BioShock Infinite is this year’s Skyrim: Flawed in just about all design but completely forgivable due to its overwhelming atmosphere.

BioShock Infinite is exactly what Spec Ops: The Line would’ve been if its game elements worked. Instagram filters and the chained shooting galleries of a bland shooter that relies mostly on a storyline with an immense twist.

BioShock Infinite is like the Twilight series minus the scruples: Its third act becomes as convoluted and incredible as Bella becoming impregnated by a vampire baby who wants to eat her from the womb.

BioShock Infinite is what Proteus would’ve been if the developer had forced in traditional gameplay elements: Simply being present in its universe is more consequential than any other, lesser element of the game.

BioShock Infinite is Far Cry 3 with opposite priorities: a gorgeous shooter with unnecessary ultra-violence that we accept because of the overall product’s excellence.

There are bound to be a few more succinct comparisons to be made in a snappy one-liner. If you have one, feel free to leave a comment!

This was originally posted on gg3.be.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Reads to school children. Failed CPR training. Father is currently in jail. Churchgoer. Makes porn films. Related to Dutch royalty. In possession of stolen credit cards. Potential victim. These slivers of data hang by every pedestrian you see walking down the street in Chicago.

Information is power, and career cybercriminal Aiden Pearce can access that information at will. Watch Dogs (releasing Nov. 19 on PC and all available consoles) then makes you decide what to do with it, diving deeper into strangers’ lives or quietly moving on. As Pearce, you constantly intersect with people on the street, mine their information with your smartphone’s Profiler, and make decisions based on what you learn about them.

In a fairly unusual move, Ubisoft showed us a 30-minute, hands-off demo that steered clear of any story or side missions in favor of various “random” encounters in Watch Dog’s open-world sandbox. After trading notes with people who attended other sessions, it’s clear that key moments repeated almost exactly across the different presentations, suggesting many in-game events were, to some extent, canned. On the other hand, I also saw a hatchback mow down Pearce just as he stepped out of his car.

I’m guessing that was unscripted.

Regardless, the game that took shape showed me a different kind of free-roaming playground with a different set of rules. Call it open-world morality.

“You start spying on people, looking into their lives, it becomes addictive,” says lead story designer Kevin Shortt. “You start seeing things you didn’t expect. It becomes hard to look away. Almost by accident, Pearce becomes a vigilante hero.”

Abusing the system

That’s when Pearce slips on his mask and goes to work.

The unusually symbol that mask bears comes with its own backstory; it started as part of the placeholder logo for Watch Dogs’ project codename, Nexus. “This was the symbol for connectivity,” says senior producer Dominic Guay, “but we added a little gap in the middle to represent themes of vulnerabilities, flaws, and hacking the connectivity.”

But before you can hack the world, Pearce has to slip a back door into a well-guarded City Operating System (ctOS) control center. It’s a lot like conquering the towers in Ubisoft’s other games — Far Cry 3 or Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, say — only with more options for breaching security. Pearce mixed it up a little, luring guards in by remote-hacking forklifts and then beating them down with his telescoping blackjack. Watch Dogs features a crafting system to build IEDs and decoys, but for the purposes of this demonstration, Pearce fell back on his assault rifle and a wad of dynamite to finish off the opposition. A hacked CCTV camera, rewound to the moment of detonation, confirms those kills.

After that, accessing the ctOS hub is a breeze, and the grid opens up. Pearce can now hack the “smart city” systems on every corner and pull info on everyone around him; age, occupation, income, and a tiny, 3-6-word story that gives them some personality.

That makes all the difference. Now you know a little something about them. They aren’t just faceless units wandering around in a Grand Theft Auto metropolis or an ancient Assassin’s Creed city. And if Mr. “Filed adoption papers” stored his bank information on his cellphone, you can siphon off his life savings to help bankroll Pearce’s personal mission of vengeance. But c’mon … the guy’s trying to do a noble thing. Should you steal from him?

That’s not a question I ever asked while pickpocketing scores of people as an assassin in ancient Rome. The man who solicits prostitutes, on the other hand, sounds like fair game.

Anti-heroics

You won’t find any shortage of ways to use information and the network against people, either. Tapping into free Wi-Fi hubs lets you spy on people inside their homes through their laptop webcams, tablets … anything that’s connected. I found one guy whispering sweet nothings into a dressed-up mannequin’s ear. Perfect blackmail material. I could’ve rifled through his email for more dirt, too. “Threaten” is always an option while negotiating prices at the local Pawned Off store. Pearce can also hack ATMs for quick money, or replace musical selections on public speakers with his own (purchased in-game, iPhone-style). Goodbye, muzak. Hello, thrash metal.

But unlike a Grand Theft Auto or even Red Dead Redemption, Pearce can proactively choose to help people.

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Zombies are everywhere these days, making it harder and harder to actually use them in a new way. Publisher Deep Silver launched Dead Island in 2011, and the title tried to make its mark by combining first-person-shooter and role-playing elements. But the experience had a few too many issues to really revolutionize its genre. Now, original developer Techland is back with Dead Island: Riptide (available on April 23 for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360), and while the studio claims the game is more of a spin-off than a true sequel, it still carries on the same plot and hopes to correct some of the first release’s missteps. Unfortunately, some of those missteps are the fault of using the undead as an enemy in the first place, which means Riptide has to prove itself not only as an improvement in the Dead Island franchise but also as a worthy entry into an already overcrowded gaming space.

So is Dead Island: Riptide a survivor, or should you avoid it like a corpse-reanimating plague?

What You’ll Like

It’s the complete zombie experience
Zombie-related media tends to feature a handful of tried-and-true story beats related to living through the apocalypse. A small group of survivors will almost always encounter other survivors. They’ll go scavenging for supplies. Maybe they’ll get in a vehicle and run over a few creatures. And then, they’ll have to fortify some type of area in order to hold off waves of the living dead. If that’s something you want to sample for yourself, then Riptide certainly comes through. It’s a first-person-shooter-meets-role-playing hybrid that is all about foraging for equipment. Most of Riptide’s 13 chapters end with you and your band of survivors — who include other player-controlled characters — defending a small space from a hundred or so infected islanders while you wait for a water pump to clear out an underground tunnel or whatever.

Riptide even takes special care to include the different types of undead that have appeared in pop culture over the years. Do you like 28 Days Later-esque screaming runners or director George Romero’s shambling animated corpses from Night of the Living Dead? Both are in the game, and these enemies are known as Infected and Walkers, respectively. You even fight a few Left 4 Dead-style fancy monsters that spit at you or tackle you with super strength. This was all mostly present for the original Dead Island as well, but Riptide understands that it doesn’t need to change something that the first entry got completely right.

Plus, you can experience the whole game in co-op, either with friends or via level-based matchmaking that pairs you with people at a similar point in the campaign, which is always a plus.

Melee combat is consistently satisfying
As you can expect from a title called Dead Island: Riptide, you spend most of your time killing zombies. You cut off heads. You smash heads. You shoot off heads. It’s all cheery, family friendly stuff, but the point is that almost all of it is a blast. The combat doesn’t have much depth beyond improving weapons and choosing when to deploy your super attacks (character-specific moves powered by a “rage meter” that fills up as you get more kills), but it never feels too limited or boring. That’s the great strength of using a horde of zombies as the antagonists: Smashing them to death is a lot of fun. Of course, part of that fun comes from learning the benefits of the different weapon types and seeing which fit with your play style the best. Blunt objects, like baseball bats or hammers, have stopping power that will make it easier for you to get hostiles to the ground (where you can get in an insta-killing head stomp) while blade weapons can slice off limbs and are easier to retrieve after you throw them. Speaking of throwing weapons, they are easily the most fun part of the combat. It’s completely badass to throw an electrified samurai sword at a giant zombie, then charge at the beast with a meat tenderizer covered in nails, then rip the sword out and hack the monster to death. That is easily one of my favorite ways to kill a video game enemy ever.

The game’s firearms are considerably less fun to use, which is a shame since they become more and more common as you progress through the story. The gun mechanics are passable, but they aren’t powerful enough to justify how scarce ammo is. Thankfully, Riptide barely forces you to use guns, so it’s not a big issue. You can always go back to your ironic firefighter’s axe that sets things on fire.

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Go to enough video game presentations, and you see the same project pillars creep into the PowerPoint slides. Stuff like “immersive,” “seamless transitions,” and “freedom.”

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon’s pillars are “honest,” “stupid,” and “fun.”

“When were you told to stop playing with toys?” asks Blood Dragon creative director Dean Evans. “Like, that was weird. There was that unspoken-of day when you stopped playing with action figures. Fuck that shit. This is trying to encapsulate that feeling of taking two action figures and just going … .” Evans mashes his hands together and makes super-awesome action fighting sounds. I can tell he’s done this before.

Blood Dragon (a stand-alone game releasing May 1 on PC, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network) looked like an April Fools’ joke when Ubisoft announced it on April 1. The good news is it plays like one. The mechanics pull directly from 2012′s Fry Cry 3, but the neon-washed trappings come straight out of the ’80s. Picture a mash-up between Far Cry and the original 1987 Contra arcade game.

Yes, that means you fight robot sharks and a dragon shooting lasers from its eyes, as God and Ronald Reagan intended.

It also includes classic 16-bit cutscenes and the absolutely worst, cheesetastic writing Evans and his team could devise. You carry a laser rifle and RoboCop’s gun as a sidearm (burst-fire is intact, but its distinctive sound effects changed). In keeping with the ’80s B-movie vibe, Evans even assigned a real-world $150 budget for costumes. Your killer cyborg enemies wear modified toasters, motorcycle helmets, vacuum cleaner parts, and spray-painted football shoulder pads for that authentic futuristic look.

And it’s with unsuppressed glee that Evens tells me his audio director was the sound designer on Airwolf. Oh yeah. They’ve got the retro vibe down.

The demo put me in the cyborg boots of Sgt. Rex “Power” Colt — “Half man, half machine, all cyber commando!” and voiced by actor Michael Biehn (Terminator, Aliens) — in the far-future year of 2007. A veteran of Vietnam War II and a survivor of the global thermonuclear war that destroyed the world again in the ’90s, Rex goes on a revenge-filled mission of vengeance to kill the hell out of his former cyber-commanding officer.

So that’s way too much plot, but Blood Dragon immediately dropped me behind a helicopter minigun and told me to hose an enemy killer-cyborg complex. The tutorial happens after. That one element alone shows more self-awareness (“press A to prove you can read”) than the last three Duke Nukem games combined. Later on, the tutorials do their best to simply piss you off.

“Just let me kill people, dammit!” shouts Rex right around the same time I thought it.

Developed at Ubisoft Montreal, Blood Dragon will offer the same kind of open-world gameplay as Far Cry 3 proper, though the full map wasn’t open for exploration yet. The demo missions still kept my options wide open. Told to wipe the complex clean of enemies, I stealth-killed a few, stole a jeep and mowed a few down, climbed up on a roof, marked the rest with my cyber eye, and then made them eat laser. Except for the ones I blew up with grenades, because what’s the ’80s without explosions?

All the camp makes it tempting to not play Blood Dragon like Far Cry 3 — that is, smartly — but walking out into the open with a gun still gets you in deep trouble fast. That might be the one downside: The recycled Far Cry 3 mechanics are as smooth and rewarding as ever, but they don’t feel nearly as ridiculous as everything else. Particularly when you’re saddled with “Spider” Brown, your blaxploitation cyber-commando partner. Guess how long he lasts.

Actually, it’s part of your job to keep him alive longer than the average ’80s action-movie sidekick. That’s quite a challenge when you have to fend off waves of killer cyborgs while he just stands there, screwing around with a computer terminal.

“If I don’t make it,” gasps Spider, “tell my wife … tell her I died for my country!”

“You tell her that yourself!” growls Rex. This might be Michael Biehn’s finest work ever.

Sure, it’s a standard-issue Horde mode/escort mission, but I was too busy laughing my guts out to care too much. Playing Blood Dragon took me back to a ludicrous time with ludicrous movies that only get more wonderfully awful with time. It felt good to pay it a visit. But while it made perfect sense while rolling through a real Blood Dragon game, I had a little trouble believing anyone would buy this whole concept on paper.

“I had a 50-page presentation,” said Evans, who had to convince franchise lead Dan Hay on his whacko ideas. As it turned out, he didn’t need to go past the third slide. “It was ‘A VHS vision of the future.’ Dan grew up in that era. He got it.”

So do I. And as far as the demo goes, I can confirm Evans nailed at least one of his pillars: “Fun.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Look, kids, the ’80s were a magical age. It was a time filled with cartoons, toys, and Ronald Reagan — and it looks like Ubisoft has found a way to bottle all of that into a really mesmerizing spinoff for Far Cry 3.

The publisher plans to release the title, called Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, on Xbox Live Arcade,  PlayStation Network, and PC as a product independent from the original Far Cry 3 on May 1.

Blood Dragon is a G.I. Joe cartoon-style world filled with cyborgs and VHS technology. It’s a window into what the creators of the 1980s thought children of that time believed the future would be like — so basically lasers, neon, and robo-arms.

We’ll have a full preview going up at 9 a.m. Pacific time. While you wait, have a peek at the stupid, stupid game in action — and I mean that in the best way possible:

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Jade Raymond, managing director at Ubisoft Toronto, is one of the video game industry’s highest profile game designers. In 2004, she joined Ubisoft Montreal, where she became the producer of the original Assassin’s Creed title. In July 2009, she became managing director of the Ubisoft Toronto studio. Her team has grown to 300 employees, and it is working on releases like Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Watch Dogs, and another unannounced project. She built the studio from scratch while raising two kids.

All of those titles are very ambitious, and Raymond isn’t shy about wanting to make “blockbuster” games rather than the hip, new social, mobile, or online offerings. Raymond is one of the developers who clearly loves her trade. She set her heart on joining the game industry at the age of 14. She played as many games as possible and programmed in her spare time. She got a computer-science degree and broke into the trade as a programmer at Sony. She went on to become a producer on The Sims Online at Electronic Arts, and then, she finally got her dream job making Assassin’s Creed, which ended up being the fastest-selling new intellectual property in video games in 20 years.

“Being a woman in games rocks,” she said in a speech at the DICE Summit in 2011. In that speech, she actually said many of the changes happening in the industry were “depressing,” given the success of lightweight social games. But she has continued to marshal the resources necessary to make huge bets on new intellectual properties in the game business. Ubisoft has given Raymond an enormous amount of resources to invest in AAA blockbuster games at a time when social, mobile, and online games are becoming more prominent. If she fails, the opportunity cost will be gigantic. And if she succeeds, then Ubisoft will be one of the industry survivors with multiple entertainment franchises.

GamesBeat’s Sebastian Haley and I sat down for an interview with Raymond at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Here’s an edited transcript of the conversation.

GamesBeat: As far as the ongoing debate over women in games and women in the industry, what do you think of all that? You landed on the “hottest women in tech” list or whatever it is. It seems like the subject is coming up more intensively this year. How do you feel about the whole issue?

Jade Raymond: In my day-to-day, I don’t really think about it. In my career, I find that working in the games industry has been a great experience for me. I agree that there aren’t as many women as I would like to see, but at the same time, women draw more women. In the teams where I’ve been, there have always been more than the average number of women. By default, women feel more comfortable if there’s a woman producing or whatever.

On Assassin’s Creed, it wasn’t a ton, but I think the Ubisoft average is about 20 percent women, and we had 30 percent on the AC team. You wouldn’t guess that by looking at the game, but that was the case. At EA of course I worked on The Sims, which is a brand with a lot of female followers. At Ubisoft Toronto, half of our management team are women. The tech lead for the studio is a woman. There’s Heather Steele. Heather Hooker, our director of HR. There’s Leslie, who is the head of the IGDA in Toronto and also one of our producers. When you look around the steering team for the studio, it’s half women. Looking at games from the outside, partially in the press and maybe also looking at the number of female characters in games, there’s a lot of work to. Working within the industry, though, I have never had a hard time.

GamesBeat: It seems to come up over and over again, but do you see signs of progress?

Raymond: I hope so. I think so. Games used to be much more niche. It used to be that not so many people played games. My sisters and I grew up playing games, so that’s why I wanted to get into the games industry. It’s only by being exposed to games that you think, “Oh, someone makes games. This is something I want to do.” But now games are much more mass market. There isn’t that niche type of gamer. All kids play games. They’re all on their tablet or their PC or whatever. Because all kids, whether they’re boys or girls, are playing games, a more diverse group of people are thinking they want to get into games. With the graduates that we’re hiring out of school, it’s a much better ratio.

GamesBeat: So what have you been doing lately? Setting up the studio?

Raymond: I was producer on Assassin’s Creed, and then I was executive producer on Assassin’s Creed II. I was also overseeing new IP at the Montreal studio. I was executive producer on the AC brand but also on some of the new IP in development there. Then, I was pregnant with my first daughter. When I was eight months pregnant, Yannis Mallat asked me to move to Toronto and start up the new studio. My husband and I moved there with our daughter when she was five months old. I was hiring some people while I was on maternity leave. Now, the studio has been up and running for three years. We’re about to ship our first big game.

GamesBeat: How many people are there now?

Raymond: It’s a little more than 300.

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I’ll admit right now that I’ve never played a Tomb Raider game before. I grew up in an age of Nintendo, so I don’t know much about protagonist Lara (Lare-uh? Lahr-uh? Laura?) Croft’s past romps through strange jungles and crypts. In fact, all I can remember growing up was gawking at the ridiculousness of her character model. So, when I heard that Crystal Dynamics decided to fully reboot the action-adventure franchise, I had no reaction at all.

I didn’t watch a single trailer, so picking up the game was an impulse buy that started with me gawking at the Xbox 360 Tomb Raider-themed controller on the shelf at the store. Regarding the release itself, the clerk told me, “It’s like Arkham Asylum, Uncharted, and Assassin’s Creed had a baby, and then that baby grew up and then had a fling with Far Cry 3, and that’s basically Tomb Raider.” With a pitch like that, I bought in.

I absolutely had no expectations at all. I booted up the title and switched on my Tomb Raider controller. I’ve seen like half of the original movie adaptation with Angelina Jolie and some gameplay of the old entries in the series to know who Lara is, but from the first few opening scenes, this latest release floored me.

The game mechanics are just as highly polished as the graphics. Rain cascades onto the camera as lightning flashes high above the jungle tops. The dynamic camera cleverly adds tension and pacing to stressful moments in the adventure. And boy, does Lara take a beating. As masochistic as this sounds, the death scenes are just as cringe-worthy and gruesome as the ones in the horror-focused Dead Space. But, that was the kicker for me: the pure grit of Tomb Raider’s island setting. When Crystal Dynamics could’ve taken the easy route, the studio created a story that tries to characterize Lara with more than just a nice set of … weapons.

Speaking of weapons, Tomb Raider has a pretty healthy variety to dispatch enemies with. The bow is the staple option in the game. It’s quiet, and it makes you feel like a complete badass. Other weapons include shotguns, assault rifles, a pistol, and Lara’s signature pickaxe. Crystal Dynamics’ decision to make each weapon upgradable was a great addition to an already addictive title. It keeps you wanting to play and salvage as much as you can from every inch of the map. These role-playing elements aren’t just limited to instruments of harm, however. You can spend skill points — that you earn through experience from kills, scavenging, or overall progression –  on upgrades. Each upgrade enhances Lara’s abilities, which can drastically change the way you play. If you focus more on the brawler side of things, your shoves can turn into deadly swings with the pickaxe, for example. This further represents Lara’s toughening in the narrative and gameplay sense.

But no game is without its faults. Call me nitpicky, but the “animal instinct” feature — basically a button that highlights objective waypoints, slight hints, and scavenge-worthy items in an area — seems like the game’s “easy” button. Granted, I don’t have to push the button, but it’s always empowering to figure out what to do next on my own. Animal instinct streamlines the experience for a more casual audience, but I prefer to play my titles on the hardest difficulties with little-to-no handholding.

Considering that this is my only actual gripe with the release, Tomb Raider is fantastic. Kudos to the game-store clerk for recommending it, and I’d hate to say it, but he was absolutely right. Tomb Raider has that pure, unadulterated fun factor that I can’t just quite put my finger on. Lara Croft has evolved from an over-sexualized video game vixen to, well, an ass-kicking game vixen. Sure, we all used to poke fun at her, but the Tomb Raider reboot shatters the stereotypes of female protagonists. This experience made me appreciate impulse, no-expectation purchases.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Core gamers came out in a big way for publisher Ubisoft in the third quarter of the company’s fiscal year 2013.

The Assassin’s Creed publisher generated $1.08 billion in sales during Q3, which is up 23 percent from fiscal 2012′s $875 million. Ubisoft cited “outstanding performance” from core gamers as the primary driver of these massive numbers.

Assassin’s Creed III, the latest game in the historically set open-world series, shipped 12 million copies. That represents a 70 percent increase over Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.

The publisher also noted that its open-world first-person shooter Far Cry 3 exceeded expectations with 4.5 million copies shipped.

Ubisoft is experiencing “sharp growth” in digital sales. Revenue from that sector is up 143 percent to $73 million. Digital distribution of the aforementioned Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 3 led to the biggest increase, but downloadable games like Trials Evolution on Xbox Live Arcade and Rayman Jungle Run on iOS and Android contributed significantly on this front.

Casual gamers continue to pick up Just Dance 4, but not in the same volume as with previous games in the series. The publisher shipped 8 million units of its latest motion-controlled dancing title, which is down from Just Dance 3.

Ubisoft raised its outlook for fiscal 2013 from $1.62 billion to a range of $1.67–$1.70 billion.

In this quarter, the company will release Trials Evolution on PC, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes on iOS, and Anno Online in open beta on PC.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Video games wield significant influence. Therefore, developers and publishers should take great responsibility in how they deliver their content — especially when it’s violent.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Video game designer Cliff Bleszinski always speaks his mind — except for this one time. A few years ago, when I asked the creator of Gears of War and Unreal Tournament to give his thoughts on his competition — other shooters like Halo or Call of Duty — he declined.

It was a business decision. His former employer, Epic, makes the Unreal Engine software toolset that developers use to make games, so some of his competitors in retail might also be potential clients on the development side. It’s not a good idea to talk shit about them.

Bleszinski recently left Epic after a 20-year stint, however, which now frees him up to say what he really thinks of other shooters. I took advantage and got a full download in the final part of our exclusive interview. Enjoy this blast of Bleszinski. Who knows if we’ll ever get him to open up this much in the future.

• Part one: Bleszinski’s past
• Part two: Bleszinski’s present and future

GamesBeat: A long time ago, I wanted to have this frank talk with you about all the shooters on the market. At the time, you were wary about that because some of these developers were potential or active clients with your company’s Unreal engine. Maybe …

Bleszinski: It’s possible to say anything about any franchise that you don’t like as long as you mention what you do like because then it comes from an honest place. It’s the same thing as, “Oh, hey, I like your hair, but I’m not so big on the boots,” and then she’s like, “Oh, man, he doesn’t like my boots, but he likes my hair.” It’s just basic communication, right? As opposed to just saying, “Your guns are shit!” and then people are like, “Wow, you’re an asshole.”

GamesBeat: Let’s do that, then. Let’s run through a few shooters and get your thoughts about what you liked and didn’t like. Not from Cliff Bleszinski the gamer but Cliff Bleszinski the game designer. Let’s start with any recent Call of Duty.

Bleszinski: I’ve always said that shooting your friends in the face at 60 frames per second through iron sights will always be fun, no matter what. One of the things that franchise has always nailed is the smoothness.

I have this little game design trick I’m going to give you. I only learned this in the last year. Fire up any shooter — a twin-stick shooter. Start turning and looking up and down. If you can easily control the shape of the parabolas that you’re doing — if you can say, “OK, I want to make a really tight parabola” or “I want to make a really wide one” — that’s basically balancing the “patting your head and rubbing your belly” of twin-stick shooters. You can do a very good job of that, always, in Call of Duty and in Halo as well.

The single-player [in Call of Duty: Black Ops II] … I started getting into it, and I heard that they made a lot of effort to get rid of the linearity, but I just couldn’t get past it. It still felt like there’s an infinite amount of enemies spawning at me, and I’m just trying to race to a checkpoint as opposed to clearing out the room. It’s not my thing. I can’t do those campaigns, especially when I have a campaign like Far Cry 3′s, where it’s really open and so many crazy emergent things happen.

The multiplayer in Call of Duty — it’s that great grind of unlocking all the perks and gizmos. I found a lot of multiplayer maps this time around to be extra small in the first batch. The one on the aircraft carrier, the one on the boat. Anytime you’re on something that’s on the water, most of the time it’s going to be too confined.

There are these kids who have an infinite amount of time to play, and if one or two bullets take you out, it comes down to who shoots first. When you introduce latency, a lot of the times it’s a roll of the dice in regards to who wins.

If I want to play a game that has a more back-and-forth cadence, that’s when I want to play Halo. When I play Halo multiplayer, I don’t feel that whoever acquires the other guy first is going to win. In Call of Duty, the guy who acquires the other guy first wins. In Halo, you have your shields. The guy may miss with the grenades. You may jump. You may have a chance to recharge. Your friends may show up. It feels like there’s a lot more trading paint back and forth.

It’s like boxing. You get two boxers who are trading back and forth, [and] it winds up being an entertaining match as opposed to when Mike Tyson used to box, and he’d knock a guy out with one shot. Halo feels like the former. Call of Duty feels like the latter. I guess it’s a matter of what you want as far as lethality and twitch gameplay.

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Games don’t have to be based on movies or sports teams to feature real humans. As 3D rendering technology advances, more and more developers turn to flesh-and-bone actors, and models to give life to their protagonists and antagonists.

In the case of Far Cry 3′s Vaas Montenegro (top image), Ubisoft hired Canadian actor Michael Mando to portray, voice, and provide motion capture for the sadistic madman as well as star in promotional material. Vaas’s appearance (combined with Mando’s performance) give the title an extra layer of realism.

I made a list of 20 celebrity sightings in modern video games with side-to-side images of their in-game models next to their real faces. Hover the cursor over the image below to launch the gallery.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Some games can open your eyes to new possibilities. They can make you question the world around you or even your own being. They are profound, intelligent, and important.

Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable is not one of these. This PlayStation Vita game is about shooting giant bugs. It is ugly, stupid, repetitive, and uninspired.

And yet, somehow, fun.

What you’ll like

Portable shooting

If you’re looking for an entertaining shooter on the Vita, you don’t have many options. Well, not many good ones, anyway. Too many attempts at bringing the genre to Sony’s handheld feel like half-cooked versions of their console counterparts, like Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified and Resistance: Burning Skies.

EDF 2017 is actually a port of an Xbox 360 third-person shooter from 2007, but it feels like it was always meant for a portable system. Instead of a continuous campaign, developer Sandlot spreads the bug-slaying over 50 missions. These bite-sized chunks of action are well suited to on-the-go play. Even if you only have 10 minutes, you can still complete a full mission. You can also enjoy cooperative play with up to three friends (or strangers) with local and online multiplayer.

Getting gear

I’ve described EDF 2017 as a shooter, but its role-playing elements are what really make it entertaining. No, you don’t gain experience points or learn new skills by leveling up you character, but every defeated enemy can drop new weapons, an item that’ll regain some of your lost health, or a permanent increase to your maximum health that persists throughout the entire game.

The new weapons are the most rewarding, and EDF 2017 offers a lot of firepower. The trick is that you’ll have to play missions on harder difficulties if you want the best loot. So even if you play through it on normal mode, you’ll be in for a rough ride if you don’t go back to earlier levels on a more difficult setting and grab some advanced weaponry.

Make no mistake; you’re grinding for items, an activity that many gamers find tedious. However, I adore spending hours searching for optimal gear, and I love destroying the later missions with my overpowered guns. My favorite was a rapid-fire rocket launcher that defied all logic as it caused many a bug to explode.

So bad it’s good

Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable is the gaming equivalent of a bad sci-fi movie. Its plot is simple and ridiculous. Giant bug aliens are attacking the planet, and you have to stop them. That’s pretty much it. And I really mean giant bugs. They aren’t some sort of monster that resembles an insect. They are oversized ants and spiders. I had to laugh sometimes when I saw a swarm of them running toward me. I probably giggled even more when they died, since their carcasses just froze up and fell weightlessly around the map.

Oh, but let’s talk about my favorite gameplay mechanic. Is that giant skyscraper obscuring your shot? Then blow it up! Yup, just one shot from any explosive can take down the tallest of buildings. Nothing like leveling an entire city while you’re “saving” it from invasion.

I don’t even know what to say about the voice acting. I like to pretend it’s intentionally bad to help re-create that B-movie vibe.

Again, this stuff is admittedly stupid, but it’s a large part of 2017′s charm. And as goofy as the game is, the actual mechanics, like aiming and shooting, are sound. You just have to learn to not take it seriously.

What you won’t like

It’s not pretty

Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable is not a pretty game. Remember when I compared it to a bad sci-fi flick? That includes the visuals. If Far Cry 3 is Star Wars, then 2017 is Plan 9 from Outer Space. Its textures are muddy and blurry, and character models are blocky. You’ll also experience some significant slowdown when the screen becomes crowded with bugs, which happens a lot since, you know, that’s kind of the whole point of the game.

The Vita has shown off some incredibly beautiful games that can sometimes look as good as what we’re used to seeing on a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. Unfortunately, 2017 looks more like a PSP game that can barely measure up to the PlayStation 2.

Bad vehicles

Some missions give you a few vehicles, like tanks and helicopters, but these were the worst-handling machines of destruction I’ve ever had the displeasure of driving. Each vehicle felt like it was operating under a lake of molasses. Simply turning left and right was a monumental task requiring the depths of my patience. This is a big problem when most of the enemies have a tendency toward quick, jerky movements.

You’re better off just staying on foot.

It’s repetitive

As much fun as you’ll have shooting aliens and bugs, that’s pretty much all EDF 2017 has to offer. Playing it a little bit at a time is great, but you’ll easily go brain-dead if you spend a few straight hours working through missions. You really only fight a handful of the same enemies over and over. Sometimes it introduces a “new” foe, but it’s often just a bigger version of some alien you’ve already been battling for hours. Sometimes it’s just a slightly tougher bug with a different color.

Conclusion

I almost don’t want to like Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable. It offers nothing outside of mindless shooting and gun-looting. But that’s also why I admire it. It’s a throwback to an era when technology limited storytelling and games were simpler. EDF 2017 is not a deep experience, but it’s a very pure one.

Score: 72/100

Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable is out now for the PlayStation Vita. The publisher provided GamesBeat with a copy of the game for the purposes of this review.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Video game programmers have been hiding secret messages, inside jokes, and general wackiness in their titles for decades. Finding these “Easter eggs” keeps gamers busy, and it shows that you can’t take yourself too seriously even when facing certain death in the midst of a zombie outbreak, alien invasion, or demonic possession.

Check out the gallery below to see 15 of the coolest, funniest, and kookiest Easter eggs of games released in 2012.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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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)

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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What do I like most about video games? They always strive to do more, to be better.

Games we judged as the best of the best a few years ago might seem dated now. Some feature such tight, timeless designs that they do hold up over the long term, but these fall into a very small category. Otherwise, and in every way, this is the industry status quo: Nearly every game competes not only to outdo past iterations but to also completely dwarf every other title on the market. They don’t always succeed. But one way or another, gamers always benefit from the effort.

The industry moves forward, always forward. So we look back to applaud the new directions it took in 2012 and how they might influence what comes next.

Integrating the GamePad

Most Wii U launch titles relegate the GamePad’s spectacular functionality to stolid maps or inventory screens. Ubisoft’s ZombiU does that, too, but in ways that feed directly into — and significantly enhance — its gameplay. Your best tool to survive the undead hordes is the “Prepper Pad” — in fact, the GamePad itself re-created in the game. It scans and tags items, enemies, and exits, but narrowing your attention to the pad’s small screen leaves you vulnerable to attack and permanent character death. Picking through your items makes you feel completely exposed. When a survival-horror game makes inventory management into a completely nerve-wracking experience, you know it’s smarter than the average bear.

Honestly, I haven’t seen game controls so deeply symbiotic with their game since Dance Dance Revolution. ZombiU simply couldn’t exist on a different system, and it’s a beacon to other developers on how to take full advantage of Nintendo’s new hardware.

Silent storytelling

Minimalism isn’t exactly a new thing in games — see N+ and Limbo for details — but minimalism with depth of design and storytelling threads a fine needle with mountaineering rope. Journey, from Jenova Chen and thatgamecompany, did just that, building an epic story without any words, written or spoken. It didn’t need any, either. A deft combination of imagery, music, and interaction made us feel the joy of discovery, the struggle against adversity, the elation of flight. Journey created great complexity out of relative simplicity.

Not everybody stripped down that far, but more than a few games this year dialed back the interactivity to dial up a player’s personal interaction. “Don’t look or it takes you” set the tone for Slender in just six terrifying words. Antichamber’s tests only said enough to make you question every reflex you’ve learned as a gamer. Dear Esther gave you an island and a mystery, but nothing to jump over, no puzzles to solve, or even any items to touch. Like Journey, those approaches all left the explanations open to interpretation … effectively turning the stories themselves into interactive features. Those journeys became our journeys, full of sweeping emotions and buoyed by the indomitable urge to press onward.

Deconstructing our heroes

Sure, games offer a huge slice of power fantasy with a side of personal awesomeness, but I can’t remember ever playing so many out-of-their-depth characters as I did this year. We’ve never been more fragile. We played as children in Unfinished Swan and Papo y Yo. Postapocalyptic survivors in games like I Am Alive, ZombiU, and The Walking Dead always felt like they were mere inches away from disaster. A world of death quickly unraveled protagonists in Far Cry 3 and Spec Ops: The Line.

But that’s nothing compared to what we did to a lot of our old friends. Commander Shepard suffered from survivor’s guilt all through Mass Effect 3. Max Payne’s self-loathing never ran out of downward spirals to charge through (in slo-mo, of course) until he finally reached for the light again. Even the implacable, emotionless masks of Hitman’s Agent 47 and Halo 4′s Master Chief took serious hits as each found something deeply personal to fight for … fights that frequently came with devastating turns. When the Master Chief suddenly refuses a direct order, it’s time to re-evaluate everything he is.

Gamers have become an older, more sophisticated audience. The industry’s responded by adding vulnerability and depth to the people we play as, making us more sympathetic to their goals and more invested in their safety. And with games like The Last of Us and the Tomb Raider reboot scheduled to pound us mercilessly in 2013, you can expect this trend to extend well into the future.

Adventure games are still relevant

I was done with point-and-click adventure games back in the ’90s. I’m back on them now. The team at Telltale Games didn’t just keep the flame alive with The Walking Dead, their superlative five-part series based on Robert Kirkland’s graphic novel (and its television counterpart) … they brought modern game designs into what many considered an outdated genre.

And they did it with an elegantly simple device: the quick-time event. Turns out the same gameplay cliché that annoys me in God of War (and its many clones) instantly turns the usually static point-and-click exercise into a tense, action-packed struggle for survival. It’s panic-inducing to suddenly find yourself zeroing a shaky cursor on a shambling zombie before it takes a chunk out of protagonist Lee or, even more upsetting, to rescue darling Clementine, his young charge, from a grisly fate. That lends real danger to the rest of the story — survival feels tenuous indeed — and the split-second decisions you must make become even more agonizing.

I actually had to step away from The Walking Dead for a while after its devastating third episode. No other game this year did that to me. That little tick-tick-tick countdown behind every choice made Telltale’s simple point-and-click drama as intense … no, more intense … than any high-octane shooter or jump-scare horror game. More, please.

Games are growing up (maybe)

Two years ago, a trailer showing callous killer Agent 47 eliminating a squad of PVC-clad gun nuns wouldn’t have raised much more than a few eyebrows. Hey, we’re the medium where all the ladies in Dead or Alive get a dedicated physics engine for the boob-jiggle. It’s just a game, after all, so who cares?

Except that’s an argument you can make when you’re 12. The average age in the gaming community hovers in the mid-30s.

2012 saw a heightened awareness of and direct confrontation against the sexism that’s long been a part of this industry’s DNA, both in and out of the games themselves. Halo 4′s multiplayer shipped with a zero-tolerance policy toward racist or sexist language — fittingly announced by executive producer Kiki Wolfkill and Microsoft executive Bonnie Ross — and lifetime Xbox Live bans for violators. Gearbox Software tried to include a special character class in Borderlands 2 for less-experienced players before lead designer John Hemmingway self-sabotaged by calling it “girlfriend mode.” Despite that gaffe, it still presented a serious attempt at inclusiveness … which is the opposite of sexism.

We’ve got a long way to go, baby. But at last it seems like we’re moving in the right direction.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Note: This article contains spoilers. Do not scroll down at all if you want to avoid any information about the plot.

I’ve been having a blast with Far Cry 3, but no game is perfect, and neither is this one. I already covered the game’s more annoying minor issues – the ones that pop up frequently but aren’t that bad, not really. They don’t significantly detract from the quality of the game, but they exist. You can work around them, but you can’t avoid them. You deal with them. They’re the kind of flaws you can love the game in spite of.

But Far Cry 3 has major issues, too, and they’re much harder to deal with.

These are the ones that threaten to destroy all the goodwill that the game builds up by being so awesome in so many other ways. These are the ones that don’t just annoy but also infuriate. These are the ones that keep it from being the best game of the year.

Last time, I said that I was considering starting the game over because no one was left to kill. I’m not going to do that anymore. Why? Because I don’t want to give up all my upgraded skills from a dozen hours of earning experience points. I don’t want to lose all my upgraded gear and weapons from a dozen hours of skinning the right animals and earning enough money. I don’t want all the collectables to repopulate after a dozen hours of methodically hunting each down.

I don’t want to start over from scratch. I just want to start over.

This might actually be the game’s biggest flaw because it’s the only thing stopping me from playing it right now. I’m out of guys to kill, but I’ll be damned if I hand over my wingsuit.

In theory, co-op in Far Cry 3 should be a no-brainer. Just drop a few of my buddies into my world and let us do whatever dumb, demented stuff comes to mind. But that would make too much sense, wouldn’t it? Instead, Far Cry 3 delivers a series of claustrophobically linear, poorly designed missions that abandon everything good about the single-player campaign.

If you liked all the deranged, well-written characters of the story mode, that’s gone. So is the freedom of exploring an entire island, the space to pull off crazy strategies, the interplay between nature and humanity as rampaging animals, enemies that take a realistic amount of damage, and a mostly glitch-free and responsive experience. All are gone.

There is nothing good about Far Cry 3′s co-op. It’s a complete and total waste of resources.

If I were to tell you to design the most cynical, creatively bankrupt multiplayer mode possible for Far Cry 3, a game otherwise brimming with imagination, what would you come up with? A progression-based Call of Duty rip-off with customizable weapons, perks, and killstreaks? Hey, what do you know? Ubisoft did too! Coincidence!

This is less offensive than the pile of filth that is the co-op mode because at least it works, but it’s no less boring. There’s just nothing special about it at all, and I don’t know why I’m supposed to play it over any of the other dozen Call of Duty clones.

Far Cry 3′s early hours are defined by Vaas, that guy with a penchant for talking about the definition of insanity. Once he’s gone, though, the game loses its magic. Hoyt, the next big bad on the roster, just can’t hack it on his own, and the story ends up puttering across the finish line instead of roaring. There are still a few really good moments post-Vaas, but by and large, the game gets pretty boring.

But it gets frustrating, too. Even though the mechanics only get stronger the further into the game you go, the mission design gets uncharacteristically restrictive. “Here, have a scripted turret sequence,” the game says dismissively. “Or I don’t know, some instant-fail linear stealth missions. The kids like those, right?”

Not even a little bit, Far Cry 3. Not even a little bit.

I wasn’t kidding about this one. Far Cry 3 lives and dies by Vaas. Michael Mando absolutely crushes it with his performance as Vaas with the kind of hard emotional swings =that make a person truly scary. Every scene with Vaas is arresting and unsettling, and it’s terrifying in all the right ways. He’s the kind of character that sticks with you for years, like Andrew Ryan or the G-Man.

Then, the game tosses it all away halfway through. And for what? For Hoyt? Please. In most games, Hoyt would shine as a fun, dynamic villain who’s more interesting than most, but next to Vaas, he’s like a plank of wood with a face drawn on it.

I’m not even saying that I need to be Vaas the whole time or whatever. I just want more Vaas.

And that’s it. Between this article and my last one, that’s everything I don’t like about Far Cry 3. I wouldn’t care enough to list it all out like this if I didn’t love the game so much. It does so much right that the things it does wrong stand out that much more, and this is just a way to process it all.

Seriously, Far Cry 3 is a wonderful game. Go play it if you haven’t already.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Ubisoft’s open-world first-person shooter is getting a bit spruced up.

The publisher/developer released a patch for the PC version of the game that you can download here. This update fixes a plethora of bugs in the game’s campaign and multiplayer modes.

Here’s a portion of the changelog:

• Fixed several issues with customizing controls.
• Fixed the accessing bug for the camera and the throwing rocks.
• Users that have missed the Relic located in Dr. Earnhardt cave will have the relic recover.
• Fixed the bug with the weapon models staying onscreen/stuck on the character’s arm.
• The leaderboard is now updating correctly even after if the user is disconnecting/reconnecting the ethernet cable.
• The objective is now properly updated after Jason burns the weed fields.
• New options the hide the HUD are now available in the option menu.
• Add support for downloadable content.
• Fixed the issue when the user was becoming invincible after failing mission “Black Gold” several times.
• The Phonecall from Hurk (ULC missions) is no longer overlapping the brief of the “Piece of the Past” mission.
• Fixed the issue when Sam was no longer in the jeep’s turret after placing two bomb and being kill several time in “Black Gold” mission.
• Sam is no longer getting stuck when the user destroy an enemy car.
• Improve stability on multiplayer maps.

For the full list of changes, check far-cry.ubi.com.

Far Cry 3 was one of the last big releases of 2012. We really enjoyed the game, which you can see in our review and our staff picks for the best games of the year.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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If 2012 has shown us one thing, it’s that video game development is truly in the “crossover era.” GamesBeat’s 2012 Game of the Year, The Walking Dead, was first available as a downloadable title, not a retail release. Other downloadables, such as indie-developed darlings Journey and Faster Than Light, garnered plenty of votes as well. And in our staff’s and contributor’s top games of the year lists, we even see mobile releases — like Fieldrunners 2.

Gaming has changed, and it’s nice to see that it’s more than just big-budget console and PC titles that have earned Game of the Year attention. Here are the top games as chosen by GamesBeat staffers and contributors. Let us know what you think about our picks in the comments — especially if you feel we’ve left something off our lists!

Editor-in-chief Dan “Shoe” Hsu

XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Firaxis Games

Little green men — yesteryear’s poster boys for mysterious invaders from outer space — are about as menacing as Oompa Loompas armed with toy guns. XCOM’s little gray men, however, are scary as hell. It’s not the ashen skin, bulbous eyes, or creepy-crawly walk. It’s what these Sectoids represent: a greater threat that we are simply not equipped to handle.

In the strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown, we mere humans bring dull knives to plasma gunfights. And just when we start to catch up in weapon technology, the bug-eyed bastards bring bigger guns and meaner friends. These jerks even cheat with mysterious mind-control powers. Meanwhile, we’re barely keeping the checkbook balanced between research, manufacturing, facility construction, aircraft, and an ever-decreasing budget due to world nations pulling out of the program if you can’t keep them safe (and you can never keep them all safe).

It all adds up to an incredibly exciting and stressful experience. Each decision — whether it’s which tree to hide your assault trooper behind or which whiny country gets your last airspace-monitoring satellite — feels monumental and permanent. Humanity’s existence is at stake, and we just want to make it to the next month, when a few more pennies come rolling in and a few more traumatized soldiers get out of sick bay.

It’s a desperate fight. And boy will we celebrate when those little gray men are dead.

Shoe’s other picks for best games of 2012: Fieldrunners 2, Dishonored, Journey, Fez

Lead writer Dean Takahasi

The Unfinished Swan
Platform: PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network)
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developer: Giant Sparrow

The Unfinished Swan is one of the most creative titles yet for the PlayStation Network. It’s an interactive fairy tale where you lob blobs of black paint at a white screen. As you do so, you uncover part of a 3D space hidden within the white scene. Uncovering each scene is a mind-bending task, as you have to navigate perplexing puzzles. You explore the unknown, and as you do so, you uncover a new segment in a fairy tale about a boy who loses his mother. It is a touching story that will remind of you of the zany Alice in Wonderland. Ian Dallas, the game creator, feels that a child who is abandoned is like an unfinished work of art. But just when you think that the game has become predictable, it changes. In some ways, the story seems unfinished. But the title is a wonderful first effort for Giant Sparrow, a new studio bankrolled by Sony.

Dean’s other picks for the best games of 2012: Halo 4, Far Cry 3, Journey, Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Culture editor Sebastian Haley

Hotline Miami
Platform: PC
Publisher: Developer Digital
Developer: Dennaton Games

Indie sensation Hotline Miami is best described as the film Drive, but in a retro, pixelated and somehow even more violent form, with subtle hints of Rockstar’s Manhunt sprinkled on top. The short-but-sickeningly sweet levels allow you to carefully orchestrate your symphony of murder and mayhem, filling the floors with maimed corpses and spraying the walls with crimson, all while its surreal, Miami Vice-inspired soundtrack beats in the back of your mind. Basically, if you own a Wii or like looking at livestreams of kittens, this is not your kind of game.

Sebastian’s other picks for best games of 2012: Trials Evolution, Far Cry 3, The Darkness II, Final Fantasy XIII-2

Staff writer Jeff Grubb

Mark of the Ninja
Platform: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade), PC
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Developer: Klei Entertainment

For these Game of the Year summaries, we’re supposed to look above and beyond the individual parts of a game. We’re supposed to write about why it is important, but in the case of Mark of the Ninja, it’s those parts that make it so special. Developer Klei’s 2D stealth action game for Xbox Live Arcade and PC is a master class in well-executed gameplay mechanics. Whether it’s a soundwave that ripples off your ninja’s feet to indicate how much noise he’s making or a vision cone that indicates where an enemy is looking, Mark of the Ninja is constantly communicating with the player. It then provides the player with a great controlling character to poke and prod the world with.

It’s not rare that a game makes you feel like a badass, but with Klei’s game it’s not about how powerful you are — it’s about how in tune with the environment your character is. You have so much visual and aural information that every moment is an opportunity for experimentation. You can spend 10 minutes laying out a detailed plan that involves deadly traps, or you can play the entire game without a sword.

In video games, we don’t usually get a lot of new ideas, we just get different takes on old ideas. Stealth is an old idea at this point, but Mark of the Ninja distinguishes itself by executing the concept better than any other game before it.

Jeff’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Trials Evolution, FTL: Faster Than Light

Copy editor Jason Wilson

FTL: Faster Than Light
Platform: PC, Mac, Linux
Publisher: Subset Games
Developer: Subset Games

I’m low on fuel. My crew raced around my starship like a colony of ants, hastily putting out fires as doors opened to the cold vacuum of space. The Rebels are closing in on me. Do I take a chance and see if I can gain more fuel in the next nebular cloud, or do I make a mad dash for the next sector and hope to find friendly forces instead of angry adversaries? These are just some of the choices the player faces in FTL: Faster Than Light, the indie roguelike that’s swept upon a number of Game of the Year lists in 2012 (including ours!). What makes FTL so compelling to players is that a take on Civilization’s “one more turn” addictive nature — but instead of furthering your game, you’re driven to see if your next attempt takes you closer to escaping the pursuing Rebel forces. And it’s this that makes FTL one of the most interesting, fascinating, and, yes, best games of 2012.

Jason’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Crusader Kings II, Torchlight II, Dragon’s Dogma

Contributor Rus McLaughlin

Far Cry 3
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Something visceral. Something primal. Most shooters don’t have these. They settle you into a safe, comfortable role. Veteran soldier. Seasoned cop. Career criminal. A hero … or an antihero. But Far Cry 3 makes you run blind through the jungle while murderous pirates hunt you like a piece of prey. You’re just a terrified kid. Never held a gun before. Never seen anyone die before. Now you’re covered in your own brother’s blood and getting high off the giddy thrill of mere survival. Then you’re turned lose to roam two amazingly rich, open-world islands where you can really start enjoying yourself, slowly and cautiously picking your tormentors apart. Before you know it, the elation you get from destroying a criminal empire hardens into a different kind of drug: revenge.

That’s when Far Cry 3 surpasses the standard shooter fare. An aimless twentysomething becomes a killer of killers, as feared as the insane warlords he wants dead. Between coolly tense stealth play and straight-up gunfights, you become the predator, stalking intruders in your jungle and murdering them at will. It all culminates in a moment where you must decide just how much you enjoy that particular power fantasy. Enough to abandon your humanity? Maybe.

Far Cry 3 goes there. Solid gameplay — minus a weak-tea multiplayer — and incredibly detailed environments lift it far enough, but its secret weapon lies in how it takes you into that dark, primal place. And then it dares you to ignore your basic animal instincts.

Rus’s other picks for best games of 2012: The Walking Dead, Fez, Halo 4, Journey

Contributing editor Rob Savillo

Contributor Rob LeFebvre

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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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, Epic Games president Michael Capps retired, Call of Duty: Black Ops II earned $1 billion in 15 days, Irrational Games pushed BioShock Infinite’s release date again, and Zynga filed to make real-money gambling games in Nevada.

You’ll also find reviews for Far Cry 3,  The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dragonborn, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Writer Rumble as well as previews for Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.

News:

• The DeanBeat: Expert advice on staying alive in Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer
• Army of TWO: The Devil’s Cartel makes the Mexican drug wars seem glitchy
• What do game investors think about Kickstarter?
• Irrational Games pushes back BioShock Infinite release date
• PMC and Machinima will tout this year’s DICE Summit video game awards show
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II beats Halo 4 in NPD’s dismal November game sales list
• These missing Tomb Raider games could be entombed for good
• Dishonored’s first downloadable add-on pack is all about challenging your skills
• This week in the Nintendo Download: Lego Lord of the Rings, Scribblenauts Unlimited, and New Super Mario Bros. 2
• Peanut Labs extends its self-serve platform for creating market surveys (exclusive)
• God of War: Ascension multiplayer finds a sweet spot between shooters and fighters
• With ex-Zynga developer carrying the flag, Kixeye invades Canada
• Zynga files for right to make real-money gambling games in Nevada
• Assassin’s Creed III’s first add-on pack is erasing player progress
• The Four Bikers of the Apocalypse usher in the second add-on pack for Trials Evolution
• Pikmin 3 slips out of Wii U ‘launch window,’ will debut in spring
• Fire Emblem Awakening out on 3DS in North America in early February
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II hits $1B in sales in 15 days
• Bunchball shows off the ‘rock stars’ of gamification
• ‘Toxic’ League of Legends player responds to his 1-year ban
• Zynga’s new theme park game CoasterVille goes live today
• Facebook announces top games of 2012: SongPop music trivia game comes out on top
• Social media surfaces layoffs at game companies NCSoft and Petroglyph
• A Wii U update is available now — it should improve system stability
• The Ins & Outs of PlayStation All Stars’ newest fighters: Kat and Emmett
• Epic Games president Michael Capps retires
• DICE slips in a Mirror’s Edge reference (tease?) into the latest Battlefield 3 expansion
• The Slingshot Content Pack for XCOM: Enemy Unknown available today
• First Assassin’s Creed III add-on pack available now for Season Pass holders
• Replay Games fetches a new game and a chief creative officer (exclusive)
• Guitar Hero co-creator’s Green Throttle Games raises $6M to reinvent TV games
• Adobe launches new cloud-based game development tools
• Dragonborn expansion definitely coming to PlayStation 3
• Try out wizard battles in Ni no Kuni’s magical world tomorrow (updated)
• Android game console maker Ouya shipping its developer prototypes this month

Mobile news:

• After closing OpenFeint, Gree cuts jobs in U.S. offices
• Ngmoco goes next-gen with high-end graphics in The Drowning tablet game
• Brazil’s biggest mobile content publisher unveils its first game for the U.S.
• Social casino app goes to the city with New York-New York slot machine
• Tylted welcomes several top social-game developers to its mobile platform
• PlayPhone adds 20 games to its mobile social gaming network
• German ‘startup factory’ HitFox expands globally with four new game distribution businesses
• Cut the Rope developer’s next game is Pudding Monsters
• Enterprise gamification goes big as Badgeville teams up with Capgemini
• Fingerprint Digital to launch 7 new mobile education apps for kids
• Rovio adds the ice world of Hoth to Angry Birds Star Wars
• Kabam acquires Balanced Worlds game studio in China
• Swarm hopes to swoop in and help out developers fed up with Gree (exclusive)
• The Walking Dead: Assault brings top-down black-and-white shooting action to iOS

Reviews:

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Dragonborn is a pint-sized Morrowind (review)
• Threeview: Call of Duty: Black Ops II reviewed by a critic, an analyst, and an academic
• Far Cry 3 is a superior rumble in the jungle (review)
• Writer Rumble is a vicious but therapeutic exercise for former English majors (review)

Interviews:

• Ben Cousins wants to prove mobile first-person shooters aren’t a pipe dream (interview)
• With a new leader, Ngmoco shoots for mobile gaming empire (interview)
• ‘Reverse Tetris’ puzzler Dream of Pixels may be critically acclaimed, but how is it selling? (interview)

Previews:

• Fast monsters in the tall grass will scare you to death in Crysis 3 (preview)
• Flutter is a kinder, gentler Pokémon with real-world butterflies (preview)
• Pull off some ridiculous time traveling heists in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (hands-on preview)
• Tomb Raider is at its best when it’s not emulating Uncharted (hands-on preview)

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Who in their right mind goes to a jungle paradise anymore? They’re all full of deranged killers and surrounded by shark-infested waters! And then you kick off with a douchebaggy opening montage of superprivileged twentysomethings partying hard in the tropics? That practically mandates that they’ll suffer and die courtesy of the bloodthirsty maniacs de jour.

Wish granted. Far Cry 3 goes dark about 30 seconds later, and it stays dark for the next 25 hours.

Publisher/developer Ubisoft Montreal delivered two open-world, action/stealth games this season, but only one truly commands attention. Far Cry 3 (available Dec. 4 in the U.S. for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC) is the game I wanted Assassin’s Creed III to be. It doesn’t always measure up perfectly to the other top-tier titles of the last few months, but as the last major release of the year, it authoritatively ends 2012 on a high note.

What you’ll like

The jungle
Far Cry 3 doesn’t waste any time dumping you in the worst situation imaginable and then doling out the tools you need to conquer it at a brisk clip. You play as Jason Brody, a directionless kid who’s genuinely not ready to take on an army of murderous pirates. Almost by default, he falls in with the Maori-like Rakyat, a local tribe currently losing a war against those invaders, and there he finds his true purpose in life: rescuing his captive friends and family, saving the Rakyat, and killing every other living thing on the island.

And that island really is quite a playground. It’s a huge, lush, breathing environment with plenty of hidden spots to discover and explore. On top of 38 story missions, add well over a hundred side missions and several hundred collectibles (if you’re into that sort of thing), and that doesn’t even cover random encounters. Animals roam freely, and pirates/security thugs constantly patrol in jeeps; they won’t hesitate to chase you down whether you’re on foot or behind the wheel. Yes, it’s annoying to run into a dozen enemies when I was just out trying to skin a pig for crafting materials, but really, I should’ve been more careful.

The gunplay threads the needle right between tactical shooter and a looser arcade feel, with an accent on stealth to whittle away baddies before committing yourself. Ammo always feels a little scarce. Hostile numbers become overwhelming fast if you’re not ready. Your most valuable piece of equipment isn’t a gun but a camera that tags enemies and animals so you can track their movements as you sneak around … or for when you’re ready to engage directly. Both earn experience points toward a fairly comprehensive upgrade system in which you boost skills and attributes to complement your playstyle.

I spent most of my time creeping up behind people for a satisfying, instantly lethal takedown. Upgrading lets you chain those knife attacks indefinitely so long as enemies are within reach — that’s a beautiful thing. You can always charge in guns blazing, but you’ll see fewer reload screens with a more balanced approach, solving tricky layouts with your head more than your trigger finger. One standout mission tasks you with torching a few heavily guarded marijuana fields, and it plays beautifully if you quietly work the map, deleting baddies without any drama until you’re ready to announce your presence.

Then the game rewards with a tense gunfight where only a few mistakes at the wrong moments costs you big time. That makes it all the more thrilling when you pull off the upset. And that happens all the time in Far Cry 3.

The villainy
Every great story needs a really good bad guy, and Far Cry 3 has one of the best I’ve seen across any media in a long time. His name is Vaas. He’s violently insane, and it’s a genuine pleasure to watch him work. I generally don’t call out video game actors, but Michael Mando — who provides both the voice and motion-capture work for Vaas — put real menace into his performance. The physicality, the quirks, and the intentionally jarring shifts in tone, demeanor, and volume add up to a nemesis who sticks in your thoughts even when he’s offstage. I never knew what Vaas would do next, but I never doubted he was out there cooking up his next atrocity, bless ‘im.

And he’s not even the guy in charge.

In fact, Far Cry 3 excels with all its not-quite-right adversaries. Treasure-hunting Buck’s smartass charms take on an especially dark tone given how he purchased, tortured, and possibly raped Jason’s best friend. As gleefully cruel as Buck is, nobody in Far Cry 3 enjoys himself more than big boss Hoyt Volker, the most successful slave, drug, and weapons trafficker in the hemisphere. He’s a guy who loves who he is and every malicious thing he does. He kinda hopes you do, too.

Nobody commands a room quite like Vaas, but every evil-doer on the island proves a compelling opponent, and you’ll love putting them down like the rabid dogs they are.

The accessibility
Open-world games usually make me feel like I’m wasting a lot of time just getting from Point A to Point B. But despite an absolutely immense map, I rarely felt anything was too far out of reach. At least not after I unlocked a few quick-travel spots.

And unlike Assassin’s Creed III, Far Cry 3 gives you real incentives to climb towers and exterminate the local wildlife. The former doesn’t just open up map details; it also shows you nearby points of interest and gives you a 100 percent discount on a few pricey guns at your local market. The latter plays into the game’s crafting system, and it’s smart enough to be important without ever getting in your way. You can make do with the flimsy gear you get for free, or you can go bag a few animals for the materials you need to upgrade. Other shooters give you four weapon slots for free. Far Cry 3 makes you earn them.

Want the best upgrades? Then you’ve got to hunt the most dangerous game. Nabbing that last weapon slot means taking down two bull sharks before they rip you to shreds. It’s not an arcane system of figure-it-out recipes like you find in The Elder Scrolls, either. It’s easy, streamlined, and necessary rather than punishing.

But not everything in Far Cry 3 is quite so smart.

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Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) hopes to jumpstart sales of its graphics chips and PC video cards by bundling top-selling video games with them.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company is launching the Never Settle bundle that includes an AMD Radeon 7900 graphics card and multiple games for hardcore players. For those who buy the card, AMD will offer four major titles either free or at a discount. AMD needs the boost, as it recently reported a quarterly loss and said it would lay off 1,700 employees, or 15 percent of its workforce.

“This is the single most important game bundle of the year for Radeon graphics,” said Robert Hallock, AMD product marketing manager, in a press briefing. “This is the biggest graphics card bundle we have ever offered, and this is probably the biggest graphics card bundle that has ever been offered in the graphics industry.”

The bundle comes with an AMD Catalyst driver and free PC copies of Far Cry 3, Hitman: Absolution, and Sleeping Dogs. In addition, customers will be able to get a 20 percent discount on Medal of Honor: Warfighter. All of the titles are major releases for the fall.

The bundle has several options. If you buy an AMD Radeon HD 7800 series graphics card or a Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition card, you can get Far Cry 3 for free and Medal of Honor Warfighter for 20 percent off. If you buy two AMD Radeon HD 7850 series graphics cards ($399), two Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition cards ($239), or two Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition cards ($499), then you can get Far Cry 3 and Hitman: Absolution for free as well as the 20 percent discounter on Warfighter. The value of the games in the bundles ranges from $60 to $170.

The new Catalyst 12.11 driver software provides a 15 percent performance gain in titles such as Battlefield 3, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Sleeping Dogs, and Dirt: Showdown. The bundle will be available in October after the launch of Windows 8.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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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, EA is reportedly working with Fox on a Battlefield: Bad Company TV series, Valve wants gamers to help playstest unreleased products, Kixeye opens up about last week’s racism allegations, and OnLive’s assets sold for a mere $4.8 million.

You’ll also find reviews for Dishonored, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Forza Horizon, and Nights: Into Dreams HD.

News:

• The DeanBeat: The pace of disruption from physical to digital gaming
• Xbox Live tells us who won the vice presidential debate
• Temple Run developer has figured out how to make money on Android
• Rocket-powered robots to shoot other robots in Hawken beta this month
• Block by block: How Roblox is building one of gaming’s biggest platforms
• Linden Lab grabs its second life with creativity games
• How big is League of Legends? 12M daily users play for 1B hours each month and 75 die every second (infographic)
• September NPD: Borderlands 2 nearly tops best-seller list as overall sales take another dive
• Sony refreshes interface for its entertainment network
• Amazon gets Assassin’s Creed III Encyclopedia Edition for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Streaming tech company T5 claims Sony’s Gaikai infringes on its patents
• The first Borderlands 2 expansion is filled with booty — date and price announced
• Both ToeJam & Earl games headed to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in November
• Valve wants your help playtesting unreleased games and hardware prototypes
• ‘Fight Club’ director producing Halo 4 launch trailer
• Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts returns to gaming with Star Citizen online game universe
• With nine brains, this hydra-like Tilera chip is a multitasking wizard
• OnLive’s assets were sold for only $4.8 million
• Three-day badges are sold out for the PAX East gaming convention
• Windows 8 now defaults to real currency, but Xbox 360 still uses Microsoft Points
• The exodus continues: Zynga Poker general manager quits
• D&D artist casts ‘resurrect’ spell on old art, with help from Kickstarter
• Fanhood enters the sports-betting game fray on Facebook (exclusive)
• Updated: Developer Backbone Entertainment lays off workers
• Rovio: Star Wars Angry Birds ‘is the best Angry Birds we’ve ever done’
• EA reportedly working with Fox to develop Battlefield: Bad Company TV series
• 2012 game investments: Number of deals is up, but average raised per startup is dropping
• Sony sues Kevin Butler actor (update: Sony comments)

Mobile News:

• 23 percent of app gamers play only on mobile devices
• Heyzap launches a ‘play with friends’ feature for multiplayer mobile games
• He-Man game for iOS in the works
• Stunning mobile game Contre Jour goes multitouch in HTML5 with Microsoft’s help
• Moga mobile game controller to debut in 7,000 stores (video)
• AOL remakes Games.com for social-mobile era
• Sega brings Crazy Taxi to iOS

Reviews:

• The open road meets dubstep-laced stereotypes in Forza Horizon (review)
• Threeview: A critic, an analyst, and an academic review Resident Evil 6
• PlayStation 3 Super Slim isn’t worth the upgrade (review)
• Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise is a dead bear’s party that’s not much fun
• Threeview: A critic, an analyst, and an academic review Bad Piggies
• Nights into Dreams HD is too brutally difficult to overcome nostalgia (review)
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown is peerless in modern game design (review)
• Dishonored lets you take sweet, sweet revenge (review)

Previews:

• Vehicles are the real stars in the chaotic world of team-shooter Ravaged (hands-on preview)
• EA invests big in Medal of Honor: Warfighter multiplayer combat (hands-on preview)
• Far Cry 3 balances an unforgettable narrative with an open world (hands-on preview)

Interviews:

• A successor to Nintendo Power magazine has less than 8 hours left to raise $5k on Kickstarter (interview) (update)
• Medal of Honor: Warfighter focuses on buddies and international warriors to boost multiplayer audience (interview)
• Gaming luminary Trip Hawkins talks about a $400 mouse, his new gig, and gestural controls (interview)
• Kixeye CEO says his company is aggressive, but not racist (exclusive interview)
• Dead or Alive 5 director discusses Hollywood, eSports, and tips for beginners (interview)

Pitch us in one Tweet:

• The top 10 games of ‘Pitch us in one Tweet’ (#1: Sixty Second Shooter)

Pieces of Flair:

• The weird and bizarre side of 25 years of Street Fighter
• Game industry pros confess their piles of shame
• Cool concept art for Chris Roberts’ Star Citizen online game (art gallery)
• Star Citizen features stunning sci-fi visuals (screenshot gallery)
• Borderlands 2′s Mechromancer: A girlfriend plays ‘girlfriend mode,’ boyfriend plays ‘boyfriend mode’
• The best of Skyrim mods #3: Super Skyrim Bros.
• Nonlethal and undetected: 10 essential tips & tricks to mastering Dishonored
• GamesBeat’s massive Street Fighter tournament: Decide who moves on from Division 1
• Gaming art for your Twitter header (Part 7: Consoles)
• Gaming art for your Twitter header (Part 6: Retro arcade)
• Gaming art for your Twitter header (Part 5: Mobile)

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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When Ubisoft unveiled the gameplay of Far Cry 3 this summer, the images and characters were unforgettable. They were either beautiful or horrific. Not so much in between. Grisly murders or beautiful tropical island waterfalls. And now that the French game publisher has unveiled even more of the experience through a hands-on demo, the dichotomy is becoming even more interesting. I got another hands-on playthrough of the beginning of the game, and I really didn’t know which path to take.

On the one hand, the story is so strong, and the villain, Vaas (pictured in poster art at top), is so bad that you just want to get right to the task of hunting him down and freeing your captive friends. But on the other hand, developer Ubisoft Montreal has built an open world with a lush tropical island archipelago for you to explore. A lot of video games must strike a balance between a straight narrative story with the capability to roam free in an open world, where the player dictates what happens in the story.

But the tough thing about Far Cry 3 is that is starts with such a good story, one that is movie-like in its appeal. It opens with a video collage of friends having the time of their lives skydiving above a tropical island. But then they are captured by a nasty villain, the fast-talking and funny Vaas, who is an unpredictable madman. You play the eco-tourist Jason Brody, and Vaas captures all of you. He starts out by playing videos on Jason’s smartphone and enthusiastically says, “This is a great phone!”

As the camera view widens on the scene, you see that Jason and his brother are tied up in a bamboo cell, and that Vaas is really one crazy mother*******. [Spoiler alert] Your brother,  a badass former Army hero, executes an escape with military precision, and the two of you sneak out of the compound. But then Vaas kills your brother as a matter of sport. The game gives you a bee-line mission. You want Vaas’s head on a stake. But you can’t do it. Your brother was the one who could have taken out Vaas. You are a poor, nervous substitute for your brother. You just have to learn how to stay alive.

And then you have to wait. After the opening introductory sequence, you escape and meet up with Dennis (right) and Citra (below left), the leaders of the island’s natives who are fighting for control of the archipelago against the gun-toting mercenaries who accompany Vaas. In contrast to your dead brother, you are a wimp who just can’t believe what’s going on around you. In a very short amount of time, you ,must learn how to kill — or you’ll be killed. While you are doing that, you have a whole set of islands to explore and tigers to meet.

Yes, there are so many distractions on the islands, like the tigers (Ubisoft trotted out a real tiger for its recent preview event), all-terrain vehicle races, zip-line swinging, and hang-gliding. In fact, these activities were so fun that I forgot I was supposed to be finding my friends and training for that big, bloody reunion with Vaas.

“We wanted to present Vaas as this character who was very much in your face,” said Dan Hay (pictured at top), the producer of Far Cry 3, in an interview with GamesBeat. “He is very lifelike. We want the player character to feel like they are a victim. Your friends are taken from you. Your family is taken. You have to figure out how to get them back. But we didn’t want to make this about going and rescuing a friend. Rinse and repeat. There is an entire other side to the game. When you look at the open world, it’s designed to be a way to cleanse your palate. Instead of just doing the missions, you can discover and explore.”

He added, “It’s interesting to see people play the game. They intend to go rescue their friends. They wander into the open world and, four or five hours later, they remember they have to get their friends. For us, that’s a win. You can be captivated and see the island and grow. That’s an analogue for when you or I go to a place like this and you begin to live some of that life. You feel the pull of the island. Then maybe you start thinking, ‘Maybe I don’t want to go back.’ The question is how Jason, your character, responds to that. That’s what we’re playing with.”

At the very least, the mixture of open world and narrative brings variety to Far Cry 3, which has to deliver a better experience to players of the first two games. Then there is another layer of creativity on top of the game that changes the gameplay. You find some wild mushrooms to heal a friend and yourself, but the mushrooms also bring on psychedelic experience. The theme of insanity takes the drug-induced nightmare episodes and busts the creativity wide open. At one point, you have to move through a pitch-dark warehouse with TVs blasting images of Vaas at you.

In one of the later scenes, Vaas sets it up. He says the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting shit to change.” He adds, “The first time somebody told me that, I thought they were bullshitting me. So, boom, I shot him.”

He complains, “I already killed you once” and then tries to drown Brody once again. Brody survives, strangles a guard under a beautiful waterfall, and then starts looking around for a way out. The mercenaries are murdering everyone. Then the combat starts, either loud or quiet. Your choice. You pursue Vaas throughout the game, and he gets tired of killing you (or so he thinks) over and over again.

Of course, none of this would be any fun if there wasn’t some crazy shooting and fighting action. Far Cry 3 has plenty of that. The weapons are awesome, and so is the melee action. You must sneak up on sentries and take them out quietly or a bullet hell rains down on you. You fight underwater, in the air, and atop giant cellphone towers.

Part of your task is to liberate the island, one cell tower at a time. The enemy has rigged the towers to detect your every movement. You have to get to the top of the towers and disable them. Once you do so, another part of the island becomes visible to you on the island map. The graphics look great on the PlayStation 3, which I used for the demo. But it had some parts where the size of the open world seemed to slow down the speed of the game. Far Cry 3 uses the new Dunia 2 engine with a physics system integrated into it. So everything from the hang glider movement to the sway of the bushes feels real. It’s an open world, baby.

I wonder whether the game is more fun this way, or if it would have been better if it were more movie-like, focused on just the story of revenge. But I’m very curious about the bifurcated experience, and I bet this question will hold my attention through the end of the game. The game debuts on Dec. 4 on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Ubisoft also said it’s releasing Just Dance 4 on Oct. 9 in the U.S. on the Wii, Xbox 360 with Kinect, and Sony PlayStation 3 with Move. Rocksmith debuts with new content for a bass guitar on Oct. 16. The company also reaffirms its financial guidance for the current fiscal year. Last year, Ubisoft generated $1.3 billion in sales.

Ubisoft offered no explanation for the Far Cry 3 delay. It recently showed the big-budget, open-world game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the industry’s largest trade show, in Los Angeles. A year ago, the company introduced the story, the main character, and the villain. It was creepy to see such unrestrained violence right next to the beautiful, realistic visuals of an island paradise.

In the game, you play Jason Brody. Your girlfriend is missing. You’re stranded on a beautiful tropical island. And the mercenaries on the isle are psychotic. No one is quite as crazy as this character, Vaas (pictured above). In a trailer, Vaas says the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting shit to change.” He adds, “The first time somebody told me that, I thought they were bullshitting me. So, boom, I shot him.”

The game uses the new Dunia 2 engine with a physics system integrated into it. It is under development at Ubisoft Montreal with help from three other studios. Far Cry 3 is part of the company’s slate of high-profile games, and the delay may put it into a tougher competitive window against other titles of the fall such as Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

---

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

Finding similarities between Arma III and Carrier Command: Gaea Mission – by Omri Petitte

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

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Over the course of four hours across three Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press conferences, hardcore gamers submitted over 16,000 real-time impressions — a valuable set of data for anyone curious as to how fans felt about the most important announcements during the gaming industry’s biggest event of the year. Now that E3 is over, we can take the time to really dig into what they liked and didn’t like, learning some interesting lessons in the process.

For this study, we counted the positive and negative comments in the hugely popular NeoGAF gaming forums, charting the reactions minute-by-minute in the graph below. The basic rule of thumb: the more positive responses, the higher the reaction score and vice versa. In short, Sony received the most positive responses, well ahead of Microsoft and Nintendo…but the publisher didn’t exactly impress everyone.

Click for a full-size version. For a more detailed explanation of how we analyzed this data, please see the explanation at the end of this article.

What NeoGAF liked about the Sony press conference

NeoGAF reacted strongly to the following games: Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Assassin’s Creed III, and The Last of Us (for more on these or any products mentioned here, click the tags below). While they responded positively at first to Beyond: Two Souls, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Far Cry 3, and God of War: Ascension, opinion soured soon after their first mentions.

The community also reacted positively to Jack Tretton, president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, and Kaz Hirai, president and CEO of Sony Corporation. Both have become heroes to the video game community. David Cage, founder of Quantic Dream (Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls), also received good feedback, if not as strong as the two Sony personalities.

The most positive reaction of the show came at the end of the The Last of Us demonstration. The presentation concluded with the game’s protagonist killing his enemy with a brutal shotgun blast to the face, at which point the community exploded with shock and amazement. In fact, this single moment would prove to be the most popular across all three press conferences. One could say that The Last of Us “won” E3 — an expression gamers are very fond of using.

What they didn’t like

As noted, NeoGAF responded poorly to long demonstrations, and goodwill for games quickly evaporated as they continued. The group gave mixed responses when Sony discussed PlayStation Plus and PlayStation 1 games coming to the handheld Vita.

The most negative reaction of Sony’s press conference occurred during the Book of Spells demonstration. The community complained throughout this Wonderbook presentation, and comments hit a low point during the eighth minute of the Book of Spells segment. They cited a variety of factors for their displeasure: that the game is for kids, it was motion controlled, it was augmented reality, it was boring, and the demo was too long. In fact, the segment was so unpopular that members posted 943 negative comments during the 11 minutes Sony featured Book of Spells, compared to 103 positive comments. It didn’t help that the live demo had technical hiccups, and the game didn’t work for a brief moment.

For more on how NeoGAF reacted to the E3 press conferences, check out the Microsoft and Nintendo studies.

How the scoring works

NeoGAF hosts a single message board thread for each press conference, where dozens of members comment throughout each show. I graded each comment as positive or negative, giving them scores of 1 or -1 respectively. Then I totaled the sum of these reactions for each discrete minute and plotted in the above chart. A high score means that the NeoGAF community liked what they saw; a score close to zero represents mixed reactions; and a low score means that they were not enjoying the show at that moment.

Some notes on how I scored each response:

• I made no distinction between really positive or somewhat positive comments — likewise for negative comments. Each was given either a score of 1 or -1.
• While I made every effort to understand the various memes and inside jokes that make up a large part of the responses, if I could not understand a response, I would not score it.
• In the event that a comment employed obvious sarcasm, I scored it to reflect the original intent of the commentator. If the sarcasm was not clear, I relied on the literal meaning of the comment. Fortunately, the very expressive NeoGAF community rarely employed subtle sarcasm.
• When comments included positive and negative observations, I accounted for the more immediate reaction to preserve a more real-time response. An example: “I liked the game that was shown at the beginning of the show, but this game now is bad” would have a negative score.
• Many comments weren’t scored as they offered no opinion. These included clarifications, questions, discussions between members unrelated to the press conference, and inquiries into whether one game or another would be shown at a later time.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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With publishers showing so many games in such close proximity, the Electronic Entertainment Expo is a great place to discover the directions that developers are taking the entire industry for the next year and beyond. Below are eight trends that GamesBeat’s writers noticed during the annual trade show.

1. The year of the bow.

I don’t know when bow and arrows became so cool. Maybe we should blame Hawkeye from The Avengers? Or maybe that girl from the Hunger Games? Whatever the reason, many of gaming’s protagonists have traded their rifles for wood. GamesBeat writer Jeff Grubb actually detailed this phenomenon quite a bit, listing Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3, and Assassin’s Creed III as examples of string-tugging action.

Now, some of these characters use bows because of limited resources (Tomb Raider) or because of the technology of their day (Assassin’s Creed III), but why on earth is the guy from Crysis 3, who probably has access to the most advanced weapons technology on the planet, using such a primitive device?

2. Fourth installments of franchises, aka fourquels.

This industry has always loved its sequels, but when you reach the fourth installment of a series (in many cases within the same console generation), you begin to want for a bit more originality. Microsoft is the most guilty party here, showing off an upcoming library of software that includes Halo 4, Gears of War: Judgement, and Fable: The Journey.

Not that Sony is completely off the hook, thanks to God of War: Ascension, the fourth console release of the series. Sure, all of these titles are likely to be enjoyable on some level, but franchise fatigue is definitely setting in.

3. Shocking brutality.

Video games have been violent for a very, very long time. It seems like ages ago when we all gasped while Kano tore a guy’s heart out of his chest in the original Mortal Kombat. Still, the violence was usually treated with a sort of action movie level of seriousness…meaning it wasn’t taken very seriously at all.

Well, now all of the killing, cutting, ripping, bludgeoning, and bleeding seems much more real. The trend seems to start with the new Tomb Raider, which sees protagonist Lara Croft screaming in almost constant pain as she is impaled and beaten. Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us is also a clear example of more visceral violence, especially thanks to a notable scene from Sony’s press briefing where the player shot a guy in the face with a shotgun while he begged for his life. Despite a lifetime spent watching polygons and pixels explode into bits of organs and limbs, for the first time ever gaming violence is making me wince.

4. Everything looks like Uncharted.

I’m guessing that we’re beginning to see a lot of the games that were put into production after 2009′s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves proved to be a big hit. There were multiple titles on the show floor that featured climbing and mouthy characters that could easily be describe as, “It’s like Uncharted, but….”

I mean, there was Star Wars: 1313, which was like Uncharted but with a sci-fi setting, and Tomb Raider is like Uncharted without any of the lighthearted comedy. Even Splinter Cell: Blacklist seems to take the series in a more climbing-focused direction. I guess imitation is flattery, right?

5. Stealthy franchises are less stealthy.

Remember when Metal Gear was a stealth-based franchise? Sort of hard to believe that series could inspire a hack-and-slashing affair where you cut a guy into a dozen pieces with a sword, but that’s exactly what we have with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. What about Assassin’s Creed III? The new protagonist, Connor, seems to prefer to charge directly at his foes rather than stunning his adversaries with surprise like his ancestors, Altair and Ezio, did.

Even Agent 47 has gotten bold enough to kill his targets in the middle of giant crowds in Hitman: Absolution. Of course, these could all just be vertical slices that are focusing on more action-oriented aspects of these titles, but you still couldn’t escape the feeling that stealth was out of style at E3.

6. Second screens.

Dual screen gaming was made popular with Nintendo’s DS hand held device back in 2004, but now we’re seeing that concept taken to the consoles. We already knew about Nintendo’s Wii U, the new system that heavily features the use of a tablet controller, but Microsoft showed off SmartGlass technology, with allows preexisting smart phones and tablets to act as a second screen for Xbox 360 experiences.

We saw a lot of examples of this technology being used for unique gameplay possibilities, notably in Wii U platformers New Super Mario Bros. U and Rayman Legends, where the second screen can be used to assist the main player. Microsoft, meanwhile, showed off the ability to instantly transfer a movie from the television to a smart phone mid-scene. It’ll be interesting to see how consumers take to this innovative (and potentially expensive) technology.

7. Revenge!

A lot of characters seem to be motivated by revenge this year. Just look at the tagline for Dishonored, the new steampunk, action-adventure title from publisher Bethesda: “Revenge solves everything.” You can also look at the trailer for the four player co-op mode in Far Cry 3, where four random people unite in their quest for (what else?) revenge.

Don’t forget about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. There’ so much revenge that they have to make up new words for it!

8. Amazing facial animation.

Last year’s L.A. Noire impressed many with its exceptional  facial animation, and it seems like the trend for more realistic looking characters will continue. The PlayStation 3′s Beyond: Two Souls, the new title from Heavy Rain’s David Cage, leads the pack with some absolutely stunning faces that are able to emote and act as well as any real person.

Even franchises which aren’t normally renowned for this kind of technology have stepped up their game, notably seen in trailers for Far Cry 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Man, I remember when the character’s mouths didn’t even move.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The GamesBeat team has returned from the Electronic Entertainment Expo with minimal casualties. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to change our motto from “leave no man behind” to “leave no more than three men behind in West Hollywood at 3 a.m. and don’t ever talk about this.”

We saw some messed up stuff at the Los Angeles trade show, man. We were horrified to find dudes in 20-year-old Sonic t-shirts, a cubic ton of crossbows, and “We Are Young” by that one band playing on repeat in every booth. It was a lot to deal with. Instead of running to safety, like any well-adjusted human would, we handed out awards to celebrate all of the weird.

Enjoy GamesBeat’s E3 2012 non-award awards:

The Most Charming Booth Babe award: “Jane” from Ubisoft

Oh, Jane. You broke my heart. This hard-working lady laughed at my jokes. She ignored my body odor. Her eyes sparkled every morning when I was waiting for her in the ZombiU booth. Although, I’ve been told that I can’t read facial expressions, so that sparkling could have been her silently screaming for help. No way to know for sure.

I wasn’t the only one to fall under her spell. Jane apparently ensnared one fellow so desperately that he took to posting a Craigslist advertisement to find her. I’ll let this love-sick man explain our affections for Jane: “Maybe it’s your dark, flowing hair, your ready smile, your toned, tan little body, your playful laugh, your personable demeanor, or something that simply can’t be quantified…I don’t know!” Me neither, buddy. -Jeff Grubb

The Biggest Group of Sheep award: Everyone who gathered in a giant crowd to watch a Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 trailer

Activision adorned the front of its gigantic booth with a very, very wide screen. In the middle of this display was a counter, and when it reached zero, all traffic in that area of the show floor would stop and almost a hundred people would stand around to watch a trailer for Black Ops 2. A trailer! They’re at E3! They can play unreleased games, but instead they’re going to watch a trailer! Just go on YouTube when you get home or something! -Mike Minotti

Press conference most likely to get you fired: Ubisoft

If you’re not one of the super-special journalists invited to the major E3 press conferences, chances are you’re watching remotely. This year, each company seemed determined to out do one another with adult themes, and Ubisoft definitely wins. When the infamous Far Cry 3 trailer (you know, the one with the shirtless woman) popped up on-screen I was actually at my other job. Yeah, Ubisoft nearly got me fired. – Jasmine Rea

The Most Overused Motivation Award: Revenge

Game creators used the word “revenge” in the taglines and trailers for a lot of titles this year, including Dishonored (“Revenge solves everything”) and the four player co-op mode for Far Cry 3 (featuring four characters who are looking for…yup, revenge). And then we have Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. I’m not sure exactly what “revengeance” is, but I’m assuming it’s a lot like revenge (which is the cheapest and easiest form of character motivation a writer can possible employ). -Mike Minotti

Coolest Not-Cool Line: “My body was ready” by Reggie Fils-Aime (Nintendo briefing)

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime took an opportunity during this year’s press event to take ownership of his meme-spawning line from E3 2007. During the Wii U maker’s press briefing, Fils-Aime reminded us all that he had uttered that sentence, seemingly in an attempt to reconcile himself with the .gif makers who have been laughing at him for five years. It was an endearing moment of self-deprecation…that the subsequent awkward Wii Fit U video immediately ruined. -Evan Killham

The Brown Nose trophy for the Biggest Flatterer: Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion’s Peter Ong

Peter Ong, director of Epic Mickey: Power of Illusions for the 3DS, was quick to praise my amazing platforming skills during my demo of his 2D side-scroller. Now, I am pretty awesome at video games, so I can’t blame him for being stunned at my incredible ability to bounce off of enemy heads. Still, I guess it is possible he was just buttering me up so I would be kind to his game. Naw, I’m probably just that awesome. -Mike Minotti

The Carpet That Most Felt Like It Was Making Love to Our Feet: Gree

Folks, E3 hurts. You spend three days standing when you’re not walking and walking when you’re not running. Mid-way through day two, your feet experience the kind of sensation that makes you consider amputation as a viable option. But when I happened to cross over the Gree booth on the show floor, it felt like walking on clouds made of whipped cream. I’ve walked barefoot on grassy hills that didn’t feel as wonderful as that amazingly plush, cushy, off-white masterpiece. Seriously. I’ve got hardwood floors in my house. I love having hardwood floors in my house. And I still want whoever put down that flooring to come into my home and carpet everything, including the walls and ceilings. -Rus McLaughlin

The Cutest Piece of E3 Swag: The Neverwinter Dragon Hat
T-shirts. Baseball caps. iPhone cases. PR reps love to hand out promotional swag during E3, but Neverwinter publisher Perfect World Entertainment cranked the “d’awwwww” up to 11 this year with its knit, tasseled dragon hat. I’ve received a lot of compliments on it at work, including, “What the hell is that thing on your head?” and “I need to see you in my office.”  -Stefanie Fogel

The Greatest Threat to the Uncanny Valley award: Beyond: Two Souls (PS3)

It’s hard to believe, but real-time facial animations are starting to make games like Mass Effect and L.A. Noire look outdated. The creepy uncanny valley is starting to go away, soon to be replaced by another creepy phenomenon: that game characters are starting to look an awful lot like real people. -Dan “Shoe” Hsu

Most (Literally) Show-Stopping Moment: Wonderbook presentation (PlayStation 3)

I’ve heard from people who were there that Wonderbook will provide hours of entertainment and learning for people far younger than I can remember being. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that impression after Sony’s eight-and-a-half-minute-long demonstration of the augmented-reality platform brought the entire show to a screeching halt. Eight and a half minutes is a long time, especially at a trade show at which Microsoft presented a product that makes watching a movie just one thing you’re doing. -Evan Killham

Stealth? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Stealth award: Assassin’s Creed III

In the Assassin’s Creed III trailer, the newest assassin character Connor, is such an acrobatic combat master that he charges a whole British troop formation in pursuit of a target. Connor charges past the line of bayonets and muskets, hurtling past red coats until he finds the leader to dispatch. In a real playable scene, Connor blows up a gunpowder barrel and then takes out a few soldiers in a frontal assault on the way to a fine assassination as he leaps from a fort structure onto the back of his target. Who needs stealth when you can take out a whole army with one assassin? -Dean Takahashi

Best — or Grossest? — Quote: “Girl wood” by Aisha Tyler

During Ubisoft’s press conference, emcee/actress/comedian Aisha Tyler gave us this gem after seeing some exciting demos: “Let’s play a game entitled ‘How many times Aisha gets girl-wood during this presentation.’ We’re up to two.” There’s plenty more where that came from. -Dan “Shoe” Hsu

Year of the Bow Award for the Most Bows: Ubisoft.

In a year where every game seemed to bring a bow/crossbow to the party, Ubi really pulled out all the stops to take this one home. Assassin’s Creed 3. Far Cry 3. Splinter Cell: Blacklist. ZombiU. For all we know, Just Dance 4 has a move called “The Archer.” Well played, Ubisoft. Well played. -Rus McLaughlin

Longest Applause: The debut of Watch Dogs (multiplatform)

In the 16 years I’ve been attending E3, I’ve never seen a new, non-sequel game get this level of reception after it debuted at a press conference. Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs genuinely wowed the audience with its absolutely stunning modern world with a slight cyberpunk flair, brutal and stylish combat, and hack-everything gameplay. I can’t wait to see more. -Dan “Shoe” Hsu

The You Couldn’t Have Made One of These a Kirby Game or Something? award: Nintendo

Between New Super Mario Bros. U, New Super Mario Bros. 2, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Nintendo isn’t suffering from a dearth of Mario-universe titles. Now, we’re all huge Mario fans, but isn’t this a bit of overkill? Maybe the guys back in Kyoto could tap into the vast library of characters and mix it up a bit with Kirby or the Ice Climbers or something. -Jeff Grubb

The New “Space Marine”: Climbing and stringed weapons

In the recent past, a lot of games were hopping on the space-marine, zombies, or first-person-shooter bandwagons. This year, it’s all about new climbing and scaling moves (Splinter Cell: Blacklist, God of War: Ascension) and bows or crossbows (Tomb Raider, Blacklist). And that’s just a tiny sampling! -Dan “Shoe” Hsu

Best Emotional Rollercoaster: Watch Dogs reveal (multiplatform)

I’m beginning to think that the horrifyingly awkward Ubisoft briefing was all an elaborate plan to keep us confused and off-guard to maximize the impact of the Watch Dogs announcement at the end. There we were, all ready to leave (or turn off the livestream) and wash our hands of this whole ordeal, but Ubisoft had one more thing to show. “Fine,” we thought. “Let’s get this over with.”

And that is when Watch Dogs melted our goddamned faces off.

It didn’t happen immediately; that wouldn’t be enough of a mindjack. What we got first was a reaaaaaallly loooooooooong video about digital footprints and other lines that the Wachowski brothers cut out of The Matrix for being too pretentious. That’s when the awesome gameplay footage started, and we were like, “HOLYSHITTHISISAMAZING,” and we stayed that way until the hero drove off, and the camera pulled back to reveal a second character who had what appeared to be an online handle floating over his head. I don’t remember what happened after that because I was trying to figure out how that gameplay we’d just seen would work in online multiplayer, and what that would mean for everything, that I blacked out for about 10 minutes before waking up in a puddle of Mountain Dew. I hope. -Evan Killham

We’ll Just Go Ahead and Assume It’s the Richest Company: Gree

With a massive E3 booth (complete with a bar right in the middle), a ritzy after-show party with popular mash-up artist Girl Talk as the main attraction, and, of course, a huge hiring spree over the past few months in Silicon Valley, mobile publisher Gree seems to have plenty of moolah to toss around. We’re willing to bet that conversations in its check-writing department typically end with, “Go ahead and add a couple of zeros to the end of that figure.” -Dan “Shoe” Hsu

The Mr. Caffeine Memorial Cup for Special Achievements in Terrible Public Speaking: Toby (Ubisoft)

This cup is given in memory of Mr. Caffeine who spoke so ineloquently at the Ubisoft press briefing in 2011.

Ubisoft had a wonderful E3 press briefing this year, but that was in spite of a man named Toby Turner (or Tobuscus on Youtube). Comedian Aisha Tyler handled the hosting duties for the French publisher’s E3 event, while Toby stood backstage with a camera and made bad joke after bad joke. His banter with Tyler, which was apparently supposed to be playful, seemed to genuinely annoy the host. No one has seen Toby since, and witnesses claim Tyler sprinted away covered in blood. Don’t worry, Aisha, we’re on your side in this. -Jeff Grubb

Get more E3 coverage from our hub page.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The press events at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show are always a mixed bag. For each mind-blowing announcement, we get several less impressive reveals. The presentations themselves are similarly all over the place; between celebrity hosts, “celebrity” hosts, and company executives who aren’t always the best at off-the-cuff banter, viewers might occasionally find the proceedings too painful to watch.

Here are the most cringe-inducing moments from this year’s E3 press briefings. I considered including the live demonstration for the Kinect castle-destruction game Wreckateer, but that’s not really fair because public Kinecting is always awkward regardless of which game the person is playing.

Microsoft “Ushers in” Dance Central 3

OK, imagine this: You’re planning to announce the latest entry in a mega-popular dancing game from the developers of Rock Band. You have a few options for how to do so, including showing gameplay footage, doing a live demo, or just sending someone out to talk about what’s new this time around. “Pshaw,” says Microsoft. “What if we pre-record Usher talking about his songs being in the game and then have him do a four-minute performance that has nothing much to do with anything?”

That’s not to say that Usher didn’t dance the hell out of that dance, but this moment was so jarring and non-game-related that I couldn’t help but shudder and look away until it stopped.

Ubisoft cuts straight to the cringing

Developer and publisher Ubisoft was not content to make its viewers wait over an hour for someone to break out into song; it opened with that. The Ubisoft presser began with a sorta-demonstration of Just Dance 4, its own pan-platform motion-control dance title. It started out demo-y enough, with a crew of dancers showing off some of the songs from the game. It was kind of awkward, sure, but watching people dance in public usually is. Discomfort was still within tolerable levels, however.

…and that’s when Flo Rida emerged with a Bedazzled microphone to perform “Good Feeling.” Sure, it’s in the game and therefore kind of relevant, but we were all still recovering from that Usher thing.

Don’t accuse Ubisoft of not caring; it gives every kind of f*ck

Unfortunately, we’re not done with Ubisoft yet. Once the presentation proper began we got right on to the games, starting with developer Ubisoft Montreal’s upcoming open-world adventure Far Cry 3.

(This video is not safe for work, which is more warning than Ubisoft gave those of us watching from work.)

“Hello,” said the Far Cry 3 demo. “Here is some point-of-view footage of a topless woman gyrating.” Once it got past that, the trailer proceeded to drop more F-bombs than Quentin Tarantino. Not just spoken, either: They were also on television screens and even hidden in the studio credits, as one poster on NeoGaf discovered (that link is also NSFW).

Sony gets its nose stuck in a (Wonder)book

Every E3 has one presentation that goes on for far too long. This year, it was the one for Wonderbook, Sony’s augmented-reality suite for the PlayStation Move. It’s a cool enough idea, especially with the backing from Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling, but the live demonstration failed to capture the audience’s imagination. That might be because it was a live demonstration, and sometimes machines refuse to co-operate when they know a lot of people are watching.

(Skip to 1:00:34 for Wonderbook.)

It’s not just that the Wonderbook demo was kind of dry and hollow, but motion controls, more so than regular ones, have a higher burden placed upon them to work perfectly all the time. Every motion-control demonstration is one hiccup away from being just some poor person flailing uselessly on a stage.

Nintendo’s Scott Moffitt really wants to know…

Some of the most awkward moments in E3 pressers come from studio heads and company executives’ barely canned banter. I don’t really fault them for this; they’re not entertainers, and they don’t always know how to read a crowd or improvise jokes.

Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, took to the stage at Nintendo’s press event to showcase some of the upcoming titles for the 3DS handheld system. Before yielding the floor to Moffitt, NoA president Reggie Fils-Aime told him that they’d “carved out a few moments” for him. Moffitt, apparently seeing an opportunity to win points with the crowd, swung and missed.

(Skip to 37:49 for this incident.)

“A couple of minutes?” Moffitt asked plaintively. “Where’s the love?”

I’m guessing he was expecting a better response than the one he got, which is too bad because it was a pretty fair question. This example is not awkward because Moffitt said or did anything wrong; it’s awkward because his faith in that line makes his expression of disappointment and the need to get back on script more obvious and painful to watch. When I cringe at this, I assure you that it is the most sympathetic cringe possible.

Toby “Tobuscus” Turner tries really hard

I’m going to return to Ubisoft to close because that briefing had the highest concentration of uncomfortable pauses since that unfortunate Activision briefing back at E3 2007. Most of these came from the co-host, Toby “Tobuscus” Turner, who is best known for his humor videos on YouTube.

Unfortunately for Turner, YouTube prowess does not always translate to being the co-host of a multimillion-dollar live event, and pretty much every word out of his mouth made me wince. Host Aisha Tyler only added to the awkwardness by making it pretty clear that she was just as annoyed as we were — unless, of course, the event coordinators had merely devised the least effective hosting dynamic in history.

I’ll spare you the video on this one, but here are some examples of Turner’s spontaneous comedic stylings.

After the ZombiU reveal trailer, which includes a decapitation via bayonet: “He just cut off a head with a gun sword!”

Coming out on stage: “I dropped my mic!”

???: “I came out of the womb with an Xbox controller [. . .] It was strange because it hadn’t been invented. I must have invented it while I was in there.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Yannis Mallet runs the huge Ubisoft studios in Montreal and Toronto. Those teams are putting out sequels such as Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 3. Mallet’s job is to make sure the teams work on titles that will delight gamers and expand the audience for games. We caught up with him on Sunday in Los Angeles just before the start of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) video game show. Here’s a transcript of our talk.

Yannis Mallet: E3 2012, I think it’s a big E3 for Ubisoft, Ubisoft Montreal is putting out two of the biggest games that we’ve made, so I think it’s… I think it’s the strongest E3 lineup ever for Ubisoft Montreal. And I think it has to do with the brands. If you look at the brands we have, Assassin’s Creed III, Far Cry 3… The studio this year is celebrating its 15th anniversary, it’s been 15 years of growing the talent and growing the expertise. Capitalizing on the brands. I think that 15 years later, Assassin’s Creed III shows that this is a good strategy. Far Cry, you look at the game, for a big studio like us, it’s something we can be proud of.

GamesBeat: How many people is it now?

Mallet: In the main building in Montreal, we’re now at 2100. Add to that 200 people, or 300 people in Quebec City. Another 100 people we moved from Montreal… In Quebec, that’s a whole 2500 people.

GamesBeat: Wow. How many people do you have at the show this year?

Mallet: That’s a very good question. I don’t even know. I think we’re probably close to 400 people at E3, but that’s Ubisoft worldwide. So yeah, I think the main subject at the table here was the long-term prospects for our brands… I don’t think you can come up with such big brands like AC or Far Cry without building it on the long term. We’ve been doing that with AC, AC was the first actually to have this long-term building strategy. We have a name for that actually, internally… But the goal is to make sure that the brand grows from a content perspective, from a talent perspective, and the technology that runs all those games behind it. This is where the studio has a role to play. I think it’s a very specific studio, I don’t think you could find another studio like it in the world. We have all this talent we can benefit from, helping to improve the brand requires a strategy that we’ve been applying for quite some time now.

GamesBeat: How involved are you in the marketing of the games?

Mallet: Ubisoft has a very specific structure regarding marketing. On one side you have the creative people, the production people, and on the other side you have the marketing, which has to do with PR, marketing, sales. That being said, we in production have, embedded in the teams, some marketing people, more on the strategy side of marketing, they work with the creatives, but they are actually creatives also, as well as marketing professionals. They help us early in conception, early in the production process, to think about what we’re about to produce and make sure that we are making the right calls in terms of market relevance. Positioning… We build the positioning up front, actually, from way before we hand off to operational marketing. Past FPP and… “FPP” stands for “first playable publishable,” this is a very… As in the name, it’s the first milestone, the first deliverable, where we have a vertical slice of the game, the systems, the settings, the main character… The fhree Cs, camera, control, character, et cetera. That is enough for us to use our prediction tools, prediction methodology, the team can prove the concept…

GamesBeat: Is this like a proof of concept…?

Mallet: I think it depends on different definitions in the industry. I think “proof of concept” sometimes comes earlier than that. It relies less on “are we able to produce that game?” and more on “what we want to make.” FPP has both, which proves to be very interesting to us, because once you hit FPP and you greenlight the project, then you’re pretty much sure, pretty much confident, that you have everything it takes to make the whole game. Because you’ve tested everything in terms of technology, talent, systems… Everything. You proved to yourself that you are able to produce the game with its full scope because you’ve made a vertical slice of it. Two percent, five percent, that’s FPP. After FPP we start to talk to operational marketing and say, hey, we have this game, blah blah blah.

GamesBeat: What’s the kind of spill rate? What percentage of those go on to become full games and what percentage do you say, no, this isn’t going to make it?

Mallet: I’ll probably give you a very intriguing answer here… The higher the better, in a way, because you want to make sure that you’re not producing a game that doesn’t fulfill the fun requirements, the market appeal requirements. You want to make sure that you’re not going to screw everything up in production when you have a big team and a big budget. You want to fail fast. I don’t mean that the rate is high, I mean that we are very mean to ourselves on that milestone, because it’s a very important milestone. And also, it varies very much from team to team and brand to brand. It depends on the maturity of the teams, the maturity of the brand, the maturity of the technology. This is where the strategic thinking of how to plan the brands and plan the project around the brand is very important. As you may guess, on Assassin’s Creed, which is our most mature brand, mature in the sense that the teams are senior and everything, the technology is tested… We have very low rates of failure at FPP, because we know how to make an Assassin’s Creed game.

GamesBeat: I had heard a while ago that you had more than 500 people on it…

Mallet: Yeah, absolutely. In Montreal we have a lot of people in the production phase… Again, the production phase is when we know exactly everything we have to produce, we know how to produce it, we know it’s going to be good, so we can put a lot of people on it. It’s a monster game, it’s a massive game. But we don’t come up to 500 in Montreal. There are other studios that help us on out that.

GamesBeat: That’s how you can get one out every year?

Mallet: Also. Although Montreal is always the lead on that, meaning that the core design, the setting, everything, is made in Montreal, and all the other studios are helping on parts of the game, like Annecy working on the multiplayer side for Assassin’s Creed. Our Quebec CIty studio is also working on it, Singapore is working on it. It’s important to say that Assassin’s Creed III had three years in development. When it ships we’ll have three years. It’s not as if the idea is to throw a huge amount of people at it to do the game in a year. This is where the solidity of a brand like Assassin’s Creed is formed… We keep hearing that some people may think that with one game every year, you get a fatigue of the brand or the teams. Actually, no, because we could make, with several teams on one brand… Well, it’s pure maths. With two teams you can have a two-year development cycle and make a game every year. With three teams, you can have a three-year development cycle. This is what we’re applying…

GamesBeat: Is that typical? Have you been able to reduce the amount of production time, or is it always…?

Mallet: It depends on the project and it depends on the studio. Assassin’s Creed III was the first one to benefit from three years of development after AC1. Because AC1 had to build the whole technology at the same time as we made the game.

GamesBeat: Is there any similarity to Call of Duty and how many resources Activision puts into it? Is there something very different about how you do Assassin’s Creed?

Mallet: Well, I can’t really speak for Activision and how they do things. It’s very hard to get… You guys would actually know more about that, really. They have several teams, we know that. Infinity Ward and, what’s the name of the other studio?

GamesBeat: It’s more than 500 people too.

Mallet: So yeah, we’re working on big games now.

GamesBeat: Is it basically after the success of the first one that you realized that much activity? Three games in the works at once or something like that?

Mallet: Yes, but in the meantime we were able to anticipate a lot on that… We were able to anticipate the success of Assassin’s Creed one. I think that we hit the right target and the right numbers with this one. So we can manage the studio and the team on that brand. Because you have to picture yourself… When you invest in four years of technology, on a team, on a game, and you decide to push this new IP, you expect it to be going on afterwards. So…

GamesBeat: How did you select the colonial period? I can see how at some point you’re going to run out of history…

Mallet: You would think so, you would think so…

GamesBeat: Of course, you could always do a prequel…

Mallet: You know, you would be surprised. We have content in Assassin’s Creed III that is already planned… That has us looking as far as beyond 2018, beyond 2019. So history is our playground, definitely, and history is rich. No worries on that one. Really no worries.

GamesBeat: Do you feel an advantage in that… Activision takes a lot of heat for putting out Call of Duty every year. I haven’t heard those sorts of complaints about Assassin’s Creed, even though it’s an annual franchise. It seems like from my perspective, the king of the hill is always the one that takes the heat from people on those forums… Does that work to your advantage, as far as your place in the industry…?

Mallet: I wouldn’t put it that way. I would say that as long as you can innovate and come up with new, interesting content, then you’re fine. I think, you know… I think people sometimes are quick to say, oh, we have too much of this, too much of that, but it’s not really that they have too much, it’s just that sometimes it may mean that it’s not good enough, or it starts to fade from your interest because it doesn’t manage to bring something new and interesting. As long as we do that, I think we’re fine, and I think that with the brand we’ve been able to prove that, which is why we had to plan ahead, enough R&D, enough team, with the liberty and the freedom to think about that without being in a shipping mode… Each Assassin’s Creed actually came out each year with some interesting new stuff. I think that’s more the answer.

GamesBeat: Are you able to keep Jade Raymond out of the equation now, when she’s so busy with other things. I talked with her back at GDC, she said that was the hardest thing she ever had to do, was walking away from Assassin’s Creed.

Mallet: She was ready to do something else. But I understand. Most of the people we place in charge at Ubisoft from a production standpoint, they have a strong content orientation. I think also this is part of… I hope this is part of the success. It seems to work okay. And Jade, as I used to be myself, which is why I can understand her… We used to be very much invested in content, with our own teams. It’s so fascinating when you work on a brand like Assassin’s Creed, you know. I think this refers to that, you know? But she was definitely ready to help us tremendously on another level. Acting as a leader, I think our job is to find other leaders.

GamesBeat: I hear that Canada is the third largest country for game employment now…

Mallet: Yeah, I heard that too.

GamesBeat: That happened very fast.

Mallet: Yes, it was very fast. But at least for now, we’ve had growth that isn’t insane. It’s still manageable. There are still a lot of young people that are training to join the video game industry. So we have found, in Montreal and in Quebec province, very good talent, people who can help us in building this industry. We can say that after 15 years of being a leader in the industry over there, I think we’ve also helped to make this industry an ecosystem that is viable, with a lot of different companies, different-sized companies, not just video game developers, but also middleware developers… There is an equilibrium that is sane and healthy for the industry right now. And we need to protect it.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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