Official Minecraft movie coming from Warner Bros

Looks like Warner Bros has been tapped to be working on a potential Minecraft movie. Creator Markus "Notch" Persson revealed the news on Twitter earlier today.

According to Notch's post on Twitter, an individual attempted to pre-emptively leak the news. The Minecraft creator followed up with, "I wanted to be the leak!"

The crowdfunding campaign for a Minecraft-inspired full-length feature film was recently shut down. Developer Mojang's End User License Agreement (EULA) for Minecraft specifies that users cannot "make commercial use of anything we've made" or "try to make money from anything we've made."

A documentary chronicling the development of Minecraft was produced by 2 Player Productions and released in December 2012. Other Minecraft licensing deals have included arrangements for various clothing, accessories, and toys.

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DayZ Early Access Review

GameSpot's early access reviews evaluate unfinished games that are nonetheless available for purchase by the public. While the games in question are not considered finished by their creators, you may still devote money, time, and bandwidth for the privilege of playing them before they are complete. The review below critiques a work in progress, and represents a snapshot of the game at the time of the review's publication.

DayZ claims to be a zombie game, and it's true that you can occasionally find the undead scuttling about like drunken ravers looking for double high fives. If you have a weapon, you can slice them up like so much sushi, or you can try to outrun them in a high-stakes match of cross-country racing. (That's usually the smarter approach.) But they're about as common as smiles in Dark Souls right now, and oddly enough, this works in DayZ's favor. In fact, DayZ's emptiness renders it about as close to a video game version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road as there's ever been, because the current emphasis is on interactions with people rather than with putrefied riffraff, though sometimes I think I wouldn't mind if the former were taken out altogether.

In this frightening, desolate landscape, your goal is simply to stay alive by scavenging for food and weapons, finding proper shelter, and fending off anyone who threatens your survival. There's no easy way to orient yourself if you've forgotten Arma II's fiddly control scheme; mMere seconds after my first spawn into the world, I found my poorly customizable avatar being slapped around by a zombie, and he died an undistinguished death around 30 seconds later while I dug around in the escape menu reacquainting myself with generally nonstandard button maps for pulling out weapons and hitting things with them. DayZ lets you use a controller if you wish, but it's even more cumbersome and not worth the effort.

Later spawns dumped me in the middle of broad fields near the coast that led to crimson barns, towering construction cranes, and deserted buildings. The colors and textures for the post-Soviet nation of Chernarus are far richer here than they were in the original Arma II mod, and the derelict beauty serves as a nice contrast to the dangers it conceals. New, too, is the ability to enter almost every building and rummage for weapons, food, and the occasional antibiotics. No music distracts you from the desolation, and the sound design manages to evoke the fear that every creek of sheet metal might be death on the way. Chancing upon a town can be terrifying; for all the promise in those once-cozy homes and their picketed yards, there's a chance they'll deliver deaths that you never see coming.

DayZ works so well as a survival sim because it puts few barriers between you and the world around you. Gone are the tidy health and stamina bars that sneak into the corners of similar first-person games; instead, DayZ gnaws at your confidence with little nags like "My stomach grumbles" or "I feel like having a drink." And then there are the messages you never want to see, such as "I feel nauseous" or "I can feel warm blood on my clothes." There's a system behind all this--get shot, and you slowly lose blood unless you bandage it--but the numbers stay hidden.

DayZ wisely reserves its menus for essentials like its inventory, which now sports a drag-and-drop option in an improvement over the mod. The inventory itself expands greatly once you discover items with pockets like knapsacks and hoodies, thus delivering some of the satisfaction the discovery of these items would likely yield in real life. Bohemia Interactive knows it has made a game that's chiefly about foraging, and it usually gets the experience right.

Zombies number so few that it's possible to go half an hour without seeing one, and when you do, there's a good chance you'll see it running through doors or even vanishing under the terrain. The low population lends an air of reality to DayZ; many games feature zombie populations more suited to New York City than to cozy rural villages. The sparse undead populace is just as well, given that dealing with them is rarely a rewarding endeavor. Zombies tend to rush you from hundreds of yards away the moment you enter their line of sight, and shooting at them with the laughably few guns available only attracts more.

But it's not really the zombies you have to worry about. They're stupid things, usually killable with a hefty axe blow if you happen to have an axe on you. (Provided, that is, that the axe doesn't bug out and fail to make contact.) It's the other players who instill the most fear. Sometimes you come across a nice one, and a sense of camaraderie emerges as you scrounge through buildings and take out the undead together. Most of the time, however, they're out to kill you. Some play nice at first, and then lead you into ambushes where unseen snipers shoot you down. Still others may trick you into coming near, and then try to bury an axe in your face because they like the look of your hoodie and want it for themselves. Attempting to hide from and survive against humans with actual intelligence elevates DayZ to new heights of tension and unpredictability.

I suspect most of those players are bored. DayZ presents some memorable moments in its current state, and when you do find people who are willing to work and survive with you, you could create bonds so deep that your friendship might carry over into the real world. But DayZ loses its edge many hours in. You learn the tricks of finding new gear and weapons, and you learn which towns to avoid and which to ransack. Each respawn leaves you more experienced and thus stronger, and that confidence seems to encourage a desire to harass the newer players and loot their pitiful belongings. By the time you've put in around 20 hours, you know the secrets to crafting and making bandages out of old T-shirts. You're a survivor.

You're a survivor, that is, with no job but to survive. That's the appeal of the alpha; since there are no objectives--and thus no hope--your only option is to keep surviving until death inevitably overtakes you. It's bleak, yes, but in many ways, it delivers a sense of realism you don't get in many zombie games (or open worlds in general, for that matter). Given time, there's a truly great and memorable experience waiting to be explored, one that will come into its own with new and better weapons and more interactive elements such as vehicles. But as Bohemia makes so clear from the moment you boot up DayZ, this is an alpha. It's incomplete, and it shows. Yet Chernarus is well on its way to growing into the clothes that the developer has stitched for it, and if you feel you've got the steely will necessary to survive, DayZ is ready to test it.

What's There?	A vast, explorable (but seriously unfinished) Eastern European map that captures the experience of living in a postapocalyptic zombieland.
What's to Come?	More zombies, animals for hunting, greater variety of gathering opportunities, cooking, better server architecture.
What Does it Cost?	DayZ costs $29.99 on Steam, although the developers discourage paying for it unless you are "prepared to handle with serious issues and possible interruptions of game functioning." And, yes, these things exist.
When Will it Be Finished?	There's currently no concrete release date, and Bohemia Interactive has repeatedly spoken of DayZ as a work in progress.
What's the Verdict?	DayZ oozes with potential, though some elements are either bugged, unfinished, or unimplemented. That said, it delivers uncommonly appealing survival experiences and risky player interactions that lend credibility to its pretty environments. It'll probably be great, but for the time being, it requires uncommon patience.

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Gamespot's Site Mashup

http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Wed, 26 Feb 2014 20:21:18 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/banished-review/1900-6415679/ <p style="">SimCity's influence, both on the strategy genre and on gaming in general, is immense. Still, the past few years have seen an explosion of clever city builders taking some huge steps toward developing personality and becoming more than their progenitor. Banished is the latest in that line, elaborating on the intricate, small-scale design of recent games like <a href="/tropico/" data-ref-id="false">Tropico</a> and creating something unique in the process.</p><p style="">If you're reading this, it's safe to assume that you have an Internet-capable device with all of the modern comforts that typically implies. But what if you didn't? What if you were forced out of civilization as you know it, to live in the wilderness? How do you think you'd fare? Banished asks those questions, opening with a dozen or so outcasts seeking to make their way in the wilderness. It's a humble setup, but the game is masterfully constructed with dozens of interlocking mechanics--the perfect foundation for a stinging emergent narrative and a focus on empathy in the face of a Malthusian world.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445099-001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445099" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445099-001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445099"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2445099-001.jpg"></a><figcaption>Cultivating crops can be one of the best ways to keep some consistent food coming in. Be warned, however. Too much farming will deplete the soil.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Banished is a series of small goals that feed into one ever-looming command: survive. Every game starts in the spring, and before winter hits, you need to get enough firewood, gather a decent supply of food, and build some houses to keep your citizens from freezing to death. Just getting enough food is tough, because you rarely have enough time or free land to get a proper set of crops growing. Instead, you'll be chopping down as many trees as you can before getting a fishery going in a nearby lake or river. Then you hunker down and hope nobody dies.</p><blockquote data-align="left"><p style="">What if you were forced out of civilization as you know it, to live in the wilderness? How do you think you'd fare? Banished asks those questions, opening with a dozen or so outcasts seeking to make their way alone in the wilderness.</p></blockquote><p style="">People, more than anything else, are your vital resource. They need homes, food, decent clothes, tools, emotional support, medicine, and more. Every mechanic, every building you can place, and everything else you can do relates back to that central theme of survival. If you can't gather enough food, your people die. If they're stuck outside for too long, or don't have warm clothing, they die. Each time you fail as their leader, you're reminded of the loss with a grating sound and a yellow gravestone. These serve as a one-two punch to punish you for failure because losing citizens makes it that much harder to keep up the resource flow. One fewer worker means you can't gather food, stone, wood, or anything else as quickly. When children die, it's even worse, though you likely won't know it for some time. As your population ages, you eventually lose more than a few citizens to old age, and the best way to replace them is to give your younger citizens houses in the hopes that they'll reproduce and bolster your future numbers.</p><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445100-002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445100" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445100-002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445100"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2445100-002.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Like most games of its type, Banished has a number of natural disasters that strike your populace. In many ways, they serve as a kind of random "boss fight" in the sense that they will often test one aspect of your infrastructure. Diseases test the health of your population, fires your city planning, and tornadoes your ability to rapidly rebuild before winter comes again. With Banished already amounting to a desperate attempt to stave off death, disasters can be absolutely devastating for the unprepared. When pests hit your crops and you're already barely squeaking by each year, you're going to start losing a lot of people. Those kinds of cascading failures contrast with the almost hilarious scenarios that surround SimCity's giant robots or aliens.</p><p style="">Societal collapse isn't caused just by disasters, though, as maintaining equilibrium with the environment is actually impossible, which is another point of contrast between Banished and other games in its family. Most of the time, resources are unlimited in these sorts of games, but not quite so here. Farms won't continue producing food indefinitely, and most fishermen's docks steadily deplete the available population of fish that you can draw upon. Stone and iron, two critical materials for construction and maintenance, are also finite. After your initial stores run out, you can find some of these materials out in the world, but once you've exhausted those reserves, you're left with two options: trading and mining. Trading is a lot harder than it sounds, as opportunities come only a few times each year. Trade ships also have limited space and don't carry too much with them. Additionally, accepting trade increases your risk of disease and pests for your people and your crops. Mines are just as troublesome. Their supply of stone, iron, and coal is finite, and they take an enormous number of people to operate efficiently; they are also deadly, potentially risking mineshaft collapses or being crushed to death by stone. This, of course, all leads back to the struggle of maintaining your population.</p><blockquote data-align="center" data-size="large"><p style="">Societal collapse isn't caused just by disasters, though, as maintaining equilibrium with the environment is actually impossible.</p></blockquote><p style="">Banished has dozens of these kinds of interlocking, intricately woven systems that all feed into one another. Every decision has a cost, and every choice is a risk. Some elements of city planning are also completely incompatible with each other. To maintain your peoples' health, for example, you need some herbalists. They collect basic resources from the floors of old growth forests and can use them to make poultices that keep your people working their best and resistant to possible disease outbreaks. The key, however, is the "old growth" bit. You also need a steady source of logs to chop up for firewood. A good team of foresters can maintain a large enough area of continuous growth, but helpful herbs and wildlife can't be found in such young forests. To maximize your production, you need separate forests for your potion masters and your loggers. This dynamic becomes much harder to balance with the addition of resource-distribution mechanics. Loggers that need to transport the fruits of their labor more than a few tiles begin to lose efficiency and increase the risk of running low on firewood or tools--the two main long-term uses for lumber. If any of these pieces begin to lag, you place yourself and your people at risk of a systemic failure. A reduction in logging output can cause your supply of new tools to run low, dropping your logging output that much further. Everything is a feedback loop.</p><figure data-align="left" data-size="small" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445102-003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445102" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445102-003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445102"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_small/416/4161502/2445102-003.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Such strongly linked systems require an enormous amount of care to manage effectively, and that most often comes into play when you're looking to expand your village. If you try to develop a new logging outpost without building a network of roads, supply barns, and the like to make sure the resources keep moving where they are needed, your new loggers will likely die of starvation or hypothermia. You must effectively build semi-self-sufficient towns that link together via markets and high-capacity roads. The game isn't completely unreasonable here, though. If you build a new house near a mine on the edge of town, a few people will probably move in, and their occupation automatically shifts to match the closest workspace that can support them. When everything works, Banished is remarkably rewarding.</p><p style="">While the process of survival is never-ending, holding out against the elements amid the hostility of the untamed natural world is a small but powerful personal victory. Villagers have names; they're born, grow up, and eventually die under your intense supervision. Banished reinforces the human drama with its brutal difficulty and negative feedback loops. It's fertile soil for some of the most remarkable emergent storytelling around. With relatively few, well-designed mechanics, the game weaves a powerful tale of empathy and desperation and is a high-water mark for narrative elements that mutually reinforce mechanics. Even better, this is a very human story divorced from the Western tropes common in the loosely imperialistic messages of other, similar games. It's just you, your people, and their strong desire to live.</p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 18:24:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/banished-review/1900-6415679/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/car-mechanic-simulator-2014-random-encounter/2300-6417425/ Would you trust Danny O'Dwyer to fix your auto? How handy is he with his tools? Find out in this episode of Random Encounter! Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:34:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/car-mechanic-simulator-2014-random-encounter/2300-6417425/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/twitch-plays-pokemon-collects-all-badges-enters-home-stretch/1100-6417981/ <div data-embed-type="video" data-src="http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitch.tv%2Fwidgets%2Flive_embed_player.swf%3Fchannel%3Dtwitchplayspokemon&amp;fv=hostname%3Dwww.twitch.tv%26start_volume%3D25%26channel%3Dtwitchplayspokemon%26auto_play%3Dfalse&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitch.tv%2Ftwitchplayspokemon&amp;key=6efca6e5ad9640f180f14146a0bc1392&amp;type=application%2Fx-shockwave-flash&amp;schema=twitch&amp;wmode=opaque" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style="">Against seemingly impossible odds, the Twitch Plays Pokemon stream has collected all of the game's badges and is getting ready to take on the Elite Four.</p><p style="">If you'd like a complete recap of events, Reddit has put together an exhaustively <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/twitchplayspokemon/comments/1y6wyc/nearly_complete_timeline_of_events/" rel="nofollow">time-stamped recap</a>, or you can read a <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/twitchplayspokemon/wiki/historyoftpp" rel="nofollow">more narrative retelling</a>. But this <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/twitchplayspokemonstatus/" rel="nofollow">public Google document</a> is the easiest way to see at a glance what's up in the game. According to the document, the players are working towards getting past one of the game's trickier ledge sections (tricky when you have 50,000 people playing, at least) as they head towards Victory Road. </p><p style="">Also notable is that the stream was able to revive the Helix fossil into the Pokemon Omanyte. The Helix Fossil is an item given to the player early in the game that cannot be thrown away; it has been elevated to a savior-like status in the chat with prayers of "Praise Helix" and "Base Helix."</p><p style="">Users are able to balance the game by shifting control between an Anarchy mode (where every command from the chat is input into the game) and Democracy (where the most popular commands go through). But <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/twitch-plays-pokemon-is-a-fascinating-vision-of-the-future/1100-6417867/" data-ref-id="1100-6417867">none of the spin-off games (like QWOP and Tetris) have reached the same level of incredible popularity</a>. The phenomenon has seen some drop-off from it's <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/over-60k-people-watching-twitch-play-pokemon-update/1100-6417762/" data-ref-id="1100-6417762">high count of over 100k viewers</a>, currently sitting at just over 50k viewers, though it's likely the game will see another uptick as it nears its conclusion.</p><p style="">Are you going to tune in more frequently now that it's over? And if so, will you work to sabotage the people trying to finish the game, or are you part of the group trying to shift the game to democracy, order, and finality? Either way, Pokemon Plays Twitch has turned out to be a surprising experiment that no one could've seen coming. </p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 16:23:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/twitch-plays-pokemon-collects-all-badges-enters-home-stretch/1100-6417981/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/x-rebirth-patch-1-25-trailer/2300-6417424/ New features explained for the latest patch for X Rebirth. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 16:10:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/x-rebirth-patch-1-25-trailer/2300-6417424/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/gs-news-gta-v-sued-again-what-s-xbox-one-s-secret-/2300-6417420/ DayZ's Dean Hall hints that Microsoft has something up their sleeve for Xbox One, and Rockstar may need to pay $40 million to a former Mob Wives star! Wed, 26 Feb 2014 16:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/gs-news-gta-v-sued-again-what-s-xbox-one-s-secret-/2300-6417420/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/random-questions-with-tim-schafer-what-was-the-fir/2300-6417417/ Premiering on the first episode of The Lobby, we asked Tim Schafer the first game he ever played. For more answers from Tim Schafer, tune into The Lobby every Tuesday at 2PM. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 14:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/random-questions-with-tim-schafer-what-was-the-fir/2300-6417417/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/independent-game-festival-awards-2014-developer-no/2300-6417416/ Go place your votes for the Audience Awards at the IGF Awards show by March 1st and find out the results on March 19th here at GameSpot.com. Vote here: igf.com/audience.php Wed, 26 Feb 2014 13:30:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/independent-game-festival-awards-2014-developer-no/2300-6417416/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/burnout-paradise-dev-offering-free-dlc-to-honor-ghostbusters-actor-harold-ramis/1100-6417980/ <p style=""> </p><p dir="ltr" style="">Criterion Games has announced a special promotion--valid today only--where <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/burnout-paradise/" data-ref-id="false">Burnout Paradise</a> players can download the Legendary Cars pack for free on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.</p><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1179/11799911/2444906-ecto.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444906" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1179/11799911/2444906-ecto.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444906"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1179/11799911/2444906-ecto.jpg"></a></figure><p dir="ltr" style=""> </p><p dir="ltr" style="">The promotion honors Harold Ramis, the Hollywood comedy legend known for his role as Egon Spengler in the <em>Ghostbusters</em> movies who <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/harold-ramis-1944-2014/" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">died earlier this week</a>.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The Legendary Cars pack features homages to iconic vehicles from famous movies including one made to look like Ecto 1 from the Ghostbusters franchise.</p><p style="">"Harold Ramis was a comedy genius. He inspired us," Criterion Games <a href="https://twitter.com/CriterionGames/status/438637814818033664" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">said on Twitter</a>.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6185064" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6185064/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:48:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/burnout-paradise-dev-offering-free-dlc-to-honor-ghostbusters-actor-harold-ramis/1100-6417980/ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/rambo-the-video-game-review/1900-6415678/ <p style="">Rambo is an icon of masculinity. The testosterone-flooded film series that began with <em>First Blood</em> in the '80s has given us the term "going Rambo" anytime someone decides to take on insurmountable challenges in a video game. And for the first time in many years, we have a video game that lets you inhabit the role of John Rambo.</p><p style="">Developer Teyon could have done a lot of things with Rambo: The Video Game. With all of the tools available today, a veritable sandbox could have been made of the jungles of Vietnam and the city of Hope, Washington. But Teyon didn't do that. It made Rambo a rail shooter that leads you through its levels by the nose, letting you instead focus on hovering your targeting reticle over the bad guys and gunning them down. Headshots are worth more, in terms of both damage and point values, and the game encourages you to kill as much as fast as you can. Kill streaks multiply your score and increase the multiplier based off how rapidly you kill. From moment to moment, the action is simple but frantic, inviting you to set aside your expectations of what a Rambo video game <em>should</em> be, and enjoy it for what it <em>is</em>.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444326-0001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444326" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444326-0001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444326"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2444326-0001.jpg"></a><figcaption>Gun 'em down.</figcaption></figure><p style="">"I'm here to talk to you about a man who killed dozens. John Rambo. And it's good that he's dead."</p><p style="">These are the words you hear at the funeral that launches the game. From there, you play a flashback mission as the war hero John Rambo in Vietnam, guns ablazin' as you attempt to escape being a prisoner of war. Here you discover the game's cover system, which allows you to take cover in three different directions at any given time, leaving you exposed to some foes while shielded from others depending on the direction you take. It's a step up from the arcade limitation that typically leaves you with "in cover" or "shooting" as your only options. The mission also introduces you to the wrath bar, and Wrath mode, which enables you to regain your health and get back to going Rambo by killing as many enemies as possible before the bar depletes.</p><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444330-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444330" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444330-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444330"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2444330-0002.jpg"></a><figcaption>Which is worse, shaving dry or dull quick-time events?</figcaption></figure><p style="">After war, regular life just isn't the same. Rambo is thrown into jail by the sheriff of Hope, Washington. But it's not prison that makes his life hell. It's quick-time events. As the bully deputies attempt to shave Rambo with a straight razor, he rebels and escapes through a series of nothing but properly timed button presses. The quick-time events in the game offer more points if you press them with proper timing, but mostly act as a boring and clichéd way to add interactivity to cinematic events.</p><p style="">Throughout the remainder of the first chapter of story missions, you're encouraged to avoid killing your foes, because simply disarming them gives bonus points. After all, those are American citizens you're shooting at, soldier! By the end of the chapter, you find yourself sympathizing with poor mass-murdering John Rambo, because he really didn't mean to hurt anyone. Well, apart from those Vietcong. After taking down the sheriff standing in your way of a normal life, you finally earn the peace and quiet you wanted all along. Back in prison, again!</p><p style="">The story does follow the movie series' plotlines, with major stages and events hewing as close as possible to the source material while still under the guise of a video game. (Forgetting, of course, that Mr. Rambo was not the killing machine pop culture has made him out to be.) Of course, since Stallone wasn't available to do voice acting for the game, Teyon decided to instead use sound bites directly from the movies. This causes the volume levels of different cinematics to vary wildly. Coupled with the game's atrocious graphics, Rambo is a painful experience for the eyes and ears, with only the limited but excellent soundtrack rising above the ugliness. The somber brass of the main menu and funeral scene, the melodic strings that tie the plot together, and the upbeat tracks that fuel the explosive carnage of combat are perfectly at home and enjoyable to listen to in their own right. </p><figure data-align="right" data-size="small" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444331-0003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444331" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444331-0003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444331"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_small/416/4161502/2444331-0003.jpg"></a><figcaption>Complete challenges to unlock new guns? I'm in.</figcaption></figure><p style="">In addition to the contextual directional cover system, there are well-placed explosive barrels, good incentives for proper aim over spraying and praying, and enough challenge in (some of) the missions to keep this generally easy game from being a complete cakewalk. Luckily, there's also a higher difficulty setting, and a one- to three-star-based scoring system that encourages you to always do better than the time before. And if that weren't enough, the game offers specific objectives to shoot for in the hopes of earning a brand-new shiny gun to wield as a secondary weapon.</p><p style="">If you're having trouble perfecting your approach to missions or challenges, then it's time to delve into the game's skill and perk system. The game offers perks varying from being unable to fail QTE events (wait, really?) to gaining health back from headshots or disarming opponents, to bonuses to your Wrath mode. With up to three perk slots able to be unlocked, you can customize John Rambo to your own tastes or the task at hand. The skill system gives you the ability to upgrade your damage resistance, light weapons, heavy weapons, miscellaneous weapons, or your Wrath mode, but I didn't find any reason to invest in anything but damage resistance or Wrath mode in lower levels. The perks system reeks of poor balance and the charade of choice. Enemies die in two or three properly-aimed shots, so skills granting bonus damage aren't necessary, and it only takes a few turns of the reload wheel to get the hang of reloading, thus diminishing the usefulness of light- and heavy-weapon expertise.</p><p style="">Rambo: The Video Game does a solid job of breaking potential monotony with various alternate battle methods. Although some of these involve moving from quick-time event to quick-time event, you're also given a helping of helicopter missions and an opportunity to use enemies' own tanks against them. While these segments don't last long, they also are neither overused nor overdone, and offer a breather from the game's gauntlet of gun battles.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444332-0004.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444332" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444332-0004.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444332"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2444332-0004.jpg"></a><figcaption>Dogfighting with helicopters doesn't sound safe.</figcaption></figure><p style="">The game's initial playthrough doesn't take more than a few hours, but becoming a master of the game can take a bit more investment. You don't have to be a fan of the Rambo franchise to enjoy Rambo: The Video Game, but it helps to have at least spent a bit of time in an arcade as a light-gun-slinger. And this time around, you don't have to stock your pockets full of quarters to prepare to blast your way through screen after screen of Vietcong, Afghan, and Soviet enemies.</p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:32:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/rambo-the-video-game-review/1900-6415678/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-for-xbox-one-actually-requires-20gb-of-hard-drive-space/1100-6417978/ <p style=""> </p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/1/8/9/3/2041893-635381_20130610_001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2041893" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/1/8/9/3/2041893-635381_20130610_001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2041893"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/mig/1/8/9/3/2041893-635381_20130610_001.jpg"></a></figure><p dir="ltr" style=""> </p><p dir="ltr" style=""><a href="/titanfall/" data-ref-id="false">Titanfall </a>won't take up as much of your Xbox One hard drive space as previously thought. Respawn Entertainment community manager Abbie Heppe<a href="https://twitter.com/abbieheppe/status/438546740648505344" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false"> confirmed on Twitter</a> that the game will require a 20GB install, not "<a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-for-xbox-one-requires-up-to-40gb-of-space-to-install/1100-6417941/" data-ref-id="1100-6417941">up to 40GB</a>," as was reported on Monday.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The 40GB figure came from the <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-for-xbox-one-requires-up-to-40gb-of-space-to-install/1100-6417941/" data-ref-id="1100-6417941">packaging of the special-edition Titanfall Xbox One bundle</a>. Heppe told <a href="http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/02/25/titanfalls-xbox-one-install-size-is-actually-just-20-gb-and-not-40-gb/" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">DualShockers</a> that the discrepancy was probably due to the fact that the packaging was created before the final file size was confirmed.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">At 20GB, Titanfall is significantly smaller than other popular shooters like <a href="/battlefield-4/" data-ref-id="false">Battlefield 4</a> (33GB) and <a href="/call-of-duty-ghosts/" data-ref-id="false">Call of Duty: Ghosts</a> (39GB). Notably, however, Titanfall does not feature a traditional single-player campaign like those other two games, which no doubt affects the file size.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Titanfall <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-on-xbox-one-does-not-run-in-1080p/1100-6417701/" data-ref-id="1100-6417701">does not run in 1080p on Xbox One</a>, instead outputting at a <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-on-xbox-one-does-not-run-in-1080p/1100-6417701/" data-ref-id="1100-6417701">native resolution of 792p</a>.</p><p style="">Meanwhile, the PC version of Titanfall requires at least 50GB of free hard drive space. The game's hefty size on PC could come down to a number of elements, including its reported "<a href="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=100554284&amp;postcount=641" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">Insane</a>" texture resolution setting. The full minimum requirements for Titanfall are listed below.</p><ul><li dir="ltr"><strong>OS:</strong> Windows Vista SP2 64-bit / Windows 7 SP1 64-bit / Windows 8 64-bit</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>CPU:</strong> AMD Athlon X2 2.8GHz / Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>RAM:</strong> At least 4 GB</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>HARD DRIVE:</strong> At least 50 GB of free space</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>VIDEO:</strong> AMD Radeon HD 4770 with 512MB RAM or better / Nvidia GeForce 8800GT with 512MB RAM or better</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>DirectX:</strong> DirectX 11</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>INPUT:</strong> Keyboard and mouse, Microsoft Gamepad</li><li><strong>ONLINE CONNECTION REQUIREMENTS:</strong> 512kbps down and 384kbps up or faster Internet connection</li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="">Developed by a team of former Call of Duty designers, including Infinity Ward cofounder Vince Zampella, Titanfall launches <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-launching-march-11-2014/1100-6415710/" data-ref-id="1100-6415710">March 11</a> for Xbox One and PC. An Xbox 360 version--developed externally at Bluepoint Games--will launch <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-for-xbox-360-delayed/1100-6417577/" data-ref-id="1100-6417577">two weeks later on March 25</a>.</p><p style="">For more on Titanfall, be sure to check out our feature, <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/the-next-big-game-titanfall/" data-ref-id="false">The Next Big Game: Titanfall</a>, which includes exclusive interviews, previews, and videos for the game.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6417321" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6417321/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:16:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-for-xbox-one-actually-requires-20gb-of-hard-drive-space/1100-6417978/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/the-point-is-it-time-to-buy-an-xbox-one/2300-6417408/ A new Titanfall bundle and a price drop in the UK. Danny wonders whether now is the time to buy an Xbox One, or if should you should save your cash for later in the year. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/the-point-is-it-time-to-buy-an-xbox-one/2300-6417408/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/major-diablo-3-patch-arrives-with-a-long-list-of-bugs/1100-6417976/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1179/11799911/2444786-patch.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444786" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1179/11799911/2444786-patch.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444786"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1179/11799911/2444786-patch.jpg"></a></figure><p style=""> </p><p dir="ltr" style=""><a href="/diablo-iii/" data-ref-id="false">Diablo III</a>'s long-awaited Patch 2.0.1. has arrived, and while it <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/12671560/patch-201-now-live-2-25-2014" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">introduces a lengthy list of updates</a> including the <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/breathing-life-back-into-diablo-3-with-reaper-of-souls/1100-6417912/" data-ref-id="1100-6417912">highly touted Loot 2.0 system</a>, it also brings with it a series of bugs. The patch was released yesterday in North America, a month ahead of the Reaper of Souls expansion on March 25, and should be available on servers worldwide today.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Over on the Blizzard forums, a quality assurance representative for the developer has<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11883998315" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false"> compiled a list of known issues</a>--which spans dozens of items affecting multiple facets of the game.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Some of these issues do not affect gameplay and are only a minor inconvenience, like a bug that makes it so your total play time shows the wrong information. However, other issues like the game becoming stuck at the home screen when entering a multiplayer game or losing the bonus you should have received from the Pools of Reflection, are more problematic.</p><p style="">You can check out Blizzard's complete roundup of known issues for Diablo III <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11883998315" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">on the company's forums</a>. The developer cautioned that the bugs featured in this post are the most severe/impactful, and only represent a sample of the "hundreds" of bugs currently in the game's database. There is no timeline for when the issues will be cleared.</p><p style="">For more on Diablo III's Patch 2.0.1, be sure to read <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/breathing-life-back-into-diablo-3-with-reaper-of-souls/1100-6417912/" data-ref-id="1100-6417912">GameSpot's preview of the content featuring comments from lead designer Kevin Martens</a>.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6413370" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6413370/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:42:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/major-diablo-3-patch-arrives-with-a-long-list-of-bugs/1100-6417976/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/divinity-original-sin-now-playing/2300-6417405/ Kevin Van Ord is joined by the folks from Larian Studios to get a look at Divinity: Original Sin. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:01:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/divinity-original-sin-now-playing/2300-6417405/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/thief-vs-dishonored-the-stealth-action-showdown/1100-6417922/ <p style="">When Eidos Montreal's <a href="/thief/" data-ref-id="false">Thief</a> reboot was first revealed, it was hard not to notice that it looked a lot like Arkane Studios' steampunk stealth-action game, <a href="/dishonored/" data-ref-id="false">Dishonored</a>. It's not because Eidos Montreal is a copycat. Thief and Dishonored share a complex, intertwining development history. Key developers involved with the original Thief trilogy were a part of the team that created Dishonored and <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/under-the-influence-how-books-movies-and-music-inspired-recent-games/1100-6405080/">have stated</a> the games were one of its biggest influences, so it's no coincidence that the games look and feel similar. But the actual Thief brand has remained tucked away under Eidos' coat, so the question remains: Which of these two games better accomplishes the goals of their respective developers? Is it possible that Dishonored is a better stealth action game than Eidos Montreal's Thief reboot? Here are four high-level goals each game happens to pursue; which accomplished them better?</p><h2>An Authentic World</h2><p style="">Both Thief and Dishonored strive to create believable and convincing worlds for you to inhabit. The basis for their respective locales is one and the same: Victorian-era London. Thief takes a literal approach, attempting to re-create the smokey alleyways and grand landmarks of the time. Dishonored pushes its world further into the realm of the fantastical, with its buildings augmented by strange steampunk security devices and other mechanical contraptions. Despite these eccentric additions, Dishonored's world feels more authentic. It may not have the immediate graphical fidelity of Thief, but it makes up for it with an interesting and internally consistent art direction, along with large and atmospheric levels, that lend the game's city of Dunwall a strong sense of place.</p><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443716-walloflight.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443716" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443716-walloflight.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443716"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1536/15366587/2443716-walloflight.large.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Thief is unable to achieve this because of its technical shortcomings. The game's visual fidelity appears to come at the expense of an ability to render large levels. Exploring The City's hub world is less of an atmospheric stroll and more of a constant assault of loading screens. Even in missions, the game cannot render the entire location at once, so Garrett is forced through a linear progression of smaller locations. This destroys any true sense of place that Thief could potentially achieve. You can see the cracks in the world, because it is not stitched together seamlessly.</p><h3>Advantage: <strong>Dishonored</strong></h3><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443699-thief_review_10897thief+e3+2013_online_061113_ss05.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443699" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443699-thief_review_10897thief+e3+2013_online_061113_ss05.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443699"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1536/15366587/2443699-thief_review_10897thief+e3+2013_online_061113_ss05.jpg"></a></figure><p style=""> </p><h2>Creative Choices</h2><p style="">One of Eidos Montreal's goals with this Thief reboot was to introduce a greater element of player choice to the stealth gameplay. This doesn't mean the developer wanted to turn Garrett into a master swordsman; rather, it wanted to give you tools to push the boundaries of exploration and sneaking, whilst still keeping Garrett vulnerable enough to want to avoid direct combat. But the static nature of Thief's world means the developer hasn't achieved this. Interactive elements and aspects of the environment that provide opportunities, such as flammable puddles of oil and rope arrow anchors, appear in fixed, predetermined locations. Every solution or opportunity has been hand-placed by a designer. Unlike in previous Thief games, where you could throw oil flasks and ignite them anywhere, or shoot rope arrows into any wooden surface, you never feel as though you're designing your own solution in this reboot. Direct combat is more possible in this reboot than in previous Thief games, but it's a messy, cumbersome affair that hinges on the use of Garrett's focus powers rather than your skill alone.</p><blockquote><p style="">The static and highly telegraphed nature of Thief's routes does not create the same sense of achievement as organically creating a new pathway in Dishonored does.</p></blockquote><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443728-windblast.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443728" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443728-windblast.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443728"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1536/15366587/2443728-windblast.large.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Dishonored upholds the core tenets of player choice and creativity with far greater success. This is partly because it is not exclusively a stealth game, and it fully supports actions which fall across the entire spectrum of stealth and combat. Additionally, its protagonist is imbued with supernatural power, so Dishonored's abilities do not need to be as reserved as those in Thief. But even when you adopt a stealth-focused playstyle, Dishonored's supernatural powers and first-person movement remain systemic and general purpose enough that they can be employed and combined in clever and creative ways. Though both games offer multiple routes through their levels, the static and highly telegraphed nature of Thief's routes does not create the same sense of achievement as organically creating a new pathway in Dishonored does. On the whole, the player choice available in Dishonored is more inventive and more rewarding than that in Thief.</p><h3>Advantage: <strong>Dishonored</strong></h3><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443702-thief_review_4974thief_e3+2013_online_concept+art_061113_ca01.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443702" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443702-thief_review_4974thief_e3+2013_online_concept+art_061113_ca01.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443702"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1536/15366587/2443702-thief_review_4974thief_e3+2013_online_concept+art_061113_ca01.jpg"></a></figure><p style=""> </p><h2>A City in Chaos</h2><p style="">The City of Thief and Dishonored's port city of Dunwall are both beset by hardships: plagues, tyranny, and dark, mystical forces working behind the scenes. Over the course of both games, each city changes and evolves as a part of the plot. In Thief, life is always going to go from bad to worse. But in Dishonored, the decline of Dunwall depends upon your playstyle. If you play stealthily, without killing too many people, the city won't appear to get much worse. However, when you adopt a violent, "high chaos" play style, it's possible to witness greater swarms of plague-carrying rats, and the resulting plague victims, appear in later levels. Should you choose to continue this approach, the final mission will exhibit a dark, apocalyptic aesthetic. The more people you kill, the worse off the city will appear, through a subtle, tonal evolution over the game's entire runtime.</p><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443729-ratswarm.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443729" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443729-ratswarm.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443729"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1536/15366587/2443729-ratswarm.large.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Thief's plot implies The City's hardships will manifest in a more immediately perceptible manner. As the story unfolds, the oppressed underclasses turn to protest and, later, violence. Whipped into action by a fanatical leader, the poor take to the streets and ignite a revolution. At least, that's what the plot and concept art in Thief's loading screens suggest. In reality, this uprising is never realised. Eidos Montreal intended to show this revolution taking place over repeated visits to the hub world between missions. But there are so few non-player characters present that it's hard to get a sense of any civil unrest taking place. As far as the depiction of a city descending into chaos goes, Dishonored's violent players are treated to a decline which unfolds with greater tangibility and significance.</p><h3>Advantage: <strong>Dishonored</strong></h3><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443695-thief_review_240214_ss01_1391703617.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443695" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443695-thief_review_240214_ss01_1391703617.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443695"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1536/15366587/2443695-thief_review_240214_ss01_1391703617.jpg"></a></figure><h2>First-Person Immersion</h2><p style="">Thief and Dishonored share a common lineage in the <a href="http://www.giantbomb.com/immersive-sim/3015-5700/">immersive simulation</a> subgenre--a design philosophy that began at the developer of the first Thief game, Looking Glass Studios. These games are usually played in first-person and focus on instilling a strong sense of self in the way you inhabit the body of the protagonist, along with believable interactions with that protagonist's consistent and immersive environment. For Thief, Eidos Montreal has opted to maintain full body awareness, going so far as to animate the hand motions associated with every swiping of loot, opening of a door, or climbing of a wall. At first glance, this is one of the most literal interpretations of body awareness the first-person genre has ever seen. But the developer accomplished this by prescribing points of interaction to very specific objects to ensure everything animates correctly. The result is a stilted and clunky first-person experience, exacerbated by the inability to jump, which leads to inconsistent traversal detection when using the sprint/climb button.</p><blockquote><p style="">Dishonored allows you to jump and clamber over any surface that is logically within reach.</p></blockquote><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443730-arrivingatgoldencat.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443730" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443730-arrivingatgoldencat.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443730"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1536/15366587/2443730-arrivingatgoldencat.large.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Dishonored takes a different approach. You won't see your legs if you look down, and your hands don't animate when you pick up items or interact with minor objects in the world. But the first-person experience is so much stronger than in Thief, because you are provided with a broad set of moves which can be employed consistently no matter where you are in the environment. Dishonored allows you to jump and clamber over any surface that is logically within reach, and its environments are designed to fully support that action. Where Thief attempts to create an immersive experience with a more literal interpretation of body awareness, Dishonored finds far greater success with its more abstract approach because your ability to move through and interact with the world is internally consistent.</p><h3>Advantage: <strong>Dishonored</strong></h3><p style=""> </p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2444496-dishonored-screenshot-5.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444496" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2444496-dishonored-screenshot-5.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444496"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1536/15366587/2444496-dishonored-screenshot-5.jpg"></a></figure><h2>The Decider</h2><p style="">Though Thief and Dishonored offer slightly different power fantasies, they still strive to create immersive first-person experiences within authentic worlds, whilst offering you creative choices through the use of their systems and toolsets. But it's Dishonored that accomplishes these goals with far greater confidence in itself and its players, ultimately proving that having the Thief name doesn't necessarily make for a great Thief game.</p><h3>The Victor: <strong>Dishonored</strong></h3> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/thief-vs-dishonored-the-stealth-action-showdown/1100-6417922/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/batman-arkham-origins-old-acquaintance-trailer/2300-6417404/ Check out this new trailer for the Batman: Arkham Origins Cold, Cold Heart DLC. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 09:41:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/batman-arkham-origins-old-acquaintance-trailer/2300-6417404/

http://auth.gamespot.com/ Gamespot's Everything Feed! News, Reviews, Videos. Exploding with content? You bet. en-us Wed, 26 Feb 2014 20:21:18 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/banished-review/1900-6415679/ <p style="">SimCity's influence, both on the strategy genre and on gaming in general, is immense. Still, the past few years have seen an explosion of clever city builders taking some huge steps toward developing personality and becoming more than their progenitor. Banished is the latest in that line, elaborating on the intricate, small-scale design of recent games like <a href="/tropico/" data-ref-id="false">Tropico</a> and creating something unique in the process.</p><p style="">If you're reading this, it's safe to assume that you have an Internet-capable device with all of the modern comforts that typically implies. But what if you didn't? What if you were forced out of civilization as you know it, to live in the wilderness? How do you think you'd fare? Banished asks those questions, opening with a dozen or so outcasts seeking to make their way in the wilderness. It's a humble setup, but the game is masterfully constructed with dozens of interlocking mechanics--the perfect foundation for a stinging emergent narrative and a focus on empathy in the face of a Malthusian world.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445099-001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445099" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445099-001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445099"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2445099-001.jpg"></a><figcaption>Cultivating crops can be one of the best ways to keep some consistent food coming in. Be warned, however. Too much farming will deplete the soil.</figcaption></figure><p style="">Banished is a series of small goals that feed into one ever-looming command: survive. Every game starts in the spring, and before winter hits, you need to get enough firewood, gather a decent supply of food, and build some houses to keep your citizens from freezing to death. Just getting enough food is tough, because you rarely have enough time or free land to get a proper set of crops growing. Instead, you'll be chopping down as many trees as you can before getting a fishery going in a nearby lake or river. Then you hunker down and hope nobody dies.</p><blockquote data-align="left"><p style="">What if you were forced out of civilization as you know it, to live in the wilderness? How do you think you'd fare? Banished asks those questions, opening with a dozen or so outcasts seeking to make their way alone in the wilderness.</p></blockquote><p style="">People, more than anything else, are your vital resource. They need homes, food, decent clothes, tools, emotional support, medicine, and more. Every mechanic, every building you can place, and everything else you can do relates back to that central theme of survival. If you can't gather enough food, your people die. If they're stuck outside for too long, or don't have warm clothing, they die. Each time you fail as their leader, you're reminded of the loss with a grating sound and a yellow gravestone. These serve as a one-two punch to punish you for failure because losing citizens makes it that much harder to keep up the resource flow. One fewer worker means you can't gather food, stone, wood, or anything else as quickly. When children die, it's even worse, though you likely won't know it for some time. As your population ages, you eventually lose more than a few citizens to old age, and the best way to replace them is to give your younger citizens houses in the hopes that they'll reproduce and bolster your future numbers.</p><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445100-002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445100" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445100-002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445100"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2445100-002.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Like most games of its type, Banished has a number of natural disasters that strike your populace. In many ways, they serve as a kind of random "boss fight" in the sense that they will often test one aspect of your infrastructure. Diseases test the health of your population, fires your city planning, and tornadoes your ability to rapidly rebuild before winter comes again. With Banished already amounting to a desperate attempt to stave off death, disasters can be absolutely devastating for the unprepared. When pests hit your crops and you're already barely squeaking by each year, you're going to start losing a lot of people. Those kinds of cascading failures contrast with the almost hilarious scenarios that surround SimCity's giant robots or aliens.</p><p style="">Societal collapse isn't caused just by disasters, though, as maintaining equilibrium with the environment is actually impossible, which is another point of contrast between Banished and other games in its family. Most of the time, resources are unlimited in these sorts of games, but not quite so here. Farms won't continue producing food indefinitely, and most fishermen's docks steadily deplete the available population of fish that you can draw upon. Stone and iron, two critical materials for construction and maintenance, are also finite. After your initial stores run out, you can find some of these materials out in the world, but once you've exhausted those reserves, you're left with two options: trading and mining. Trading is a lot harder than it sounds, as opportunities come only a few times each year. Trade ships also have limited space and don't carry too much with them. Additionally, accepting trade increases your risk of disease and pests for your people and your crops. Mines are just as troublesome. Their supply of stone, iron, and coal is finite, and they take an enormous number of people to operate efficiently; they are also deadly, potentially risking mineshaft collapses or being crushed to death by stone. This, of course, all leads back to the struggle of maintaining your population.</p><blockquote data-align="center" data-size="large"><p style="">Societal collapse isn't caused just by disasters, though, as maintaining equilibrium with the environment is actually impossible.</p></blockquote><p style="">Banished has dozens of these kinds of interlocking, intricately woven systems that all feed into one another. Every decision has a cost, and every choice is a risk. Some elements of city planning are also completely incompatible with each other. To maintain your peoples' health, for example, you need some herbalists. They collect basic resources from the floors of old growth forests and can use them to make poultices that keep your people working their best and resistant to possible disease outbreaks. The key, however, is the "old growth" bit. You also need a steady source of logs to chop up for firewood. A good team of foresters can maintain a large enough area of continuous growth, but helpful herbs and wildlife can't be found in such young forests. To maximize your production, you need separate forests for your potion masters and your loggers. This dynamic becomes much harder to balance with the addition of resource-distribution mechanics. Loggers that need to transport the fruits of their labor more than a few tiles begin to lose efficiency and increase the risk of running low on firewood or tools--the two main long-term uses for lumber. If any of these pieces begin to lag, you place yourself and your people at risk of a systemic failure. A reduction in logging output can cause your supply of new tools to run low, dropping your logging output that much further. Everything is a feedback loop.</p><figure data-align="left" data-size="small" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445102-003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445102" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2445102-003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2445102"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_small/416/4161502/2445102-003.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Such strongly linked systems require an enormous amount of care to manage effectively, and that most often comes into play when you're looking to expand your village. If you try to develop a new logging outpost without building a network of roads, supply barns, and the like to make sure the resources keep moving where they are needed, your new loggers will likely die of starvation or hypothermia. You must effectively build semi-self-sufficient towns that link together via markets and high-capacity roads. The game isn't completely unreasonable here, though. If you build a new house near a mine on the edge of town, a few people will probably move in, and their occupation automatically shifts to match the closest workspace that can support them. When everything works, Banished is remarkably rewarding.</p><p style="">While the process of survival is never-ending, holding out against the elements amid the hostility of the untamed natural world is a small but powerful personal victory. Villagers have names; they're born, grow up, and eventually die under your intense supervision. Banished reinforces the human drama with its brutal difficulty and negative feedback loops. It's fertile soil for some of the most remarkable emergent storytelling around. With relatively few, well-designed mechanics, the game weaves a powerful tale of empathy and desperation and is a high-water mark for narrative elements that mutually reinforce mechanics. Even better, this is a very human story divorced from the Western tropes common in the loosely imperialistic messages of other, similar games. It's just you, your people, and their strong desire to live.</p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 18:24:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/banished-review/1900-6415679/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/car-mechanic-simulator-2014-random-encounter/2300-6417425/ Would you trust Danny O'Dwyer to fix your auto? How handy is he with his tools? Find out in this episode of Random Encounter! Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:34:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/car-mechanic-simulator-2014-random-encounter/2300-6417425/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/twitch-plays-pokemon-collects-all-badges-enters-home-stretch/1100-6417981/ <div data-embed-type="video" data-src="http://www.twitch.tv/twitchplayspokemon" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitch.tv%2Fwidgets%2Flive_embed_player.swf%3Fchannel%3Dtwitchplayspokemon&amp;fv=hostname%3Dwww.twitch.tv%26start_volume%3D25%26channel%3Dtwitchplayspokemon%26auto_play%3Dfalse&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twitch.tv%2Ftwitchplayspokemon&amp;key=6efca6e5ad9640f180f14146a0bc1392&amp;type=application%2Fx-shockwave-flash&amp;schema=twitch&amp;wmode=opaque" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style="">Against seemingly impossible odds, the Twitch Plays Pokemon stream has collected all of the game's badges and is getting ready to take on the Elite Four.</p><p style="">If you'd like a complete recap of events, Reddit has put together an exhaustively <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/twitchplayspokemon/comments/1y6wyc/nearly_complete_timeline_of_events/" rel="nofollow">time-stamped recap</a>, or you can read a <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/twitchplayspokemon/wiki/historyoftpp" rel="nofollow">more narrative retelling</a>. But this <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/twitchplayspokemonstatus/" rel="nofollow">public Google document</a> is the easiest way to see at a glance what's up in the game. According to the document, the players are working towards getting past one of the game's trickier ledge sections (tricky when you have 50,000 people playing, at least) as they head towards Victory Road. </p><p style="">Also notable is that the stream was able to revive the Helix fossil into the Pokemon Omanyte. The Helix Fossil is an item given to the player early in the game that cannot be thrown away; it has been elevated to a savior-like status in the chat with prayers of "Praise Helix" and "Base Helix."</p><p style="">Users are able to balance the game by shifting control between an Anarchy mode (where every command from the chat is input into the game) and Democracy (where the most popular commands go through). But <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/twitch-plays-pokemon-is-a-fascinating-vision-of-the-future/1100-6417867/" data-ref-id="1100-6417867">none of the spin-off games (like QWOP and Tetris) have reached the same level of incredible popularity</a>. The phenomenon has seen some drop-off from it's <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/over-60k-people-watching-twitch-play-pokemon-update/1100-6417762/" data-ref-id="1100-6417762">high count of over 100k viewers</a>, currently sitting at just over 50k viewers, though it's likely the game will see another uptick as it nears its conclusion.</p><p style="">Are you going to tune in more frequently now that it's over? And if so, will you work to sabotage the people trying to finish the game, or are you part of the group trying to shift the game to democracy, order, and finality? Either way, Pokemon Plays Twitch has turned out to be a surprising experiment that no one could've seen coming. </p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 16:23:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/twitch-plays-pokemon-collects-all-badges-enters-home-stretch/1100-6417981/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/x-rebirth-patch-1-25-trailer/2300-6417424/ New features explained for the latest patch for X Rebirth. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 16:10:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/x-rebirth-patch-1-25-trailer/2300-6417424/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/gs-news-gta-v-sued-again-what-s-xbox-one-s-secret-/2300-6417420/ DayZ's Dean Hall hints that Microsoft has something up their sleeve for Xbox One, and Rockstar may need to pay $40 million to a former Mob Wives star! Wed, 26 Feb 2014 16:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/gs-news-gta-v-sued-again-what-s-xbox-one-s-secret-/2300-6417420/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/random-questions-with-tim-schafer-what-was-the-fir/2300-6417417/ Premiering on the first episode of The Lobby, we asked Tim Schafer the first game he ever played. For more answers from Tim Schafer, tune into The Lobby every Tuesday at 2PM. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 14:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/random-questions-with-tim-schafer-what-was-the-fir/2300-6417417/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/independent-game-festival-awards-2014-developer-no/2300-6417416/ Go place your votes for the Audience Awards at the IGF Awards show by March 1st and find out the results on March 19th here at GameSpot.com. Vote here: igf.com/audience.php Wed, 26 Feb 2014 13:30:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/independent-game-festival-awards-2014-developer-no/2300-6417416/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/burnout-paradise-dev-offering-free-dlc-to-honor-ghostbusters-actor-harold-ramis/1100-6417980/ <p style=""> </p><p dir="ltr" style="">Criterion Games has announced a special promotion--valid today only--where <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/burnout-paradise/" data-ref-id="false">Burnout Paradise</a> players can download the Legendary Cars pack for free on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.</p><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1179/11799911/2444906-ecto.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444906" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1179/11799911/2444906-ecto.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444906"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1179/11799911/2444906-ecto.jpg"></a></figure><p dir="ltr" style=""> </p><p dir="ltr" style="">The promotion honors Harold Ramis, the Hollywood comedy legend known for his role as Egon Spengler in the <em>Ghostbusters</em> movies who <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/harold-ramis-1944-2014/" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">died earlier this week</a>.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The Legendary Cars pack features homages to iconic vehicles from famous movies including one made to look like Ecto 1 from the Ghostbusters franchise.</p><p style="">"Harold Ramis was a comedy genius. He inspired us," Criterion Games <a href="https://twitter.com/CriterionGames/status/438637814818033664" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">said on Twitter</a>.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6185064" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6185064/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:48:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/burnout-paradise-dev-offering-free-dlc-to-honor-ghostbusters-actor-harold-ramis/1100-6417980/ http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/rambo-the-video-game-review/1900-6415678/ <p style="">Rambo is an icon of masculinity. The testosterone-flooded film series that began with <em>First Blood</em> in the '80s has given us the term "going Rambo" anytime someone decides to take on insurmountable challenges in a video game. And for the first time in many years, we have a video game that lets you inhabit the role of John Rambo.</p><p style="">Developer Teyon could have done a lot of things with Rambo: The Video Game. With all of the tools available today, a veritable sandbox could have been made of the jungles of Vietnam and the city of Hope, Washington. But Teyon didn't do that. It made Rambo a rail shooter that leads you through its levels by the nose, letting you instead focus on hovering your targeting reticle over the bad guys and gunning them down. Headshots are worth more, in terms of both damage and point values, and the game encourages you to kill as much as fast as you can. Kill streaks multiply your score and increase the multiplier based off how rapidly you kill. From moment to moment, the action is simple but frantic, inviting you to set aside your expectations of what a Rambo video game <em>should</em> be, and enjoy it for what it <em>is</em>.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444326-0001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444326" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444326-0001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444326"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2444326-0001.jpg"></a><figcaption>Gun 'em down.</figcaption></figure><p style="">"I'm here to talk to you about a man who killed dozens. John Rambo. And it's good that he's dead."</p><p style="">These are the words you hear at the funeral that launches the game. From there, you play a flashback mission as the war hero John Rambo in Vietnam, guns ablazin' as you attempt to escape being a prisoner of war. Here you discover the game's cover system, which allows you to take cover in three different directions at any given time, leaving you exposed to some foes while shielded from others depending on the direction you take. It's a step up from the arcade limitation that typically leaves you with "in cover" or "shooting" as your only options. The mission also introduces you to the wrath bar, and Wrath mode, which enables you to regain your health and get back to going Rambo by killing as many enemies as possible before the bar depletes.</p><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444330-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444330" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444330-0002.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444330"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/416/4161502/2444330-0002.jpg"></a><figcaption>Which is worse, shaving dry or dull quick-time events?</figcaption></figure><p style="">After war, regular life just isn't the same. Rambo is thrown into jail by the sheriff of Hope, Washington. But it's not prison that makes his life hell. It's quick-time events. As the bully deputies attempt to shave Rambo with a straight razor, he rebels and escapes through a series of nothing but properly timed button presses. The quick-time events in the game offer more points if you press them with proper timing, but mostly act as a boring and clichéd way to add interactivity to cinematic events.</p><p style="">Throughout the remainder of the first chapter of story missions, you're encouraged to avoid killing your foes, because simply disarming them gives bonus points. After all, those are American citizens you're shooting at, soldier! By the end of the chapter, you find yourself sympathizing with poor mass-murdering John Rambo, because he really didn't mean to hurt anyone. Well, apart from those Vietcong. After taking down the sheriff standing in your way of a normal life, you finally earn the peace and quiet you wanted all along. Back in prison, again!</p><p style="">The story does follow the movie series' plotlines, with major stages and events hewing as close as possible to the source material while still under the guise of a video game. (Forgetting, of course, that Mr. Rambo was not the killing machine pop culture has made him out to be.) Of course, since Stallone wasn't available to do voice acting for the game, Teyon decided to instead use sound bites directly from the movies. This causes the volume levels of different cinematics to vary wildly. Coupled with the game's atrocious graphics, Rambo is a painful experience for the eyes and ears, with only the limited but excellent soundtrack rising above the ugliness. The somber brass of the main menu and funeral scene, the melodic strings that tie the plot together, and the upbeat tracks that fuel the explosive carnage of combat are perfectly at home and enjoyable to listen to in their own right. </p><figure data-align="right" data-size="small" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444331-0003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444331" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444331-0003.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444331"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_small/416/4161502/2444331-0003.jpg"></a><figcaption>Complete challenges to unlock new guns? I'm in.</figcaption></figure><p style="">In addition to the contextual directional cover system, there are well-placed explosive barrels, good incentives for proper aim over spraying and praying, and enough challenge in (some of) the missions to keep this generally easy game from being a complete cakewalk. Luckily, there's also a higher difficulty setting, and a one- to three-star-based scoring system that encourages you to always do better than the time before. And if that weren't enough, the game offers specific objectives to shoot for in the hopes of earning a brand-new shiny gun to wield as a secondary weapon.</p><p style="">If you're having trouble perfecting your approach to missions or challenges, then it's time to delve into the game's skill and perk system. The game offers perks varying from being unable to fail QTE events (wait, really?) to gaining health back from headshots or disarming opponents, to bonuses to your Wrath mode. With up to three perk slots able to be unlocked, you can customize John Rambo to your own tastes or the task at hand. The skill system gives you the ability to upgrade your damage resistance, light weapons, heavy weapons, miscellaneous weapons, or your Wrath mode, but I didn't find any reason to invest in anything but damage resistance or Wrath mode in lower levels. The perks system reeks of poor balance and the charade of choice. Enemies die in two or three properly-aimed shots, so skills granting bonus damage aren't necessary, and it only takes a few turns of the reload wheel to get the hang of reloading, thus diminishing the usefulness of light- and heavy-weapon expertise.</p><p style="">Rambo: The Video Game does a solid job of breaking potential monotony with various alternate battle methods. Although some of these involve moving from quick-time event to quick-time event, you're also given a helping of helicopter missions and an opportunity to use enemies' own tanks against them. While these segments don't last long, they also are neither overused nor overdone, and offer a breather from the game's gauntlet of gun battles.</p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444332-0004.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444332" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/416/4161502/2444332-0004.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444332"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/416/4161502/2444332-0004.jpg"></a><figcaption>Dogfighting with helicopters doesn't sound safe.</figcaption></figure><p style="">The game's initial playthrough doesn't take more than a few hours, but becoming a master of the game can take a bit more investment. You don't have to be a fan of the Rambo franchise to enjoy Rambo: The Video Game, but it helps to have at least spent a bit of time in an arcade as a light-gun-slinger. And this time around, you don't have to stock your pockets full of quarters to prepare to blast your way through screen after screen of Vietcong, Afghan, and Soviet enemies.</p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:32:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/rambo-the-video-game-review/1900-6415678/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-for-xbox-one-actually-requires-20gb-of-hard-drive-space/1100-6417978/ <p style=""> </p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/1/8/9/3/2041893-635381_20130610_001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2041893" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/mig/1/8/9/3/2041893-635381_20130610_001.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2041893"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/mig/1/8/9/3/2041893-635381_20130610_001.jpg"></a></figure><p dir="ltr" style=""> </p><p dir="ltr" style=""><a href="/titanfall/" data-ref-id="false">Titanfall </a>won't take up as much of your Xbox One hard drive space as previously thought. Respawn Entertainment community manager Abbie Heppe<a href="https://twitter.com/abbieheppe/status/438546740648505344" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false"> confirmed on Twitter</a> that the game will require a 20GB install, not "<a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-for-xbox-one-requires-up-to-40gb-of-space-to-install/1100-6417941/" data-ref-id="1100-6417941">up to 40GB</a>," as was reported on Monday.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">The 40GB figure came from the <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-for-xbox-one-requires-up-to-40gb-of-space-to-install/1100-6417941/" data-ref-id="1100-6417941">packaging of the special-edition Titanfall Xbox One bundle</a>. Heppe told <a href="http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/02/25/titanfalls-xbox-one-install-size-is-actually-just-20-gb-and-not-40-gb/" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">DualShockers</a> that the discrepancy was probably due to the fact that the packaging was created before the final file size was confirmed.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">At 20GB, Titanfall is significantly smaller than other popular shooters like <a href="/battlefield-4/" data-ref-id="false">Battlefield 4</a> (33GB) and <a href="/call-of-duty-ghosts/" data-ref-id="false">Call of Duty: Ghosts</a> (39GB). Notably, however, Titanfall does not feature a traditional single-player campaign like those other two games, which no doubt affects the file size.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Titanfall <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-on-xbox-one-does-not-run-in-1080p/1100-6417701/" data-ref-id="1100-6417701">does not run in 1080p on Xbox One</a>, instead outputting at a <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-on-xbox-one-does-not-run-in-1080p/1100-6417701/" data-ref-id="1100-6417701">native resolution of 792p</a>.</p><p style="">Meanwhile, the PC version of Titanfall requires at least 50GB of free hard drive space. The game's hefty size on PC could come down to a number of elements, including its reported "<a href="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=100554284&amp;postcount=641" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">Insane</a>" texture resolution setting. The full minimum requirements for Titanfall are listed below.</p><ul><li dir="ltr"><strong>OS:</strong> Windows Vista SP2 64-bit / Windows 7 SP1 64-bit / Windows 8 64-bit</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>CPU:</strong> AMD Athlon X2 2.8GHz / Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>RAM:</strong> At least 4 GB</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>HARD DRIVE:</strong> At least 50 GB of free space</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>VIDEO:</strong> AMD Radeon HD 4770 with 512MB RAM or better / Nvidia GeForce 8800GT with 512MB RAM or better</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>DirectX:</strong> DirectX 11</li><li dir="ltr"><strong>INPUT:</strong> Keyboard and mouse, Microsoft Gamepad</li><li><strong>ONLINE CONNECTION REQUIREMENTS:</strong> 512kbps down and 384kbps up or faster Internet connection</li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="">Developed by a team of former Call of Duty designers, including Infinity Ward cofounder Vince Zampella, Titanfall launches <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-launching-march-11-2014/1100-6415710/" data-ref-id="1100-6415710">March 11</a> for Xbox One and PC. An Xbox 360 version--developed externally at Bluepoint Games--will launch <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-for-xbox-360-delayed/1100-6417577/" data-ref-id="1100-6417577">two weeks later on March 25</a>.</p><p style="">For more on Titanfall, be sure to check out our feature, <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/the-next-big-game-titanfall/" data-ref-id="false">The Next Big Game: Titanfall</a>, which includes exclusive interviews, previews, and videos for the game.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6417321" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6417321/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:16:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-for-xbox-one-actually-requires-20gb-of-hard-drive-space/1100-6417978/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/the-point-is-it-time-to-buy-an-xbox-one/2300-6417408/ A new Titanfall bundle and a price drop in the UK. Danny wonders whether now is the time to buy an Xbox One, or if should you should save your cash for later in the year. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/the-point-is-it-time-to-buy-an-xbox-one/2300-6417408/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/major-diablo-3-patch-arrives-with-a-long-list-of-bugs/1100-6417976/ <figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1179/11799911/2444786-patch.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444786" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1179/11799911/2444786-patch.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444786"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1179/11799911/2444786-patch.jpg"></a></figure><p style=""> </p><p dir="ltr" style=""><a href="/diablo-iii/" data-ref-id="false">Diablo III</a>'s long-awaited Patch 2.0.1. has arrived, and while it <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/12671560/patch-201-now-live-2-25-2014" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">introduces a lengthy list of updates</a> including the <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/breathing-life-back-into-diablo-3-with-reaper-of-souls/1100-6417912/" data-ref-id="1100-6417912">highly touted Loot 2.0 system</a>, it also brings with it a series of bugs. The patch was released yesterday in North America, a month ahead of the Reaper of Souls expansion on March 25, and should be available on servers worldwide today.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Over on the Blizzard forums, a quality assurance representative for the developer has<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11883998315" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false"> compiled a list of known issues</a>--which spans dozens of items affecting multiple facets of the game.</p><p dir="ltr" style="">Some of these issues do not affect gameplay and are only a minor inconvenience, like a bug that makes it so your total play time shows the wrong information. However, other issues like the game becoming stuck at the home screen when entering a multiplayer game or losing the bonus you should have received from the Pools of Reflection, are more problematic.</p><p style="">You can check out Blizzard's complete roundup of known issues for Diablo III <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11883998315" rel="nofollow" data-ref-id="false">on the company's forums</a>. The developer cautioned that the bugs featured in this post are the most severe/impactful, and only represent a sample of the "hundreds" of bugs currently in the game's database. There is no timeline for when the issues will be cleared.</p><p style="">For more on Diablo III's Patch 2.0.1, be sure to read <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/breathing-life-back-into-diablo-3-with-reaper-of-souls/1100-6417912/" data-ref-id="1100-6417912">GameSpot's preview of the content featuring comments from lead designer Kevin Martens</a>.</p><div data-embed-type="video" data-ref-id="2300-6413370" data-width="100%" data-height="100%"><iframe src="/videos/embed/6413370/" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div><p style=""> </p> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:42:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/major-diablo-3-patch-arrives-with-a-long-list-of-bugs/1100-6417976/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/divinity-original-sin-now-playing/2300-6417405/ Kevin Van Ord is joined by the folks from Larian Studios to get a look at Divinity: Original Sin. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:01:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/divinity-original-sin-now-playing/2300-6417405/ http://www.gamespot.com/articles/thief-vs-dishonored-the-stealth-action-showdown/1100-6417922/ <p style="">When Eidos Montreal's <a href="/thief/" data-ref-id="false">Thief</a> reboot was first revealed, it was hard not to notice that it looked a lot like Arkane Studios' steampunk stealth-action game, <a href="/dishonored/" data-ref-id="false">Dishonored</a>. It's not because Eidos Montreal is a copycat. Thief and Dishonored share a complex, intertwining development history. Key developers involved with the original Thief trilogy were a part of the team that created Dishonored and <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/articles/under-the-influence-how-books-movies-and-music-inspired-recent-games/1100-6405080/">have stated</a> the games were one of its biggest influences, so it's no coincidence that the games look and feel similar. But the actual Thief brand has remained tucked away under Eidos' coat, so the question remains: Which of these two games better accomplishes the goals of their respective developers? Is it possible that Dishonored is a better stealth action game than Eidos Montreal's Thief reboot? Here are four high-level goals each game happens to pursue; which accomplished them better?</p><h2>An Authentic World</h2><p style="">Both Thief and Dishonored strive to create believable and convincing worlds for you to inhabit. The basis for their respective locales is one and the same: Victorian-era London. Thief takes a literal approach, attempting to re-create the smokey alleyways and grand landmarks of the time. Dishonored pushes its world further into the realm of the fantastical, with its buildings augmented by strange steampunk security devices and other mechanical contraptions. Despite these eccentric additions, Dishonored's world feels more authentic. It may not have the immediate graphical fidelity of Thief, but it makes up for it with an interesting and internally consistent art direction, along with large and atmospheric levels, that lend the game's city of Dunwall a strong sense of place.</p><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443716-walloflight.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443716" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443716-walloflight.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443716"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1536/15366587/2443716-walloflight.large.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Thief is unable to achieve this because of its technical shortcomings. The game's visual fidelity appears to come at the expense of an ability to render large levels. Exploring The City's hub world is less of an atmospheric stroll and more of a constant assault of loading screens. Even in missions, the game cannot render the entire location at once, so Garrett is forced through a linear progression of smaller locations. This destroys any true sense of place that Thief could potentially achieve. You can see the cracks in the world, because it is not stitched together seamlessly.</p><h3>Advantage: <strong>Dishonored</strong></h3><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443699-thief_review_10897thief+e3+2013_online_061113_ss05.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443699" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443699-thief_review_10897thief+e3+2013_online_061113_ss05.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443699"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1536/15366587/2443699-thief_review_10897thief+e3+2013_online_061113_ss05.jpg"></a></figure><p style=""> </p><h2>Creative Choices</h2><p style="">One of Eidos Montreal's goals with this Thief reboot was to introduce a greater element of player choice to the stealth gameplay. This doesn't mean the developer wanted to turn Garrett into a master swordsman; rather, it wanted to give you tools to push the boundaries of exploration and sneaking, whilst still keeping Garrett vulnerable enough to want to avoid direct combat. But the static nature of Thief's world means the developer hasn't achieved this. Interactive elements and aspects of the environment that provide opportunities, such as flammable puddles of oil and rope arrow anchors, appear in fixed, predetermined locations. Every solution or opportunity has been hand-placed by a designer. Unlike in previous Thief games, where you could throw oil flasks and ignite them anywhere, or shoot rope arrows into any wooden surface, you never feel as though you're designing your own solution in this reboot. Direct combat is more possible in this reboot than in previous Thief games, but it's a messy, cumbersome affair that hinges on the use of Garrett's focus powers rather than your skill alone.</p><blockquote><p style="">The static and highly telegraphed nature of Thief's routes does not create the same sense of achievement as organically creating a new pathway in Dishonored does.</p></blockquote><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443728-windblast.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443728" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443728-windblast.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443728"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1536/15366587/2443728-windblast.large.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Dishonored upholds the core tenets of player choice and creativity with far greater success. This is partly because it is not exclusively a stealth game, and it fully supports actions which fall across the entire spectrum of stealth and combat. Additionally, its protagonist is imbued with supernatural power, so Dishonored's abilities do not need to be as reserved as those in Thief. But even when you adopt a stealth-focused playstyle, Dishonored's supernatural powers and first-person movement remain systemic and general purpose enough that they can be employed and combined in clever and creative ways. Though both games offer multiple routes through their levels, the static and highly telegraphed nature of Thief's routes does not create the same sense of achievement as organically creating a new pathway in Dishonored does. On the whole, the player choice available in Dishonored is more inventive and more rewarding than that in Thief.</p><h3>Advantage: <strong>Dishonored</strong></h3><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443702-thief_review_4974thief_e3+2013_online_concept+art_061113_ca01.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443702" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443702-thief_review_4974thief_e3+2013_online_concept+art_061113_ca01.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443702"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1536/15366587/2443702-thief_review_4974thief_e3+2013_online_concept+art_061113_ca01.jpg"></a></figure><p style=""> </p><h2>A City in Chaos</h2><p style="">The City of Thief and Dishonored's port city of Dunwall are both beset by hardships: plagues, tyranny, and dark, mystical forces working behind the scenes. Over the course of both games, each city changes and evolves as a part of the plot. In Thief, life is always going to go from bad to worse. But in Dishonored, the decline of Dunwall depends upon your playstyle. If you play stealthily, without killing too many people, the city won't appear to get much worse. However, when you adopt a violent, "high chaos" play style, it's possible to witness greater swarms of plague-carrying rats, and the resulting plague victims, appear in later levels. Should you choose to continue this approach, the final mission will exhibit a dark, apocalyptic aesthetic. The more people you kill, the worse off the city will appear, through a subtle, tonal evolution over the game's entire runtime.</p><figure data-align="right" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443729-ratswarm.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443729" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443729-ratswarm.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443729"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1536/15366587/2443729-ratswarm.large.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Thief's plot implies The City's hardships will manifest in a more immediately perceptible manner. As the story unfolds, the oppressed underclasses turn to protest and, later, violence. Whipped into action by a fanatical leader, the poor take to the streets and ignite a revolution. At least, that's what the plot and concept art in Thief's loading screens suggest. In reality, this uprising is never realised. Eidos Montreal intended to show this revolution taking place over repeated visits to the hub world between missions. But there are so few non-player characters present that it's hard to get a sense of any civil unrest taking place. As far as the depiction of a city descending into chaos goes, Dishonored's violent players are treated to a decline which unfolds with greater tangibility and significance.</p><h3>Advantage: <strong>Dishonored</strong></h3><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443695-thief_review_240214_ss01_1391703617.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443695" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443695-thief_review_240214_ss01_1391703617.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443695"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1536/15366587/2443695-thief_review_240214_ss01_1391703617.jpg"></a></figure><h2>First-Person Immersion</h2><p style="">Thief and Dishonored share a common lineage in the <a href="http://www.giantbomb.com/immersive-sim/3015-5700/">immersive simulation</a> subgenre--a design philosophy that began at the developer of the first Thief game, Looking Glass Studios. These games are usually played in first-person and focus on instilling a strong sense of self in the way you inhabit the body of the protagonist, along with believable interactions with that protagonist's consistent and immersive environment. For Thief, Eidos Montreal has opted to maintain full body awareness, going so far as to animate the hand motions associated with every swiping of loot, opening of a door, or climbing of a wall. At first glance, this is one of the most literal interpretations of body awareness the first-person genre has ever seen. But the developer accomplished this by prescribing points of interaction to very specific objects to ensure everything animates correctly. The result is a stilted and clunky first-person experience, exacerbated by the inability to jump, which leads to inconsistent traversal detection when using the sprint/climb button.</p><blockquote><p style="">Dishonored allows you to jump and clamber over any surface that is logically within reach.</p></blockquote><figure data-align="left" data-size="medium" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443730-arrivingatgoldencat.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443730" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2443730-arrivingatgoldencat.large.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2443730"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_medium/1536/15366587/2443730-arrivingatgoldencat.large.jpg"></a></figure><p style="">Dishonored takes a different approach. You won't see your legs if you look down, and your hands don't animate when you pick up items or interact with minor objects in the world. But the first-person experience is so much stronger than in Thief, because you are provided with a broad set of moves which can be employed consistently no matter where you are in the environment. Dishonored allows you to jump and clamber over any surface that is logically within reach, and its environments are designed to fully support that action. Where Thief attempts to create an immersive experience with a more literal interpretation of body awareness, Dishonored finds far greater success with its more abstract approach because your ability to move through and interact with the world is internally consistent.</p><h3>Advantage: <strong>Dishonored</strong></h3><p style=""> </p><figure data-align="center" data-size="large" data-img-src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2444496-dishonored-screenshot-5.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444496" data-resize-url="" data-resized="" data-embed-type="image"><a href="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1536/15366587/2444496-dishonored-screenshot-5.jpg" data-ref-id="1300-2444496"><img src="http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/scale_super/1536/15366587/2444496-dishonored-screenshot-5.jpg"></a></figure><h2>The Decider</h2><p style="">Though Thief and Dishonored offer slightly different power fantasies, they still strive to create immersive first-person experiences within authentic worlds, whilst offering you creative choices through the use of their systems and toolsets. But it's Dishonored that accomplishes these goals with far greater confidence in itself and its players, ultimately proving that having the Thief name doesn't necessarily make for a great Thief game.</p><h3>The Victor: <strong>Dishonored</strong></h3> Wed, 26 Feb 2014 10:00:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/articles/thief-vs-dishonored-the-stealth-action-showdown/1100-6417922/ http://www.gamespot.com/videos/batman-arkham-origins-old-acquaintance-trailer/2300-6417404/ Check out this new trailer for the Batman: Arkham Origins Cold, Cold Heart DLC. Wed, 26 Feb 2014 09:41:00 -0800 http://www.gamespot.com/videos/batman-arkham-origins-old-acquaintance-trailer/2300-6417404/

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