if they include a mutilated corpse statue. So naturally, publisher Deep Silver planned to include one (see below) for the UK/Australia Zombie Bait Edition of Dead Island: Riptide, the upcoming sequel to its surprise zombies-in-paradise hit. Shockingly, some people objected to a headless woman in a D-cup Union Jack bikini. Deep Silver tweeted out a heartfelt apology mere hours after announcing the product, citing its complete shock that anyone would find it even slightly offensive despite a badge on the box that reads “WARNING: Includes content that may cause offense.”

It’s unclear as of yet whether Deep Silver plans to keep Chesty McHeadless in the package. Should it? And what could the publisher possibly replace it with? What say you, panel of experts?

Launch the gallery for wisdom!

Dead Island: Riptide is due out in the US on April 23 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Filed under: Games

Best of GamesBeat 2012 roundup

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:30:47 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, GamesBeat celebrates the biggest games and news of 2012 with several retrospective features. Even though the year is almost over, that doesn’t mean we’re completely out of news yet, however. You’ll also find stories on Nintendo patenting a specific use for the Wii U’s dual-screen functionality, Microsoft releasing an iPhone and iPad game with Xbox Live Achievements, and where to buy the documentary Minecraft: The Story of Mojang without digital rights management.

Best of 2012:

The DeanBeat: Game industry predictions for 2013
Here’s the scorecard on our 2012 predictions for the game industry
The biggest gaming trends of 2012
The news that shook the game world in 2012
Kickstarter game projects raised $79M in 2012
GamesBeat’s 2012 Game of the Year: The Walking Dead
The best games of 2012 (GamesBeat staff picks)
The worst gaming trends of 2012
The best MMOs of 2012
12 of the best games for your new mobile device
The best video game trailers of 2012
The biggest gaming disappointments of 2012
The best video game soundtracks of 2012
The biggest gaming surprises of 2012
Top 15 mobile games of 2012
2012′s most innovative game ideas
Top gaming technologies of 2012
5 of the best original games of 2012
The best indie games of 2012
The video game industry’s 2012 holiday cards

News:
Blizzard: ‘We are going back to the drawing board’ for team deathmatch in Diablo III
International Game Developers Association appoints new executive director
This week in The Nintendo Download: Wii U discounts, Lost Levels, and Mega Man
Nintendo uploads tip videos for New Super Mario Bros. U to YouTube
Nintendo secures the patent for a specific use of the Wii U’s dual-screen functionality
How to gain early access to the Dead Space 3 demo
Microsoft launches first game for iPhone, iPad with Xbox Achievements
Where to buy Minecraft: The Story of Mojang documentary without DRM

Previews:
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct is an ambitious shooter that’s faithful to the show (preview)

Pieces of flair:
How Canada has become America’s mobile app guinea pig
A tale of two zombie games: The Walking Dead vs. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
5 worse BioShock Infinite covers
How major MMOs are celebrating Christmas in-game (gallery)
The many major missteps of Far Cry 3
Outlandish factoids from Street Fighter’s expanded universe (gallery)

Filed under: Business, Games

How to gain early access to the Dead Space 3 demo

Jeffrey Grubb — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:24:20 +0000

This year was pretty great for video games, but it’s time to put that behind us. No point in reliving the past when a new year is soon upon us — and with it, a gaggle of new games vying for our attention.

Like Dead Space 3, the third-person horror shooter from publisher Electronic Arts, which hits North American retailers on February 5. EA will release a Dead Space 3 demo on January 22 for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, just in time for when you’re finishing up all of the games you received over the holidays.

Xbox 360 gamers who sign up at demo.deadspace.com can get access to the survival shooter’s trial a week early, on January 15.

Fans of the series are surely eager to try out Dead Space 3′s new cooperative mode. While the first game in the series focused on scares, the second entry was more about action. Co-op could represent the franchise’s final transformation from a horror title to an action series.

Filed under: Games

I can’t even tell what Dead Space 3′s monsters are anymore

Community Writer — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:03:44 +0000

Before Dead Space came out, I loved watching the developer diaries because they showed just how much thought and care was being put into the game. They’d talk about how the designs for the Necromorphs told a grotesque story of pain: bodies twisting, bones breaking, and skin tearing. And that story was what made them so terrifying. You could see how the transformation happened just by looking, and that was my favorite part.

Now watch the new trailer for Dead Space 3.

OK.

Let’s just ignore how tonally different it feels from Dead Space for a minute. Let’s ignore how it feels claustrophobic not from tight, dangerous corridors where you’re never more than a few feet from a monster viciously stalking you but from too many people, too much dialogue, and too much story. Let’s even ignore how the power dynamic has shifted from the first game’s trailers, which simply showed all the gruesome ways Isaac can die to all the empowering ways he (and Carver) can kill.

Let’s instead focus on what the hell was that?

Seriously, just look at this thing:

What is that? I mean, I guess it used to be a baby judging by the size, but what was the transformation process? Did it just get overtaken by black goo like in Spider-Man 3 and have an allergic reaction on its back? Does it feed through the top of the baby’s skull now? What?

Or this:

I don’t even know what I’m looking at anymore. I don’t know which direction this thing is pointing. How can I possibly be scared or grossed out by it if I can’t even tell what it is? It’s just some dumb mass of flesh.

And check this guy out:

OK, this is just getting embarrassing. The guy looks like he fell out of a PlayStation-era Resident Evil. Is he seriously holding a pickaxe? They don’t even use pickaxes anymore in Dead Space — that’s what plasma cutters are for. And why are his eyes glowing? Ooooooh, scary. I’m shaking in my zero-gravity boots.

Remember in the first game, when you watch the body of the Ishimura’s captain get turned and you witness firsthand exactly how the Necromorphs are made? Remember all the care that was put into the opening scene of the second game, where a guy gets transformed just inches from your face?

Those were stellar scenes that legitimized the Necromorph presence in that world, forgoing the typical notions of “nothing is scarier than the unknown” for a detailed look into the game’s monster closet. I loved it. The way Dead Space 3 seems to be tossing all that believability out the window in favor of visually incomprehensible beasts, crusty zombies with glowing eyes, and “human enemies [with] guns” is really disappointing to see.

I want to be excited for Dead Space 3, but everything the developers have shown off has inspired zero confidence in me. Here’s hoping that it doesn’t turn out as bad as that trailer makes it look.

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat weekly roundup: GLaDOS in Pacific Rim, more Black Ops II zombies, and Portal on a calculator

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 16:46:24 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best video game stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, the voice of GLaDOS from the Portal series shows up in the trailer for the movie Pacific Rim, Disney buys South Korean game developer Studio Ex, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II gets more zombies, now on the Nuketown map.

You’ll also find reviews for Uncharted: Fight for Fortune and Guardians of Middle-Earth.

News:

Mobile News:

Previews:

Interviews:

Reviews:

Pieces of flair:

Filed under: Games

Dead Space 3 ain’t a walk in the park (hands-on preview)

Dean Takahashi — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:00:29 +0000

Dead Space 3 is not going to be an easy game. That was what I gleaned from a hands-on preview of the horror title with a sci-fi theme, coming from Electronic Arts early next year.

Set on the bone-chilling frozen world of Tau Volantis, Dead Space 3 is aimed at gamers who want to be scared out of their wits at the same time they’re slaughtering masses of horrible monsters. While some fans fear that it has too much action, I detected plenty of scary stuff in the demos that I’ve seen. I also noticed that it’s going to be very difficult to beat these bad guys.

For one thing, the monsters, known as Necromorphs, come in all shapes and sizes. They can be gigantic and slow or man-sized and alarmingly fast. You also have to watch out for the weather. The blizzards are really going to annoy you, and so are the cliffs that limit your movement when it’s time to run away from the bad guys.

The story looks like it will be thrilling. You job is to stop a plague and save mankind. Easy stuff. Get some milk and cookies on your way back from outer space. The developers at Visceral Games promise a lot of epic moments, where you will scream your lungs out as monsters try to eviscerate you.

The game builds some tension by slowly ratcheting up the horror level. When you are walking through the blizzard snowstorm and you find wonderful shelter in a cave, that’s a pretty good clue that the Necromorphs are about to spoil your party. They jump out of the snow banks and try to rip you to shreds with their nasty limbs. You can buy yourself time by shooting off said limbs, but then they start crawling at you like pathetic little zombies. You have to put them out of their misery but also be careful not to run out of ammo.

In one particular scene, I had to fight alongside my partner against a bunch of charging monsters. I got to pull out a big, heavy object that I could swing around in a great arc, smashing Necromorphs to pieces. But I also had to keep switching weapons and shooting all of the time at point-blank range to survive. This battle was so difficult we had to fight it again and again.

The Necromorph infestation on the planet is quite annoying, and it spawns all sorts of challenges. You play as the heroes Isaac Clarke and John Carver, who have to put their combat and engineering skills together. They scavenge for parts and assemble tools for their survival. That means that you have to smash every Necromorph to smithereens and then make sure you collect all of the loot from the bloody pulp. So you have to hunt for parts, build weapons, and share them with your buddy. I sincerely hope that I will be able to craft a bone-crunching weapon from a Necromorph body part.

The combat gets particularly uncomfortable when the Necromorphs grab you. Then you have to pound the A button as fast as possible to avoid being eaten. If you fail, you witness your own disembowelment.

Clarke is the tinkering engineer while Carver is a military sergeant who is out for revenge. Guess who wants to blow the Necromorphs up more? Sometimes you want to play as one guy, and sometimes you want to be the other one. You have this option with the fully integrated drop-in/drop-out cooperative feature. Players can fight alone or team up with a friend at any time.

I was a little annoyed at the save system. When you die, you roll back to the beginning of a scene. So as I died alongside my buddy many times in that wonderful cave, I had climb up the same ladder over and over. And this wasn’t just any ladder. It was a ladder that I had to let down with my character. Meanwhile, I had to wait for my slow companion to scale up the ladder, lend me a hand, and pull me up. Now, I really don’t think that forcing me to climb up the same ladder over and over again is really all that fun. I don’t find it horrifying. I don’t consider it to be action. It doesn’t belong in this game. Game developers! Take that ladder out!

The game had one glitch that made it hard to stay alive, but hopefully Visceral Games will fix that by the time it ships on Feb. 5 in North America and Feb. 8 in Europe. Overall, this title is in excellent shape in terms of its look and feel. It will be available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Dead Space 3 also features co-op voice commands for Microsoft’s Kinect for the Xbox 360. You can shout things like “Find partner!” or “Fire stasis!” during the action and the game will respond accordingly. During my demo, the EA producer was yelling commands to help me out while I played with the controller. Much like the commands with Mass Effect 3, they can help you play better, but they’re not required by any means.

Filed under: Games

What happened to the horror in survival horror?

Stefanie Fogel — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 21:30:37 +0000

After watching the 20-minute official gameplay video for Dead Space 3, the thing I find most scary is the fact I didn’t find anything scary at all.

The third installment of Visceral Games’ sci-fi survival-horror franchise features an all-new cooperative mode and cover-based shooting. Lead character Isaac Clarke mows down his foes with automatic weapons and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of ammo. He can now do a nimble dodge — a pretty impressive feat in a metal engineering suit. He and his new partner, John Carver, trade barbs and banter, doing their best Marcus and Dom impersonations as they partake in big, action-packed set-piece battles against giant necromorphs and human Unitology soldiers.

Frank Gibeau, president of EA Games at publisher Electronic Arts, tells Computer and Video Games that EA added these elements to open the game up to a wider audience.

“In general, we’re thinking about how we make this a more broadly appealing franchise because ultimately you need to get to audience sizes of around five million to really continue to invest in an IP [editor's note: intellectual property] like Dead Space. Anything less than that and it becomes quite difficult financially — given how expensive it is to make games and market them,” Gibeau says.

But in its attempt to reach a broader range of people, EA might be ruining what made the series great in the first place: the horror. By giving Isaac a bigger arsenal and a buddy, Visceral is seemingly removing the sense of powerlessness and isolation that is a central element of the genre. Thomas Grip of Frictional Games, the independent studio behind the supremely scary (and combat-less) Amnesia: The Dark Descent, says that’s not how you make a proper horror game.

“It is not like games like Dead Space are bad games per se,” he says. “I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. But that enjoyment comes from the same stuff that makes you enjoy a splatter movie. It’s not because of it being a good horror game. The market is so saturated with games about shooting stuff that I really find it tragic that you take the one genre that has helped bring so much new to the table in terms of interactive atmosphere and storytelling and just add it to that pile.”

“Horror…is the one genre where players are okay with skipping conventions and a focus on pure fun in order to get a different experience,” Grip adds. “This is a chance to try new things and to bring innovative storytelling devices to a broader market. This is your chance to attract a new audience, but instead, big publishers are all just trying to get a piece of the same market.”

Dead Space isn’t the first survival-horror series to slowly take the action route. The long-running Resident Evil franchise received a makeover in 2004, adding an over-the-shoulder camera perspective, laser-assisted aiming, and context-sensitive controls. Developer/publisher Capcom would later add a co-op mode to Resident Evil 5 in 2009. The next RE game, due to hit store shelves this October, will feature three sets of characters playable in both single player and co-op.

“Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5 were played and enjoyed by a huge audience, and just as many gamers love the style of the older games,” says Resident Evil 6 producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi. “There are also many who tell us that they prefer the style of the more recent titles. Knowing that both styles are appreciated, we are working night and day developing Resident Evil 6 with a view of bringing the best game experience to the widest audience we can.”

It’s a strategy that seems to be paying off for Capcom. Resident Evil 5 sold more than 5 million copies, breaking a franchise record. Industry analyst Jesse Divnich from Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) tells GamesBeat that while broadening a game’s appeal can cause discontent in loyal customers, no data suggests that it impacts sales. “In fact, there is more data to support that broadening appeal increases sales rather than decreases sales,” he says.

Video games with multiplayer components sell more units on average than games without, Divnich adds, but the way in which developers integrate multiplayer is key to a game’s success. “Simply tacking on a multiplayer component because the ‘data says so’ is never a good idea, but I am hopeful that the bright people at EA understand that and [that] any co-op inclusion into the Dead Space franchise will be well thought out.”

Dead Space 3 executive producer Steve Papoutsis says he couldn’t be more excited with the leaps forward that the franchise has taken. “We feel like we’re doing something really unique with co-op where it’s completely optional and almost like having two games in one,” he says. “Players will get updated cutscenes, increased dialogue, and even side missions specific to the new co-op character. We also think it’s going to be fun for our fans to play through the Dead Space terror with a friend. It’s just like going to a scary movie with a buddy, so you can share that horror experience together.”

Bringing new experiences to a genre in a way that appeals to audiences both new and old can be a difficult challenge, but both Papoutsis and Hirabayashi say that it’s important their franchises evolve. “We always approach the development of a new Resident Evil game from the perspective of making it the best game we possibly can,” says Hirabayashi. “We want to bring to our users experiences that are both fresh and true to the series, and that invariably means making changes as the series progresses.”

“[Evolution is] ‘a gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form,’” says Papoutsis. “That can only happen by trying new things, taking chances, and remaining true to a core vision or goal. Therefore, I would suggest developers push forward with decisions that are correct for their particular franchise, which is what we’re doing with Dead Space 3, and deliver the most complete and compelling gaming experiences possible for their players.”

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat’s gigantic E3 2012 roundup

Omri Petitte — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 23:48:59 +0000

The sensory smorgasbord of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) heaved itself upon the video game industry for three straight days, and GamesBeat’s intrepid crew enthusiastically hit showfloors, conference halls, and meeting rooms to offer our readers piles of previews, interviews, and news.

What follows below is our collected coverage during the show. You’ll find everything here sorted into categories for easy navigability.

Awards

Who needs stickers? We analyzed, judged, and sorted our top picks for the show’s offerings directly for you. Take a look — the results might surprise you.

GamesBeat’s E3 2012 Game of the Show…plus staff picks – by Dan “Shoe” Hsu

The GamesBeat E3 non-award awards: The least prestigious awards in the industry – by GamesBeat staff

The coolest technologies we saw at E3 2012 – by Dean Takahashi

The best family games of E3 – by GamesBeat staff

The top 8 trends of E3, from bows to brutality – by Mike Minotti

The top 15 swag shirts of E3 2012 – by Rus McLaughlin

Previews

You’ve found the beating heart of E3′s overwhelming magic. Whether from observatory impressions or direct, hands-on experiences, GamesBeat discussed and dissected a sizable stable of upcoming games and hardware.

Hands-on

Hitman Absolution lets you perform hits in giant crowds – by Dean Takahashi

Metro Last Light fights shooter fatigue with deeper single player – by Dean Takahashi

Crysis 3 brings the jungle, gun hacking, and silent stealth kills to Manhattan – by Dean Takahashi

EA reveals Dead Space 3, coming with drop-in cooperative play – by Dean Takahashi

Sleeping Dogs turns Hong Kong crime movies into a video game – by Dean Takahashi

From the creator of Portal, Quantum Conundrum caters to physics-based puzzle gamers – by Dean Takahashi

Capcom remakes hack-slash-shoot-grapple formula with upcoming DmC: Devil May Cry – by Dean Takahashi

Capcom shows three playable characters for Resident Evil 6 – by Dean Takahashi

Neverwinter’s user-generated content could elevate it above the competition – by Stefanie Fogel

DmC: Devil May Cry is full of swagger…and F-bombs – by Eduardo Moutinho

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed leaves Mario Kart in its dust…and wake…and vapor trail – by Mike Minotti

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is an anime you can actually play – by Eduardo Moutinho

Sony Online Entertainment’s PlanetSide 2 – by Rob LeFebvre

Slice, dice, and julienne enemies in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – by Eduardo Moutinho

Medal of Honor: Warfighter deploys fire teams to the front lines – by Eduardo Moutinho

Hell Yeah! is like Metroid with a chainsaw jetpack-riding demon bunny – by Mike Minotti

Dead or Alive 5 wants to deliver a power blow to the competition – by Eduardo Moutinho

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s simplicity is just what consoles need – by Omri Petitte

Hands-off

Just what kind of game is Star Wars 1313? – by Dean Takahashi

Warner Bros. confirms LEGO: Lord of the Rings video game – by Dean Takahashi

EA’s cute The Act romance game exploits iPad’s touchscreen for unique gameplay – by Dean Takahashi

Turn the snow crimson with redcoat blood in Assassin’s Creed III – by Dean Takahashi

Far Cry 3 demo leads you deeper into drug-induced insanity – by Dean Takahashi

Quantic Dream’s Beyond: Two Souls is one of the best games of E3 – by Dean Takahashi

The 5 different games you’ll be playing in Dishonored – by Sebastian Haley

Final Fantasy XIV brings new gameplay and western sensibilities to venerable franchise – by Rob LeFebvre

Windows 8 works hard to meet the needs of all gamers – by Rob LeFebvre

A trio of Mario games strengthen Nintendo’s 3DS lineup – by Mike Minotti

OnLive’s MultiView spectating entices multiplayer and co-op gamers – by Omri Petitte

Player choice matters in The Walking Dead: Episode 2 – by Stefanie Fogel

The Last of Us is even smarter than you think – by Rus McLaughlin

Star Wars 1313 is a game of firsts for the sci-fi franchise – by Eduardo Moutinho

The adventure-game renaissance continues with The Cave – by Eduardo Moutinho

Heroes and villains join forces in Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion – by Mike Minotti

007 Legends proves personality makes or breaks a game – by Omri Petitte

Breaking down what’s exactly new in God of War: Ascension – by Dan “Shoe” Hsu

Turning technology against your friends in Watch Dogs – by Omri Petitte

Interviews

Chasing after the wayward developer or evasive executive amid a sea of journalists and industry luminaries didn’t slake our interview appetite, and we nabbed a slew of thoughtful talks with members across various gaming companies. Take a look.

Why Ubisoft is pouring a lot of resources into Wii U games – by Dean Takahashi

Harvest Moon creator wants to spread happiness with his new game – by Jacob Lopez

How Shenmue’s lead programmer rescued a bad game – by Jacob Lopez

The Last Story developer talks Operation Rainfall, reason for cover system, and Wii U – by Jacob Lopez

With 1.3B tanks obliterated and 30M players, Wargaming.net plans to conquer the online gaming world – by Dean Takahashi

Even Scribblenauts’ creator is surprised by the things people make in his new game – by Jacob Lopez

The Witcher developer CD Projekt RED wants to set new standards with Cyberpunk – by Stefanie Fogel

Japan’s Gree moves mobile gaming into the spotlight at E3 – by Dean Takahashi

THQ’s Brian Farrell talks about looking for a bottom and staging a comeback – by Dean Takahashi

Crytek says CryEngine 3 already does awesome graphics as good as Unreal Engine 4 – by Dean Takahashi

Our opinions

During the craze-filled days of E3, our minds typically busied themselves with ensuring our legs avoided snapping off our torsos and running away with yelping noises. But sometimes, a cohesive thought miraculously coalesced within our overloaded brainpans. Our hands shakily reached for the keyboard, keys started tapping, and well…these are the results.

The DeanBeat: What to expect at E3 – by Dean Takahashi

4 ways developers will use SmartGlass to enhance Xbox 360 experiences – by Dan “Shoe” Hsu

Nintendo’s Wii U: Safe on first, weak on third-party – by Rus McLaughlin

Why Nintendo will have a tough time adding a second GamePad tablet controller to the Wii U – by Dean Takahashi

Tomb Raider is not torture porn – by Rus McLaughlin

Would it be a mistake for E3 to move out of LA? – by Dean Takahashi

Bored, impressed, and giddy: Our final thoughts on E3 2012 – by Dan “Shoe” Hsu

Move over, consoles – mobile is the future – by Rob LeFebvre

Microsoft’s E3 2012: Analysis of 16,000+ comments shows Halo 4, South Park impressed, rest did not – by Andrew Hiscock

Sony’s E3 2012: Analysis shows “shotgun blast” won big, Wonderbook lost – by Andrew Hiscock

Nintendo’s E3 2012: Reactions show hardcore gamers lost faith in Wii U – by Andrew Hiscock

Memes

All it takes is one memorable quote, one Freudian slip, or some facepalm-worthy banter to prompt the Internet community’s creative and unrestrained hand at animated gifs, a worshipful use of Impact font, and hastily jangled Photoshop edits. Here’s what we’ve found.

The best memes of E3 – by Jeff Grubb

Remember these crazy memes from past E3s? – by Jeff Grubb

The wildest memes from the Microsoft E3 press conference – by Jeff Grubb

Silly memes inspired by Sony’s E3 press event – by Jeff Grubb

Aisha Tyler: Ubisoft’s meme machine – by Rus McLaughlin

The oddest Nintendo E3 gifs and Photoshops from the Internet – by Jeff Grubb

Galleries

We snapped plenty of pictures while attending parties, pressers, and meandering the showfloor. Direct your eyeballs upon these galleries, and enjoy the view!

The big gallery of E3′s huge banners – by Mike Minotti

E3 2012 will get your hands up – by Evan Killham

Our editor-in-chief’s E3 adventure – by Evan Killham

The many costumes of E3 2012 – by Jacob Lopez

Retro games have a place at E3, too – by Jasmine Rea

Videos

Dubstep. A beleaguered Lara Croft. Ham-handed hosts. No, this isn’t the latest entry in Alex Trebek’s dream diary — it’s some of our E3 video and trailer content below. Enjoy!

Tomb Raider trailer shows how Lara Croft feels sorry for shooting you – by Dean Takahashi

Konami pre-E3 2012 event: More Castlevania and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – by Jasmine Rea

Ubisoft shows strong commitment to the Wii U – by Mike Minotti

6 awkward moments from the E3 press briefings – by Evan Killham

Why we wub wub wub E3 2012: The dubstep of E3 – by Jacob Lopez

Press conferences

Surprises and snooze-fests alike emanated from E3′s five major press briefings held by Microsoft, Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Check out all the announcements and debuts here.

Microsoft (video)

Halo 4 trailer video shows Forerunners, new tech – by Rob LeFebvre

New Splinter Cell: Blacklist borrows from Uncharted – by Jeff Grubb

Gears of War: Judgment sets Sera on fire (again) – by Rus McLaughlin

Microsoft previews Xbox Music at E3 press conference – by Rob LeFebvre

Forza Horizon brings street racing to the franchise – by Jasmine Rea

Microsoft introduces Xbox SmartGlass to integrate smartphones and tablets with Xbox 360 – by Dean Takahashi

Nike+ Kinect Training brings in-depth fitness measuring to Xbox 360 – by Jeff Grubb

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer coming to Xbox 360 this fall – by Jacob Lopez

Usher hits the stage to announce Dance Central 3 – by Rob LeFebvre

Xbox Live is getting Nickelodeon, Machinima, and tons of live sports – by Tom Cheredar

Kinect voice commands hit EA Sports flagship titles – by Eduardo Moutinho

South Park creators introduce their game and playfully mock Microsoft – by Jeff Grubb

New Xbox 360 games coming from Signal Studios, Twisted Pixel, and…Gore Verbinski? – by Stefanie Fogel

Microsoft E3 2012 press conference recap…in limerick form – by Andrew Hiscock

Electronic Arts (video)

SimCity Social: If this free-to-play game is too good, will you pay $60 for the full PC version? – by Dean Takahashi

EA reveals Battlefield 3 Premium and fields “15 million players worldwide” – by Omri Petitte

Star Wars: The Old Republic gets new planet, new species, and free trial – by Jacob Lopez

EA nabs UFC from THQ – by Jeff Grubb

Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s beautiful carnage – by Rus McLaughlin

EA shows off Need for Speed: Most Wanted at E3 – by Rob LeFebvre

Ubisoft (video)

Rayman Legends rhythmically runs to the Wii U – by Eduardo Moutinho

You are the network in Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs – by Rus McLaughlin

Here’s where that Watch Dogs cube-head QR code goes – by Jeff Grubb

Sony (video)

Experimental developer Quantic Dream reveals the haunted life of Jody Holmes in Beyond – by Jasmine Rea

Nathan Drake and the Big Daddy Bouncer join PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale – by Mike Minotti

J.K. Rowling is writing PlayStation’s Wonderbook – by Rus McLaughlin

Sony announces Assassin’s Creed III Vita and PS3 bundles with exclusive content – by Jeff Grubb

Sony brings down the house with The Last of Us demo – by Dean Takahashi

Sony E3 2012 press conference recap…in limerick form – by Andrew Hiscock

Nintendo (video)

Social networking comes to Wii U, Miiverse will interface with PCs and phones – by Jasmine Rea

First look at action-strategy game Pikmin 3 – by Jeff Grubb

Nintendo confirms 23 games at E3, video streaming, and more for Wii U – by Mike Minotti

Wii Fit U will make you sweatier, livelier, and happier – by Rob LeFebvre

Brag to the Miiverse and take on new modes in New Super Mario Bros. U – by Eduardo Moutinho

Zombify your face with ZombiU for the Wii U – by Mike Minotti

Nintendo bets big on “asymmetric” tablet-based gameplay – one player against several – by Dean Takahashi

Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition utilizes Wii U’s GamePad screen – by Omri Petitte

Nintendo details 3DS Mario titles, Luigi’s Mansion, and third-party games – by Jeff Grubb

Nintendo Land brings asymmetrical multiplayer to Wii U – by Jasmine Rea

Nintendo’s E3 2012 press conference recap…in limerick form – by Andrew Hiscock

Filed under: Business, Games

EA reveals Dead Space 3, coming with drop-in cooperative play (hands-on preview)

Dean Takahashi — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 21:00:12 +0000

Electronic Arts has taken the wraps off Dead Space 3, the newest entry in a series that has ingrained the phrase “strategic dismemberment” into a generation of gamers.

The game has been rumored for a while, and EA is talking about it today at its press conference at the industry trade show Electronic Entertainment Expo. But we got a hands-on preview of how the game will actually play, particularly with its new drop-in-drop-out co-op mode. With it, a friend can join you as you take on the slimy alien Necromorphs on a new icy planet called Tau Volantis.

Peter Moore, chief operating officer at EA, said in a presentation to journalists that he passes by the fourth floor office of Visceral Studios at EA’s headquarters in Redwood City, Calif. every day.

“I hear these blood-shrieking growls,” he said. “It’s real.”

In a trailer, EA showed that the reluctant hero, mining engineer Isaac Clarke (named after sci-fi writers Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke), must once again deal with the shrieking monsters that want to bite his head off. But this time he’ll have access to a new range of weapons, including some that can be bundled together, as in the picture above.

Dead Space is gathering momentum as a franchise. The first title debuted in 2008, and it sold more than 2 million copies. The sequel came out in 2011, and it sold several million units. That’s only natural since there are many more next-generation consoles in the market, but it also means that the gaming experience is getting better.

“When this started, it was six of us making a super cool space horror game,” said Ian Milham, franchise art director for Visceral. “Look who’s a big franchise now. Put that in your pipe, Madden.”

Dead Space 3 should be appealing to fans because it offers the same cinematic horror experience with bigger and uglier Necromorphs attacking you from all sides and jumping out of dark corners. Isaac’s ship crash lands on the ice planet and

“We just make really good action games,” Milham said. “That is what we are doing. A lot more of it, doing it bigger. There are more Necromorphs, new enemies, and a new story.”

In the game, you have to scavenge for resources, upgrade your suit, unlock secrets, and kill a lot of big Necromorphs. The drop-in, drop-out cooperative gameplay is cool. As you battle a giant spider on your own, you have to deal with attacks coming at you one after another. But when a co-op player joins, you are aided by the hardened soldier character, John Carver. The actual set-up of the scene changes so that Carver and Isaac have to work together to do things like make lifts work. Now, with another player at your side, one of you can shoot out the legs of the Necromorphs and the other can take off their heads.

In one scene, Isaac gets locked into a circular arena with a giant drilling tool that seems to come down randomly to smash anything near it. You have to dismember and shoot walking Necromorphs, and deal with a big boss character that can only be taken out by the giant drilling tool. The result is one of those “easy to learn, difficult to master” fighting scenes.

Filed under: Games

We have your E3 2012 rumors right here

Evan Killham — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:03:27 +0000

Hey, everyone. Everyone. Hey. Did you know that the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show is next week? It’s kind of a big deal. We’ve written an article or two about it.

Just like every year, the week before E3 is when the Internet explodes with wish lists of what everyone wants to see at the show. It can get a little cluttered, but the good news is that we’ve compiled a list of some of the biggest rumors for your convenience, along with their level of truthiness as of this writing (on an arbitrary scale of zero to three).

New Xbox and/or PlayStation hardware

Truthiness level: 0 out of 3

Both Microsoft and Sony have explicitly denied that they will be showing off any new hardware this year. It could be because we’ll already be hearing a lot about Nintendo’s Wii U, or it could simply be that they have nothing to show off yet. We know that the next PlayStation will use discs instead of going full-on digital distribution, and we’ve heard reports that the next Xbox might use a Wii U-style tablet controller, but don’t expect to hear any of those things from the console makers themselves next week.

A revamp for Sony’s PlayStation Plus program

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

Sony’s premium subscription offering has had trouble convincing gamers of its value, especially considering that, unlike Microsoft’s Xbox Live Gold service, people can play games online whether they are members or not. Current rumors suggest that the company will announce an overhaul to Plus during its press conference on Monday; new features will include full Vita support (including cloud data management) and free “top tier” games.

A $350-$450 price tag for the Wii U

Truthiness level: 1 out of 3

Nintendo has already said it won’t be announcing the price of the Wii U at E3, but some possible leaked specifications for the new system suggest something similar to what the Xbox 360 cost when it launched seven years ago. If those specs line up with what Nintendo actually announces at the show, however, it may lend this rumored price point some credibility.

Price drops

Truthiness level: varies

Nintendo Wii: Nintendo will drop the price of its on-the-outs Wii console to $99, according to an anonymous tip reported at Nintendo Connect last week. The report cites a stealth picture of a price-drop list at a Kmart, but the reduction would make sense considering the company’s transition to the newer Wii U.

Xbox 360: Target’s website contained a listing for a 250-GB Xbox 360 bundled with a Kinect motion controller for $299.99 (rather than $399.99), according to a post in the forums at Cheap Ass Gamer. The item was “mispriced,” Target told Engadget. That doesn’t necessarily rule out all chances of an announcement at E3, but we’ll have to wait to hear it from Microsoft itself.

PlayStation 3: This is a “likely outcome” of poor sales, according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen, but if it’s going to, E3 wouldn’t be the worst time for an announcement.

PlayStation Vita: OK, this one is more speculation than anything, but an announcement yesterday that Sony is temporarily cutting the price of its handheld by €50 in France (roughly $61.90) from June 1 to July 15 (via rebates) suggests that the company is at least open to the possibility. Never mind the fact that people have been predicting a reduction for a while.

Dead Space 3 revealed

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

We already know that publisher Electronic Arts is planning to release a new chapter in the Dead Space franchise in its next fiscal year, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising for the new game to make an appearance at E3, as some bloggers have surmised. A newly released video (below) confirms the rumors of an ice planet and a new protagonist, and the Dead Space website includes a coded countdown clock that expires next Tuesday, smack in the middle of E3.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 announced

Truthiness level: 3 out of 3

So far, developer Mercury Steam’s sequel to its surprisingly good addition to the Castlevania series is this E3′s worst-kept secret. Fans investigated the source code of publisher Konami’s mysterious countdown site and discovered references to the unannounced sequel. That countdown expires today, by the way, so this rumor might not even last until the show.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist announcement

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

It’s been two years since Conviction, super-spy Sam Fisher’s last adventure, so developer Ubisoft is probably about due to reveal the next game in the franchise. This rumor comes primarily from a post on NeoGAF, which begins, “I’ve seen the promo and Sam is looking good as always with no grey hair [ . . . ], full body suit, and his mighty night goggles, including a serious look on his face.” A second source, Twitter user Chad Trotter, also claims to know about the new game, adding that a Ubisoft representative “let it slip on accident.”

Massive Kingdom Hearts HD collection announced

Truthiness level: 1 out of 3

High-definition collections are all the rage these days, and Kingdom Hearts might be the next series to get the compilation treatment, according to a report from Dual Pixels. The set would include the first five games in developer Square Enix’s Disney-crossover role-playing franchise and be available for PlayStation 3, Vita, and the Wii U.

Grand Theft Auto V fall release date announced

Truthiness level: 2 out of 3

GTA developer Rockstar Games won’t be at E3, but publisher Take-Two will. We’ve been waiting to hear more about the latest game in the blockbuster crime series (it was even rumored for last year’s E3), and with studios pushing the releases of big games like BioShock Infinite and Aliens: Colonial Marines into next year, this fall is looking pretty open. Lending more weight to this possibility (or not, depending on how you feel about the guy): Michael Pachter has predicted that it will happen.

Filed under: Games

EA confirms new Dead Space for 2013 fiscal year

Mike Minotti — Tue, 08 May 2012 23:24:46 +0000

Dead Space fans can look forward to more limb-cutting and space-themed scares. Electronic Arts has confirmed that they will release a new title in the popular survival horror series during the 2013 fiscal year, which ends March 2013.

EA revealed the information to investors yesterday during a conference call when it included Dead Space among a list of brands (most of which were games that saw yearly installments, like Madden NFL, FIFA, and Need for Speed) that will see new releases in the 2013 fiscal year.

Seeking more information and clarification on if the new game is Dead Space 3 or another spinoff like the on-rails, first-person Dead Space: Extraction, GameInformer contacted EA. A representative from the publisher responded, “”There’s no further information today, but watch for several big product announcements from EA at E3 in June.”

EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello told investors yesterday that developing strong brands is one of the company’s strategic pillars, which is a nice way of saying that they will release a lot of sequels. Considering Dead Space’s popularity, the announcement of another title in the series was always a question of when rather than if.

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Filed under: Games