VentureBeat » Injustice: Gods Among Us

May 2013 NPD: 3DS sells well on strength of Donkey Kong and Luigi

Jeffrey Grubb — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:12:44 +0000

The sale of new physical games at retail retreated another 25 percent in May, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group.

Total game sales at physical stores like GameStop and Best Buy totaled only $386.3 million. That’s down from $517 million from the year before. It’s important to emphasize that these numbers do not include digital sales of games on services such as the PlayStation Network or Steam, used games, or even mobile games.

“When taking into account our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales in May such as used and rentals at $91 million, and our estimate for digital format sales including full game and add-on content downloads including micro-transactions, subscriptions, mobile apps, and the consumer spend on social network games at $339 million, the total consumer spend in May is $787 million,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement.

We have more in-depth hardware numbers, and we’ll get to the software chart in just a second.

Before we do that, just a quick note about the NPD numbers. These charts and figures aren’t inherently important. Millions in sales are happening outside of what The NPD Group can monitor. The true value of the NPD is that Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and some other publishers continue to use it as a way to make business decisions. If you want to know why one game series is left behind while a publisher decides to create another military first-person shooter, the NPD chart is one reason why.

OK, now on to the software chart:

Software

Injustice: Gods Among Us (360, PS3, Wii U)
Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, PC, Wii U)
Donkey Kong Country Returns (3DS, Wii)
Dead Island: Riptide (360, PS3, PC)
Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
Metro: Last light (360, PS3, PC)
NBA 2k13(360, ps3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC)
BioShock Infinite (360, PS3, PC)
Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)
Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (360, Wii, DS, PS3, 3DS, Wii U, Vita, PC)

That’s two months in a row for Injustice in the top spot, which indicates more of a weakness in May’s new releases than it does the strength of Warner Bros. DC fighting game. Outside of Metro: Last Light, the only other May release on this list is Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. That game and Luigi’s Mansion helped propel the 3DS to one of its best months in a while.

In total, software sales were down 31 percent from $255.4 million in 2012 to $175.1 million last month.

“Nintendo 3DS software-unit sales were up 60 percent versus May 2012,” said Callahan. “And when looking at the game ranking based on SKUs, there were three 3DS SKUs in the top 10.”

Still, the 3DS and Metro: Last Light couldn’t fill revenue vacuum left by Blizzard’s Diablo III release. That title, which sold in the millions, caused 2013 to drop 44 percent by comparison.

Hardware

The Xbox 360 outsold the Wii, Wii U, and PlayStaiton 3 for the 29th month in a row. Microsoft revealed that the Xbox 360 sold 114,000 units in May. Nintendo’s 3DS handheld was the top-selling console overall, although the publisher didn’t reveal the specific sales numbers.

In terms of total console and portable sales, revenue dropped to just $96 million, which is down 31 percent from $139 million in the similar period a year ago.

Nintendo, which has skipped sending out NPD press releases for the last few months, sent out one to trumpet the success of its portable device.

But the company didn’t have anything to say about the Wii U’s performance. Instead, it pointed out that it is scheduling one game a month for the console through the end of the year. It has Pikmin 3 in August, The Wonderful 101 in September, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD in October, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in November, and Super Mario 3D Land in December.

Nintendo will have to hit big with those games as both Sony and Microsoft plan to launch their next-gen consoles before year’s end.

Filed under: Games

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GamesBeat weekly roundup: Google’s game service, EA axes online passes, and a look at The Last of Us

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:31:32 +0000

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

This week, Google held its annual I/O conference in San Francisco, revealing plans for cross-platform Google Play support, Electronic Arts decides to kill its online pass initiative that forced used game players to pay for multiplayer access, and GamesBeat gets an early look at Naughty Dogs’ upcoming project The Last of Us.

You’ll also find a review for Metro Last light and previews for Scribblenauts Unmasked and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

News

Google I/O

Nintendo Direct

Earnings and funding

New content

Tech

Mobile news

Interviews

Previews

Reviews

Metro: Last Light refuses to let you go (review)

Strange happenings

Pieces of flair

Filed under: Games

Similarities between Injustice: Gods Among Us and the Justice League cartoon

Chris Hoadley — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:00:02 +0000

This story contains spoilers for Injustice: Gods Among Us

Professional wrestling has an unwritten law called the “Seven Year Rule,” where a company can reuse a successful gimmick or storyline once the original viewers have grown up and a new generation of fans unaware of past history sits at ringside. The narrative of Injustice: Gods Among Us, the fighting game based on DC Comics’ line of superheroes, decided to wait a decade before returning to a successful plot from the past.

A lot of players and reviewers caught that the plot of Injustice mirrors that of the classic Justice League episode “A Better World,” a two part arc where the dream team faced a more totalitarian version of themselves called the Justice Lords, who enforced peace by restricting liberty. Many characters from the series are playable in Injustice, and even voice actors like Kevin Conroy (Batman), George Newbern (Superman), and Susan Eisenberg (Wonder Woman) reprise their original roles. Of course, it’s impossible to tell stories that are 100 percent different from anything else — the cartoon version itself based the idea on old comic book “multiverse” tales about The Crime Syndicate of America — and solid execution can still make it fun to go through. But just how closely do the cartoon and game follow each other?

Filed under: Games

Candy Crush Saga dominates a volatile casual gaming market

Jeffrey Grubb — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:54:29 +0000

Casual gaming is big business. It’s also an ever-changing landscape in which no market share is safe.

In April, developer King ruled the casual market on Facebook and mobile with its Candy Crush Saga. Meanwhile, former top dogs Zynga and Disney are shedding active users.

“King’s color-matching [puzzler Candy Crush Saga], which debuted last November, now holds the No. 1 ranking in all of our mobile top-grossing charts and is No. 1 by daily active users on the Facebook platform, while placing No. 2 on our Facebook top-grossing chart behind Zynga’s Farmville 2,” Cowen and Co. analyst Doug Creutz wrote in a note to investors.

Creutz notes that companies like Electronic Arts, DeNA, Gree, Supercell, and Kabam are emerging as market leaders alongside Zynga and Disney. King is the most significant competitor to those more-established industry titans.

“Zynga.com [is] shedding players fast,” said Creutz. “We estimate that the average number of players on Zynga’s homegrown gaming platform dropped by 20 percent during April and is down 33 percent since January.”

Similarly, the Cowen analyst see trouble with Disney, who doesn’t have a top-grossing mobile game in the top 20. This is a big change from when Where’s My Water? was the puzzler capturing the casual zeitgeist.

“Marvel: Avengers Alliance on the Facebook platform is Disney’s sole entry in any of our charts,” said Cruetz. “By contrast, big-media peer Warner Bros. appears to be gaining momentum by placing in the top 10 on both the iPhone and iPad charts.”

Warner Bros. fighter Injustice: Gods Among Us is currently the eighth highest-grossing app for the iPhone.

Filed under: Games

You can make a snack before these fighting game supermoves finish

Chris Hoadley — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:00:32 +0000

Updated at 6:20 p.m. Pacific with corrected video timestamps and on May 5 with updated information on Page 3.

Everything is subject to desensitization. In professional wrestling, a leg drop was once a finishing maneuver. Then it became a basic part of many wrestlers’ tool kits, so now they have to do the leg drop from the top rope or off a ladder to stand out. Eventually someone says “Screw it: I’m going to do a leg drop off the top of the Titantron!”

Fighting game supermoves have undergone a similar transformation. What were once merely enhanced versions of special moves are now extended showcases of flashing lights, bone-shattering blows, and dynamic camera angles. Let’s take a look at the evolution of these ultimate attacks and find out how we’ve come to this point.

Note: I’m counting the length of the supermove from the moment the move activates (the “superflash”) to the moment the character can move freely again. For Fatalities and Instant Kills that automatically end the round, I’m counting the moment the move activates to first indication of the KO screen.

The Street Fighter Super Combo

Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Chun-Li’s Senretsukyaku:
1.5 seconds

Back in the day, the First Lady of Fighting Games’ Senretsukyaku (Super Lightning Legs) lasts barely more than a second if it connects.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike: Chun-Li’s Houyoku-Sen: 2.9 seconds

Super Combos were a big hit, so the World Warriors got more of them in the Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter III series. This barrage of kicks takes twice as long as the original version, as Chun-Li now takes time to sting her foes with both legs and a straight-up thrust kick. I guess that’s why it has a different name from before. But it’s still fairly brief.

Street Fighter IV: Chun-Li’s Hosenka: 8.1 seconds

In the SF4 games, landing the new, glossier Ultra Combos takes greater priority over mere Super Combos. The posing Chun-Li does before and after her Hosenka are about as long as the attack itself, and other Ultra Combos give people enough time to mimic the motions before returning to play without any problems. What happened?

Filed under: Games

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GamesBeat weekly roundup: A new social gaming King, big Xbox announcement May 21, and more

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:23:27 +0000

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

This week, Microsoft announced that it will unveil the new Xbox console on May 21, Nordic Games Licensing acquires both Darksiders and Red Faction from the THQ bankruptcy auction, and Candy Crush developer King overtakes Zynga as the largest social gaming company.

You’ll also find reviews of Monaco, Dead Island: Riptide, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Defiance, as well as previews for Call of Juarez: Gunslinger and Kingdom Rush: Frontiers.

News

Mobile News

Earnings and Acquisitions

Tech

Woops

Nintendo’s new plan

Nextbox

Microsoft officially revealing next-generation Xbox on May 21

All This Funding

Reviews

Previews

Interviews

Pieces of Flair

Filed under: Games

Injustice: Gods Among Us is superpowered insanity (review)

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:13:50 +0000

Injustice: Gods Among Us is a silly name for a game focused on one of the most disastrous “What Ifs” in DC Comics: What would happen if Superman lost his mind? The answer is create a menacing one-world government fueled by his descent into madness. Built in a similar style to NetherRealm Studio’s successful Mortal Kombat games, Injustice scales down the gratuitous violence just a tad and replaces it with sheer superhuman spectacle.

I’m the biggest fan of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, but Injustice redeems itself with a touching and well-executed story mode that makes you feel like you’re doing more than playing one arena fight after another. Most of all, NetherRealm manages to make the audience care about Superman — a feat rarely achieved thanks to the character’s seemingly impervious moral code.

Good, dynamic Superman stories are possible. Legendary comic book writer Alan Moore proved that in For the Man Who Has Everything, a story arc in which Mongul (the ruler of the weapon-planet Warworld) imprisons the Man of Steel in his mind, and the only means of escape is to destroy what he cherishes most. Injustice takes that sentiment and makes it a thousand times worse, and sprinkles in a touch of interdimensional travel.

What you’ll like

Over-the-top but totally accessible combat

Characters in Injustice build individual fighting styles off of the same basic set of controls. One quick combo for Superman has the same controls as a similar attack for Batman, but only the speed of the strike differs. Heroes (and villains) that use special powers, like Green Lantern and his ring, also have switchable fighting stances. Injustice introduces these mechanics with Batman and Superman. Once you master those two, you can control anyone. The real difference between “tech” and “super-powered” characters is just how fast they are.

Where the combat really shines is Injustice’s clever take on the classic Mortal Kombat fatality. Rather than splattering ridiculous amounts of blood everywhere, these special supermoves highlight the excesses of a character’s power. When you use Hawk Girl’s special attack, she grabs her opponent by the collar and hurls them into the sky, where she repeatedly beats them with her mace before hurling back toward the ground. You get a light amount of blood splatter from this, but you’re more overwhelmed by the sheer spectacle than by the gore. She didn’t have to repeatedly bash your face in while falling through the air, but it sure looked cool.

The best thing about Injustice’s design is that it works well with a normal controller. A lot of fighting games feel stunted when you use a standard directional pad or analog stick instead of a fighting stick, but Injustice keeps up. I’m sure I would have had an easier time besting the A.I. if I were using a stick, though.

Intriguing story mode

I love Injustice’s story. It’s rare that I find myself caring about Superman. He’s too good, too shiny, and that generally leads to flat stories about triumphing over evil. But when his stories truly captivate me, Superman is struggling with himself to do the right thing for mankind. Without giving too much away, this tale utilizes many of the same elements found in Greek mythology, primarily Hercules’ stories. Hercules and Superman are very similar – both are powerful figures but are often blinded by their naïve hope that the world isn’t full of corruption.

Injustice preys on Superman’s worst fear: that he is unknowingly used as a weapon. This has direct ties to a Hercules myth where he commits terrible acts of violence thanks to Hera’s manipulation. In Injustice, the Joker assumes the role of Hera as he pushes Superman beyond his breaking point.

Mostly, I really like being able to draw mythical connections in popular culture.

Smashing through walls and throwing missiles

One of the most iconic things about superheroes is how most of them use their environment to do the fighting. Throwing cars and crashing through buildings is an everyday occurrence in most comics, and brought to life in the interactive stages in Injustice. Each arena has two segments that fighters can bash through. If you’re unlucky enough to get thrown from one part of the stage to the other, you’ll see your character crash through walls, planes, and giant fans as they tumble to the next area.

Beyond throwing people around, each stage also has usable items like discarded missiles and cars. Correctly timing your attack near one of these objects will cause your character to pick up or smash someone into them with all their might. My particular favorite moment was repeatedly smacking the Flash with missles as he tried to throw me.

What you won’t like

Online multiplayer

The trouble with playing fighting games online is that a lot of players will focus on easily exploitable tricks and moves to dominate the rankings. From my admittedly brief experience with this, I saw a lot of ranged characters crouching in the corner of the screen just spamming their long-distance attacks. I’ve even seen two of the same character repeatedly shoot at each other in the most boring fight, ever.

Rather than risk attacking up close and deal with the quagmire of blocking and throws, a lot of people playing online right now focus on such exploitative tricks. I didn’t particularly enjoy how gruff assassin Deathstroke moved while playing through the story mode, but every other person I encountered online used him. Deathstroke as a relatively simple long-range attack and is the main offender in crouching on one side of the level and just unleashing hell.

Hopefully, as more people start playing Injustice, this experience will change. Right now, I am so sick of seeing Deathstroke fight himself.

Repetitive computer behavior

Fighting titles are notorious for imbalanced challenge in their later stages, and Injustice definitely suffers from that. But the challenge I faced while finishing up the story and battle modes was the A.I.’s overreliance on a small set of moves — most of which are virtually unblockable throws. You can counter a throw in Injustice, but the timing is difficult, and I’ve honestly not pulled it off outside of the slower-paced training sessions.

Did this color my opinion of the A.I.’s behavior? Absolutely. I do not enjoy the feeling that I’m punching at a brick wall that seems to get priority over every combo I pull. You can do some amazing, and devastating, things in Injustice, but the artificial intelligence is right behind you. My strategy against this was spamming a quick set of moves in turn so I would move in fast and do a simple three button sequence to keep the A.I. at bey.

I don’t like playing that way, but I was beating the computer at its own move-spamming game. Hopefully you have better luck countering throws.

Touchy interactive items

I really love the interactivity found in Injustice, but sometimes it simply doesn’t work. Using items against your opponent is the same as executing a throw, only when you input the move in front of an interactive set piece, you will use that rather than the scripted throw animation. This requires you to position yourself with care or time your jumps so you can bring ceiling elements down on your enemy’s head.

The trouble is that when you’re rushing back and forth across a stage, this is often cumbersome. I rarely used the ceiling attacks, largely because the A.I. seemed to always lock onto them perfectly despite my repeated attempts to use the action previously. Stage transitions also seemed very tricky to use correctly, and most of the time I had to wait for my opponent to throw me before I could see the rest of a stage.

These are really cool elements in theory, but the often hectic pace in the average fight makes using items and transitions tricky.

Conclusion

Injustice’s greatest strength is that it makes you feel powerful regardless of your skill level. Even when you are struggling to overcome a series of grueling attacks, breaking through that with a well-placed combo or ridiculous supermove brings out the wonder in controlling an iconic hero or villain. NetherRealm was very clever with how they brought out the Mortal Kombat in Injustice. You get just enough MK for the fighting system to feel familiar, but not enough that you’re constantly suffering at the hands of other players who are much more experienced.

I wish Injustice felt more balanced. Maybe it’s the unpredictable nature of the interactive environments, or the frustrating move-spamming, but I frequently felt I was beating my head against a wall. Injustice really wants to bring in inexperienced players, and it is very approachable at first. But playing online or slogging through the various challenge modes becomes infuriating as you pick up on how your opponents exploit the game in ways you likely won’t understand at first.

Score: 85/100

Injustice: Gods Among Us is a fighting game released April 16, 2013 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U. Warner Brothers provided an Xbox 360 copy of the game for this review.

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat weekly roundup: Disney shuts down Junction Point, GTA V delayed

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 19:58:21 +0000

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

This week, Bethesda finally announces The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim expansions for the PlayStation 3, Disney shuts down Epic Mickey developer Junction Point Studios, and Rock Star pushes the Grand Theft Auto V release date to Sept. 17.

You’ll also find reviews for Antichamber, Omerta: City of Gangsters, Fire Emblem: Awakening, and Skulls of the Shogun as well as previews for Tearaway, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Serious Sam Double D XXL.

News:

Mobile News:

Interviews:

Previews:

Reviews:

Community Spotlight:

Pieces of Flair:

Filed under: Games

Injustice: Gods Among Us is not a reskinned Mortal Kombat (hands-on preview)

Giancarlo Valdes — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:00:44 +0000

Deathstroke was kicking Batman’s ass. The sheer amount of bullets that the supervillain fired into the air juggled Batman as if he were a bowling pin. The Dark Knight had seen better days.

But this defeat isn’t a true example of the difficulty that Injustice: Gods Among Us offers. A technical hiccup made Deathstroke untouchable in my first three fights against him — though I suppose that’s fitting, given the assassin’s history with Gotham’s infamous crime fighter.

NetherRealm Studios takes its first stab outside of Mortal Kombat fighting oeuvre with Injustice: Gods Among Us, which comes out April 16 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U. The roster is a “who’s who” of superheroes and supervillains from the DC Comics pantheon: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, Green Arrow, and many more.

This isn’t the first time NetherRealm has gleefully played with DC lore — the team was also responsible for the 2008 release of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Without any trace of its long-running gory tournament series within Injustice, however, NetherRealm is free to craft an entirely new fighting game that it hopes stands apart from the monumental shadow of Mortal Kombat.

The backgrounds are just as important as the characters

To distance itself from the Mortal Kombat games, Injustice introduces a new unconventional set of tools that you can use to destroy your opponents. You can interact with specific items in each stage to trigger a variety of attacks if you meet the right conditions. In Metropolis, you can make an APC vehicle shoot your opponent if you knock them into the air in front of it and press the right bumper on the Xbox 360 controller.

On a level that appeared to take place in the Justice League’s orbiting Watchtower, I made Batman grab flying robotic drones and toss them at Lex Luthor. Not every character can interact with these levels in the same way. In the story mode’s first fight between Batman and Deathstroke in Arkham Asylum, Deathstroke used a gurney to quickly bounce up and over the caped crusader before I could blink. If you used Superman or the hulking undead behemoth Solomon Grundy instead, they’ll just pick it up and smash their opponents.

“The successful players [will be] the players that are going to incorporate the background elements into the match versus just trying to play it like a normal fighting game,” said NetherRealm Studios producer Hector Sanchez. “That’s why the arena choices are so important at the beginning of a [multiplayer] match. Do I want to play in a match where someone has the opportunity to keep throwing stuff at me, or do I want to play a match that’s more about positioning?”

It’s an odd idea that’ll take some time getting used to. A practice mode explains the finer details of each level, pointing out all the objects you can use and how much damage they do.

Staying in the fight

One aspect of fighting games that is easy to take for granted is the round system: Battles visibly begin and end with specific animations as one character perishes, with a large number on your TV indicating the start of the next bout. That’s why it took me so long to realize that Injustice doesn’t have any rounds at all. Instead, characters have two health bars layered on top of each other, and when one of them loses the first part, the action briefly pauses as that character picks themselves up again.

This lack of interruption is also seen in the story mode, which moves at such a brisk pace that I was completely caught off-guard by Deathstroke’s attacks after a cutscene smoothly transitioned into the fight. Sanchez explained that this was one of the top priorities for Injustice creative director (and Mortal Kombat co-creator) Ed Boon, who wants the presentation to go “completely flawless.”

For some of these storytelling segments, you don’t even have to put down the controller. Timed minigames appear for certain groups of heroes and villains, and the outcome determines how much damage your opponent will already have going into the fight. One such event takes place when playing as Batman: Lex Luthor starts charging toward you, and you have to throw your Batarangs to slow him down.

It’s not a big deal if you miss some of the button prompts since you can’t really “fail” — your opponent’s health bar will just remain full or barely unchanged. But if you succeed, you’ll have a definite advantage.

“This was just a way that we could kind of evolve the presentation so it wasn’t just story scene, fight, story scene, fight,” said Sanchez.

It worked rather well. The narrative hooked me in right away and didn’t let me go until the demo’s cruel cliffhanger, where Batman and friends were racing to stop the Joker from activating a dangerous weapon. That scene had enough tension and drama to fill up an entire graphic novel. But this was just the first chapter.

Filed under: Games

Need a statue of Wonder Woman lassoing Batman? The Injustice Collector’s Edition has that

Jeffrey Grubb — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:42:57 +0000

The Feng Shui in my entertainment den is slightly askew. I know! I just need a 13-inch statue of Wonder Woman kicking the crap out of Batman with a maniacal grin on her face.

The DC Comics fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us is due out in April of 2013 for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. That gives fans plenty of time to pre-order the $99.99 Collector’s Edition of the brawler, which comes from publisher Warner Bros. Interactive and Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealms .

This special package includes an exclusive statue of Wonder Woman beating Batman with the Last Son of Krypton’s escape ship while standing on Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.

I feel like this introduces some continuity errors.

According to the press release, the bundle also includes a special version of “a brand-new DC Comics series.” We’ve asked DC Comics for details about the book, and we’re awaiting its response.

NetherRealms is also packing in a download code for the DC Universe animated film Justice League: Doom and three exclusive character skins for Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Designers created those skins from imagery of DC’s rebooted The New 52 universe.

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat’s E3 2012 Game of the Show…plus staff picks

Dan "Shoe" Hsu — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 23:33:24 +0000

Each year, during the various press conferences surrounding the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) game-industry trade show, people applaud. Some of it’s polite (some guy we don’t care about is getting on stage). Some of it’s fanfare (yay, a new Zelda!). Some of it’s fake rah-rah (come on, we know you’re employees trying to pump up the crowd).

But once in a while, it’s pure, legitimate wow.

An extended, genuinely enthusiastic ovation awaited the conclusion of publisher/developer Ubisoft’s demo of Watch Dogs, a new modern-day drama/action/adventure game with a touch of cyberpunk. It’s stylish. It’s violent. And it’s oh-so-pretty. Of course, it’s way too early to judge whether this upcoming (date: TBD) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC release will be any good or not, but read our quick-look preview and peep the gameplay video below to see why we picked Watch Dogs for GamesBeat’s E3 2012 Game of the Show.

Ubisoft’s thriller wasn’t the only star of E3. Here are the final top-threes by the rest of the GamesBeat staff who were in attendance at E3 2012. (To check out more coverage of any of the games, just click on the tags below the article or follow our E3 tag.)

Dan “Shoe” Hsu, GamesBeat editor-in-chief

1. The Last of Us (PlayStation 3)
2. Watch Dogs (multiplatform)
3. Dishonored (multiplatform)

Dean Takahashi, GamesBeat lead news writer

1. Beyond: Two Souls (PlayStation 3)
2. The Last of Us (PlayStation 3)
3. Watch Dogs (multiplatform)

Sebastian Haley, GamesBeat culture editor

1. Metro: Last Light (multiplatform)
2. Watch Dogs (multiplatform)
3. The Cave (multiplatform)

Omri Petitte, GamesBeat writer

1. Watch Dogs (multiplatform)
2. Assassin’s Creed III (multiplatform)
3. PlanetSide 2 (PC)

Mike Minotti, GamesBeat writer

1. Assassin’s Creed III (multiplatform)
2. Disney Epic Mickey: The Power of Illusion (3DS)
3. Rayman Legends (Wii U)

Jacob Lopez, GamesBeat writer

1. Watch Dogs (multiplatform)
2. The Last of Us (PlayStation 3)
3. Scribblenauts Unlimited (Wii U)

Stefanie Fogel, GamesBeat writer

1. The Walking Dead — Episode 2: Starved for Help (multiplatform)
2. Borderlands 2 (multiplatform)
3. Quantum Conundrum (multiplatform)

Rob LeFebvre, GamesBeat writer

1. Watch Dogs (multiplatform)
2. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PlayStation 3)
3. Gravity Rush (PlayStation Vita)

Rus McLaughlin, GamesBeat writer

1. Watch Dogs (multiplatform)
2. The Last of Us (PlayStation 3)
3. Tomb Raider (multiplatform)

Eduardo Moutinho, GamesBeat writer

1. Star Wars 1313 (multiplatform)
2. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (multiplatform)
3. Injustice: Gods Among Us (multiplatform)

Please vote for your own favorite in our poll and explain your vote in the comments.

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.

Filed under: Games

The top 15 swag shirts of E3 2012

Rus McLaughlin — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 15:42:36 +0000

If you’re a journalist who hits enough behind-closed-doors appointments at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, someone will offer you something. Maybe just a bottled water. Possibly an art book. Almost certainly a USB hub that transforms into a USB robot (nope, not making that one up). Swag is the universal language of E3, as ubiquitous as booth babes and banner ads.

Apparel, however, rules the show. Nothing marks status like walking around the L.A. Convention Center with a fairly exclusive — and free — t-shirt nonchalantly draped over your shoulder. And these were the absolute best shirts (plus a few extras) we saw…or took home ourselves.

Filed under: Games

Injustice: Gods Among Us lets DC superheroes fight to the death (preview and image gallery)

Dean Takahashi — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:00:26 +0000

DC Comics’ superheroes were never eviscerated quite like this on the illustrated page. But the kid gloves are off in Injustice: Gods Among Us, the newest fighting game starring DC heroes such as Superman and Batman.

From NetherRealm Studios, the makers of last year’s Mortal Kombat reboot, comes the latest action fighting game. The game lets you select from the iconic superheroes from the DC pantheon. The fighting takes place in a variety of backgrounds such as the Bat Cave, and the fighters are depicted in near photorealistic animation. Plenty of blood flies in the game, which is likely to be rated Teen.

“We want to introduce new things in the fighting genre,” said Ed Boon (pictured right), creative director at NetherRealm Studios, in a presentation to games journalists. “We’ll have an elaborate story to go with it, too.”

That includes taking something from the background and using it as a tactical weapon. For instance, you can back up to a spot where you can fire missiles from the Batmobile damage your attacker. The environments will corrode over time as the fighting takes its toll. Once you tear up one arena, the battle transitions to another with different objects that you can use.

Boone showed us a battle between Solomon Grundy and Superman. They can abuse each other in all the usual ways possible in a fighting game. But Superman can launch a special attack where he can wind up and punch Grundy into outer space. It’s funny to see the view of the fight pull back and then see Grundy leave the earth like a rocket and fly into space and come back down. Grundy can pull a tombstone out of his chest and hit Superman with it.

We also saw a battle between Batman and Wonder Woman. Batman can use his Batwing and grapple wings to hook and attack Wonder Woman from afar. Wonder Woman has a Golden Lasso that she can use. She can jump into the air and use the lasso as a kind of whip. And she can fight with a sword and shield. Batman can pull out gadgets. He can pick her up and bash her head on the car, and Wonder Woman can pick up the car and throw it on top of Batman.

Boone said that his team of artists is doing their own version of the heroes’ costumes.

The game is using a modified version of the Mortal Kombat engine. Boone said there isn’t an exact count of characters yet, but the game will have as much content as Mortal Kombat had.

The game is coming out in 2013 on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Other platforms are under consideration.

Filed under: Games

Warner Bros. unveils Injustice: Gods Among Us superhero fighting game

Dean Takahashi — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:16:24 +0000

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment plans to launch a superhero fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us, in 2013, according to GameSpot. The title is being created by NetherRealm Studios, maker of last year’s popular Mortal Kombat reboot.

In this game, DC superheroes including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman will pound each other to smithereens in destructible environments. The game will feature the pantheon of DC characters and it poses the questions, “What if our greatest heroes became our greatest threat?”

NetherRealm creative director Ed Boon is working on the project along with comic book writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti. The title is a one-on-one fighitng game where superheroes and villains can battle. In the game, you can rumble with special powers and use the environment to your advantage. For instance, in the Bat Cave, you can move past a certain spot and trigger the launch of missiles from the Batmobile.

[Image credit: GameSpot]

Filed under: Games