How a Tweet Turned Into the Best New Multiplayer Game in Years

#IDARB is one of the most hyped adventure games in ages. Here's an inside look at the development of a game created with ideas gleaned from Twitter.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1BHoeyR

The First Female Gamers by Jon Peterson

How Dungeons & Dragons Opened Up Games for Women

Read more: http://ift.tt/1KeKAMC

The Witcher 3 Dev on Making a Stand Against Paid DLC

CD Projekt co-founder and joint CEO Marcin Iwiński tells IGN that the developer is releasing 16 free The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt downloadable post-launch content packs to make a statement against the “steeply priced” paid DLC economy. “Because people just paid full price for our game,” Iwiński responded when we asked why the developer is releasing its next 16 DLC packs for free. “We owe them.”

Read more: http://ift.tt/1CR1gtg

No, You Cannot Live in This Unreal Engine 4 Apartment

Sorry! This isn't an actual Paris apartment. But dang, it sure looks nice. This Unreal Engine 4 tech demo comes from level designer and 3D artist Benoît Dereau, who, as Eurogamer points out, worked on Dishonored. Such a fancy tech demo featuring a fancy apartment.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1JPXemM

Nintendo launches YouTube Affiliate Program to give creators 60-70% of ad revenue

Nintendo have launched a creator's program to offer YouTubers ad revenue.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1yaYx8v

Websites that promote remote gambling to be blocked

Websites offering or facilitating remote gambling services will be blocked under the new Remote Gambling Act which kicks in on Feb 2. The Media Development Authority has clarified that the rules do not apply to all social games.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1yRkzRz

One Week of Harassment on Twitter

Ever since I began my Tropes vs Women in Video Games project, two and a half years ago, I’ve been harassed on a daily basis by irate gamers angry at my critiques of sexism in video games. It can sometimes be difficult to effectively communicate just how bad this sustained intimidation campaign really is. So I’ve taken the liberty of collecting a week’s worth of hateful messages sent to me on Twitter. The following tweets were directed at my @femfreq account between 1/20/15 and 1/26/15....

Read more: http://ift.tt/15TJLva

EA Will Charge For Gas In "Need For Speed: No Limits"

It's been a few years since a Need for Speed game popped up on Android, but EA announced last year that NFS: No Limits would arrive this spring. The game has already launched on iOS in a few regions, and the early reports indicate EA is up to its same old in-app purchase tricks. Actually, it's maybe even a little worse. No Limits will charge you to fill up the tank, which is funny because that sounds like a limit. Can't be, though. The game is called "no limits."

Read more: http://ift.tt/1z3sKdS

How Video Game Addiction Can Destroy Your Life

The withdrawal made Brett want to die. The 12-year-old had only been cut off for a few hours, and his mind was already wandering to a dark and dangerous place. Looking out the window of his family's three-story home in Wassenaar, a suburb of the Hague, in the Netherlands, the American transplant imagined swan-diving out of his room and falling to the ground below, with his skull cracking open against the pavement.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1DgrIun

Geeks who rocked the world: Documentary looks back at origins of the computer-games industry

During the early days of Thatcher's Britain, a suburban branch of WH Smith was one of the last places you'd expect to have a Damascene awakening. But an act of creative disobedience in the stationery section meant that a small TV screen could display the phrase "WH SMITH IS SHIT" over and over again, filling the screen and displaying an error code at the bottom. The computer attached to it, a ZX81 with a mere 1k of memory, had run out of screen space – but it had done exactly as instructed by...

Read more: http://ift.tt/1D4x3Vc

Official Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Havoc Trailer

Ever wonder who’s on the other side of the KillCam? Meet Randall Higgins, the KillCameraman. With all of the mayhem-inducing content loaded into Havoc, the first DLC pack for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Randall's going to have to elevate his game to keep up. Havoc includes four new multiplayer maps, an all-new bonus weapon, and Exo Zombies -- a terrifying new co-op mode only available in Advanced Warfare DLC.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1yWloZQ

Someone in Japan just bought a 20th Anniversary PS4 for nearly $130,000

Of course you want the limited edition 20th Anniversary PS4 in original-PlayStation gray. How could you not? It's gorgeous. But how much would you pay for the most prestigious model of all...

Read more: http://ift.tt/15D1kPT

How to make a good puzzle game

I love puzzle games. But it’s not beating them that’s the exciting part: it’s understanding them. Whether mulling over a cryptic crossword or somersaulting through Portal’s portals, there’s a moment of epiphany which, for me, pretty much transcends all other moments in gaming. But how do you design a puzzle to best provoke that eureka moment? What gives a puzzle its aesthetic, its pace and texture? Why does one puzzle feel thrilling while another feels like a flat mental grind?

Read more: http://ift.tt/1zcpD5c

A new wave of videogames offers lessons in powerlessness, scarcity and inevitable failure. What makes them so compelling?

White and silent, death is undoing everything. For years, the 20 or so families in the tiny riverside settlement had lived hard yet improving lives, clearing the forest around them, fishing the waters, planting crops and building houses. Birth by birth, the population grew. From time to time, trading boats came down the river, but otherwise the wider world did not intrude and the people sought no part in it.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1L8HOvI

The Untold Story Of The Invention Of The Game Cartridge

Consider the humble video game cartridge. It's a small, durable plastic box that imparts the most immediate, user-friendly software experience ever created. Just plug it in, and you're playing a game in seconds. If you’ve ever used one, you have two men to thank: Wallace Kirschner and Lawrence Haskel, who invented the game cartridge 40 years ago while working at an obscure company while rebounding from a business failure.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1EHSA7v

Super Mario World - Game ending credits warp

I've achieved the first ever SMW "credits warp" on a SNES console -- a glitch which plays the end credits without actually defeating Bowser.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1L78Nrj

NVIDIA Brings Maxwell to Millions of Gamers with GeForce GTX 960

Today’s introduction of GeForce GTX 960 brings Maxwell’s powerful and efficient architecture to more gamers than ever before. The GTX 960 offers the same incredible Maxwell performance and advanced technologies of its big brother the GTX 980, but at a more affordable $199 price point. That means more and more gamers can enjoy next-generation PC...

Read more: http://ift.tt/1CE7sEU

Please Stop Saying Video Games Are ‘Too Long’

One big thing that makes video games unique in the cornucopia of pop culture is the time investment they demand of their audience. This had lead to an age-old debate about whether games are "too long," one that Kill Screen founder Jamin Warren recently tackled in his latest PBS Game/Show episode.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1ybUU10

This AI 'solves' Super Mario Bros. and other classic NES games

In the 28 years since Super Mario Bros. was released, and it's been beaten pretty comprehensively in that time. But have you ever made the game beat itself?

Read more: http://ift.tt/15kuH9r

Super Mario World speedrunner breaks the world record time by executing the recently discovered credits warp glitch.

Discovering the glitch required re-programming the game while playing the game. They use a "debugger" to look at what address the computer jumped to by using an emulator on a PC. While doing all those random tasks in the game, he essentially manipulated the memory to take him to the credits screen. Because this was performed on a legitimate SNES and was taken to the credits, it's an official time of under 5 minutes and a new world record.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1EAhl5I

Is 'SimCity' Homelessness a Bug or a Feature?

SimCity players have discussed a variety of creative strategies for their virtual homelessness problem. They’ve suggested waiting for natural disasters like tornadoes to blow the vagrants away, bulldozing parks where they congregate, or creating such a woefully insufficient city infrastructure that the homeless would leave on their own. You can read all of these proposed final solutions in Matteo Bittanti's How to Get Rid of Homelessness, "a 600-page epic split in two volumes...

Read more: http://ift.tt/1CEFKp9

Elders Play Grand Theft Auto V

Elders have some fun and explore the open world of Grand Theft Auto V!

Read more: http://ift.tt/1GzezT5

If Videogame Characters Could Break All the Rules

Where they're going, they won't need cheat codes.

Read more: http://ift.tt/15d1XPR

The Oatmeal creator crowd-funds ‘insanely fun’ kitty powered card game, ‘Exploding Kittens’

Before Matthew Inman entered the picture, this humble little card game was called “Bomb Squad.” And before Inman the oft-viral “Oatmeal” cartoonist drew the picture, there were no cats that go “boom!”. “Elan Lee and Shane Small created the game originally using a standard deck of playing cards,” Inman tells The Post’s Comic Riffs of his gaming-veteran collaborators (both of whom have drawn paychecks from Xbox). Inman was hooked not only on the Russian Roulette-like game, but also...

Read more: http://ift.tt/1J9wmy3

Open World Origins

A history of open world games.

Read more: http://ift.tt/15wNdfW

Lizard Squad's DDoS service hacked, customer details revealed

Lizard Squad, the hacker group that took down Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network on Christmas Day and then tried to cash in on its fame by selling the distributed denial-of-service service they used in the attacks, has received a dose of its own medicine... by getting hacked.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1xTltYD

Blizzard Gifts WoW Veterans with Their Own Orc Statue

Blizzard Entertainment is sending out Orc statues as thank you gifts to World of Warcraft players that have had an account for ten years. “As a way to thank our most loyal World of Warcraft players, we are sending a physical gift to players that have stuck with us since the very beginning,” Blizzard states on its support page. Last week, Battle.Net forum user Smitti posted pictures of the statue he received on the forums, revealing that the gift is a scaled-down replica of the giant...

Read more: http://ift.tt/15tgkRm

Mario develops awareness, plays his own game

A team of researchers has programmed an AI into Nintendo's Super Mario Advance, so that he can play his own game according to his feelings. The whole point of a video game is that it's interactive -- that the little avatar on the screen is under your control. If that little avatar needs no input from you, then you essentially become an observer, and the medium cannot truly be called a game.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1xqP0tO

Demo shows off the ridiculous capabilities of animation application Houdini 14

Some of Houdini 14’s new features include a position-based dynamics solver for granular simulation like sand, new crowd pipeline tools, and some major UX enhancements to enhance usability.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1AAakOk

Man dies after three-day internet gaming binge

A Taiwanese man has died after a three-day gaming binge at an internet cafe in the island's south, the second such case this year.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1uh5F7v

How Fake Sports Are Turning Man Cave Dwellers Into Millionaires

Enormous TV screens with live National Football League feeds cover the walls of the ballroom at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas. A sound system blares the broadcasts of all the various games at an ear-shattering volume. Couches and bar stools are scattered around the 14,520-square-foot space,

Read more: http://ift.tt/1GeLcoT

Is computer gaming really sport?

Delve into the world of esports - which has a massive following but is not mainstream - and see if you think it is really a sport.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1IWA8bO

Dying Light Parkour POV

Inspired by the highly-anticipated action survival game, Dying Light, this Real-Life Parkour video puts you in the POV of a runner and takes you on a frantic escape from zombies through the rooftops of Cambridge, UK. We had a lot of fun making this and cant wait to play the game when it comes out at the end of the month!

Read more: http://ift.tt/1xDhorr

Super Mario Taken (Parody Trailer)

Mario meets Taken in a short trailer parody where the iconic plumber must save Princess Toadstool (Peach) and Daisy from a band of familiar mushroom kingdom goons.

Read more: http://ift.tt/15iVAuR

Playing with Power

Dillon Markey, an animator for Robot Chicken and PES, modifies a Nintendo Power Glove as the most awesome animation tool ever.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1uaUBsr

Review: MSI GS30 Shadow with GamingDock

Can a laptop replace your desktop gaming rig?

Read more: http://ift.tt/159Xk9G

A secret slice of loading screen history

What do you do during loading screen-time? Gaze at the screen in a stupefied torpor? Check your other screens in the vain hope of finding something of interest for a few seconds? Make a cup of tea? Many games seek to keep your attention on the game. They show in-world artifacts or offer up gameplay tips or clue the player into minor aspects of lore and narrative. Others, like the FIFA series, offer up practice sessions on key skills.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1sDmuIu

Guardians of the Galaxy - 8 Bit Cinema

Read more: http://ift.tt/1AiHD8v

Xbox One and PS4: Elder Scrolls Online release date leaked

THE official Xbox One and PS4 release dates for the Elder Scrolls Online have been leaked.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1AcxbiO

2015 is the year that we stop preordering video games once and for all

2014 had so much potential. Watch Dogs was going to change the face of gaming as we knew it. Destiny was going to bring MMO conventions to the console in the most incredible mash-up of the generation. Assassin’s Creed Unity was going to revitalize one of the most popular franchises of the past decade. But none of that happened.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1AVpZwZ

Gamer nerd gets sweet revenge against trash-talking bully (NSFW language)

Low-Tier-God unleashes a verbal assault on Viscant who goes on to win the grudge match and come back with some epic trash talk of his own.

Read more: http://ift.tt/14od0W8

The evolution of gaming, from the console to the cloud

With current generations raised on the lightning-fast processing speeds and crystal clear graphics of Xboxes and PlayStations (and with the tide of virtual reality-based video games fast approaching), it’s easy to forget that just 50 years ago, digital gaming existed in only a few laboratories around the world, the experiments of unknown Ph.D. students or well-known scientists and mathematicians who’d made their name in more traditional fields.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1BUMi2q

The most exciting indie games of 2015

It's no secret that the most interesting video games of the last few years have come out of the indie games community. In 2014, we've seen explosive successes in the form of DayZ, Rust, Kerbal Space Program and more. But what'll be the next bedroom-built game that outsells Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed and Far Cry? Here's what we think are going to be the most exciting indie games of 2015...

Read more: http://ift.tt/13XKFFR

Dedicated Fans Recreating Super Mario 64 in HD Release a New Trailer

Ever wondered what a HD remastered version of Super Mario 64 would be like? Well wonder no more. A small team of dedicated fans are in the midst of creating a Super Mario 64 HD as a free fan project. The game is an entire recreation of the original Super Mario 64 originally released on Nintendo 64, but with improved graphics.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1Kh3jdn

Use your feet to fly around a virtual world

Almost every time we've played around in virtual reality, be it of the Oculus Rift or Gear VR variety, we've had a game controller of some sort in our ha

Read more: http://ift.tt/1IfAhXv

A Project To Build A Satirical Kim Jong Un Video Game Has Raised $17,000

A plan to build a satirical video game that glorifies North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a WMD-wielding hero has attracted over $17,000 on Kickstarter. The game, satirically titled “Glorious Leader!” will let the user play as Kim himself, fighting against US troops and his ultimate foe, President Barack Obama. The developers have planned multiple stages and missions as well as special features like power-ups and unique weapons.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1If8eaH

Visual Revolution of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

This is not a photograph. It is actual 3D model of a church from our game. Before I tell you all about how we created such photorealistic assets (and, maybe surprisingly, why we are not using them in fully photorealistic way in our game), let us think about what makes it look real. Look around you – do you see any tiling textures?

Read more: http://ift.tt/1zMrpUW

A Startup Figured Out How To Print Light Just Like Paper — And It Looks Like Magic

LightPaper is a new technology that allows lighting to be printed and applied to nearly any surface.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1rRFJ0B

Start 2015 off right: with Flappy Bird on your Android Wear smartwatch [DOWNLOAD]

It was only inevitable, you can now play Flappy Bird on your Android Wear device. If you're adept in ADB, you can download the apk and start killing time right now.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1Ho6QEh

Sony Rewards PSN Users' Patience With Free Five Day Extentsion

Sony is rewarding the patience of PlayStation Network users impacted by the service’s downtime over the holidays. All PS Plus members with an active membership or free trial on December 25 will receive a free five day extension to their memberships, according to the PS Blog.

Read more: http://ift.tt/1BcOvYV