Civilization 5: Brave New World trailer delves into new ideologies

The Civilization 5: Brave New World is bringing a new ideology system to the game, as well as adding some social policies. A new trailer for the expansion goes into a bit more detail on how these will make it easier to become ruler of the known world.

Watch: Aesthetics and Exploration policies »

Like the rest of the gaming world, the eyes of the Shacknews community was on Tuesday's Xbox One reveal event. Some enjoyed the hardware and entertainment features, others are taking a wait-and-see approach until E3, but many others left the event disappointed. To help gauge our community's reaction, I reached out to some of the longer-tenured members of the Shacknews Chatty community for their thoughts.

Read more: Not enough focus on games »

Microsoft's Xbox One presentation lasted just under an hour, and a significant chunk of that time was spent on entertainment, including a video highlighting its partnership with the NFL. So why so much time devoted to football? Well, if you had committed to a multimillion dollar contract, you'd probably want to show it off too.

Read more: $400 million over 5 years »

Oh, video games. They grow up so fast. It seems like just yesterday SimCity was taking its first awkward steps at age 2.0. Before you know it, it reaches 4 and starts going out to the park and getting new features.

Read more: Early adopters park, new region, and various fixes »

Electronic Arts has announced Need for Speed Rivals, coming from Criterion Games and EA's newest studio Ghost Games. The popular racing franchise is set to come to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 19, as well as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One later this year. EA had hinted mentioned a new game in the series was coming earlier this month.

Read more: Cops vs. Racers »

Does today's new cinematic Company of Heroes 2 trailer in any way inform you of how good the game will be? Not in the least. Does it give you a pleasant two minutes of watching something pretty? Oh absolutely! In that spirit, here, brighten up your morning with a miserable look at the trials and tribulations of a Red Army soldier.

Watch: One soldier's tortured tale »

Zombies are still in vogue, but it's surprising to see Dead Island developer Techland move onto an entirely different first-person zombie game. While Dead Island could be described as an undead take on The Elder Scrolls, their new game, Dying Light, could be quickly summed as Mirror's Edge with walkers.

Like in DICE's first-person running game, you'll very quickly run through the environment, leaping and vaulting over obstacles, and jumping onto poles, quite easily. However, you'll have a greater repertoire of moves than Faith ever did. While we didn't see any gunplay, we did see quite an impressive array of martial arts moves, with your character able to kick, jump kick, dodge to the side, and even perform a sweeping circular kick--all while remaining in first-person.

Read more: Avoid being out at night »

Good old Rockstar, you can rely on it to offer special edition goodies slightly more interesting than the usual cruft and rubbish that wants to fill your shelves. The developer today announced a Special Edition and Collector's Edition for Grand Theft Auto 5, offering in-game goodies like bonus outfits and vehicles as well as feelies from blueprint maps to a Los Santos cap. Also, everyone who pre-orders any old edition gets a blimp. A blimp!

Read more: A blimp, seriously! »

SOCOM and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City developer Slant Six Games was reportedly working on a Medal of Honor game for the PlayStation Vita. Artist Alex Carigi, who worked at Slant Six between 2006 and 2009, has shown character design work for the title featuring soldier designs.

Read more: Concept art with Slant Six and Vita logos »

The Angry Birds movie has tapped some talent from well-known cartoons, just as it set a date to hit theaters. Jon Vitti, a writer for The Simpsons and King of the Hill, has been tapped to write the screenplay for the animated feature. The movie is scheduled to release on July 1, 2016.

Read more: A new producer joins »

Class of Heroes 2 will be coming to North America on June 4, publisher MonkeyPaw Games announced today. The PSP dungeon-crawler will be getting a PlayStation Network release for $24.99. It's well after the PSP's heyday, of course, but you can play it on your Vita, too.

Watch: An early quest in action »

Excitement at the announcement of Shelter in April turned into delight when I started watching the first gameplay trailer this morning, then into horror when it showed the uncaring and terrifying nature of nature. Pid developer Might and Delight's story of a mother badger protecting her kits is looking pretty lovely all right, and bound to break my heart.

Watch: Leading your cubs to safety, or trying to »

Remedy introduced its next game, Quantum Break, at yesterday's Xbox One presentation. That might have put you in the mood to catch up on some of the developer's back-catalog, and thanks to the Humble Bundle, you can do it on the cheap. The latest bundle includes the Alan Wake Collector's Edition and American Nightmare together, each with soundtracks, for a name-your-own price.

Watch: A message from Remedy creative director Sam Lake »

Battlefield 4 looks to continue leading the charge on Electronic Arts' FPS offerings, and producer Patrick Bach has opened up a bit about the single-player campaign. Most significantly, he talked about the desire to give players more agency instead of relying on scripted events--one of the common criticisms of the series' chief competitor, Call of Duty.

Read more: 'Picking your tactics, much like you do in multiplayer' »

A chunk of the indie gaming sector observed the Xbox One presentation (either live or secondhand, via channels like Twitter) with a sense of disappointment. Given that Sony's PlayStation 4 unveiling put game development at the forefront to the point that indie darling Jonathan Blow was given a forum to speak, some indie developers had hoped for more from the Xbox One event.

With a new console generation came hopes that Microsoft would relax their strict standards for indie developers, who currently must have a publisher in order to see their product on a Microsoft console. That does not appear to be the case.

Read more: 'No olive branches being given' »