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0 CommentsHow Dead Rising 4's Frank West is the new George Bailey
If good ol' George Bailey ever wielded a chainsaw, you can be certain he'd read the manual, understood the safety procedures and took care to avoid the kickback zone.
Dead Rising 4’s Frank West, on the other hand, only ever uses a chainsaw to cleave zombies in two, generally prefers the one-handed, swinging approach and has even been known to dual wield while whirling.
If George's forte is carving the Christmas loin of beef, Frank is happiest carving up undead hordes.
So how can It's A Wonderful Life's mild-mannered banker be compared to daring slayer Frank, whose current kill-count dwarfs the entire population of Bedford Falls?
It's all about warm-hearted Christmas messages, at least according to Dead Rising 4's executive producer Bryce Cochrane. "What is Christmas...
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6 CommentsTelltale’s Walking Dead season 3 premiere will be the first two episodes
The third season of Telltale Games’ acclaimed Walking Dead series of adventure games looks to be as heart-wrenching as ever, as seen in footage the studio debuted tonight at The Game Awards 2016.
The premiere of A New Frontier, the third season, is called “The Ties that Bind.” Clementine, the hero of the first two seasons, will return alongside a second playable protagonist, a new character named Javier.
A New Frontier takes place four years after the zombie plague began. But part of the episode offers a glimpse of the moment of the outbreak, with a devastating death in the family that gets even worse when Javy’s grandfather, well ... you can figure it out for yourself.
Here’s the synopsis from Telltale:
When family is all you have left... how far will you go to protect it? Four years...
Cover Story
Issue
24
November 4, 2016
Blizzard’s prodigal son returns
How one of Blizzard’s co-founders left the company, why he decided to come back and what it means for the future.
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19 CommentsThe Game Awards: Here’s the full winners list
The Game Awards, the annual streaming award show honoring all things gaming, gave out more than 20 awards in Los Angeles tonight.
Some of the top nominated games included Blizzard’s multiplayer smash Overwatch, Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, as well as indie games like Inside and Firewatch.
The Game Awards also honored esports, giving awards to the biggest game, best team and best player across a variety of games.
See the complete list of nominees below, with the winners noted in line.
GAME OF THE YEAR:
DOOM (id Software/Bethesda)
Inside (Playdead)
Winner: Overwatch (Blizzard)
Titanfall 2 (Respawn/Electronic Arts)
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
BEST GAME DIRECTION:
Winner: Blizzard (for Overwatch)
DICE (for Battlefield...
News
1 CommentHalo Wars 2 trailer introduces the villain Atriox
Halo Wars 2 may be a real-time strategy game, but a new trailer that premiered tonight at The Game Awards 2016 focuses on the story and its fearsome villain, Atriox.
Atriox is a Brute that the Covenant enslaved, but unfortunately for them, he rebelled and inspired the formation of an army of mercenaries known as the Banished. The UNSC takes issue with these folks, since the Banished may soon get their hands on “the most powerful weapons platform the galaxy has ever seen,” according to the trailer’s description.
Halo Wars 2 will be available in a $79.99 Ultimate Edition, which includes the game’s season pass and the Definitive Edition of the original Halo Wars. People who pre-order the Ultimate Edition will receive early access to the Definitive Edition starting Dec. 20. You can watch a...
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37 CommentsNolan North has strong words for striking voice actors
Prolific voice actor Nolan North, known for his work as Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series as well as dozens of other games, took the stage tonight at The Game Awards seemingly to admonish the SAG-AFTRA voice acting community as a whole, which has been on strike against some of the biggest publishers and developers in the industry since October.
North was being honored for this year’s best performance for his work in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. After thanking his wife and series creator Amy Hennig, he took the opportunity to stand up for the artists and programmers at developer Naughty Dog who brought his now iconic character to life.
In the process, he seemingly threw union voice actors under the bus.
“Performance matters,” North began, echoing the #PerformanceMatters hashtag that...
News
6 CommentsWatch the latest look at Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Nintendo debuted new footage from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild during The Game Awards 2016’s pre-show. Check out the gameplay from the livestream above to see Link roam the open world.
The first video showed Link fighting off monsters, riding his trusty steed and avoiding the chaos that has plagued his home. It’s a very brief look at the game, but an entirely new one nonetheless.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime appeared during actual The Game Awards event to premiere a second trailer, below. Eiji Aonuma, the game’s director, appeared at the beginning of the video to apologize for missing the show. Instead, he prepared a video of members of the team at Treehouse, the Nintendo localization arm, playing the game on Wii U.
Unlike the first quick trailer, this...
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2 CommentsSpecter of Torment is the next chapter in Shovel Knight saga
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment premiered during The Game Awards 2016, courtesy of a brief trailer from Yacht Club Games. Due out in spring 2017, the game moves the Shovel Knight saga forward — or backward, as it were.
Specter of Torment is a prequel to Shovel Knight, the developer revealed. Instead of the little blue hero, it features the villainous Specter Knight. Players will work to establish the Order of No Quarter, the evil group that fights against Shovel Knight in the main game.
We didn’t get the longest look at Specter of Torment, but it appears to maintain the trademark aesthetic of Shovel Knight. The indie hit won acclaim for its retro-skewing style when it launched in 2013, and its next expansion doesn’t do much to shake things up in that area. That is very much a good...
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2 CommentsWatch the new Prey trailer
A new trailer for sci-fi horror shooter Prey was shown tonight at The Game Awards (see above) with its developer saying the game will be out by spring.
In Prey, the player takes on the role of Morgan Yu, the subject of morally dubious experiments designed to improve the human race. Yu awakens aboard the Talos 1 space station in an alternate 2032 and must explore while being hunted by alien monsters.
The trailer shows Yu exploring the space station, making use of a variety of weapons, many with special effects. He comes up against a variety of aliens, from scampering floor thingies, to giants.
Prey was originally conceived as a sequel to a 2006 game of the same name, initially developed by Human Head, it's now a re-imagining of the original game. Due to be released next year on Xbox...
News
5 CommentsThat Dragon, Cancer's co-creator gets tearful after Game Awards win
Most people who’ve played That Dragon, Cancer agree that it’s a heart-wrenching experience. The game tells the true story of Joel Green, a small child struggling with terminal cancer. The game was created by his parents Ryan and Amy Green, as well as family friend Josh Larson.
Tonight at The Game Awards, Ryan Green accepted the award for Games for Impact — a socially conscious award focused on games with a message. He spoke to the audience about the power of games to show “not just who we want to be, but who we are.” Joel Green died in 2014, aged five. He had spent most of his life coping with cancer.
You can see his stunning acceptance speech above. It’s definitely worth watching, and was equal to the game’s ambitions and its achievements.
“Often in video games, we get to choose how...
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4 CommentsTelltale announces Guardians of the Galaxy episodic game for 2017
Telltale Games’ next project is an episodic game based on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the studio announced tonight during The Game Awards 2016.
In a brief video, Telltale revealed only the title and that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series will be a five-part episodic series. The first episode will premiere in 2017 on consoles, mobile devices and PC.
Telltale’s announcement confirms a report from last month about a Guardians of the Galaxy game. Marvel announced back in April 2015 that it was working with Telltale on multiple games, the first of which was due out in 2017.
“The energizing blend of humor, emotion, teamwork, and full-on sci-fi action-adventure of the Guardians provides an enormously satisfying space to explore through Telltale’s unique style of...
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1 CommentBulletstorm remaster on the way from People Can Fly
Randy Pitchford took the stage during the 2016 Game Awards pre-show to announce a new publishing effort, called Gearbox Publishing. The first title will be a remaster of the 2011 title Bulletstorm. Called Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, it will be available on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One on April 7. It will launch on all platforms simultaneously, and feature 4k resolutions on the PlayStation 4 Pro.
The game also goes up for pre-order tonight, and includes a special edition of the game featuring Duke Nukem.
The add-on, titled Duke Nukem’s Bulletstorm Tour, includes a completely new voiceover track from Jon St. John, the original Duke Nukem voice actor.
The remaster of Bulletstorm is being developed by People Can Fly, which in June of last separated from Epic Games to reform...
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0 CommentsRocket League’s Starbase ARC add-on heads to space next week
Rocket League’s next piece of downloadable content, Starbase ARC, will bring in new outer space-themed elements to the soccer-with-cars game when it launches Dec. 7, developer Psyonix announced tonight during The Game Awards 2016.
A trailer for the update introduced the titular arena, which is an octagonal stadium orbiting “an enormous (but familiar) planet,” according to Psyonix. Every time someone scores in Starbase ARC, the arena will play an “interstellar laser show.” It will be available in competitive, casual and private matches for free.
Along with the free arena, Rocket League players will be able to purchase a new vehicle called Vulcan, “the most elite sporting ship in the galaxy,” for $1.99. In addition, the Starbase ARC update will bring in new music from Hollywood Principle...
Kojima takes Game Awards stage in triumph
Hideo Kojima tonight accepted the 2016 Industry Icon Award, saying that he “thought he’d lost everything,” in the aftermath of his acrimonious split with Konami. He also showed a clip from his new game (see separate story).
Kojima is best known for his work on the Metal Gear series of action-stealth games, which have enthralled players for almost three decades. He spent most of his career working on the franchise for Konami, but is now creating his own project, Death Stranding.
At last year's Game Awards, Kojima had been invited to take to the stage and collect trophies for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, which won in a handful of categories. The event’s most memorable moment was host Geoff Keighley candidly telling the audience that Kojima would be unable to receive the awards...
News
4 CommentsFinal Fantasy 15 is the fastest selling game in series’ history
Final Fantasy 15 is the most successful launch in the franchise’s long history, with 5 million copies sold to retail or purchased through digital downloads, Square Enix said today.
The publisher announced this both on its Twitter accounts and its Japanese company portal.
FINAL FANTASY XV day one shipment and digital sales exceed 5 million units, becoming the fastest selling game in the history of the series!— Square Enix USA (@SquareEnixUSA) December 1, 2016
The specificity of the language here — “day one shipment” — implies these are copies sold in to retailers, not sold through customers. But the inclusion of digital downloas in the total does reflect healthy consumer appetite for the game 10 years in the making — even if we don’t know what percentage of that number is digital...
Movies
2 CommentsStar Wars: The Force Awakens’ Adam Driver talks about themes of terrorism
Star Wars: The Force Awakens focused on a bunch of different themes, from family to class division, and — according to star Adam Driver — terrorism.
Driver spoke to fellow actor Michael Sheen as a part of Variety’s Actor of Actor series about what it was like working on the film and the social issues that it brought up. According to Driver, he saw the Resistance and the First Order as terrorist groups who both believed entirely in what they were doing and didn’t care about the lives sacrificed to achieve their goals.
“There’s this young guy who’s kind of a terrorist,” Driver said. “The First Order [is] this group that thinks they’re right facing another group that one could argue are equally terrorists who think they’re right. So you have two groups who are completely convinced and...
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