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NBA 2K15 smashes to the top of Oct 2014 best-seller list (yes, even over Smash Bros 3DS)
Even though the month of October saw the release of a new Borderlands game and the first Smash Bros. title for a handheld, NBA 2K15 emerged victorious in The NPD Group’s recounting of the best-selling games of October 2014.
The basketball sim managed to hold off a pair of new releases as well as the continued sales success of Super Smash Bros. For 3DS (which landed at #2). A trio of new releases, The Evil Within (#3), Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (#4), Skylanders: Trap Team (#6), were close behind.
And believe it or not, but Minecraft continues to hold a spot in the top ten as the retail release of the PlayStation 4 Edition propelled it into #10 on the list. Sunset Overdrive, Microsoft’s big Xbox One exclusive for the Fall, did not make the top ten though Joystiq is reporting that it was the ninth best-selling game among individual titles.
This month’s top ten can be found in a handy list format after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Destiny, FIFA 15, Madden NFL 15, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Minecraft, NBA 2K15, NPD, Skylanders: Trap Team, Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, The Evil Within
New Tales From the Borderlands trailer promises that the series will debut “soon”
Just two days after giving gamers their first taste of Game of Thrones: Iron From Ice, Telltale Games has now gone and announced that Tales From the Borderlands will be available to download in the very near future. A final launch date is still up in the air, but we now know that the first episode of Telltale’s collaboration with Gearbox, “Zer0 Sum,” will be released “soon” for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. An Android and iOS release for Tales From the Borderlands is also planned before the end of the year.
Taking place after Borderlands 2, Tales From the Borderlands will be a new way to experience the planet of Pandora:
You’ll play as Rhys, a Hyperion “suit” with dreams of being the next Handsome Jack, and Fiona, a Pandoran con artist looking to score her biggest ever swindle. Thrown together as unwilling partners in an adventure to recover cash they both think is theirs, their journey will take you on a wild ride where gangsters, bandit lords, and Vault Hunters are just some of the obstacles you’ll encounter, in this new take on the award-winning universe created by Gearbox Software.
Tales From the Borderlands will feature an impressive voice cast that includes Troy Baker as Rhys, Laura Bailey as Fiona, Chris “The Nerdist” Hardwick as Vaughn, Erin Yvette as Sasha, Patrick Warburton as Vasquez, and Dameon Clarke as Handsome Jack. You can hear (and see) all of them give it their all in the gameplay trailer above.
Telltale’s Game of Thrones will span six episodes and begin with “Iron From Ice”
After announcing it almost a year ago, Telltale Games is finally ready to talk about their Game of Thrones adaptation on their official blog. The first episode, “Iron From Ice,” will debut on the PC (Win/Mac), PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and iOS App Store “soon.” Telltale said that it will also appear on “additional platforms,” but that’s most likely just confirmation that the episodic series will eventually appear on the many, many Android devices out there.
Unlike previous episodic games from Telltale, Game of Thrones will take place over six episodes and will initially take place towards the end of the third season of the show. Future episodes will push the narrative through to the beginning of the fifth season (which will begin airing on HBO in Spring 2015). However, the members of House Forrester that Telltale will spotlight in the game have yet to appear on the popular show:
House Forrester is a noble house from the Wolfswood in the north of Westeros. Bannermen to House Glover, they have always offered unswerving loyalty to the ruling great house of the North – the Starks. The Forresters are seated at Ironrath, an imposing stronghold surrounded by towering ironwood trees. Built over fifteen hundred years ago by Cedric Forrester and his triplet sons, Ironrath is a testament to the strength and endurance of Ironwood. The Forrester house words are “Iron from Ice,” which echoes their belief that – like the ironwood itself – the adverse conditions and unforgiving landscape of the North only makes them stronger.
Ironrath sits on the edge of the largest ironwood forest in Westeros, which has proven to be a strategic advantage for the House. The trees are a valuable commodity; many of the best weapons, ships, and defensive structures include the use of ironwood. House Forrester controls the majority of the ironwood forests in the Wolfswood, much to the chagrin of their bitter rivals, House Whitehill.
All told, players will control five different characters throughout the series, which Telltale promises will up the complexity considerably: “Playing as five characters not only reflects the epic scope of Game of Thrones, but is also something that the player needs to be mindful of. This is because the actions of one character can ripple out to affect the rest of House Forrester. Multiply the actions of one character by five, and you’re truly playing the Game of Thrones… where you win, or you die.”
Game of Thrones: Iron From Ice is expected to be available before the end of the year, but only Telltale knows how soon is “soon.”
Angry Birds Transformers Review: Another Crass Crossover? Nope, Rovio’s Latest Is More Than Meets the Eye
Most crossovers exist somewhere on a spectrum that reads “Logical, But Boring” on one side and “This Makes ABSOLUTELY No Sense” on the other. When Rovio mashed together their Angry Birds with the furious fowl from Rio, the pieces fit together perfectly. On the surface, Angry Birds Transformers definitely seems to slide towards the latter option. How do you mix birds, pigs, and Robots In Disguise? I’m still not sure it makes any sense, but Rovio was somehow able to take these disparate elements and create a pretty good game.
I know, I’m as surprised as you are. But I probably shouldn’t be. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, Reviews, Top Story
Tagged Angry Birds Transformers
Insert Quarter: A Profile of the Video Game Archivists at the Library of Congress
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
With more than 6,000 titles, the Library of Congress is home to one of the largest video game archives in the world. But the curation and management of the collection is in the hands of just four part-time employees. BuzzFeed’s Joseph Bernstein reached out to these four men to learn how the Library of Congress is attempting to preserve America’s gaming heritage and how much more still needs to be done:
No, the work of game copyrighting and archiving at our country’s signal institution for cultural preservation is not done by a dedicated full-time staff. Instead, it’s the passion project of a handful of archivists who want to be the new standard-bearers in the preservation of video games. Indeed, the state of video game collection at the Library is something of an expression of the liminal state of video games in American popular culture writ large. The Library recognizes the cultural importance of video games, but only devotes four people part-time to their archiving; Game companies insist that their products are the medium of the future, but don’t trust archives with their source code; Collectors sell their troves on Craigslist and eBay rather than considering donation.
Even to get to this point, though, has been a journey in and of itself.
You can read the rest of the article at BuzzFeed.
Kickstart This! Elegy For A Rough Year Edition
Analysts from ICO Partners recently reported that donations to video game projects on Kickstarter have seen a dramatic decline. They estimate that by the end of 2014, $27 million will have been pledged, compared to $58 million at the end of the previous year. A 50% reduction makes for grim reading if you are a game developer looking to launch a project, though it should be noted that 2014 is lacking in many of the big name campaigns that were launched in 2013.
Perhaps the bubble has already burst, or perhaps people have become pickier about which projects they participate in, disenfranchised by the multitude of disreputable characters who have tried time and again to launch projects with no aim of actually keeping their promises. As Evil As A Hobby discovered during their broad analysis back in January 2014, only one in three game projects launched between 2009 and 2012 delivered a finished product and accompanying rewards.
As I was finishing up this month’s edition of Kickstart This!, Boston-based Dejobaan Games reached their funding goal for Elegy For A Dead World, “a game about writing fiction,” according to the official description. It is awe-inspiring in its art design, offering a uniquely free reign in crafting the story of the game itself. Thankfully, there are more projects worthy of bringing to your attention. And that’s the point. There will always be great games begging to be made. If there is less money out there, it means less great games, but perhaps it will also add some quality control to a system untamed by accountability.
Unfortunately, the game’s deadline did not meet my own (although I did go on Twitter and rave about it). Thankfully, there are more projects worthy of bringing to your attention. And that’s the point. There will always be great games begging to be made. If there is less money out there, it means less great games, but perhaps it will also add some quality control to a system untamed by accountability.
We kick things off with side-scrolling puzzle shooter Red Cobra, survival adventure Impact Winter, and sci-fi survival horror Extract 237. After that, there is mech vombat MOBA Voxelfield, and last, but not least, The Interactive Adventures of Dog Mendonça and Pizza Boy.
Yes, that last one is real. (more…)
Halo: Spartan Strike will be available for Windows platforms this December
For the gamers out there hoping to play an original Halo adventure this Fall, Microsoft’s got you covered… sort of. The publisher has announced (via IGN First) that Halo: Spartan Strike, a top-down shooter sequel to Halo: Spartan Assault, will be available for Windows platforms on December 12. Spartan Strike will be priced at $5.99 and one purchase will unlock the game on all platforms (PC, Surface, and Windows Phone).
Spartan Strike will be set during the events of Halo 2, and include a variety of improvements over the previous game. Fred LaPorte, the game’s Producer at 343 Industries, discusses some of these improvements in the video above.
According to IGN, Spartan Strike will also include “Achievements, rewards in Halo: The Master Chief Collection, 25 weekly challenges, leaderboards, and more.”
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged Halo: Spartan Strike, Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Pokemon Trading Card Game Online now available on iOS App Store
If you’ve ever wanted to play a Pokemon game on your iPad, now’s your chance. As of today, Pokemon Trading Card Game Online is now available through the iOS App Store as a free download.
Pokemon TCG Online includes everyone you’ll need to get started with the game. Players will be able to compete in player-versus-computer and player-versus-player battles as well as deal with deck building, card trading, avatar customization, and more. For those who are completely new to the card game, Pokemon TCG Online also features an extensive tutorial. New cards can be earned after winning battles and they can also be unlocked with the purchase of “physical theme decks, booster packs, and other Pokemon TCG products.”
“The iPad version of Pokemon TCG Online makes it even easier for fans to pick up the game and begin playing immediately,” said J.C. Smith, director of Consumer Marketing at The Pokemon Company International. “We want to provide players with various access points to play and enjoy the Pokemon TCG, whether it’s the traditional tabletop game, PC and Mac version, or the iPad and iPad mini app.”