Amazon is offering hundreds of discounts on video games and accessories right now, including 40 percent price cuts on games such as Sleeping Dogs and Hitman: Absolution.
Both those Square Enix-published action games are on sale for $29.99, along with Just Dance 4 and the non-Premium version of Battlefield 3. A one-year Xbox Live Gold membership, Assassin's Creed 3 and Halo 4 are each available for $39.99, a 33 percent discount. Gears of War 3 is discounted to $14.18, a price cut of more than 50 percent. And a retail disc bundle of three Xbox Live Arcade games — Limbo, Trials HD and 'Splosion Man — is being sold for $10.70.
Accessories like headsets and controllers are also on sale. Discounts on a variety of Tritton and Turtle Beach gaming headsets range from 13 percent to 35...
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's latest downloadable content, Revolution, will be available for PlayStation Network and Windows PC users on Feb. 28, Activision announced today via press release.
Revolution includes four new multiplayer maps — Hydro, Grind, Downhill and Mirage — as well as a new zombie level called Die Rise. The DLC also includes a new mode called Turned, where players take on the role of zombies rather than soldiers, and a weapon called the Peacekeeper.
Revolution was already released for Xbox 360 on Jan. 29. The DLC will be available as a standalone pack for $14.99 or free with a Season Pass purchase. Those who pick up a Season Pass, priced $49.99, also get the Nuketown Zombies map and an in-game calling card for free.
The latest installment of Tomb Raider: The Final Hours explores the process of last-minute quality assurance before the game was finalized and sent to certification in the weeks preceding its release on March 5.
The video, which is the first of two parts of the series' conclusion, showcases the kind of stress that QA teams undergo during this period. In addition to ensuring the game is as free of bugs as possible, those teams provide feedback from players to ensure the title's dramatic moments hit all the right marks. An entire section of the dev team — the OMS (or, Oh My Shit) group — is dedicated to that process.
Crystal Dynamics global brand director Karl Stewart also describes the complications of bringing in a test audience to the studio, parts of which are blocked off as...
World of Tanks developer Wargaming.net is entering the eSports fray with the formation of the Wargaming.net League, the company announced today.
Wargaming.net is planning to launch its new eSports league in the first quarter of 2013. The company will run it in the traditional eSports format, with regional tournaments and playoffs that whittle down the player base to a select few who will compete in a Grand Finals event. The Wargaming.net League will feature a total prize pool of $2.5 million for the 2013 season of play.
"Running our own eSports league allows us to truly focus on making World of Tanks not only a compelling and challenging eSports discipline, but also one that's incredibly entertaining for spectators," said Andrei Yarantsau, VP of global operations at Wargaming.net, in...
World of Tanks developer Wargaming.net hasn't quite decided yet what to do with Day 1 Studios' free-to-player mech combat game Reign of Thunder, the publisher's founder tells Polygon.
Free-to-play combat king Wargaming.net purchased Chicago-based Day 1 Studios last month for $20 million, renaming the studio Wargaming West. The official Reign of Thunder website powered down "for now," thanking supporters. At the time, the newly named studio said it would be focusing exclusively on the development of an "unannounced console title."
Speaking with Polygon during last week's DICE summit, Wargaming.net founder Victor Kislyi said they purchased Day 1 because "they have great console experience and they have an engine which is multiplatform."
While the company is hard at work on the...
Rayman creator Michel Ancel along with members of the Rayman Legends development team are protesting Ubisoft's decision to delay the game's launch to September, according to a photo shared by Zelda Informer writer Daniel Switzer on Twitter.
The photo above shows Ancel holding a poster bearing a drawing of Rayman crying, the speech bubble from his mouth begging, "Please." The text surrounding the character states, "Release Rayman, support Ubisoft Montpelier." The background of the poster includes crowds holding banners bearing Ancel's name, "Wii U," "Rayman" and the game's original European release day of Feb. 28.
In conjunction with the company's annual earnings report last week, Ubisoft chief marketing and sales officer Geoffroy Sardin announced that Rayman Legends, previously a Wii...
Warner Bros. Interactive will publish another entry into the Batman Arkham video game series this year, parent company Time Warner announced during the company's recent financial report.
During an investor call last week, chief financial and administrative officer John K. Martin stated that the company is expecting to "post another very strong year in 2013," and briefly mentioned that a new Batman video game is part of the plan.
"We also have a strong games release this year, which will include the next release in the Batman Arkham franchise," he said.
Last summer, Variety reported that the next Batman title to follow 2011's critically acclaimed Arkham City would be a prequel based on the 1950s DC comics. The title would follow the Silver Age storyline in which Batman partners up...
The Australian branch of 2K Marin was instrumental in the construction of BioShock Infinite's fleshed-out floating metropolis of Columbia, Irrational Games director of design Bill Gardner told Polygon today.
2K Marin have studios based in Novato, California and Canberra, Australia. 2K Marin, Australia is the development studio Gardner is referring to.
"The scope and the scale is blown up completely. So to have them to really focus on fully realizing the world and make it feel lived in, just build the geometry involved in Infinite: We needed all of the help we could get," he said about the achievements of 2K Marin, Australia.
Australian-based 2K Marin had a full team working on Infinite, including the technical side of development, with work being done on the coding of the game and...
The latest trailer for Namco Bandai and Digital Extremes' Star Trek video game hints that the salvation of the galaxy may rest with the crew of the Enterprise.
The video above briefly shows the ship and its crew as they approach the planet of New Vulcan, where Captain Kirk and his first mate Spock will discover a piece of unknown technology that could protect or destroy all life in the galaxy. What follows next is a montage of in-game clips showing the duo in various shoot-outs against alien opponents, running through hazardous environments that crumble as they pass and several large, fiery explosions.
Star Trek will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC on April 23. The story takes place between the 2009 Star Trek reboot directed by J. J. Abrams and the upcoming...
Crysis 3's Nanosuit-wearing protagonist, Prophet, definitely qualifies as a "Sharp Dressed Man," according to publisher Electronic Arts.
The company released a 30-second TV spot featuring ZZ Top's hit yesterday; the video shows off all the powers that the Nanosuit provides to Prophet. He makes the suit look good.
Crysis 3 launches Feb. 19 on Windows PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
View this Today I Played as a travel journal. Join me on a journey into the darkness, where aliens move like humans and humans move like aliens. Behold the view from inside my colleague's animated face. Gasp as stray combustible barrels detonate my character's body like a water balloon full of strawberry soda.
Video should help you better comprehend the flaws of Aliens: Colonial Marines. They are numerous. Some are painful, others are frustrating and a few are, intentionally or not, hilarious.
If you had to choose, would you live in a world with Aliens video games or Aliens GIFs? Let me know in the comments section. And watch previous Today I Played videos here.
A new teaser video for the recurring event in Star Wars: The Old Republic, known as "Relics of the Gree," offers a sneak peek at the enemies players will be pitted against on the ice planet Ilum.
First announced last month, Relics of the Gree allows both subscribers and free-to-play users of level 50 to assist the Gree race in gathering information. Players can either work in teams or alone, helping the Gree search the ice planet for details regarding an ancient starship called the Gray Scant. The event will finally grant players access to high-powered weapons and armor developed by the Gree race.
The Relics of the Gree event begins today.
It is better to embrace inevitable piracy than to fight it, Anodyne co-designer Sean Hogan stated on Reddit under his online handle seagaia.
This statement follows the appearance of the developer's 2D title Anodyne on file sharing website The Pirate Bay. Rather than fighting back, Hogan began to share download codes for the game, explaining through Reddit:
"Yeah, piracy is inevitable so it's better to embrace it — plus, it gives lots of people who couldn't normally afford the game the opportunity to play it.
"I think when you're a small group of developers (only my friend Jon [Kittaka] and I made Anodyne), it's better to have lots of people able to experience your game. We hope enough people will like it and the word will get out, eventually allowing us to get onto Steam, which...
Aliens: Colonial Marines has been the topic of a number of bold promises from Gearbox Software.
Gearbox has maintained that it understands what made Aliens what it is. Gearbox has even gone so far as to say that the new story beats in Colonial Marines would make Alien 3 — notoriously compromised via a troubled production process — a better film.
Aliens: Colonial Marines does none of that. Gearbox has shepherded out a game that fails to grasp the functional core of the series. Instead, Colonial Marines is a boring, tension-free shooter with no weight and no kick, and Gearbox's incomprehensible story decisions and revisionist pen compromise the films it's based upon.
If you're not more than casually familiar with Aliens, Colonial Marines is never going to make much sense
Set...
Gaming on tablets and mobile devices has long been associated with light, casual experiences. Saccharine puzzle games and bite-sized physics-based platformers tend to be what come to mind when the word mobile is mentioned. Sydney-based studio The Giant Machine hopes to change that.
The Australian team which consists of designer Dimitri Kanis, programmer Christian Le Gall and business developer Philip Kanis is among the first to have a game published on the Windows 8 platform. When Microsoft recently launched its newest operating system, The Giant Machine's Last Gun was one of the first titles revealed. It's a game that's compatible with and optimized for all Windows 8 devices — it runs on PC, tablets and, in the coming days, it'll make its debut on Windows phones. The studio is...
Blizzard is selling World of Warcraft and every subsequent expansion for a total of $35 until Feb. 25 in preparation for "the Thunder King's return," according to an announcement made today.
The "WoW Battle Chest," which includes the complete World of Warcraft game, Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions, is available for $5. Cataclysm is available for $10, while the most recent expansion, Mists of Pandaria, is selling for $20. All games are available as digital or physical copies.
The Thunder King is part of World of Warcraft's 5.2 patch. Players will be able to travel to the Isle of the Thunder King and participate in a new raid called Throne of Thunder, among other additions. The patch is now open for public testing.
Blizzard's World of Warcraft sale will come to an...
Valve is opening up Left 4 Dead 2's Mutations, a set of modified gameplay modes, to further modification by the community with the release of the Expanded Mutation System, now in beta.
According to an update on the official Left 4 Dead blog, EMS is a "vastly improved scripting system" that will allow modders and script authors to have greater control over how Left 4 Dead 2 can play. While stock Mutations allow relatively simple tweaks to existing game rules — for example, giving everyone an M60 with infinite ammo, or requiring headshots to take down common infected — the update will let mod authors "create deep custom experiences that can be played on any map or tailor create something for new or existing maps."
The Expanded Mutation System beta launches with a new survival mode...
Medal of Honor Warfighter's makers at Electronic Arts turned down an application for a consultant position from the SEAL Team 6 member credited with killing Osama bin Laden, reports Esquire.
The unnamed U.S. Navy SEAL's uncle reportedly reached out to an EA executive last spring, around the time when the SEAL had formed a company with a few fellow SEAL Team 6 members to help themselves transition into civilian life. His uncle asked if EA could use him as a consultant, although he was forbidden from disclosing that his nephew was the man who killed bin Laden.
The uncle was reportedly told, "Right now we are pretty stacked with consultants"; the developers of Warfighter were said to have been using "thirty active and recently retired guys."
EA said in September that Matt Bissonnette...
Chinese media holding company Tencent, developer Rovio Entertainment, Activision and Microsoft have all made business and tech publication Fast Company's list of the 50 most innovative companies worldwide for 2013.
Tencent, which owns a minority stake in Gears of War developer Epic Games and is invested in League of Legends' Riot Games, makes the list at number 16, ranking slightly below Apple at 13. According to Fast Company, Tencent's "aggressive international rollout" and continued development of its WeChat social networking plug-ins have earned the company 300 million users in under two years.
Angry Birds and Bad Piggies developer Rovio enters the chart at 26 for the success of its apps and tie-in merchandise. Skylanders owner Activision sits at 41 due to the video game and...
Gas Powered Games' Kickstarter drive to fund action-RPG Wildman has been canceled, according an update from the developer.
"At this point, it makes sense for us to focus our attention on other ways to keep Gas Powered Games running," reads an update from the company. "Unfortunately, we are unable to share any specifics in public. When we have news to share, we will be posting it on our site."
The Chris Taylor-led Gas Powered Games had just four days left to go on its Wildman Kickstarter, but was more than $590,000 short of its $1.1 million goal. More than 9,300 backers had committed to $504,120 in donations toward Wildman's development before the developer pulled the plug.
Gas Powered (Supreme Commander, Dungeon Siege) announced Wildman and its intentions to fund the game through...
BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk will be given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, to be held during the 2103 Game Developers Conference this March, event organizers announced today.
The awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday, March 27 in the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. The ceremony, open to all GDC attendees, will begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be hosted by Double Fine Productions CEO Tim Schafer.
The "BioWare Doctors" will be honored for their critically acclaimed contributions to the industry and the role-playing genre, with published titles including Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series. Muzyka and Zeschuk were chosen to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award...
Bethesda and media group Future US are bringing an The Elder Scrolls Online promotional food truck tour across the United States this year, where it will make stops at universities and major consumer conventions, Bethesda announced today.
Those who stop by the truck will get a chance to snag free food and Elder Scrolls goodies. Composer and video game cover artist Malukah, who has lent her vocals to numerous Skyrim-related songs, will be in attendance during the tour's kickoff at SXSW 2013 in Austin, Texas on March 10.
This year's tour has been expanded from last year's Skyrim truck tour, which gave attendees plush Dragonborn helms and snacks like chicken drumsticks and corn on the cob. The Elder Scrolls Online tour will stop at five major events and six college campuses throughout...
Active Discussions
Anime You Might Not Have Tried/Heard of #3: Ufotable Edition
in Off-topic by Revolurt
Polygon Daily: Off-Topic Spinal Weaver (Tue 12/2)
in Off-topic by Salias
Biggest good surprises of the Wii/Xbox 360/PS3 generation
in Polynauts by Sterling Smith
Comics! Cartoons! Anime! Crisis Vol. 2, No. 7: Taste like fricken
in Off-topic by zombie711
The PolyMusic Jukebox
in Off-topic by Helis