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Any fan of South Park knows that series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have a pulse on just about every dimension of pop culture - including the modern video game industry. Given that, it’s come as a regular surprise (and disappointment) to see just how man downright terrible games have been released bearing the series name. All that is set to change with the release of South Park: The Stick of Truth , the upcoming RPG sending players on an imaginary quest against the children of the tiny mountain town....

15 years ago,1998, the world embraced a plethora of activities: France hoisted the World Cup, Bill Clinton was in his second term as the President, and StarCraft released on PC. The landscape of gaming has changed dramatically since then, but StarCraft itself has continued to be a shining staple of how a polished product can make an old game remain highly relevant for many years after its release. Originally intended to be a simple in-between game crowd pleaser for the WarCraft series, the original StarCraft went through a radical redesign which would see the game completely scrapped and restarted in the development process - a move which would later prove to create one of the best real-time strategy franchises ever conceived It launched to overwhelmingly positive reception and would transform both the gaming industry and eSports scene, as well as setting a high standard for the genre....

When Activision and Red Fly Studios announced the release of downloadable brawler Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, the accompanying trailer showed just enough to set up the basic plot of the game - the masked mutant vigilantes facing off against the Foot Clan both underground and overground in Manhattan - and also gave us the first look at combat. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is tied in to the recently rebooted TV show that premiered on Nickelodeon in fall 2012, the season one finale of which will be aired on Saturday 27th April....

There is finally a bit of good news for fans of Telltale Games’ newest episodic series, The Wolf Among Us, which launched its first episode to critical acclaim back in October. Since then, players have been left with jaws dropped for the second episode, but without any explanation for its absence coming from the developer. Now Telltale has broken the silence, but is still keeping the exact reason for the delay to themselves....

In 2013, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto V, one of the most ambitious open-world games at the time. All the hard work paid off with a product that still generates revenue for the company today. Despite being over seven years old, the game is receiving yet another release in the future on the PlayStation 5 with numerous enhancements. Getting the game into people’s hands was a mammoth effort, filled with trials and tribulation....

The system wars are getting heated and the debate of console versus PC gaming will never end. Nvidia just released its budget card while the Xbox Series X and PS5 are slated for release in November. For the vast majority, PCs might seem like the be-all-end-all for customization, but this has proven to be false; console modifications are just criminally underrated. Just like PCs, they can be tweaked for aesthetics or engineered for maximum performance....

Dragon Quest is now over thirty years old. It’s amazing that it still holds as much relevance today as it did in 1986. The world has changed. Games have changed and yet this series has remained true to itself. Dragon Quest XI was a big leap forward with a lot of new additions like campsites and being able to move around in battle. That said there are still a lot of things missing one would want in a sequel....

Metal Gear is a franchise that is almost defined by its villains. After all, this is the franchise where Big Boss’ shadow looms over the whole series despite him simply being the fairly basic final boss of the first two games. It should come as no surprise that Liquid, the antagonist of the first Solid title, plays quite the role after his defeat. This is a man who comes back to life as an arm after blatantly dying in front of Snake’s eyes....

Microsoft’s overarching business plan for its Xbox Series X|S consoles isn’t too difficult to decipher. The company has a clear vision to get as much of its player base onto their Game Pass service as possible, with hopes that the platform will have similar success to Netflix or Disney+. Microsoft’s advertising and promotion of the service has become far more aggressive in recent months, with numerous titles being frequently added and further day one releases being promised, such as Square Enix’s Outriders....

Bethesda Softworks is hard at work on both Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI. The latter still has a long ways to go before fans even see what it look like, but there’s no denying that its release will be a momentous occasion. Will the developer stay true to the Elder Scrolls formula, or will they significantly shake things up? If they decide to give players an experience in Tamriel like never before, they would be wise to take some inspiration from the following ten games below....

WandaVision is coming to a close soon and fans can’t get enough of Wanda, Vision, and the cast of characters in the popular Marvel Disney+ show. Despite never being referred to as the Scarlet Witch, fans understand her comic history and what types of things the magical powerhouse is drawn to. As an individual who could manipulate reality, Wanda is very much capable of putting herself in the world of Pokemon and living out her life as a trainer....

Goofy physics in video games is often seen as a bad thing, but it’s also hilarious. It is prime comedy, and a lot of gamers like to make videos just to show off a mammoth suddenly flying in the air after being hit by a sword (thanks Skyrim). A lot of gamers actually have found these physics-bugs enjoyable for laughter’s sake, which is why there are also games that have bad physics on purpose....

For the first time, the color palettes of games were held back by relatively few limitations. Most sprites actually looked like they were meant to represent. Backgrounds were heavily detailed and properly animated, while an industry-wide embrace of the entire pixel art concept inspired new visions that remain beautiful to this day. That was just the beginning of what the SNES was capable of, though. With a little creativity and enhancement chips that unlocked increased power, developers were even able to squeeze some early 3D effects out of Nintendo’s 16-bit console and produce some truly impressive visuals that still hold up....

American Chopper and Epic Games are teaming up to deliver a Gears of War 3-inspired bike for one of their upcoming episodes. Airing on September 12th, this episode will see Paul Jr. heading to the Epic Games’ office to gain a little inspiration for another of his team’s custom made hogs. Though the episode doesn’t air until this coming Monday, Discovery Channel has sent over some clips from the episode that include looks at Paul visiting Epic Games’ home base and getting a glimpse at some Gears 3 concept art that ended up on the cutting room floor....

They may never be as commercially successful as the Need for Speed games or Gran Turismo, but Criterion’s Burnout games are beloved by a wide audience of players and the reason is not hard to understand: stuff crashes up real good. It’s no surprise, then, that the long rumored, finally announced Burnout CRASH! fully capitalizes on the love players have for joyous vehicular destruction – though anyone expecting this game to resemble Burnouts past in any way, shape, or form is in for quite a shock....

Most players who dig around in game files do so at their own risk. It’s true that a mysteriously labeled file can oftentimes tip a developer’s hand well before they are ready, but sometimes gamers are simply trying to draw connections where there are none. Case in point: the recent rumors regarding Grand Theft Auto Online. Nevertheless, a new series of findings have seemingly confirmed that Rockstar Games is working on military-themed DLC for Grand Theft Auto Online....

Mass Effect 3 might offer a wealth of gameplay and dialogue options for players to craft their own unique experience, but one of the major reasons fans have continued to return to this universe is the story. Spearheaded by lead writer Mac Walters, Mass Effect 3 promises to be not just a trilogy-ender for Commander Shepard but the culmination of three games worth of experiences. Pulse, BioWare’s video news channel, sat down with Walters to get a sense of just what goes into creating Mass Effect’s epic story....

NetherRealm Studios’ gruesome fighter Mortal Kombat X has achieved massive success, becoming the fastest selling title in the Mortal Kombat franchise during its first week of release. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, though, as several early patches were released to address balancing issues, online stability, and, controversially, the patches also reduced the amount of koins rewarded for completing fights in the game’s Tower Mode and made boss battles harder too....

There’s one thing that even the most casual fan of video games knows about a new generation of consoles: the games are much, much prettier. And in the case of sports simulations, that means game experiences that look and feel more like the real sport than ever before. That is most certainly the case with NHL 15, but the latest trailer shows that the improvements are more than just skin deep....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaUU3dr9Qd0 These days, it seems impossible for any self-respecting AAA game to catch the attention of the gaming world without a jaw-dropping, spectacle-filled CG cinematic trailer. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is the latest to get the cinematic treatment, and while J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy source material may not be known for its violence, paranoia, or orc-sympathizing, Shadow of Mordor’s new ‘Gravewalker’ trailer is filled to the brim with it. The title ‘Gravewalker’ refers, of course, to the game’s hero Talion, a Ranger who has been forced to watch his family killed before his eyes, but robbed of death himself by a mysterious Spirit of Vengeance....