This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

Even though it was only announced yesterday, the November 5 release of Call of Duty: Ghosts is already available for preorder at numerous retailers. At the time of writing, three retailers are offering bonuses with the game. The most enticing deal on the PC download comes from GameFly in the form of a $7 digital download credit that’s yours as soon as Ghosts releases.

If you’re more of a console gamer (or just don’t want to wait half a year for a $7 credit), Best Buy’s got an alternative deal that applies to the PC physical and console editions. You’ll be out around a hundred bucks because they make you purchase an additional game, but you get instant gratification in the form of a $15 gift card that doesn’t just apply to downloads. If you’re already tempted to buy an additional title and are resigned to the fact you’ll probably buy something else from Best Buy soon – because let’s face it, those marked up HDMI cables have a draw on you – this deal isn’t half bad.

Call of Duty: Ghosts preorder comparison

Just over a month after its critically acclaimed release, BioShock Infinite finally gets a discount on the console versions that beats the best current PC download deal. Best Buy is offering $15 off Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, bringing them to $44.99. This makes the lowest price we’ve seen for the console game by $3, and it saves you $12 off the current next best deal out there.

If you want to live dangerously on both sides of the law, Green Man Gaming’s offering a dual pack of downloads that’ll let you commit or solve crimes, depending on which angel on your shoulder has your ear at the time. They’ve bundled both Max Payne 3 and LA Noire for $16.

This combo price ties the lowest summed price we’ve seen the games sell for separately, but you’ll also get the Max Payne 3 Rockstar Pass DLC. The lowest we’ve seen the Rockstar Pass go for in the past is $7, so effectively you’re getting the full games at lowest ever prices plus a free DLC. Both games received stellar reviews, so if you haven’t played one or the other, this is a great time to buy.

Hot deals & recent releases

Nov. 5: Call of Duty: Ghosts + $7 Digital Credit (PC Download) — $59.99 at GameFly. Currently the only preorder bonus deal available for the PC download version.
 

Bioshock Infinite (Xbox 360, PS3) — $44.99 at Best Buy. First time the console versions have a solid sale that makes them cheaper than the PC download version. Who’s the gaming master race now?
 

Max Payne 3 and LA Noire Pack (PC Download) — $16 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. A great bundle with two excellent, well-reviewed games plus their additional content.
 

Dragon Age Complete Pack (PC Download) — $9.99 at GamersGate. Includes the Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition and Dragon Age 2. Separately $40.
 

PC download pack & bundle deals

Batman Arkham Complete Collection (PC Download) — $27 at GamersGate. Includes Batman Arkham City Game of the Year Edition, Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition, plus two LEGO Batman games.
 

Codemasters Racing Pack (PC Download) — $21.75 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Pack includes DiRT 3, Dirt Showdown, FUEL, and GRID – a decent set of racing games whose titles make grammarians involuntarily cringe. Separately these would normally cost $80.

Sonic the Hedgehog Bundle (PC Download) — $21.56 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. This bundle includes a whopping ten Sonic game downloads.

Omerta: City of Gangsters and Port Royale 3: Pirates & Merchants Bundle (PC Download) — $19.99 at GameFly. A weird combo for sure, but the odd pairing doesn’t diminish the bargain.
 

Tomb Raider Collection (PC Download) — $12 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. If you want to grab everything before the most recent Tomb Raider title, this is easily the cheapest way. Nine titles.
 

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Collection Bundle (PC Download) — $8.99 at GamersGate. This is the base game plus two DLC packs. Normally $30.
 

Tropico 4 Collectors Bundle (PC Download) — $8 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. You’ll get a great city-building sim game plus 7 DLC packs for less than two DLC packs normally cost.
 

Patrician: Complete Pack (PC Download) — $7 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. The pack contains Patrician IV Gold Edition and Patrician III. If historical trading sim games are your thing, grab this pack.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Complete (PC Download) — $5.99 at GamersGate. Excellent PC RPG for an even better price. This bundle comes with all 3 released expansions.
 

Dungeons & Dragons Anthology: The Master Collection (PC Download) — $5.99 at GamersGate. If you love the D&D RPG system, you’ll want to check out this collection, which includes classics like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment.
 

Kane and Lynch Pack (PC Download) — $5.60 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Contains Dead Men and Dog Days. If you’ve never played this third person shooter, it’s certainly worth considering for under $6.

Gothic Complete Collection (PC Download) — $5 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Includes all three parts of the saga. Next best is $25 at GamersGate.
 

Just Cause Pack (PC Download) — $5 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Contains Just Cause and Just Cause 2. If you bought each game separately, they’d add up to $19.
 

360, PS3, and PS Vita deals

May 14: Metro: Last Light Limited Edition (Xbox 360, PS3) — $49.99 at NewEgg. Comes with “Ranger Mode” – an exclusive weapon and 100 military-grade bullets. List is $60.
 

June 14: The Last of Us (PS3) — $49.99 at NewEgg. Still a hot, eagerly anticipated title, and Newegg is clearly capitalizing on the hype.
 

June 25: Muramasa: Rebirth (PS Vita) — $29.99 at NewEgg. Hand-drawn graphics, ninjas, and evil spirits. You really can’t ask for more from this Wii port.
 

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3) — $39.99 at NewEgg after coupon. A new style of action-oriented gameplay for the Metal Gear series. Next best is $46 at JR.com.
 

Gears of War: Judgment (Xbox 360) — $34.99 at NewEgg. Yep. You can rip off gods’ heads with your bare hands, but you can’t open locked treasure chests.
 

Sleeping Dogs (PS3, Xbox 360) — $19.99 at Groupon. Good price for the console versions of this open-world game which hardly ever goes on sale.
 

Hardware

Alienware M17x r4 1080p Gaming Laptop — $1,874 at Dell Home after coupon. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 2GB Radeon HD 7970M, and 8GB RAM. List is $2,149. Deal expires today.
 

Alienware Aurora Gaming Desktop — $1,719 at Dell Home after coupon. Specs: Quad Core i7-3820 Overclocked 4.1GHz, DUAL GeForce GTX 660, and 16GB RAM. List is $1,924. Deal expires today.
 

Alienware X51 Gaming Desktop — $689 at Dell Home after coupon. Specs: Core i5-3330, 8GB RAM, and GeForce GT 640. List is $799. Deal expires today.
 

Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 1080p Gaming Laptop — $879 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, 12GB RAM, GeForce GT 750M 2GB, and 1TB HDD + 16GB SSD.
 

Lenovo IdeaPad Y400 Gaming Laptop — $749 at Lenovo after coupon. Specs: Core i7-3630QM, GeForce GT 750M 2GB, and 8GB RAM. List is $1,249.
 

---

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!

---

Once again, it’s time for our panel of video-game characters to get some skin in the game!

Super Bowl Sunday! That glorious national holiday where America shuts down to watch the best commercials of the year and some sports that happens between them! And this year, we get the Cain and Abel goodness of brothers John and Jim Harbaugh coaching the rival teams. Thanksgiving is going to suck at their house.

But enough trivialities! What say you, panel of experts? In the epic clash between the San Francisco 49ers versus the Baltimore Ravens, who shall reign supreme?

Launch the gallery to see the future!

---

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!

---

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.

---

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!

---

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)

---

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!

---

This was an outstanding year for video game music. Professional musicians from various genres all contributed pieces to very unusual places, and many up-and-coming indie composers stole our hearts with their emotional scores. In fact, it’s pretty difficult to find a game with a bad soundtrack these days.

Below is GamesBeat’s choices for the best soundtracks of 2012. It’s an eclectic mix of indie, dubstep, and classical composition that aptly reflects this year’s dynamic music scene.

But because this was such a big year for soundtracks, we also have a few honorable mentions, so be sure to check those out, too.

The Best Video Game Soundtracks of 2012

10. Max Payne 3
Composer: Health

Few songs are quite as lingering as “Tears” on the Max Payne 3 soundtrack. “Tears” lingered in the background of numerous commercials for the game, often playing while the down-and-out protagonist walked away from explosions. It’s an apt summation of the game’s sound and inspires thoughts of edgy spy dramas and sweaty action flicks.

Pairing “Tears” with other tracks from the album like 9 Circulos and Combat Drugs, the Max Payne 3 soundtrack expertly sets the scene of a scumbag ex-cop doing bad things in South America.

9. Mass Effect 3
Composers: Cris Velasco, Sascha Dikiciyan, Clint Mansell, Sam Hulick, Christopher Lennertz, Faunts

Mass Effect has always had a clean, space-age feel to its music, and Mass Effect 3 takes that to a new level. None of its music is overly bombastic, but you do feel a sense of urgency throughout. Melodic, determined pieces inspire us to take in-game decisions very seriously, and you can definitely feel the weight of your choices hanging in the air around you while listening to this score.

8. Skylanders Giants
Composer: Lorne Balfe

Lorne Balfe’s most notable compositions feature prominently in splashy action films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Inception, but his transition to video games is where he really shines. Balfe scored both Skylanders games, but Giants is where his whimsical style really comes to life. Skylanders Giants owes its jaunty atmosphere to Balfe’s music, and it feels like a proper epic adventure because of it.

7) FTL: Faster Than Light
Composer: Ben Prunty

Is it possible to feel space? FTL is about exploration and space combat that’s also fiendishly difficult. Ben Prunty’s soundtrack amplifies the vastness and danger of space with spangly synth sounds that make you feel like you’re floating among the stars.

It’s also fantastic listening to both the exploration and battle variants of each song in the game. Afterward, you can also feel the expert sound mixing as you play FTL.

6. Borderlands 2
Composers: Cris Velasco, Sascha Dikiciyan, Jesper Kyd, Raison Varner

Borderlands 2 is a space Western, and its mix of airy, sometimes-mechanical tones bring that concept alive. While you scour Pandora for crazier weapons and combat ruthless enemies, the soundtrack is always there, sending out tension tendrils every time you trigger a fight or find a cool location.

Borderlands 2 actually shares two composers with Mass Effect 3, something that isn’t too surprising when you listen to the game’s more action-oriented songs. Velasco and Dikiciyan are masters of incidental tension.

5. Lone Survivor
Composer: Jasper Byrne

Silent Hill composer and creator Akira Yamaoka was on to something when he joined swirling, dreamy guitar sounds with metallic clangs. Lone Survivor’s soundtrack flirts with harsh, chaotic tones while wrapping the game in a melancholy melody. Listening to this soundtrack brings back very powerful Silent Hill memories, and it’s nice to hear that sound live on. The spooky score will unnerve you as you explore Lone Survivor’s gloomy environment.

4. Halo 4
Composers: Neil Davidge, Kazuma Jinnouchi

Few games have soundtracks as passionate as the Halo series. I liken them to Disney films such as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast for the emotional depth in the music alone. Halo doesn’t have discernible lyrics, but it inspires a wide spectrum of feelings. Halo 4 does this more competently than Halo 3 while sprinkling in a fair amount of easily dubstepped beats.

You should feel elated during some scenes in Halo 4, as well as very tense. This isn’t just because of the gameplay, but because the soundtrack plays well with the scenery to deepen your experience.

3. Fez
Composer: Disasterpiece

Fez’s soundtrack is a twinkly adventure all on its own, but pairing this with its sometime mind-bending gameplay creates a nostalgic feeling. Disasterpiece’s sound is best described as 8-bit epic and manipulates a similar electronic sound as Angelo Badalamenti’s work for the early ’90s TV cult hit Twin Peaks.

Fez’s score is inexplicably haunting at times, and many tracks would be just as effective if you played them over stock footage from an old lumber mill and a massive water fall.

2. Sound Shapes
Composers: I Am A Robot and Proud, Beck, Deadmau5, Jim Guthrie

Sound Shapes hit the pinnacle for interactive music. As you guide your musical blob through increasingly treacherous landscapes, your actions build the various parts of the song playing in the background. Building music as you play is an addictive holdover from rhythm games like Rez that works as you leap from precarious ledge to precarious ledge while avoiding baddies that want nothing more than to stop the music.

1. Journey
Composer: Austin Wintory

Game soundtracks exist to heighten emotion in any given scene. In Journey, Wintory’s music is often our only companion, a score drifting delicately on the breeze waving the character’s scarf. While sometimes mournful, Journey’s score urges us to embark on an epic quest fraught with danger and sometimes crushing loneliness.

Journey’s soundtrack is absolutely the most emotional and beautifully composed score for any game in 2012, and Austin Wintory definitely deserved the Grammy nomination he earned.

Next page: Honorable Mentions

Honorable Mentions

4. Silent Hill: Downpour
Can Silent Hill ever be the same without Akira Yamaoka’s soundtracks? Downpour does an excellent job standing apart from Yamaoka’s signature style while still invoking the disjointed musical universe surrounding the Silent Hill series. The only thing it’s missing is a song with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn on vocals.

3. Gravity Rush
If you’ve ever wondered what anime soundtracks influenced by French street music sprinkled with a dash of Star Wars composer John Williams sounds like, look no further than Gravity Rush. Each track amplifies its sometimes manic flying and world-bending platforming.

2. Persona 4 Arena
Most of the music in Persona 4 Arena first appeared in the PlayStation 2 role-playing game Persona 4, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome in 2012. Shoji Meguro’s score is incredibly energetic, lending itself perfectly to a fighting title.

1. Syndicate
Cyberpunk was once completely composed by Greek electronic and ambient musician Vangelis in my mind, but dubstep is taking over. Dubstep pioneer Skrillex’s contribution to Syndicate’s soundtrack is probably one of the most face-smashing sounds in 2012, but the rest of the music feels very inspired by it. If you want to feel like ripping out someone’s neural implant, I suggest taking Syndicate for a spin.

---

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!

---

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.

---

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!

---

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

---

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!

---

If you’ve ever magically combined herb plants into pills in Resident Evil 6 or wondered how Max Payne could survive shoving a ton of painkillers down his throat, then you realize that video games aren’t known for their sound representation of science. But for most of them, that’s fine! Like books, movies, and TV shows, they require some suspension of disbelief.

But those that do base their fictions off of real-world research could use some improvement. That’s where the group of scientists working at Thwacke come in. In addition to posting articles that explore topics like nanotechnology in Metal Gear Solid or genetic modification in BioShock, its staff provides consultation for developers looking to incorporate science into their games.

Among its handful of clients is InXile Entertainment, who hired Thwacke to help “shape the science fiction“ of Wasteland 2, the sequel to the beloved 1988 post-apocalyptic role-playing game (which later inspired another end-of-the-world RPG, Fallout).

“I find it’s just great to have another set of really smart eyes looking at everything we do,” said Brian Fargo, the chief executive of InXile and one of the co-creators of the original Wasteland, in a phone call with GamesBeat. “So for me, it goes beyond their science background on things … . They’ve really been great [at] throwing out all sorts of ideas. And all of my writers have used pieces of what they’ve thrown out. It really has helped make the product better.”

GamesBeat reached out to Thwacke co-founder Sebastian Alvarado, a Ph.D candidate in pharmacology at the Montreal-based McGill University, to find out just what the firm can contribute to the development process.

GamesBeat: What’s the founding story behind Thwacke? Was it because of something you and your colleagues noticed was lacking in the video game industry?

Sebastian Alvarado: I was midway into graduate studies at McGill and had the opportunity to visit the studio of a developer here in Montreal. As I walked through their studio, I saw a member of their team Wikipedia-ing “DNA.” Having dedicated my career to studying DNA, I realized that the knowledge that we take for granted in academia could be very useful for the entertainment business. To me, that incident emphasized the huge gap between legitimate research and public knowledge.

I decided that something had to be done, and it had to be done by highly qualified and creative scientists who played video games.

GamesBeat: What role can Thwacke’s consulting play in game development? Do you work specifically with writers and designers? Is it better if you’re involved in the process early on?

Alvarado: Although we can provide input at almost any stage of development, we mostly work early on the conception of a project with writers and with designers. We work with writers to craft plausible narrative — world building — and with designers to align a scientific concept with a design mechanic.

We do this with an extensive network of academics covering every discipline. For example, in Wasteland 2 we were asked which animals that would survive a nuclear fallout and why. In this case we found specialists in environmental biology, medicine, and evolutionary biology to craft science into ideas that can be used in game design. This saves researching time for writers and allows them to focus on gameplay. This out-of-the-box approach has been able to spark new directions for narrative and gameplay that wouldn’t have otherwise been explored.

In later stages of development, we usually work on easy-to-implement text-based assets. In Wasteland 2, we will be doing this for a side mission that involves pages in a wastelander’s logbook. This information is optional but adds depth to narrative and immersion for those willing to read it.

Pages: 1 2

In gamer talk, Nvidia says it is unveiling a new weapon of choice for gamers today. In English, that means a new graphics chip. Starting at $299, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti GPU (graphics processing unit) is a new midlevel graphics chip that can keep up with the latest high-end PC games.

The new chip, pictured within the add-on graphics card above, is based on the powerful Nvidia Kepler architecture that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company introduced in March with its high-end chip, the GeForce GTX 680.This new chip is the kind of gadget that will help the PC take back the throne of top gaming machine from the video game consoles.

When Nvidia launched that chip, it reclaimed the throne as the world’s fastest graphics chip, something only gamers or scientists at NASA could appreciate. The new chip will make its way to more of the mass-market, price-conscious gaming enthusiasts. As such, Nvidia says it will bring blazing-fast game graphics to a much wider market.

The chip is a sequel to the GTX 560 Ti (based on the previous-generation Fermi architecture) from 2011. The 660 Ti is 41 percent faster than the 560 Ti, and it is 58 percent faster than the GTX 470 chip from 2010. The 660 Ti falls below the GTX 670, GTX 680, and dual-GPU GTX 690 in the graphics hierarchy. As such, it is Nvidia’s most affordable high-end chip.

The GTX 660 Ti has support for DirectX 11 tessellation, TXAA, and PhysX technologies. That means it will play games faster, with smoother imagery and more realism. Using tessellation means that a character such as Max Payne from Max Payne 3 will have ears that look real, rather than blocky or jagged (as pictured). It can drive three displays from a single graphics card. James Wang, product manager, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the 660 Ti can keep up with rival cards that cost $50 more while consuming 25 percent less power.

Nvidia said that the 660 Ti will run Max Payne 3 at 44 frames per second, compared to a barely acceptable 29 frames per second on the GTX 470. The new Secret World game will run at 61 frames per second on the 660 Ti, compared to 31 frames per second on the GTX 470. The TXAA anti-aliasing technology means that buildings won’t shimmer when you move down a street in a realistic shooter game.

When you put two GTX 660 Ti cards paired together in a single machine, the performance beats rival Advanced Micro Devices’ chip by 21 percent. Those who buy a new GPU from a participating retailer or web site will get a voucher for a free copy of Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 2, which launches next month. Borderlands 2 runs at 78 frames per second on a 660 Ti, compared to 45 frames per second on a GTX 470. Nvidia says the 660 Ti is 20 percent to 30 percent faster at running games than the AMD Radeon HD 7870.

The 660 Ti is based on a 28-nanometer Kepler architecture (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter). It has 1,344 CUDA cores and consumes 150 watts of power.

Suppliers shipping cards with the new 660 Ti include ASL, ASUS, Colorful, ECS, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, Jetway, Leadtek, MSI, Palit, Point of View, PNY, Sparkle, and Zotac.

---

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!

---

For gamers, that’s good news. The Grand Theft Auto series has a cult following that has gone mainstream. In 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV sold more than 6 million units in its first week, grossing more than $500 million in revenue. Expectations for GTA V are likely to be higher than that, given the huge growth in the installed base of consoles since 2008. Game fans are salivating at every rumor.

Strauss Zelnick, the chief executive and chairman of Take-Two, said on the analyst call yesterday that the Rockstar team was making “substantial progress” on GTA V, but he declined to disclose a release date for the game. At the same time, Zelnick only slightly lowered the expectations for annual sales for the fiscal year, even though the company missed its target by a long shot in its first fiscal quarter.

Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Securities, said that he does not believe Take-Two can hit its target for revenues in the year ending March 31, 2013 unless it ships GTA V. Take-Two is targeting revenue of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion for the year, with 55 percent of that figure coming from Rockstar (about $963 million) and 45 percent ($788 million) from the 2K Games label. For Rockstar, the Max Payne 3 title is expected to generate no more than $250 million in revenues, and the company’s older catalog of games could generate $150 million. That leaves $563 million in revenue for the fiscal year that Pachter believes could only come from GTA V.

But the chances for an announcement are declining. Rockstar made no announcement at E3 in June, and speculation is mixed about whether it will announce the game later this month at Gamescom in Germany. Pachter expects that a preholiday release is less likely but still possible, but a first calendar quarter release in 2013 might be likely.

Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie Research, agreed that GTA V is likely to ship in the current fiscal year. Atul Bagga, an analyst at Lazard Capital, added that the management guidance suggests GTA V will ship in the first calendar quarter of 2013. Whenever Take-Two makes the announcement, the stock will probably take off, said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird.

Take-Two could always delay the game and lower its earnings in the future, but that’s a pretty big bomb to drop on a stock that has been battered this year due to missed expectations for games such as Spec Ops: The Line and Max Payne 3. But Zelnick has always been willing to take short-term hits in favor of long-term investment, and the Rockstar leaders, Sam and Dan Hauser, are the ones in charge of production on GTA V. And they’re not known for shipping games early.

---

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!

---

Game technology and development company NaturalMotion has raised $11 million from venture capital group Benchmark in a second round of funding. It will use part of the investment to open a U.S. headquarters in San Francisco, Calif.’s SoMa district, which is also home to competing mobile developers Gree and Zynga.

If you’ve played major console releases like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed or developer Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption, and Max Payne 3, you’ve seen NaturalMotion’s tech in action. Its Euphoria engine creates animations that simulate body movement rather than relying on premade clips, so characters move and react realistically when you shoot or Force-push them.

NaturalMotion, founded in 2001, currently employs 130 people in offices in Oxford, London and San Francisco. In 2010, it opened NaturalMotion Games to bring its innovations to mobile devices.

“We realized the iPhone was becoming fast enough to run our technology, and we founded NaturalMotion Games [to] create mobile social games that combine console quality with mobile usage patterns,” company chief Torsten Reil said in a statement to GamesBeat. “We focus on ultra-high-quality 3D visuals and compelling characters and [gameplay], and our first six games have all been global Top Ten App Store chart successes.”

NaturalMotion’s games include a mobile version of Parker Brothers’ block-stacking game Jenga and football titles like NFL Rivals and Backbreaker. Its first free-to-play iOS game, the equine ownership sim My Horse, launched in September 2011 and has generated over 10 million downloads.

Moving forward, all of NaturalMotion’s games will be free-to-play. “We love the ability to reach that many people and the sustained revenue profile,” Reil said.

The NaturalMotion chief also says that 3D graphics are the future of mobile development and that the company’s continued focus on visual technology will ensure its success.

“We believe that creating rich, believable visual experiences is becoming the key differentiator in mobile social games,” Reil said. “Animated movies had their Toy Story movement, which meant the end of the previously dominant 2D films, and mobile games will go through the same transition. We’ve seen early evidence of this with our My Horse game — the download numbers and engagement have been off-the-scale for us.”

You can read the full press release here.

---

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!

---

Right now, the quickest way to make Slatoff go quiet is to mention Grand Theft Auto V, the highly anticipated next installment in a series that has set records for blockbuster video game sales. Take-Two’s Rockstar Games label is expected to release GTAV sometime this year, though an exact launch date hasn’t been revealed. It’s just the kind of title that could get the game industry out of its funk — a result of the lack of new consoles.

The game isn’t at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) video game trade show this year, and neither is Rockstar. There’s plenty of speculation about the title, but Take-Two has to keep mum. Slatoff still had plenty to talk about, however, when we caught up with him at the E3 this week in Los Angeles.

GamesBeat: Now that it’s out in the open, what do you think of all the console makers and their announcements at E3?

Karl Slatoff: You mean the lack of announcements? Well, let me ask you a question. What do you mean by their announcements?

GamesBeat: Anything that’s interesting to you as far as what your people are going to have to do. Platform-level things, the Wii U…

Slatoff: We’ve talked about the Wii U for quite some time now. We’re doing NBA on the Wii U, so we think it’s a pretty interesting platform, and it could have some good features that work well with certain games. We’re actually really excited to support it.

GamesBeat: It seemed like it was going to have just one tablet per Wii U machine, and now they’re talking about two. I’m not sure if they’re really prepared to tell everybody, here’s how you do a game for two gamepad tablets.

Slatoff: It might. I can’t really talk about the tech because that’s not what I do. I’m sure the guys at Nintendo have figured out a way to make that work pretty seamlessly.

GamesBeat: Tablet against tablet for two players seems fundamentally necessary, especially for the game you’re talking about.

Slatoff: Yes, but that’s interesting, we’re excited about that.

GamesBeat: And the asymmetric stuff, does that have some appeal as well? One tablet against for Wii controllers?

Slatoff: I think it could. Again, I haven’t seen any iterations of it specifically as it applies to any of the things that we’re prepping on at this point. Any feature that’s new is interesting. I think it could have interesting applications depending on how people work with it.

GamesBeat: And now the level of the tech is on par with the Xbox 360 and PS3, and that might make cross-platform games easier [from a dev perspective].

Slatoff: It’s HD, right? That’s a lot of development right there. From that perspective I think it will. But every platform has its own unique challenges and opportunities. It’s a more powerful machine that we can use, that could be a core gaming machine, that’s obviously something that’s really appealing to us.

GamesBeat: How’s the lineup for you guys?

Slatoff: You’ve seen it. Between Spec Ops: The Line, we’ve got a fantastic lineup. I think it’s the best lineup the company’s had in this short period of the its history. Following up we’ve got Borderlands, we’ve got XCOM: Enemy Unkon, BioShock Infinite, GTA as well. I think we’re in pretty good shape. I don’t think we’ve been in this position before, so we’re excited.

GamesBeat: But you’re not telling people enough about GTA.

Slatoff: We’re not telling them anything. We’ve said all we’re gonna say about GTA. It is in development, and obviously it’s very important for us.

GamesBeat: Are you preparing to deal with all the gamers that are here at E3 going, “I WANNA SEE IT”?

Slatoff: Every year we do it … and the thing I always find interesting [is] you’ve got people who are always predicting, “Are they going to announce something about that title during E3?” And I’m not sure that’s ever happened. I don’t see why they’re so surprised that Rockstar’s not here and they’re not saying anything about the title. But we’re used to dealing with the questions.

GamesBeat: The balancing out of the portfolio, does that still look good for you guys as far as non-GTA years and GTA years? There’s been an imbalance in the past.

Slatoff: I think it does. We’ve had a profitable year without GTA releases. We did not do that this past year. We had planned on doing that, but we had to move some titles around. So I would say that it depends on when releases come out. Whether it’s going to be profitable or not without GTA really depends on that. But one thing for sure is, I think it’s hard to argue that we are 100 percent dependent on any one given title. Because we do have so many titles that have performed as well as they have. I think our intellectual property at this point in time is unmatched in the industry. We’ve got a huge franchise with NBA, BioShock, Borderlands, Red Dead, GTA, Civilization… What else? I’m missing some, there are other ones out there, but those are pretty big titles, like Mafia. All of them I think are capable of going into the next generation and beyond.

GamesBeat: How many people are you guys now, how many studios?

Slatoff: What did we say the official studio count is now? It’s like 15, and about 1700 employees, development employees worldwide? It depends on what you count.

GamesBeat: It sounds like it’s more than this time a year ago.

Slatoff: No? I think it’s probably about the same. Slightly more?

GamesBeat: It seems like some of the competition might be getting smaller in the core console space. THQ is weak right now. They’re still doing games, but… Does it feel like there’s a thinning-out of the console competition?

Slatoff: Well, look, there are people announcing studio closures all the time. Doing the shovelware doesn’t work anymore. You need to actually have something that’s going to get consumers out of the chairs and into the stores or online to download a new game experience. That takes a big investment, and it takes a sophisticated marketing organization to do it, and I don’t think that every studio or publishing system… We’re not all created equal that way. I think that you’ve seen some of the shakeout …  at this point the consumers are really looking for something that’s compelling and unique every time they go out to buy a game. For us, I think that positions us very well, because that’s really been our strategy for a good number of years.

We don’t come out with a thousand releases a year, and we never have. We’re obviously focused on profitability, but quality, we believe, drives profitability at the end of the day. So for us this is a good thing.

GamesBeat: And at the same time there’s this growing competition in the mobile-social-online…

Slatoff: We get that question a lot, and we are active in the mobile space, we’ve released a good number of titles in the mobile space. We’re only talking about iOS and Android, in that regard. But we really think about the games first. We don’t think about platform first. We think, first and foremost, is it a casual experience or is it a core gaming experience? And then the second lens, is it a single-player experience or is it a multiplayer experience? Those four components, that axis, that’s how we manage our business.

If we’re looking to build a core single-player experience, we’re going to think about that experience creatively and then we’re going to build it for the platform that can support that experience. So for us, whether it’s an iOS and Android platform, a console platform, a PC platform, it really doesn’t matter. We don’t care. Obviously platform will dictate how you develop to a certain degree, but for us it’s always judging the creative experience. I would say that something like Max Payne or GTA is actually a core gaming experience that you can experience on tablet platforms. They’re just from older generations. But for the most part, tablet gaming has been more casual. I think that will change over time, and should the tablet ultimately become a core gaming platform, obviously we’re going to be there, because we’re there now doing it.

I don’t really see it as competition from tablet, I see it more as the platform is evolving. That presents an opportunity for us, because I think they will be ubiquitous, and the barrier to entry for the consumer to get into the gaming space may be lower now. Because you’ve got a tablet that has multiple functions. If you have a tablet and that’s your gaming device, that’s fantastic for us, because that barrier is gone for the consumer.

PR: One thing that’s interesting to note, too, as we’ve taken advantage on the PC platform with things like Steam, tablets give us great opportunities, Karl mentioned GTA3… We have this incredible catalog of titles that we can go back and see, you know, what classic games, if you will, that were amazing experiences, can we bring back to these tablet platforms? I think our position of being able to create AAA games gives us the added strength of, those become AA catalog titles over time. It’s been a very important part of our business.

GamesBeat: Like on Steam as well, and OnLive?

Slatoff: Yes. Everyone says they’re platform agnostic, and you can’t be 100 percent platform agnostic and be in this business. So that’s a little bit of hyperbole. But we try to be as much as we possibly can. We don’t really care how it’s delivered. Because there’s nothing on the horizon that we see from a development perspective that we don’t feel like we’re prepared to develop for. And I actually don’t believe in the notion of certain devices having natural price point limitations. I think that what people are willing to pay has to do with the content that they’re getting. Today, you may not be able to sell a game for more than 10 dollars or 6 dollars or $4.99 or whatever the price point may be on iOS, but that’s because the game’s probably not worth that much. It’s not delivering the kind of experience that you’ll get when you play BioShock Infinite. The day it does deliver that experience, then I think there will be plenty of opportunity for us.

GamesBeat: It seems like the console guys are sort of differentiating themselves with variations of tablet, touch, and gesture.

Slatoff: There’s some of that.

GamesBeat: It looks like everybody’s still trying to find exactly what it is.

Slatoff: It depends on what the functionality is meant to do. My personal opinion is, having played a lot of games on tablets, SmartGlass is kind of a tough thing to use for a core gaming experience. We’re used to the controller.

GamesBeat: Real time.

Slatoff: If you play Max Payne, it works, but is it the same as holding that controller in your hand? Really having that tactile control over your character? I think for real-time experience, you need that kind of control. And if you’re playing Call of Duty, without the fine motions… I think that certain platforms have limitations. I think SmartGlass is one of them. But they can be overcome with peripherals and software and so on.

GamesBeat: Faster speed.

Slatoff: Yes, there’s processing power limitations as well. We know that will improve. Tomorrow’s tablet will be as fast as today’s gaming PC, someday.

GamesBeat: Are you officially investing in next-generation R&D?

Slatoff: We haven’t really talked about next gen, specifically because our first-party partners haven’t talked about it. But it’s obviously coming at one point in the future, and we’ll be ready for it. Just like anybody else. Obviously it’s something we think about, something that we’ll be well-prepared for.

GamesBeat: The Nvidia guys are talking about a resurgence in the PC. Do you see that happening as the console generation stretches out?

Slatoff: Depending on the titles that are coming out in this period of time, I think that there’s always an opportunity for PC gaming to grab a little bit of share of the market. I’m not sure if that’s a function of the PC gaming market growing, or if it’s a function of people buying fewer consoles during that period of time. I do think the PC market is robust, and things like Steam help, because that’s a much better experience. Obviously the PC gaming audience has embraced that. And I think those platforms are getting better and better. There’s more than just Steam, there are other platforms as well.

That’s the most powerful gaming device on the planet, the PC gaming device, so it’s a good gaming device. I think there’s always opportunities for that segment to grow.

GamesBeat: In the core space, it looks like there’s your model. And then there’s the come-out-with-the-same-franchise-every-year model.

Slatoff: That’s right.

GamesBeat: That’s all that’s left. It sounds like you guys are not believers in…

Slatoff: Well, it depends on the title. Look, we put an NBA game out every year. So obviously for that type of title, that makes sense. We have not gone the route of Call of Duty with any of our franchises. Call of Duty is also becoming less and less about that single-player experience and more about that multiplayer experience. They’re fantastic at what they do. I think it may make more sense for something like Call of Duty to just iterate on a yearly basis. You can almost see it iterating into an online, a pure online play someday. Who knows what Activision is thinking about doing? But for that type of franchise that may make sense, because it is so much about the multiplayer.

When you’ve got a solid, narrative-driven single-player experience, it’s difficult to come out with something fresh and new every year. Every time we release something, we’d love to take the IP to the next level, so we start building franchises. And doing that every year is something that we find very difficult to do.

PR: We’ve used the James Bond analogy. One of the reasons the James Bond movie franchise is so successful is that they’ll come out with this amazing experience, and then they go away for a period of time, and people are really clamoring for it, and then when it comes it’s bigger and better than the previous one. The audience is really hungry for it. I think part and parcel with our commitment to high quality titles that are really leading-edge.

GamesBeat: You want to stay away from the James Bond video game model.

Slatoff: No, we’re not doing a James Bond video game. But you know, the other outline, as well, is that we also really strongly believe in investing in new IP. There is a finite amount of resources that any game company has. You can always do more deals and more deals, but any given company has a finite number of resources. And if we dedicated everything to just doing sequels, trying to get something out year after year, that may work for a period of time in terms of exploiting the profitability, but if you’re not investing in the future, you run the risk of becoming irrelevant. We do strongly believe, I think you know that, and I think the industry understands that too, that investing in new IP is something that you have to do continuously. If you have to take some resources off sequel IP to do so, we’re willing to do that.

GamesBeat: Did you read David Kushner’s book ["Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto, about Rockstar games and the evolution of Grand Theft Auto"]?

PR: We’re not gonna comment on that.

GamesBeat: You’re more at the edge of that, although Take-Two was right in the middle of it…

Slatoff: You mean from a timing perspective?

GamesBeat: Your experience personally.

Slatoff: I didn’t read the book, so I don’t really have any answers. Did you read it?

GamesBeat: Yes. I didn’t realize how much of the inner circle conversations came out in the FTC paperwork. It seems like a lot of it came from just looking through emails that had to be disclosed in the FTC investigations. I was surprised. At least it was a decent portrait of the whole idea of a game company just pushing for content that adults like. As developers get older, they like Game of Thrones on HBO. There’s this content there that people don’t associate with kids, right? He got this point across, that these guys were pioneers in that sense.

Slatoff: I can’t speak to the book at all, but in terms of the industry evolving, there are segments, like any entertainment industry… We used to get this thing about video games as a toy. Obviously they don’t do that anymore. I think the technology’s evolved and the storytelling, the art has evolved, to the point where video games have arrived, and we’ve got kids’ stuff, we’ve got teen stuff, we’ve got adult stuff. And I think that’s an indication that the video game industry is becoming a traditional entertainment business.

PR: There’s less of a disconnect. As somebody who’s been in the industry for 15 years, as Karl said, there was definitely that connotation of, it’s toys, it’s for kids, and even though the products are rated, even though the FTC keeps complimenting our industry on self-regulating and empowering consumers with more information than most other entertainment properties to make educated decisions, there’s still that perception of… These are kids’s toys and such. I also think the ESA has done a pretty good job of helping to get that messaging out about… Really letting the broader media and population know that the vast amount of people playing these games are adults. As you said, as your tastes evolve, they’re going towards experiences that are relevant and on par with the films they go see, or TV shows they watch.

Slatoff: And the channel’s done a pretty good job of enforcing it. I’m not all on top of it, but I’ve read articles on people looking at it, that video games are better than movies at actually self-regulating. Not allowing content that’s not supposed to go to minors get into the hands of teens.

GamesBeat: The cinematic part of Max Payne 3 — I love it. I was sort of getting a feel for it, Max Payne 3, a shooting game, lots and lots of shooting, and then this Last of Us that Sony’s been showing. There are differences — you kill one person in a scene here, or you kill eight people in The Last of Us, and that’s a very gut-wrenching scene. In Max Payne you’re killing thousands of people. One of them is a game, one is almost more like a movie. The thing that strikes me is this is a little more moving, because it’s like a life and death struggle for every kill, every death. Games that are really upping the drama of each situation — it seems like a very compelling way to make games. But it doesn’t always make the gamer happy.

Slatoff: It’s hard to find that balance. And I think Max Payne does a great job of finding that balance, because you can feel the angst as you’re playing. But it’s a shooter. In a shooter you want to be able to shoot stuff, and I think it’s pretty good at delivering both. I think what you find out, when you play Spec Ops, is you’re going to feel some of that drama. There’s a big element of that in Spec Ops, and I think that’s one of the differentiating factors of the narrative, the single-player narrative is so strong compared to some of the other military shooters that are out there. You’re going to see some of that. I agree, I think that’s exciting, and I think that helps evolve the art form, but at the end of the day, it’s a game and you want it to be fun. You want to be able to shoot stuff if you’re playing a shooter.

GamesBeat: The storytelling front seems like it’s a really interesting place for differentiation in the space.

Slatoff: The Rockstar guys have always been about storytelling, too. They make great games as well. But the writing and the underlying stories have always been a huge part of what they do. So I agree. I think that the combination of both is really where you go. Sometimes I think you can go too heavy one way or the other.

---

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!

---

Take-Two Interactive‘s Max Payne 3 has shipped about 3 million units to stores since its debut on May 15, the company announced today.

It remains to be seen how many of those units will be sold through to consumers, given that the title debuted on the same day as another blockbuster, Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo III.

Max Payne 3 shipped internationally on May 18 and will be available for the PC on June 1. Downloadable content (DLC) will be available starting in June and extend through the fall. Max Payne shipped on mobile platforms April 12. Those mobile platforms can play the same version as the original Max Payne, which shipped on the PC in 2001.

Strauss Zelnick, chairman and chief executive of Take-Two, said that Max Payne 3 had received outstanding reviews and is shaping up to be another big hit for Take-Two’s Rockstar Games division.

In a call with analysts, Zelnick said the company was pleased with the reception. Karl Slatoff, chief operating officer, said the multiplayer version of Max Payne 3 has been getting a lot of use and is generating buzz.

---

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!

---

Take-Two Interactive, one of the biggest U.S. video game publishers, reported earnings that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations for their fourth fiscal quarter which ended on March 31.

But revenues were higher than expected and the company said it shipped about 3 million copies of Max Payne 3, the third-person shooter game that launched on May 15, after the period of the earnings. Wall Street was evidently prepared for worse news, since the stock has risen 5.7 percent to $11.80 a share in after-hours trading.

For the fourth fiscal quarter which ended March 31, New York-based Take-Two reported revenue of $148.1 million, down from $182.3 million a year earlier. The GAAP net loss was $66 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $22.4 million, or 27 cents a share, a year earlier. On a non-GAAP basis, the net loss was $50.9 million, or 60 cents a share, compared with a loss of $14.4 million, or 18 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected a loss of 55 cents a share on a non-GAAP basis and revenues of $140 million.

Overall, the absence of a big Grand Theft Auto hit game made a big difference in the company’s performance in the last year. Take-Two reported a loss of $107.7 million, or $1.30 a share, compared with net income of $53.8 million, or 62 cents a share a year earlier. Non-GAAP net loss was $59.4 million, or 71 cents a share, compared to net income of $94.3 million, or $1.02 a share for the prior year. L.A. Noire was a big hit, but Duke Nukem Forever disappointed and the hits paled in comparison to titles such as Red Dead Redemption, the big game of 2010.

The contributors to revenue in the fourth fiscal quarter were NBA 2K12, Major League Baseball 2K12, and The Darkness II. Digital revenue was 19 percent of sales, compared to 15 percent a year ago.

“Fiscal 2012 was a year of creative, operational, and strategic achievement by our Company,” said Strauss Zelnick, chairman and chief executive of Take-Two. “We delivered groundbreaking titles, including L.A. Noire and NBA 2K12, which set new standards for excellence; grew our revenue from digitally delivered content and mobile offerings; made substantial progress on our online gaming initiatives; and bolstered our already strong liquidity through a convertible notes offering. While our financial results were disappointing, the decisions we made position Take-Two for growth and profitability both this year and over the long-term.”

He added, “Fiscal 2013 kicked off with the successful launch of Max Payne 3, which received outstanding reviews and promises to be another hit for Rockstar Games. We have a fantastic lineup of upcoming releases for the balance of the year and the strongest development pipeline in the Company’s history.”

Take-Two’s stock was hurt earlier in the month after it announced that BioShock Infinite, a highly anticipated game from the company’s Irrational Games division, was delayed until 2013. Meanwhile, Grand Theft Auto V is expected to ship later this year. Take-Two had guided investors to expect fourth fiscal quarter revenue of $112 million to $162 million and a loss of 50 cents to 65 cents a share.

Take-Two expects revenue for the coming fiscal year ending March 31, 2013 to be $1.75 billion to $1.85 billion, with non-GAAP net income of $2 a share to $2.25 a share. Analysts were expecting earnings per share of $2.76 a share on revenue of $1.8 billion.

For the first fiscal quarter ending June 30, Take-Two said it expects to generate between $225 million and $275 million in sales. Non-GAAP losses per share are expected to between 75 cents and 60 cents per share.

In November, Take-Two raised $250 million in new convertible loans. So far, the company hasn’t said when it will release Grand Theft Auto V, which could be the biggest game of the year…whenever it ships.

NBA 2K13 will be out on Sept. 4. The previous game sold 5 million-plus units.

XCOM, another shooter under development at 2K Marin, is expected to ship during the fiscal year that ends March 31, 2014. Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods & Kings, a new expansion for the 2010 game, will ship on June 19. On June 26, Spec-Ops: The Line will launch in the military shooter genre. Borderlands 2, based on a wasteland shooter that sold 6 million units in its first version, will debut on Sept. 18. And XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a strategy title, will debut on Oct. 9.

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

This week, Diablo III launched and promptly caused a stir with persistent server issues, Activision and Electronic Arts settled over the Infinity Ward lawsuit, and former N-Control sales specialist Paul Christoforo revealed details in his lawsuit over the Avenger controller debacle.

You’ll also find reviews for Max Payne 3 and Game of Thrones, as well as a preview for Zombie Swipeout. GamesBeat’s guide to Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is also available.

Other GamesBeat stories included:

The DeanBeat: Can Microsoft’s Kinect gain cred from hardcore gamers?

With Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Sony hopes to bring a classic character to the PS3

Slicing zombies and chasing coins in Zombie Swipeout (preview)

Epic unveils Unreal Engine 4 for eye-popping next-generation game graphics

Aeria Games’ Ignite service connects free-to-play gamers in over 30 countries

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 stages coming to HD remake

Activision and EA settle Infinity Ward lawsuit

Ratings board wants parents to think twice before buying that video game

God of War Ascension multiplayer features over-the-top show-off killings

New DC Universe Online expansion on the way, Mark Hamill returning as the Joker

Max Payne 3 suffers multiplayer issues, Rockstar responds

Minecraft digs upwards and becomes most-played Xbox Live Arcade title

The Last of Us demo shows brutal, dramatic survivalist combat

Call of Duty co-founder reveals his new, free-to-play shooter

Gamers rip Diablo III a new hellhole on Metacritic

Max Payne 3 is a glimpse into the future of video games (review)

World exclusive Diablo III review!!!!

Game of Thrones brings the pain…and not in a good way (review)

How a lucky fan became an Uncharted character

Former N-control sales specialist Christoforo claims company threw him under the bus

Witcher dev CD Projekt Red hiring for “new and different” role-playing game

New Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 info

Minecraft (Xbox 360 Edition): Tips, tricks, and achievement guide

(Updated with new pictures) Student reveals the origins of his real-life Portal turret

VentureBeat:

Microsoft’s Kudo Tsunoda on broadening Kinect games to hardcore fans (interview)

The EA-Activision legal feud takes unexpected twists

6 reasons E3 might suck this year

Mobile startup Fun Machine believes games can do social good

CrowdStar expands into China and South Korea with mobile game partners

Conversion rates up, spending habits down among social gamers

Starting with a graphic novel, The Inventor will chronicle the life of Nikola Tesla (exclusive)

AMD contends its split-personality PC brains are better than Intel’s

Zynga acquires Wild Needle casual game maker for an estimated $3.8M

Nvidia teams with Intellectual Ventures to acquire patents

Walmart.com strikes again: more mind-boggling game descriptions

Former Xbox 360 exec’s $1B pain and advice to entrepreneurs

If Walmart.com’s horrible copy writers were to describe 2012′s biggest games…

---

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!

---

It seems Diablo III isn’t this week’s only big-name release having issues with its multiplayer. Max Payne 3, the latest title from Grand Theft Auto makers Rockstar Games, hasn’t had completely smooth sailing since its official release on Tuesday.

An 11MB day-one patch is required for all players to access the multiplayer, though Rockstar isn’t detailing exactly what bugs are addressed in the download. The company did share this amusing tidbit, however:

PS3 “Corrupt Game Data” Message: When a patch is available the first time you play a game on PS3, the download of the patch may interrupt the installation of Game Data on the PS3.  Once the game reboots, it may give you an error message that says the game data is corrupted and needs to be installed.  This is normal and you can allow the game to re-write the Game Data; after that, the message should not appear again.

There’s an “It only does everything” joke to be made here, but at this point, haven’t PlayStation 3 users been through enough?

Back to the matter at hand, the sizable patch did not cover all bases, it seems, as multiplayer continues to have matchmaking issues (getting stuck in a loading screen on your way to a match) and stat resets. I personally encountered both, with the latter wiping a couple hours’ worth of progress off of my account. A spokesperson for Rockstar told GamesBeat, “We’re also aware of other issues and our devs are working to fix them as soon as possible.”

It’s all rather unfortunate seeing as how the multiplayer was one of Max Payne 3′s best bits. To make up for the current issues, players can grab the Gorilla Warfare DLC Pack for free.

---

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!

---

Max Payne 3 was meant to be a new chapter in the life of the titular former NYPD detective, who left New York behind to become a bodyguard for Sâo Paulo’s richest family. But while publisher/developer Rockstar’s attempt at a meaningful story may ultimately fall flat, its revolutionary method of delivery manages to raise the bar for video games and provides more than a little excitement when imagining what’s in store for the next Grand Theft Auto. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves….

WHAT YOU’LL LIKE

A seamless interactive story
Even in a game as seemingly pedestrian as Max Payne (story, shoot, story, shoot, story, shoot…), Rockstar has crafted a very technologically impressive experience. From the menu, the single-player story mode starts instantly, launching into the opening cutscene. From that point on, you’ll never encounter a loading screen for as long as you play the campaign. Well, you will — you just won’t realize that you are since all of the loading takes place during the in-engine cinematics. The ample story elements are also subtly interwoven with the actual gameplay, so you may enter a door and immediately go into a cutscene, then a moment later you’ll go from a cutscene back to controlling Max without any jarring transition.

I understand it may seem bizarre to tout such mundane, non-essential aspects of the game. That being said, I’ve played nearly a thousand games in the past few years, and very few have put forth the effort to blend their interactive and non-interactive elements. Video games are the next step in the entertainment evolution, right? So then why is it commonplace for the biggest games of the year, on the most technologically advanced gaming platforms, to never move past inferior traditions passed down from previous generations? Authored cutscenes should pair with player-controlled gameplay like mashed potatoes and gravy, but instead they’re often as sour and jarring as a mouthful of wasabi-laced Vegemite.

Unfortunately, the seamless story mode comes at the cost of replayability. Attempting to replay levels to gather clues and other collectibles is a nuisance since you usually can’t skip cutscenes. That means you may need to sit through five minutes of dialogue just so you can play for 30 seconds to unlock an achievement. I was looking forward to mopping up missed items and finishing the game a second time but was seriously deterred by the inability to expedite the process.

The little things
Gameplay-wise, Max Payne 3 works more or less as it should. The shooting is accurate, the cover mechanic is functional, and Max’s signature bullet-dodge and slow-motion feats are still intact. Rockstar has also taught the old man some new tricks, such as Last Man Standing, where Max will go into a downed state if he has painkillers on him and can revive himself by shooting the enemy who would otherwise kill him.

But what really sets this above every other flashy third-person shooter are the little touches that very few developers seem to care about. For instance, instead of just strapping shotguns and rifles onto some imaginary holster on his back, Max holds larger weapons as a real person would. It’s so obvious and real that it actually becomes novel in a video game. Likewise, whatever smaller weapon Max isn’t using at the time will appear in his side holster, even in cutscenes.

The cutscenes themselves are drenched with little touches that most other devs simply do not seem to realize how drastically they can elevate the overall presentation of a game.

The motion capturing and attention to detail have really paid off.

A real multiplayer mode
One of the many ailments afflicting big-name video games in recent years has been the “tacked-on multiplayer” (TM, all rights reserved, Electronic Arts). Dead Space 2 and Mass Effect 3 are two shining examples, but the same argument could be made for BioShock 2 and many others. Here’s the typical publisher mindset:

1. Make sequel to single-player game.
2. Add multiplayer mode with arbitrary leveling/unlock system stolen from Call of Duty.
3. ???
4. Profit (and lots of angry fans on Reddit).

Max Payne 3 avoids these pitfalls by building off of the excellent foundation Rockstar established for Grand Theft Auto IV and especially Red Dead Redemption. Though the open-world-exploration element is removed, Max Payne 3’s multiplayer is a much tighter, focused competitive experience.

Everything that you can do in single player you can do in multiplayer and then some. This extends to bullet-time actions, which works surprisingly well. If you have enough adrenaline, you can shoot-dodge in slow-motion, hindering any enemies in your line of sight. Allies in your line of sight will be “chained,” entering bullet-time as well, and so on.

There are tons of items and features to unlock, which I don’t necessarily condone. Like in Red Dead Redemption or Call of Duty, playing, killing, and completing “Grinds” (challenges) rewards you with experience points, and as you rank up, new content becomes available to you. This means that higher-level players will always have the advantage over players who play less, regardless of skill. If I’m level 35, I’ll simply have more weapons, more abilities, more attachments, and more money to buy them all with than someone who just started or is 5+ levels below me.

But once you do start unlocking content, Max Payne 3’s multiplayer potential takes off. At level 4 you’ll be able to customize your own class, choosing your loadout as well as a Burst, which is a special ability activated by adrenaline. The different Bursts add a lot of variety to the game and bring a layer of strategy into what would otherwise be a by-the-books shooter (albeit a good one). One that the Rockstar team liked to use often on me during our play session was Paranoia, which makes all allies appear as enemies. At Paranoia level 2, friendly fire is enabled, meaning you can now kill your friends if you’re not careful.

A good deal of unique modes keep things fresh, too, beyond just deathmatch or team deathmatch. I was happily surprised to find such a robust online counterpart to the single player, and I can easily recommend the game on Max Payne 3’s multiplayer alone.

Replay value
In addition to the endless hours multiplayer potentially offers, Rockstar has padded Max Payne 3 with scores of metagame objectives, difficulties, and bonus modes. Particularly notable are Score Attack and New York Minute, the former of which has Max replaying story levels to rack up the highest score possible by building up a multiplier and stylishly laying waste to everything in sight, while the latter is a race against time, rewarding bonus seconds for each kill. Even if multiplayer isn’t your thing, the game packs enough single-player content to keep you playing long after the credits roll.

WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE

U sad, bro?
Max Payne 3 is set eight years after the events of Max Payne 2, but it’s been over a decade since thugs murdered Max’s wife and child. Yet he can’t. Stop. Talking. About. It. Perhaps if the game didn’t follow previous developer Remedy’s patented inner-monologue stylings, we wouldn’t know how truly pathetic Max was, but since we’re forced to listen to him conjure up new ways to explain how rough his life’s been, it gets old fast. Even Die Hard’s John McClane eventually got over feeling sorry for himself and got his shit together.

The graphic novel-esque cutscenes from previous games contributed to the acceptably bleak, gritty attitude of the main character, but the developers completely removed them in Max Payne 3. I understand and appreciate Rockstar’s attempt to push the game noir concept forward aesthetically, but the end result looks like a graphic design student with epilepsy created it. Combined with the weaker writing and heavy reliance on cliches, and Max Payne is no longer the endearing tortured soul fans once loved.

Story mode wears out its welcome
If listening to a guy named Max Payne whine like a little bitch for 12 hours won’t grate on your nerves, the designers ensured the game will wear out its welcome regardless. The first act of Max Payne 3 is an intriguing, tightly paced, action-packed romp, but even massive shootouts lose their luster eventually. Max seriously can’t leave his apartment (and sometimes he doesn’t even have to do that) without ending up in a gun battle with hundreds of nameless goons.

By the end of the campaign, my stats had recorded over 2,000 enemy kills. Seriously think about that for a minute…. Two. Thousand. And like a Michael Bay movie, the game pushes for one too many drawn-out action sequences. After you’ve stormed yet another enemy stronghold, single-handedly laid waste to yet another entire army, and killed another main bad guy that you only just met five seconds ago, it’s hard to stay excited or care about anything that’s happening.

I was quite disappointed that Rockstar created such compelling, mature framework, then had it devolve repeatedly into standard vehicular shooting-gallery tropes.

Golden guns are another point of contention in the story. Rockstar has repeatedly stated that the plot is the focus of the game, and indeed much of the design corroborates that claim. But then you have the golden gun pieces, which are collectibles spread across each level. This is a two-fold nuisance: One, it completely derails what Rockstar achieved with the clues — non-intrusive collectible items that add an additional layer to the fiction — and two, it’s a little absurd to be running around some of the poorest locations in the world only to find a rocket launcher made out of solid gold lying in plain sight.

The completionist in me had to stop and check every area for the golden gun pieces, even when the plot was screaming at me to “hurry up!” It would have made much more sense for these to only be available on a second playthrough (such as Hardcore or Old School) or some other method.

No grenades
Part of what made Max Payne 2 so great was taking the John Woo-inspired mechanics that Remedy provided and creating your ideal action scene. I stopped progressing the story in a few places, so I could replay a chapter, thinking to myself, “No, I should have done this. It could have been cooler!” And a big piece of putting together that perfect puzzle was the inclusion of explosions and, more specifically, grenades. Max Payne 3 has the occasional explosion, but the single player is completely devoid of grenades.

Well, at least for Max, that is. The enemies throw grenades like they’re going out of style, and you can even shoot them out of the air if you’re quick.

In fact, Max Payne shoots more rockets out of the air than Nathan Drake falls off of stuff.

But you’re never given the ability to throw grenades yourself, which is particularly strange considering you can equip all manner of tossable explosives in multiplayer.

Unrefined controls
My first playthrough was done on Hard in order to unlock the Hardcore and Old School modes (and to impress all of you by stating that in my review!), and aside from a handful of challenging spots throughout the 13-hour game, I managed fairly well. But playing on the harder difficulty(s) made me realize that the controls are not nearly as refined as they really should be.

Exhibit A: Max cannot turn corners while in cover. Some games do it, some games don’t, but this one really needs to. On the harder settings, it only takes a couple of bullets to get downed, so staying protected at all times is imperative.  So if you suddenly find yourself on the wrong side of a 90-degree angle, you have to move away from your current cover, clunkily reposition yourself, then reattach to the new cover object, all while a hail of bullets rains down on you.

Exhibit B: Max Payne is old, hurt, tired, and probably more than a little hungover. I get it. But even Metal Gear Solid’s Old Snake could move his ass when he needed to. Whenever Max survives Last Man Standing mode, he’s left lying vulnerable on the ground. Worst yet is that the time it takes him to stand up is ridiculously long. If you don’t suck at video games, ending up in Last Man Standing usually means 20 different people are shooting you at the same time. And so even when you kill the guy who actually downed you, those other 19 thugs are still firing at you.

By the time Max stands up and slowly gets back to cover two inches away from him, you’ve taken enough damage to get downed again. No thanks.

All this despite the fact that Max can outrun snipers out in the open and go toe-to-toe with Neo from The Matrix when he feels like it….

CONCLUSION
A compelling kidnapping story quickly devolves into pointless mass murder, with the least interesting iteration of this franchise’s protagonist at the center. What’s the point of having extraordinary production values and cutting-edge presentation if you’re not presenting anything worthwhile? Luckily, Max Payne 3’s multiplayer is worth the price of entry alone, and the single-player Arcade challenges are great as well. Or vice versa, depending on your personal preference.

Score: 83/100

Max Payne 3 was released on May 15, 2012 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Rockstar Games provided GamesBeat with an Xbox 360 retail copy for the purpose of this review.

---

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!

---

Diablo III’s North American fans are just a few hours away from the servers finally opening. Tonight marks the end of almost 10 years of speculation and anticipation, and excited gamers have bombarded the Internet with pictures of their preparations for the game’s release. I’ve collected a few of them below.

Reddit user PapaOscar90 knows that refreshment is key when you sit down for a long night of gaming, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to regret his choice of beverages later. Possibly when he passes out from dehydration.

nJoyy is a little closer; you can see some food in there. It’s not great food, mind, but, you know … it’s there. Pringles will soak up some of that booze, and the energy drinks will cancel the rest out. That’s how it works, right?

I found this spread in a German forum, and this person has the right idea. Look at how many of the food groups are in there, and behold the organization of portions! I look at this with full faith that whoever prepared it is going to be alive on Wednesday.

Some other guys might not be, though. Codeninja on Reddit knows it’s best to make sure your loved ones know what to do if they find you slumped over a computer. I’m a little surprised, though: Do NOT Resuscitate? I don’t think this guy can really call himself a fan.

While we’re joking around, who doesn’t like a good pun? Well … Onceabird, for one.

Finally, we have woodsy8950, who I’d like to nominate “Most Gracious Person of the Diablo III Launch.” She preordered the game for her boyfriend. And that’s not all.

That’s right: She traded in her own electronics for credit towards the game. Still, people do that every day (probably; I have no sources). So why does she get the award?

Cake, is why.

… although I’d really like see some more vegetables in there.

Happy Diablo III (and, to a lesser extent, Max Payne 3) Day, everyone. How are you celebrating? Let us know in the comments.

---

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!

---

[UPDATE: Walmart has replaced the original product description with text copied directly from Blizzard. Luckily, I took a picture (below).]

Walmart.com’s hilariously uninformed and grammatically unsound product description for Diablo III has been spreading across the Internet today. The unfortunate blurb on the store’s website includes such head-scratching comments as “The Diablo III PC/Mac Game revolves around an interesting plot which will keep you spell bound. while you are playing” and “Bring home the PC video game to solve the mysteries of the mighty Barbarians.”

To be fair, anyone who knows how ridiculous that description is has already decided whether or not they’re buying the game on Tuesday, and people who don’t know what Diablo is probably shouldn’t be looking to that site for their purchasing decisions. The Internet likes to have its fun, though, so I think it would be in Walmart’s best interests to start writing up every product this way. I’ll get them started with my own made-up descriptions for some of the biggest releases coming out this year.

Max Payne 3

Max Payne 3 is an action-shooter game for the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC. It is a game where you shoot guys and take Max Payne’s trademark pain killers. Fight your way through an engrossing action pulp action story and take Max Payne to such exotic locales as New York, Rio de Janeiro, and stadium. Keep fighting for revenge no matter what! gets in your way.

Max Payne 3 Xbox360/Playstation 3/PC Game:

• Fight through legions of enemies as the legendary Max Payne
• Max Payne’s hair changes dynamically to fit the story
• Use guns and take cover to engage in action.

Lollipop Chainsaw

Fight many zombies as iconic character Juliet in this Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game Lollipop Chain Saw. Juliet knows about zombies because she studied really hard. She is in high school. Take your trusty chainsaw and best friend head to work on the evil foes to destroy their plot and solve their mind-bending puzzles. There will be only one cheerleader left at the end of this awful night, and you’d better believe it’s going to be this one.

Lollipop Chainsaw  Xbox360/Playstation 3 Game:

• Fight zombies with kicks and pom-poms and, as always, the sharpest chainsaw in the world
• Dress up in cute outfits to gain magical powers and abilities
• Engage in hardcore coop mode with your best friend, Head.

Resident Evil 6

Zombies are back in the latest chapter of the epic surviving horror classic series. Series heroes Leon F. Kennedy and Chris Redfield join forces for the first time to fight the dreaded “C Virus” once again in a crazy post-apocalyptic wasteland. This horror game continues to prove how dangerous zombies are, and it’s up to you to beat them down for good on the Xbox 360 and/or Playstation 3.

Resident Evil 6 Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 Game:

• Fight zombies! More zombies you ask? Yes, way more
• Unleash powerful weapons like Pistol and Shotgun, that only the most elite players can master.

Assassin’s Creed III

It has been a few years, but The Assassin is back on the Xbox 360 and PlaySation 3. In this action-stealth-city game, The Assassin travels back in time to stop anti-American forces before they can stop the future from happening. You don’t have to have played the other games to understand this one. Many people will be killed if they get in The Assassin’s way on his quest of vengeance and justice.

Assassin’s Creed III Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 Game:

• Return to the Amnious, the mysterious source of The Assassin’s power
• Ride on horses for the first time since the last game
• Play the single player game in engaging multiplayer battles that add many features like Stealth Kills and Hiding.

The fun doesn’t have to stop here; you can see plenty of actual “highlights” from Walmart’s game section here.

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.

---

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 game’s first piece of DLC, a map pack called “Local Justice,” will arrive sometime in June and will include additional multiplayer maps for Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Payne Killer mode, as well as new multiplayer avatar items and challenges.

Rockstar says it plans to release even more map packs over the summer months and into the fall.

“The story of Max Payne 3 begins in the single-player game and crosses over into the deepest multiplayer experience we’ve ever created,” said Sam Houser, founder of Rockstar Games. “We intend to support the Max Payne community with new and innovative content well into the future.”

All of Max Payne 3′s downloadable content can be bought separately or bundled together with the Rockstar DLC Pass, which is available for preorder now for 2,400 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live, or $29.99 on the PlayStation Network or PC. Buying the pass will give players a more than 35 percent discount compared to purchasing the content individually, claims Rockstar.

Below is the release schedule for all of Max Payne 3′s upcoming content. Additional packs, including the release of all digital preorder incentives, will be revealed at a later date:

June 2012

• Local Justice Map Pack

Summer 2012

• Disorganized Crime Map Pack
• Deathmatch Made In Heaven Mode Pack
• Hostage Negotiation Map Pack
• New York Minute Co-Op Pack

Fall 2012

• Painful Memories Map Pack
• Trickle Down Economics Map Pack

---

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!

---

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

This week in news: Digital downloads for full retail games coming to 3Ds and Wii U, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami working on a new survival horror game codenamed “Zwei”, Valve reveals inventive Defense of the Ancients 2 pricing, and Nintendo posts its first fiscal year loss.

You’ll also find a review for Bloodforge and previews for PlayStation All-Star Battle Royale, Dishonored, and Crysis 3.

Other GamesBeat stories included:

The DeanBeat: Follow the people. Follow the money. Into casino games.

Leaked Rayman Legends trailer shows NFC tech in action on Wii U (gallery)

PlayStation All-Star Battle Royale: Really, though? (preview)

Nintendo CEO Iwata: No Wii U pricing at E3; digital downloads coming to 3DS and Wii U

Draw Something now on the Kindle Fire

Star Wars: The Old Republic launches in 38 additional countries

World’s tiniest Star Wars arcade cabinet is fully operational

How Dishonored’s artists created an oppressive, Victorian, steampunk world from scratch

Bethesda’s Arkane shoots for an original action game with Dishonored (preview)

Breaking down Conquest Domination in Battlefield 3: Close Quarters’ Donya Fortress (preview)

How gaming’s biggest blockbusters affect monthly sales (infographic)

Cryptic Studios hacked in December 2010; attack only “just” discovered

Resident Evil creator working on new survival-horror game codenamed “Zwei”

X-rays of game controllers reveal ghostly circuitry

Xbox 360-quality graphics could come to mobile devices by 2014

Bloodforge brings a good, gory romp to Xbox Live Arcade (review)

Crysis 3 first look: Bullets, bows, and the Big Apple (preview)

Free-to-play games on Xbox 360? It could happen sooner than you think

The four lessons other developers can learn from the Valve employee handbook

Max Payne 3′s massive 35GB install vs. other big games

Supposed list of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 multiplayer details leaked

Ben Sawyer on how Games for Health will lead to “human joysticks” (interview)

The Fez soundtrack’s hidden images and how they got there

Stories that also appeared on VentureBeat:

Google Zerg rush attacks your search results with this fun Starcraft-inspired easter egg

Non-gamers, here’s why you should care about games

Big Fish Games CEO hands reins back to founder Paul Thelen

Casino games surpass farm games as the darlings of social networks

Nexon to publish A Bit Lucky’s Lucky Space in South Korea (exclusive)

Two Angry Birds leaders leave the nest to start Boomlagoon (exclusive)

Zynga earnings call: three key wins in mobile, social and diversification

Zynga beats Q1 earnings estimates

EA stock spikes on rumor that Nexon will buy it (not likely)

Smith & Tinker revives Nanovor with mobile app (exclusive)

Nintendo posts fiscal year loss and expects to return to profitability

Arrggh: KingsIsle Entertainment unveils Pirate101 online game

YouWeb and StartEngine incubators to hold Double Demo Day for 20 startups

Japan’s DeNA signs up Kabam and Nimblebit

PixyKids launches 3D-animated characters for kids social network

Report: Amazon pulling ahead of iTunes in average revenue per user

Real online gambling and social network casino games are on a collision course

Valve’s new pricing will charge players based on how much of a jerk they are

AMD takes a swing at Intel and Nvidia with new mobile graphics chips

Gamers: Get the most out of your Android device

---

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 PC version of developer Rockstar Games’ upcoming installment of the Max Payne series will take up 35GB of free space on on your hard drive when it launches on May 29, according to system requirements released today. To put this in perspective, I looked up the hard drive needs of a few other big releases to see how they compare.

Both id Software’s first-person shooter Rage and the latest version of the online role-playing game World of Warcraft demand a hefty 25GB of free space. World of Warcraft developer Blizzard’s other big property, Diablo III, will need a comparatively modest 12GB of room when it comes out on May 15.

Exploring a meticulously recreated digital version of 1947 Los Angeles took up 16GB in last year’s L.A. Noire, Rockstar’s most recent foray into PC gaming, and the entry fee for exploring the similarly sprawling Liberty City in 2008′s Grand Theft Auto IV was 18GB.

Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, arguably the biggest game of last year, boasts a game map covering approximately 14 square miles and populated with hundreds of characters offering infinite quests. It requires 6GB of hard drive space.

So basically, Max Payne 3 is like six Skyrims.

---

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!

---

If you follow VentureBeat, but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed. With all the PAX East 2012 previews and downloadable game reviews hitting, this was a busy week.

Among the news, Commodore founder Jack Tramiel passed away at 83, and Sony killed off its Qore digital game magazine.

Other GamesBeat stories included:

Kinect/voice support coming to Skyrim

PAX East 2012: Loadout game is like a Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Quentin Tarantino (preview)

UK-based startup game company reaches one million players…and counting

Sony kills off Qore digital game magazine

Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir is creepy enough while it lasts (review)

Spec Ops: The Line is hiding something (preview)

Retro graphics and relaxing puzzles help Fez rise above a troubled history (review)

PlayJam partners with Miniclip to bring gaming to Smart TV

The 4 best finds at PAX East 2012

Spirit Camera: A scary event for a scary game (video)

Why Max Payne 3 could be this year’s next big blockbuster video game

PAX East 2012: BioWare faces its (not-so) angry fans

And the following stories also appeared on VentureBeat:

Game sales fall 25 percent in March despite hot sales of Mass Effect 3

At 2.5B games played a month, King.com reaps benefits from its casual Saga titles on Facebook

Health insurer Aetna to give away Mindbloom Life Game

Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes enters open beta

GameStop stores in California to require DLC warning on used games

Why video games are good for you — the cheat sheet

Commodore founder Jack Tramiel dies at 83

PAX East 2012: Storytime with 20-year game veteran Jordan Mechner

---

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!

---

Last year, Rockstar released the acclaimed LA Noire game in mid-May and sold nearly 5 million copies. In 2010, it released Red Dead Redemption and sold more than 13 million copies. Full told, those games generated more than $1 billion at retail. This year, Max Payne 3 will go up against Blizzard’s Diablo III, a long-awaited PC game that is also releasing on May 15.

Having played a couple of levels of Max Payne 3 hands-on, I’m looking forward to this game — which resembles a John Woo action movie — in a big way. If Max Payne 3 succeeds, it will give a much-needed boost to the hardcore game industry and help both Rockstar and Take-Two further diversify beyond the Grand Theft Auto series.

The good thing about the new Max is that Rockstar has created pent-up demand for it. It has taken its time with development and slow-cooked this piece in a franchise which hasn’t had a sequel since 2003. The game uses the Euphoria engine to deliver outstanding graphics, physics, and artificial intelligence on a plane far above most current-generation titles. The violence and blood are over the top.

Max Payne is a shooter fan’s shooter with Matrix-like bullet time that allows you to choreograph a ballet of death as you fly through the air in slow motion and blast enemies coming at you from multiple directions. The third-person combat is precise as a shooter game in a way that Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, one of the big hits of last season, was not. In Max Payne 3, your main concerns are to move, aim, shoot, and kill. You can precisely and fluidly control how to do that.

You can freeze time with a single button push and then execute a flying-dodge leap where you can target multiple enemies in a split second. As you do so, you can turn 360 degrees and see each bullet whizzing by with precise ballistics. If it hits a thin barrier, it will shatter it and go right into the heart of an enemy. But if you’re hiding behind strong cover such as a cement pillar, the bullets will thud into the pillar harmlessly. If you are hit with a kill shot, the scene shifts into slow motion and you have a second to shoot whoever fired at you. If you hit the enemy in this “last man standing” mechanic, then you are revived on the spot.

The game is also cinematic and told in a graphic novel style that flashes headlines from the narration on the screen and freezes scenes in comic book imagery. You feel like you are immersed in Max Payne, an ex-cop who lost his wife and is now an alcoholic detective. The context-based freeze frames allow game scenes to load without ever presenting you with an annoying loading screen. The movie-like cinematic scenes transition seamlessly into gameplay.

Max Payne 3 takes place several years after the events of Max Payne and Max Payne 2. Max leaves New York for Sao Paolo to serve as the bodyguard for Fabiana, the young wife of Rodrigo Branco, one of the country’s biggest business tycoons. A street gang kidnaps her, and Max has to get her back. In between the onslaughts of action, Max constantly gives Sam Spade, film-noir soliloquies that make you feel like you’re in a movie.

The lead writer is Dan Houser who, along with his brother Sam, is also one of the creative vice-presidents of Rockstar. The original was created by Remedy Entertainment’s Sam Lake, but this game is being built by Rockstar Vancouver in collaboration with studios in New England, London, and Toronto. They have made Max into a world-weary and cynical character whose aim is to find the truth of what is going on in a conspiracy that is much wider than just the kidnapping.

I expect this game to score above the 89 out of 100 and 86 review scores that the first two games got on Metacritic, a review aggregator.

Max feels every bullet that hits him and, in keeping with his character, he has to take tranquilizers to stop the pain. Max is such a bad ass that he could have 20 bullets in him and stop the agony with painkillers. If you run and gun into the open, you’re going to feel a lot of pain. The enemies are very smart in this game, and they have a habit of surrounding you. When you kill the last enemy in a scene, you can see the bullets rip through the thug in slow motion.

In the scenes that I played, Max goes to a soccer stadium to negotiate a ransom drop. It goes wrong, and Max has to battle the street gang while wounded. They steal the ransom money, and Max runs them down throughout the stadium, but a paramilitary group also gets into the middle of the fray. The fighting was tough and full of splattering blood, and the graphics were incredible. I had to fight multiple times to get past many scenes. You have to earn your way to each new painkiller and weapon you find along the way.

The scenes showed off how you can fight with a wide variety of weapons including fists and sniper rifles. The sniper rifle was tough because I had to fire ahead of running enemies to take into account the travel time of the bullet. I couldn’t take my time while shooting because I had to stop enemies from reaching Max’s companion. The character movements were fluid. Nothing looked fake. That’s extremely hard to pull off.

The submachine guns such as the M10 and Micro 9mm are lightweight automatic weapons that can be dual-wielded. You can rapid-fire them but maneuver as if you were holding pistols in your hands.

Rockstar recently showed off video of multiplayer combat which includes bullet-time as well. In multiplayer, a player can click to enter bullet time, and that will affect only players who are in the same field of view. Also in multiplayer, gamers will be able to form their own groups known as Crews that can carry out vendettas against rival groups.

The game was originally scheduled for release in 2009, but it was pushed back repeatedly until it was given its final launch date recently. It’s probably a good thing it was pushed back, since Rockstar’s brand and reputation for quality is so big now that the game will likely reach a much larger audience. Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two Interactive, said it will be “one of our most exciting releases ever.”

You will be able to play the game on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. It debuts May 15 on the consoles in North America and May 18 in Europe. PC players will see it on May 29 in North America and June 1 in Europe. Meanwhile, the original Max Payne will see release on iOS and Android devices later this month. Rockstar has begun a big marketing campaign that includes painted murals on the side of the Figueroa Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, pictured below. Gamers are getting a preview of the title this weekend at PAX East in Boston.

It will be interesting to see just how big Max Payne 3 will be and how soon Rockstar will follow-up with its next major title, Grand Theft Auto V. It is gratifying to see Rockstar continue to set the pace for innovation in traditional video games.

---

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!

---

It seems like this one has been in the works forever, and it can’t come too soon for Blizzard, a division of Activision Blizzard, which recently laid off 600 employees due to a loss of subscribers for World of Warcraft. Many observers expect this game, where you fight the legions of hell, to be one of the biggest of the year. Previous Diablo games have sold more than 20 million units, or roughly $800 million at retail.

The game comes 11 years after Diablo II and will debut on the same day in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Players in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil will be able to buy the game digitally via Blizzard’s Battle.net web site. Players can now place digital pre-sale orders for the game today. The game could boost WoW’s numbers — now at 10.3 million users — since WoW users who pay for an annual pass can get Diablo III for free. The pass option expires on May 1.

“After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we’re now in the homestretch,” said Michael Morhaime, chief executive and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We look forward to putting the final polish on Diablo III over the next two months and delivering the ultimate action-RPG experiences to gamers on May 15.

The game will debut on Windows PCs and Macs for $59.99 for either the retail or the digital version. A collector’s edition with a behind-the-scenes Blu-ray two-disc set, the soundtrack CD, a 208-page Art of Diablo III book, a four-gigabyte Soulstone, and Diablo skull base will sell for $99.99. Collector’s edition players also get exclusive in-game content for World of Warcraft.

This release date means gamers will have a fun May. Another big game, Max Payne 3, the next big third-person shooter game from Rockstar Games, will debut on May 29.

In Diablo III, players can be one of five heroic characters: barbarian, witch doctor, monk, wizard or demon hunter. Their job is to rid Sanctuary from the corrupt forces of Burning Hells. The game will be playable on the Battle.net online gaming platform, which offers matchmaking and communication tools. Players can also trade their treasures in the game in the Diablo III auction house, where players can pay in-game gold for other digital items. Players can also receive real-world currency for their digital goods.

Atul Bagga, an analyst at Lazard Capital, said he believes Diablo III can sell 6 million units during 2012 and it will be a slight positive for Activision Blizzard’s stock price.

---

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!

---

Below you’ll find a listing of every GamesBeat game review to date. They are listed in reverse chronological order with the latest review appearing at the top. Note that the dates listed are for when the review was posted, not necessarily the actual release date for the game. That information, along with platform tested and more, can be found in the actual review.

2013

5/20

• Resident Evil: Revelations

5/13

• Metro: Last Light

5/6

• Star Trek

4/24

• Monaco

4/22

• Dead Island Riptide

4/19

• Defiance

4/18

• Cut the Rope: Time Travel

4/13

• Shootmania Storm

3/25

• BioShock: Infinite

3/22

• The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct

3/21

• Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon

3/18

• StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

3/14

• Lego City: Undercover

3/8

• MLB 13 The Show

3/7

• God of War: Ascension

3/6

• Dollar Dash

3/5

• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow — Mirror of Fate

3/4

• SimCity

2/26

• Star Wars Pinball

2/25

• Tomb Raider

2/19

• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
• Crysis 3

2/18

• Serious Sam Double D XXL

2/12

• Aliens: Colonial Marines

2/5

• Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
• Dead Space 3

2/4

• Ni No Kuni: The Wrath of the White Witch

1/31

• Omerta: City of Gangsters

1/30

• Skulls of the Shogun
• Fire Emblem: Awakening

01/22

• The Cave

01/18

• Temple Run 2
• Tokyo Crash Mobs

01/15

• Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable

01/10

• Noble Nutlings
• Anarchy Reigns

01/07

• Seduce Me

Pages: 1 2

The New York-based company reported GAAP net income of $14.1 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with net income of $40.9 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier. On a non-GAAP basis, the company said it earned $29 million, or 27 cents a share, down from $49.5 million, or 52 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts had been expecting non-GAAP earnings of 23 cents a share.

“We’re gratified with the quarter’s results and are very excited about our upcoming releases,” said Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two, said in an analyst conference call on Thursday.

Revenues were $236.3 million, down 29 percent from $334.3 million a year ago, when sales of the blockbuster Red Dead Redemption helped the company’s performance. Analysts had expected $249.2 million. The only big release for the quarter ended Dec. 31 was NBA 2K12, which was hurt in part because of the NBA player lockout earlier in the season. The game still sold more than 4 million units.

Take-Two Interactive lowered its guidance on Jan. 17 for the fiscal year 2012 ended March 31, thanks to its decision to shift the Max Payne 3 game from the fourth fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2012 to the first fiscal quarter of FY 2013. Max Payne 3 is now set to debut on May 15.

Take-Two now expects revenues for the current fourth fiscal quarter, Take-Two expects revenue to in the range of $112 million to $162 million, with a loss at 50 cents to 65 cents a share. Analysts had previously expected a loss of 11 cents a share on revenue of $185 million.The current quarter includes the release of The Darkness II on Feb. 7, Major League Baseball 2K12 on March 6.

Digital game content in the third fiscal quarter accounted for 11 percent of revenue. That was driven by the release of Grand Theft Auto III — 10th Anniversary Edition, for iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) and Android smartphones.

“The goal is to meet consumer’s needs and find them and delight them where they are,” said Zelnick.

Zelnick said that Max Payne 3 from Rockstar Games is shaping up to be one of “our most exciting releases ever.”

The company will also have big titles coming in the new fiscal year including Borderlands 2, BioShock Infinite, Spec Ops: The Line, XCOM, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Grand Theft Auto V, the big title coming from Take-Two’s Rockstar Games label, hasn’t been scheduled yet.

During the year, Take-Two launched big games like L.A. Noire, which sold more than 5 million units since its launch in May 2011. Take-Two said it raised $250 million through a private offering of 1.75 percent convertible senior notes due 2016. Those proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

In the call, Zelnick said he is very bullish on sales of games on tablet computers in the years ahead. He said the company isn’t keen on making risky acquisitions that cost a lot of money. Take-Two has more than $453 million in cash.

---

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 Max Payne series has always been about popping pills, John Woo-style dual-wielding slow-motion action, and ragdoll corpses flying in every direction. With Max Payne 3 getting closer to release (or further, as it has recently been delayed from March 6 to May 15), Rockstar Games has released another video detailing the game’s weaponry and combat.

I like that while the franchise has gotten a major bump up in production values since 2003′s The Fall of Max Payne, it still has that signature presentation that fans should find immediately familiar.

---

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 game is the next big potential blockbuster from the publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, which published Max Payne 2 in 2003. The game will debut on May 18 internationally, on May 29 on the PC in North America, and internationally on the PC on June 1. It’s a big title coming from one of the world’s most innovative game labels.

The new title will rely on “powerful storytelling” in the action-shooter genre and will deliver a cinematic and intense experience, according to Rockstar founder Sam Houser. In this new game, the former New York detective Max Payne travels to the streets of São Paulo, Brazil, while working for a wealthy client. A street gang kidnaps the client’s wife and Max is pulled into the rescue and a conspiracy among the warring factions in the country.

Clearly, Rockstar has scaled up the investment in the Max Payne franchise and we’ll see if it pays off in a title that has broader appeal among the masses. The original Max Payne from 2001 introduced “bullet time,” or the shift to slow motion game play when players are surrounded by bad guys and need extra help dispatching them.

Each year, Rockstar has released major titles in the late spring. A year ago, it launched L.A. Noire in May, and the year before that it released Red Dead Redemption in May 2010. That’s usually a sign for other game publishers to avoid releasing games in May.

Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive lowered its guidance for the fiscal year 2012 ended March 31, thanks to its decision to shift the game from the fourth fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2012 to the first fiscal quarter of FY 2013.

Take-Two will provide more information on the impact of the change when it reports earnings for the third fiscal quarter of FY 2012 on Feb. 2. Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at SterneAgree, cut his estimates for FY 2012 for Take-Two and raised them for FY 2013.

---

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!

---

BioShock: Infinite
Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Release Date: TBA 2012

The original BioShock, developed by 2K Boston (now known as Irrational Games) in 2007, was an instant classic that introduced gamers to the dystopian underwater city of Rapture, an Ayn Randian experiment in Objectivism gone horribly wrong. The 2010 sequel BioShock 2, developed by 2K Marin, had the unenviable task of living up to the high standards set by its predecessor and was met with generally positive reviews. But with creative director Ken Levine and the team at Irrational back behind the wheel, there is a definite buzz surrounding the development of BioShock: Infinite, which trades the dark ocean depths for the blue skies and American Exceptionalism of the early 1900s.

In Infinite, players take on the role of Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent tasked with rescuing a woman named Elizabeth from the floating, weaponized city of Columbia. Levine says in order to bring Columbia to life, Irrational needed an entirely new game engine, along with brand-new animation and AI systems. It also had to rebuild and expand the arsenal players will use in the game to accommodate indoor and outdoor firefights at 30,000 feet. “The only thing gamers can be certain of is this: the rules of the BioShock universe are about to change,” Levine said.

Mass Effect 3
Developer: BioWare
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Release Date: March 6, 2012

An ancient alien race called the Reapers is destroying everything in its path. Earth has been captured. The galaxy is on the verge of total annihilation and Commander Shepard is the only one who can save it. No pressure.

The third and final installment in BioWare’s critically-acclaimed sci-fi trilogy will be the culmination of a journey many gamers began four years ago. As Commander Shepard, players will lead a counter assault against the Reapers, deciding along the way which planets to save and which alliances to form or abandon as they battle the alien threat – and they won’t be doing it alone. For the first time ever, multiplayer is coming to the Mass Effect universe. The game will feature a 4-player cooperative mode that lets players take on the role of elite soldiers sent to protect resources and assets needed in the war effort. It will also feature a new system called Galaxy at War, which will link all Mass Effect games and applications back to the single player campaign and the BioWare Social Network.

Diablo III
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Platforms: PC
Release Date: Q1 2012

There should be a giant asterisk next to this game because, hey, it’s Blizzard. This is the same developer that took 12 years to release a StarCraft sequel…and hasn’t finished it yet. Blizzard is a company infamous for taking its time, so I won’t be surprised if Diablo III’s release date gets pushed back. With the game already in closed beta, however, more delays seem unlikely. It shouldn’t be long now before gamers everywhere are once again dungeon delving for shiny loot and challenging the fiends of the Burning Hells. The Diablo series is the granddaddy of point-and-click action role-playing games and Blizzard says it wants to build on everything it’s learned since the release of Diablo II to create the best experience to date.

Halo 4
Developer: 343 Industries
Publisher: Microsoft
Platforms: Xbox 360
Release Date: Holiday 2012

Master Chief is back!

Although details on the game are scarce, we do know that Halo 4 will supposedly kick off a whole new trilogy for the franchise called the “Reclaimer Trilogy.” It will also be the first game in the series not developed by Bungie. Microsoft Game Studios subsidiary 343 Industries is taking over. According to the official description at Xbox.com, events in the game will take place during the aftermath of Halo 3 and Master Chief will have to “confront his own destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe.”

Borderlands 2
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Fiscal 2013 (April 2012 – March 2013)

Gearbox Software’s Borderlands became a breakout hit in 2009, selling several million copies. It was notable for its cel-shaded art style and shoot-and-loot gameplay, as well as its threadbare storyline and dim-witted AI. However, Gearbox says Borderlands 2 will be an epic sequel, and it has an ambitiously crafted story in the works for those who make the return trip to Pandora. The game will also feature all-new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons, and equipment. Don’t worry, though, Claptrap and his sexy dance will be back. I know you missed it.

Pages: 1 2