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

This week, THQ is delisted from the NASDAQ after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Zynga shuts down 11 games to cut operating costs, and Atlus plans to release Demon’s Souls on the PlayStation Network.

News:
The DeanBeat: The game industry’s calendar will be different in 2013
The most popular GamesBeat stories of 2012
Atlus to release Demon’s Souls on PlayStation Network; servers in no danger of shutting down
The year in gaming in pictures (photo gallery)
Mad Catz launches GameSmart — universal peripherals for smartphones, tablets, PCs, and TVs
THQ lenders object to its fast-track bankruptcy sale
Adults only: Sexually explicit Seduce Me is out now — just not on Steam
Sony’s new patented technology could eliminate used-game sales
This week in the Nintendo Download: Unchained Blades, Code of Princess, and Gunman Clive
PlayStation Network picks up Epix library of movies
No, no, no! — This is what Hollywood thinks of gamers
Microsoft acquires home-automation company R2 Studios to beef up Xbox
Orange taps Movea to create a gesture-based set-top box
PlayJam launches Kickstarter campaign for game console on a USB stick
Red Robot Labs gets off to good start with Life is Magic location-based game
NASDAQ delists THQ
Port justified: Need for Speed: Most Wanted on Wii U has offscreen play
Hacker unlocks the 3DS system kernel key to running pirated software
Heavy Water starts Kickstarter for do-it-yourself game design factory (exclusive)
The end is near: 11 Zynga games are victims of cost-cutting
Free month of Xbox Live Gold for users impacted by cloud-save outage

Mobile news:
Gamers download 8M copies of Angry Birds games on Christmas
Pushy business: The world of mobile gaming engagement
Gift-giving holidays lead to huge success for mobile game developers

Pieces of Flair:
Was The Walking Dead saved by its story?
Dragon Runner is a space-based indie game that’s as deep and accessible as Mario
Nintendo 3DS hacking hurts small developers the most
My mom previews Tomb Raider, Dark Souls II, and other big games of 2013
The year in gaming in pictures (photo gallery)
Are video games easier than they used to be?
Top game controversies of 2012
Violent video games are not to blame: Why I’d cancel my membership to the NRA
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a card game
Top 15 video game Easter eggs of 2012
The quest to finish Star Ocean 3
The gaming school of law enforcement: How video games can improve officers’ effectiveness
Puzzler: Guess the video game magazine ads (32-bit era)

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

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Porting games to the Wii U that released months ago on other systems doesn’t make a lot of sense. If publishers are insistent, however, then they have to include one certain feature that’ll justify any game’s existence on the latest Nintendo console: offscreen play.

Today, Electronic Arts released a press release in Japan declaring that developer Criterion’s Need For Speed: Most Wanted racing game will include the best feature for anyone whose significant other hogs the television to watch hours of Sweet Genius. Offscreen play, for the unaware, enables the Wii U to display its video either on the television, on the GamePad’s screen, or both.

Once you try it, it’s difficult to live without it. Gamers can dive into major games like Batman: Arkham City, Trine 2, and Assassin’s Creed III without ever having to turn on the television.

I don’t want to admit that I don’t control the remote in my house, but let’s put it this way: I’ve watched every episode of Jersey Shore.

I need more games with offscreen play. I won’t even consider a Wii U port if it doesn’t support this feature, and I bet I’m not alone.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted will hit Japanese retailers on March 14. EA has not set a North American release date.

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

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Call of Duty: Black Ops II beat out Halo 4 for the top spot for U.S. retail game unit sales during the critical month of November, according to market researcher NPD.

But both blockbuster games were not able to lift overall game sales high enough to beat sales for November 2011. Sales for total video game hardware, software, and accessories sold at retail were $2.55 billion in November, down 11 percent from $2.87 billion a year ago.

The list does not include some of the fastest-growing parts of the game business, which includes used-game sales, mobile games, social games, and online titles such as free-to-play games. But the U.S. retail sales list is still useful in pointing out trends in gamer tastes, and it also keeps score on which companies are performing the best.

Game hardware sales were $838.9 million, down 13 percent from $962.2 million a year ago. Game software sales were $1.43 billion, down 11 percent from $1.60 billion a year ago. Game accessory sales were $280.9 million, down 8 percent from $305.3 million a year ago. If you count PC games, total software sales were $1.46 billion, down 11 percent from $1.65 billion a year ago.

It’s no surprise that Black Ops II beat out Halo 4, as Black Ops II is on more platforms.

The top 10 games of the month were:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, Wii U, PC)** 1 Activision Blizzard
• Halo 4 (360)** 2 Microsoft
• Assassin’s Creed III (360, PS3, Wii U, PC)** 3 Ubisoft
• Just Dance 4 (Wii, 360, Wii U, PS3) 4 Ubisoft
• Madden NFL 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, Wii U) 5 Electronic Arts
• Skylander Giants (Wii, 360, PS3, 3DS, Wii U)** 6 Activision Blizzard
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2012 (PS3, 360, PSV, PC) 7 Electronic Arts
• NBA 2K13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, Wii U, PC)** 8 Take 2 Interactive
• WWE 13 (360, PS3, Wii) 9 THQ
• FIFA Soccer 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, 3DS, Wii U, PSP) 10 Electronic Arts

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc., but not those bundled with hardware)

Here’s the analysis from Liam Callahan, analyst at NPD:

Overall

“These sales figures represent new physical retail sales of hardware, software and accessories, which account for roughly 50 percent of the total consumer spend on games.  When you consider our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales in November such as used and rentals at $207 million, and our estimate for digital format sales including full game and add-on content downloads including microtransactions, subscriptions, mobile apps and the consumer spend on social network games at $410 million, we would estimate the total consumer spend in November to be over $3.1 billion.  Our final assessment of the consumer spend in these areas outside of new physical retail sales will be reported in February in our Q4 Games Market Dynamics:  U.S. report.”

“It’s important to compare this month’s results to November 2005, which was the last time the industry began to transition between console generations with the launch of a new platform. Comparing this month’s results to November 2005, retail video games sales are nearly twice as big as they were then (+97%). This really demonstrates the long-term health of retail sales even as many platforms are quite late in their lifecycles.”

“Despite an overall retail video game decline of 11 percent, November had the smallest year-over-year decrease we have seen for dollar and unit sales so far this year.  This is a sign of momentum going into the December holiday period.”

Software

“At 14 percent, video game software unit declines are tied with August 2012 for the smallest year-over-year declines so far this year.”

“Overall entertainment software units decreased by 15 percent, however, when comparing the performance of the top 5 titles from this year to last, we see a rise in unit sales of 5 percent (games outside of the top 5 sold less, leading to overall declines).”

“While there was a 21 percent decline in the number of titles that launched this November versus November 2011, these new titles are holding their own and generating the same number of dollars per title on average.  Unfortunately, declines this month stemmed from softer sales from catalog titles, which launched outside of this month, with dollar sales down 11 percent, collectively.”

“Half of the software dollars sold in November 2012 were for the Xbox 360, which gained 8 share points in overall software sales from last November.”

Hardware

“November 2012 was the lowest hardware decline for dollar sales we have seen in year-over-year trends so far this year.”

“The much anticipated launch of the new Wii U console brought in more dollars than the Wii launch in November 2006, up 21 percent from that launch month.  With an average price 35 percent higher for the Wii U at launch compared to the Wii, this is an example of how consumers are willing to come out and spend when they see the value of the product.”

“Comparing Wii sales from November 2011 to Wii sales combined with Wii U sales in November 2012, dollar sales increased by 76 percent.”

“Xbox 360 led overall hardware platform sales for the sixteenth consecutive month.”

“Through bundling compelling third party content with the PS Vita hardware, November 2012 was the second highest month of sales on a unit basis for the PS Vita since launch.”

“The Nintendo DS was the only platform to increase in hardware unit sales versus November 2011.”

Accessories

“Skylanders accessories continue to perform well, building off the original game with the Skylanders Giants.  Skylanders unit sales of both original and the new Giants were up over 250 percent compared to last November.”

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

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Jingoistic modern-day first-person shooters love quotes from icons of American history, or at least their loading screens seem to enjoy them. So I couldn’t help but use a JFK classic to summarize Medal of Honor: Warfighter as an experience: “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”

Electronic Arts’ recently released multiplatform first-person shooter assumes we can’t get enough of the blockbuster bang-and-boom escapades that have made competing franchises like Activision’s Call of Duty so popular.

Yet with Warfighter, EA remains at the rear of the corporate first-person-shooter platoon because it chose to march in place instead of moving forward.

That doesn’t necessarily mean Warfighter can’t hang with its big-budget brothers in arms, so let’s enter the fray and take a closer look.

What you’ll like

The modern-warfare shooter model is tired but still fun

Warfighter clearly takes inspiration from other releases in its genre. Unlike some of the me-too efforts that have followed a similar path, the gameplay here can be pretty fun at times. Shooting mechanics are familiar and precise. Helpful onscreen icons let you know when you’ve nailed that reflex-rewarding headshot. And single-player skirmishes give you access to a convenient peeking move that facilitates leaning around corners, adding a slight cover-based-shooter vibe to the combat. Sadly, the feature is unavailable for multiplayer encounters.

Wait … is this Need for Speed?

The remarkably short single-player campaign doesn’t just leave you gripping human-neutralizing weapons. It makes you grip a steering wheel every now and then, too. These vehicle sequences are surprisingly lengthy, and they task you with driving through people-packed Pakistani streets and freshly paved Dubai motorways. You’ll even get to maneuver an indestructible Zodiac boat through a fiery-and-flooded Filipino town.

While these moments don’t have the same feel as a tightly tuned EA racing title, they break up the body-count-boosting fighting sequences pretty effectively.

United Nations of multiplayer

Obviously, Warfighter puts a lot of emphasis on multiplayer. Playing on the Xbox 360, I had to insert a whole new disc just to battle other flesh-and-blood beings. Regardless, you’ll encounter many of the standard FPS multiplayer tropes. So expect to unlock different combat classes and weapon loadouts by racking up kills in the different online modes.

What makes Warfighter stand out, however, is its global approach to the aforementioned classes. Keeping with its from-the-frontlines tone, you’re immediately asked to browse through different real-world, tier-one special-forces archetypes representing 10 countries. You can deploy as a United States Army SFOD-D assaulter, a Canadian JTF2 sniper, or even a German KSK heavy gunner, among others. While somewhat superficial, the international angle adds an interesting layer to the typical choose-your-guy-and-go approach.

Multiplayer also introduces the “fire team” concept where you’re paired with someone for a group-deathmatch session. You’ll receive bonuses as you help your fellow friendly, and you’ll even have the option to respawn at your buddy’s location (if he can stay alive long enough).

What you won’t like

Mediocrity ‘inspired by real events’

Every contemporary-combat based FPS has a gratuitous near-death, arms-flailing-in-front-of-you, holy-expletive moment or two … or 12. Warfighter joins the club, but the instances in its single-player campaign take inspiration from actual events, adding a never-before-seen level of “realism.” So this time, when a massive explosion causes a chain reaction that leads to a giant crane collapsing on top of you, it’s more “lifelike.”

Horribly rendered CG cutscenes try to weave a patronizing and sometimes confusing tale of country-first heroes sacrificing their personal lives in the name of righteousness. One of the protagonists deals with personal crises involving his need-to-know-basis mission and uncanny valley-dwelling wife and daughter. Again, mimicking the “real thing.”

The genuine men and women fighting these wars are facing life-and-death threats, both on and off the battlefield. No one can replicate or claim to replicate what they’ve gone through, are going through, and will go through. Most FPS releases hide behind a digital veil of ignorance. They’re just video games, right? Nothing but mindless fun. EA deliberately chose to stick the authenticity label on Warfighter, and that decision brings the consequences, and scrutiny, that come with it.

In short, Warfighter feels like a Michael Bay movie masquerading as a Kathryn Bigelow film.

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You maneuver a multimillion dollar sports car around the curve of a busy highway you’ve turned into an impromptu racetrack, dodging cars and grinding your paint against the guard rails. Another driver in the race speeds past, and you move in for the kill. Flooring the accelerator and hitting the boost, you push him into oncoming traffic, where he collides with a minivan. As you celebrate the hunk of metal growing smaller in your rearview mirror, you don’t notice the slow-moving sedan that you’re about to crash into until it’s too late.

Maybe you shout your favorite four-letter word. Maybe you close your eyes to spare yourself the carnage. Either way, if this scenario sounds familiar, you’ve probably played one of the games in Criterion’s beloved Burnout series … or Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which is another Criterion production. It’s also that studio’s second crack at EA’s long-running racing Need for Speed franchise (the first being 2010’s Hot Pursuit).

But is Most Wanted a rightful heir to Burnout’s legacy or a cheap knockoff?

WHAT YOU’LL LIKE

The open road

Much like Burnout Paradise, Criterion’s last game before taking over Need for Speed, Most Wanted drops you into an open world and strives to give you as much control over your driving as possible. They don’t want anything holding you back from racing the way you want to, whether it’s menus, limits on selectable vehicles, or locked areas. In one of the game’s simplest innovations, almost all of the cars (except for a specific handful) are available from the beginning. All you need to do is explore the city and find them.

Your main goal is to climb to the top of the Most Wanted list, a group of the 10 best drivers in the city. The way you do this is by challenging each driver (in descending order) to a race, beating them, and then shutting their car down by forcing them into a crash. Before you can challenge them, you need to accumulate a predetermined amount of Speed Points by completing races, crashing through hidden billboards, and finding secret paths with one of the other cars you’ve collected.

The openness extends to the game’s multiplayer as well, although its mod and car unlocks are separate from the single-player mode. Once a multiplayer game begins, you drop back into the city, and the game points you to a meet-up location where you and the other players can initiate a competition. These shuffle though generic races, team races, and a few location-specific goals that let you see if you can fly further off a jump or maintain a single drift longer than your opponents. It all benefits from a very loose structure that feels more like hanging out with friends (who happen to be driving expensive cars) than the usual more menu-based online offerings.

If all of this freedom sounds similar to Burnout Paradise, that’s because it very much is. I’m not implying that Most Wanted feels derivative, because the game’s similarities to Paradise are actually it’s strongest aspect. The name on the box may say Need for Speed, but this is clearly Criterion trying to sneak out an upgraded version of their last Burnout game.

The EasyDrive system

The secret ingredient of Most Wanted’s open world is its EasyDrive feature. It effectively cuts out all of the traditional menus so you can upgrade your car, find races, and even log on to the multiplayer mode while driving. It is sometimes a little unwieldy in the middle of a tense race, but if you familiarize yourself with the location of each option and practice driving and navigating the D-pad with the same thumb, you can swap out mods in a matter of seconds and instantly tune your car to handle better in whatever situation you’re in. Coming up on a shortcut through a dirt path? Just a few jerks of your thumb and you’ll have off-road tires. Then a couple more jerks later and you can swap back to track tires for better handling on the street.

Once you get the hang of it, EasyDrive is a very elegant alternative (despite my repeated references to “jerking thumbs”) to clicking through menus, and it goes a long way toward selling the open world that Criterion has created.

It’s car porn

Before every race, Most Wanted treats you to a short intermission that shows you the starting area in various artsy filters and camera angles: cars speeding past fisheye lenses, images rotating at a vertigo-inducing 90 degrees, or police chases happening in reverse. It’s all pretty cool and it shakes up the driving around a bit. When you go from driving down a city street one second to a trippy visual that wouldn’t look out-of-place in a game like Limbo, it gets you weirdly hyped up for whatever competition is coming up next.

But as interesting as those are, the quick intros before taking on cars from the Most Wanted list are significantly crazier and very cool. They’re like the most badass Scion car commercials ever made, but instead of focusing on something dumb (like a Scion), it takes you through a dark Area 51-looking secret bunker that is either housing a Lovecraftian monster … or a Lamborghini. If the weird videos prior to normal races hype you up, these will terrify you. Maybe you don’t think you’re the type of person who would drool over a really cool car, but that’s probably because you haven’t seen one explode out of a mountain of tiny triangles and fly into space.

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Developer Criterion has finally showed off its open-world racing game Need For Speed: Most Wanted running on something other than a PC.

Criterion, which produced Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit and the Burnout series, is known for making great racers that look beautiful. Earlier this year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the developer continued that trend by showing Need For Speed: Most Wanted (due out Oct. 30 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows) looking gorgeous on a PC.

The industry is in a technological transitional period, however, and it was unclear if the studio could stretch the consoles enough to keep up. Especially since we haven’t had a confirmed look at the gameplay on something besides a powerful desktop. A new video from Eurogamer Expo 2012 proves that we shouldn’t worry about Criterion; they can still make with the pretty on the dusty, old consoles.

Take a look at the game running on a PlayStation 3 (the video has a choppy framerate):

Need For Speed: Most Wanted combines the open-world competition of Criterion’s Burnout Paradise with the aesthetics of Need For Speed’s Most Wanted franchise. This game is also notable for being a reboot of a game also called Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2005) that debuted within this same generation of hardware.

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

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The Need for Speed motion picture is reportedly on the fast track (no pun intended) for production and will hit theaters in 2014. While the movie already has a script (from She’s Out of My League producer George Gatins), it currently lacks a cast. No worries, GamesBeat is ready to shift into gear or some other car-related idiom, and we’ll figure out the perfect actor for each role.

After breaking down the archetypes of The Fast and the Furious, we’ve discovered that each film has a hero (Paul Walker), an anti-hero (Vin Diesel), the fuzz (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), and a girl (Jordana Brewster). We’ve scoured our film vault, and after realizing that it only consists of four of the seven Police Academy movies on VHS, we went to the Internet Movie Database to unearth the best potential cast to plug into these roles.

Who Dreamworks should get

Hero                                   Anti-hero                         The Fuzz                         The Girl

Logan Marshall-Green     Idris Elba                    Jason Statham             Zoe Saladana

A Need for Speed movie must feature tons of fun driving action, but it will also have to make the audience care about that action. The best way to do that is through characters we can relate to, which begins with a strong cast.  We think Logan Marshall-Green would make an excellent hero playing off of Idris Elba as his anti-hero. They just worked together in Prometheus, as the lead scientist and captain of the Prometheus (respectively), but we shouldn’t hold that against them.

Meanwhile, Jason Statham (he of Cranked fame) could stretch his legs as a dirty cop who locks up anyone with a need for anything over 35 miles per hour. Zoe Saladana (Uhura from the 2009 Star Trek) would make a stunning leading lady as she is both beautiful and talented. Hopefullly, all that blue paint she wore in Avatar has washed off.

Who Dreamworks will actually get

Hero                                   Anti-hero                         The Fuzz                         The Girl

Nicholas Cage                  John Cena                       Roddy Piper                Kate Upton

Of course, Hollywood often thinks that acting isn’t as important as appealing to market demographics. That’s why we’ll probably get a Need for Speed cast led by Nicholas Cage. For some reason, this receding-hairline-on-legs still gets work. He starred in driving films like Gone in 60 Seconds and Drive Angry, so he’ll probably get shoehorned into this as well.

For the anti-hero and cop roles, how does a pair of wrestlers sound? The kind of people who play video games all love wrestling, right? Just get that jean-short guy John Cena and then someone who will do anything for a paycheck. Rowdy Roddy Piper? From, like, 30 years ago? Sure, why not?

For the lead female, don’t worry about hiring an actress. Just get the prettiest thing that would never in 14-billion years ever be interested in Nick Cage, and then put her in small clothes. A model would be best, because her lines will be two-words long and the director of photography will be too busy framing every shot around her butt.

The only cast that gamers will be happy with

Hero                                   Anti-hero                         The Fuzz                         The Girl

Nathan Fillion                  Nathan Fillion              Nathan Fillion               Nathan Fillion

Gamers are opinionated and nearly impossible to please. They will never truly accept a Hollywood version of one of their games unless it perfectly meshes with their expectations. What do gamers want from a video-game movie? Nathan Fillion. This actor from the cult-favorite sci-fi show Firefly and the currently not-canceled ABC mystery Castle has cast a spell over a wide legion of fans. Anytime some L.A. producer starts talking about turning a game into a movie, Fillion’s name immediately pops up on message boards as the favorite to fill every role.

We can see it now: Innocent hero Fillion bickers with anti-hero Fillion, who gets them both into trouble before hero Fillion falls in love with girl Fillion. Police officer Fillion is having none of it, but anti-hero Fillion teaches hero Fillion to ignore authority, which gives him the confidence to win the heart of girl Fillion. Fin.

Actually, we’d totally watch that.

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

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

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

Awards

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

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

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

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

The best family games of E3 – by GamesBeat staff

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

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

Previews

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

Hands-on

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sony Online Entertainment’s PlanetSide 2 – by Rob LeFebvre

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

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

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

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

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

Hands-off

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our opinions

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

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

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

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

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

Tomb Raider is not torture porn – by Rus McLaughlin

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

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

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

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

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

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

Memes

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

The best memes of E3 – by Jeff Grubb

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

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

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

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

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

Galleries

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

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

E3 2012 will get your hands up – by Evan Killham

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

The many costumes of E3 2012 – by Jacob Lopez

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

Videos

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

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

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

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

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

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

Press conferences

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

Microsoft (video)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Electronic Arts (video)

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

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

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

EA nabs UFC from THQ – by Jeff Grubb

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

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

Ubisoft (video)

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

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

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

Sony (video)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nintendo (video)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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If your head is spinning with all the breaking E3 news, GamesBeat wants to help. At the end of each day, we’ll compile a handy roundup of the day’s best content in one convenient post. If you want to keep track of them all, just type “E3 roundup” in the search bar.

Four out of the five major press conferences happened today, and that means GamesBeat is nearly overflowing with breaking news, previews, and commentary. Below you’ll find coverage from Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Sony.

Sony brings down the house with The Last of Us demo

Sony announces Assassin’s Creed III Vita and PS3 bundles with exclusive content

J.K. Rowling is writing PlayStation’s Wonderbook

Nathan Drake and the Big Daddy Bouncer join PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale

Experimental developer Quantic Dream reveals the haunted life of Jodie Holmes in Beyond

THQ confirms that it has laid off employees of WWE developer THQ San Diego

E3 2012: You are the network in Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs

Here’s where that Watch Dogs cube-head QR code goes

Rayman Legends rhythmically runs to the Wii U

Ubisoft shows strong commitment to the Wii U (videos)

Far Cry 3 demo leads you deeper into drug-induced insanity (preview)

Turn the snow crimson with redcoat blood in Assassin’s Creed III (preview)

Why Ubisoft is pouring a lot of resources into Wii U games (interview)

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot embraces disruption, new business models and new platforms (interview)

Ubisoft will make eight games for the Nintendo Wii U

Ubisoft’s creative director on why hooded assassins still fit in the American Revolution (interview)

EA shows off Need for Speed: Most Wanted at E3 2012

E3 2012: Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s beautiful carnage

EA nabs UFC from THQ

Star Wars: The Old Republic gets new planet, new species, and free trial

EA reveals Battlefield 3 Premium and fields “15 million players worldwide”

Madden NFL 13 is now even more of a contact sport

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

NCAA Football 13’s Heisman Challenge mode puts the “I” in team (hands-on preview)

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

Crysis 3 brings the jungle, gun hacking, and silent stealth kills to Manhattan (hands-on preview)

Hitman: Absolution trailer is indicative of gaming’s broken culture

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

South Park creators introduce their game and playfully mock Microsoft

E3 2012: Nike+ Kinect Training brings in-depth fitness measuring to Xbox 360

Forza Horizon brings street racing to the franchise

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

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Publisher Electronic Arts confirmed that the next game in the Need For Speed franchise will be titled Need For Speed: Most Wanted. It is being developed by Criterion, who also made Burnout Paradise and Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit for PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox 360 consoles.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted will be available October 30, 2012 in North America and November 1, 2012 in Europe for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and the PC, as well as for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets

Matt Webster, Executive Producer at Criterion Games, took the stage to introduce the title and the demonstration video. According to Webster, the developer wanted to “maximize competition” with the second generation Need for Speed Autolog system, which tracks everything you do in the game to provide points toward a competitive leaderboard ranking.

The demonstration showed off the open-world nature of Need for Speed, where you can race on streets, sidewalks, and even bridges. The series’ famous destruction was on display as well, with plenty of mayhem and explosive action.

“Criterion is shaking up the franchise with Need for Speed: Most Wanted,” said Webster. “This is Most Wanted for a new generation of players. We’ve brought everything we know about racing, chasing, and exploration and smashed them together in a highly connected, open-world automotive experience. Whether driving solo or racing with friends in our amazing new multiplayer experience, Autolog fires-up competition out of everything as players compete to be most wanted amongst their friends.”

Need for Speed: Most Wanted will be launching October 30, 2012. Pre-orders start today. The full press release is available as well.

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

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Electronic Arts is reportedly working toward a Hollywood adaptation of its long-running Need for Speed franchise. Brothers John Gatins (a writer of Real Steel) and George Gatins (producer of She’s Out of My League and My Wife is Retarded) have been attached and are allegedly helping EA to shop a script around. Thus far, Warner Bros., Sony, and Paramount are said to be interested — presumably hoping to create a rival to Universal’s blockbuster The Fast and the Furious franchise, which currently has its sixth installment in pre-production.

The Need for Speed series has seen numerous iterations across countless gaming platforms since its inception in 1994. The Fast and the Furious films were a direct inspiration on the Need for Speed Underground subset of titles in 2003 and 2004. The developers implemented an intentionally campy story aspect starting with Need for Speed Most Wanted on the Xbox 360 in 2005 and continued to toy with the concept of featuring live-action sequences to propel the gameplay forward in later sequels. However, when publisher EA moved to force an annual sequel (instead of allowing the standard two years of development), the critically acclaimed series began to become critically panned.

Last year’s iteration, Need For Speed: The Run (which is said to be the inspiration for the upcoming film), again put an emphasis on story — even going so far as to have a commercial of in-game footage edited by Michael Bay. The Run received mixed to average reviews on Metacritic.

Personally, I’m a bit indifferent to the news of a film adaptation. The attached talent feels wrong for this kind of project, and the motivation seems more like an attempt to capitalize on The Fast and the Furious’ popularity than to make a cool movie. And with EA, which was recently voted the “Worst Company in America” by the Consumerist, already struggling year after year to get the Need for Speed games back on track, I think a film version should be the least of their concerns right now.

Via Variety

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

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