Blizzard Entertainment Australia last night announced the introduction of local Diablo III servers in Australia. Hosted in a data centre in Sydney, players are currently able to access the servers. The servers are linked with the existing Americas region, so all characters, gold and experience are unaffected. Players connecting locally will not need to select Australia from a server drop-down menu. Players who create Hardcore characters in ANZ will only be allowed to play on Australian servers. The implementation of local servers will not change how players will activate the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls expansion pack, as product activation and initial authentication will still be handled by Battle.net servers in the Americas. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is slated for a release on March 25 this year. Blizzard shut-down the in-game auction house earlier this month, following an announcement made in September last year. source:gamespot

Listed in the review notes for inFamous: Second Son are details on additional content players will be able to access along with the day-one patch for the game. The approximately 300MB patch also includes the standard bug fixes and minor gameplay tweaks. The additional storyline included in the patch is described as "an innovative storyline in the narrative of the game world, but that also has content and gameplay outside the PS4 game itself." It mentions that sharp-eyed players may have noticed an easter egg in the game's TV commercial directing them to www.enjoyyourpower.com, a still-unfolding ARG created by developer Sucker Punch and 42 Entertainment that ties into Second Son. The description says, "At the end of the rabbit hole is six weeks of weekly episodic game content that weaves in and out of the game, giving you more gameplay and backstory on the world of Second Son." In the game, you'll have access to the first mission in the Paper Trail storyline, but it's essentially free content that adds "approximately 5 hours of unique gameplay" through 19 additional story mission. The patch also includes Cole's Legacy Content Pack, which is a free upgrade for player's who pre-ordered the game. The four additional story missions in this content pack add approximately one hour of gameplay and "explore the events immediately following inFamous 2. The day-one patch includes the following fine tuning adjustments and bug fixes: Difficulty Balance Normal difficulty has been slightly increased to challenge the player’s mastery of their powers Expert difficulty has been fine-tuned to ensure it is the best experience for skilled gamers Karma progression extended to support longer playtime Boss Fights The boss fights have been re-tuned for difficulty and fun More dynamic boss behaviors and attacks Pedestrians and DUPs Engine performance tweaks to allow for more life and activity in the city Increased pedestrian and traffic density and variety Increased pedestrian-related karmic opportunities Post-story enemy activity and D.U.P. raids Technical Improvements Graphics and performance improvements Fixes for a small number of infrequent blocking bugs PSN integration to support Paper Trail DLC source:gamespot

The fate of the "God game" genre depends on the success of Peter Molyneux's upcoming PC game Godus, the veteran designer told GameSpot in a new interview this week. "If Godus doesn't exist, there are going to be no God games left," Molyneux said. But why? First, Molyneux said the God game genre does not translate well to consoles because the interface and the "free-form" nature of their worlds is tricky to manipulate using a controller. "Controllers are awful for free-form. They're very serial," he said. That's why you see so few God games on consoles, he said. Second, Molyneux said games like FarmVille, CityVille, and Clash of Clans have been labeled "God games," but they really aren't, he argued. "I don't think they are God games because they're not playful enough, they're not about your world; they're about this very compartmentalized world," Molyneux said. "So I feel that Godus should be a reinvention of that game and then infusing that with the ability that all people are playing together is fresh and new and different enough." No stranger to making lofty claims, Molyneux boasted that Godus will break new ground and do things that no game has ever done before. "There is nothing like Godus that I have ever played before. It's not like any game that has existed before," he said. The game will offer "ultimate freedom," Molyneux said. Also in our talk with Molyneux, he recalled the origins of the God game genre itself. He is credited with giving life to the "God game" genre with Populous, but he never thought of using that specific terminology. "I didn't invent that genre; I stumbled across it. It was only my alcohol-soaked brain that came up with that idea. And then the press turned around and said 'Oh, this is called a God game' and I didn't set out to do it," Molyneux said. You can watch our full interview with Molyneux below source:gamespot

Three new screenshots of Batman: Arkham Knight have been exhibited on Game Informer, showing a close-up look of three of the game's antagonists: The Riddler, Penguin, and Two-Face. Does anyone else think The Riddler looks exactly like Charlie Sheen, or is it just me? Art director David Hego also went into more detail about the new looks behind the characters, explaining how the studio wants to keep their presence fresh and exciting even though they've all featured in the series before. The Riddler (pictured) will look different as Batman: Arkham Knight progresses. "How can we make these guys exciting, even after seeing them again?" said Hego. "How can we improve the story behind them?" Crime boss Penguin, described as a thug, has now shaved his head and sports a rolled-up shirt that's stained with food. Two Face has also rolled up his sleeves--it must be pretty muggy in Gotham City--and you can see that his left arm is burnt. The Riddler's look will also change slightly as the game progresses, in a similar fashion to how Batman's outfit gets more torn and beaten as he goes on. “It’s something we try to put in the characters,” said lead character artist Albert Feliu, explaining how The Riddler will look more distressed and unhinged every time Batman thwarts his schemes. “If you had to work overtime, for example, you would start the night with your jumper on and everything, and as the time went by you’d probably take your jumper off, open your shirt, take your tie off, have a coffee. The Riddler is a character who has a cool framework, and we didn’t want to change it too much--we like his shirts with question marks and silly glasses and greasy hair.” Batman: Arkham Knight will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC later this year source:gamespot

Is the AAA gaming market healthy in 2014? If you ask Just Cause studio Avalanche Studios founder Christofer Sundberg, he'd say no. But it's a different story for Call of Duty developer Sledgehammer Games. As part of a Q&A session following a presentation the duo gave today at the Game Developers Conference, I asked cofounders Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey for their assessment of the health of AAA gaming in 2014. These are their responses: Schofield: "Well, [GTA V] sold what, 30 million units? [in fact, it shipped 32.5 million copies] I don't know about the health of it. I mean, I'm pretty optimistic. I think there's always gotta be high-end video games. We see the demand. People are still buying them; people are still playing them." "I just think there's a place for that big blockbuster video game and you sit there with your 60-inch TV and you've got your speakers. You just gotta make sure it's really high quality." Condrey gave a more nuanced answer. "We're in a really dynamic time now," he said, noting that the indie movement is allowing for incredible instances of innovation and experimentation. "That's fantastic," he added. Though he enjoys smaller, independently made entertainment experiences, Condrey said he also appreciates big-budget blockbuster movies because he "wants both experiences." And the same is true for his gaming appetite, he said. Condrey's assessment of the industry in 2014 wasn't entirely rosy, however. He said the gaming space that is having a tough time right now is the B-game market. "I fear that the middle ground is where it gets really tough," he explained. So far in 2014, the AAA industry has faced numerous instances of challenging news. God of War developer Sony Santa Monica cut jobs and even canceled a new IP in February, Thief developer Eidos Montreal laid off 27 people a week after release, BioShock creator Irrational Games announced it is "winding down," and Metal Gear Solid creator said young people are losing interest in AAA games in favor of mobile experiences. Also during the presentation today, Schofield boasted that this year's Call of Duty game is "most ambitious, most creative game we've ever made." source:gamespot

Today during a Game Developers Conference presentation, Sledgehammer Games cofounder Glen Schofield boasted about the studio's current project, this year's Call of Duty game. He said the game is the "most ambitious, most creative game we've ever made," referring to his development career alongside other Sledgehammer Games cofounder Michael Condrey. Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick previously described 2014's Call of Duty title as "perhaps the best Call of Duty game ever created." Activision has yet to formally announce the game, but the publisher often announces new Call of Duty games in May, so the wait might not be much longer. Also during the presentation today, Schofield and Condrey showed off an in-game character image for this year's Call of Duty. [Ed. Note: It looked impressive, but it was on screen for only a fraction of second, so I could not capture it. Sorry] Schofield and Condrey have worked together for many years now and are perhaps best known for helping create the Dead Space franchise at Visceral Games for Electronic Arts. Schofield and Condrey Activision hired Schofield and Condrey in 2009 to lead Sledgehammer Games. The studio's first project was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which it co-developed with Infinity Ward. Sledgehammer Games now has around 200 people on staff, which makes the studio one of the biggest in northern California, Schofield said. The Call of Duty series is now on a three-year, three-studio development cycle. Previously, the franchise was developed on a two-year interval, with Infinity Ward launching games during odd-numbered years, and Treyarch releasing titles during even-numbered years. Now, Sledgehammer Games is in the mix, as well as supporting studios Raven Software and Neversoft Entertainment. Activision maintains that this move will allow developers to have extra time to not only create new features to help push the brand forward, but also so they can spend more time polishing each game. Installments in the Call of Duty franchise will still be released on a yearly basis. source:gamespot

Electronic Arts is yet again in the running for "Worst Company in America," but the Battlefield and Mass Effect publisher is not "evil," according to Fable creator Peter Molyneux. "EA is not an evil empire," Molyneux told Kotaku. "They're a company that have done a great deal for this industry. [but] when corporates buy companies, several things change." Molyneux has an intimate understanding of what it means to work with EA, as he sold his first studio, Bullfrog Productions, to EA in 1995. One of the problems that came along with the acquisition was what Molyneux called "love abuse." "When EA bought Bullfrog, they just wanted to make it nicer. They moved us to a nice office, where we couldn't shoot each other [with BB guns] in the corridors," Molyneux said. "We had an HR department because that was a nice proper professional thing to do. And that changes the flavor of the company." "When any company is acquired, it's gonna change the company," Molyneux added. "Sometimes, that change can possibly make the company better. Lots of times it can make it worse." Molyneux would later establish Fable developer Lionhead Studios, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2006. He quit Microsoft in 2012 to open his own studio 22Cans, which is working on Godus. You can check out a demo for the game, led by Molyneux, below source:gamespot

Square Enix vice president of strategic marketing Karl Stewart has left the Tomb Raider studio after eight years with the company. He announced the news on his Tumblr today. His last day is today. Stewart with film director Quentin Tarantino Stewart will join Petrol Advertising where he'll work as VP of Brand Development and Strategic Partnerships. Some of Petrol's clients include Activision, Electronic Arts, and 2K. Stewart began his career at Square Enix as a creative director at Eidos in 2006. He became global brand manager for Crystal Dynamics in October 2009 and was promoted to VP of strategic marketing at Square Enix in April 2013. During his tenure at Square Enix, Stewart worked on more than 25 games, from franchises like Tomb Raider, Hitman, Kane & Lynch, Thief, Deus Ex, and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Stewart said the "crowning glory" of his time at Square Enix was the time he spent working on the Tomb Raider reboot, which launched in March 2013. "A large part of my life went into that reboot and I thoroughly believe that Crystal Dynamics has created one of the most memorable, if not the biggest, reboot in video game history," Stewart said. Stewart's departure from Square Enix doesn't mean the company is in trouble, he said. "Square Enix is an amazing company, whether you work for one of its studios or publishing arms, or if you’re thinking of joining, this company has given me the opportunity to grow and do what I love to do best, work in creative and ridiculously talented company at the heart of the video game industry," Stewart said. "The potential for opportunity and growth at Square Enix is limitless." Stewart is not the only game industry executive to quit his company this month. In the span of the past two weeks, SCEA CEO Jack Tretton and Xbox boss Marc Whitten both quit their companies. source:gamespot

Today during a presentation at the 2014 Game Developers Conference, Microsoft officially announced Direct X12, the latest version of the graphics API. Microsoft is targeting it to launch for developers in holiday 2015. During the event, Microsoft showed off a tech demo of Xbox One racing game Forza Motorsport 5 running on a PC rig powered by a NVIDIA GeForce Titan Black graphics card. Direct X12 will introduce the next version of Direct3D, which Microsoft says has been redesigned to be "faster and more efficient than ever before." "Direct3D 12 enables richer scenes, more objects, and full utilization of modern GPU hardware. And it isn't just for high-end gaming PCs either--Direct3D 12 works across all the Microsoft devices you care about," Microsoft said. "From phones and tablets, to laptops and desktops, and, of course, Xbox One, Direct3D 12 is the API you've been waiting for." In addition to providing a lower level of hardware abstraction, Direct X12 also introduces a new set of rendering pipeline features that Microsoft claims will "dramatically improvde the efficiency of algorithms" like order-independent transparency, collision detection, and geometry culling. In a statement of its own today, NVIDIA said it has "worked closely" with the DirectX team at Microsoft to deliver DX12. On top of that, NVIDIA says it has already provided drivers and a DX12 development kit to more than 15 developers. source:gamespot

Obsidian, the developer behind South Park: The Stick of Truth and Fallout: New Vegas revealed the trailer for their next project, Armored Warfare, during the GDC Awards ceremony earlier tonight. In case you missed it, you can watch the reveal again in the trailer above, but the modern tank combat game will probably immediately call to mind another multiplayer tank-based shooter from Wargaming. We'll have more details on Obsidian's game straight from GDC in the coming days. However, you can sign up for the game's beta right now on ArmoredWarfare.com. source:gamespot

Nintendo and the Wii U may be struggling at the moment, but that doesn't mean the company is doomed, according to outspoken Fable creator Peter Molyneux. "Never underestimate Nintendo," Molyneux told IGN (via GamesIndustry International). "They're probably one hardware release away from something that utterly convinces us that they know exactly what the future of games should be." Nintendo is currently working on a mystery "quality of life" hardware initiative that the company has major plans for. [GameSpot editor Tom McShea maintains that this new platform could be a means to quietly kill off the Wii U]. Molyneux also said that he's not a big fan of the Wii U's "clunky" design. Overall, however, the industry veteran said Nintendo's staff are "super-smart" people, even if they had "lost their way a bit" with the Wii U so far. "The problem with Nintendo is they did a fantastic job of finding these millions of new players with the Wii, and the Wii U kind of does that but also tries to bring in the existing gamers as well, so they may have lost their way a bit," Molyneux said. "But they're super-smart people." The Wii U launched in November 2012 and has sold more than 5.8 million units worldwide to date. High-profile first-party games like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. are due out later this year and Nintendo will no doubt look to those games to help drive system sales source:gamespot

Still playing Star Wars: The Old Republic? If you are, you might be happy to learn BioWare has announced Galactic Strongholds, the next expansion for the free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Due out this summer, Galactic Strongholds will allow players to live on multiple planets and "expand their influence" by acquiring and customizing their own Strongholds. You'll have hundreds of "unique" decorations to use as a means to not only style your living space to your liking, but also to boost your Prestige score for the Stronghold Directory. You can also invite other players to your Stronghold from any in-game location. In addition, when Galactic Strongholds rolls out this summer, Guilds can use a new Guild Flagships feature where they can meet and plan for their next outing. To mark the expansion's announcement, BioWare is also handing out various in-game bonuses to paying subscribers. These are listed below. Subscribers as of April 2 will receive: 500 Bonus Cartel Coins Subscribers as of May 4 will receive: 1,000 Bonus Cartel Coins Subscribers as of May 11 will receive: Early Access to Galactic Strongholds on June 24 Luxurious Nar Shaddaa Stronghold with three additional rooms unlocked (Value: 1,500,000 Credits) Stronghold Label: “Galactic Stronghold” Character Title: “The Illustrious Subscribers beginning June 24 will receive: Early Access to Galactic Strongholds on June 24 Luxurious Nar Shaddaa Stronghold Unlocked (Value: 250,000 Credits) Stronghold Label: “Galactic Stronghold” Character Title: “The Illustrious” Preferred Status Players beginning July 29 will receive: Early Access to Galactic Strongholds on July 29 Stronghold Label: “Galactic Stronghold” Character Title: “The Illustrious” Galactic Strongholds is one of two new digital expansions coming to The Old Republic this year. Unfortunately, no other details are available regarding the second expansion. The Old Republic launched in 2011 after its development reportedly cost $200 million for publisher Electronic Arts. The game failed to attract a wide enough userbase to sustain its subscription-based model and switched to free-to-play just 11 months after release. source:gamespot

Yesterday, a GameSpot source told us that Electronic Arts had landed the rights to publish a sequel to this month's multiplayer shooter Titanfall. Now, sources have informed Polygon that Titanfall 2 will not be exclusive to Microsoft platforms. Titanfall is currently exclusive to Xbox One and PC; the Xbox 360 version is due out on April 8. EA has not commented on the rumors. That a sequel to Titanfall is in development and that it will see a release across multiple competing platforms is not much of a surprise. Asked in October if Respawn Entertainment would make a PlayStation 4 game some day, cofounder Vince Zampella said, "Of course we will, just not the first Titanfall." source:gamespot

Sony has ruled out a 2014 launch for its virtual reality headset Project Morpheus. PlayStation president of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida told GameSpot today that this won't happen because Sony engineers are continuing to iterate on the device and they won't have a feature-complete version ready anytime soon. We asked Yoshida directly if a 2014 launch date for Project Morpheus had been ruled out and his response was: "Yes. That we can say comfortably because we are still making changes to the hardware." The current iteration of the Project Morpheus headset is a non-final prototype. Sony has pledged to continue to improve the device over time to boost its ability to deliver a feeling of "presence." However, the company has not laid out a specific roadmap for what changes are the highest priority. Oculus VR is also keeping the release date for the Oculus Rift consumer version under wraps. A second iteration of the development kit will launch this summer, with the consumer version to follow, though it's not clear when that will be. GameSpot editor Peter Brown trying out Project Morpheus today at GDC Also in our interview with Yoshida today, the PlayStation executive addressed the matter of pricing for Project Morpheus. He wasn't ready to talk firm pricing plans, but he did say that you won't have to spend $1000 to get your hands on the device, as is the case with Sony's HMZ head-mounted display line. According to Yoshida, the HMZ line is priced in such a way that Sony makes money on every unit sold. This model doesn't normally apply to game hardware, though, as consoles are often sold at or below cost, and become profitable with the sale of games, accessories, and services. Yoshida said Sony often prices its gaming hardware lower than other non-gaming Sony devices and explained that he doesn't expect this to change with Project Morpheus. As such, Yoshida explained that a $1000 price point "doesn't necessarily indicate the pricing that we're gonna have" for Project Morpheus. As for the competition, Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey said this month that the device will be "affordable" because he doesn't want it to be a "rich person's toy." Check back in the days ahead for even more GameSpot coverage of Project Morpheus, including a breakdown of the differences between Sony's device and Oculus Rift. source:gamespot

Hot on the heels of Epic announcing a $19 monthly subscription for Unreal Engine 4, Crysis and Ryse developer Crytek has revealed that developers will be able to license its CryEngine for $9.90 a month per user. Unlike Unreal Engine 4, which asks for 5 percent of revenue made from selling the game, Crytek says that its CryEngine subscription will not require any royalty payments. "When we announced the new CryEngine, this was our first step towards creating an engine as a service. We are happy to announce now that the latest update of CryEngine will soon be available to all developers on a subscription basis. We are really excited to make CryEngine available to hundreds of thousands of developers working with Crytek to make awesome games,” said Crytek's Carl Jones. CryEngine is already available for free for those developing software for non-commercial use, but those wanting access to the engine's new features will also need to subscribe to the new plan. source:gamespot

Respawn's mech-based shooter Titanfall will soon be playable in 4K on PC according to a recent blog post from GPU-maker Nvidia. The game currently crashes to the desktop with a "Resolution Unsupported?" message when attempting to run it at 4K's 3840x2160 pixel resolution. Helping to push those extra pixels is upcoming SLI support. As GameSpot found out in its review of the GTX 780 Ti, a SLI setup is all but mandatory for 60fps gameplay at 4K. In addition to 4K and SLI, Titanfall is also set to support a pair of Nvidia's GameWorks technologies. The first is temporal anti-aliasing (TXAA), which combines multi-sample anti-aliasing, post processing, and NVIDIA-designed filters for a smoother image. The second is Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion+ (HBAO+), which creates more lifelike shadows. No date was given for when the updates will arrive. For more on Titanfall, check out GameSpot's review. source:gamespot

Don't warm up your translocator just yet: Epic Games has said it's not currently developing a new Unreal Tournament game, nor does it have any plans to. "We're not [planning on] shipping an Unreal Tournament game," said Epic boss Tim Sweeney said at a panel during GDC 2014, reported by CVG. "We have a lot of nostalgia for the game," added Sweeney, "but we're actually not developing anything in the Unreal game universe at all at the moment." What is Epic currently working on, then? "We've announced Fortnite... That's a game we'll be talking about later." Later as in, this week? "We don't have anything to show you here at GDC." Oh well. "There are several other projects that aren't announced yet that are being developed with Unreal Engine 4," Sweeney also said. Epic's big announcement for GDC 2014 was that it is unveiling a new licensing model for Unreal Engine 4, allowing developers to subscribe for $19 a month. source:gamespot

Barnstorming 3DS success Animal Crossing: New Leaf had a 50/50 gender split across its development team, and leading members from the studio have spoken about how that had a positive effect on the creation of the well-received title. "As a woman on the team, I always felt welcome, and never felt awkward," said director Aya Kyogoku during a GDC 2014 talk examining the game, attended by Eurogamer. Kyogoku also added that everyone in the team was invited to participate in discussions about all aspects of the game's design. "It opened us up to a variety of tastes and likings," said Kyogoku. "Male and females and a variety of ages participated. We were able to leverage our diverse team, which couldn't be possible if one person was making all the decisions." It also sounds like the development of Animal Crossing, a series famous for its incredibly broad appeal, was as intoxicatingly pleasant as in the game itself. Kyogoku recalled that members of the development team would regularly go on group barbeques, and would also make cakes themed around the game and bring them into the office. The upside of all this, according to Kyogoku, is that the team remained in good spirits towards the end of development--the notoriously difficult 'crunch' period. Maybe the good times are infectious? Let's collectively work out how to bake a Tom Nook cake. Nintendo has said that Animal Crossing: New Leaf sold 7.3 million units by the end of 2013. source:gamespot

Doug Liman is reportedly in final negotiations to direct Splinter Cell, a film adaptation of Ubisoft's stealth-action game series Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. According to Hollywood Reporter, Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr and Mrs Smith) will be developing the movie with New Regency. Tom Hardy has been named to star in the feature film, which has a planned release date of 2015. The latest entry in the Splinter Cell series, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, was released in August last year for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Wii U. Ubisoft revealed that game sales failed to meet initial targets, selling approximately 2 million copies last year. source:gamespot

GDC may still have another two days, but as usual, Wednesday ends with the Game Developers Conference awards show. Chosen by the Game Developers Choice Awards Advisory Board, here are the winners and nominees. And in case you missed them, the show also handed out awards to the best indie games of 2013. Papers, Please took top honors, but you can read that full list here. Game of the Year Winner: The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony) Nominees: Gone Home (The Fullbright Company) Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games) Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo) Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix) Innovation Award Winner: Papers, Please (Lucas Pope) Nominees: DEVICE 6 (Simogo) Gone Home (The Fullbright Company) Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony) The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe) Best Audio Winner: BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games/2K Games) Nominees: Forza Motorsport 5 (Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft Games) Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games) Saints Row IV (Volition/Deep Silver) Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony) Best Debut Winner: The Fullbright Company (Gone Home) Nominees: Blue Manchu (Card Hunter) Galactic Cafe (The Stanley Parable) Squad (Kerbal Space Program) Undead Labs (State Of Decay) Best Design Winner: The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony) Nominees: Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games) The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Nintendo EAD/Nintendo) Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo) Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix) Best Downloadable Game Winner: Papers, Please Nominees: Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons (Starbreeze/505 Games) Gone Home (The Fullbright Company) Papers, Please (Lucas Pope) Resogun (Housemarque/Sony) The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe) Best Handheld/Mobile Game Winner: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Nintendo EAD/Nintendo) Nominees: DEVICE 6 (Simogo) Fire Emblem: Awakening (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo) Ridiculous Fishing (Vlambeer) Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony) Best Narrative Winner: The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony) Nominees: Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons (Starbreeze/505 Games) Gone Home (The Fullbright Company) Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix) The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe) Best Technology Winner: Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar North/Rockstar Games) Nominees: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft) The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony) Killzone: Shadow Fall (Guerrilla Games/Sony) Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony) Best Visual Art Winner: BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games/2K Games) Nominees: DmC: Devil May Cry (Ninja Theory/Capcom) The Last Of Us (Naughty Dog/Sony) Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch (Level 5/Namco Bandai) Tearaway (Media Molecule/Sony) And a few other awards: Audience Award Winner: Kerbal Space Program Lifetime Achievement Winner: former chairman and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Ken Kutaragi Pioneer Award Winners: League of Legends creators Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill Ambassador Award Winner: Feminist Frequency creator Anita Sarkeesian source:gamespot

The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is an event for and by developers, and no where is that more evident than in the Independent Game Festival's Award's ceremony. The show, which was introduced by IGF chairman Bradon Boyer and hosted by Capy Games' Nathan Vella, draws attention to and celebrates some of the best games of last year, both big and small. Papers, Please walked away with three awards, including the show's grand prize, but here's a list of all the winners and nominees: Seumas McNally Grand Prize: Winner: Papers, Please Nominees: DEVICE 6 Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" Don't Starve Jazzpunk Papers, Please The Stanley Parable Excellence in Narrative: Winner: Papers, Please Nominees: DEVICE 6 Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" Papers, Please Paralect The Stanley Parable The Yawhg Excellence in Audio: Winner: DEVICE 6 Nominees: Crypt of the NecroDancer Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" Samorost3 The Stanley Parable The Yawhg Excellence in Design: Winner: Papers, Please Nominees: 868-HACK Crypt of the NecroDancer Don't Starve Mushroom 11 TowerFall Ascension Nuovo Award Winner: Luxuria Superbia Nominees: Corrypt Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!" Extrasolar Papers, Please Perfect Woman Save the Date SoundSelf Excellence in Visual Art Winner: Gorogoa Nominees: DEVICE 6 Drei Perfect Stride Samorost3 The Banner Saga Best Student Game: Winner: Risk of Rain Nominees: Cyber Heist Engare Foiled Museum of Simulation Technology Rhythm Doctor Symmetrain Westerado Audience Award Winner: The Stanley Parable source : gamespot

GameSpot's open beta reviews evaluate unfinished games that are nonetheless available to the public. While the games in question are not considered finished by their creators, you may still devote time and bandwidth for the privilege of playing them before they are complete. The review below critiques a work in progress, and represents a snapshot of the game at the time of the review's publication. Heroes are kind of jerkwads, at least if you accept the premise of The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot. It's not enough that they've pillaged fortunes untold from dungeons and assorted baddies; in their idle hours, they engage in home invasions of their neighbors in Opulencia, their medieval Columbia-style floating city in the sky. Good thing for us, then, that this game's combat reminds us that there's some fun in being a jerk. Even better, Mighty Quest supports an unobtrusive free-to-play model, although a few drawbacks threaten to send this airborne lootfest crashing from the sky. The game's cheeky personality reveals itself in flashes throughout much of Mighty Quest's early presentation. You find it in the seedy voice-overs of a real estate agent who walks you through the tutorials, and you find it in premade dungeons that pit you against bosses like kingly frogs that recall Wart from Super Mario Bros. 2. A Disney-meets-Pixar aesthetic coats Mighty Quest like caramel on apples, never letting you forget that accessible lighthearted fun trumps hardcore play and settings. Yes, yes, this clicky RPG will do nicely. Indeed, it could scarcely be easier to pick up. You can adventure through Mighty Quest as one of four more-or-less stock adventurers--a knight, a mage, an archer, and a scrappy runaway with a battle axe--and you can buy the other three after you make your first free selection. Simplified skill trees initially seem to take some of the fun out of experimenting with builds, but the limitation of a mere four active abilities allows for greater play-style variations than the straightforward setup suggests. When it all comes together, the combat's good enough to warrant favorable comparisons to Diablo III. My little archer kited hulking giants with caltrops and pestered them with a raven, and I sprayed crossbow bolts with the abandon of the possessed. The dungeons themselves make a good first impression. They're carpeted with traps that might glue you to the ground and decorated with buzz saws that zip across the floor. The enemies initially seem diverse and satisfactory, whether you encounter the aforementioned giants or the annoying shamans who churn out minions like Joyce Carol Oates churns out novels. The beauty of Mighty Quest is that another player is behind the creation of almost every dungeon, save for a few designed to advance you to new zones and settings. It's time to bring these floating citadels crashing to the ground. With Mighty Quest, Ubisoft captures the fun of creating dungeons in a way that Bullfrog's disappointing Dungeon Keeper remake never managed. Thanks to a heavy focus on intuitive design in the creation interface, even novices can craft competent dungeons rife with monsters and traps. As you level and add new crafting tables to your dungeons, you can add new wings, set new traps, and even decide the behaviors of some of the nasties you populate them with. The most remarkable thing is that you'll seldom come across a dungeon that seems shoddily made, and there's a reason for that. When players defeat your castle, their gold reward comes from your personal stash. The concept admittedly begs for exploitation, but Ubisoft wisely implemented several safeguards. For one, there's a limit to how many creatures and objects you can stuff your castle with at a particular level. For another, Ubisoft forces you to complete your dungeon yourself before other players can jump in and have a chance at stealing your gold. A smart concept, yes, but it spoils some of the fun. It may keep players from employing too many cheap tricks such as floors carpeted entirely with traps, but it also means that you need to run through your dungeon every time you make a little tweak. Realize that flamethrower is just a little too far back to be effective? Tough luck. You'll have to run through the whole thing again if you move it. 38,000 feet up, and there's still a spider problem. Mighty Quest's saving grace is that it usually takes no more than five minutes to complete a dungeon (or die, in some cases); the simplest ones might see you smashing into the treasure room within a minute and a half. That means you suffer no big loss if you can't complete a castle, but it also means that a feeling of sameness creeps in as early as level 10. By level 15, Mighty Quest devolves into a grind, because every player seems to fall back on variations of the same tricks that work for everyone else. In time, it becomes a headache, as dungeon masters clearly concern themselves more with keeping their gold than making a dungeon that's fun to both play and explore. Even the loot loses its all-important epicness, which it never really has since so much of the design relies on incremental upgrades. Good loot seems to fall like the Alaskan snow in the earlier levels; higher up, several dungeons may succumb to your wrath before you find something worth equipping. Oddly enough, that samey feeling likely springs from the lack of players forking out cash. Indeed, there's no real reason to. Mighty Quest falls but a few steps short of the payment model of a game like Path of Exile, which takes its free-to-play model so literally that you could play for hours and never spend a cent of virtual currency. Here, you spend it on one of the three other classes; barring that, you spend it on different themes for your castles (that few folks seem to use) or buffs that boost your gold for a limited time. The bulk of the playing experience instead relies on the in-game gold (and so-called life force, used for making monsters), whether for health potions and associated accessories or new gear from the blacksmith shop that you can upgrade as your level progresses. That wasn't always the case. As early as a few weeks ago, Ubisoft was still making players wait for hours to build new dungeon additions without premium speed-ups. Right now, however, Mighty Quest stands as proof that a major publisher can create an entertaining free-to-play game without robbing us of our real-life epic loot. That's partly why Mighty Quest still delivers many moments of fun in its roughest spots. It starts out strong, but soon loses its momentum under the weight of grindy gameplay and cheap-shot dungeons on the part of the players. Still, there are some good ideas here that could be fixed with time, particularly if Ubisoft figures out how to let players create entertaining dungeons rather than throwing everything they've got at potential intruders. Oh, and a cooperative mode wouldn't hurt, either. source:gamespot

Battlefield 4's Naval Strike DLC, which includes the all-new Carrier Assault mode and four maps, will launch on March 25 across Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC. Battlefield 4 Premium subscribers get the expansion first, after which it will be available on April 8 for non-paying members. The new maps included with the Naval Strike DLC are: Lost Islands, Wave Breaker, Nansha Strike (featuring the largest ocean stretch in a Battlefield map to date), and Operation Mortar. Naval Strike for Battlefield 4 also adds five new weapons, two additional gadgets, the hovercraft vehicle, ten assignments, and the Carrier Assault mode. This mode is an homage to Battlefield 2142's fan-favorite Titan mode. The Naval Strike DLC for Battlefield 4 is the game's third of five expansions included with the Battlefield Premium subscription. It follows China Rising and Second Assault and precedes upcoming expansions Dragon's Teeth (summer) and the appropriately titled Final Stand (summer). source:gamespot

It may be true that in space, no one can hear you scream. But if you're playing Alien: Isolation in a crowded room, people most definitely can hear you scream. I found this out last night when, after I shrieked "Oh god, no!" as the alien spotted me and charged, someone came by to ask if I was OK. So, yes, as Mark Walton wrote after playing the game in January, being hunted in Alien: Isolation is truly terrifying. It's clear that the team at Creative Assembly has steeped itself in the look and the feeling of Ridley Scott's original film. This isn't what creative director Al Hope referred to during a presentation at Tuesday night's event as the "Vietnam in space" of James Cameron's Aliens, the film most games set in the universe have taken their cues from. This is the haunted house of Alien, more classic horror film than war film: one relentless, unstoppable killer stalking helpless prey. Because the dynamic is so different, the fear I felt as I played was of an altogether different breed than what I've experienced in sci-fi horror games like Dead Space, which still give you a fighting chance against your grotesque adversaries. As a huge fan of Ridley Scott's film, I found the experience of being hunted by this legendary predator all the more exhilarating due to the meticulous way in which the team at Creative Assembly has sought to duplicate the film's production design. Alien presents a vision of the future, but as Hope said, that vision was "baked in the past." He referred to it as "lo-fi sci-fi." Ridley Scott, Hope said, took inspiration from Stanley Kubrick's 2001, but filtered that film's clean, 1960s concept of the future through a disillusioned 1970s lens, making it feel worn, everyday, and mundane. In the film Alien, technology reflects the technology that existed when the film was made, and this carries over to Alien: Isolation. Keyboards I saw on desks in the game resembled the hefty keyboards of computer terminals in the '70s rather than the sleeker keypads of today, and fonts on screens had the square, pixelated look of text on readouts in the film. As Hope said, this future is "CRT, not LCD." He talked about how production designers on films like Alien would "kit bash," taking parts from pieces of existing technology and combining them to create the "futuristic" items used in the film. In creating the items present in the game, Hope and his team took the same approach, limiting their reference material to objects that existed in 1979. And when creating some of the in-game video assets, the team used tech that was available at the time, recording those assets onto VHS tapes, playing them back through old portable TVs, filming the screen, and manually distorting the signal to give the footage the fuzziness that displays have in the future of Ridley Scott's Alien. The motion tracker reveals important information, but it also feels like a hefty, clunky piece of technology. The clunkiness of tech in Isolation extends beyond the way it looks and into the way it functions. Unlike readouts in so many games that give you information about your surroundings, the motion tracker in Isolation is not a UI element. Your character holds it in her hand and needs to be aiming it toward the alien to get the most information about his current position. There's a trade-off to using the motion tracker: when the device's readout comes into focus, the background goes out of focus with a wonderfully grainy, cinematic effect, so you're sacrificing visual information from your surroundings for the visual information from the tracker. As a result, even though the information the motion tracker provides might save your life, it also contributes to a feeling of vulnerability and fear, letting you know just how close you are to the possibility of a sudden, merciless death. And that's what made my time with Alien: Isolation so terrifying. Technology wasn't going to save me. I couldn't fill the alien with bullets from an assault rifle or blast its limbs off with a repurposed mining tool. All I could do was look at my handheld motion tracker, try to stay out of the alien's sight, hold my breath, and pray. source:gamespot

Enjoy your life while you still can. Dong Nguyen's massively popular mobile game Flappy Bird, which he removed from app stores worldwide in February because it was "too addictive," is coming back. "Yes. But not soon," Nguyen said on Twitter today. In an interview with Rolling Stone this month, Nguyen said if Flappy Bird were to return, it would feature a "warning" message to inform players that the game is "addictive." Nguyen is also working on three new games: a cowboy shooter, a flying game called Kitty Jetpack, and an "action chess game" called Checkonaut. One of these games will launch this month, he said. source:gamespot