Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

Stompy Bot Productions and Mektek Studios' Heavy Gear Assault, being shown at GDC and revealed yesterday as an Unreal Engine 4 game, will launch its Kickstarter in two weeks. The companies are shooting for $800,000, planning the game for PC, Mac and Linux.

The game will be free-to-play, but there will also be a subscription model at a "minimum price point" with dedicated servers and map editor to grow the community.

Open beta is planned for the first quarter of 2014, with a closed beta "probably towards the end of the year." The pledge rewards will also grant access into the alpha. The company is still working out its reward tiers, but is talking console versions and some form of mobile integration with the game.

Like many PC gamers, I've often wished a machine capable of putting the power of a gaming rig in a portable device. Gaming laptops are lovely and have their place, but that place is often on top of a desk. After a week with Razer's new Edge gaming tablet, I realize what I really wanted was to play Bioshock Infinite in the bathroom without burning my thighs. All hail Razer, deliverer of dreams. Razer's only review guidelines before sending along a Razer Edge loaner was that I not tell them I used it in the bathroom. I am a review guideline freedom fighter, deep in the trenches, pants around my ankles, balancing a $1,499 gaming tablet on the side of the tub before redeploying to less secluded front. And why not? I don't have to stop playing until the batteries run out. Razer first introduced the Edge in early 2012 as an odd-looking tablet/controller hybrid with handles on either side containing buttons and analog sticks. It looked pretty ridiculous, but there was promise there. Promise I was pretty sure would never be fulfilled — a pipe dream. Yet Razer stuck with it, tapping the PC gamers in its community to help design a gaming tablet that delivered everything they wanted at a reasonable price point. A year after it debuted, the design was finalized. The Razer Edge was a real thing, and it was coming soon. There are two models of the Razer Edge. The lower-end model runs $999 and sounds like a capable system. It's got an Intel Core i5 instead of an i7, less memory and only 64GB of storage, but I can see it getting the job done, as long as you don't want to load too many games on it at once. The unit I've been playing on is the beefier, $1,499 Razer Edge Pro. Here's what's inside: Intel Core i7 Dual core w/ Hyper Threading Base 1.9GHz / Turbo 3.0GHz Intel Core i5 Dual core w/ Hyper Threading Base 1.7GHz / Turbo 2.6GHz 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB 1600MHz) Intel HD4000 (DX11) NVIDIA GT 640M LE (2GB DDR3, Optimus Technology) 10.1” (IPS, 1366x768) Multi-touch HD display Windows 8 128/256GB SSD (SATA-III) Intel WLAN (802.11b/g/n + BT4) Stereo speakers Codec supports 7.1 (via HDMI through optional Docking Station) HD Webcam (front-facing, 2MP) Array microphones Dolby Home Theater v4 USB 3.0 x1 (green, SuperSpeed) Audio jack (3.5mm, 4-pole, stereo out / mic in) Approximate Size: 278.5 mm x 178.85 mm x 19.5 mm / 10.9" x 7" x .80" Approximate Weight: 962g / 2.1Lbs Design It's a tablet! It's a rectangle, as one might have expected. The design is reminecent of the Razer Blade laptop, using the same ridged metal for the back and that damn glowing octopus thing. It's about as thick as a closed Nintendo 3DS XL, and about as big as it looks in this size comparison image I made using everyday household items (in my household, that is). It's beefier than your average tablet, but it's nice to have something to hold. It feels quite solid, and at a little over two pounds it has heft without being too much of a burden for hands used to resting comfortably on gaming mice. The Display The 10.1 inch IPS display is as bright and crisp as a sunny day. Just don't take it outside on a sunny day, or you won't be able to see a thing. This is not a device to bring to a picnic, unless it's the most depressing picnic ever. The Razer Edge Pro has made me appreciate my back deck as a place where I'm not meant to play the new Devil May Cry. The screen resolution is 1366x768, which might seem low to someone used to nothing less than a 1920x1080 HD monitor, but then you don't hold a 1920x1080 HD monitor inches from your face. At least you're not supposed to. It's a good resolution for the screen size, and it means the unit's graphics card doesn't have to work quite as hard. Performance Thanks to the glory of AT&T internet in a new apartment, downloading my normal suite of benchmarking games was out of the question, especially since I wasted a good several hours downloading Transformers: Fall of Cybertron because I was in a Transformers sort of mood. Were I to do this all over again I'd purchase a USB wired network adapter for loading purposes. The Edge's wireless isn't slow, but nothing beats a wire. What I used for benchmarks instead were a pair of new games, Bioshock Infinite and the latest Tomb Raider, both of which were considerate enough to include built-in benchmarks. Out of habit I tried both games at the highest possible graphics preset first. Ultra setting was not kind to either game — not that I expected it to be. Still, 17 frames per second on average for both titles is playable, just not very playable. Cranking things down (you can totally crank downwards) to medium settings brought both titles to a lovely average of 56- 60 frames per second (I even remembered to turn off vertical sync). Not only is that playable, it's downright enjoyable, at least while it lasts. Battery Life and Configurations The Razer Edge uses low-powered Intel graphics to handle every day Windows 8 tablet tasks, and I'd assume the battery life for those is just fine, but there are dozens of less-expensive tablets out there if you just want to run Microsoft Word. This is about gaming, yo. In full-on battle mode with its optional Gamepad Controller ($249.99) loaded with an extra battery ($69.99), the Razer Edge Pro ran Bioshock Infinite for one hour and forty-five minutes. That's not a lot of minutes, all things considered, but then you probably won't want to be using the Gamepad Controller for that long anyway. With the extra battery it adds what feels like another two pounds to the unit, and holding upwards for extended periods hurts. It works like gangbusters (though mine seems to have bugged out towards the end of my testing — Razer thinks it's faulty), and after a brief adjustment period (the screen, it moves with my hands!) it's a fun way to play. Just not a way you'd want to play for an extended period of time. I much preferred playing on the standard docking station ($99.99) with an Xbox controller plugged in, as you can see below. The biggest obstacle the Razer Edge faces is its own innovation. It's not just the most powerful Windows 8 tablet on the market — it's a revolutionary new way to play PC games. It's the revolutionary part I'm struggling with. I've been play PC games sitting in a chair with one hand on my keyboard and the other on my mouse for nearly two decades, so curling up on the couch with a handheld might be a little more intimacy than I'm prepared for. Still, it's growing on me, and it's not like I can break up with it now that we've been in the bathroom together.

And it's not half bad! Well, I might actually call it half bad, half good. The game is called Star Warfare: Black Dawn, made by Freyr. It seems to be their latest addition to their Star Warfare series. They're calling it the "first RPG-FPS" game, but that can't be true. That's kind of what Borderlands' claim to fame was, wasn't it? When you first open the game up, you'll eventually get around to choosing one of four characters. Here they are... The Engineer: The Prayer: The Sniper: And the Soldier, the class I picked for my test run: This is what her skill tree looks like: But the first thing you'll do when you enter the game is meet an NPC: So far I notice that the weapons, the loot chest and the overal art design seem pretty familiar. Definitely not spot on, as Borderlands is leaps beyond what this iOS game does, but it's at least a nudge in Gearbox's direction. The NPC is telling me something about something, I wasn't paying attention too closely. He was pretty chatty and he kept laughing at his own jokes. He gives me a tutorial run down of some things, and off I go. I immediately bump into some players, and am asked by the game if I'd like to join them. Sure, I'd love to. That's what Borderlands, er, Star Warfare: Black Dawn is all about. Or at least that's what it advertises. My new friends and I head off to fight some enemies. Here's the full image of the one on the top of this article: The mechanics are all very familiar. There's even a revive system: But the English in this game seems kind of broken. There are even fanciful-looking bosses! Here's the thing. The game is actually not awful if you're just looking for a multiplayer FPS for your iPhone or iPad where you can play with others online. You can even soon play PvP according to the iTunes page. Here's everything they posted about the game over there: "A premier FPS (First Person Shooting) game with RPG element exclusive to iOS.A total of 4 classes with more than 100 skills and numerous random attribute equipment drops are at your disposal.Fight through large maps, challenging quests, and online multiplayer system.Come and join the adventure team on the Muspel Planet!==========Next update===========1. PvP mode!!2. Character decoration!!Classes and Skills:✓ Four classes with unique characteristics✓ Eight adventurers with different backgrounds✓ 12 diverse game styles✓ Hundreds of skills and numerous combinationsLong Adventure:✓ Great scenery in complex maps that are fun to explore✓ Immersive principal narrative with comical branch stories✓ Amusing plot focused task contents develop gradually to keep the story novel.✓ Brutally challenging levels.Teamwork:✓ 4 persons co-op✓ Team task mode will help you upgrade rapidly.✓ Earn victory in Teamwork arena.✓ Strategic team dynamics.Weapon List:✓ Various elemental weapons affect enemies differently.✓ Randomly generated weapon drop system guarantees satisfying combat.✓ Seven categories of weapons to obliterate varied battlefields.Fight against Boss✓ Epic fight scenes✓ Powerful Boss will rock your survival skills.✓ Designed for unique encounters each boss fight. It has the basic mechanics of Borderlands, including in terms of weapons, classes and the overall feel. It has none of the charm, wit, or style of Gearbox's fantastic series, though. But it is the closest thing to a Borderlands game on the iOS, since the official one isn't quite like the game it's based off of at all. I've reached out to both 2K and Freyr for comment, and will update this article should they reply. Thanks to Cory for the tip!

If you pre-ordered Company of Heroes 2, then you’ll be able to take part in a closed beta that starts on Tuesday April 2nd. Those who get in will have access to six competitive multiplayer maps and will be able to play against the AI solo or with teammates. Don’t worry, the second phase of the beta will reportedly let more people in. Here’s the press release.

Here's the first teaser for the anime adaptation of Persona 3, which will be out in Japan this fall.

Andy Gilleand likes to edit games that have massive stories into full-length movies, and after doing it with the Uncharted series and Assassin's Creed I & II, he picked Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood as his next victim. Gilleand created the movie by removing the in-game HUD and mixing gameplay footage with cutscenes. And, it seems, he did an excellent job. If you've got three hours, and you're not afraid of spoilers, you can watch the whole thing above. Andy promised to do this with the remaining Assassin's Creed titles on his YouTube channel, but what's next? How about Metal Gear Solid? Oh wait... Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (The Movie) [YouTube]

Jackie Chan is an international action star. Famously, Chan does his own stunts. And the man has the broken bones to prove it. In Japan, his latest film, titled Raising Dragon (ライジング・ドラゴン) in Japanese and CZ12 in English, is being promoted with a poster that catalogues all of Chan's major injuries over the years. Also included in the list are the movies in which the injuries occurred (Note that the years are the Japanese releases). Below, you can find translations of the injury list, starting with Chan's eyebrow and going counterclockwise. • Supercilliary bone (eyebrow bone!) damaged, almost causing blindness: Drunken Master (1978) • Broken Nose: Young Master (1980), Project A (1983), Miracles (1989), Mr. Nice Guy (1997) • Knocked out tooth: Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978) • Lip lacerated: Police Story 4: First Strike (1996) • Lower chin injury: Dragon Lord (1982) • Dislocation of the right shoulder: City Hunter (1993) • Broken breastbone: Armour of God II: Operation Condor (1991) • Broken finger bones: The Protector (1985) • Knee damage: City Hunter (1993) • Ankle (well, malleolus) injury: Who Am I? (1998) • Eye injury: The Medallion (2003) • Skull fracture, bone cave-in behind left ear, and brain bleeding from falling out of a tree: The Armour of God (1986) • Cheek bone dislocation: Police Story 3: Super Cop (1992) • Cervical spine damage from falling from a 25 meter clock tower: Project A (1983) • Spinal damage from falling from a pole: Police Story (1985) • Pelvis dislocation almost causing partial paralysis: Police Story (1985) • Tailbone damage causing temporary partial paralysis: The Accidental Spy (2001) • Thigh injury from being caught between two cars: Crime Story (1993) • Broken ankle: Rumble in The Bronx (1995), Thunderbolt (1996) If you want to know more about Jackie Chan's injuries (and why wouldn't you?), here's a handy round-up. 大ケガの歴史がかいてある！ [@QuorraAKIYO]

It was in November of 2011 that we reported on a urine-controlled video game system appearing in bars throughout the United Kingdom, courtesy of the cleverly-named Captive Media. Now North America is finally catching up to those progressive Brits (and the Japanese, of course), placing the first arguably hands-free game system in the most competitive environment of them all — the U.S. sports arena. And what better U.S. sports arena to start with than the Lehigh Valley IronPigs' Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I was born in Pennsylvania and had relatives in Allentown, so trust me when I say this is the most exciting thing that's ever happened there, and this is a town that had Billy Joel write a song about them. With the launch of the IronPigs' baseball season next week, male fans will be treated to mildly-exciting sensor-activated games upon approaching their favorite urinal (we all have favorites). The games, a first for a North American sports venue, are aimed at raising awareness of prostate health. "Baseball fans know all about RBI, ERA and OBP," said Angelo Baccala, MD, of Lehigh Valley Urology Specialty Care and chief of Lehigh Valley Health Network's division of urology. "But when it comes to their own PSA, many men don't have a clue. We see this game as a fun and unique opportunity to remind men about the importance of prostate health." That's prostate-specific antigen, of course. I didn't have to look that up, but only because it was included in the source article. With high scores recorded and broadcast across the park, I imagine there'll be quite a lot more beer being sold at IronPig home games this season.

I remember watching The Empire Strikes Back, when Luke was training on Dagobah. At on point, he looks over his shoulder at Yoda and asks, "Is the Dark Side stronger?" Yoda, in his ever-wise (at least until the prequels) way answered firmly, "No. Quicker. Easier. More seductive." I kept remembering those words pretty much through the entirety of my play of Soul Sacrifice. Soul Sacrifice is the latest game from the mind of Mega Man creator, Keiji Inafune. The game places you the player as a prisoner to the powerful mage, Merlin, awaiting your eventual demise at his hand. Through a twist of fate, or perhaps sheer coincidence, you manage to obtain the living book, Librom. By reading through the pages of Librom, you experience the stories written within, which take place in the form of a hunting action game, and slowly the the origins of the evil mage Merlin and a story of sacrifice and salvation. Very conflicting stuff. And by the end of it, that's how I felt about the game. Good - Gameplay: Looking over the basic gameplay, you get an idea of what the meat of the game is like. Overall, it's a well put together action game where you battle various monsters of varying sizes and shapes. You start out with a few basic spells and by clearing missions, you can obtain different and potentially more powerful spells. You can only equip 6 spells entering a mission and each spell has a limited number of uses in a mission (after a mission is cleared, unless completely depleted, spells regenerate all uses). You can replenish your spell uses by either sacrificing a defeated enemy (see below), or by finding and using a recharge point in the field. Spells can be upgraded, but as a general rule of thumb, the more powerful the spell, the fewer uses it has. Enemies also have different strengths, weaknesses, and general methods of attack. This leads to an added strategical element in which spells to take with you on which mission. This isn't to say the gameplay is without its flaws. The lock-on system can sometime flip to a target other than the one you're aiming for which can be fatal depending on what you're fighting. Also, some of the maps could have been better tuned for the enemy being hunted. There were a couple of maps where I was battling a giant monster where it managed to pin me in a little alcove, where I couldn't dodge or escape, and proceeded to play Shoot-the-Ducks-in-the-Barrel which I found annoying. Outside of the missions, the basic user interface involves flipping through Librom to different pages that serve as the character menu. This style of interface can be repetitive and can take a bit of getting used to, but the story mode of the game slowly leads you through it, so by the time I really got into the game, it wasn't that big of a problem for me. Good - Dudly Do Right or Snidely Whiplash: Save or sacrifice. It's the overarching theme of the game and it pops up constantly. Defeated enemies and allies can be either saved or sacrificed. Each choice has its benefits. By saving an enemy, you can heal damage and ultimately, you defense and healing ability increase. By sacrificing an enemy, your spells are replenished and your attack strength goes up. By saving an ally, you give them half of your hit points and they can rejoin the fray. By sacrificing an ally, you unleash powerful spells and that ally is lost. Most players will try to take either the law ("good") path of saving everything, or the chaos ("evil") path of sacrificing everything. At first glance, these choices seem balanced and fair, but in reality, they're not. At the end of a mission, you're given a score depending on your performance. The higher your score, the better your loot. Interestingly, you receive a bonus the more you sacrifice things, but there is no bonus for saving things. Through its design, the game actually encourages the player to choose the chaos option rather than the law option. In my play through the game, I was playing the "good" guy and there were a couple of boss battles in the story mode that I simply could not get past because I ran out of spells due to sheer lack of firepower. I could probably have easily gotten past these enemies if I had opted to sacrifice more enemies and increase my damage (or if I was a better player), and yet, Yoda's words still rang in my mind. I felt if I chose the quick and easy path, I may win the mission, but I would have lost to myself. I eventually managed to get past those bosses by playing free missions and obtaining and upgrading to stronger spells, but feeling the tempting pull of the Dark Side made the game far more engaging and enjoyable than I thought it would. Good - You Can Die Anytime: One of the interesting features of the game is that at any time, you have the option of battling Merlin. You don't even have to complete all the story missions (although doing them is much more enriching). Obviously, since he's the last boss, Merlin's a bit of a tough cookie. I tried fighting him when I was two thirds through the story and he completely wiped the floor with my ass. I'm quite certain that a more skilled player could have defeated him (as my video shows, I can't dodge worth a damn) but the fact that the option was there was very interesting. It gave the game a sort of foreboding atmosphere which added to the sense of purpose and meaning. Mixed - Meet Me in the Lobby: Soul Sacrifice has both adhoc and wi-fi network co-op play capabilities, which was a real blessing, since I only have three friends who own a Vita, and only one of them owns a copy of Soul Sacrifice. I played a few rounds of network play, and it was pretty much the standard solid gameplay with more difficult bosses and other players instead of AI followers. One major problem I noticed with the multi-player was the lack of a real social lobby. This was one play where Soul Sacrifice should have taken a page from the Monster Hunter playbook. One of the strengths of the Monster Hunter series is the player interactivity. This is enhance through network play where players can't see each other through the game lobby where player avatars can run around and chat and emote. The Soul Sacrifice co-op game lobby is pretty much your standard multi-player lobby with players listed and their avatars visible, but immobile. At the end of my co-op experience, while I did get extra bonuses for my play, ultimately, I didn't care about the people I was playing with. I ended up caring more about the AI companions I had in the story mode and free play than the living breathing people who were playing with me in co-op. Mixed - The Story: Overall, the theme of saving and sacrifice was very thought provoking. Even after I put the game down after a session of play, I would spend some time thinking about what the creators were trying to say. Unfortunately, the game suffers from what most games involving moral choice do - No matter what choice you choose, there's only one plot line. There were points in the story missions where I would defeat an enemy character, but when I chose to save them, they would get back up and keep fighting me again and again, eventually forcing me to sacrifice them to progress the story. While I understood that these points were pivotal and the story required that I sacrifice instead of save, but if that's the case, I would have preferred that the game not give me the option to save them in the first place. This also brings me to the end of the story mode, which, without spoiling anything, I believe will divide people heavily on whether their like the game or not. For myself, as I stated in the beginning, I found myself conflicted about it. I understand and appreciate the game designer's choices in how the game plays out, but at the same time, in a game that's about choice, the final decision wasn't "mine." Final Thoughts: Overall, Soul Sacrifice is an engaging, well put together game, with an almost deceptive deeper layer of thought, but seems to suffer from limitations more of concept than design. It's probably one of the best games for the PS Vita out right now, but with current Vita circulation, that's almost a backhanded compliment. If you own a Vita, and action games of this kind are your thing, it's worth it to check out, but keep in mind that it belongs on the long list of games that falter at the end.

Last month, the developers of Skullgirls launched a crowdsourcing campaign, asking for $150,000 to introduce a single new character into the game. That campaign has now come to a close. The final tally? $829,829. Wow. The whopping contribution from fans means that the game won't just be getting a single new character. It'll be getting five of them, four story modes, six new stages and nine voice packs. Here's the complete rundown of everything that's being added to the game now the campaign is closed: First Character: SquiglySecond Character: Big BandThird Character: By Fan VoteFourth Character: By Fan VoteFifth Character: Robo-FortuneSquigly's StageSquigly's StoryBig Band's StageBig Band's StoryFan-selected Character #1's StageFan-selected Character #1's StoryModeFan-selected Character #2's StageFan-selected Character #2's StoryModeBonus Stage: River King CasinoBonus Stage: Glass CanopyVoice Pack: "Republican Double"Voice Pack: "Robo-Fortune"Voice Pack: "Female Announcer"Voice Pack: "Salty Parasoul"Voice Pack: "Drunk FGC Commentator"Voice Pack: "Valley Girl Painwheel"Voice Pack: "Saxploitation"Voice Pack: "Anime Peacock"Voice Pack: "Real Soviet Announcer" Topping off the feel-good story is the fact that the developers of the My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic game will be getting the Skullgirls engine, for free, to use in their own game. Well played, everyone. Well played.

Akira Toriyama, is returning to Dragon Ball once again with the release of the new anime movie, Dragonball Z: Battle of Gods. But apparently, all is not well with the famed series creator. In a March 24th TV program celebrating the release of the new movie, several of Toriyama's written answers to previously selected viewer questions were read on air. One of the questions asked Toriyama what he would wish for if he were to collect the mystical Dragon Balls. Toriyama's response was that he would like it so that all he would have to do is think of a story and the manga would be drawn automatically. His reasons being that he doesn't like inking. "I rarely draw manga at all because I hate inking." Toriyama revealed. Toriyama's old Dragon Ball editor, Fuyuto Takeda appeared on the program and spoke of how Toriyama once told him over the phone that he'd come down with an "inking allergy" that cause him to break out in a rash whenever he'd ink. Toriyama continued with his answer, writing, "It's probably best that an old man retires." This was more of a musing than an actual retirement announcement, but that didn't stop the hosts of the program from practically begging Toriyama to continue his work. Toriyama did state that while he does not enjoy inking, he does like thinking up stories. Toriyama himself worked on the story and character design for the latest Dragon Ball movie. Pictures showing character template drawings recently circulated the Japanese message board, 2 channel. Among the pictures, former Saiyan prince, Vegeta was depicted in crazy dance poses and absurd expressions. Supposedly, in the movie, there is a scene where Vegeta attempts to gain favor with the enemy boss and these are some of the poses and expressions used. Even with that explanation, one message board user put it best: "I wish Nappa could see this..." Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods will be opening in Japan on March 30th. Stay tuned for the Kotaku East review. 「ドラゴンボール」鳥山明がマンガが描けない！？　ペン入れアレルギー「オッサンは引退するのが一番です」[livedoor NEWS] 映画ベジータの表情ワロタwwwwwwwwww [２ちゃんねる] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

At the end of January, it was announced that GungHo Online Entertainment would be acquiring Grasshopper Manufacture, developer of artistically unique games like Killer 7, the No More Heroes series, Lollipop Chainsaw, and the upcoming Killer is Dead. Now, roughly two months later, in this week's issue of Japanese gaming magazine, Weekly Famitsu, Grasshopper Manufacture CEO, Gouichi Suda (Suda 51) and GungHo Online Entertainment CEO Kazuki Morishita discussed what details they could about their all new as-of-yet-untitled project. "The game will obviously have [Grasshopper Manufacture's] signature forte of hack and slash action at its base, but we hope to incorporate GungHo's power and know-how in areas we don't have." Suda explained. A teaser image features a long-haired woman glaring over her shoulder with the tag line "パンピーが見てんじゃねぇよ" (What are you looking at, 'normal person?') Both Suda and Morishita confirmed that the protagonist of the new game will be female. Released concept images show a very Asian-based world, unlike many of Grasshopper’s previous games which have taken place in very Western-ish worlds. The CEOs were a little hesitant to divulge exactly where the game takes place. "It's… Asian… I'm not even sure how much I can say any more." Morishita said with a laugh. As for platforms, talks are still in progress as to whether the game will be released on next gen or current generation consoles. Morishita did state that it would not be made for smart phones. While the release timing remains unannounced, Suda promised that it would not be too far down the line. "We’ll have more news in the fall, so please look forward to that!" I know Killer is Dead isn't even out yet, but is it wrong that I'm already excited for this? 【独占スクープ】ガンホー×GHM合流後第1弾タイトルが始動！！ [ファミ通.com] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

Up to this point, information has been scarce about the follow-up to Telltale Games' 2010 poker game, Poker Night at the Inventory. But now, screenshots that allegedly show the characters of the upcoming sequel have popped up on NeoGAF. Note: The following shots could be considered spoilers! According to these shots, the characters you'll be playing poker with are: Brock Samson from animated series The Venture Bros,Claptrap from Borderlands,Ash Williams from the Evil Dead movies,and Sam from the Sam & Max adventure games. GlaDOS and her turrets from Portal also seem to appear in some capacity. We're asking Telltale for a comment on the authenticity of the screenshots, and will update this post should they reply. [Vert boil@NeoGAF, via Polygon]

The Wii U is a wonderful console. And its Miiverse is a hive of fun! But, according to a photo on Japanese site Game Watch Impress, Nintendo's Miiverse presentation at the Game Developers Conference looked...sparse. Hey! There are lots of presentations at GDC. Not every one of them will be packed. Game Watch Impress did note that the rather empty audience at this one did stand out. Numerous Japanese game sites are doing likewise. Those mean people. The folks in attendance did get to hear about the Miiverse being slated for smartphones and PCs in May. Can you feel the energy in this room? Can you? 任天堂、Wii U「Miiverse」の活用事例を公開 [Game Watch Impress] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake devastated the town of Namie in Fukushima. The surviving residents still cannot return to their homes. The area has been evacuated due to radiation. Earlier this month, Google sent a Street View car to photograph the town and surrounding area. The resulting images show that two years after the deadly quake and tsunami, Namie is eerily quiet. You can still see the rubble and destruction. Clean up has begun, but much of Namie appears frozen in time. Street View offers a poignant reminder of the tragic events of March 2011. This sort of documentation isn't a Google first. Last December, Google revealed that it was archiving areas hit by the earthquake and tsunami as part of its Memories for the Future site. Below you can see images taken from Street View, courtesy of the Google Japan Blog and TechInAsia. Explore Fukushima Street View in the link below. 福島県浪江町のストリートビューの公開によせて [Google Japan Blog via TechInAsia] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

At GDC, GamesIndustry.biz had the opportunity to talk to EA Labels president Frank Gibeau about SimCity and its always-online requirement, which caused a considerable amount of grief to many players at the game's launch. Gibeau acknowledged this, but insisted that what SimCity had wasn't DRM. "I was involved in all the meetings. DRM was never even brought up once," Gibeau told GI.biz. "You don't build an MMO because you're thinking of DRM—you're building a massively multiplayer experience, that's what you're building." He went on to describe what they had in mind when designing SimCity. "DRM is a failed dead-end strategy; it's not a viable strategy for the gaming business. So what we tried to do creatively is build an online service in the SimCity universe and that's what we sought to achieve." What they wanted to achieve with SimCity, according to Gibeau, is a connected and collaborative city-building experience. "At no point in time did anybody say 'you must make this online'," he added. "You have to innovate and try new things and surprise people and in this particular case that's what we sought to achieve. If you play an MMO, you don't demand an offline mode, you just don't. And in fact, SimCity started out and felt like an MMO more than anything else and it plays like an MMO." This fits with Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw's earlier statement that an offline mode was never part of Maxis' vision in the first place. Still, it makes you wonder how much more smooth SimCity's launch might have been, had the team decided to take a more offline-oriented route. EA: "DRM is a failed dead-end strategy" [GamesIndustry.biz]

Where is Final Fantasy Versus XIII? It's right here in video game fandom, that's where. While Versus XIII was first announced ages ago, the game has yet to see release. During this long wait, the game's inability to hit shops hasn't stopped Final Fantasy fans from cosplaying as characters from the game. Guess that's a testament to how much fans are anticipating the title! In the images below, try to suss out which cosplayer did the best job of bringing Versus XIII to life and wonder what's taking Square Enix so darn long to do the same. [AmenoKitarou] [InfiniteCosplay] [jiocosplay] [JoLuffiroSauce] [Kifia] [KiraHokuten] [MistMana] [mogcaiz] [Narga-Lifestream] [Rainer-T] [rescend] [RinoaMao] [saelle] [shiroang] [TigerRaiken] [Tmmeh] [Zihark-cosplay] [rescend_2] [KiraHokuten_2] (Top photo: MistMana/Zihark-cosplay/rescend)

Artist Bill Mudron, who is no stranger to amazing video game maps, has produced another amazing video game map, this time for the Castlevania series. Here are the details from Bill's store page: Explore the wilds of 17th-century Europe with this dye-color map charting both the interior of Dracula's infamous castle (as seen in the original NES Castlevania game) and the surrounding Transylvanian countryside (as seen in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse). 24 X 36-inch print on premium matte stock. Shipped rolled in a reinforced tube. This is a pre-order. Prints will begin shipping by the end of April. The print will come in two flavours, colour as well as black & white. You can put your name down for one at Bill's site below. NES Castlevania map [Store, via Tiny Cartridge]

Crafty type Alix has made this wonderful little plush version of BioShock Infinite's Songbird, matchig those you find scatered throughout bedrooms and stores in the game itself. While she only made one, that one is currently up for auction on eBay, with 50% of the proceeds going towards Child's Play. Bioshock Infinite Songbird Plush [arixystix, thanks Steve!]

Dancing the line between cosplay and homage, pxlbyte has some sound advice on how to dress like the new Lara Croft while still looking good enough to step out in public. Sure, most of that is accomplished by not being covered in mud and blood all the time, but what's left is still good advice. A bow and walkie talkie are, of course, optional. Get the Look: Lara Croft [pxlbyte]

Every year, the Game Developers Conference holds awards in celebration of excellence in games. There's the IGF (Independent Games Festival)--you can think of it as something similar to Sundance. There's also the Game Developers Choice Awards. The event was held today, and these are the winners. Independent Games Festival Excellence in visuals art award: Kentucky Route Zero Nuovo award: Cart Life Excellence in audio: 140 Excellence in narrative: Cart Life Excellence in technical excellence: Little Inferno Best student game: Zinith Audience award: FTL Excellence in design: FTL Seamas McNally grand prize: Cart Life Choice Awards: Best downloadable game: Journey Best narrative: The Walking Dead Best visual arts: Journey Ambassador of the year award:Chris Melissinos Technology award: Far Cry 3 Best game design: Journey Best handheld/mobile game: The Room Best audio: Journey Pioneer award: Steve Russell Best debut game: {Subset{games}} Innovation award: Journey Audience award: Dishonored Lifetime achievement awards: Dr. Ray Muzyka, Dr. Greg Zeschuk Game of the year: Journey

There are so, so many sports in the world that it seems a pity so few are properly realised in video games. We get football, another country's version of football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, and that's about it if you don't count console mascots facing off every Olympics in a shameless cash-in. Which I don't. So credit to the team behind Power Jam: Roller Derby, a game that wants to do justice to one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. Currently trying to Kickstart its way into existence, PJ:RD is hoping to include everything you'd expect from a modern sports game, like a career mode, character customisation, management options and even the responsibility of running a fledgling Roller Derby League. What's most interesting about the game and its chances of success, though, is the fact it's based on a sport that's really only for female athletes, pitching it outside the traditional market for traditional sports games. I also have no idea how important it is that it's not licensed by the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, the sport's version of FIFA/the NFL. Hopefully neither of those things mean a damn thing, though, because this looks pretty cool. The world needs a bit more variety in its sports games, and it doesn't get much more different from your standard big American/European pro leagues than this. Power Jam: Roller Derby [Kickstarter]

This trailer for Double Fine's Broken Age adventure game was just shown at the Game Developers Choice Awards. It is a very pretty thing to look at. The "credits" at the end is a nice touch, too.

Manuel Virks is a 2D/3D artist at Crytek's primary studio in Frankfurt, Germany, where he currently serves as a Senior Character Artist. Prior to joining the Crysis developers he worked at Splash Damage (Brink) and German studio Cranberry Production. In this gallery, you'll see a selection of his work, much of it from his contributions to the team behind Crysis and much of that from the recent Crysis 3. Note that Manuel isn't the only person responsible for many of these images; while he built models and contributed to design work many of the characters, for example, were also sketched out by Timur Mutsaev, someone I've really got to get around to featuring here soon. You can see more of Manuel's art at his personal page. Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you're in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you'd like to share, drop us a line!

Reddit user ipoopinthesink, an employee at Best Buy, says he was handed a rather strange item to recycle as part of the retailer's "Renew Blue" program, where people's old electronic gear can be brought in and disposed of properly. It's not a broken old TV set or outdated mobile phone. It's a very fancy, very desirable NES Deluxe Set, a vintage limited edition package which included not just just a Nintendo Entertainment System, but two controllers, a Zapper and ROB. Under company policy the item is to be destroyed, so ipoop's going to extreme measures to save it, hiding the item out back and, after his store manager told him he couldn't rescue it, contacting corporate HQ. Best of luck, ipoop. UPDATE - Common sense prevails, and the NES is saved. "We are in the process of retrieving the robot and gaming system from the store so that we may put it on display here at our corporate headquarters in Richfield," Best Buy spokesman Jon Sandler told Yahoo. "A bit of nostalgia that our employees and visitors alike, are sure to enjoy!" "We recycle virtually any consumer electronic device out there, but as you can imagine an item like this is fairly unusual and we can see why it captivated our employee’s imagination." I work at best buy. Somebody brought this into best buy for recycling. My boss told me I would be fired if I took it home (corporate policy). I almost cried. [Reddit, via Go Nintendo]

If I could just focus, Lat Ware (pictured above) told me, then I'd be able to launch a vehicle across the room. Simple, right? Earlier this year we told you guys about Throw Trucks With Your Mind, a game that's pretty much exactly what it sounds like--not that that makes mind-controlled games any less, well, mind-blowing. Reading about it, learning about how it uses your brainwaves to determine how calm and focused you are is one thing. A far out idea, but merely an idea nonetheless. I tried Throw Trucks With Your Mind today; Lat Ware is the developer behind the game. I put on a headset in the middle of an expo floor that was buzzing full of people, and I tried my best to move the truck in front of me. It was difficult, because really--how do you do something you're not sure how to do? I narrowed my eyes, I 'thought hard,' so to speak. The numbers that calculated my brainwaves flashed in front of me on a separate screen. Nothing happened on the screen with the truck, though. Was this for real, or....? I wondered. I tried to imagine actually lifting something in real life, I tried to imagine psychic stuff--like bending a spoon, or using force power. Trying to describe what one taps into while thinking about these things seems impossible to me; I can't tell you what it feels like. I can tell you that the truck started shaking after a while--which was great! Progress. It took me at least five minutes of concentrating until eventually I did it. Lat Ware congratulated me, and then reset the truck. "Now prove that wasn't a fluke," he challenged me. F*ck. I honestly did think it was a fluke, though! But the second time, moving the truck was easier. It took less time as I tried to recreate what I was feeling when I moved it initially, which felt cool. There was one final test given to me by Ware: levitation (in the game, of course.) I had to find calm, had to clear my mind--which makes using the tech behind the game feel like an exploration in meditation or zen or something! Weirdly I found that thinking about that moment right before I fall asleep worked the best. I asked Ware to show me how good he was with the game himself. It was partially curiosity, partially that after spending 15 minutes with the game, I still felt wary of it. How did I know it all wasn't just for show, how did I know the trucks didn't just move randomly? Surely, if this was for real, Ware would be able to do it easily--unlike me. He did indeed fling the trucks easily. Granted, that's relative to how long it took me to do it. There was a delay when he did it, albeit a small one (I don't think it took more than 20 seconds or so). I can't imagine playing a game with the tech behind the game--Ware told me he had two years of practice with it--without ample training. But to be fair, like I initially said, we were standing in an expo hall at the Game Developers Conference. Hardly the time of environment that is conducive for focusing or clearing one's mind! Between this and the scent device I wrote about earlier, I can't help but wonder how the heck I'll be playing my games in a few years.

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Maxis designer Dan Moskowitz gave a talk about SimCity and sandbox design. But before he began, a joke. "So let's get started here," said Moskowitz, firing up his first slide. And yet… it crashed with an error message. "Unable to connect to the server." Laughter from the room as people caught on, then applause. He then tried to reload the slide, only to have a second error message pop up. Still unable to connect. "As you all know," Moskowitz said as the chuckles died down, "our game had a bit of a rocky launch, a couple of server and connection issues. My contribution to the game happened after the login screen, after the front end. As a member of the team I apologize to anyone here that experienced frustration. I know it was frustrating to a lot of people, and as fellow game developers, I hope you can understand that the first few weeks after launch were an emotional roller-coaster for the team. We created this game which people really love and were attached to, and were frustrated by the inability to log in by itself. For those of you who have some rotten tomatoes, and anyone who wants to talk about online requirements, I will happily direct you to our PR guy." More light laughter. While Moskowitz' joke didn't give any insight into what's really going on with SimCity's launch and online requirement, it was a welcome human moment amid the din of an ongoing controversy.

During a talk at GDC earlier today, attended by GameSpot, Activision artists showed off what they think/hope next-gen character models will look like. While stressing that these are just exploratory models, and not in-game assets, the fact this is Activision, and that there's a soldier there, will still be pointing towards the obvious: your next Call of Duty - or at least its cutscenes - might just look like this. The talk, given by Activision technical director Jorge Jimenez, added that the increased fidelity isn't just there for eye-candy; it's hoped that "the product of better visuals will be the capacity to tell stories with greater emotional impact". Or, at least, the capacity to shoot Russians/Arabs/Private Military Contractors over and over and over again. In addition to screenshots, more of which are available at GameSpot, the team also showed off an animation video showing a character moving in real-time, which weirdly looks almost identical to the guy seen at 8:45 in this video. Activision shows off next-gen visuals [GameSpot]

Yearly sports video game franchises are faced with a difficult task: continuously renewing and perfecting themselves in order to keep things fresh and to draw people in. The latest installment of Tiger Woods PGA Tour does just that. Deep customization, an overhauled online aspect, and the introduction of the historically-inclined Legends of the Majors mode all contribute to making PGA Tour 14 the definitive Tiger Woods game. Here's a sampling of what critics have said. Destructoid Satisfying gameplay is the crux of the Tiger Woods franchise. All the new modes in the world wouldn't matter if it didn't feel so amazing to actually play. Luckily, Tiger Woods PGA 14 stays true to the core gameplay, and adds a very worthwhile mode with Legends of the Majors. All of the other new bells and whistles are either mediocre or long overdue. PlayStation LifeStyle The campaign in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 is where you’re likely to go after spending a couple minutes meditating to the main menu’s tranquil music. Before you can play you’ll have to create a character. Although just about everything can be defined for your custom golfer, from head size to testosterone levels, you’ll have to settle with a limited wardrobe until you increase in levels. One improvement made is being able to tweak the golfer swing style for your character, from shot shape to shot type. The selections made have ramifications on the greens, both good and bad, and add a sense of individuality to your custom golfer. Official Xbox Magazine Golf is a sport steeped in history, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 puts that all at the forefront with its new Legends of the Majors mode. Coinciding with the series finally including all four major tournaments, the mode spans 140 years of action, with several dozen events that plop you in the shoes of iconic players facing their biggest challenges and reliving their greatest moments. EGM Of course, the meat of the experience is still Career mode. For the first time in any game, all four major tournaments are playable: the PGA Championship, U.S. Open, the Masters, and the Open Championship. Plus, you can choose to play through the LPGA tournament with the inclusion of the Kraft Nabisco Championship, also for the first time. It’s a lot of content to go through, but it’s all well worthwhile. GamesRadar Online play also continues as a focal point, as Country Clubs—groups of friends that can congregate with aggregated stats and their own tournaments—are back and expanded this go-round. Entire communities sprung up around these Clubs last year, and it was a wise decision to boost their membership from 25 people to 100 for this season. While many players will never head into online golf, those that do have a way to find like-minded people with similar skill levels and desired experience—something all sports games could benefit from. Game Informer The action on the course remains largely the same from last year, except for the new swing arcs. Like changing your club tuning, fiddling with your swing arc has its advantages. This lets you change the flight characteristics of your ball, including your power, control, and how the wind affects your shot. Kotaku There are more courses on the basic disc than every before. The swing’s value is even greater thanks to design changes elsewhere that highlight its determinism, and deliver the sense that you made a great shot, you didn’t just plug in coordinates. And the all-out delivery of longtime fan requests—I sat in their office and begged for playoffs last April, and they sucked it up and found a way—speaks to a game working to earn your dollar, where some of its more highly regarded peers have been playing out the string on this console generation. Top image courtesy of Gergő Vas.

Industry favourite Metacritic, a site which aggregates review scores, does not simply add up every score it can find and come up with an average. It weights scores, giving some outlets more of a say in the final aggregated tally than others. While the outlet has never publicly disclosed the criteria by which it does this (on the site's FAQ page it says it will "absolutely not" reveal how each outlet is weighted), Adams Greenwood-Ericksen from Full Sail University, along with some of his students, set about cracking Metacritic's code for us. After months of research, they've finished their work, and according to a report on Gamasutra "their findings were almost entirely accurate". UPDATE - Metacritic's response at bottom. There are six "classes" of score, with publications ranked "lowest" all the way up to "highest". You'd think that those at the top, those with the biggest influence on a game's score - and as a result a game's critical performance and, in some cases, a developer's pay (or even future existence) - would be the biggest and most influential outlets. The IGNs, Gamespots and Eurogamers of the world. Nope. The 29 websites in the "highest" category contain several that I literally have never heard of. One of them is a volunteer fansite. Eurogamer and PC Gamer are only ranked "medium". Giant Bomb is "lower". Edge Magazine, perhaps the most respected review outlet in the world, is ranked beneath Yahoo Games. Note that the list, perhaps due to the time taken to research it, is a little old. Some outlets on there are no longer in business, while other newer sites like Polygon do not feature. Metacritic's very existence, or at least its importance in the eyes of many industry types, is bad enough. But if this research is accurate - or even mostly accurate - it only opens the site up to further criticism. Who is determining which sites carry more weight? And how? Does the site keep the weighting a secret because, for a site that's all about hard numbers, the process is completely arbitrary? When people are losing their jobs over Metacritic scores, those are questions that need answering. We've contacted the site for comment and clarification on the list's accuracy, as well as Metacritic's weighting methodology, and will update if we hear back. UPDATE - Here's Metacritic's response to the study: Today, the website Gamasutra "revealed" the weights that we assign to each gaming publication (for the purpose of calculating our Metascores), based on a presentation given at the Game Developers Conference this morning. There's just one major problem with that: neither that site, nor the person giving the presentation, got those weights from us; rather, they are simply their best guesses based on research (the Gamasutra headline is misleading in this respect).And here's the most important thing: their guesses are wildly, wholly inaccurate. Among other things:* We use far fewer tiers than listed in the article.* The disparity between tiers listed in the article is far more extreme than what we actually use on Metacritic. For example, they suggest that the highest-weighted publications have their scores counted six times as much as the lowest-weighted publications in our Metascore formula. That isn't anywhere close to reality; our publication weights are much closer together and have much less of an impact on the score calculation.* Last but definitely not least: Our placement of publications in each tier differs from what is displayed in the article. The article overvalues some publications and undervalues others (while ignoring others altogether), sometimes comically so. (In addition, our weights are periodically adjusted as needed if, over time, a publication demonstrates an increase or decrease in overall quality.) Metacritic's weighting system revealed [Gamasutra]