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Ubisoft is offering access to a closed beta for people who pre-purchase the upcoming game.

- slinging web uses the left and right triggers
- hold left down and you’ll swing forward for a bit before gaining altitude and listing to the left
- press demo kicks off with Peter Parker entering a private fund-raising even
- get to control Peter outside of his Spider-Man suit
- Parker runs into Harry Osborn and they begin to talk
- choose between several dialog options
- the conversation turns to the Fisks, and how Osborn thinks they're into illegal activities
- a waiter walks by with drinks, which sets of Peter's Spidey-Sense
- Peter knocks the tray over, which was carrying a poison drink
- Peter changes into Spider-Man and follows the waiter backstage to find Russian mobsters
- the mobsters have a 'bruiser' character who has to be immobilized with a charge attack before he can be damage
- Spider-Man has a move that lets you web together two enemies by the face, jump into the air and slam them together
- this transitions into a stealth part of the game
- you find out that the mob was guarding an experimental sui
- when you get close to the suit, you're attacked by a speedy female character outfitted with blades
- you have to use dodges and web pulls to defeat her
- new hero system brings side-missions into play
- these will pop up on the minimap as players progress through the campaign
- they can be ignored, but at a cost
- example: Spider-Man can use his spider senses to navigate through the smoke of a burning building and carry out unconscious victims
- this good deed will be recognized through a special segment on the Bugle Channel, featuring anchor Whitney Chang
- example: fail at a bomb-disposal mission and J. Jonah Jameson will take to the airwaves, wondering why Spidey didn’t call the police instead of trying to figure it out himself
- as you gain more acclaim or notoriety, you’ll be treated differently
- civilians will clap when they see the heroic Spider-Man, but they’ll run at one that’s seen as a public menace
- Oscorp will send out drones to attack Spider-Man
- you'll also face penalties to damage and other stats

Warlock II is everything I wanted from a sequel to Masters of the Arcane, which, as I’ve implied before, felt like the decent gig before a killer afterparty. Taking place across the fragments of a broken world, it’s 4X strategy in a compact form, as dense as a spoonful of iridium and seemingly built from the ground-up to avoid the cycle of ‘End Turn’ clicking that is a hallmark of the genre. I’ve spent a few days with a near-complete build and have many thoughts to share.

… [visit site to read more]

Elizabeth's AI programmers looked to sports to make her move like a real person.

Coming from a Siliconera interview with Nintendo’s Damon Baker, Senior Manager of Marketing at Nintendo’s of America’s Licensing department...

“We’ve had those discussions and we are definitely looking at that. Our priority was to get the Wii U build [of Unity] up and done and ready. Because we need a test environment for it, it’s taken a while for Unity to get finalized on Wii U, so that we can actually test against it. So that has been made available now and that is why we’ve got all of these [game] candidates waiting in the wings that are just going through the submission process at this point.

Now, we can move on to other platforms and see how we can make those compatible, either with Unity or with additional middleware providers as well. So, 3DS is definitely an exciting platform for us, because we’ve got a huge install base, and we want to take advantage of that. We’ve got a lot of developers that want to take advantage of it. So, we’re working towards that as well. But nothing to announce at this time.”

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Over the past two decades, Electronic Arts has developed a reputation for buying and "killing" independent video game studios.Read more...

A portion of a USGamer interview with Koji Igarashi...

USG: So your next project will be skipping mobile and social platforms in favor of a console and handheld focus?

IGA: Being 100% honest, we'll be focusing on those fans who primarily are on the console and are looking for console experiences or your traditional handhelds. Those are the people that we're going to focus on first and foremost. If I get to a position where I absolutely have to do mobile like the rest of everyone else due to funding issues, then I'll do what I have to to survive.

USG: I noticed you did seem to focus on appealing to Japanese gamers in some ways. The anime art style of Dawn of Sorrow, for instance...

IGA: This is actually a common misconception that occurs. And that is the anime style chosen in Dawn of Sorrow - it wasn't to make it appeal more to the Japanese market, it was to make it appeal more to the DS market...

USG: Ahh, I see...

IGA: ...and the rationale there was that people who were gaming on the DS continue to get younger and younger versus previous handhelds. And if you, with the franchise, don't continue to try and get new fans and new customers, then you just end up with older and older gamers that sometimes stop gaming or peter off. So that was pretty much us trying to appeal to new, younger users, to try to get them interested in that series. Though it didn't really work.

And any time I've made a game – even Symphony of the Night, with an art style and a world that really appealed to me... I feels, as a creator, if you don't make what you want to make and you try and make it for other reasons like what the market says or what the higher-ups say, then ultimately you're not going to be hitting your best strengths. So in the future, the game I'm going to make is going to be something that I want to make, and as such that will hopefully end up being what the fans want to play.

Just a little more than a week after the launch of Titanfall, new insider info is supposedly leaking about the game's sequel.

- educational app
- available on iOS/Android/Windows
- accessed via the web browser
- type out Pokemon names
- go on adventures and play mini-games to improve hand-eye co-ordination
- to play, you have to buy licenses, as this is intended for classrooms
- license deals are as follows

Under 50 = 15,000 Yen
51-100 = 24,000 Yen
101+ = 36,000 Yen

Check out the official site here
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1. Japanese Club Nintendo promo: Register the following games between March 20 and March 23 and get extra CN points: Mario Party Island -

— NintendoTweet (@NintendoTweet) March 20, 2014

2. Tour (50 pts retail, 70 pts digital), Harvest Moon Linking the New World (50 pts), Youkai Watch (50 pts retail, 70 pts digital),

— NintendoTweet (@NintendoTweet) March 20, 2014

3. Tomodatchi Collection (50 pts retail, 70 pts digital) and Pokemon Battle Trozei (15 pts)

— NintendoTweet (@NintendoTweet) March 20, 2014

- name change going into effect on July 1
- name change will help strengthen its brand power
- on April 1, current executive chairman Haruki Nakayama will become the new president and CEO
- current president and operating officer Kyoda Shuichi will become the new president and operating officer COO
- current executive vice president and operating officer, digital content general manager, and online content senior executive manager Toshinori Aoki will become the new executive vice president and operating officer department COO while retaining his latter titles

- actor Tom Hardy set to play Sam Fisher
- final negotiations have been reached with Doug Liman to direct
- Liman has directed The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Snake! Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes is a sneaking mission, so while wandering around some crazy 1975 military base, try not to get caught. Maybe don't start casual conversations with guards or ask to bum a smoke either.

Joystiq knows not to make these Metal Gear blunders, having dug into Ground Zeroes' guts for its 3.5-star review, but some of the crew has yet to enjoy Kojima Productions' PlayStation 4 and Xbox One debut. Hence why today's stream will involve blithely marching into Metal Gear, pretending Kiefer Sutherland just wants to make some new friends rather than save Paz.

Head on over to the Joystiq Twitch channel at 4PM EST on Thursday to revel in our stealth skill as we play the PlayStation 4 version of Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes. Anthony John Agnello will be holding the controller, displaying how good he is at hiding behind stuff just as he did in Thief and Outlast. (Note: He's not very good at hiding behind stuff.) Susan Arendt, Joystiq's Managing Editor, will be hanging out in the chat, relaying your questions as we play. Come hang out!

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

Innovation in Game Design - The shortlist

Our Game Design award covers the fundamentals of game creation: anything which contributes to the end experience of the player. Not necessarily restricted to the realm of gameplay, art or UI, this award also includes areas as diverse as accessibility, control implementation, audio and enabling user­ generated content. The work of coders, character designers and creators of dialogue are all equally at home in this category.

Tearaway
Brothers
Assassin's Creed 4: Naval combat
Papers, please
The Stanley Parable
Clumsy Ninja
Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

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A portion of a Nintendo Life interview with Voofoo's technology director Mark Williams...

"Yeah, there were a few technical issues that we didn’t manage to overcome. We’ve not been able to get the Sony versions of the game integrated into that cross-platform system, yet. It’s possible for the future, but we don’t know. We’re not sure how". When asked about whether that's still an aspiration, we were reassured that it is. "It is certainly something we’d like to do very much, definitely, but obviously the bigger audience we can get all playing in the same competitive online forum, would be great."

Voofoo has stated that they are open to working more with the Wii U if Pure Chess sells well enough on the platform. Now you know what you have to do, readers!

Today at GDC 2014, Microsoft offered a first look at the future of PC gaming with DirectX 12.

Grab Steam versions of both Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII today for just $5 each. Hit up Newegg and use code EMCPGHP84 to claim your prizes and ride off into the sunset on a Gold Chocobo.Read more...

Diving for treasure in the Caribbean feels much more realistic with an Oculus Rift headset.