Chatty Post of the Moment
Relic Entertainment extends the Company of Heroes 2 open beta until Sunday, June 23 at midnight. Get in early and retain your progress post-launch!
Here's the complete version of The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot's E3 2013 trailer, with bloopers aplenty.
Grab a behind the scenes preview for the upcoming World of Tanks 8.6 update.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified announces new digital content with pre-orders, along with a new Battle Focus trailer.
Dennaton Games and Devolver Digital murders the announcement trailer for Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, filled to the brim with all the viciousness you've come to love from the series.
The latest map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops II preps for launch with a brand new preview, detailing the best new strategies.
Activision is just a tad bit slow getting its vehicle into gear after E3 2013, but releases a gameplay trailer for Need for Speed Rivals never the less.
Learn how to play the Technician healing class in Hawken to keep your teammates in the fight.
Relive classic campaign goodness in the launch trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara.
Utilize magic to the best of your abilities in the new character vignette for Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara.
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag will be out on October 26 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U on October 29, and will be a launch title for the next-gen Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Unfortunately, if you want to get a taste of the pirate life on PC, you'll have to wait even longer, and that should come as no surprise.
Audio tech developer DTS is developing Headphone:X, a new solution designed to simulate the surround sound experience directly through a pair of headphones. Beyond movies, TV, and music, DTS also plans to bring this tech to video games through an upcoming partnership with gaming headset manufacturer Turtle Beach.
Microsoft's sudden reversal today of its 24-hour check-in policy and how it will handle used games is obviously good news for those happy with the Xbox 360 status quo. But the change also means the loss of some features that the company had touted as important features for the new console.
Read more: Digital versions of games to come day-and-date with retail »
Valve may be planning to let you share your games with friends on Steam. A few lines of code in the latest beta of the Steam client mention a "Shared game library" seem to indicate plans to let your friends borrow your games, with the ability to take them back whenever you'd like.
Crytek likes action games, given the Far Cry and Crysis series, and the recently revealed Roman war title Ryse for Xbox One. But it appears that the developer is working on a new tactical action title exclusively for iOS called The Collectibles.
We all expect the zombie apocalypse to be difficult, but The War Z has found the real world just as trying. Between being pulled from Steam, responding rudely to players, a forum hack, and, well, being widely slated, it's had a tough old time. Add another problem to the list: following "trademark issues", developer Hammerpoint Interactive has renamed the survive 'em up Infestation: Survivor Stories. I'd expect that's something to do with World War Z.
![Microsoft reverses stance on 24-hour check-in, used games for Xbox One [update]](http://cf.shacknews.com/images/20130521/early_photo2_25774.nssp.jpg)
Microsoft has heard the cries of frustrated fans about the mandatory 24-hour check-in and used game restrictions for Xbox One, announcing today that it was reversing those policies to reflect its current stance for the Xbox 360.
With XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Firaxis and 2K Games were faced with a challenge greater than an alien invasion: taking a blockbuster AAA game and converting it to an iPad. I loved the idea, but wasn't sure if such a thing could be done. After playing through the iOS version for myself, I can say that the essence of the original is fully intact.
Sony has apologized for last night's firmware update issue, and says it is currently investigating the cause. A new version of firmware 4.45 update will be made available once the problem has been rooted out.
Even among the most ardent fans of Goichi Suda (aka "Suda 51"), I don't think it would be controversial to say that he specializes in style. Most of his major releases are marked by high-concept ideas and identifiable art styles, but the mechanics don't always match the ambition. Killer is Dead certainly has its own splashy stylistic identity, but as usual, some hands-on time made it hard to tell if the game would keep up.
Sam Fisher is pretty iconic and all, but the real star of Splinter Cell Blacklist are the tiny mechanical spiders. Skittering about, stealing intelligence and such. Ubisoft has given spider-bot his day in the sun today, with an iOS game devoted to the automaton arachnid.
Following a leak about a cancelled Legacy of Kain game, Square Enix has stepped in to explain a few details about it and why it was canned. The game was titled Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun, and community manager George Kelion says it simply "wasn't the right game, at the right time."
Gosh, what a big happy family everyone is on PC. Hello Games today announced that it's buddying up with Team Fortress 2 and Minecraft for the PC editions of its Joe Danger games. You'll be able to be blockmen and make blocky levels in Joe Danger 2, and play as TF2 characters in both.
An pleasing pay-what-you-want Humble Bundle launched yesterday, this time of the variety which includes versions for your Android doodad as well as the usual PC, Mac, and Linux. Games up for grab include Aquaria, Frozen Synapse, and Stealth Bastard Deluxe.
The open beta for Company of Heroes 2 is getting an extension, having originally been set to end yesterday. Now you've got until the end of the week to try the game before its impending launch.
Indie developer Nicalis (Cave Story, Nightsky) has set their sights on pure masochism. They make no secret that they have likely created "the most challenging game to come to the Vita this year" with 1001 Spikes, a 2D pixelated platformer that draws inspiration from 8-bit classics like Spelunker.
We described Skulls of the Shogun as "a deceptively brilliant strategy game" in our review but you probably never found that out for yourself, as the PC edition launched exclusive to Windows 8. Good news! That's apparently over, as developer 17-Bit Studios has announced it's giving its turn-based strategy proper Windows release through Steam in "late July".
Ubisoft's decision to delay Rayman Legends to September and release on other platforms was simple, according to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. The Wii U version alone wasn't going to sell enough copies. The reasoning isn't surprising, but hearing such candid confirmation is a bit more unusual.
The baton for the Need For Speed series has been handed off to Ghost Games, however Criterion hasn't walked away from the racing franchise entirely. Between 60 and 65 Criterion coders and artists are said to be working on Need For Speed: Rivals, which comprises roughly 40 to 45 percent of the project's total staff.
With only two months to go until the launch of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, you may have been concerned about publisher 2K's silence on the subject of downloadable content. Relax! The tactical shooter will indeed receive DLC, 2K announced today, and you'll surely be thrilled to hear the first is exclusive to Xbox 360.
All good things must come to an end. That's the essence of the story behind Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, the follow-up to their acclaimed original from Dennaton Games and Devolver Digital. It contains the same 2D top-down action of the first game, but the story treads into darker territory and brings with it a sense of closure, as seen in a private demo at E3.
Update: Sony has pulled the firmware update for now.
Sony has pushed out a new PS3 firmware update. System software 4.45 was supposed to add trophy notification options and improve overall system stability.
Unfortunately, it did quite the opposite.
Sony Online Entertainment may be known for their internally-developed MMOs: Planetside 2 and DC Universe Online. However, there they're also publishing a new MMO--one that sticks close to classic fantasy tropes. Dragon's Prophet, a free-to-play fantasy title from Runewaker Entertainment, delivers what it promises--dragons and lots of them.
When Jason West and Vince Zampella struck out on their own with Respawn Entertainment, the pair seemed primed to capitalize on their identities as the minds behind one of the most successful video game franchises to date. But in March, well before Respawn announced its first game Titanfall, co-founder West left the company. A new report claims that the departure was partly fueled by conflict with partner Zampella.
Read more: 'Vince felt that Jason was sabotaging the company' »
Oculus Rift has not only caught the eyes of gamers, but the interest of investors. The new funding will allow for more prototypes and experiments, and the eventual release of a consumer version of the much buzzed-about VR headset.
Interesting Comments
By: OzzieMejia
in LatestChatty Evening Reading Welcome to Evening Reading. Once again, tonight's edition of Evening Reading is going up a bit early, 1By: NFXFSX
in LatestChatty Did anyone see this? Microsoft to Pull Complete Reversal on Xbox One DRM Policies http://www.giantbomb.com/article... 848By: veras
in LatestChatty Jake Rodkin made a post in the NeoGAF Idle Thumbs thread regarding Xbox vs. PS4 and I thought it was interesting (and a ... 23By: Patch-e
in LatestChatty attn grabbing text If you are reading this, I am posting through shackapi.stonedonkey.com, plz send help 22By: legsbrogan
in Warning: PS3 firmware 4.45 crashing consoles UPDATE If anyone's machine got bricked, they can update via usb when the next patch comes out. Scource (top post) ht... 45By: OzzieMejia
in LatestChatty Evening Reading Welcome to Evening Reading. Tonight's Evening Reading is brought to you by Hormel Pepperoni Minis. Th 1By: yakz
in LatestChatty http://chattypics.com/files/deer_jx1wzq930h.jpg 36By: Frozen Pixel
in LatestChatty SCROLLS It feels like I'm the only one playing this around here. IT IS GOOD. I went with the Growth starter deck a... 54By: winterface
in LatestChatty Now, this is what the internet was made for: http://www.bringinthecats.com/ Turn your Audio on. 33By: copy paper
in LatestChatty Eve Online So anyone still play Eve? I was in the shack corp back in 2008 but that went tits up and everyone quit. ... 46