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I think I know what my favorite moment in Titanfall is.Read more...

The Last of Us only delivered wins on half of its BAFTA Games Award nominations, but since it was nominated ten times, the Naughty Dog game didn't do so bad. The Joystiq Game of 2013 picked up the Best Game award at last night's ceremony in London, along with Best Story, Action & Adventure, Audio Achievement, and Performer - that went to Ashley Johnson for her portrayal of Ellie.

Other big-budget games did well with Grand Theft Auto 5 and Tearaway both walking away with three awards, but it was also a good night for indie games. The Gone Home team went home with Debut Game, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons won Game Innovation, and Paper's Please stamped its name on the award for Strategy & Simulation.

For the full list of nominees and winners, head over to BAFTA. Also, be sure to check out Steam's one-day-only sale on a selection of the nominated games. [Image: Sony Computer Entertainment]

Well, he's done it. After years of work and more video games than you've probably played in your entire life, Stallion83 has become the first person in the world to achieve a Gamerscore of over 1,000,000.Read more...

Raymond Cox - or Stallion83 as he's known on Xbox Live, Twitter and Twitch - has reached a level of gamer previously thought unobtainable. We've seen gamers, even Super Gamers. Cox showed us back in August 2011 what it looked like when a Super Gamer ascended past a Super Gamer - or, you could just call it a Super Gamer 2. But this ... this is to go even further beyond. This is one million Gamerscore.

Cox hit the one million mark at approximately 2:35 a.m. EST, March 13, 2014, after completing a game of Titanfall. His score has to be verified with Guinness to be recorded as the official highest Gamerscore, but considering Cox broadcast his ... uh, achievement to the world on Twitch, it's unlikely there's any sort of shadiness going on here. Congrats, Raymond! [Image: Microsoft]

Stallion83, long the record holder for the highest Xbox gamerscore in the world, is on the cusp of something very special. He's about to pass the one million points mark.Read more...

Despite the fact that the Xbox 360's controller has become a standard in PC gaming, Microsoft still hasn't got the Xbox One pad working officially with the platform. But that's OK.Read more...

Xbox One and PC go head-to-head in this graphics comparison.

It's been a while since we've seen any mud-slinging in World Console War V, but Sony took another shot tonight, going after Microsoft's controversial console parity policy.Read more...

Titanfall is finally here, and you're going to be blowing up tons of Titans. Dozens. Hundreds, even. But with such a tiny body as a Pilot, it can be pretty intimidating to take on a giant robot -- until you read these tips, that is.

First things first: Before you do anything, complete the campaign. Although it isn't a fully-featured solo story mode, the campaign is a separate playlist that's integrated into multiplayer. So basically, you're going to be playing with a lot of newcomers who just picked up the game (as opposed to hardcore people that are in the competitive playlists), which will better help you acclimate. Also, you can earn two new Titan body types by completing the story that will be unlocked for life -- so do it!

Two doggie-snack sized bits of Watch Dogs news to report, starting with Ubisoft Montreal releasing the minimum specifications required to run the hacker game on PC. To become a Watch Dog you need a 28.8 BPS modem, an active-matrix display with a million psychedelic colors... oh wait, wrong specs.

What you'll really need at minimum is an IntelCore 2 Quad Q8400 2.66Hz processor, or an AMDPhenom II X4 940 3.0 GHz. That's with 6GB of RAM, a 1024 VRAM Direct X11-capable graphics card, a Direct X9 sound card, and 25GB of disk space. There's no info yet on recommended specs, but we're sure Ubisoft will make that available closer to the game's release date of May 27.

The second piece of news comes from Australia, where the often-prominent classification board has upgraded - if that's the right word - the game's rating from MA15 to R18+. Watch Dogs received the MA15 rating ahead of its originally planned release late last year, but it was re-submitted to the ACB following the delay and whatever's been added was enough to nudge it into the R18+ category. Comparing the two ratings, the ACB deemed there to be more impact from violence, drug use, and sex in the new version. It's probably still not as wild as Zero Cool, though. [Image: Ubisoft]

The final verdict on the most anticipated Xbox One game yet.

IGN's FPS fan breaks down some of his favorite weapons, burn cards, and maps while wreaking havoc on the opposition.

This is State of Service, an ongoing review of the online service of a recently launched game. See our scored review of Titanfall here. Wednesday, March 12 | T-minus 29 days until final verdict
Current State of Service: Moderate
Summary: Xbox One and PC versions experienced matchmaking issues. Problems seem to have been resolved. PC version experiencing crash bug.

Some players experienced problems with matchmaking during Titanfall's launch yesterday. Later in the afternoon, Xbox Live itself began to malfunction, with many users unable to login to Microsoft's online service at all. Joystiq ran into these problems firsthand during a live stream of Titanfall, during which we had trouble matchmaking and even connecting to in-game parties. At one point, our own Susan Arendt left the game, rebooted her Xbox One and was unable to sign into Xbox Live. For its part, Microsoft has stated that Xbox Live issues were unrelated to the launch of Titanfall.

Late last night, Xbox Support announced that overarching Xbox Live issues had been resolved, and advised users to power cycle their Xbox One consoles. Joystiq staff then played several hours of Titanfall without further problems.

The PC version of Titanfall has encountered matchmaking issues of its own, a problem that was solved this morning, according to the Titanfall Twitter account. Furthermore, the EA Help site notes that the PC version may crash when attempting to join a friend's match while currently playing a different match. EA Help recommends exiting to the lobby before issuing or accepting invitations.

If you encounter any problems with Titanfall, let us know in the comments or on Joystiq's Twitter or Facebook accounts (use the hashtag #sos and don't forget to specify your platform!).

In 1986, Namco launched RBI Baseball for the NES (Famcom in Japan), and it grew into a household name before Time Warner Interactive's RBI Baseball 95, the heretofore last game in the series. Now, the MLB will publish RBI Baseball 14 on April 10, and MLBAM Vice President of Games Jaime Leece expects the game will remain faithful to the treasured series.

Much like those classic games, the developer created three body types and preset batting stances for those character models as opposed to painstakingly differentiating every batter. And while NES games in the late 1980s were naturally restricted to two face buttons and a d-pad, Leece's team intentionally opted for two-button controls for the modern take on the baseball game. Leece believes that these decisions immediately separate the game from other sports games in the genre.

"When you take away the barrier of control, it leaves the competition pure," Leece told Joystiq. "It's you against me, it's not your dexterity versus my dexterity. Having to deal with button combinations and things like that creates an extra challenge that's, I think unnecessary and certainly gets in the way of the enjoyment of the product itself."

"PC on very high setting is REALLY stunning if you ask me... Trailer wasn't a good [graphics reference]." On Twitter, Watch Dogs' creative director answers comments related to the game getting "uglier" with the latest trailer, explaining that the earlier E3 2012 footage came from the PC version. (1, 2, via Eurogamer)Read more...

It took over five hours, but Microsoft now says that Xbox Live should be back up and running in North America.Read more...

A giant light-up statue highlights Titanfall's mammoth Collector's Edition. We unbox it.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers (and sisters) that make up the Joystiq Troopers have not acquitted ourselves well in Titanfall. In fact, our myriad attempts to roll deep in Respawn Entertainment's debut shooter have fallen squarely on the comedy spectrum. First came what is now known as the great Joystiq Titanfall Beta Massacre of '14, wherein we got hosed by far more experienced players. Then there was Monday's stream, wherein we got hosed by the Xbox One party system. Both incidents were highly embarrassing and highly entertaining.

Today will be different, though. Today is the day that Joystiq rises up in Titanfall and squares off in vicious 6-on-6 fights right alongside a fully-populated game. Tune in to the Joystiq Twitch channel at 4PM EST to behold the Troopers at full strength as they attempt to win more than a single round. It will be utterly glorious. We'll not offend one stomach with our play.

Joystiq Streams broadcasts live every Tuesday and Thursday at 4PM EST. [Images: Respawn Entertainment]

Poland-based developer CD Projekt Red announced that the release of its multiplatform action-RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been delayed to next year as the studio focuses on testing and polish.

"We could have released the game towards the end of this year as we had initially planned," the team explains. "Yet we concluded that a few additional months will let us achieve the quality that will satisfy us, the quality gamers expect from us. Consequently, we have set the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for February 2015."

The full text of CD Projekt Red's announcement is available after the break below.

[Image: CD Projekt Red]

Two Reddit users posted separate photos of a Watch Dogs closed beta listed on the Xbox One Games Store yesterday, suggesting Ubisoft might be giving players an early hack at the game. The listing's not on the storefront currently, so if it was there, it's been swiftly baleeted. We've reached out to Ubisoft for comment.

As MP1st suggests, this could well be an internal beta that accidentally went external: Even if the photos are accurate, Ubisoft hasn't made any announcements about an impending beta, and the game is due to hit Xbox One, PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC on May 27. That said, it wouldn't be the first super-close-to-launch beta of the year.

Although Ubisoft Montral has been cultivating Watch Dogs for half a decade, the studio took the risk of delaying the game last year; it was originally due as a PS4 and Xbox One launch title. In our recent preview, Xav de Matos said, "Watch Dogs is an unbelievably slick world with unique elements and if its distractions can fit seamlessly into the narrative without feeling shoehorned in for the sake of 'another thing to do,' it may have been a risk worth taking." [Image: Reddit user AbletoFail]

Prepare for Titanfall! Today's the big day when the big mechs come falling from the sky. Our review said it "isn't tuned to perfection for everyone yet, but it starts as a smart, swift and startling movement in well-traveled space."

If you're still cyber fence-sitting about the game, check out as team @Joystiq plays the game together today on Joystiq Streams at 4PM Eastern (1PM Pacific, 8PM UK). We'll have a post with the specifics up in a few hours.

Let's see what everyone else has been saying about Respawn's debut game...

So that's why theTitan classes are called Ogre, Stryder and Atlas! Lore's here to summarize Titanfall's background story with a huge amount of references.Read more...

From the marketing to the name of the game itself, Titanfall pitches itself as a game defined by its use of giant combat mechs. And indeed, in your first few hours with the game, that'll be all you really pay attention to.Read more...

Titanfall will be propped up by dedicated servers. As much was made known last June, but what may not be so clear to players is that post-launch hiccups are primarily Microsoft's responsibility. Respawn engineer Jon Shiring recently explained to Engadget how Respawn used Microsoft's "Azure" cloud computing technology to handle elements of Titanfall like AI hosting and physics calculations.

"One of the really nice things about it is that it isn't my problem, right?" Shiring said of potential server issues at the game's launch. "We just say [to Microsoft], here are our estimates, aim for more than that, plan for problems and make sure there are more than enough servers available -- they'll know the whole time that they need to bring more servers online."

Shiring said that during the game's lengthy beta program, the game's European servers filled up, and players were quietly transitioned to East Coast US data centers, indicating the developer's contingency plans in the event its launch is wildly popular tomorrow. Titanfall, a multiplayer-only game, is so reliant on the Azure servers that Respawn opted to not launch the game in some regions, such as South Africa. Shiring also noted in late January that server-side updates for the game won't cause downtime for players.

Our review of Titanfall will be supplemented with our first of many State of Service reviews, so expect to hear more about how the game's online play holds up after it launches. [Image: Electronic Arts]

Titanfall launches on Xbox One with the same 792p resolution it sported during beta, though this may be increased somewhere down the line.

You're heading to the store to get an Xbox One right now, and need to know which games to get. (Land the plane, first, of course.) Or you're at work or in school, daydreaming about what you want to play next. Or maybe you're suiting up for a battle in the console war, cinching on your armor and trying to remember which games will best help you make the argument for Microsoft's new console. We are here to help.Read more...

Titanfall is a multiplayer-based first-person shooter. With giant metallic Titans you can use to punch other giant metallic Titans. So who would've thought you'd stumble onto one of these? Spoilers ahead.Read more...

The reason for Titanfall's unusual 792p resolution and more technical tidbits about this week's big release from Respawn Entertainment get discussed in a Digital Foundry interview over at Eurogamer.Read more...

There's going to be a metric ton of Titanfall chatter this week: how awesome it is/isn't, whether the online functionality is a triumph/failure, and tips for playing it . That's all well and good for Xbox One and PC players. But what about PS4 owners? Well, Sony would like to remind its faithful that a high-profile, constantly-connected FPS will be hitting their new console, too. Y'know, in September.Read more...

The Joystiq Troopers are locked and loaded, waiting to spring like an angry mongoose, to take the Titanfall servers by storm when our usual Tuesday broadcast rolls around. Our motto, however, is, "Always be prepared when trying to commandeer giant robots while struggling in a horrific interstellar war." To that end, we're sending in the Joystiq Troopers advance team to lay groundwork and do some light leveling ahead of the main event. That's Titanfall on Joystiq Streams two days in a row.

At 4PM EST on Monday at the Joystiq Twitch channel, Richard Mitchell (@TheRichardM), Alexander Sliwinski (@Sliwinski), Xav de Matos (@Xav), and Susan Arendt (@SusanArendt) will suit up for a few test rounds. Deck officer Anthony John Agnello (@ajohnagnello) will be hanging in the chat as liason between you good viewers at home and our Titan pilots abroad. Come hang out.

Joystiq Streams' regular schedule is every Tuesday and Thursday at 4PM EST. [Images: Respawn Entertainment]