All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

If you have a Facebook profile, chances are good that you've populated it with some information about yourself. Like say, some of your favorite games—that way, anyone can look on your page and learn a little bit about you. It's a useful feature, but it's also used so that Facebook can spit more "relevant" ads at you. Read more...

Australia’s best Gran Turismo players to compete for a chance to become a pro race driver.

We have some Elder Scrolls Online PC beta codes we want to give out.

While this might look like a rehearsal for an upcoming superhero movie, it's actually a working concept for a suit of armour built by Sydney company Chiron Global. Armour that's been designed not for show, but for sport.Read more...

Endgame Studios' dual-world platformer Fractured Soul has made the jump from the 3DS eShop to Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, and is now available for purchase from GOG.com, Desura, and the developer's website.

Fractured Soul divides its gameplay across two screens representing alternate dimensions. While its Mega Man-like platforming mechanics are straightforward, players must frequently shift between screens in order to solve puzzles and defeat certain enemy types, adding complexity to the formula. The PC version introduces a new "Easy" mode not present in the original 3DS release, along with upgraded graphics and an in-game timer for speedrunners.

Fractured Soul is available for $8.99 during its debut week. Endgame Studios continues to seek a Steam release via Greenlight.

[Image: Endgame Studios]

PlayStation portmaster Curve Studios has announced it's working on PlayStation versions of Facepalm's indie sci-fi puzzle game, The Swapper, due on PS3, PS4 and PS Vita sometime in late May.

The Swapper strands players on a damaged space station called Theseus. With only a handheld cloning device at their disposal, players must search for a means to escape. The device creates up to four clones at any time and allows players to swap control between them, granted the clone in question is within the original player character's line of sight.

The Swapper's visuals employ hand-crafted clay model animations, which helped Facepalm to produce one of the most visually stunning experiences of 2013. The Swapper is currently available (with controller support) for PC, Mac and Linux on Steam for $15, or as part of the current Humble Indie Bundle.

Most of the time video game loading screens keep it pretty chill. They show some art, maybe share a helpful tip or two. Sometimes they're just a black screen and a spinning wheel. But sometimes... sometimes, video game loading screens go crazy in the best possible way.Read more...

As Sun Tzu once said, he that knows himself, and has gnomes for hands, will be victorious.

Free trial, a demo, and four new multiplayer characters outlined in leaked document.

The Twitch Plays Pokémon saga continues in victory!Read more...

Steamworks developers now have the option to set up their own sales, and they can opt into Steam weeklong deals at discount percentages of their choosing. Valve announced the new sale system in the private Steamworks Development forum, as spotted by Reddit user Sharkiller. According to Valve:

"With new Steamworks tools, you can configure your own discounts for custom sale periods or opt in to take part in upcoming weeklong sales. Once configured, the discounts will automatically start at the time specified." Developers can book weeklong or custom sales up to two months ahead of time, and custom sales can run for up to two weeks.

Valve launched Greenlight in 2012 to deal with the influx of indie (and larger) games vying for spots on Steam, and it started Steam Early Access in 2013, allowing developers to sell beta and alpha versions of their games, a la Kickstarter. Steam is at the heart of the indie PC bubble, and developers fear that the service could become overpopulated soon. Retro City Rampage developer Brian Provinciano explains how gaming's deep-discount culture can have a negative impact on indies:

"The big challenge we now face is saturation, quality and protecting platforms from the race to the bottom, which happened to mobile. It's been a bit concerning to see that this most recent Steam Holiday Sale saw developers doing deeper discounts than last year, no doubt in an effort to try and rise in the charts against the ever-increasing competition. However, it's a very slippery slope, and if this continues, it will once again become less viable to be indie."

For now, consider putting your wallet in the freezer. For your own sake. [Image: Sharkiller]

Track: When it Rains | Album: Largo | Artist: Brad MehldauRead more...

Hey Aussies! We're giving away 200 keys for this weekend's The Elder Scrolls Online beta.

The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a tax reform bill that would ultimately penalize gaming companies for making violent products.

Whether you're a benevolent ruler willing to sacrifice everything for your island nation or a greedy sociopath looking to get rich on the backs of the working class, Kalypso Media wants your help.

Tropico 5, the latest entry in Kalypso's banana republic management series, enters beta testing at an as-yet-undetermined date in March. The beta test wouldn't be very effective without players to stress the game, thus Kalypso has issued an announcement inviting interested players to visit the game's website where they will find a simple beta registration page. "We're looking for gamers who have a huge enthusiasm for city-building titles and with a wide experience playing within the genre," noted Kalypso in this morning's announcement.

More details on what you'd be getting into by joining the Tropico 5 beta test can be found at the game's website. Unlike prior series entries, Tropico 5 sees players grooming a tropical country from the colonial era to the modern day, a change that both expands the game's scope and offers new, historically accurate ways of grinding the proletariat masses under your megalomaniacal bootheel. [Image: Kalypso Media]

Time to try out a new character. What could go wrong?

The cult of the Helix fossil/Omanyte is not the only 'religion' that's formed around the events of Twitch Plays Pokemon, you know. This makes sense: a random group of thousands of people aren't necessarily all going to believe in the same thing.Read more...

Games industry veteran and Fable creator Peter Molyneux has branded 2010's Fable III a "trainwreck", and admitted the end product was "flawed".

Layoffs, Infamous, and Persona dominate the No. 1 PlayStation podcast this week .There's so much news!

A US judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by shareholders against Zynga today. The lawsuit alleged that Zynga purposely misled shareholders about the financial state of the company, its active user count and potential business prospects in the run-up to, and after, Zynga's initial stock offering in late 2011.

US District Judge Jeffrey White said the 110-page complaint failed to offer "relevant, basic factual details" worthy of the indictment against Zynga, Reuters reports. White also threw out a complaint filed against Zynga's secondary stock offering in April 2012, citing the plaintiffs in the case had no standing due to the fact none of them had purchased any of that stock. White has given the plaintiffs an opportunity to amend their complaint and re-file.

Months after Zynga's initial public offering, the company was hit with an insider trading lawsuit. While all Zynga stock holders were "locked up" and prevented from selling their stock until May 28, 2012 - months after Zynga's IPO in December, 2011 - executives within Zynga's ranks used underwriters to sell their stock at $12 a share. This loophole allowed executives to profit from the stock, which made its debut at $10 a share but quickly fell. Currently, Zynga stock prices hover at $5.29 a share on the NASDAQ. [Image: Zynga]

"Just think of paying 99 cents just to get Mario to jump a little higher." No. Let's not think of that. Ever.Read more...

As you're sitting on the couch wearing a headset, playing a game and chatting with your distant friends over the internet, it's easy to forget that video games are often best enjoyed with another person in the same room.Read more...

Ah, back to normal. Daan has his Wednesday slot and I'm back to my regular night off. This is how things should be!

Daan has the site from now until around 10 PM East Coast time. That's when I come back and pick up where he leaves off. I'm sure you guys will have a splendid time with Daan while I'm gone!

Have a wonderful afternoon/evening, my friends. See you tonight!

Despite Nintendo's many woes and stumbles these part couple of years, you have to admit, the eShop isn't exactly one of them. Whether you looking for a nostalgic replay via the Virtual Console, something old-school wrapped in new-school, or just something completely new and different, it does a great job covering all the bases.

I've spotlighted some of my favorite (and soon-to-be favorite) eShop games above, thanks to Best Buy's 20% Off Nintendo eShop Prepaid Cards sale. Do you have any eShop favorites of your own? Leave your recommendations in the comments!

You'll find many more (physical) games deals after the jump, including 007 Legends (Wii U) for $9.99 and Mario Tennis Open (3DS) for $19.96. Thanks for reading!

Read the rest of the story...

A portion of a NWR review...

Puyo Puyo Tetris is a colorful and bright puzzle game that succeeds in hitting the right notes. There is much creativity found in all the newly designed modes and the story component, though the single player offerings could have been expanded.

Full review here

Coming from Super Mario 3D World director, Koichi Hayashida...

“Back in the day, I would read and gather various interviews with Miyamoto from Famitsu and other video game magazines, but I wasn’t exactly collecting them [at the time]. However, about three years ago, I was instructed to be a lecturer for a game seminar, and while I had the necessary know-how for developing games, I didn’t know how to teach it [to others].

Furthermore, you’re required to plan different things out in your head when it comes to teaching. So that’s when I decided that I should take points from Miyamoto’s interviews and simply pass them along, and began collecting his quotes. That was about the year I was directing Super Mario 3D Land, and I also felt that it could be useful for my own work. After rearranging [the quotes], they became what’s known as the ‘Miyamoto’s Teachings’. It definitely makes it easier to find out what parts will be essential to the game’s development.

Personally, I think that there’s a huge gap between the Super Famicom’s Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64. I don’t think it was just a plain evolution, but rather, an evolution of the direction in which things were going. During the Nintendo 64 era, if there was a hardware with the Nintendo 3DS’ stereoscopic 3D technology, and if Shigeru Miyamoto were to direct that game, ‘what kind of Super Mario would he have made?’ was the theme behind the making of Super Mario 3D Land.

I believe that Super Mario 64 was able to be what it was thanks to its effective use of the Nintendo 64’s characteristics. So I figured that with the Nintendo 3DS and its characteristics of easily grasping depth perception—a Mario game that uses 3D stereoscopic vision to give us a good representation of ‘space’ would be perfect.

They say that ‘ideas are something that can solve multiple problems,’ but they also say that ‘ideas are about finding answers’. For example, Super Mario 3D World has a shadow picture-like stage, where you see the shape of a star in a shadow, and as you look for it while thinking ‘huh? where is it?’ you advance forward and find it. You see it on the wall, but the moment you think three-dimensionally, you think ‘I see!’. I believe that such ideas are very important. Ideas like that weren’t originally put into words, at least not until I put ‘Miyamoto’s Teachings’ together, and now they’re part of the criterion used for proposals from everyone, including myself.”

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