Time for another interestingly unique short, this one a student film made as part of a 48 hour competition. Cinematographer Ryan Croft, studying at DePaul University, sent in this short titled Pomade. Yes, it’s referring to the hair product, but the short is quite unique and only 3 minutes long. I expect some will say “there’s not much going on in this!” And that’s kinda true, but I like the style, and I like the feel of it. Croft explains in email: “It was part of a 48 hour film competition, and it’s heavily influenced by Strange Color of Your Bodies Tears and Upstream Color“, the most recent Shane Carruth film. Give it a watch below. ›››
EA Teases Titanfall 2 Won’t Be Xbox-Exclusive:It may not be much of a surprise, but Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen said this week that a second game in the series, which is “probably” in development will have a “bigger footprint than just a single platform.” Translation: Expect Titanfall 2 to show up on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Rocky Road Ahead For Godus As Key Devs Depart: Drama surrounding Peter Molyneux and his new studio 22Cans dominated the headlines this week, beginning with news that several key developers had left the studio amid worries that 22Cans would not be able to fulfill promises made during Godus’ original Kickstarter campaign. Things only went downhill from there, as Molyneux said he and his family faced threats over the news.
THE OTHER STUFF:
Hello Games isn’t focused only on the ambitious space game No Man’s Sky, you know. The developer announced this week that its racing game Joe Danger is coming to soon to Android, and with controller support, too. Huzzah!
Tickets for the Brasil Game Show went on sale this week. Haven’t heard of BGS? It’s the biggest game show in Latin America, and this is its eighth year. It will be held October 8-12 at the Expo Center Norte in Sao Paulo. Buy your tickets here. www.brasilgameshow.com.br
PlayStation 4 game The Order: 1886arrives in just two weeks, but if you just can’t wait, here’s 11 minutes of leaked footage. Be warned, there are spoilers of course. And it’s not the best quality. But if you’re OK with those parameters…enjoy!
“Open Letter To Parents of League of Legends Players“– That sounds like something potentially terrible, but there is actually some great advice here, or what sounds like great advice. I don’t have kids, but if you do, and if they play League of Legends, you might want to read this very well-written and thoughtful advice column.
Ever wonder what classic GameCube game Super Mario Sunshine would look like at 60 frames-per-second? Wonder no more, as the folks at Dolphin Emulator have created a 60fps version of the game, and it’s a sight to behold.
Did you know that Nintendo was among the bidders who, in 1998, pitched author J.K. Rowling with ideas for Harry Potter video games? It’s true, apparently. Insiders told Unseen64 all about it, even providing some tantalizing concept art.
You like hot deals, right? GameStop has announced its latest suite of promotions, offering NBA 2K15 for $40 through February 17, and $20 off select Turtle Beach headsets now until February 15. Head to GameStop’s website to see all the deals.
With just two weeks to go before the release of PS4 game The Order: 1886, Sony announced this week that award-winning composer Jason Graves scored the title. You can hear his music when the game is release only for PS4 on February 20. Graves also wrote the chilling music for Dead Space, and he also did the score for 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot.
What the heck is going on in this GTA 5 video? Does it matter? Watch and enjoy:
Weekends are great, especially long weekends such as this one. If you live in New England like I do, you’re likely buried until 17 feet of snow right now. So you should definitely stay inside and play video games. Speaking of…Guerrilla Games has announced that, all weekend long, Killzone: Shadow Fall players can enjoy double XP. So play, play, play, but don’t forget to tell your Mom you love her on Valentine’s Day.
Activision announced this week that its $3 billion Skylanders series is growing further still through new marketing arrangements with General Mills and Crayola. Specially marked General Mills cereal boxes will come with an interactive version of Skylanders, while Activision’s arrangement with Crayola for a new initiative called Skylanders Trap Team Crayola Color Alive! Video games, man.
OK. It’s not video game news per se–or even a little–but this Harry Potter video is too good not to share. Snape has always been one of the best/most interesting characters from J.K. Rowling’s series, in part because his story is cripplingly tragic. Watch this video to see Harry Potter from Snape’s eyes, unfolding in chronological order. Such sad.
This year’s Call of Duty Championship, a marquee event where the world’s top teams will duke it out for a share of the $1 million prize pool, will be the first in the show’s history to be open to the public. Activision this week announced that it will sell a “limited number” of tickets for the event starting at 10 AM PDT on February 17. Tickets start at $50, but you can also buy a “Platinum Package” that comes with Advanced Warfare DLC, a sweatshirt, VIP seating, and more. You can buy tickets from MLG’s website.
Not interested in SimCity? Paradox Interactive announced this week that its city simulation game Cities: Skylines will launch for PC, Mac, and Linux on March 10. The game is also now available to pre-purchase, and Paradox has even launched a new gameplay trailer to mark the occasion. Watch it below.
New Star Wars skins are now available for Microsoft’s sandbox game Minecraft on Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Players can now buy the Star Wars Rebels Skin Pack, which comes with 23 new Minecraft skins based on characters from the TV series, for $3. Some of the characters are Ezra, Bridger, Her Syndulla, Kanan Jarrus, and Chopper.
Veteran Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski, who has since left Epic Games to start to his own company, celebrated a birthday this week. His friends marked the occasion by tweeting what you might consider to be embarrassing photos of him. Bleszinski took it all in stride, though, retweeting some of his favorites, such as the one at right.
Good news for gamers taking part in the upcoming first-ever Halo Championship Series competitive gaming event. Tournament organizers announced this week that they will double the Season 1 Finals prize money, meaning the prize pool is now $100,000.
Kalypso this week announced the latest DLC for Tropico 5, and it may not be what you expect. The DLC is called “Gone Green” and it’s an eco-friendly add-on that sees El President needing to “go green” to get out of trouble and protect his Swiss Bank account. The tongue-in-cheek add-on is available now on PC for $4.
Free-to-play shooter Warframe is expanding. Developer Digital Extremes announced this week that the game is getting new modes, features, weapons, and more. Read all about the new additions here.
He did it. After years of false starts and troubles, Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter finally finished and released a mobile game based on the series called The Prospect. It’s available to buy right now on iTunes, but IGN has also done a great interview with Sutter about it. He talks about the challenges of making the game, how it ties into the larger Sons fiction, and more. Read the interview here.
Here’s something to do this weekend…Activision and Sledgehammer Games have released a “Gun Game” playlist for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Gun Game is quite simple–you start with a pistol and unlock a better gun for every kill you get. What’s more Sledgehammer is enticing you to try the mode by offering double XP all weekend long. Enjoy!
Last but not least comes yet another look at a canceled Justice League game. I’m a sucker for looking at canceled projects, even for franchises I’m not even particularly interested in such as Justice League. Maybe you are? Check out the gameplay video below.
You may have noticed some games on the App Store recently with censored or changed images like the one above, but Apple has offered reassurances that this is just part of a misunderstanding between developers and the storefront.
Several developers including Splash Damage (best known for the console version of Batman: Arkham Origins), Elektron, and Team Chaos noticed that their games were being rejected from the App Store on what seemed to be arbitrary criteria. According to a report from Pocket Gamer, a UK blog dedicated to mobile gaming, these studios were being asked to edit images and preview materials on the App Store to remove references to guns or violence against humans.
Apple’s app review guidelines can be vague. Speaking with PocketGamer, a spokesperson for Elektron said, Since the metadata is visible to all users on the App Store, this content must meet the 4+ rating requirement, even when purchasing is restricted by a higher rating.” This also wouldn’t be the first time that Apple has restricted what can published on their digital store front. Games like Sweatshop and Endgame: Syria, which covered Apple’s use of sweatshop labor to make iOS devices and the Syrian civil war have been consistently removed from the App Store.
OrangePixel, one of the developers affected in the apparent crackdown on guns and violence, fought Apple’s ruling. The developer tried to release an update to their game, Gunslugs 2, in mid-January. In a blog post from January 30, it claimed that the update was rejected “because [a] screenshot (and possibly all screenshots from my game) show violence against a human being.” At the time, other games with much more graphic content were promoted on the App Store without any problems, leading to some confusion among developers.
However, a source close to GameSpot revealed that this has all been a misunderstanding. Developers who have resubmitted their games are now clearing the approval process without a problem. OrangePixel’s blog also confirmed the change.
“The update was eventually approved, without having to modify screenshots. And another update has since also passed without problems.”
We’ve reached out to Apple for further comment and will update this story with additional details as they’re made available.
A League of Legends broadcaster on Twitch is claiming that spectator matches he streamed of Sanghyuk “Faker” Lee’ were removed unfairly by rival streaming service Azubu.
Two days ago, a reddit user by the handle StarLordLucian posted on the League of Legends subreddit that his “SpectateFaker” stream on Twitch had received a DMCA takedown from Azubu. The user provided the start of the email which reads:
“Dear Twitch Broadcaster:
The content you streamed and archived on Twitch at www.twitch.tv/spectatefaker was the subject of a takedown notice we received from Azubu pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). This organization has asserted that it owns this content and that you streamed that content on Twitch without permission to do so. As a result we have cleared the offending archives, highlights, and episodes from your account and given you a 24 hour restriction from broadcasting….”
Users streaming copyrighted content on Twitch (such as tournament restreams, movies, etc.) are often subject to DMCA takedowns, but the Twitch streamer claims that none of the content he was streaming was owned by Azubu.
Specifically, the streamer operated a channel named “SpectateFaker” which broadcast any matches that World Champion League of Legends player Sanghyuk “Faker” Lee played using the solo-que matchmaking system in the game. Azubu does have a claim to Lee’s personal stream through a deal between the Korean Esports Association and the streaming service, but the effected Twitch streamer was operating his own stream independent of the professional player.
He was able to stream the games by using OP.GG, a service that allows anyone to look up a League of Legends account and then spectate their game directly within the game’s client. He also claims that his stream was not partnered with Twitch, and that he was not personally making any profit off the running of it, but was instead using a chat bot to direct user’s to Lee’s own stream on Azubu.
While the full DMCA takedown notice and email from Twitch have yet to be made public, the streamer writes in his post:
“Azubu does not own what I was broadcasting. I was broadcating live spectate games from OP.GG which is content made available by Riot Games and owned solely by Riot Games. Azubu does not own the trademark or brand “Faker” – I checked. I never broadcasted any game directly from Azubu.”
As is the new trend with many gaming companies that wish to encourage community content creation, Riot Games provides a legal document, entitled “Legal Jibber Jabber” explaining what the company allows in terms of community intellectual property use.
The document explains:
“No Licensing. Generally, you cannot license your videos to any third party for a fee or other value without our approval. However, there are important exceptions:
Partner programs with YouTube or the following streaming websites: own3D.tv, Ustream.tv,Twitch.tv, Justin.tv, Blip.tv (no prior permission from us required).”
Eventually, Riot employees reached out to the streamer on reddit and requested that he submit a support ticket. He later received a response from Riot and updated his original post to include it:
“If you are going to stream another player’s games, it makes sense to reach out to that player first (in this case Faker) and get their permission. It’s simply the right thing to do. Raising the visibility of a person’s match without their knowledge is questionable because they may be assuming that they are just casually playing a game with friends when in reality they are being broadcast to a larger audience.”
While the response seems to contradict the company’s own decision to frequently and randomly feature spectating opportunities of highly skilled players in their own client, it also does not address the fact that Azubu, not Riot Games, issued the DMCA takedown notice for content that the streamer claims they do not own.
Yesterday, Matthew Gunnin, Azubu’s Director of Content tweeted that a response to the reddit thread would be published later that day. As of yet, no such comment has been made:
We will comment later today regarding the Reddit DMCA thread and best answer everyone’s questions.
Based on the information provided by the Redditor, it appears that Azubu had no legal right to issue the takedown notice for his stream and the removal of the content contradicts the streaming policy put into place by Riot Games.
As of press time, Twitch, Azubu, and Riot Games have not responded to requests for comment. The redditor declined a request to comment further.
The New Nintendo 3DS XL hits North America and Europe this week. Although the latest model is still the same size as its predecessor, this version introduces several new features including an improved processor, additional buttons, a second analog stick (C-Stick), an extra camera, and support for microSD and NFC, the latter of which enables the use of Amiibo.
For those who have decided to pick up a New Nintendo 3DS XL we have put together a list of games which stand to benefit the most from what the new handheld has to offer.
This action role-playing game is a port of 2012’s Xenoblade Chronicles, first released for the Wii. The game won high praise in our review with its vast and beautiful locations, enjoyable in-depth combat, and plethora of interesting things to do; rebuild an entire colony or forge relationships with Xenoblade Chronicles 3D will only be playable on the New Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo has also confirmed that players can earn tokens in-game by tapping on the Shulk Amiibo, and that the game will integrate StreetPass functionality.
Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have teamed up once again for a strategy game, but unlike the studio’s past works in the genre, Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is represented in full 3D. It’s a good thing that the New 3DS C-Stick helps you control the camera, then, so you can get the best view of the battlefield without a lot of effort. There’s also Amiibo support for Fire Emblem figures including Marth, Ike, Robin, and Lucina. You can summon them into battle to fight for your side at any time, but be careful: once they run out of health, they are permanently dead, just like they would be in a proper Fire Emblem game.
Nintendo’s foray into handheld ports of Zelda games begun with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and now extends to the Nintendo 64’s Majora’s Mask. While the game runs fine on all older 3DS models, the New 3DS’s C-Stick makes controlling the camera much easier. This is especially helpful during boss fights, which tend to require a lot of moving around. Without the C-Stick, players are restricted to looking around with the circle pad or using the gyroscope feature while immobile. This means that lock-on targeting quickly becomes the only means of keeping track of monsters. It’s doable, but less convenient than using the C-Stick.
While Capcom never released the original Monster Hunter 4 in the West, it has seen to correct that by giving us Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. The action role-playing game boasts new vertical movement; players can now grab onto monsters to attack them, and attack in mid-air. The core of the game still revolves around hunting and capturing monsters, and this is made especially easier with the New 3DS’s C-Stick serving as a way to control the camera, helping to make fighting larger monsters less frustrating. Long range characters especially will benefit from the feature.
Fast-paced brawler Super Smash Bros. has incorporated use of a C-Stick in older iterations, and the 3DS version is no exception. Players duking it out on the New Nintendo 3DS can flick the C-Stick to execute smash attacks, which is otherwise performed by pressing A and pushing the Circle Pad in a particular direction. Holding down the C-Stick in a direction also allows the player to charge a smash attack. Using the C-stick allows you to throw out a smash attack in any direction while in the air–something serious Smash players will definitely want to use. The additional number of buttons available on the new 3DS also brings the handheld version of the game on parity with that of it’s Wii U counterpart, as far as controls scheme options go. Thankfully, the faster CPU in the New 3DS also speeds up loading times.
Legacy Circle Pad Pro Games
Remember the Circle Pad Pro add-on for the original 3DS and 3DS XL? The functionality it added to those systems, a second analog stick and two extra shoulder buttons, is present in the New 3DS XL. Thankfully, Nintendo made sure to make New 3DS XL systems backwards compatible with games that support the Circle Pad Pro. These games include:
Presidents’ Day Weekend is nearly here. How are you celebrating? Retailer Groupon is honoring America’s great leaders with a 10 percent off coupon code you can use to save big on a new Xbox One or PlayStation 4 (or anything else from their website, of course).
Alternatively, you can pick up the Last of Us PS4 bundle for $360. Groupon does not have any Wii U consoles in stock at the moment.
If you’re more into portable gaming, you can get a New Nintendo 3DS XL–which was released just today–for $180. However, the only available color option right now is red. You can also get a (refurbished) PlayStation Vita for $135.
The 10 percent off code expires February 16. You can use it three times, but only once per transaction.
Looking for more great gaming deals? Check out GameSpot’s deals roundup, which features the day’s best deals for all major platforms.
Now through March 1, GameStop shoppers that trade in a PlayStation 3 (120 GB or greater) or an Xbox 360 (250 GB of greater) toward the purchase of a new PS4 will receive $125 in store credit. That means you can pick up a standard $400 PS4 for only $275.
You have until February 21 to get an Xbox One with Kinect for $450 in the US at most major national retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart, as well as Microsoft Stores.
Amazon prices are accurate as of publishing, but can fluctuate occasionally throughout the day.
GameSpot’s gaming deals posts always highlight the best deals we can find regardless of retailer. We also occasionally use retailer affiliate links, which means that purchasing goods through those links helps support all the great content (including the deals posts) you find for free here on the site. Got questions? Email news@gamespot.com or ask us in the comments!
Video games have got a graffiti problem . So much video-game graffiti is dumb, unrealistic, or hamfisted. Considering that I’ve gone out of my way to criticize games that get graffiti wrong, it seemed worth taking the time to high-five a game that gets it right.
The stuff we see in superhero movies is usually the action, or things relevant to the story. What about everything that happens in-between those moments? What is that stuff like? One GTA machinima series finds out.
