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With some major comic book properties slated to hit theaters next year, it’s about that time when publishers start announcing those films’ associated tie-in games. Case in point: the announcement of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which is slated to tie-in with Sony’s blockbuster sequel. In addition to the Amazing Spider-Man 2 reveal, Activision has released a teaser trailer for the game. Although the trailer is decidedly light on actual footage of Spider-Man it does promise plenty of web-swinging action....

The first installment of The Elder Scrolls to adopt the MMORPG mold, The Elder Scrolls Online was viewed as an ambitious undertaking by publisher Bethesda and developer ZeniMax Online Studios when it was announced last May. And that’s when it was thought to be a PC-exclusive. But Sony’s press conference this week at E3 2013 tossed another layer of intrigue around the project. It wasn’t just about unveiling the rhombic facade and rounded features of the PlayStation 4; outlining the console’s forthcoming software lineup, Sony confirmed The Elder Scrolls Online as an available PS4 title....

Games based on movies often end up as disappointments. The rushed development time and need to remain grounded in a linear narrative leads plenty of titles to come out lacklustre, but Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark looks like it could possibly buck that trend. Developed by Edge of Reality and published by Activision, the latest Transformers game has the potential to be more than the usual movie tie-in title....

The subject matter of Ubisoft’s new hack ’em up Watch Dogs is uncomfortably close to home in the light of the recent NSA surveillance scandal, and there’s a distinct sense that this is being played up quite a bit in the marketing push leading up to Watch Dogs’ fall release. The game takes place in a slightly alternate timeline to our own, in which every electronic system and device in every major U....

The news that Keanu Reeves, that angel among men, is set to star in Cyberpunk 2077, got has many gamers wondering: what are the other greatest celebrity cameos in gaming? There have been more than you’d think over the years. That isn’t just talking into account games with celebrity voice actors, no. These are games that have celebrities in them in all their glory, both voice and form. Not all of these are particularly good, either....

The Halo franchise is chock full of details concerning The Flood, The Covenant, and the ever-present Forerunners. Details concerning Master Chief’s journey towards saving the planet and beating all malicious evils in the galaxy are told within the narratives woven in the canonical video games. However, many juicy lore details are reserved for novels and other expanded universe content. Like any expansive franchise, learning all there is to know about a universe requires reading up on novels, comics, and other expanded content....

The Video Game industry proved that it’s capable of turning profits that would make major Hollywood studios blush, but there’s a dark side to its lucrative model. Whether by mismanagement, poor timing or bad creative decisions, some games enter production which end up terminally poisoning their studios. Here’s 10 games that ended up bankrupting their respective studios to the point of no return. Some are great, some are awful, but each one served up a knockout punch that sent its respective developer to the mat....

From blockbusters to lacklusters, if there was a movie released at the time there’s a good chance Nintendo made a game out of it. Beginning with Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Atari 2600, adaptations of films have been a huge part of gaming. Nintendo took Atari’s idea and ran with it, releasing over 50 movie-based games for the NES including some classics (Willow, Goonies II) and some clunkers (Home Alone, Predator)....

The Xbox 360 was a milestone for modern gaming. It brought in achievement awards, leveled up online play, and was the birthplace of some of Microsoft’s most beloved franchises. When released in 2005, the console even pulled ahead of PS3—thanks mostly to its competitive price point and year-long headstart—with a smattering of exclusives that shone much brighter than Microsoft’s exclusive games do now. Halo was arguably at the top of it’s game, and the online capabilities of the Xbox 360 created a massive community of competitive gamers....

Pokémon is considered one of the most valuable media franchises on Earth, with an estimated net worth of $95 billion. The franchise has released its own games, TV shows, live-action movies, comics, and merchandise. Making its debut in 1996 as Pocket Monsters: Red and Green on Game Boy, Pokémon has now become a global phenomenon. Pokémon Trading Card Game is a strategic card game that launched in 1996. As of now, 30....

The cavernous lore of the DOTA franchise has been relentlessly expanding for over 19 years. In fact, many content creators are working full-time trying to unravel the lore behind this title. It is thus only fair that the trailer for the Netflix Anime DOTA: Dragon’s Blood is lined with Easter eggs only hardcore fans of DOTA can spot. From the abilities of playable heroes to game-staple items to new locations and characters only ever read about in textual lore, the trailer is jam-packed with candies for the long-time fan to collect....

While Metal Gear Solid 2 may have been a more impressive leap between entries graphically, Metal Gear Solid 3 did more to change up the formula with more open environments and an emphasis on survival gameplay. Much like its predecessor, the linear adventure is brimming with tiny secrets and minute details many miss upon a single playthrough. The ten secrets below are known to only true fans of the series, and constantly remind one they are playing a Hideo Kojima game, both for their attention to detail and absurdity....

The survival horror genre of video games has turned into one of the most popular varieties of titles and they’ve been able to tremendously benefit from the advancement of video game hardware over the past decade. Many different survival horror franchises have come and gone, but Silent Hill is viewed as one of the foundational series for the genre. The Silent Hill games have taken some risks over the course of the franchise, but the fourth entry in the Konami series, Silent Hill 4: The Room is an especially atypical title....

Ghost of Tsushima is a pretty serious game in terms of the narrative and the actual themes it is trying to present. That is not to say it is without some moments of lighthearted humor, or touching moments. For example, following the foxes around to their shrines may not make a whole lot of sense given that there is a war going on. That said, they are a welcomed addition to the game in order to allow players to take in a breather from the bloodshed....

There are many different appearances that Flying-type Pokemon can take, and secondary types that they have. There are only a few Flying-types that don’t have a secondary type, and as such, most of them have extra abilities unlike more common Pokemon types, including Fire-type and Water-type. Flying-type Pokemon often are very weird, both in terms of appearance and because of their type. There are many creatures that aren’t even able to fly that have been classified as Flying-types, which doesn’t make any sense when compared to bird-themed Flying-types such as Pidgey....

It seems the Battlefield franchise isn’t in as stable and shipshape a condition as it once was. Following a swathe of lukewarm critical reviews the series’ latest outing has continued to stumble from one minor crisis to another. Rocked by connection troubles and rumbled for false advertising, the brand has even found itself frozen out of the emerging Chinese games market. Then of course there are those annoying DDoS attacks and various flavors of litigation being thrown at the franchise....

At the 2012 Game Developers Conference, Quantic Dream’s David Cage debuted a visually impressive, emotionally wrenching short film/PS3 tech demo titled, simply, “Kara.” Well worth watching in its own right, Cage’s film also offered gamers their first glimpse at the engine that would go on to power Quantic Dream’s next game, Beyond: Two Souls. One year later, “Kara” still looks good, but Cage is keen to stress that the underlying engine has been “significantly improved” since the short was completed....

[UPDATE: Sorry Crackdown fans, the teases were for a forthcoming Gears of War game from Black Tusk Studios. Read more about that game here.] Late last night Microsoft’s Phil Spencer sent the Internet reeling when he teased an announcement for the early morning. Unlike a previous tease, which turned out to be directed towards developers, Spencer’s message was clearly for gamers, and it got us excited. With several properties emerging as early candidates for the mysterious game announcement, speculators and industry pundits were off and running — considering every possibility under the sun....

Last spring , legendary game developer and idea man Peter Molyneux (Black & White, Fable) left Lionhead Studios and Microsoft to join fellow ex-Lionhead exec Tim Rance at indie developer 22Cans. His first game was Curiosity, a free-to-play iOS and Android app that served as an experiment on many levels. Curiosity, renamed Curiosity — What’s Inside the Cube?, lets players slowly pick away at a giant cube, knocking away cubelets, layer by layer, revealing little messages from the developer....

It’s been over a week since Bungie promised new gameplay changes, specifically related to weapons, was on the way to Destiny, and tomorrow (October 14th) the hot fix will go live. However, while the hot fix does feature some significant tweaks to some of Destiny’s more effective weapons, especially as they pertain to the Crucible, it also includes one very important change. More on that in a bit. First up, the Destiny hot fix will tweak the damage ratings of Auto Rifles, Shotguns, and Scout Rifles, as promised....