Entertainment apps for TV network Telemundo and anime platform Neon Alley are now available for download in the Xbox Live Marketplace, Major Nelson announced via his blog today.
Telemundo, which broadcasts only in Spanish, will feature soap opera "novelas" and shows such as Caso Cerrago, 12 Corazones, La Patrona and more. Neon Alley plays uncut and English-dubbed anime in HD. The channel will feature exclusive North America premieres as well as news.
Both apps are compatible with Kinect. Neon Alley requires both a Gold membership and a $6.99 subscription after a limited-time one-week free trial.
Telemundo and Neon Alley are available under the app section.
The Walking Dead developer Telltale Games is still hard at work on an episodic game based off the DC Comic Fables, but the game will be sold under a different name, CEO and co-founder Dan Connors told IGN.
Speaking with the publication during the DICE Summit last week, Connors explained that the team is still "hammering" out details on the game.
"We're based on the property, but we'll have a new name," Connors said. "We haven't announced it yet. We're still hammering it out. We want to make sure that people know it's associated with the DC comic and Bill's work and everything else. It's delicate. But it won't be called Fables."
Fables is Bill Willingham's comic series about characters from folklore who have been forced out of their homes and now reside in New York City. The series...
GDC 2013 will host talks about Dishonored, Journey, Wii U development and NASA's first game, according to a press release from the show's organizers.
In a talk called "Empowering the Player in a Story-Rich World: Co-Directing Dishonored," Arkane Studios' co-creative directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith will discuss design principles as they relate to story, audio and visuals. In "Designing Journey," representatives from thatgamecompany (our bet is on co-founder Jenova Chen) will discuss the game's three-year development process and the lessons learned along the way.
Nintendo will hold two talks, one about adding Miiverse support to games and the other about developing Wii U software with HTML and JavaScript. Representatives from NASA will also be in attendance to speak about...
After Burner Climax (Link)
In the spirit of the original After Burner (read: shoot planes with other planes) comes After Burner Climax. Pretty graphics and decent controls make it a worthy addition to the series.
Krashlander (Link)
"Krashlander" means "Skiing" in German. Probably. Which would explain the subject of this strange, 2D physics game wherein you must ski jump into the waiting arms of robots.
Roar Rampage (Link)
Just when you thought you were safe from the menace that is a giant dinosaur with boxing gloves...
Square Enix is discounting Final Fantasy, Hitman, Kingdom Hearts and all other boxed games through next Tuesday, Feb. 19 in its North American online store, according to a press release from the company.
Discounts for the President's Day sale include:
Final Fantasy 13-2 for Xbox 360 for $11.99 (regularly $19.99)
Heroes of Ruin for $23.99 (regularly $39.99)
Hitman: Absolution for $29.99 (regularly $49.99)
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance for $23.99 (regularly $39.99)
Risen 2: Dark Waters Special Edition for $23.99 (regularly $39.99)
Sleeping Dogs for $29.99 (regularly $49.99)
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy for $23.99 (regularly $39.99)
The discounts don't stop there, and you can dig deep into all of the deals in Square Enix's North American online store.
Siobhan Reddy, LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway developer Media Molecule's studio director, is one of the U.K.'s 100 most powerful women, according to the BBC radio program Woman's Hour.
According to the program's official website, Reddy's inclusion on the list of "movers and shakers who shape the way we live today" ranks her among Queen Elizabeth II, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Victoria Beckham. A panel of female journalists, authors and a minister of parliament compiled the Power List.
"Thank you!! So incredibly surprised & honoured to be on #womenshourpowerlist," Reddy wrote on Twitter in response to a tweet congratulating her.
A South African native, Reddy moved to the U.K. at 18. She co-founded the Guildford, U.K.-based Media Molecule in 2006 after a stint at Criterion...
Production talent — the sort you'd find in a Hollywood film studio — has accumulated over the past couple of years in the top corner of a cold office building in Montreal. Sound engineers, location scouts, writers and tinkerers have remodeled the window-lit rectangle of desks and rooms into a one-stop shop for storytelling. But they're not making movies or television; they're making video games.
For the next generation of video games, Ubisoft, the publisher responsible for franchises like Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell and Far Cry, wants to change the way we experience story in games. It believes this small chunk of space, dubbed Alice, will be the catalyst.
The space is as unusual as it is ambitious.
On one side of the rectangle is a fully-operable motion capture room....
If you think modern video game marketing is outrageous, you should be thankful today's publishers aren't still putting together content that's as unintentionally cheesy as these videos from the early 1990s obtained by PriceCharting.
The site purchased six promotional VHS tapes produced by Nintendo in the Super NES era, and posted them on YouTube for all to enjoy. According to PriceCharting, these videos would have been created for "retailers, promotional partners, licensees and other businesses Nintendo worked with."
Three of the videos were made to promote Nintendo-hosted competitions — the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, 1991 Nintendo PowerFest and 1992 Nintendo Campus Challenge. The 1991 PowerFest never actually took place; instead, it became the 1991 Campus Challenge.
A...
The game was first shown way back in the summer of 2010 at a press event in New York City. At that time, the first in-engine demo was more like a movie than a game. It consisted of a highly scripted series of events rather than an interactive, playable portion of what would be in the final game.
Earlier this week at a press event for BioShock Infinite, we had the chance to catch up with the game's creator, Ken Levine, to discuss why the game was shown so early and just how much has changed since that first reveal. He also spoke about the challenges of making the introduction for the original BioShock, including an early combat sequence that never made it to store shelves.
You want them to be superheroes.
They're youthful, energetic and driven. They have a purpose. They seem good, both at what they do and at heart; inherently decent. Trustworthy.
Like superheroes, the men and woman of Conifer Games each have a specialty, and an origin story and an identity. Separately, they're powerful, strong and somewhat larger-than-life. Together, they seem unstoppable.
You want them to lead, so that you can follow. You want them to fight for something — and win.
Jon Shafer, Kay Fedewa and Jonathan Christ (unbelievably, his name is actually Christ) are game developers: a designer, an artist and a programer, respectively. None of them are out of spitting distance of 30, but combined, they rock more than two decades of game development experience....
Halo 2's Windows PC multiplayer support will extend through June and Halo 4 developer 343 Industries is investigating "further support options," according to a tweet from David Ellis, a designer at 343.
A Halo Waypoint community manager announced last month that the multiplayer servers would be taken down this Friday, Feb. 15. The developer made the decision after months of monitoring, which revealed that player activity peaked "consistently at approximately 20 players or less." The multiplayer component of Halo 2's Xbox counterpart shut down in April 2010.
In an interview last November, Xbox co-creator Kevin Bachus credited the company's cooperation with Bungie and Halo 2's launch in 2004 with shaping the future of the Xbox Live service. According to Bachus, their work was...
Dead Space 3 represents a precarious moment for developer Visceral Games.
Visceral has built Dead Space around a solitary, terrifying campaign experience. When it announced last year that Dead Space 3 would see the introduction of co-op to the series for the first time, it seemed like Visceral was losing sight of what made the series special — much like Dead Space 2's well-meaning but ultimately forgettable competitive multiplayer mode.
If Visceral could miscalculate the basic appeal of its own series so badly, what did that mean for the rest of the game? And how could it put in the work to make a great sequel to the previous games, distracted by co-op?
Surprisingly, instead of watering the series down, Visceral has instead strengthened Dead Space's single-player roots with...
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, CyberConnect2's upcoming anime-styled fighting game, will arrive as a demo Feb. 19 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Europe and Australia and at an undetermined date in North America, according to a pair of tweets on the publisher's official U.K. Twitter account and a confirmation from a Namco Bandai representative.
The publisher announced in early January that CyberConnect2's supersaturated fighting game, which includes over 80 combatants culled from the Naruto Shippuden anime series, is set for a March 5 release in North America. A demo is also headed to Japan on Feb. 19, according to a post on the game's official Facebook page.
"No word on a North American demo at this time, although we wouldn't be surprised if it also releases on the same...
Serious Sam Double D XXL's latest Gun Diary offers a look at the game's weapon system and choices.
There are four upgrades available for eight different gun types, though the video only covers two weapons and four upgrades. A Tommy gun by itself might not be impressive, but with updates like the Death Adder, it's a powerful weapon that's perfect for taking on thick crowds. Another upgrade, the Turret Tosser, will create a turret and fill it with Tommy gun ammo. Turrets will auto-target enemies for easy dispatching.
The Laser gun is another powerful option, and with the Health Leech upgrade, players can suck the life out of enemies. Upgrading the Laser gun with the Electrostatic Orb, on the other hand, will arm players with powerful electrical energy.
Check out the video above to see...
Germinator launches March 5 on PlayStation 3 via PlayStation Network and will be available on PlayStation Vita afterward, developer Creat Studios announced today on the PlayStation Blog.
The puzzle game features a 75-level campaign. The story justification for the bubble-popping action is that Germinator tasks the player with quarantining a suburban disease outbreak; that's accomplished by destroying germs of the same color that grow and stick together on the screen. Germinator also includes 75 Puzzle mode levels, an unlimited Arcade level and two-player local multiplayer gaming.
According to Scott Hyman, vice president of publishing at Creat Studios, the PS Vita version of Germinator will be released "in the coming weeks." When asked in the comments of the PlayStation Blog post if...
Sony is discounting all Twisted Metal titles on the PlayStation Network this week to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Twisted Metal on PlayStation 3, director David Jaffe announced in a post today on the PlayStation Blog.
Beginning today and running through Feb. 12, gamers can snag the following deals via the PlayStation Network:
Twisted Metal (PS3), for $29.99
Twisted Metal (PSone Classic), for $4.99
Twisted Metal 2 (PSone Classic), for $4.99
Twisted Metal Black (PS2 Classic), for $7.99
All above Twisted Metal titles, for $39.99
Players can also go to the official Twisted Metal website to create custom vehicle skins and view other players' creations, all of which can be downloaded for use in Twisted Metal PS3's online mode.
"Seems like only yesterday some of...
A new God of War: Ascension video gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at "vo-mocap," Sony Santa Monica's motion capture procedure.
The video features actors Jennifer Hale (Lysandra), T.C Carson (Kratos) and Troy Baker (Orkos) suited up and on-set to act out scenes from the game. After their performance is through, the cinematic animators take the footage and recreate it within the game.
According to a post from producer Ariel Lawrence, vo-mocap is great because it allows voice actors to work together.
"Delivery, timing, and efforts all come more naturally because the actors are able to play off of each other," Lawrence wrote. "They see how far apart they are from each other physically. They can watch emotions play out on each other's faces and respond appropriately. They can...
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...
Bungie will officially reveal details on its upcoming sci-fantasy, action shooter Destiny on Feb. 17 via its Facebook page, the company announced.
Little information is currently known about the game, other than what was leaked last November through an advertising document. The game is described as a "fun and accessible" shooter with elements as "deep, tangible and relatable as that of the Star Wars franchise." Reports at the time placed the game for a 2013 release on Xbox 360 and Microsoft's next-gen console,with future games being released on PlayStation 4 and Windows PC.
A new Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube page have been created for Destiny, as well as a new forum on Bungie's site.
Gas Powered Games CEO Chris Taylor is "a little more on the cynical side" when it comes to Kickstarter and thinks the platform is "starting to wear itself out," VentureBeat reports.
Taylor recently spoke at the Casual Connect event in Europe, where he touched on the company's experience with recently canceled Kickstarter, Wildman.
"It's a numbers game," Taylor said. "Someone has lightning in a bottle. This business is really, really tough. It's turning into a lottery business, unless you work 12 hours a day, seven days a week and study gaming for decades."
According to Taylor, the "heyday" of gamemaking has passed.
"There was a heyday in the 1990s where you could burst in the door of a publisher and you could get a contract," Taylor said. "You blew your budget anyway, and they dealt...
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...
The Entertainment Software Association is partnering with California Attorney General Kamala Harris to bring a new online educational program to Los Angeles public high schools, the organization announced today.
The ESA Digital Living Project will be powered by education technology company EverFi. The program's goal is to educate students in technology, and will use "instructional designs," simulations and other media to teach them the necessary skills sets to effectively and safely use it.
The organization will release more information on the Digital Living Project this Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 3:30 p.m. PT. in a media-only event held at the Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnet High School in Los Angeles. Attorney General Harris, ESA senior vice president Erik Huey and EverFi COO Tammy...
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and NBA 2K13, along with their downloadable content, are on sale this month on Xbox Live Marketplace, Major Nelson announced today.
Next week, from Feb. 19-25, the two most recent Elder Scrolls titles will be available at a discount. Oblivion, already a Platinum Hits title and currently priced at $14.99, will be on sale along with Skyrim, which is currently available on Games on Demand for $59.99. Microsoft has not yet announced the sale prices, but said they will vary by region.
Oblivion's Nights of the Nine add-on and Shivering Isles expansion will each be discounted by 50 percent to 200 Microsoft Points ($2.50) and 600 Microsoft Points ($7.50), respectively. And each of Skyrim's three expansions will also be on sale at half...
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...
Deadly Premonition director Hidetaka Suehiro is in his final batch of a long day of meetings when he's offered a Sinner's Sandwich.
Like a more obscure Shigeru Miyamoto or Ken Levine, Suehiro (aka Swery65, aka Swery) has done his share of taking pictures with fans and autographing game boxes on his latest trip to America to promote the upcoming director's cut re-release of his cult classic, Deadly Premonition. But the sandwich is something new.
It comes from one of Deadly Premonition's utterly bizarre yet infectiously memorable scenes. Halfway through the game, FBI agent Francis York Morgan — just call him York; everybody does — witnesses a mystifying lunchtime ritual. The eccentric, wheelchair-bound Harry Stewart — one of the key suspects in the game's murder mystery — orders...
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