Latest Articles (Page 2015)

The God of War series has sold over 21 million copies, Sony has announced.

That's Microsoft and Sony out of the way, then, and in immediate hindsight it's tempting to say that they opted for the same approach overall. Both conferences were relatively conservative affairs compared to the pageantry and showboating of previous years (apparently you don't know what you've got with a space poncho until it's gone), as both companies presumably played the strongest hand they could muster while keeping a lot in reserve for the inevitable unveiling of next-generation consoles in 2013. However, upon closer inspection there were a number of stark contrasts.

Doptrix is Tetris inverted. It's a brain-blendingly ingenious puzzler in which you can't rotate the pieces, but you can rotate the board. Spin it clockwise or anti-clockwise, flip it head over heels or side-to-side: re-position the playing area as much as you want, in fact, and then fire your tetromino onto it. Done. The basic rules keep in step with Alexei Pajitnov's world-beating masterpiece - construct unbroken lines in order to clear them - but everything else about Doptrix is weird and disorientating. Familiarity has never felt so unfamiliar.

Inversion makes no attempts to hide what it is. It's as pure a product of video game maths as you're likely to get - and the maths, it has to be said, doesn't look too bad on paper. This is Gears of War + Half-Life 2: the cover shooting, art style and feel of the former, plus the gravity gun and playful physics of the latter.

Sony has announced a limited edition metallic gold DualShock 3 controller.

Sony has announced a new set of PlayStation games that will support Remote Play.

PSone Classics hit PS Vita this summer with Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy 7, Sony has announced. More titles will follow.

Sony's just let slip that it's set to release a steering wheel add-on for its move controller, and if that's not enough to excite you maybe this will: it also doubles up as a set of handlebars with which you can control a virtual bike.

Guillaume de Fondaumière looks nervous. He even sounds a bit nervous. The tall, easygoing Frenchman who heads up Paris' Quantic Dream studio is uncharacteristically stumbling over his words. His phone rings twice as he tries to address the room in a Santa Monica office block, eerily deserted on this Sunday afternoon. He fumbles with it, earning a tart comment from his partner in crime David Cage, writer-director of Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit.

God of War: Ascension launches on PlayStation 3 on 12th March 2013, Sony has announced.

PlayStation Suite, Sony's range of PlayStation-certified content available on mobile phones, is to be re-named. It's new moniker is PlayStation Mobile.

UPDATE: Beyond: Two Souls will offer PlayStation Move compatibility, similar to Quantic Dream's predecessor Heavy Rain.

Update: It's all over! At the end of a mammoth first day of E3 week, Sony closed things out with a bunch of mostly expected announcements and some powerful stage demos. Here's the highlights:

UPDATE: THQ has confirmed the closure of its San Diego studio. A statement read: "THQ confirms that today's announcement regarding the UFC license transition will affect the company's San Diego studio. THQ is working closely with those relevant staff to either find possible employment within the company, or potentially with EA."

Sony has announced a new platform for interactive storybooks on the PlayStation 3, and has unveiled the first publication: Book of Spells, a magical tale that's been penned by Harry Potter author J.K Rowling.

Assassin's Creed 3 will get PlayStation 3-exclusive DLC at the game's release, Ubisoft has announced, after demoing an impressive new naval warfare section of the game.

Sony's confirmed an all-new Call of Duty game is heading to the Vita - and it'll be a spin-off of the conspiracy-loving Black Ops branch of the best-selling first-person series.

New DLC due later this year will let you use the Vita as a controller for LittleBigPlanet 2, Sony has announced.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, the tongue-twisting brawler that stars some of Sony's highest profile mascots, has been confirmed for the PlayStation Vita - and it will allow cross-platform play with the PlayStation 3 version of the game.

UPDATE: First gameplay details from ZombiU have been revealed by Ubisoft. Players will use the Wii U GamePad as a survival kit, known as the "Bug Out Bag".

Over-the-top PC shooter series Painkiller is making a return with Hell & Damnation, a new outing overseen by Nordic games and being developed by Polish studio The Farm 51.

UPDATE: Ubisoft has since amended its official materials, confirming the game for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

The first beta event for online PlayStation 3 shooter Dust 514 will launch on Friday June 29th, developer CCP has announced.

Update: The conference is now over! Highlights included:

Microsoft has announced Xbox SmartGlass, a set of new features for streaming content between Xbox 360, Windows tablets and phones. It'll launch this autumn.

Update: It's all over! Here are all the key headlines from Ubisoft's conference, the undoubted star of which seemed to be new IP Watch Dogs from Ubisoft Montreal.

UPDATE: Nintendo has moved to debunk Nikkei's report, saying that it's inaccurate and is merely rumour and speculation, in an official statement picked up and translated by Andriasang.

You probably think you've got a pretty good handle on what to expect from the third entry in Ubisoft's Far Cry series. A lush jungle paradise to sneak around in, a rag-tag army of dangerous thugs to dispatch, some grounded, gritty dialogue to wrap your ears around - that all sounds about right.

Ubisoft's given Rayman Legends its debut proper, allowing us one of our first looks at a third-party Wii U game - and showing the multiplayer possibilities of Nintendo's new console.

The fourth entry in Ubisoft's Just Dance series launches on 4th October, the French publisher has announced.